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For applying to a STEM research position at a U.S. research university, should a resume include a photo?
I am currently applying to a STEM research position at an American research university (as an undergraduate student at that university), and was wondering what people's opinions on this site were as to whether it was advisable to attach a photo or not. I was thinking of attaching a certain photo which looked very good, but a friend said attaching the image would be "too edgy".

Photos on resumes is not a thing in the US.

@Trunk - I look at hundreds of resumes a year, ranging from student interns to experienced staff. The number of resumes that I see with a photo I can count on one hand every year, and then every single one is from someone from somewhere else where having a photo is required. No, it is not common, normal, or expected.

My kids are in that age range. They would never put a photograph on their resume. It just is not expected (or normal) in the US. There are countries where it is expected if not required. Not the US.

No.
I recommend that you never attach a photo to a resume in the US.
The US has a variety of nondiscrimination laws, for example saying that it is illegal to discriminate based on age, race, gender, or skin color, among other factors. If an employer discriminated in hiring decisions, based on the sort of things you can tell from a photo, then they could face legal consequences.
For this reason, employers will not (or should not anyway!) ask for photos.
As an applicant, it's not your responsibility to know this, and it almost certainly wouldn't be held against you -- but including a photo would stand out as being a little bit strange or unaware, and I suggest avoiding it.

it almost certainly wouldn't be held against you... - Yes, at least it math I see this from time to time from foreign applicants, and I just interpret as a cultural difference.  It is true there is some bias once you see photos, but if I'm interested in the candidate I will look at their webpage which often has photos anyway.

Some employers explicitly state that applications (CVs, resumes, etc.) that include a photograph will be disqualified without consideration.  Be sure to read the whole announcement!

I strongly recommend to any early-career academic researcher these days (at least in STEM in the US) to set up a personal web page where you can include any sort of information about yourself that you want others to see - publications, research-adjacent hobbies and activities, etc. Many people who are seriously considering you for job applications will google you and look at your web page. If you include a link to your web page at the top of your CV or résumé (which is a very normal thing to do) that makes it even more likely that people looking at your CV will look at the web page.
If you want to include a photo of yourself in your home page, who could object to that? Having such a photo is also very normal and accepted. I have a photo of myself up on my own home page, and most people I know do. We do this not to brag about how good-looking we are but because it's nice to feel like you are a part of a community of human beings.
Do not include a photo of yourself in your résumé, for reasons that other people have explained.
While the personal web page "hack" I described above gives you an opportunity to share information about how you look if that is something you wish to do, I do think statements like "I was thinking of attaching a certain photo which looked very good" reflect a somewhat unhealthy mindset. No one in STEM academia cares about your (presumably) good looks. And many people would actively take offense at the idea that you think you can gain some advantage in the job market by touting your physical looks, or any ethnic, racial, or gender characteristics that are evident from how you look. So please be careful about making such statements that may seem innocuous to you but give away the wrong idea. (E.g., when you put the link to your home page on your CV, don't write something like "photo included" next to the link...)
Good luck with your job applications! I hope you succeed, and that your success will be due to your excellence as a researcher rather than irrelevant factors. And if you ever apply for modeling jobs (fashion modeling, not scientific modeling that is) then do include some photos of yourself.

There is no reason to do so, and decisions won't be made on "how you look". I'd suggest sticking to things actually relevant to the position you are applying for.
I'm sure it is done, but is uncommon enough that it might be a bit off-putting for some. Nearly everyone in the decision process will ignore it.

Decisions shouldn't be made on how you look, but it could happen.

Only jobs in the US or probably anywhere else where a photo is useful in a  resumé would be for acting or modeling. For everything else it would just be giving them something to use to discriminant with even if this would be illegal in most case.


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Advising a student with academically self-destructive behavior
I work for a small community college which is a subsidiary of a larger institution where I do primarily teaching and admin support but also do some academic mentoring.
I have one student who has for the past 3 semesters enrolled in a full course load and dropped all his courses after the drop and refund deadline. I have tried telling him to take on a smaller course load which he can manage with no avail.
I am debating dropping him as my mentee as I don't want to facilitate what I see as self destructive behavior any longer. I know I'm not quite fleshing out the entirety of the situation, however given the nature of a public forum I'd prefer to keep it discreet.
How would one deal with this situation?

Have you explored with him his reasons and constraints? Some people have external pressures, such as family.

If the student repeatedly does not follow your advice, it's perfectly fine to stop mentoring them. I think you have already decided what to do.

@Buffy Your comment verges on insulting the asker.

@AnonymousPhysicist why? The OP doesn't say anything about the nature or content of their conversations with the student about the situation. ("I have tried telling him" doesn't give us a lot of information about what kind of exchange of information there was.)

There are a lot of details that seem necessary to know in order to answer your question. Do you have discretion to drop your mentee? What happens if you do that? Will he get assigned an alternative mentor? How much time are you spending on the mentorship? Are you worried about any career/professional repercussions for yourself? Etc etc.

@Buffy I have, he said everything is ok just he was busy with other things. I have not pressed further

@DanRomik Im a bit worried as I've been only working this job for a year now and the size of the institution I work for is small. If I drop him he would have to seek assistance from the larger institution we are a subsidiary of. I usually have bisemester meetings once at the start of the semester and once after midterms.

I have one student who has for the past 3 semesters enrolled in a full course load and dropped all his courses after the drop and refund deadline: Do you mean he dropped all the courses he enrolled in or that he dropped only some courses, but did so after the deadline? The former seems like a problem for you, the latter doesn't: It may cause an administrative problem and the student won't get a refund, but so what?

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Publishing an article despite the outcomes are not what we wanted
For my master's thesis (6 months), I worked very hard for the project with the supervisor. I wrote all the codes everything by myself from scratch. However, the results we have now are not what we expected them to be, and are complicated to explain. My supervisor does not seem to be interested in this project anymore. I have verified the code and am confident the results are correct.
However, the supervisor does not want to continue working on this anymore and has not advised me on how to explain the results mathematically. He does not answer my queries and is not willing to meet me to discuss this any further. I am not sure what to do. I feel very agitated given that I spent 6 months on this work and that I cannot get a paper out of this.
Can I ask him if I can publish some results for which we have explanations in a journal or at least whether my master's thesis can be published in a journal? Also, can someone please suggest a journal that does not charge money from authors to publish?
I do not know how academia works. I do not have any immediate contact to whom I can ask how these things work. Nevertheless, I feel that I have worked hard on this and my work deserves to be published, rather than being stacked away on a shelf. Therefore, I cannot let it go.

Is there a reason why you want to publish this separately in a journal? Unless results are exceptional (in every meaning of the word) they just go into your master thesis and that’s it.

@MisterMiyagi I think this is a dangerous attitude. In experimental sciences it contributes to a huge bias problem in published research. In other fields, it results in a lot of wasted time on solutions that others have already found ineffective.

@BryanKrause Not sure what attitude you are referring to. That work from MSc does not end up published as papers is the absolute standard I know, least of all because frankly most just isn’t notable; there’s so many MSc theses, no one has time to read them all. Most need at least the wider framework of a PhD or group project for proper, thorough context. Mind, a) I said "exceptional" and not "good"/"nice"/… results and b) expect the thesis itself to be published via the university; this isn’t meant to hide data.

@MisterMiyagi The attitude that results should only be published if they're exceptional. I agree there is a difference with some MSc work that is not intended to produce original research, but if it's intended to produce original research then the intent should be to publish that work, whether it's a piece of a larger project or stands on its own.

@BryanKrause I see the publishing of the data covered by publishing the thesis itself. No need to do so twice in most cases.

Usually a thesis is not "published" in a way that makes it reasonably accessible to others.

I would argue the same if it ends up in a paper crammed on top of everything else that goes on in an MSc deadline. Being in a trash publication doesn’t make data accessible, it just makes it published.

"Can I ask him if" <- Always yes, if you ask your question respectfully and fairly. Even if it's a silly question - you're the suprevisee/apprentice and they are your supervisor, you're allowed to ask stupid questions. Not that your question is stupid.

Maybe it's field dependent, but at least in my part of physics, no-one would expect to get a paper out of 6 months master-level work. I know @BryanKrause didn't like it, but a publication at that level would be exceptional in every meaning of the word. If you are lucky it's enough for a group internal presentation. Maybe this is just a case of mismatched expectations ?

@MisterMiyagi The topic for my thesis is not studied before. However, my results do not follow what the professor expected, therefore, he does not know how to explain those results. And, he does not want to pursuse this further. I have been trying to figure out my own but it is not working. He is not suggesting references either.

Note that a master's thesis doesn't necessarily have to have a result/explanation like you're thinking about. My master's thesis covered two years near the beginning of a 10-year research project. My thesis discussed the work we did, the problems we solved along the way, and the data we gathered, but it wasn't until years later that we even had the terminology to explain the results, much less the theory.

@Marianne013 We've published work from physics undergrad senior thesis. It wasn't very exciting, but with a little work, they reviewed fine and ended up in well-known physics journals for not very exciting work.

Research is about contributing meaningfully to the field you are working in. Sometimes results are not what we expect, but they may still add to the knowledge pool in the field. Other times, results are not what we expect, but publishing these results does not contribute significantly to the field. In either case, researchers may have worked incredibly hard and spent months (or often, years) on their research.
You mentioned you are a master's student (I am assuming MA or MSc). Usually, at this stage, research projects or theses are not yet at a publishable level. For example, there may be explanations for your results that you do not have the skillset or knowledge to understand (yet) or your thesis will have to undergo major revisions (whether those are writing or methodological revisions - each of which can take months or even years) before it is publishable. Perhaps these things do not apply in your case and your thesis is indeed at a publishable level, but these things are important to consider if they have not crossed your mind!
I can understand your frustration, given that you have worked on your thesis for so long and seem to have put in a lot of effort. Bring this up with your advisor again and discuss with them whether publishing at least the results that you are able to explain well is sensible. If they still refuse, ask them for some feedback or why these results are not publishable - it might be that you are overlooking some details that they are able to identify.
As for your question about which journal to publish in: this would depend on your field and the topic of your thesis. One thing I would do as a student is look up where the articles I referred to for my thesis were published (provided that they were in the same field, had a similar topic or followed a similar methodology). Doing this can give you a fair idea of your options. Some journals have open-access or other fees.

to back up your point about it being unusual to publish a masters thesis in a journal - I got an extremely high mark for my masters thesis and won a national award, and still didn't publish it in a journal - it would have required more work than I had time for to get it to a publishable state.

Hard to bring something up with someone and discuss things is that someone is simply stonewalling them, as seems to be the case here.

Can I ask him if I can publish some results for which we have explanations in a journal or at least whether my master's thesis can be published in a journal?

Sure, you can ask him. But, based on your description, it sounds like he may either not answer, which would be a way of answering "no"; or he may explicitly answer "no". Prepare yourself for the possibility that this might happen, and accept that that does not mean he is a bad person or has bad intentions, but may simply mean that he genuinely does not think the results are interesting enough to be publishable.

I do not know how academia works. [...] Nevertheless, I feel that I have worked hard on this and my work deserves to be published, rather than being stacked away on a shelf. Therefore, I cannot let it go.

One of the ways in which academia works is that publishing is not a reward for hard work. The criterion for whether something can be published is whether it is new knowledge that interests people. Research projects — even ones that involve hard work — do not always lead to such knowledge. Sometimes you find new knowledge that doesn't interest people. Other times you may find knowledge that is interesting but turns out to be already known.
We have all worked hard on projects that didn't succeed, at least in the limited sense of not leading to results that are publishable. One has to be philosophical about such things, accepting that failure is a part of academic life. Alternatively, one can be philosophical in a different way, embracing the view that each project is a learning experience, teaching us interesting things and helping us grow to become better researchers and better and wiser humans. In that sense, there is no such thing as a "failure".
That is not to say that you are not justified in being disappointed about this outcome. Not all outcomes are created equal, and some are definitely better than others. But it is what it is. I hope you will find success (or more precisely, publishable results) with your next project.

You don't do research to prove a point. You do it to learn what is actually true, whether it is what you expected or not. If the methodology is valid then the results tell you something about the question you asked, and in physics, something about the world. Anomalous seeming results can actually lead to new research directions.
I don't know whether all of that is valid in your case, of course.
You, along with others considered authors, can certainly submit a paper to a reputable journal. You may or may not be able to do so alone, depending on the contributions of others, including your advisor. If you do submit, you will get feedback from reviewers at the journal on the quality of the research.
Yes, you can ask the advisor about publication. It might be required to do so if they can be considered a co-author. It would be nice if they agree, but if not, you should get a reason why not.
Caveat: Yes, some people do in fact do "research" to prove a point. But that isn't really valid, especially when the "methodology" is biased toward a given result. If you know the answer before you start then there is really nothing to research.

And we have all done projects that did not work out. The best ones don't work out the way you thought they would, but instead revealed something more interesting. The worst ones, well, just don't work out.

As noted, you can ask.
When you ask and what you do with
the answer could also be important.
As you seem to be getting a master's degree out of it,
I'd suggest waiting until after it is awarded
before doing anything that might tick him off.
That the results were not what your professor
expected suggests that they are noteworthy.
If he says no, explicitly or otherwise,
you might or might not try to publish anyway.
If you do, it might be an advantage
to already have your degree.
You should almost certainly mention
the professor in the paper,
but I'd balk at listing him as co-author.
Regardless of what you tell him,
the editor might regard him as the
author with whom to communicate.
Also, the professor, even if he
does not try to stop publication,
might not want to be listed as co-author.
If he does not want to be mentioned at all,
honor that.

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How much of humor in a formal academic writing is considered as disrespect?
In a formal academic writing (in the everyday sense), is it appropriate to use phrases such as "step out on" to titillate the reader?
Since I am not a native English speaker, and since I have not yet accurately catched the general range of humor in the US, I wonder if using such phrases would be instead considered as a disrespect?

If in doubt, leave it out

I don't get the joke. In what way is the phrase "step out on" humorous?

Yep, and I'd better leave the not humorous humor out :)

Your first priority should be to convey your ideas to the reader. Given that I, and many others, have absolutely no idea what "step out on" means, I would suggest that you avoid the phrase. On the other hand, I think humour is occasionally acceptable, but it needs to be timeless humour.

Thanks. I guess for a person p to step out on the spouse of p is for p to cheat on the spouse of p.

Urban Dictionary: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=step%20out

Maybe the key point is not humor as such, but the issue that any idiomatic expressions specific to some locality or subculture should be avoided, and you should try to use only terms that are universally understood or explain them in the paper. British, American and Indian English all contain expressions that would be clearly understood in only one of those 3 locales - they should be avoided in academic publications. Same would apply for expressions that would be unknown by people of a older/younger generation and any slang of some subculture.

There are many examples of humour in academic writing, both in journal articles and in textbooks. One of my favourite is a note on p. 33 of Gregory's Classical Mechanics (Cambridge University Press):

Be a hero. Obtain this formula yourself without looking at the text.

But:

Especially in a journal article, where the number of pages is limited, the piece of humour should anyway convey information which is relevant to the topic of interest.
The piece of humour should not be rude or offensive and should be clearly understandable by the readers without looking up at dictionaries like Urban Dictionary. Many of the word usages reported in Urban Dictionary are local and not very widespread, but journal papers and textbooks are firstly reviewed and then read by people all over the world: How many people would properly understand your piece of humour?

Well, what I intended is to use a more conservative parlance to substitute a coarse one such as "cheat on". Would "cheat on" be dangerous, how do you think?

Without knowing the context, the complete sentence and what kind of text you're writing, I cannot judge. However, I'm quite sure that that piece of humour won't make your text any greater, but it can make it much worse, and I second EnergyNumbers' comment: if in doubt, leave it out.

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Is rejection the default decision for international applicants to PhD programs in the US?
I am applying to PhD programs in the US.
I am wondering if there is a default decision imposed on international applicants. This question may sound ridiculous, but, I still ask here because I have seen someone (a claimed PhD student who has been involved in graduate admission, for now I cannot recall clearly the website) on the internet said that every international applicant is assumed rejected.
What goes on in the admission committee members' heads? Specifically, is it true for international applicants that the committee member picks up an application, and says "Unless I find something good in this application I'll reject it"? (This paragraph is quoted and adapted from Willie Wong's comment below.)

What do you mean? There are many applicants for few positions, so most of the applicants will be rejected.

I don't quite understand the question. I see possible Davidmh's interpretation above, but also the following: are you asking about what goes on in the admission committee members' heads? In particular, are you asking about whether the committee member picks up an application, and says (1) "Unless I find something good in this application I'll reject it" or (2) "Unless I find something bad in this application I'll accept it"? I doubt either is the actual thing.

@WillieWong: Thank you so much, I meant exactly (1).

"Unless I find something good in this application I'll reject it" Assuming that there are more applications than places, this is pretty much a given. Effectively it's "the applications that are accepted are the best ones". Well yes, surely that's the point?

@WillieWong I doubt there is any actual thing that goes on in all the admission committee members' heads.

@ff524: International applicants, and I have made the title consistent with the body.

Related: How are international graduate applicants perceived by universities in the US?

"Unless I find something good in this application I'll reject it" I think this is true for every application everywhere.

It is a tremendous generalization to speak of all programs having the same default decision, or all members of an admissions committee in a program having the same default decision, or even to assume the existence of a default decision at all.
In reality, a more likely consideration an admissions committee member might use is, "Does this candidate have similar credentials and experience to successful PhD students we have admitted in the past?" (i.e., no "default" decision.)
However, if we're going to generalize and assume the existence of a default decision:

For programs in which there are a large number of applicants for relatively few positions, the default decision for any applicant is "reject, unless the applicant is extremely strong."
For programs in which there are relatively few applicants for a large number of positions, the default decision is "accept, unless there is some evidence this student is unsuitable for the program."

Programs at top-ranked departments, in fields where PhDs are in high demand, and where PhD students are generally fully funded, are more likely to fall in the first category.
Programs at lower-ranked departments, in fields where PhDs are not in high demand, and where students usually fund themselves, are more likely to fall in the second category.
The nationality of the applicant is not generally relevant in the "default" decision, barring exceptional circumstances (e.g., admissions committees in nuclear engineering at U.S. universities may reject Iranian students by default since 2012 because they will be ineligible for visas.)

@shane: At some institutions, e.g. many public universities, international students are subject to different funding rules, which may limit the number that can be offered admission with funding.  This could, in effect, act as a "bias" against international students.

@shane: In the cases I'm familiar with, it's a combination of state and internal rules.  Students who are residents of the state have their tuition subsidized by the state in some direct or indirect form; the student's stipend doesn't change, but the university gets compensated.  Domestic students from another state can establish residency after a year or so, thus making them eligible for the subsidy, and the university will typically require them to do this, so the hit is not too bad.  But international students never become eligible.

@shane: So the university then sets its own internal policies as to how to admit international students, and how many, in order to keep its costs / revenues under control.

The problem that international students face, applying to US institutions, is that they may come from schools that we, in the States, are unfamiliar with, and have letters from professors we don't know.  The students who apply from Cambridge, Oxford, Sorbonne, IIT, etc., they get looked over very seriously.  But we have no way to judge the quality of these other, less recognizable, schools.  So, given this imperfect information, and the finite number of positions, we may elect to take students from second tier, but familiar, US schools, over these unfamiliar international students.

I can only speak for my own program, but among the international M.S. applicants to my department, most come from the same 30-40 schools year after year. So while many of these schools are not at all well known internationally, they are familiar to our admissions committee.

In the case of an applicant from an unfamiliar school, we ask a faculty member from that country about it. (For about 99.9% of international applicants, we have a faculty member in the department who has experience with that country's higher education system)

Not at all true. I am from India and I do know people who have joined Stanford, Berkeley, Rice, Purdue, Maryland etc. for PhD
In fact, I myself was offered PhD in 2 universities but I didn't accept it because I wasn't offered any funding.

This is an absurd claim! I am an international student who has got acceptance from 5 US Ph.D. programs. I have my friends who are doing their Ph.D. in top US schools. There are lots of international students in all the US universities! Don't listen to that guy, make a good profile and apply. Good luck.

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What is a wise way and the right timing to inform a professor that supported you of your rejection?
Let there be some professor who whole-heartedly supported your application to some position in academia; let the decision be a rejection. Then what is a wise way and the right timing to inform the professor of this matter?
I think: if I inform the professor right after I am aware of the decision, then I may hurt his/her feeling, because he/she was for me; if I inform him/her later, then the same concern takes place and I cannot justify why I procrastinated letting him/her know it. Moreover, I am not quite sure what is a wise way to draft such an email.
I know that there is no "the" right timing; I just want to know a win-win timing, so to speak.
Thank you for taking time to share your wisdom.

You seem to think your professor's feeling won't be hurt so bad if you tell him/her later. Is it true? If true, why?

@scaaahu I also think it would hurt his/her feeling, too :) It is undecidable to me, so I raise the question here.

I think it is fair to assume that this rejection will hurt you much more than your letter writers, so your major concern should not be on how to spare their feelings.

@xLeitix Yes, it is true before "so". But there is no rule here stipulating that people can only ask their "major" concern, right? :)

@GudsonChou Sure. Put differently, I am with AnonymousMathematician that the feelings of your letter writers really don't need to be any concern in this matter :)

When you don't get selected, it's incredibly unlikely that this fact is actively your fault as a candidate. Unless you really screwed something up somewhere, there is no blame on you. So why would someone who supported you ever be angry with you when you don't pass?

I think: if I inform the professor right after I am aware of the decision, then I may hurt his/her feeling, because he/she was for me; if I inform him/her later, then the same concern takes place and I cannot justify why I procrastinated letting him/her know it.

You shouldn't worry about this at all:

Faculty members generally aren't particularly emotionally invested in these decisions.  For the students involved, they feel (and in fact are) incredibly weighty, but faculty members are involved in dozens of cases per year, so they get some good news and some bad news and it all averages out emotionally.
Even if this professor is unusually emotionally invested in the outcome, delaying reporting the result won't make it better.  They might end up feeling unhappy with the unfairness of life or the poor decision-making skills of whoever turned down your application, but they won't be upset with or disappointed in you, so there's no reason to worry or delay.

I'd recommend just letting your letter writers know when you find out, without stressing out about when or how you tell them.  You could just forward the rejection e-mail with a brief note (such as the "Many thanks for your support; unfortunately I did not succeed." suggested by iayork).

Thank you so much. Showing a typical possible reaction does help me out! I could not resist thinking over how the professor will think... :) With your advice, I can have a general model in mind to properly draft an email; thank you.

I believe you're over-thinking it.  Send an email at some point within a month of the decision, saying "Many thanks for your support; unfortunately I did not succeed."
If you have a particularly close relationship with the professor, you might ask for advice or suggestions on how your application could improve next time, but that's not necessary; just thanks and an update is polite and professional.

Thank you a lot; to me, "over-thinking" is the key reminding; but of course all of your answer is important. :)

I would be surprised if the professor felt anything other than bad for you about your rejection, after all, for every n people seeking a position, n-1 will be rejected. As n is often >> 2, it is far more common for people to be rejected than to be accepted. People who write letters of recommendation realize that the rejection is not aimed at them, nor at you. The fact is, only one person can take one position. Rejection is more common than not.
Also, while I think it is great that you are such an empathetic person, you have to realize you can't hope to shield everybody you care for from the truth. After all, science is about the truth. It is only from failures and mistakes that we learn.


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If the status of a paper under review changes, should schools I applied to be notified?
I am applying to doctoral programs in the US.
I have a paper currently under review, and, it seems that the status will remain under review after I submit my application packages.
My question is: If my paper is accepted or revised or rejected, then should I notify the schools to which I am applying that this paper was accepted or revised or rejected?

Short answer: no (don't bother).  More nuanced answer: it depends.  Is your paper of earth-shaking significance in some way?  Is it going to appear in some renowned journal (Nature, PNAS, Lancet, Journal of the ACM, etc.)?  If not, it is little more than a waste of time to try to add the information to your application.  Late information is rarely added to application packets (which these days are anyway handled almost entirely online -- convenient in certain ways but makes for an additional hassle when it comes to adding to or correcting an application or supporting documentation).
However, if you have corresponded with some professor you would like to work with at the grad school that you are applying to, and have reason to believe this professor might be interested and able to influence the admissions committee, then I would certainly take the time to send a polite e-mail to this person indicating that your paper was accepted in such-and-such notable journal or conference.  I would however avoid bringing up a rejection, and would also not take the trouble in case of acceptance of a less important article (or one in a less-respectable forum; e.g., an op-ed in your college newspaper).

Thanks. My situation is: The result in this paper is mind-boggling and under review at a top journal of the field.

Then it probably makes sense to try to inform.  But I would make sure there is acceptance before saying anything, if there is a risk that your mind-boggling result could be wrong in some way.  A "revise" or "revise and resubmit" decision may not mean the same thing.  Some journals say "conditionally accepted" or "accepted subject to minor changes," and these are okay. Basically the journal has to use "accept" before one goes around telling people.


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Must I decline to review a former colleague's work?
I have been asked to review a paper that I know to have been authored by a friend and former colleague.  Is it my responsibility to inform the editor and decline to review the paper?

Even if you are perfectly objective, your objectivity is going to be questionable. You don't have to decline the offer but I'd suggest to decline it.

Assuming you reviewing the paper would not violate any guidelines of the journal or conference in question, the primary issue is objectivity: can you review the paper on its own merits, or will your association with the author in question "color" your opinions?
Personally, I would never review a paper written by a former co-author or personal friend. However, I may accept the review of someone whom I know professionally but have not worked with in any formal capacity, provided that I am not working on a similar project.
In this particular example, you claim that the person is "a friend." If that is the case, then I would recommend leaning against accepting the review.
The issue of informing the journal editor is a separate matter. You may explain that the reason is you know the author, but you are not necessarily obligated to do so. If you want, you could simply say "I don't have the time right now," and that would be just as valid a reason as "it's a conflict of interest." But I don't think there's anything lost by informing the editor of why you don't feel comfortable providing the review.

It might be nice to let the editor know that you're willing to review other works (assuming that's true). That might be one benefit to informing him of the conflict of interest--- it is less of a "blow off".

Other than that: being upfront and open about it will ensure that, when somehow, sometime, the proverbial feces hits the fan, it won't bite you in the tushy.

I think it's naive to think you can assess yourself whether you can be objective or not.

@Relaxed Why is that naïve?  You think I can't be objective in assessing whether I'll be objective or  not?

I'm absolutely clueless about why you suggest him not to tell the editor the reason for the decline.

I said he's not required to tell. That's not a recommendation not to tell—just a statement of options.

@Relaxed I see this as more of a one way thing. It's impossible to be sure you're being objective. But it's very easy to know that you might not be being objective, e.g. this case.

All other things the same, it would be better to inform the editor and decline, yes.
Similarly, if the author is not a "friend", but some sort of opposite to that, ideally one would decline for the opposite reason.
It starts to become trickier when the author is "a competitor".
In any case, with time, it can easily happen that many people in a given field are well known to you, "good acquaintances" (or "bad"...) if not "friends". That is, the ideal of dispassionate opinion due to lack of personal connection becomes impossible, not matter the ideal.
Thus, in practice, although it is harmless to inform the editor, they probably won't be surprised, and most likely would not at all insist that you decline... although you are within your rights to do so in any case.

+1 for 'with time [...] many people in a given field are well known to you'.  This situation is unavoidable in small fields, so letting the editor know the degree of connection, and discussing it, is the best strategy.  If the reviewer is uncomfortable with the closeness of the connection, that's an extremely respectable reason for declining to review, which any editor would, I think, accept.

Some journals have rules about reviewing the work of former colleagues. For example, I've seen journals claim that papers will not be reviewed by people that have been at the same institution over the last five years. You have to check with the editorial policies of the journal to see about this but if the editor has made a mistake by sending the paper to you, they'll appreciate you pointing it out.
The bigger issues are that (a) you know who the author is so the review will not be blind and (b) the author is your friend which might reasonably be seen as a conflict of interest. If you know the author because you have seen the work in the paper before, that is a third problem. I would not review papers that I know are written by my friends for all of these reasons and I think it is in the interest of the journal and of the peer review process to defer review to someone else.

I think it's clear from the question, but double-blind review is not the norm in many disciplines.

@BillBarth: I assumed that because the author said they knew the paper to have been written by a friend, as opposed to simply saying that it was written by a colleague, that they did some deduction and the review was supposed to be double-blind. I certainly might be reading too much into a short question and would welcome clarification from the person asking the question.

@BenjaminMakoHill: Some of the journals I review for will only tell me the name of the author after I accept the review.

No @BenjaminMakoHill, I think you're right on. I think that reviewing a friend's work is probably a conflict and should be avoided, double-blind or not. +1

Is it my responsibility to inform the editor and decline to review the paper?

It is your responsibility to inform the editor of the situation, but the two of you can decide together whether or not your should decline the review.
The editor may ask you whether you feel that you can objectively review the work (the real answer is that none of us are truly objective, but the question here is whether you would feel comfortable rejecting the paper if you think it is bad and accepting the paper if you think it is good).

It depends.  Is this a double-blind refereeing system?  If so, how do you know the paper was written by a close colleague?  (Technically, everyone working in your discipline is a colleague, but some colleagues are closer than others.)
In some disciplines, blind reviewing isn't used or single blind reviewing is used.  In that case, you know because the author's name is on the manuscript.
In either case, I would notify the associate editor who asked me to review the paper that I have a (potential) conflict and explain the situation exactly.  If I felt I could maintain a disinterested perspective on the paper I would say so and leave the decision up to the associate editor.  If I felt I could not maintain a disinterested perspective, I would say so and decline to review the paper.
With all that said, my perspective on my duties as a referee is a little different from the norm.  I review work for technical correctness and point out any errors and limitations I might find.  I comment on whether I find the work interesting.  I will not make publication recommendations.  I see that as the editorial board's job, not mine.  That perspective reduces the potential for conflict of interest in my mind.  I basically won't tell an editor anything I would not say directly to an author.

Is it my responsibility to inform the editor and decline to review
  the paper?

Yes. It should also be stated somewhere, but there is no other way.

It depends on the journal. Some Elsevier journals do not consider this as a conflict of interest:
http://www.elsevier.com/reviewers/reviewer-guidelines

Avoid a potential conflict of interest
  A conflict of interest will not necessarily eliminate you from reviewing an article, but full disclosure to the editor will allow them to make an informed decision. For example; if you work in the same department or institute as one of the authors; if you have worked on a paper previously with an author; or you have a professional or financial connection to the article. These should all be listed when responding to the editor’s invitation for review.

So, unless you feel that you cannot provide an objective (to the extent possible) review, you can take the job. However, when you write the letter with your decision, you have to specify your connection with the authors or the paper. I am taking the word "friend" in a more relaxed sense. If, for instance, one of the authors donated you or your parents one of his kidneys, then it may be difficult to provide a useful review.

I guess if this were a double blind review you would not run into this problem!  I have been in a small community of scholars for more than 30 years.  It is impossible for me to avoid this conflict.  I have to decide for myself, or let the editor decide.  If the conflict might be perceived as significant, I usually leave it to the editor, telling them of the conflict and asking if they want me to continue.  The entire review process is inherently subjective, and there are many reasons one can have bias when reviewing a manuscript, for example, what if their results contradict yours, but are well supported and it's a good paper?  You have to use your best judgement in all cases.

Inform the editor.  If he is OK with it (and you are) than you may still review the paper.  After all he knows you are conflicted and will weigh your response.
It is not the only form of conflict.  Rival groups, subject of critical papers, etc.  Good editors know how to involve such parties, including when to cut off unfair reviews, get another opinion, etc.


text:
Expelled from undergrad university for poor academic performance, can I go back there (years later) for Masters?
I want to obtain a masters degree at a certain top university (in Canada).
However, I was kicked out of the department due to my bad performance. Repeated attempts at getting back in were unsuccessful.
I have since then fixed my lack of discipline, achieved top grades at a "lesser" university, graduated with a bachelor's degree, and have worked (in a relevant field) for 7 years.
I was wondering how, or if I should even consider applying to my original university.
The reason is purely for my self confidence and, I guess, my ego. I got into that top university with excellent grades, but I was not ready to become an independent adult; computer games dominated my life until my final semester when I finally couldn't hang on anymore.
Graduating with top grades at another university showed that I picked myself up, but I want to prove to my family, the university, and mostly to myself, that I have the abilities to achieve what I could not 7 years ago.
The university is the top university at the field I study, in Canada. US have a couple comparable or better ones, but I cannot afford to go to those...
I know I can apply to another university, but I really want to find a way back in to my old university, and only apply elsewhere if no other options are available...
Any advice is fully appreciated.
Update:
Clarification - I am asking this because that university has my status listed as "may not continue in Faculty"

Were you kicked out a bachelor's or post-graduate program? If a bachelor's, I would think that you could cover this in the SOP.

@mkennedy it was when I was in my bachelor's program

Graduate and undergraduate programs of a same university could be quite autonomous, they may or may not depends of the same faculty.

I would definitely call the graduate studies division and ask whether it's possible and if it's up to the department/faculty.  You're not asking if they'll admit you, just if an FRW on your transcript disqualifies someone from applying to a graduate studies program.

...The reason is purely for my self confidence and, I guess, my ego. This is the wrong reason for doing things

I believe that "may not continue in Faculty" is different from "expelled." The latter refers to some serious disciplinary problem, and could keep you out forever. Yours means "not quite good enough at this time." Over such a long period of time, the difference is probably huge.

FWIW, a professor at my old school was expelled from that same school years before!

You have cooked your goose at your old Uni .Most people that fail are lazy not stupid .You got another degree anyway .You could try postgrad at another university .I got all the grades when I went to Uni .A B C D E !  Now all the lecturers that I did well for are dead .I threaten to come back occasionally .I am too busy in private practice .If you do masters will that make you any better? In my industry the correlation between academic results and whether someone is any good or not is very low .

Usually, in Canada there's a limit for that kind of status. For example if you drop a Master program from Concordia (like I did)there's a five terms period before reapplying. Here's an extract from the regulation that applies:

Re-Admission of Withdrawn Students
Students who have been withdrawn from a graduate program for academic
  reasons (e.g. low GPA, C or F grades) may wish to be considered for
  re-admission into the program. Normally, students must have been
  withdrawn from the program for a minimum of five terms in order to be
  reconsidered. A request for re-admission is considered to be a new
  application. Students who wish to be considered for re-admission must
  submit an on-line application, along with the required application
  fee. Documentation (e.g. CV, transcripts) showing professional or
  educational accomplishments since the student was withdrawn must be
  submitted along with a recommendation for re-admission by the degree
  program.

At McGill (in the top 20 of univerties in North-America) it's two years for medicine

If an individual has not registered for a period of more than two
  years, their student file will be closed. These individuals and
  those who have formally withdrawn may be considered for admission.
  Applicants' admission applications will be considered as part of the
  current admission cycle, in competition with other people applying
  during that cycle and in accordance with current graduate admission
  procedures and policies.

Also for Graduate studies in Canada there's a lot of exceptions made, whatever regulation says.  Try to contact the head of the department you're interested in.

Keep trying!  I was on academic probation (at a Canadian university :-) ) after my first year of undergrad (2.88 gpa). Thankfully I did not get kicked out. I persevered and now have an MSc and PhD and have been doing medical research for many years. Don't take this as gloating, just trying to say anything is possible :-).
Now, it will depend a lot on the university or department, but if you can convince a faculty member in the department that you want to do research and that you have completely changed your attitude, maybe they will have some sway (at least with the department).  In my field, it is primarily a matter of convincing a faculty member (assuming the grades in the "lesser" university were good).  Again, this will depend on the department.
Alternatively, maybe you can make an appointment with the admissions department and make a case to them why you should be allowed back in to the university.  I suspect many would take your 7 years of experience as a growth experience.
Good luck!

Thanks for the encouragement! I have been away for 7 years, and unfortunately I was an extremely bad example of a student... So I never even had much contact with my professors in the first place. I will try to reach out to them based on their research subject... I don't have an exact direction of where I would like to research in, which btw is in the field of Computer Science, so I will do my best to look at what kind of research is currently going on.

One way to do that might be to look up the CS profs in the university in which you are interested. Then for each of them read some of their recent papers.  From that see what interests you.  Read more, then contact that prof :-).  That way, not only are you informed, it should give the prof a good feeling about you.

I don't know what conditions are like at a Canadian University, but I graduated from a top American university and am basing my answer on this background.
Most universities, graduate faculties included, will base their decisions on an applicant's more recent experience. If you have top grades from a "lesser" university, that should be good enough (provided of course, that your target university routinely admits students from the other university). The seven years of work experience further separate you from your unfortunate undergraduate experience. College faculties are aware of "youthful indiscretions" with drinking, partying, etc. and are looking for signs that you have progressed beyond that point.
When I was admitted to a graduate school, I was told, "you only have to prove yourself once." That is, you will be admitted (or not), based on your "high water mark;" your highest level of achievement. They're not looking to disqualify you for things that happened maybe ten years ago; they're looking to see if your highest level of demonstrated aptitude meets their requirements. Good luck.


text:
Is it a good idea for a nonnative English speaker to have native speakers help make the English in statement of purpose perfect?
I am applying to doctoral programs in the US.
Since I am not an English native speaker, I am wondering if it is okay to have native speakers help make my English perfect in my statement of purpose?
I ask so because I am concerned with that, since the committee definitely knows that I am not a native speaker in English, my perfect English in statement of purpose could lead them to suspect. By "suspect" I mean the argument: If this person's writing is this good, then this person's TOEFL scores must be almost perfect.

It's a good idea for native English speakers to have other native speakers help make their English perfect.

It's definitely a good idea (in fact anyone in your situation should do so), I have seen plenty of people around me in my graduate school who had done so. There even exist professional services specialized for this task (it's a pretty big business in some countries).
Regarding your concern that the jury might think that you have been "cheating", forget about it:

by providing a flawless statement of purpose despite being non-native, you are showing the jury a lot of motivation;
if the statement of purpose was used to assess your true level of English, they wouldn't ask for TOEFL/IELTS;
when writing research articles later on, you will still often have a native speaker around to answer questions.

And asking others to check/proof your work is a good way to actually learn something new and/or improve your style/facts/etc.

I think about English grammar and prose like personal grooming.  If you are going to a big event where you need to make a good impression, it's fine to ask people to help make sure your clothing is well-chosen and being worn perfectly.  Likewise, it's fine to ask people to help make sure your words are well chosen and don't have any distracting errors.  A committee should not think any worse of you for asking for help making sure that your words are clean and clear.  Rather, they should think better of you for caring enough to make sure you are presenting yourself well.

Of course this is a good idea. Plenty of non-natives write excellent English, and getting your work proofread by a native English speaker is always a good idea, if possible.
It's not as if you are asking the native English speaker to write the text for you?

This. I help proofread and wordsmith several of my friends' grad school papers because they are not native English speakers. This is particularly important when it comes to research papers, as they will be referenced far into the future by others -- it would be a shame to not assist with trivialities like grammar when the content of their papers contributes to the body of human knowledge. The language is incidental.

should I be worry if my friend rewrite a part of my statement? That means I have written in by myself, and it's awkward enough for my friend to rewrite it. The other parts are good enough to just make fixes on the fly. I'm afraid about the inconsistency between the styles.

@Ooker: The inconsistency in styles will shine through, which will raise questions. It is probably better to write the document yourself and get your friend to help correct your English, rather than rewrite it.

Whether you're writing a statement of purpose, an application essay, a novel, a grant application, or even a research paper for publication, I think it's a pretty widely accepted "rule" that the ideas involved should be yours, but the exact way in which they are expressed does not have to be. After all, the goal of all these forms of communication is to convey your ideas to the reader. So it makes sense to take your ideas and express them in the best way possible. If you are not particularly good at expressing ideas (in a manner suitable for the readers) yourself, that means getting someone else to help you out.
People will not assume the writing style in a statement of purpose is necessarily representative of how you would write. If they want to know about your own writing abilities, they will ask about that specifically, for example by asking for a writing sample or by using something like the TOEFL. Now, there is some limit to this; for example, if you could not write or understand English at all, I think it would be misleading to have a friend completely translate your statement into English. But just having someone proofread your writing to improve the quality of the English is fine, and in fact is something even native speakers do all the time.
I would also note that the English doesn't have to be literally perfect. There are many small errors in English that very few native speakers can identify, and even fewer actually care about.

Do have somebody to look at the language/grammar you are using. But be aware of letting them write too much.
I have seen applications (for academic programs, but also for jobs) being tossed because of looking "too perfect", especially for non-native speakers. It is not a matter of the grammar being very good, it was a matter of the content "fitting too well", using all the expected buzzwords, and displaying a cultural sensitivity for the German job market/academic milieu a person with this biography could not have. This looks like it has been written by a ghostwriter, or copied from a "how to submit applications" book.
I guess that a person sending such an application still has the chance to get invited for an interview, if the running is not close. But when a prof is paring down a list, a person with this kind of application can get thrown out early, because the information he provides is disregarded as "he is telling me what he thinks I want to hear, and it might or might not be really true".
So, there is indeed a case of an application being too perfect to be regarded as real. And if you are a non native speaker, you are more likely to hit such a barrier than a native speaker, because the professor expects a bit less proficiency from you.
But this barrier comes long after the case which you are describing here. We are talking about the kind of application that can be written by somebody with knowledge not only of the language, but with the whole selection process and the country's and organisation type culture. If you express what you want to say in your best English, and somebody corrects your grammar and a few word choices, the chances that you come close to being regarded as "so perfect he must be fake" are astronomically small. So do let somebody edit your writing, it has advantages (described in the other answers) and it won't become good enough to disqualify you.


text:
Should I let my recommendation letter writers know that I didn't submit my application in the end?
I feel guilty and not sure of if I should inform my recommenders of this issue.
A school I intended to apply has received the reference letters from all my recommenders, but as the deadline was approaching I just found that I could not prepare something required by the school in time! So, considering the amount of application fee, I decided to close my application.
Now I feel maybe I should have told my recommenders about this issue, yet, whenever I was about to write a sorry email then I withdrew my draft.
In such a situation, am I suggested to say sorry to my recommenders formally?

This really depends on the situation. If you only planned to apply to the one school, and ended up not applying, then you've wasted the time of your references, as they did not need to write the letter at all, and could have used the time for other projects.
On the other hand, if this is just one out of some number of schools, then the issue is not as severe. The extra investment to write the "last" letter is not that great. While it is unfortunate that you might not apply, such things happen.
In either event, though, it may be worthwhile to let them know you didn't submit the application—they may ask the school directly if they have contacts, and it wouldn't be useful to find out from the school that you didn't apply, rather than from you personally.

Ah, thanks so much. I am applying to several schools. May I ask you a further question? The deadline of the school under discussion is on early December, so should I still inform them?


text:
What tone to use when talking about oneself in statement of purpose?
In what manner should one speak in her statement of purpose for phd applications?
Should she speak factually or slightly overly self-praising?

There is a difficult tension to balance here: one the one hand, you don't want to hide your light under a bushel.  On the other hand, the people reading the application will have seen a lot, and will probably be pretty good at detecting somebody puffing themselves up and will not be impressed.
Two useful strategies for approaching this:

Follow the writing strategy of "show, don't tell".  If you've done something awesome, don't tell that you were awesome: "I made important contributions to the study of newts."
Instead, show the thing that you've done: "I studied newts under Prof. Coolness as a junior, and our paper on how newts prefer turn clockwise under the full moon was recently accepted to the Journal of Arbitrary Herpetology."  Give the reader enough evidence that they can conclude awesomeness for themselves.
Once you've got a draft written, ask a trusted professor to look at it and check whether you've left anything important out or are overinflating yourself.


text:
Is it wise to use the paper reference numbers defined in CV in statement of purpose?
If in my CV I assign to each paper of mine exactly one number, say [1] On ...; [2] On ..., and if I want to introduce my works in my statement of purpose, then is it wise to use these paper reference numbers in my statement of purpose?

If you write your CV and statement of purpose using LaTeX, then you can use bibtex to handle your citations. I would favour this style.

@user2768 that doesn't answer the question about if Kurt should re-use those references, or re-print them on the new document.

@mankoff, yes, you're right, I wasn't clear. I meant, if you write your "CV and statement of purpose using LaTeX [in a single document]." In this case, bibtex would produce a single bibliography at the end of the document. I.e., statement of purpose, CV, bibliography. You may like to add your covering letter too.

If 1 document requested, then yes, cite the CV part. But usually multiple docs are requested. If 1-page cover letter, 3-page research statement, 2-page teaching statement, 10-page CV, etc. are part of the packet, don't make them hunt down the references on page X of the CV part of the package...

Don't make anyone do extra work. They may not want to (or easily be able to) open a different file to find the reference. Give up part (1/4th?) of a page for references. Don't cram text in the main body, but references could be written with a (slightly) smaller/tighter font size/spacing if necessary.

Surely this results in duplications of citations, i.e., at the end of the statement of purpose and again at the end of the CV. I'd rather see a single list of citations.
As I suggested above, I recommend defining a single document for statement of purpose, CV, bibliography, ... this also eliminates the issue of not having the right files.

At the end of the CV? To first approximation, the list of publications is the CV!


text:
How do I prove math background for Stats PhD?
From Stanford's admissions page:

My mathematics background isn't that strong. Should I still apply?
A strong mathematics background, especially in probability, statistics and linear
algebra, is important in the admission process. However, it is not the only factor that determines which applicants are admitted.  You may consider strengthening your math background and applying later, or just hope that factors such as breadth or research experience will compensate for a relatively weak math background.

My math background isn't "weak" per se, but I assume they are talking about a much stronger level of mathematics than I might have on the gradesheets of my MS and bachelor's programmes. I do take an interest in mathematics, and I try to study several concepts related to stats and math (eg., Machine Learning).
However, how can I prove this? I have done well in courses related to Machine Learning and Probability, and have taken courses in Real Analysis and Linear Algebra (and there is of course overlap in all four of those areas), but how can I say "I also read stuff because I like it"? I guess one way would be to ask a professor in the stats dept. to guide me through some research and then make them assess me, but how else can I show that I have "strengthened my background"?
Also, is a background in machine learning, signal processing and computer science in general considered for these admissions?

You can take the math subject GRE and do well and send them the results, assuming they accept them.  There’s nothing like a good score on that exam to convince the committee you know the math.
In my view, one of the best uses of the subject GRE is to make up for shortcomings elsewhere in your application.

Thanks for the reply! I have considered it, but I'm also concerned because it has stuff like topology, which I'm not entirely familiar with.

Also, is a background in machine learning, signal processing and computer science in general considered for these admissions?

Machine learning especially is considered relevant and helpful for statistics programs these days, however I don’t know if that’s what they mean by “a math backhand.”

For background they were clear that they need probability, linear algebra, real analysis. I have taken courses in all (and they're all used in ML), but maybe not at the level they expect, and probably not as many. I also took a few more "core" statistics and mathematics courses but didn't do all that well. That's yet another reason why I want to know how I can show my improvement.

Also, the subject GRE doesn't really have topology on it, so that shouldn't be a worry.


text:
Is it wise to select a PhD topic before choosing an advisor?
I am a student of  Pure Mathematics interested in Linear Algebra and Abstract Algebra. I was browsing the Internet for good research topics containing both a flavor of linear algebra and also having some real life applications when I came to learn about Spectral Graph Theory.
I have searched for professors who are actively involved in this field, but I have only found a few names whose topic of interest is Spectral Graph Theory. There are also a very few number of books available in this field.
Is this a good topic to work on? Is it very difficult to find an advisor in this field? Though I am able to  learn the topic on my own, I am finding it difficult to approach someone in case I am having a problem.
Also, is it wise to first decide a topic and then find an institute which has professors in this field or it should be the other way round i.e., I should select a good institute according to QS rankings first and then decide a topic accordingly?

I think the second question is fine, but the first seems a bit of a "shopping question" (as per help center).

In brief: no, in mathematics in the U.S., you do not "have to choose" a research topic prior to beginning your PhD. At the same time it is _of_course_ good to have something to be enthusiastic about, curious about, fixated upon. But that can change, and probably should change as you learn more. It is apparently the case that in the U.S., and to some degree elsewhere, in mathematics, undergrads and even M.S. students really don't get enough background to understand contemporary mathematics at all, except very superficially. Fine, that's not a moral failing... maybe just evidence that there's a lot happening in mathematics... (!?!) But, then, in that light, the enthusiasms that novices have are necessarily (by-far-typically) ill-informed... and will change if/when they learn more.
This is not to say that one should not have an opinion, or should not admit interest in things because one knows one's interest will change... but only that one should anticipate that change, rather than believe that one "has arrived" at age 22 or so, and there's nothing left to learn, and now it's just "trying to solve problems/do research". I understand the appeal of that, but, if we think about it, it's better in the long run if mathematics is not that shallow or superficial.
More specifically, spectral graph theory is a quite viable research area. "Expander graphs" are popular and google-able. Lots of people work on this, both from the "spectral side", and from the "graph theory" side.
And, perhaps counter-intuitively, the possible fact that there are not so many "books" treating a topic can in fact be a very positive sign... it's unclear. That is, if there are zillions of books on something, then chances are good that it's an older topic and has been worked over pretty hard... leaving less room for beginners to contribute.
So, sure, it's entirely reasonable to have specific and fine-grained interest... as opposed to "general" interest. Like having a specific lunch rather than a lunch-in-general. :) But be utterly open to changes in your viewpoint... as you learn more, which will be for many years. :)

Good answer.  Also, I can concur spectral graph theory is a popular area.  I've done a little work in myself, despite being a number theorist (yet not quite from the expander/Ramanujan point of view that you might think is most closely related to my other work). Incidentally, my impression was there were quite a lot of books that discuss spectral graph theory, though perhaps books with "spectral graph theory" in the title.

Thank you very much;So what should be my next step?Should I now look for an institute of good repute and then see whether there is an advisor in this subject?If not then I should work in some other topic?

@learnmore, in the U.S., in mathematics, the general reputation of a math dept (which is usually roughly correlated with the reputation of the university) is probably the best indicator of the quality of the graduate education and preparation for research you'd receive there. That is, thinking in terms of specific research directions is probably not the wisest criterion, given that one's interests will most often evolve enormously while in grad school. Apparently unlike other subjects (???), the further education one receives in grad math is very important... if done well.

True research is driven by passion. It would be better to select a topic that interests you and then search for an advisor who could work on that topic. All that matters is how fine-grained your initial topic ought to be. If it is too narrow, it might be difficult to find a suitable advisor.
Coming back to your problem, Spectral Graph Theory is actually a subtopic of Graph Theory. There are many professors researching on that topic. Just because it is not stated in their research profile doesn't necessarily mean they would not work on it.
The key for a good PhD candidate is to be flexible and open to new ideas. Your initial idea may be readily accepted for further research by your prospective supervisor, or you may be assigned with a new one. But the field of the topic is your choice to make.
Best wishes on your PhD journey!

I added a 'mathematics' tag to this; it's a good question but I think the answer depends on the field of the project.

@arboviral: I've just approved your edit. Nevertheless, the OP ought to re-look with respect to the topic graph theory itself rather than being specific to its sub-topic

@Ebe I just want piece of advice.  I am thinking pf phd on cloud security specifically homomorphic encryption. Homomorphic encryption requires Abstract Algebra

Would I need someone from mathematics department to guide me in additional to my security supervisor.

@vivek: That won't be always necessary. Computer security comes from the principles of Theoretical Computer Science. Many professors in this field come from a major mathematics background.

@Ebe Thanks for replying. But my security supervisor's area is cloud computing.   How can she guide me when Abstract Algebra is needed?

@vivek: Then you might have to find a mentor or co-advisor who could guide for that matter -- provided your supervisor has limited or no knowledge of Abstract Algebra.

It depends if you seriously want to stay in academia after or not.

If you just want a PhD diploma, you will manage with almost any senior advisor, but it might take a while, you might run into funding limits and so on with an advisor who does not play the "publish or perish" game.
If you want to stay in academia after, it is more difficult: you do need to find your own subject, and create your own "niche" (many senior researchers now advocate for such a specialization very early on).
But you also need to be sure you will publish papers, in good journals, and there is the importance of the advisor: someone who has good (and long) publishing records is more likely to be an efficient advisor who will not let you extend your PhD time forever without publishing.
Finally, academia is competitive, and a big name on your CV can sometimes make the difference between the "interview" pile and the trash for a postdoc. In fact I discussed that with 2 seniors in my field, and they admitted having a soft spot for people coming from "big names" because "you anyway get brainwashed by your advisor". They have a point there I think, but only if the advisor really works in collaboration with his PhDs. However, big name on CV with no publications will lead you nowhere.

Personality wise, it is a gamble, and you cannot really avoid it.
I would personally go for a good advisor (forget the QS rankings: look at the specific advisor's records by going to Web of Science and find the h-index of the professors), for the simple reason that after my master I thought I knew what I wanted to do, but in fact working with an excellent competitive advisor during my PhD convinced me to slightly change my overall interests (in terms of modeling approaches).
For the specificity of your topic, I don't know, I am in environmental sciences.

I'm not sure about the suggestion to use h-index to judge quality of an advisor. Firstly, it's widely acknowledged that citation metrics are highly flawed representations of the quality of someone's research. Secondly, being a good researcher is not the same thing as being a good advisor.

I absolutely agree on the last sentence, that is why I said "They have a point there I think, but only if the advisor really works in collaboration with his PhDs". Quality of someone's research not being linked with metrics: yes, I agree, and everybody agrees. Yet you get hired based on that. One of the many contradictions in academia.To me the most striking example of academic contradiction is Nature/Science papers: not necessarily good, many are in fact rather bad, but if you have one as 1st author in your CV at the PhD level, you are almost guaranteed a postdoc.

I'm afraid I cannot see this as good advice at all: it's not true that "any senior advisor will do", nor that h-index or any other software-generated ranking will help you choose a good advisor. That is, this answer sounds as though it comes from someone who's pretty unfamiliar with graduate education, and certainly with mathematics (which was an aspect of the question).

Without wanting to stay in academia, what is the risk of going with almost any advisor? wasting 3 years of your life? it's not a big deal to me. I am not in maths, I said so. h-index should certainly not be the only criteria, but it does say something about the ability of the professor to publish (at least more than a ranking of the university!). (Do you think I would answer such a question not being in academia?)

Simple here, about this h-index: a professor who publishes a lot is more likely to push a PhD to publish than a professor who is not really publication-oriented. In many fields, if you don't publish by the end of the PhD, it's going to be way more difficult. Exceptions exist, there is no debate about that. So wether it's an h-index, or just looking at their publications, publication records should be a criteria to me (again: not the only one!). But please, provide counter arguments, it would be informative for everybody.

For one thing, in mathematics, for hiring at both postdoc and tenure-track, I've never looked at any "impact factors", nor have I ever heard a single mention of them. Sure, things may evolve otherwise in the future... Then there's the question of what "publication" means these days: must it be traditional? (to affect "impact factors", which are commercially motivated products of traditional for-profit publishers, etc?) Or could it be arXiv? Or web-page? And what foolish advisor would make the mistake of not "pushing a student to publish"? [cont'd]

[cont'd] In mathematics, apparently unlike some other fields, advisors rarely "work in collaboration with their students", but the alternative is not to ignore them or fail to help them. Such a (false) bifurcation is dangerously simplistic. And the issues of "publication" for senior tenured faculty are wildly different than those for a beginner, so senior people who may conform less to ultra-traditional "rules" may nevertheless well-appreciate what young people should do to have reasonable careers. Finally, tenure at a well-ranked university is at least a sign that one understands The Game.


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Not ticking boxes in recommendation forms
Like many people, I hate the recommendation forms for graduate schools, particular the part where you're asked to rank/rate a whole bunch of abilities.  When the electronic application allows me, I omit this part or select an option like "cannot evaluate" and maybe make a comment somewhere to see my letter for everything.
I know many people just mark the highest ranking for everyone, but I don't even want to do that (for one, it seems dishonest; also, sometimes it's not clear which is the highest ranking without carefully reading the question).
The places I'm familiar with (some math grad schools) probably don't care about what you put here at all.  As far as I can tell, the people who design these forms are pretty far removed from those who make admissions decisions.  The only time I could see these coming into play is if a student gets very bad ratings or one person has lower ratings from the same recommender.
But I want to make sure I'm not doing my students a disservice, so:

Does anyone know of any US grad programs where not ticking these boxes on recommendation forms will hurt my students' chances?  If so, please indicate what kinds of graduate programs (e.g., maybe it matters for MBA but not STEM programs).

It can definitely hurt the students.  Having worked on master's and doctoral admissions in my own department (physics and astronomy) and occasionally been consulted by faculty in closely related departments (chemisty and applied math) about unusual applicants, I can attest that there are some faculty members that do pay attention to those checkbox rankings.  They are not numerous in my department, but they do exist.
In most cases, the students' test scores, grades, and recommendation letters speak for themselves.  For a strong applicant, those checkboxes are probably never going to cost them an admissions slot.  However, when there are some questions about the strength of a recommender's letter, some people of the committee do turn to the numerical ratings to try to get a clearer idea of the applicant's abilities.  So if you write a student a compelling recommendation letter, those boxes will likely never matter; however, if your letter is short or expresses possible reservations about a student, you may be further hurting the student by leaving the boxes blank.


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Found paper that is identical to what I was working on
So, I'm about 2 months away from submitting my PhD Qualifying Report (QR).
I've spent the last 2 years (part time) doing a thorough literature review and writing significant amounts of software to analyse a relevant public dataset that is relevant to where I want to take my thesis and I believed hadn't been thoroughly analysed before. I'm about 2/3s of the way through writing a paper based on this analysis.
Now, to my horror, I found a paper tonight doing exactly the analysis I've spent the last year doing. I hadn't found it because it wasn't published in a journal, and doesn't seem to be indexed on Google. I found it deep inside a login-only area of the website of the organisation that owns the dataset.
So... Obviously, I'm going to email my supervisors in the morning to try and work out what to do but I guess my question is: is this salvageable? Is the work I've done essentially worthless as far as my QR is concerned? Obviously I've learned a lot, but I'm not sure if that matters for the QR.
Is my only option to pivot, pull 2 months of all-nighters and hope I can scrape through the QR on a different premise?

You can put in your thesis the following line: "After this work was (mostly) completed, I discovered that the same analysis was done independently in [...]"

It might be useful to just go to sleep, wait for your adviser to respond, and go from there :-)

I'm assuming by QR you mean "qualifying review"? What in the UK is often called the transfer review or forst year report?

It happens. You are likely going to survive this. Relax, take some time off right now, talk to you r supervisor soon. Similar things happened to many people I know, including me.

Following @IanSudbery: please clarify in the question what "QR" means.

@IanSudbery - Yes, I mean my qualifying report

Sorry, done that now

It may be relevant what exactly the word "exactly" means here. Even though some part of this, even maybe the core part, may be the same as what you did, you may have arrived at it in slightly different ways, might have achieved some understanding that allows you to say additional things about it not said before etc. In that case you might get away with just mentioning that the report also has this analysis but isn't published, and you add the following things (...), still presenting the analysis yourself.

@DaveLRenfro - There you go

What you describe is fairly common. You can't always know what parallel research is going on while you do your own study. In "hot" areas of research it is much more common.
It may be that for the purposes of your degree, the advisor and the institution generally will judge that you are fine and that your work has value enough to let you proceed. It might not result in publishable work, of course.
It might also be that you have learned enough in what you have done so that you have enough that goes beyond what has already been done and still do something publishable. Your advisor can help with that judgement.
An outside possibility is to try to establish a collaborative relationship with the authors of the report you found. Perhaps together you can find a suitable advance that won't set you back.
But in the worst case, you will need to take up a different track. Hopefully the university will help in avoiding that outcome.

I know of a case in which two people, known to each other, finalized theses that were almost identical in ideas (not words). It turned out that they had worked completely independently of one another. It took a year of inquiry, but both were awarded degrees after it was decided there was no hint of plagiarism. Both their advisors were well known and known to each other. The problem they solved was considered very important at the time. The importance of the problem led to their independent interest in working on it.

My concern is this wasn't parallel research, I just didn't find it in my lit search because of it being tucked away. That makes it feel far more like I've fucked up here

No, it is lucky you found it at all if it hasn't been published. Relax.

Alright, thank you... I've got a meeting with my supervisor tomorrow, so hopefully the only downside is going to be the hours wasted rather than it being catastrophic to my PhD

From the point of view of your thesis committee you might need to give them only original work. But from the scientific point of view you just stumbled by chance on a collaborator who actually already completed their task, so once you finish your analysis you can compare the results and methods, and hopefully write a great paper together. Maybe that is an argument you can put forward.


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Rules of thumb: when do you really hear good/bad news from NSF unsolicited proposals
Things keep changing and trends evolve. I submitted my first grant proposal in January. The "external review began on" date shows as late March, which is date when the NSF panel met (it was on the NSF website). I haven't had any contact from them.
Is this a good or a bad thing? Some colleagues say that the sure rejects are informed within couple of weeks of panel meeting, then those that will definitely recieve funding, whilst the rest are in limbo until the official six month deadline (or even later).
Can anyone tell me what to make of it ?

@Saturnus The status says "pending".

Around the 6 months mark. Sooner news "may" correlate with negative results.

I don't really have an answer to your question, but I can say that I think that the current political climate has resulted in delayed proposal reviews and notification for many federal programs. we submitted and NSF proposal back in December and from what I can tell, the review date changed from the original date and we haven't received any helpful feedback about when decisions will be made. This is my first NSF proposal - I usually submit to the NIH.
I had another grant submitted last November to a different federal program and they delayed notifications until last week (normally, decisions would have been made in February for that program). I wish I had a better answer, and maybe someone else can provide more insight. However, don't thin proposal reviews this year are "business as usual" and not hearing back at this point may not mean bad news. Hope this helps!

For the NSF, there's a particular issue at the moment.  The NSF headquarters is being moved out of its offices in Arlington into a different office complex is Alexandria.  As a result, you can expect lots of NSF activities to be delayed for the next several months.

Update: Heard back last night from the NSF. Unfortunately, our project didn't receive funding. But now I can say that the turn around was almost 5 months.


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Should I mention a published paper in a disreputable journal in my resumé for admission to a PhD scholarship?
I want to be admitted to PhD studies at a foreign university with a scholarship.
I was in a team of four members authoring a paper, whose senior member (who is a professor) corresponded the publication himself from initial to final stage without letting us know the journal name. After the acceptance, he told us the journal’s name and we found that it is not listed in Thomson Reuters / ISI and its claim of an impact factor is fake. It is not even showing a DOI of the paper. Now we are thinking as if our whole struggle was useless.
Please advise whether I should mention the paper on my resumé for PhD scholarships admissions or not.

Just FYI, this journal is also included in Beall's list of standalone "potential, possible, or probable predatory scholarly open-access journals".

You may also want to take a look at: How can I withdraw a publication from a fake journal and resubmit to a legitimate journal?

@Wrzlprmft: Actually if I'm reading it correctly the top answer in your linked meta answer in your edit supports putting the name of the publisher. But anyway, it's still in the edit history for this case.

Imo the key sentence from the linked answer, for this question is "Keep in mind that the venue of publication does not affect the quality of your paper, but only (potentially) how it is perceived by others.", and, regarding the lack of a DOI: "If the journal is not very visible or accessible, post it to an eprint repository if it is possible"

Thanks for the answers. However one of my question is still not well responded i.e. should I mention that paper on my resume for taking PhD admissions since most of the PhD admissions open during Nov to Dec. Withdrawing a published paper is a risky and time consuming option. Due to shortage of time, should I mention that paper in resume or not? Also please advise the significance of having or not having DOI. Thanks!

@m.s87 I would not mention it.

Personally, I would consider a reference to a "fake" journal in an application the same as writing false information in a job application.  You wouldn't claim you had insert position here in a non-existent corporation when applying to work somewhere would you?

@NZKshatriya I think perhaps you have read the question title without reading the question body.  This is not a question of "the OP invented something to pretend like he actually did something", it's "he honestly did something, then it appeared in a disreputable journal."  The journal exists, it just happens to fall well short of the usual standards.

@zibadawatimmy  No i read the post in full. And I still say that citing a reference in a fake/discredited journal, would be the same as including a falsehood in a resume.

I understand your conflict.  On the one hand, you have produced a manuscript detailing your hard work.  On the other hand, you don't want to appear associated with a fake/predatory/otherwise questionable journal.
My suggestion is that you do include this work in some form in your CV. For example, you might have a few sections:
1) Peer-reviewed publications
2) Publications in-press
3) Other work / manuscripts / manuscripts in progress, etc.
If it were me, I might consider including this paper under #3, potentially withholding the journal name if I felt so strongly as to question whether it might even be called a journal.  Alternatively, you might include a note underneath that line item stating "submitted to non-peer reviewed journal without author's knowledge".  While this would be fairly strange to see, it would at least offer a discussion point, while giving you credit for work performed.


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Choosing between an older, prominent supervisor and a younger, junior supervisor for PhD
I'm searching for a PhD position in theoretical physics. My question is:
Should I do my PhD with a prominent professor who is 60 years old and does not care too much about their students or with a junior professor who is not famous and does not have published too much papers, but cares too much about his students and is very supporting and nice professor?

@scaaahu I should edit my post. Please see the edited version.

@scaaahu I don't think it's a duplicate. The issue here seems not to be the professor's age and what will happen when they retire but, rather, how to weigh up the two choices of senior and famous versus junior and enthusiastic.

What does "cares too much about his students" mean? (last line)

I'm assuming getting the old professor as the co-supervisor and the young professor as the main supervisor is out of the question?

Comment on question being closed: I don't think this is an exact duplicate. This questions adds additional details, professor's age being only an accidental trait, with main being his character toward the students. The question this one was marked a duplicate of asks precisely about the age. The remark that a new question should be asked if an old one does not have a satisfactory answer seems thus ironic, as this is exactly what this question does - and yet it is closed.

@Prof.SantaClaus Their fields of research are completely different, despite the similarities. That means, I somehow have to choose my research field as well!

Think of it as what I've been told about what happens when a boss is looking to take on someone:
(i) Can this person do the job?                                                                      (ii) Can I work with this person?

I'll talk from my own experiences, as in my career I have worked with both kinds of supervisors: I was under a really famous professor, who did not care about his coworkers at all (to the point of not knowing my name) and with a little-less famous person (who became a professor only after we started cooperating). The former was a complete disaster, as he was not interested in my work at all, did not offer any advice (and you, as a junior researcher would need advice from the wiser ones) and was unpleasant in personal contacts and eventually ceased all communication, thus hindering my academic progress.
The latter offered interesting guidance and by the end helped me to settle down in academia by recommending me to a position.
After all, you do not work with names, but with people. Even younger professor is probably much more experienced than you and can share some of it to you.
Also, bear in mind that this is only my personal statement and your mileage may wary. While reading questions here I, for example, got the impression that names play quite big role in academia (not in work, but on recommendation letters, etc.), so you have to take that into account as well.

In light of your comment that the older professor does not publish with his students, I'd recommend looking at the careers of their respective former students.  The best predictor of future performance is past performance, so assess the two potential mentors in terms of their past success in setting their students' up for productive careers.  In making that comparison, also take into account that the illustrious, older professor has likely had some of the best students working with him.  If they haven't succeeded, I would steer clear.

Your post is quite vague and it's hard to know what you mean by saying this 60 year old professor doesn't care about his students. Is he not supportive, does he not reply to emails, does he not give good feedback, is he too busy, is he going into retirement? One can only assume it's one or some of these.
By the sounds of things you have already made your decision. Though experience is highly important in academia, the same importance could be lent for how much a professor inspires you. This younger professor may not be prominent, but every professor has to be young [or younger] at some point and if you like this younger professor, and feel excited at the prospect of working with him, choose him. If he inspires you, you are likely to produce a far superior quality of work than if you work under this older, more experienced professor who, to you at least, appears rather dry and unmotivating.

The older one is very prominent and has a combination of features you mentioned! The other problem is, I checked his recent papers. None of his PhD students in the group has published a paper with him! He apparently works just with other professors.

@Immanuel "None of his students has published a paper with him" could be another way of saying "He doesn't claim authorship on his trainee's work".  Do his PhD students publish?  Are they successful in their later careers (where success means outcomes you would like to achieve?)

I was the first PhD my advisor had produced; and I could not have had a better experience. My only warning would be to make sure your younger professor has published in journals where you would like to publish, too, and preferably more than just one or two papers. Experience in writing for those journals is something you want, because typically you need to publish a few papers to prove elements of your dissertation are actually "an original contribution". At least that is how it was judged at the two universities I attended; just a PhD  committee's agreement that it was original and a worthy contribution was not considered sufficient; acceptance in a peer-reviewed journal was the criterion.
Anyway, a younger professor with no PhD graduates yet will pay more attention to you, and may be close to your age (within 10 years) so treat you less dismissively than the older professors, and in my experience may have more energy, working more hours, and be more available to you than older professors. I was able to discuss my project with my advisor nearly every day,  probably 4 out of 5 weekdays. I know other candidates that went much longer than that. I know one candidate that chose the department head as his advisor, and got one hour a MONTH with him, and after a year of that worked up the courage (or enough frustration) to switch to a new advisor and started all over with different research. Mostly wasted a whole year.
Added: It can also be true for a young professor seeking tenure that successfully graduating a PhD is a plus mark for his tenure case, in 3 or 5 years. Unlike a tenured older professor, this is another incentive for the younger professor to pay attention to your progress and keep you on track.