text:
How to calibrate the time constraint of an exam for a new course?
I am preparing an exam for a course I'm running. It's an engineering course; the exam problems require students to apply conceptual knowledge and quantitative skills taught in lectures and labs.
It's the first time the class has been offered, so I don't have a frame of reference from previous years. There haven't been any in-class quizzes or other opportunities for me to find out directly how long students would take to solve problems similar to the ones on the exam. I also haven't found any similar exams from other universities to serve as a reference.
Obviously, I am much more experienced in the material than my students, so I can't really generalize from how long it takes me to solve these kinds of problems.
This question is for the more experienced educators out there: in a scenario like this, are there any methods or general rules for determining how long you can make the exam, given the time allotted?
I don't want time to be a major issue on this exam; I want most students who are reasonably well prepared to be able to complete the exam in the given time.

Just an idea: let a TA (or some doctoral student who is familiar to the topic) solve the problems you have in mind. The TA should be as fast as one of the best students so you can add 20%-50% of the time needed to the exam length. The doctoral student is probably much slower(as he is not used to the kind of problems and sometimes uses a more complicated way to solve the problem), so you can add 0%-20%. Solving it yourself is imho not a good idea: you know what the solution looks like and what way the problem has to be solved and you will not find your own mistakes.

@TheAlmightyBob Very good idea. This way, the TA will also be examined.

@TheAlmightyBob that should be an answer, not a comment!

The TA should be as fast as one of the best students so you can add 20%-50% of the time needed to the exam length — In my experience, 100%-200% is a better addition.

@JeffE My experience was similar: with strong TAs, multiply their time by 3x.

Are you forced to fix your grading scheme before hand? If not, you can design your exam to be "too much" (which has other benefits) with the expectation that (most) students won't do everything. Observe what is actually possible (there's always that one Hermione type) and set your grades accordingly.

@JeffE (and others): the time factor crucially depends on the kind of problems you pose. Reproductive multiple choice? Large factor. Free-text design/proof questions that require independent thought? Small factor (sometimes even 1.0 from TA to student).

@Raphael If I received an exam for my first test that was physically impossible to complete, I'd drop the class the day after. Presenting insurmountable problems to gauge student performance is not nice to the students.

@Compass Oh, we tell the students upfront, of course. As I said, added benefits: we do pose problems that require independent thoughts and ideas -- if you are stuck on one problem, just pick another. (Of course, we wouldn't tell them if we wanted to pick the best result as 100%.)

Have your students do a question or two very similar to the ones on the exam as in-class exercise (ungraded, but turned in). Write on each as it is turned in the time was turned in. Looking over the time it took each student and the quality/correctness of their answers will let you get a feel for how long it will take them (plus some good feed back on how hard it will be and help the students get a feel for what sort of questions they need to be able to answer). Yes this takes valuable in-class time, but if it's as completely new territory as you make it sound there's no other way to find it.

Free-text design/proof questions that require independent thought? Small factor (sometimes even 1.0 from TA to student) — This is laughably inconsistent with my experience.  I assume that if my TAs can't solve an open-ended design/proof problem in five minutes, then most students won't solve it in 20 minutes.

@JeffE A lot depends on the source of TAs - given your institution, I suspect TAs are probably mostly PhD students and expected to do a significant amount of teaching in the class themselves.  At some other schools, the TAs are often just undergrads who help to grade.

Can confirm @JeffE's estimate of +100-200%. I was an engineering TA (as an undergrad) for a few years, and the professor would hand out three different versions of a multiple choice test. Since there was an occasional issue with the correct answer not being present in the provided choices, I made a deal with the students that I'd take all of the tests with them, and politely raise the issue to the prof if the correct answer wasn't a choice. I regularly finished all three versions prior to any of the students completing their one test.

This is totally unscientific, but for my exams (mathematics) I use the following rule of thumb:
After writing the exam, I sit down with a stopwatch and work the exam from start to finish. Of course, I know how to solve the problems (since I wrote them) but I go carefully through all the steps and write what I would consider a thorough and exemplary solution. I note the time I spent  on each problem.
Then I take the total time and multiply it by 3 (or sometimes 4). If this exceeds the allotted time for the exam, I remove or simplify some questions. (This is where it helps that I wrote down the time I spent on each question, so I can remove a question and recompute the time without actually retaking the whole exam.)
As a side benefit, this also helps ensure that I haven't made any mistakes in creating the exam, and that all the problems have the solutions I intended. It also gives me an answer key.

I use a factor of 5.  So a one-hour exam should take 12 minutes to write.

From talking my professors in undergrad, this is very similar to what they did.  They always said they could finish their own 50 min exam in 15 min.

I also use factor 3-4 for statistics.

in a scenario like this, are there any methods or general rules for determining how long you can make the exam, given the time allotted?

The way how I always do it is to give the exam to my student assistants (TAs, master students, undergraduate researchers), and see how long it takes them. The closer the students are to your average well-prepared course participant, the better. And, obviously, you want to add a bit of leeway to allow for the fact that your course participants, unlike your exam testers, are going to be nervous and in a test situation, and that you don't want time to matter too much.
Edit: Bob beat me to it in a comment.

In my experience, the ratio between the time needed to solve a problem by an experienced teacher and the "average student" can vary a lot, depending on the subject, the kind of problems and even between problems of the same kind. At one end, there are problems whose solutions are pretty straightforward but which require a lot of tedious calculations, for which no shortcut exists: in this case the solution time is almost the same for the professor and the students. On the other end, there are problems which require to find a "smart" solution, where few calculations are involved: in this case, an experienced professor can solve a problem in much less time (ratios of about 4 between the solution times are not uncommon).
So, even if you can give exam problems to TAs for testing, try to judge carefully what kind of problems you have prepared, this might allow you to better trim the exam duration.
I typically consider a ratio of around 3 between the exam time and my solution time (Electronic measurements).

As the teacher, when taking the test you should be able to abstain from using shortcuts which you did not teach and as such those should not affect the time required. TA's/others may however run into them and use the shortcuts.

@user2813274: I haven't written I didn't teach the shortcut. But students may fail to recognise the similarity between the example described during the lessons and the exam problem. And anyway, I expect students to be able to find shortcuts on the basis of what they've studied in all the courses they've followed, especially if they are graduate students.

If you taught the shortcut (and expect the students to use it), then there is nothing wrong with allocating time and expecting students to have to use it in order to finish on time. I would not however expect them to use shortcuts from other courses, which they may or may not have taken (unless it's a prerequisite, but even then I wouldn't test on it unless it was reviewed in class first).

The important thing is that the students should be aware of the expectations of their professors. So, I clearly warn them of two things: i) at the exams they will find at least a new problem, that is, a problem for which no previous example has been discussed (as exercise in class, homework or from previous exams); ii) I expect them to be able to use basic facts from a number of other subjects which are mandatory for every student, so that they not need to be explicitly stated as prerequisites. And the exam is open books. If they don't understand these expectations, too bad, they will  fail.

I am not sure how I feel about "new problems", so I asked a question about them - but please edit/comment if you don't mind as to what specific problems you ask. I remember some professors who did such things, but I hated them for it even when I did solve the problem. I also think that these problems will make judging the correct amount of time much more difficult that without them.

Sometimes it is the opposite: an undergraduate exam question given to a high school kid gets done in half the professor's time. That question could have been solved much faster and with less potential for errors by casting the problem in polynomial form and then using synthetic polynomial division to find zeroes that had a rather stereotypical form. I asked the professor about it and they said that no students did it that way :) That's probably rather rare, but there are some low-level algebraic "tricks" that seem not taught everywhere. My amazing high school math prof didn't teach it for sure

Here's what I do, even in courses I've taught often. It doesn't answer the question you asked, but it may serve your purpose.
I always try to make up an exam that can be done in the time alloted, but I almost never succeed - I get carried away making the questions interesting, in hopes that students will actually learn from the exam as well as demonstrate what they know. I announce my failing in advance, so students won't be surprised. I make sure to tell them that since I know there are some A students in the class, I am morally bound to curve the exam so that the top grades are A.
I tell the students that after they turn in their (timed) exam they should take the questions home and come to the next class with a paper with the solutions they wish they'd had enough time to write. I tell them that extra effort won't necessarily replace their timed work, but can improve their grade.
Since I almost always give open book open notes exams, the fact that they can look things up at home isn't a real bonus. I'm aware of the fact that they can get extra help at home (i.e. cheat) but I'm always uncomfortable designing limitations to catch cheaters that deny the majority of honest students a chance to learn more.

Sounds very familiar, except that I always refused to assign letter grades to individual exams. I could generally say that anyone who scored at least 80% was doing A work, and anyone who scored at least 50% was doing at least C work. And I do remember a small class or two in which there really was no one who deserved an A at the end of the course.

If the person setting the exam has no idea how the questions are going to play in practice, the students are presumably in exactly the same situation. That may add to nervousness issues, and make it hard for them to prepare for the test.
How about giving a practice exam, which may be shorter than the real thing but use similar questions, during a class period a couple of weeks before the actual exam? If you do the questions yourself, or have a TA etc. do them as already suggested, you can use the practice test to calibrate the ratio between the time for the actual students and the TA's time.
The students will also benefit by seeing what sort of questions you pose, with an opportunity to discuss them with you, with the TA, and among themselves. That will help them prepare for the actual test.

I don't have a free period to give a practice exam in. The students have seen the type of questions I will pose because they were given for homework, but I haven't seen the students do those types of questions.

@ff524, find a free period that MOST of your student can make and have the practice exam being optional, with other students being able to do it at home if the can't make the time you set.

I doubt students would make the practice exam at the same speed of the actual exam, unless they think the practice exam is going to be graded.

I like Nate's suggestion to multiply by 4 if your exam is all essay questions.  If you're concerned about students not finishing, you could use multiple choice and short answer questions.
Multiple choice and short answer questions force you to ask focused questions that can be answered quickly.  When I was in undergrad, I always liked test that were multiple choice and short answer because I knew that each multiple choice question would take 1-2 minutes, each short answer 2-3 and the essay question would usually take 7-10.
You could use those rules of thumb to build out a test that you are sure students will be able to finish.
You might find This multiple choice test primer helpful.

That's a good link, although I'm not sure how much this answers the original questions.

The other post beat me to suggesting take it yourself and multiply the time by 4, and giving it to the TA.

What you say is not strictly true. In general, the format of a question does not necessarily tell you anything about the time that will be needed to answer it. A multiple choice question might require you to solve an arbitrarily complex problem to get the answer. I can write a multiple choice question that will literally take trillions of years to answer correctly :-)

Quite true, you can make a bad exam using multiple choice.  In my experience as a student and grader, multiple choice exams tend NOT to take 4 times longer than the prof thought, and not end up with the highest grade being 32/100, which I've seen happen quite often with essay style exams.

Exam Time Calibration

1/8 time for professor to solve a freshman level exam
1/7 time for professor to solve a sophomore level exam
1/6 time for professor to solve a junior level exam
any above could limit to a factor of 5 by handwriting speed, treat as "1/5" for all undergraduate
1/5 time for professor to solve a senior level exam
1/4 time for professor to solve a elementary graduate (master) level exam
1/3 time for professor to solve a intermediate graduate (specialized master) level exam
1/2 time for professor to solve an advance graduate (doctor) level exam

The rule of thumb is to time yourself writing an answer key with all required steps. Multiply by an appropriate factor as necessary. The factor is the inverse of the expected time to solve the problem yourself.
I remember taking a final exam for a Master level class, and I finished in one hour, one classmate finished in two hours, third person took four hours, while the rest of my classmates took five hours. The lower third of the class did not finish the exam after 5 hours. The exam was scheduled for three hours.
I remember noting down the time in 30 seconds increment I took for each problem on a homework assignment, so my professor wrote his time writing the answer key right next to each of my times. I was faster overall and on most problems (youth thinks faster), but slower on some problems (wisdom thinks smarter).


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Do accreditation agencies limit academic freedom?
Do accreditation agencies limit academic freedom?
Specifically, have there been instances of accreditation agencies revoking a college's or university's accreditation status because of ideological conflicts—e.g., because the sorts of classes taught conflicted with the accreditor's ideological views? Did this restrict restrict the school's academic freedom?

Of course they do - that is part of their job. If you are looking to be accredited in engineering, and are offering only courses in Medieval German Literature, you will not get accredited. While this is perhaps a restriction on the school's academic freedom, it is perfectly in line with the accreditation organization's ideology that engineering classes should be about engineering.

@JonCuster - Schools have two kinds of accreditation.  They have general accreditation, which checks if they are running something that ought to be considered a legitimate university.  In some subjects but not all, there is also separate subject accreditation, which checks if the program in a particular subject is legitimately teaching that subject.  I believe the question is asking about general accreditation.

@AlexanderWoo - of course. My example does show the difficulty with the question. Further, the fact that s number and variety of explicitly religious universities shows that the umbrella accreditation is also not ideologically driven.

@JonCuster Imagine a physics or engineering department offering a class on a "fringe science" or "pseudo-science" topic like perpetual motion machines. Could or has an accreditor stripped such a school of its accreditation because it doesn't think this "fringe science" or "pseudo-science" (as it'd call it) or "innovative science" (as the school would call it) is actually physics or engineering?

You might be interested in the history of the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Lab (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princeton_Engineering_Anomalies_Research_Lab). Its existence did not result in Princeton's accreditation being withdrawn. Based on my experiences with ABET accreditation, which now is very ISO-9000'ish, if you can point to your constituency (employers, graduate schools) being OK with a course, it will be OK with them. Otherwise, you seem to be fishing for something.

source: Stack Exchange

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

sort: votes


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Are there free DOI generation services?
Crossref, e.g., charges thousands of dollars to assign DOIs, but are there any free DOI registration services? In other words: Is there a free service that will generate DOIs for me?

To clarify the question, are you asking if there is a service that will give you a DOI for free, for a third-party URL, or if there is a a way to become a DOI issuing body for free? The answer is probably no in each case, but for different reasons.

@Andrew I'm asking "if there is a service that will give you a DOI for free".

Aha - in that case my answer was going to be a version of http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/69521/how-can-i-create-a-doi-for-a-paper-that-was-uploaded-to-arxiv-but-not-published/69589 (which effectively asked the broader question of 'can I do it at all'), but I see @RM beat me to it...

I think it is even worse: If the institution does not pay the fee for the doi in 20 years, their database entries are lost. Hence I am highly interested in an independent alternative for doi.

What do you mean @JonasStein? Which database entries are lost?

@Joe It is a proprietary directory service. An entry is only as long registered, as it is paid for.

Where did you get information from? DOIs are persistent, they're not just randomly deleted. https://www.doi.org/doi_handbook/6_Policies.html#6.5

And here are some thoughts on 'persistence' from the Crossref Blog @JonasStein https://www.crossref.org/blog/january-2015-doi-outage-followup-report/

Why do DOIs cost money at all? It's just a little number with a redirect... / a small row in a database.

As the official DOI FAQ mentions, you need to go through a recognized registration agency to get a DOI:

How do I get a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for my material?

You must use a service offered by a DOI Registration Agency (RA). RAs
  collect metadata, assign DOI names, and offer other services such as
  reference linking or metadata lookup. See the list of RAs, and contact
  the ones whose services best meet your needs. If you do not see an
  appropriate application listed, consider approaching an existing RA or
  developing a community to build the service you require (see the DOI
  Handbook, 8 Registration Agencies, for more information). You do not
  need to be a member of the International DOI Foundation in order to
  work with an RA.

Now, you don't necessarily need to go directly through one of the listed  Registration Agencies (of which Crossref is one). Often the Registration Agencies have arrangements with other agencies to assign DOIs. (e.g. arrangements Crossref makes with publishers) If you go through those sub-agencies you can also get DOIs, though they may come with limitations.
Depending on your affiliations, there may already be a sub-agency arrangement in place. For example, the Harvard, CERN, and the British Library have arrangements in place with DataCite for providing DOIs to their materials, and there appear to be facilities in place by their national research councils for allowing DOI assigments to datasets from a number of countries.
There are a couple of places which have an "open" policy on submitting and assigning DOIs to material, regardless of affiliation. The ones I know of are Zenodo, Figshare and Dataverse. -- These are mostly based around datasets and Supporting-Material-type information (though not necessarily attached to any publication), so if you attempt to use them for other purposes you may fall afoul of their Terms of Service. They're also limited to assigning DOIs for material that is uploaded to their servers (so no DOIs for third-party websites).
If you're looking to attach a DOI to a biology-related publication, bioArXiv assigns DOIs to submitted pre-prints (though the math/physics arXiv does not, and there are some reasons for that. - Though keep in mind that pre-publication release of articles (at least in the Biology field) may limit where you can publish.
If those options don't work for you (say you're starting a new journal and wish to assign DOIs to publications hosted on your own website), then you probably don't have much choice other than to go through one of the DOI Registration Agencies. Note that there's several of them, not just CrossRef, so it may pay to talk to others to see if you can come to an arrangement that's more suitable.

Zenodo is not just for datasets; preprints are explicitly welcomed.

Yes, you can use Reseachgate to order free DOIs for non-published data.
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Generate_DOI
https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_to_get_DOI_for_papers
https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_to_get_DOI_for_papers
I always use this service.

Yes — IF:

you are interested in a DOI for a document (e.g. scholarly article, course syllabus), and
you have the rights/permissions to upload a file of that document (pdf, whatever) to a 3rd party website, and
the academic area of this document falls within the Humanities,

THEN, you could consider using the CORE Repository facility of HCommons. Among the benefits described for using this service, they include:

Citation and attribution: All items uploaded to CORE get a DOI, or digital object identifier, that serves as a permalink, citation source, and assertion of authorship all in one.

There is no cost to the end-user associated with participating in HCommons in this way.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

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


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Do publishers care if a book manuscript was freely posted online before submission to the publisher?
Do publishers care if a book manuscript was freely posted online (e.g., made open-access with a CC license) before submission to the publisher?

Closely related to one of the site's very first questions: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7/does-publishing-a-paper-on-arxiv-prevent-me-from-submitting-it-to-a-non-open-acc .  The answer seems to be usually not, but with some notable exceptions.

@zibadawatimmy I'm asking about book manuscripts, not journal articles.

Indeed, my mistake. In which case, there's this one: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1628/how-to-publish-an-academic-book-but-make-the-pdf-freely-available-online

Data point: within the last two years, Cambridge University Press made a deal with me, without fuss, that will allow me to put a PDF of a forthcoming monograph on-line without any waiting period ("embargo"?). The deal was that I forego "e-book" sales. The general philosophy was explained to me by the acquisitions editor as "we're not for profit, but we try to not lose money".
Another enterprise whose implications I've not thought about too much, is the Amer. Math. Soc.'s relatively recent program to have lightly-vetted PDF "books" on their site, to invite comments and so on... most likely toward eventual publication... but without any apparent obligation from authors. I was solicited to put some of my notes into that machine, and, even when I commented that many of these would never become any sort of physical book (mostly because of all that entails, but also because of the paywall/editorial-corruption, ...) the acquisitions editor said it didn't matter. Yes, that is what I would have said, too, if I were an acquisitions editor trying to engage established writers-of-notes, but, still, ...
As usual, these situations can be evaluated by the "value added" criterion, where "value" of course includes, status, money, etc, and the relative value of those things to the parties involved. The value added of a physical book is ever harder to understand, but to many it is still considerable. Indeed, having committed to CUP to make a physical book (beyond on-line PDFs), I did feel compelled to put a great deal extra effort into minimizing flaws... which are essentially uncorrectible in a physical object, but are endlessly correctible in an on-line document.
I think that, unsurprisingly, we're still in a crazy transition period while publishers figure out how to cope with the internet, and academics figure out that literal "publication" is no longer bottle-necked through "publishers". That is, acquisition of "status" points enough to get tenure or get grants once was only possible through conventional publishers (and whatever procedures they hit upon), but now there are choices. In many peoples' minds, "publication" has inherited the archaic sense of "published through conventional publisher, with whatever vetting (in some peer-review sense) procedure they declare, as opposed literal publication. Perhaps unimaginably, once-upon-a-time, there was really no such thing as publication other than that now-archaic one. The habits and conventions of it permeate academe, along with self-perpetuating mythologies and traditions.
Happily, some publishers (maybe not the ones panicking at loss of traditional high profit margins) have caught on to the fact that the internet "is a thing", and that many modestly technically savvy people can create PDFs that are as good as anything their own "typesetters" can create. Rather than pretending otherwise, they're adapting.

The question is probably too broad as every publisher may act differently, and also differently in different cases, but I have one point to add: I've been contacted by one publisher and asked if I'd like to submit one of my lecture notes that has been freely available on my homepage for publication as a book. I did just for fun, got some reviews back, reviews were positive in general, but asked for more material and I did not continue to work on it up to now.
So the answer is: Ask the publisher.

Yes, they care because it reduces the market for your book and thus their potential profits from sales. But some publishers care more than others. There are four classes of publishers: vanity presses, print on demand, trade presses, and academic presses.
Vanity Presses earn profits by charging you up front for the publishing costs. So they don't care if the book has been published before, as long as you're willing to pay upfront. They may hide these costs by calling them production costs, editorial costs, or by requiring you to purchase a certain number of books ahead of time at 'discount.'
Print on demand essentially have no overhead as they only print a copy of your book if someone buys it. They usually don't provide any advertising or production support. Since their overhead is zilch and they profit whenever a copy is sold, they would be willing to take your book. Amazon's CreateSpace is an example of a print on demand publisher.
Trade Presses earn their profits solely off sales of the book. They won't be interested in a volume that is available elsewhere for free. You've effectively undersold your own market.
Academic Presses used to be subsidized heavily by their universities, which allowed them to print low-volume academic treatises, but this is no longer the case. They are increasingly being required to show profit and thus they are increasingly less likely to choose books that carry neither prestige or sales volume. They would shy away from a book that has already been released CC unless you were a Very Famous Person®. There are some presses such as UCal Press which are experimenting with Creative Commons books that are also available through print-on-demand, but they are the minority.
tl;dr: Try selling your book to a vanity press or print on demand press as they are the most likely to take a book that's already available for free.

Some academic presses do publish successful books that the authors also make freely available; one notable example is Cambridge University Press.

Famous Person exemption.

What you call "trade press" and "academic press" also switch to Print-on-demand when their physical copies are sold out.

True, the industry is rapidly changing.

What does "Famous Person exemption" mean?

It means that a press is willing to sign up a Famous Person even if their publication is available CC, for the prestige value.

Although I don't think the books in question were posted online prior to publication, I know of several books published by CUP which are posted online (by agreement with the press), and whose authors, though well-respected, probably don't qualify as Very Famous Persons®.

From what I have seen, many publishers seem willing to publish texts that have already been posted online as long as the author takes them down upon publication; moreover, at least two (Cambridge University Press and the AMS) sometimes allow the texts to stay up afterwards. (That said, I am not fully sure how often the publishers aware of the books being posted online versus the authors playing hide-and-seek better. Also, I am not saying that CUP and AMS allow the books to stay up always; there seems to be no pattern to when they do and when they don't.)

On the other hand, there are academic publishers that are no vanity presses and yet function on an open-content basis. The ones I know of are the Spartacus project and White Rose University Press. I hope there are more I'm missing :)


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What are the most frequently cited textbooks in the physics literature?
What are the most frequently cited textbooks in the physics literature?
Note: I am not looking for guesses, but answers supported by citations data. What are some good physics citations databases?

You actually ask two questions, one is textbooks and the other is data base. Which one do you want to ask? There are many physics subfields. Do you want absolutely the most frequently cited or relatively most frequently cited?

If we can go for indirect citations the Principia will probably be in the top of the list.

@BenCrowell: Citing century-old papers isn't a sign it's "a kook paper", is it? I've seen that before.

@EnergyNumbers What is?

The answer you might be looking for lies in this recent Nature News article on the most cited scholarly works of all time.
Specifically, for evidence supported by real data I'd look at the Google Scholar top 100 spreadsheet file
In this, you'll find Google Scholar citation data for physics-related books like:

Principles of optics: electromagnetic theory of propagation, interference and diffraction of light (1959) with 49132 citations
Classical electrodynamics (1962) with 36945 citations
Physics of semiconductor devices (1981) with 33789 citations

It depends what you define as a 'textbook' though, I suppose...

Since OP asked "frequency" rather than the raw number of total citations, it might make sense to divide the number of citations to a book by its age. In this case, only a few, if at all, would beat Quantum computation and quantum information by M. A. Nielsen and I. L. Chuang: http://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=ZP0eZ94AAAAJ&citation_for_view=ZP0eZ94AAAAJ:u5HHmVD_uO8C

Are those all the physics-related ones?

I'd pick through the list yourself to determine that; I'm a biologist, not a physicist so I only picked the ones I thought were definitely physics-y.


text:
Worldwide Dissertation Database? or French, German, Italian ones?
Is there a global/worldwide database of dissertations? If not, how can I access French, German, Italian, etc. dissertations online?

For French ones, a good starting point is http://theses.fr run by ABES. Many universities also keep online repositories of submitted theses. You can find more information on http://en.abes.fr/Theses/Applications-dedicated-to-theses

Possible duplicate of Some collection of students' theses or dissertations

I am not aware of an international database, but basically all german dissertations have to be submitted to the German National Library (Deutsche Nationalbibliothek), so if they exist in physical form they can be accessed at the libraries in Frankfurt and/or Leipzig. If they only exist in electronical form, they are still registered at the library. The following link is going to give you a list of all german dissertations that are freely available online:
DNB search
The DNB also has a manual about searching for dissertations, however I could only find a german version that is available here

According to DNB, only dissertations since 1998 are available. I find difficulty to find any clues to get access to one dissertation before that time.

For French PhD thesis, the most important repository is TeL. Many university now make it mandatory to deposit one's thesis there, so it has a very good coverage for recent years.

Also link.

Italy
In the past, all PhD dissertations in Italy were to be sent in printed form to the Biblioteca nazionale centrale di Roma. It appears, however, that those dissertations can only be read there. The library has an online catalog which, however, doesn't seem to index the dissertations (from the library's website it appears that the PhD dissertations catalog is only in paper form).
For further information about dissertations deposited there, I suggest you to contact the library directly. There is also an international interlibrary loan service (Prestito Interbibliotecario Internazionale).
Nowadays, instead, all universities in Italy have online repositories, and many recent dissertations should be available from these repositories.

Dutch doctoral theses can be found at:
http://www.narcis.nl/search/genre/doctoralthesis/coll/publication/Language/en

For German dissertations it is often a requirement that the dissertation is "published", which used to mean published by a publisher, though many universities have made this requirement less strict to allow for the new possibilities of the internet. However, publishing with a publisher is still common practice in many disciplines. This means that many German dissertions are not downloadable from the internet. If you have a concrete dissertation you want to read it can help to contact the author directly, they may be willing to sent you a copy.

I think at least in natural sciences, these days they are usually "published" as a PDF on the university library's website, so most university libraries will have a database with PhD theses.

There is also DART-Europe https://www.dart-europe.org/basic-search.php which aggregates info about openly available  European PhDs.

In Spain the dissertations are listed on the website of the Ministry of Education, and the Network of Spanish University Libraries.
Most theses of Catalan universities can be found in digital form on tdx.cat.

You can find both master and phd thesis in Turkey from the following website:
https://tez.yok.gov.tr/UlusalTezMerkezi/giris.jsp

Some university thesis databases are registered and indexed by the international Open Archives Initiative organization. So you can find links to many theses via their search engine OAIster.

authors: 一路向西粤语原版_一路向西粤语原版无跳转入口


text:
Guides for being an independent/freelance researcher?
Are there any books on how to be an independent/freelance researcher?

Independent? Independent from what?

Maybe it refers to being a researcher not affiliated to an academic institution.

What field are you considering? E.g. social sciences, sciences, arts and humanities?

@Phil physics & math, specifically

And what kind of research resources would you need? Just pen and paper, and access to journals, or also computing clusters?

By being an independent/freelance researcher I will assume you mean being a researcher not affilated to academia or working at a research center.
First thing you shall consider is access to research sources. For example in academia you have acess to the university library, journal subscriptions paid by the university, laboratory facilities etc. Same goes for working as a full-time researcher for a national research center or a large corporation.
Additionaly, getting funding for your research(by the government) is harder if you are an independent researcher and easier if you are at university or a corporation.
In my opinion the best case would be to fund a company which offers products/services related to your type of research (e.g if your research interests are in statistics you would consider consulting, software, visualization tools etc.) and invest a percent of your income to your research.
Of course in that case you would not be an "independent" researcher. You would still be affilated to your company, which is acceptable. Every corporation, multi-national or relatively small invests time and money in research.
You may also consider checking the following questions of SE:
Applying for research funding as an independent researcher
Can I work as a freelance researcher?


text:
Is there such a thing as "open" double-blind peer review?
Is there such a thing as "open" double-blind reviewing, where the author's comments, the reviews, and any interchange between author and reviewer are viewable, not just by the editor but also by the other reviewers, but completely anonymous?
If so, what are some journals that have this practice?

I wouldn't call it "open" to say that reviews and communication from author are visible to other reviewers. To me, "open" peer review is when those things are visible to readers of the paper, not just the reviewers. (Like this conference, for example.)

It's common (with many journas) for all the referees to see the authors' comments and the other referee reports, when a paper is resubmitted for a second round of reviewing, although this is done at the discretion of the editor.

Yes, there is such a thing as "open double-blind" reviewing: the "Frontiers in" journal series uses exactly this model.
During the review process, "control" is handed back and forth between editors, reviewers, and authors in an incremental "conversation" model, in which the paper might go through many incremental revisions.  If the editor determines the paper cannot proceed or an author is unable to reply to reviewer comments, then it is rejected.  Otherwise, reviewers, once satisfied with the paper, sign off with an endorsement.  When all reviewers have endorsed, the paper proceeds to publication and the identity of the reviewers is revealed on the final published version.

So does the whole file get handed back and forth with each transfer?

The reviewing interface has a link to the current manuscript copy, which can be updated or not as the conversation progresses.

I am extremely frustrated that Frontiers in Public Health is burning away any reputation it has - I rather liked the idea behind their review process.


text:
Upload monograph to preprint repository before acceptance for publication?
Can one upload a book-length monograph to a preprint repository (e.g., ResearchGate) while awaiting for its acceptance for publication?
(Book preprints do exist on arXiv.org, e.g.: Bacciagaluppi & Valentini's Quantum Theory at the Crossroads: 0609184v2.)

You have to check with the publisher, or read their posted terms and conditions.  For some publishers it might be fine.  For others, they might insist on having the exclusive rights to distribute the work, and if you've already uploaded it to a preprint repository, that would make it impossible for the publisher to be the exclusive distributor.  In that case they might refuse to publish your manuscript.

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


text:
As an instructor, how to show my appreciation for my TAs' hard work?
As an instructor, I have been fortunate to have had some great TAs, who went above and beyond what was expected of them, and put in a lot of effort to ensure students' learning.
I would really like to do more than just say "Thank you." How can I show my appreciation to them after the class ends?
(The situation may also be slightly complicated by the fact that some of the TAs I'm thinking of aren't physically located near me. I'm in the US, but I also teach as a "remote" instructor for a university in Europe, and I get TAs there. So I would like answers addressing both local and non-local TAs, if it matters.)

Write a great reference letter for them. You will likely need to talk to them about their research a little.

@StrongBad I'm a PhD student, everything I've read on this website says I'm not credible in writing reference letters for a position at or above my own.

If you have time and money, pay a visit to their location. Or invite them to visit your place. Imitation needs some physical contact though.

To comment on recommendation letters: I think it is the way to go but ask someone else to support you writing them so that they have a foundation in the staff. I am sure someone close to your research or teaching could add their name to the letter to validate your writing. I have not seen this done but would not hesitate if I was asked to support someone this way.

Amazon gift card?

Pizza state-side, Amazon gift cards outside.

I know some professors who make it a custom to treat their TAs to a lunch or dinner as a "job well done" celebration. If you have contacts at your remote location, you can have them take the TAs out.

@ff524: While perhaps unconventional, it's not wholly unheard of. For example, I know first-hand of instances where recently graduated undergraduate advisees have written letters of support for tenure at world-class institutions for their advisors. Granted, they were exceptional (and often nontraditional) ones that published with their advisors.

For TAs located physically close, the well-established way of showing appreciation around here is by inviting them to a joint informal dinner with good food and plenty of (alcoholic and non-alcoholic) beverages, usually with a joint pub crawl afterwards. This would typically happen at the end of the semester, optimally directly after finals, and provide a nice finishing mark on a semester of hard work and (maybe) some fun and camaraderie. These events would typically last to the early morning, leading to extremely empty offices the day after.
I am lucky to work in an university which happily picks up the bill for such events, but in previous places we have had all instructors throw money into a hat to finance this. It is not a celebration if the TAs have to pay for themselves.
Note that the celebrations are: (1) entirely voluntary (nobody needs to come, nobody needs to stay), and (2) as informal as possible.
Edit: that being said, I think the more interesting part about your question is how to show appreciation to remote TAs, and I have no good answer for this.

@ChrisWhite It naturally tends to happen more with younger instructors / professors, but it certainly is not uncommon around here. I think generally TAs and instructors are largely on a pretty jovial basis around here.

This is not a complete answer, but just sharing my experience as TA.
I worked as a TA in Computer Graphics where 120 students were enrolled and each of them had to deliver 2 reports (20 pages) with their respective code. Me and the other TA helped marking the assignments, and it would have taken around a full week of work for our Professor to do it by himself.
In the end, we meet and went to have dinner at a nice restaurant that he paid, in order to thank us for our effort. It was not about the money paid in the restaurant, but more about the gesture of going together somewhere to have dinner felt as a big "Thank you".
Anyway, just leaving this here.

I have far more industry than academic experience, but I think this is one case where an idea from industry may be useful. It is quite common, in my experience, for e.g. a sales manager to write a letter of appreciation to an engineer who has helped with a sale, with a copy to the engineer's manager. I've had such things mentioned during performance appraisals, and they seemed to help with getting pay raises.
The key currency in academic life is letters of recommendation rather than performance appraisals, but the same idea might work out. How about writing a letter or e-mail to each TA expressing your appreciation, with a copy to that TA's advisor? If you can say something specific about what that TA did, all the better. That is material the advisor can choose to use when it is time to write letters of recommendation, and they are searching for the right things to say about the former TA.

This is a great workaround for being too low on the totem pole to directly write a recommendation letter that is valued.  The instructor can write (part of) the text but have it blessed by a tenured faculty.

As stated in your comment providing your TAs with recommendation letter is not applicable to your case.
In addition to saying "Thank You", you would have another option to show that you care about them and in case of need for academic consultation (about courses, research topics, papers and etc.) they can count on you (whether now or in the future) and this means that in addition to keeping your academic connections with your TAs alive furthermore they would get a valuable source of information, expertise and support.
In case it is affordable and does not cost you so much money you can by them a number of small and not very expensive gifts; so that they would remember you and that semester as your TA whenever they see your gift!

You can always spend money (either yours or your department's) and buy the TA's something they might like (e.g., dinner or a Starbucks gift card). I would limit the gift to 6 beers on my international beer scale. This, however, is the easy solution. Most TA's, are not doing it solely for the money and while a dinner would be appreciated, it is not nearly as valuable to them as other things you might be able to provide.
A great reference letter than speaks to both the TA's teaching and research abilities can be very valuable if there is enough difference in seniority between the instructor and TA. If there is not a big difference in seniority, you could still recommend the TA to whoever hired you to instruct the class. You could, for example, recommend they be given additional classes to TA or even to be an instructor.
If you are not in a position to write a letter of reference, there are still other things that can be done that are more helpful than dinner. For long-distance TA relationships, inviting the TA to give a research seminar at your university can be a valuable networking tool. Ideally, this would be paid for, at least partially, by your department, but even an unfunded invitation for a PhD student can be useful. You could also arrange to meet at a conference and introduce them to your network. You could also volunteer to read some drafts of their thesis/articles or be a sounding board for proposals.


text:
What is considered a good GPA for studies in Germany
Coming from a different schooling/grading system, I have very little feeling about what actually is considered a good grade for studies in Germany.
Here the passing grades are given in the range of 1.0 to 4.0 and there are non-passing (failing) grades, which basically tell how hard you failed.
Needless to say, 1.0 is the best possible and tells that the student performed perfectly, but what about the other grades. What does 2.0 mean? It is translated as "good" but is that average actually. How does the teacher/professor "see" that grade.
Moreover, what is the typical GPA average which gives a student a chance to be considered for a Phd position? Of course, the higher the better, but what gpa (in the german grading system) would be considered OK-ish for a phd application?

Just a note here that this scale is inverted from the typical US 4-point scale where 4 is high and 1 is low.

Given that "grade inflation" is often much less rampant in Germany than in other nations (it is not unusual, for instance, for the majority of students to fail an exam in a core subject), the standards inside of Germany tend not to be as stringent as in other places I've seen. For instance, anything better than 2.0 (on a 5.0 scale, not a 4.0 scale!) would generally be considered "competitive."
Obviously, there are limitations—if you get a 2.0 because you've gotten 1.0's in the general courses and 3.0 in the courses in your subdiscipline, you're not likely going to be an attractive candidate to an outside group.
However, I think much more important than the exact GPA is the quality of the master's thesis. If you have a very strong master's thesis, you will likely get some interest from the group in which you did the thesis work to continue on for a PhD, if there is an open position available. A weak grade on the thesis (anything below a 1.3) usually is a sign of substandard performance, which is likely to result in not being considered for a position, even if your GPA is a 1.1 or 1.2 (it's unlikely to be a 1.0 under such circumstances).

basically the weight of the credit points attached to the Master thesis tells enough how important it is. thanks for pointing that out.... could you elaborate a little bit on "grade inflation" what do you refer to using it?

Grade inflation refers to the tendency of grades to move toward "better" values over time in part to make one's graduates look better on paper. Thus, performance that would have merited a 2.0 over time becomes a 1.7, and then a 1.3, and so on.

I am doing a PhD in a graduate school funded by the German Research Foundation and I was graded 2.0 in my master's thesis (mainly because it was written in English and my grammer was not 100% perfect). What I am trying to say, is, that beyond just the grade of your master's, it can be important to have some kind of experience in the respetive field of your desired PhD. In my case, I was holding several positions as a student assistant in my former university. Also first publication experience might come handy (even though I would not like to support this ongoing trend). It would likely not help you, to score very high on your GPA but having no (work/research) experience beyond studying.

thanks for the answer, its nice to hear from fellow peers what they experience through the process


text:
Lodging an objection to a decision to reject my Master application
I'm currently writing an objection to a decision to reject my Master application.
The decision is made by Admission office, not by Admission Board or Committee. All members of the Admission office are not members of the academic staff, so there is no at least one professor from the programme who participated in making this decision to reject my application. I checked this because in the email I received, there are the names of the members.
As they use the word "reject" it might lead someone to think that my application was not complete, but this was not true. According to this decision, my application was carefully examined and, in addition,  I was not informed that there is some document missing as it is stated in the FAQ on there website, i.e. they will inform me in the case of missing document or delay caused by more time they need to check my educational background.
In the email that I received there is no a reason why my application is rejected. Now I have to state clearly the grounds on which I object there decision.
I applied with not only BSc that meets the requirements but also with two year Master degree in the same field, successfully finished without redoubling the year, high marks. Before applying I informed the admission office for this and I did not have any remarks for my previous educational beckground as I saw that all requirements are referring to previous Bsc. I was even waved out from GRE/GMAT requirements.
I need the help especially from those who have expericence in the European (EU) Education Law or Dutch Higer Education and Research Act (WHW) to clearly state the Articles that are violated concerning:

The composition of the Admission office (I know that it is a practice everywhere in the world to have at least one professor, but I need an official document, I cannot only refer to the ethics)
The right of a student to have at least some information to know why the application was rejected as it has to state clearly the grounds of his objection
Is there any convention or document that clearly defines what is non-selected and rejected document (this document must be official)
Regarding the level of my previous education which fully satisfies the requirement, is there any ground for discrimination based on the fact that maybe I'm overqualified or overeducated, taking into considereation also the fact they told me previously that I can apply?

Thank you for your understanding

Firstly, I think interpreting "Reject" as "Incomplete" is incorrect. "Reject" is "Not accepted". Secondly, have you emailed them to ask for a reason?

is europe that different than america?  in the states, even if you pass the online minimum, you can still be rejected if there are better candidates

yes, they refuse, and even in the email with the decision it is written that it will be the only notification. For "reject" I agree, but when I don't have the reason, I must think about everything that will be possible for leading them to take such a decision.

I think this is an interesting and really on topic question and I am interested in the answer. I wouldn't get your hopes up, In my Department we send all admission complaints essentially to the university legal team. To my knowledge we have only ever had a single case that required anymore input from us about an internal candidate with a disability. In all cases the rejections were up held.

Forgive my ignorance, but do you have reason to think that the laws you mention (imposing requirements on how the university considers applications) actually exist? In the US I'm quite certain there are no such laws, and frankly I'd be a bit surprised if the Netherlands has them.

Yes, Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education in the European Region, signed by each country, with basic principles related to the assessment of qualifications, then there is Code of Conduct etc. In my case it is the Admission office that examined my application and took decision, although in the TEACHING AND EXAMINATION REGULATIONS of the University it is stated that the Graduate School Directors are responsible for admitting students. So there are many violations of international conventions as well as national regulations.

@mak the Convention you cite basically says "qualifications from one EU country should be admissible for admissions decisions in another EU country." It doesn't seem that the admissions committee ignored your previous degree, so what's the relevance?

I think the core of the misunderstanding here is that most commenters come from an US background, where it is quite usual to reject suitable students if better people apply, while in Europe admission is often unrestricted as long as formal minimal criteria (e.g., a valid bachelor) are fulfilled. It sounds to me like the OP was applying to such an institution, was under the impression that he fulfills all necessary criteria, and was still rejected. OP, can you please confirm this? The most important info is whether there is a numeric cap on the student number for the master you applied for.

@ ff524 Convention,there is Article III.1
" 1. Holders of qualifications issued in one of the Parties shall have adequate access, upon request to the appropriate body, to an assessment of these qualifications.
2. ... In order to assure this right, each Party undertakes to make appropriate arrangements for the assessment of an application for recognition of qualifications solely on the basis of the knowledge and skills achieved."                                                                                Admission office without a member from the academic staff is not appropriate body.

@mak does the school you applied to have unrestricted admission, as xLeitix suggests? How do you know you were rejected based on their assessment of your previous degree?

For the international applicants, in addition to GMAT/GRE and English test, it is required that they hold a Bachelor‘s or Master‘s degree in this programme, or to have taken as a major subject. I suppose that the number of students is limited as elsewhere. it's very difficult to guess without knowing the reason for rejection.

@mak Schools that practice selective admission (i.e. there are a limited number of spots and not all qualified students are admitted) don't usually tell you the reason for rejection. Under selective admission policies, the reason can be assumed to be "all the spots were filled by better students." So it's very relevant to know whether this school offers unrestricted admission or selective admission.

@mak in any case, the crux of your appeal seems to be "An administrative (non-academic) admissions committee is not qualified to make admissions decisions," which strikes me as unlikely to be a successful case. You might have better luck focusing on the merits of your individual application in your appeal.

In Spain there is the legal principle that public administrations cannot be arbitrary; thus, each of their actions must be justified (applicable if the University is public). This said, the rejection may be that they run out of slots and there were better candidates, but you would have the right to be notified.

Is it possible to find some legal ground  for this whithin the EU convention (Article) that is ratified by each member of EU, We all feel that there is something, but I need to find the legal ground for it. Thanks

In my (central European) university, candidates for admission to a master's program who are coming from an outside university go through either an "admissions committee" (Zulassungsausschuss) or an "examination committee" (Prüfungsausschuss). Although the decisions are in fact made by those committees, the decisions are usually reported through assistants to those committees, who would constitute the "admissions office." It would represent a huge time commitment for the chair of the committee to individually respond to the different applications, and therefore that work is passed on to the intermediaries.
Thus, I wouldn't read too much into the fact the letter came from the "admissions office" instead of the "admissions committee."
However, if you were in fact rejected on the basis of having an "incomplete" application, even though you were explicitly told that you would be notified of missing documents, that would give you the right to request a review, since they didn't follow their explicit policies.

It is clearly stated in the email (decision) that "the Admission office carefully examined the application", "We decided to rejecte your application", and at the end there are the five memebers of the Admission office. No examination or admission board, no graduate school director as it should be according to the univeristy regulations. I have always had in my previous educational experience an answers with the reason as well as signature of the programme director. This is first time I encounter such thing. To apply cost 130$.

Making a big deal over who read your application isn't going to get you very far. You're much better off focusing on verifiable facts.

i fully agree, and beleive me I have a lot to write as I have already Master degree in the same field. Even on their website they address applicants with BSc or Master degree in the same field. But, if I don't have a reason, even if it is the number cap, It's hard to state clearly the grounds of objection as they ask.

I have already Master degree in the same field — That fact alone would lead to an immediate administrative rejection at my university.  Does your target university award duplicate degrees?

I don't understand what you mean under duplicate degrees.

You already have a master's degree in field X from university A. If you get the master's degree in X from university B, that's just a duplicate degree to the one you already have. Many schools won't allow this.

It is clear from their website, they invite international applicants with BSc or MSc in the same field. Thus I applied. The question is how they will evaluate those with MSc.

@mak_ec  "They invite international applicants with Bsc or Msc..." could this statement be for the next degree? That is, BSc for applicants applying for a MSc and MSc for a PhD?

@mkennedy No, it is only for MSc, either BSc or MSc degree. I admit that it sounds strange because you need to continue with Phd after your MSc, but there are many students who whant to finish two MSc degree before applying for Phd. I know many of them and universities don't make problem about it.

@mak_ec, are you sure they invite applicants with MSc in the same field? It could be something like an MSc in Math is accepted to do another MSc but in computer science. But another MSc in computer science would not be.

As the bachelor-master subdivision in the Netherlands is fairly recent, most master's programs are so-called "Connecting Master's". These are designed for students graduating from one specific bachelor's program at that same university. All students who graduated from that bachelor's program (and sometimes hand-picked similar programs at other Dutch universities) are accepted into the Masters automatically. If by a "BSc that meets the requirements", you mean that you completed one of these bachelor's program that should qualify you for automatic admission, you should be able to build a much stronger case than worrying about who was on the committe.
On the other hand, students who did not graduate from one of these selected bachelor's programs have to apply to the university for a certificate of admission (bewijs van toelating). The application procedure is left up to the individual universities to define and implement. The conditions for acceptance will depend on the specific program you applied for. This means that (assuming you fall into this category) you should base your appeal on the university policies for the application procedure, and the program's requirements.
The admission requirements should be detailed in the "onderwijs- en examenregeling" of the program you're applying for, and should match the education goals of the preceding bachelor's program.
Source: Wet op het hoger onderwijs en wetenschappelijk onderzoek, Artikel 7.30a.

Thanks, I have MSc in the field, but not Dutch. I analysed the WHW (the Dutch law on higher education and research), nothing about those who apply with a Master degree, only for applicants for Msc with Bsc. However, on the website of Uv, for the Inter.applicants, the student with Master degree are also mentioned as potential applicant. In the programme requirements, for every subject that is considered as key for the programme (statistics, probability or mathematics), I can provide with my previous education background at least 4 subjects that I followed with high marks of course.

The problem is that I can not find the WHW (the Dutch law on higher education and research) in the english version, so that I can clearly state the Articles.

There is no official English translation of Dutch law, but my answer is essentially a summary of the relevant articles of the WHW. Of course, IANAL, so take all this with a grain of salt. That said, I don't think national law will help you here. You clearly fall into the category where the university gets to decide whether you meet the criteria or not, and apparently they think you don't. Dutch law doesn't dictate anything about the application or appeals processes.


text:
Research on career path after tenure denial?
I am looking for a study on the career path of professors after they are denied tenure.
Specifically, what percentage of these

get a tenured or tenure-track position at another institution?
get a non-tenure-track position in academia?
get a job related to their field of study outside of academia?
leave the field altogether?
other?

I am asking out of curiosity, so I'd be happy with answers that refer to a study in any context (country, field, etc.).

This is a reference-request question:  I am looking for answers that briefly summarize the results of a study on this subject, with a reference to said study.
I am not looking for answers from anecdotal evidence not supported by a study or citation (we already have some of those here).
I am also not looking for answers explaining why such a study is unlikely to exist, or why it should not be trusted if it did.

I would split up (2) into "Get a tenured position somewhere else" and "Get a non-tenured, non-tenure-track position somewhere else"

In the US being "denied tenure" is complicated and only a fraction of the people who would be denied tenure actually as many of them are aware they will be denied and either leave or do not go up for review.

In Italy tenure-track positions are a recent introduction so there are probably not yet enough data to have a study. However, from the way this tenure-track has been implemented, if one doesn't get the abilitazione there's almost no other choice than that of finding a job outside academia.

In the German academic system, assistant professor positions were introduced only in 2002. Recently, there have been studies evaluating how well these positions have been established, and how it affects the career paths of junior researchers. One example is a project by the Center for Higher Education (CHE), which is described here (in German unfortunately): http://www.che.de/cms/?getObject=260&PK_Projekt=1292&strAction=show. Scrolling down to publications shows references to articles where data from this study have been published (again only in German).
One difficulty in interpreting this data with respect to your question is that tenure track positions are rare in Germany (an estimate I remember, but don't have a reference for now, is that 10 % of assistant professor positions are tenure track). On the one hand, that means that "being denied tenure" is almost the norm for these positions. On the other hand, it's also possible that professors become tenured even though they haven't been on a formally tenure track position.
Also, the statistical population for this study are persons who have been assistant professors in the past, not only those who have been denied tenure. Thus, the study does not give directly the percentages for all the positions in your question, and some data (e.g. field of study) was not collected or published, but still, the results can be used to estimate some of these percentages. So let's get to the key conclusions that can be drawn:

For 1., 85 % of former assistant professors have a tenured professor position now (either through tenure track or at another institution)
For 2., 6 % of all former assistant professors have a non-tenured academic position
Summarizing 3. - 5., 9 % have a position outside academia.


text:
Degree programs or careers with a focus on plagiarism detection?
Are there any formal degrees that offer training in tools for detecting plagiarism? Or on understanding fair-use, proper attribution of sources, and avoiding plagiarism?
Are there career options which focus on exposing plagiarism?

The practical aspects of detecting plagiarism in text probably fall under the purview of Computer Science as @Davidmh discussed in this answer, but developing these kinds of tools and actually applying them to detect malfeasance are very different things.
Investigative Journalism is the professional career path that pertains most directly to the issue of detecting and exposing plagiarism. Many universities offer degrees and fellowships in journalism with exactly this focus:

University of Vienna
Carnegie Mellon University
City University of London
University of Strathclyde
Boston University
Harvard University
Northeastern University

Dr. Stefan Weber (PhD in Communication Sciences from University of Vienna) has essentially made a career out of detecting plagiarism, mainly in doctoral and habilitation theses from important public persons in the german-speaking area. You can find some information about him online. He has written multiple well-selling books on the topic, sells plagiarism checks, and regularly appears in public discussions.
However, note that the life of somebody who frequently and very publicly raises strong allegations against professors, politicians, and other degree-holders with substantial influence is not necessarily a fun one. As you can imagine, a lot of dirt gets unearthed and thrown in his face routinely (sometimes justified, sometimes more as part of counter-campaigning by the persons he attacked).
In summary, I think he fills an important societal niche in our area, but I really wouldn't want his career.

The information in the second paragraph may be useful but I rather consider it as a personal opinion. It may feel discouraging for someone who want to adopt it as a career.

@ThejusMahajan It is not exactly meant as an encouragement to pursuit it as a career.

@ThejusMahajan: It's also not clear how many careers like this the academic community could support at once (since there's only limited demand for court consultants, books, etc. on plagiarism).  I'd guess that another person could probably make a career of it, but probably not very many.  I would consider it a risky career choice.

Computer Science has the tools for it. It is finding local correspondences in a large database, allowing for some differences, and rejecting random hits and well indicated quotes. As an example of a more classical problem in Computer Science, the first part reminds me of Multiple Sequence Alignment.
Turnitin uses some Machine Learning under the hood to refine the scores; and the people working there certainly have a career in plagiarism detection.

I think it depends on what you mean, want to do and why you'd be interested.
Different software offer training on how to use their plagiarism detecting software. Fair use issues are tackled in library training and in education programs. The Illinois online network/U of Illinois Springfield offer a course on copyright issues for online educators- http://www.ion.uillinois.edu/courses/catalog/ . If you are interested in just understanding those issues, then look for courses like that and consider education or library science depending on what you'd want to do. If there is a specific sphere like online ed, you could look into those types of programs.
If you'd want to teach others about those things, then look at courses like this, library workshops and staff positions in your spheres of interest and check the backgrounds and education of those currently employed in those positions.You could also look at academic support centers & centers for teaching and see who is giving workshops or services related to your area or interest. We often talk about plagiarism and fair use in the sphere of education, which is why looking into a degree in one of many education specializations might give you some of this training. However, it will depend on what you really want to do.
For instance, you could also look into copyright law and fair use policies and then go into the policy side with a law or ed policy or higher ed degree. You could also look into a rhetoric, English or professional comm program.
Though the OP doesn't seem to mention it, if you'd be interested in researching detection software and possible developing, or testing it, then you could look at a different set of degree programs. For testing such software and looking at how users interact with it you could look at human computer interaction programs. Such programs may allow a degree of development and design as well.
Or to develop programs you could go in a number of directions. If you are interested from a purely tech side, you could try computer science and related disciplines. However, something like computational linguistics with a focus on natural language processing or some other tech/linguistics combination would give you the theory, application and tech components to create, test, evaluate or implement a plagiarism software from a variety of angles. If that is something you'd be interested in then perhaps try something like applied linguistics and technology at Iowa State - http://www.engl.iastate.edu/teslapplied-linguistics/ or similar programs. You could also broaden the idea of detecting plagiarism to detecting linguistic fingerprints and look into forensic linguistics.
potential areas: forensic linguistics, applied linguistics, computational linguistics, english, rhetoric, professional communication, computer science, human computer interaction, higher ed, education, educational policy, law....
What you do with the degrees will vary widely depending on the direction you go in. It could be your own company, an admin uni position, teaching, support staff, library,developer, working for a tech company, an ed company,...

Suggestion: If you broaden your focus to include related fields -- recognizing authorship by writing style, natural language processing to recognize similar content, recognizing significant quotes, and other approaches which might be useful for recognizing reused content -- rather than focusing specifically on plagiarism, you're MUCH more likely to find a match than if you insist on pre-selecting this one specific application of those techniques. And you're much more likely to learn about, and be involved in developing, the cutting edge of technology than if you're tightly application-focused.
Think long and hard about exactly what you want to do, exactly what you need to learn in order to do it, and how to go about learning that. If you jump too quickly to trying to implement a solution, you're likely to solve it poorly if at all.
(That's assuming you actually do want to do research in this area. If you just want to write and sell a product, that's a different topic and academia may not be the place to work on it.)


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Scientific output of researchers in industry and academia
How does the scientific output of PhD’s who work in industry compare to that of PhD’s who stayed in academia (professors, mainly). I mean, in terms of number of publications, conferences, etc.

Disclaimer: this answer applies to computer science. I suspect things are dramatically different in the natural sciences.
It's hard to measure these things, and a bit unfair. If you work as a professor, publications are the base unit (along with funding) for measuring your performance as a researcher. You also are encouraged to grow research groups that in turn will produce more and more papers.
If you work in industry (even industrial research labs) (and I've done both), you are evaluated not just in terms of paper output, but in terms of internal metrics relating to how you help the company.
So the incentive structure in industry is different.
Bottom line, since I haven't really answered the question: I expect that the average number of publications/researcher will be slightly less in industry than in academia, but the average will get closer as the lab characteristics become more "university-like": think MSR vs (say) Walmart Labs.

Also, I imagine the kind of publications would differ. Wouldn't industrial research be more applied on average?

It depends on the institution. Sometimes the best formal work comes from an applied venue that has access to the real problems.

Did you have anything in particular in mind with that comment? Just curious.

Well one paper that comes to mind is the Mapreduce work from google

The ability of industry and other non-academic personnel to publish and present papers can often be restricted by intellectual property concerns, security restrictions, and other concerns. Therefore, even though the amount of high-quality scientific research being performed in non-academic settings may be comparable, the "measurable" amount—as seen in conferences, papers, and other "recorded" means—will often be somewhat lower than an academic group of comparable size.

I voted Suresh's answer up because its holistically very good and just wanted to add that in the field of scientometrics (a field I am somewhat familiar with and still getting familiar with), there has been some past work done on this general topic including academia-industry productivity and collaborations.
Reading some of these literature might be useful for you if you are looking at quantitative evaluations of such productivity and impact. Mind you though that quantitative evaluations do not always yield the complete or "true" story behind things. Regardless, this, this, this, this and this might be useful for you.
Note: This is only a small sub sample of such scientometric research and is not meant to be comprehensive or representative.

+1 for quantitative evaluations do not always yield the complete or "true" story behind things


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To what extent does the location of a conference impact the number of submissions?
Some conferences take place in locations that are considered to be more attractive than others to most people (e.g. UIST 2014 @ Hawaii). Some can be more easily accessible than others. Etc.
Is there any research/study/survey that looked at the impact of the location of a conference with regard to the number of paper/poster/etc. submissions?

Are you only interested in submissions or would number of accepted be relevant? What about number of attendees?

@StrongBad That would be interesting too. I did not mention them as I was afraid those two numbers might sometimes be influenced by the size of the venue, but I'm not sure how often a conference sells out (never happened to the ones I went to) and I don't know what are the criteria that determine the number of accepted papers.

Sid Harris did a cartoon on this--of course--a professor is standing in a travel agent's office saying something like "I'm looking for a conference near a beach or mountinain...".

For ARO's February meeting, the Baltimore meeting was better attended than the Denver meeting, and from what I remember Baltimore also beats Daytona, New Orleans, Phoenix, Anaheim, and San Diego.

It is compete coincidence that in my gf's field the big conferences are in New Orleans, San Diego, and Salt Lake City during skiing season.

@StrongBad a factor to your observation is that the East Coast has a higher density of universities than the rest of the country. It is also more practical and cheaper to travel to from Europe.

I don't know of a specific study on this matter, but I can at least offer one piece of data.  There is a conference that I frequently attend which has a community mainly composed of Europeans and Americans.  As such, it switches back and forth between the two continents each years.  The American contingent is smaller than the European, however, and there has been a clear pattern of American years having lower attendance than European years.  This has been attributed, on the basis of a lot of anecdotes, both to the difference in travel expenses and also to restrictions on the use of travel funds by some agencies on each side of the Atlantic.

The question (and more generally, questions tagged [tag:reference-request]) specifically asks for a supporting document or citation (per reference-request tag excerpt)


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Is differentiated instruction permitted by universities?
In primary and secondary school in the US, some teachers will adjust homework so that it is a better match for students. For example, a teacher might give a strong math student more advanced math problems, while a weaker student might be given more remedial work.
I am currently teaching some 100-level undergraduate courses. While my assignments seem appropriate for the majority of students, I discovered a few that are really not ready, as they came from rural high schools that did not offer the necessary background. It is unlikely that these students can develop their skills to the same level expected of other students within the span of one year, unless I make significant adjustments to their work. As my assignments are too difficult for them, they have given up hope.
The students are too few to warrant a recommended creation of more remedial courses. I'd like to apply some of the differentiated instruction methods that are common in primary and secondary education. At the very least, I would like to: (1) offer these students alternative homework better suited to their level and (2) offer them exams more appropriate for the level that they can realistically achieve during the first semester of the two part course.

Do universities permit teachers to differentiate their instruction, or must every student be given exactly the same assignments and assessments?
If this is not permitted, is there some other approach or way of framing the homework and assessments as to make this seem fair for everyone?

It is impossible for these students to develop their skills to the same level expected of other students. — [citation needed]  Impractical, perhaps, but impossible?  Your university could, for example, coordinate with local community colleges to help remediate students with weaker backgrounds.

Yes, impossible, at least in the available time frame. I cannot assign them 20 hours of homework per week.

at least in the available time frame. — What available time frame?  Do these students have only six months to live or something?  (I might agree that it's impossible for you to develop their skills in a single semester, but that's not what you claimed.)

I've edited my question. Hopefully that is more clear.

It would be very unusual, in my experience in the U.S., for one group of students in a class to be given an "easier" exam than other students in the same class.  When the students who took the "harder" exam found out about it, they would have a valid grievance that the faculty member would be unlikely to win.  If a colleague asked me about this, I would strongly discourage giving different exams.
At the same time, it is perfectly reasonable to give individualized instruction before the exam. This is more feasible with small classes than large ones.  At smaller schools, it is common for faculty to meet one-on-one with students, explain background material, and suggest additional problems to help those students self-remediate.
Whether this is possible for you on how much time you have available to do it, and also on whether you can convince the struggling students to put in the extra work that will be necessary for them to succeed. Unfortunately, some students are unable to do that, or choose not to.

I also want to give some more personal remarks, because I empathize with the spirit of the question: not wanting to leave students behind when they arrive underprepared for a class. I also teach at a school where some students have clear potential but were underserved by their high school and don't have the background that is expected when entering college.
The question mentioned being "fair to everyone". This has many meanings. You want to be fair to each student - which means both recognizing where they are currently at, and not sending them forward without the background to succeed in their next class.  You want to be fair to the other students by making the class similar for everyone. And you also want to be fair to future professors, by sending them students who have the appropriate background.
Sometimes, you will be in a position where you can't do all these things. Perhaps a student has real potential but simply can't get to the necessary level by the end of the course. Perhaps the student could get there, but has personal or family obligations that occupy their time. Perhaps a student is just not quite mature enough to put in the work needed.
This can be one of the more difficult situations for a professor. But it is also very common, particularly at institutions that are not extremely selective. If you talk about it with your more experienced colleagues, they will have their own experiences with it, and they will be able to give you advice and support.

Actually, there's a very good example of where differentiated instruction might come into play—in "mezzanine" courses offered to both undergraduate and graduate students. The undergraduate and graduate students may have different assignments, examinations, and even grading standards.

While I am sure different universities will have different policies, the ones I am most familiar with would require that all students end up being taught the subject at the same level and given the same (likely departmental) exam at the end, especially for 100-level undergrad courses. This is mainly due to the fact that the next-level of class would require a certain level of knowledge, and anything less would hinder the students further. Most professors that I know would attempt to solve this by assigning large amounts of reading and allowing students who are already familiar with the materials to simply gloss over it, but being very clear as far as what they will need to know on the test via homework and quizzes, such that they can study according to their needs.
I would be very careful about assigning different work to different students, however suggesting optional reading/assignments for the entire class would be safe, and mentioning that you think they would be a good introduction or something that you can go over more personally via office hours for those who you think are struggling would be a good compromise. If you still want to assign certain individuals extra homework, I would suggest creating a pre-test and assigning it only to those who do poorly (tailor it such that they only need to do work relevant to the parts they did wrong).
Instead of creating a remedial class for the few students, perhaps the university (or department) policy could create a self-paced course for those students, or require those who score less than X on whatever entry exam is used (SAT?) in the subject to take an "entrance test" in order to make sure that they are ready to succeed in the class (and of course provide them the means to study in order to do so).

Differentiated Instruction
Differentiated instruction is based on the premise that students learn better when they are pushed just beyond the point where they can work without assistance. Teaching methods and presentation of material should be calibrated to the student's level of understanding so that learning is optimized for the entire group, regardless of differences in ability.

Is it fair? The best way to "seem fair" in a college-level course is to make every effort to be impartial and objective in evaluating students ... under most circumstances this probably means they should all be subject to the same required work and examinations.
However, it's perfectly natural to offer extra homework, practice exams, and additional instruction to students that need extra help. Often, you can help by encouraging/organizing student study groups -- which can be helpful both for engaging students with the course material and connecting those that need help with a wider network of support.

Is it permitted? Aside from rules set by the legal statutes that govern the region (i.e., city, state, and federal law), what is permitted by a university is entirely up to the policy makers of the institution -- commonly the president, provost, and board of directors for the school (often with advisory from the faculty).
So the short answer is, it varies ... you definitely need to check with your particular institution. In addition, this will depend on the level and aim of the course. For instance, 100-level courses are building the foundation for higher level topics, so there is much less leeway for instructors to change the amount of material to be covered or the course content to accommodate different students.
Differentiated instruction doesn't seem to be widely used in higher education. The issue was discussed in a recent article [College Quarterly, 2013]:

While a few higher education faculty members have embraced the notion
  of differentiated instruction, the assumption is the majority of
  college instructors will focus on the traditional teacher-centered
  strategy of disseminating information in lecture form (Burke & Ray,
  2008; Chamberlin & Powers, 2010; Handy, 2005; Smith, 2006).

As others have already said, alternative exams are fraught with danger for you, and especially for students who go into the next course believing they are prepared for it.
It sounds like you are prepared to do extra work. (Good.)  Reserve a room and announce a study group, open to all students.  For each session, start with easier problems/examples and show how they lead to results at the level expected for the course.  Many, perhaps most of the students who are motivated to succeed will show up for every meeting.  There will be some motivated students who cannot attend due to either class conflicts or job requirements.  The best you can do is pick a time that suits the majority.  The non-motivated will self-select out, and you will have learned something about them.
You've said you cannot get these students up to level.  If you can get them through with enough preparation that they can master succeeding courses with extra effort, you will have done them a great favor.  That is far better than contriving a passing grade that will cause them to fall on their faces later.
Anecdote: One such study group got me through a particularly hideous master's course: Distributed Database Systems.  We met on Sunday mornings, sans professor, and figured out just WTF he had told us in the previous week.

This does not answer the title question which, as others have said, depends on the university, but shows a possible approach to "give them hope".
You can give students the choice between two exam papers, an A-series paper which allows them to get an A grade, and a simpler, B-series paper which allows students to get at most a B or C grade. The choice between the two types should be done by the students before the beginning of the exam without seeing the exam papers.
I applied this approach many years ago in a course where the situation could be considered similar to yours: I can't say it was entirely satisfactory but at least eased the life of those students who, for lack of background (and willingness to catch up), couldn't aspire to get an A.


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How to organize a good "special session" at a conference?
Many organizing committees set aside time and space at the conference for special sessions, which are often planned and organized by select individuals that have been invited to highlight a particular subject or scientific direction.
For example, if you work in computer science and you're specializing in deep learning, you might propose (or be asked) to organize a deep learning special session.
Once your proposal has been accepted, you have to spread the word to interested researchers, issue a call for papers, collect papers, invite an important speaker, and make sure the event runs smoothly.
For those of you that already had this experience, what are your suggestions and advice for organizing a good special session?
For instance, should you get in touch with potential participants before the session is announced?

A useful start is to try to get some well-known researchers to commit to providing talks to a session. It could be one person or maybe a few more depending on the size of the conference and the session. The point of doing this is basically two-fold. First, you gain interest from others when they see names they recognize. Second, by having someone well-established involved, the session gains a certain amount of credibility. People who may be very selective in choosing how they spend their time are likely less inclined to go to a session filled with people they do not know than one where they at least know one or a couple.
Once you have established a core for the session, the rest might solve itself. You do of course have to consider the main direction of the conference so that the session theme does not deviate to the extent that any person interested in the session finds the rest of the conference of marginal interest. So chose the venue with some care.
Getting the ball rolling is the hard bit. An invitation is usually not enough. It may involve pulling strings left and right to entice a core of attendees to show. In one meeting I co-organized, we managed to get an international group to attend that were looking to also run a project meeting at the same time. This meant the meeting gained a wider interest.

I would also add to have a big name be an organizer of the session as well. For the same reasons @Peter Jansson mentioned, and to help pull the strings when things get tough.

@Peter: So, should the session's organizer invite the potential participants that he knows, or he has to review the submitted papers to see who can have a proper contribution?

@Bob, potential key participants that the organizer think could contribute to the session and attract additional participants to make thse session as productive as possible, not just persons the organizer knows. As for your second half of the question, I am not sure how you see it work. Papers come after organizing (announcing) the session in my mind so I have no specific comments to that part o fthe question.

@Peter: Just to make sure i goft it correctly,  by key participants do you mean people who make the plenary/introductory talk or participate as the discussion panel?

@Bob: From my experience, key participants are not limited to plenary/introductory speakers or those participate as the discussion panel. Hopefully it helps.

@Bob: Note that there may be a clash of fields where conferences are publishing venues and those where they aren’t here.