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I want to approach a certain subject for my diploma project, but unofficially I may get a bad grade for doing so. What should I do?
I'll need to explain more just so my question can be properly understood.
I'm a 4th year Biomedical Engineering student from Romania, currently enrolled in the "Biomaterials and Medical Devices" engineering Specialisation. The previously mentioned specialization was indirectly chosen in the course of the 2nd year, when we were told to apply to either Biomaterials and Medical Devices specialization, either to Medical Equipment and Systems - with no additional information regarding the exact difference between the two, even when asked bout it.
Due to the fact that I had several failed exams which did not have the time to retake until the specialization lists were made, I ended up in the BMD spec. even though I chosen the other one.
In the last two years we took part in courses regarding mostly Biomaterials and very to no little courses about medical devices (those being Introduction to Telemedicine, Medical Databases and sort of an Introduction to Medical Imaging) - the problem is the aforementioned medical devices disciplines were common; by that I mean that even though we chosen our specialization, 4 out of 12 discipline in the 3rd year were made by both BDM and ESM students.
Now being in the 4th year, I have to choose my diploma project subject in the way that it will reflect the things I have learned along these 4 years, with a strong focus on the last two, when the BMD specialization was chosen. Almost all my colleagues are approaching subject related to the synthesis, functionalization and characterization of Biomaterials, while I want to approach a subject related to medical devices. Since Romania is part of the European Union, it has somehow standardized its higher education up to a certain point to which students from Romania can apply their knowledge in other EU countries with no problem. With that being said, there is a EU Directive about the meaning of medical devices and all its subcategories, which states the following:

Directive 2007/47/EC defines a medical device as (paraphrasing): Any instrument, apparatus, appliance, software, material or other article, whether used alone or in >combination, together with any accessories, including the software intended by its manufacturer to be used specifically for diagnostic and/or therapeutic purposes and >necessary for its proper application, intended by the manufacturer to be used for human beings for the purpose of:

Diagnosis, prevention, monitoring, treatment, or alleviation of disease
Diagnosis, monitoring, treatment, alleviation of, or compensation for an injury or handicap
Investigation, replacement, or modification of the anatomy or of a physiological process
Control of conception

Source: Wikipedia
But apparently, the faculty has been less than keen to apply these standards to the curriculum. Another problem would be that the evaluating commission would be made out of, let's say, 10 professors with 8 of them specialized on a different branch of biomaterials. Therefore, I have to choose a subject that these 8 professors would understand to, so they can grade me. Henceforward, no software, medical imaging or other subject like these ones. There was one student last year who presented a database of imaging results upon biomaterials which could be sorted using specific filters - and even though the presentation was correct and the database was up and running, he was given a much lower mark due to the fact that these professors did not understand the processes that made the DB work in the first place. After all these, the pro-dean has to approve my diploma project subject, before proceeding to it. The pro-dean is an ESM specialized professor and expects to see something related to biomaterials in it in order to approve it.
Should I go on and approach a non-biomaterial or almost-non-biomaterial subject as the description of my specialization give me the right to do, or just give up and find one related almot or entirely to biomaterials?

I sympathize with your issue, but I think that your question can be really answered only by someone who is familiar with you and your department traditions. Personally, I would chose the topic I like most, regardless of the possible grade outcome, but this is really a personal preference driven by the fact that I never cared about grades and I'd find it difficult to concentrate on project that I consider uninteresting.

Your faculty presumably knows much more about the area, and if they suggest (formally or informally) that some line of inquiry isn't suitable for a thesis, I'd listen carefully. It might be that the task is just far too ambitious to really solve in reasonable time (I see that very often with my own students), or it sounds superficially interesting, but has already been solved or the solution (if found) won't be an advance. Sometimes the thema is worthwile, but the risk of not being able to complete it (or not getting results) is just too high.

One professor accepted to be my coordinator, but only superficial. He was in the right domain, but didn't have enough knowledge. Nor did anyone in the university. It was more out of pity. I spent a couple of months researching everyday and organizing translated DIY projects in other to be sufficiently knowledgeable to begin to understand what I didn't even understand. In the end, the diploma project ended up being received extremely well and it also started a trend of similar projects (dental 3D printing with bio-materials) in future promotions.

@dvsn, congratulations!


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How can I mentally prepare for grad school?
I'm starting grad school in the Fall and what worries me isn't the material. I'm good at my subject, I know I will be fine. What worries me are the stresses. Grad school is stressful. Even the impending stress is stressful.
I am planning on studying more of my subject before entering which is the easy part, the hard part is learning to cope with the stress. Can you recommend a book, meditation practice, etc.?

Obligatory link to our top-voted question: How should I deal with discouragement as a graduate student?

"How to cope with stress" seems terribly broad to me, the kind of thing you could write entire books about (see the [help/dont-ask]). Can you [edit] your question to narrow it to any specific concern you have?

PhD student here. I am especially prone to stress, and my PhD has been very stressful, and while I haven't been completely successful with coping, I know a thing or two about it.
First off, I assume that you have gone through some schooling prior to grad school, which is what got you here (BSc, Masters?). That was stressful too, no? I have heard from SOME PhD students that undergrad was actually worse in the long run, but that depends heavily on the person, the lab, and the supervisor.
What you can do to stave off stress depends on your program and your supervisor. The healthy recommendation is to limit your working time. Some people on this site will tell you that a 'normal' working week is fine. Others will tell you that 60 or 70 hour work weeks are standard. This thread may devolve into a debate between those two camps. Personally, what I do is I set my own hours according to when I work decently. If I don't need to be in the lab for an experimental reason, I'll allow myself to get enough sleep that I'm not falling over myself through the day. If that means I get in a little late, it also means I stay a little late, especially if I get into a groove when working.
Sometimes, if I don't have stuff going on in the lab, I stay at home and I work all day in my pajamas wrapped up in a blanket, analysing data or writing a report of what I've done. This is especially true if my previous week was spent in the lab (I work in cryogenics and when we use liquid helium we have to pack as many experiments into 100l of lelium as possible, which means being at work from 8am to 9pm sometimes). I let my supervisor know about this, and I answer emails, and I do actually work (usually). But that means I can take breaks when I want to, be in my comfort zone, and relax a bit more than usual. I'm an introvert and it helps me recharge. If you're an extrovert, maybe it's not a great idea. Again, you do you. That's the important thing.
I try to keep weekends for myself, but this won't always be possible. The point is to try to give yourself SOME fun time, even if you are bogged down with deadlines. The best way to avoid a stress-related breakdown is to have a life outside of work. That means friends, hobbies, and other things unrelated to what you do. Even if they are other PhD students, it's still better than nothing at all.
Sometimes at night, I have trouble sleeping because the problems of the day keep running through my head, or I'm worried about something going on tomorrow. I installed a program on my computer called f.lux which automatically limits the blue light coming from your screen after sunset. This reportedly stops the limitation of melatonin production if you are working into the night, and can help with sleep if you've been in front of a computer all day. It may actually work, or it may be placebo, but I've been sleeping better. Also, if you switch it off after you've gotten used to it, your screen looks like some kind of crazy holy entity. More generally, practice sleep hygiene. It really does help.
Another thing to watch out for is seasonal affective disorder, if you are anywhere remotely northerly. I live in a not-very-north place (France) and I managed to get a case of it pretty bad this year. Keeping a desk near a window helps, as does walking somewhere in the middle of the day (e.g. to a cafeteria for lunch). Going for a run mid-day (if you can) helps too. Don't be surprised if you get the winter blues, especially if you wake up before sunrise and leave for work during it, and if you go home well after sunset at night. It happens.
I'd recommend living alone so you can rest and recharge at the end of the day, but if you're extroverted, this may actually be worse for you.
Finally, maintain a healthy relationship with your supervisor. If you find yourself worrying about whether you are progressing properly, talk to them about it. Be sure to maintain your independence (that's the point of a PhD) but also go to them for guidance when you need it.
Be sure to keep good records of everything you do (lab book if experimental, and make PDFs of your results written up nicely) to avoid stress later when you have to write a thesis. I experienced it in my masters; not having good records, and forgetting what you did before. Write it all up. Not only is it weirdly relaxing to write up reports, but it will help you later.
If you're in the US, you will probably have courses and qualifying exams. We don't have that here so I can't really comment, but the usual advice applies; start work early, create a decent schedule for yourself, don't leave a deadline until the last minute. Work with your cohort; they are a great source of support as long as they are not overly competitive.
And finally, the first few months of your PhD, I have been told, no one really expects you to actually accomplish much (YMMV with institution, program, country, and so on). Learn your way around, learn how equipment works (make great notes for this part!), deal with administrative stuff. Don't pressure yourself into being a magical science genius who spits out papers like an academic wizard. I spent a week translating an instruction manual for a dilution fridge from French into English. I spent a month filling in forms. Go to meetings, go to journal clubs. Part of the point is networking and expanding the way you 'think', so don't think of journal club or seminars as being a waste of time. It's partially a way to unwind, and partially a way to get you to think like a scientist.
Go to conferences or meetings if you can. Meet people. Meet potential projects you can contribute to, and people you could collaborate with. And finally, talk to your supervisor and get ideas.
At the beginning of each week, make a list of everything you have to get done, personal and professional. Make separate lists for long term or short term tasks. When you finish one, take great pride in physically crossing it off the list. If you want, look into bullet journaling. Also, put EVERYTHING on a calendar which syncs with your email and across all your devices. I use Sunrise synced to my personal email, my iphone, my desktop and my work laptop.
I'll add more if I think of anything else. But try not to worry too much; you aren't even there yet! Right now, just get some rest, play some video games, go on a nice holiday. Celebrate your acceptance and look forward to the adventure you're about to have.

Very good advice. One thing I'd add: look after your health. Eat healthy, do some kind of sport regularly.

Oh definitely. And don't do what I did, and put off seeing a doctor because you need to be in the lab.

welcome to Academia SE. It seems that you are new here, but you have already contributed a lot to this site. Keep it up, and thank you.

about the sleep hygiene, as someone who live in South East Asia, having a nap in at midday is quite popular. From my experience, it's a big plus for your productivity in the afternoon, so I second to have a nap. I usually sleep for one hour everyday.

Spanish people love that too! We don't do the naps in France (I wish we did), but lunch is considered an inalienable right and a huge communal matter. Almost the entire lab converges upon the cafeteria at once, and spends a while chatting. I can see something like this being good for taking one's mind off experiments being problematic, or somesuch.

First of all, congratulations for getting the offer!
My suggestion is that you shouldn't rely on books or instructions, but more on the social aspect of this amazing experience. I am sure you will meet many other grad students, and my best advice is to learn first hand from their experience, especially since you will share the same institution and probably in some cases office and laboratory.
What you can do if you are a bit anxious and can't wait until Fall, is to contact via email or other social media people ahead of you in the program, and meet with them in order to address your specific concerns.
Don't overthink it though - work hard, keep and open mind, and you'll do great!!
Good luck!
Cheers,
Andrea

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For 2nd application should I produce my transcript
After doing my BE in production engineering I got admission in a university inUSA for PhD on industrial engineering but  got 2.90 gpa in first semester as I don't have the background. In future if I apply again for PhD should I produce my transcript?

At least for US universities, it's usual for applications to require official transcripts from all colleges and universities you have attended.  In that case, yes, you do have to send them a transcript from your previous PhD program.  (Actually, it's usually required that you get the university to send it directly.)

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Listing courses to be completed along with past courses
A question on a research program application states the following: "Please list a few courses you took that will be relevant for the [RESEARCH PROGRAM]". (They also ask for grades) A transcript with 1st semester grades is being submitted, but the deadline for application is March 1st, meaning that although 2nd semester courses will not be finished, I will be well into them.
With this in mind, should I include 2nd semester courses too (obviously without grades), or just 1st semester? I do not know where else on the application I can indicate that I am currently taking those courses (unless my transcript as of March 1 has courses in progress).
I apologize if this question is silly, as it is essentially an interpretation of a question.

It is normal to list things that you are in the middle of, eg when you apply for a job you include your current job. The key point is that you must be careful to make it clear you have not completed the courses. Sometimes the form will make that essentially impossible, but requiring, say, a completion date that's in the past. In that case it's perhaps best to contact the people you are applying to and ask their advice.

It may be that they are specifically looking for completed courses for that particular question, but there is somewhere else where you can give other relevant information such as the courses you are now taking.

@PatriciaShanahan I took the wording of the question to indicate that was not the case here. I can't remember ever seeing a form that was structure that way.


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Is it "pestering" to email a professor for a recommendation after no response the first time?
I talked to a professor about writing a recommendation (sometime before winter break) and he verbally agreed to it, and I sent him the official email request during winter break. He has not responded (I suspect it is because I sent the email during winter break) and out of politeness I didn't put his email down for reference requests without his consent. Is it considered pestering if I send him a follow up email now, restating my request? It has been about 3 weeks, and deadlines are in February and I wish to give at least a month's time to write the rec.

It's not pestering. Professors are busy people and he probably just forgot. One polite reminder email will not go amiss.

Should I write the email as if it's my first time asking him, or should I reference my prior email?

@Marcus something along the lines of "Hi X, Before Christmas we discussed the possibility of you writing me a reference letter. Are you still ok to do this? If so, the first deadline is 13th February. Thanks, Marcus" should be fine (modify according to the formality of your relationship).

I can only speak for myself, but I appreciate and encourage students to "pester" me, as I can easily miss or forget about a request.

Most profs leave things like this to the last second... many even are bad and miss deadlines. No recommender I am aware of would start drafting a month in advance and carefully craft before submitting. Work level is so high that they will just crank this out when the deadline motivates them.

if deadline is hard (NSF, etc.) be sure your reminder states this
provide info to help them write (your CV, research proposal, etc.)
if there are any good stories of your work with this person not included in your CV that would be good for him/her to include, briefly summarize them.

It's not pestering. Neither it is a good sign. Professors are always busy, still they are supposed to be professionals who prioritize their work and try as hard as they can to get the to bottom of their to-do list.
Sending a new polite e-mail with a reminder is certainly a good idea as he/she might just have put you down on her/his priority list. However, you need to be prepared to accept that you may 1) be down on their priority list for reasons of not being particularly enthusiastic to write that letter or 2) be facing a too busy (sloppy?) professor who may send a letter too late.
Just send the new e-mail and gauge the reaction.

did anyone consider that winter break is supposed to be just that, a break?  Professors don't give you assignments during that time, so please consider their needs to work on research or take a break over the holidays, as they so richly deserve.  It was self-centered of you to send the request during the break.

Two deans ago my boss said faculty web pages should indicate our availability during breaks and holidays.  I wrote, "None.  They's why they're called 'breaks' and 'holidays.'"

I don't think it was necessarily self-centered.  It was probably ill-advised as now that email is "below the fold" in the professor's inbox.

Yeah I made a mistake but it was also because our break is very long, and had I waited till after break I would have either missed out on a lot of program deadlines or given my profs a single week to write the recs. They did reply though so I’ll make sure to thank them profusely in person.

@BobBrown At least here, there are holidays for the students which are not holidays for scientific staff, but many of the scientific staff take their days off during that time. So it is very common to have a professor put up specific office hours during the so-called "time without lectures"/ students breaks.


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Defining employment on grad school applications
I'm not sure whether/how to include specific things on a graduate school application (biophysics) in the employment section
a) Unpaid lab work. I worked as a research assistant in a lab as an undergraduate, participated in field work, presented a poster at a conference and will be an author on a lab paper. While I will definitely include this in my application, is it misleading to not write that it was unpaid?
b) The application specifically says to include part time jobs and I wonder whether my lack of them will raise flags. Should I include the fact that I received a special stipend freshman year which had several requirements - one of which was that I not hold a job freshman year?
Some context: I was lucky enough to receive a full (need-based) scholarship all four years of university. This allowed me to focus on my academics. I began doing unpaid lab work and then stopped for a time to do paid work in a lab that ended up not being a good fit. I returned to the unpaid work which was more interesting and provided more opportunities for growth (the lab funded the fieldwork experience and conference travel/fees).

Yes, your lab work qualifies and should be listed, especially as you do not have anything else to list.  But you should indicate that it was a volunteer position.


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What does "matriculation" refer to?
In the US and Europe, what does a University mean when they ask for grades from Matriculation?
Is it the 10th grade or the 12th grade or both?

Generally it is simply referring to the official record of grades as provided by an institution. "Matriculation" is the act of officially joining some organization. It isn't about grade level at all. But most places want to see grades from all prior education no matter what the level. So, if this is about university applications it means official secondary (high) school grades. For graduate study, you may not need secondary school grades but all college level grades.
The typical process is to have them sent directly by the institution, rather than your own copies.

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When to affiliate university on research paper?
While I was finishing my undergrad I reached out to professors from other universities to do research under during my spare time. Fortunately, it led to me main authoring a paper that is getting published which I'm very excited about.
Do I affiliate myself with my university on the research paper? The only connection I had with my own university was that I was doing a degree there for some time while writing this paper.

Also related: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/62034/what-to-list-as-affiliation-when-work-spans-multiple-institutions

Generally speaking, if you claim "affiliation" with some organization, they have to approve of it in some way. Explicitly, generally by naming you in some official way. Just because you work with someone at another institution doesn't affiliate you with their institution, nor them with you. It needs to be mutual and acknowledged.
I'm guessing that you don't have such a formal relationship and that the professors you work with don't have standing to create it. You are, however, affiliated with your home institution since they recognize you and the link.
If the institution provides some funding to your project you should acknowledge that somehow. Except in extraordinary cases, the salary paid to those professors wouldn't count as "funding".
But "affiliation" with individuals is a different matter, though it is normally called collaboration. If you work with Professor X at institution Y, you can fairly say you are affiliated with Professor X, but not with institution Y unless they formally agree to it.
This, I think, makes your case different from those cited by user Sursula -they-.
I've written papers with, for example, employees of IBM, but it would be foolish of me to claim I'm affiliated with that company.

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(Mathematics) How to ask professors about their work when you only have a vague understanding of their subject area?
I recently graduated from a Masters in mathematical physics. During my time I especially enjoyed pure maths courses and picked as many as I could. Since graduating I have been exploring my options and am intrigued by the subject of elliptic curves. I am trying to build a background in my spare time, with the goal of writing a short presentation of the topic, to learn by teaching and to potentially use in future applications.
If I continue enjoying the subject, I would like to apply for a PhD. I feel I should get some point of contact with potential supervisors as soon as possible, however it feels rude to do so with only a very vague understanding of their work.
My question
How do I initiate contact with academics working on elliptic curves despite being very new to the subject. Could I ask them to explain something that would be found in a textbook ? For example, the Tate-Shafarevich group seems to be quite actively researched. Could I ask them why they're interested in this group ?

I recently graduated from a Masters in mathematical physics please note that a degree shows (simply) that you can understand answer to already existing problems. Final goal of a PhD is to present answer to existing, unsolved, problems.
If you do not show independence in understanding already existing solutions/approach (i.e. the example group you bring) no one can productively support you in your quest towards searching answers to unsolved problems.
In research, your Master degree is just a starting point that you can do the (necessary but not sufficient) bare minimum ...do that minimum :)

I met a mathematics post-doc once and asked her what she was working on. She squinted, thought carefully for a bit, and came up with... "Imagine you have a universe." She stopped there but I nodded attentively, so she thought about it a bit more. "Okay so, now imagine it's expanding." Me: "Uh huh?" Her: "It's kind of about that." I let her off the hook by not asking any more about it.

How could asking an expert to explain anything which might be found in text-books not be seen as insulting?
If you have only a vague understanding of the professor's subject why would you dream of contacting, let alone challenging the professor, rather than simply reading three or four more text-books?

@Beanluc: So, what was the subject she was working on?

Gantendo. Sorry I put that so badly I seem to have led to think I meant the opposite. Yes, ask the expert - or why not the expert's research assistant - which books to read.

For people with a similar but not identical question: If you want to collaborate with those professors, you might want to find out soon whether their working style etc. seems compatible with yours, and to start finding out what knowledge you should gain at all for the collaboration (maybe it's better if you build complementary knowledge rather than similar knowledge; maybe their plans are not evident from their publications), and gaining that knowledge (but not necessarily all by yourself). Briefly chatting with a few PhD students of those professors might help with all that.

@Inkblot At this point you know as much as I do!

Here's what I would recommend.

First, I would learn the basics of elliptic curves by consulting a standard book on elliptic curves. A good first option is the book by Silverman and Tate. You could also consult the book "The Arithmetic of Elliptic Curves" by Silverman. These books focus on the relationship to number theory. "Lectures on Elliptic Curves" by Cassels is also really good.

After spending some time on it, if you are interested, you could look for people who work on elliptic curves. Now you have found people who think about elliptic curves. Then what?

Go to their list of publications and look at some of them. You don't have to try to understand the papers completely. Just read the introductions to these papers. Try to answer for yourself: What do they do in the paper and why?

Then you could send them a short e-mail (5 sentences or so). You could say the following:

a. You've been reading about elliptic curves on your own, using the references [insert the books/articles you've been reading] and have been enjoying learning about them.
b. You're interested in contemporary research in this area, and you found out that they work on this topic.
c. You've looked at some of their publications and have read the introductions to their publications to get an idea of what they work on.
d. You would like to learn more. Then ask if they could recommend something to read to help them learn about current research.
This shows that you're interested in their work, and that you've done some independent reading.
(Also, roughly speaking, the reason some people are interested in the Tate-Shafarevich group is that a lot of interesting results about arithmetic aspects of elliptic curves, like their L-functions, are only true under the assumption that the Tate-Shafarevich group is finite.)

Thank you for your complete answer. This answers the part I was most worried about: transitioning from learning background to finding out more about their research.

Unless you do a masters in math, or some sort of reading course with an undergraduate professor, it's hard to know what people work on. At least in the US, I don't think you have to be familiar with a professor's research before applying. For me, I had an idea of what my interests were, but didn't pick an advisor until a year or so after I started my PhD program.

@cgb5436 In most European countries, it's the exact opposite. When you start a PhD program, you start it with a specific supervisor on a specific project.

@Carl-FredrikNybergBrodda: Though in Germany you do a Master's before the PhD, the  PhD is just three years.

@MartinUeding Not all PhD programs in Europe require a Master's degree before doing a PhD.

it feels rude to do so with only a very vague understanding of their
work

Actually, it is rude, if you are not enrolled in their course , however luckily we live in the year 2022 and you can access an online course to build at least a minimum understanding of the topic, since I assume you have the time and the (intellectual) resources to attend such a course, or at least to work out the syllabus of such a course.
Additionally, you may join a workshop or a conference on the topic. If you write nicely your situation (not a student, unemployed, interested in the topic, looking for opportunities for a PhD on the topic of) to the organizers, they are likely to waive the fees to access the conference (if any).

Have you been offended by having someone interested in your work? It might be rude to make requests, but I don't think that's what OP was referring to. Can you say more?

@JustinMeiners if my working life is on the small details of subsubtopic Z of subtopic Y of topic X, and random name.surname@hotmail.com writes me asking about "may you enlighten me and provide me a learning path to subtopic Y of topic X" I am annoyed, I would either refer to public available material on X.Y, or to my personal publication on topic X.Y saying "please read carefully the reference". I would not carry a personal grudge to mr/ms name.familyname@hotmail.com, but I would spend the least time possible, and I would surely not be interested in a "future cooperation".

@JustinMeiners if, on the other hand, mr/ms name.surname@hotmail.com would ask me a question on sub-sub-topic Z, showing at least marginal knowledge on my publication on the topic and showing interest in 1) extending my work, or 2) applying my work, or even 3)  confuting my work, then I would be very interested in having an half an hour phone call with mr/ms name.surmane@hotmail.com

My impression is that OP wants to contact people because they're interested in working with them for a PhD degree and they're not sure how to express interest when they themselves currently lack background knowledge. They're not e-mailing just because they want to know more about some widely known fact in the literature.

@cgb5436 "Could I ask them to explain something that would be found in a textbook ? [...] Could I ask them why they're interested in this [...] ?"  It would be rude to ask the first question, I would be annoyed from the second question, but having enough time I would consider answering it unless this question is posed in the terms "why is it interesting and why should I (OP) be interested in this to pursue a PhD": in that case I would trash it immediately. I am not you, I have already to figure out what is interesting to me :)

How do I initiate contact with academics working on elliptic curves despite being very new to the subject. Could I ask them to explain something that would be found in a textbook?

Unlike the other individual points of view expressed here, I think this can certainly be done in a way that neither rude, spam, nor unwise.
While there are certainly "I can't be bothered" types in any academic field, there are also plenty of folks who understand that the finding various ways to explain their research, especially to people with different levels of familiarity is a valuable exercise for scholars and some would even see it as a sacred duty1.
Enlightened scholars will also know that sometimes unexpected benefits arise from unexpected or nonstandard discussions.
I would not say that if they refuses or ignored a well-written email of this type that they were "bad" or unenlightened, but I would see their willingness to discuss with you or not as a sort of filter for the kind of person you'd like to get to know in the first place!
Okay, but what would a "well-written email of this type" be like?
It should be honest and upfront but not off-putting. Explain that you don't want a full lecture on the topic, but before you take the dive you want a little bit of guidance and/or clarification to make sure you get started on the right foot and path. Include a few specifics that make it clear you have at least some understanding of the topic and that they would not be wasting their time.
Mention a time limit, like 15 or 20 minutes. Of course if they feel it's productive they may extend, but make it clear you have every intention of keeping it short and promptly leaving if they don't offer to extend. You want to give them an opportunity to see if they can help, without fear that they have a lot to loose.

If you get a positive response2, then despite what you said, study like crazy and make at least some progress so that they might be pleasantly surprised that you were a bit modest describing your level of understanding, and so that they are further reassured that spending a little time with you has a chance of making a real difference. To that end cgb5436's answer suggests some resources to start with.
If you get a negative response send a short, concise thank you reply and follow up on your own on any advice they might have included in their response (unless it's bad advice!)
If you get no response then you should not pursue it further with that person at this time. While occasionally mail messages get missed or move to the spam folder, most likely they don't want to deal with the situation, and you don't want to do anything that looks troublesome or harassing or else word of you may spread in a negative way.

1in moderation.
2and even if you don't!

Unless you are enrolled in their classes or you find some mistakes in their books that you would like to report, I don't think it is a good idea to contact them (that way). In the worst case, they may mark your email as spam.
If you only want to initiate the conversation with them, please don't do it this way. It is not wise to impress them like this.
If have some doubts while reading the books. Please consider asking professors whom you know. They may provide some help.
Furthermore, do your "homework". Keep reading and studying the topic yourself. At least, you need to have a decent understanding of the topic to know if you really like it. Some topics may sound super interesting at first glance, but turn out to be terribly boring later. When you are ready, prepare the necessary documents for the application. Do some research on potential supervisors and contact them (if it is appropriate)


text:
Is "short paper" or "tool paper" valued less than full version paper?
Some conferences provide both the regular paper track and the tool paper (sometimes called short paper) track. My question is: Is the latter category of papers generally regarded as of lower standards than the former one? What would be your first impression before you start reading a  paper that comes with "short paper" in its description or title?
An example of such regular paper vs. tool paper can be found in the recent call-for-papers of the Computer Aided Verification conference.

The distinction seems to be full vs. short. vs. tool paper.
Unambiguously, a full paper is far more important than a short paper. A "tool" paper where you describe a piece of software that implements theoretical work, particularly at the conference you cite, I think should be seen in a broader context.
If you had only published tool papers, I would think you're an early-stage PhD student. However, often tool papers are the culmination of theoretical work or are used to support empirical testing of theoretical work by the wider community. In this context having published a widely-used tool puts the researcher in good standing (they do theoretical work and make sure it is usable). In Computer Science areas where implementations are semi-common (by which I don't mean experiment), I think the researchers that are perceived "the best" do mostly theoretical work but also publish "tool papers". Other areas are purely-theoretical and yet others combine implementation and "theory" into a single paper (e.g., papers about how to debug).

I'm not sure that my area of CS is 100% comparable, since "tool paper" and "short paper" don't seem synonymous to me (I haven't seen any conference use "tool paper" as an official track name, but papers about tools feature regularly in the regular track).
But in my experience, yes, short paper is generally for lower-standard work, or more preliminary work. In fact, at all the conferences I have attended recently with regular and short paper tracks, the papers in the short paper track were mainly selected from the papers submitted to the regular track that didn't make the cut. Roughly speaking, first quartile gets to be full papers, second quartile short papers, the rest gets rejected. (Percentages vary with the quality of the conference, of course. Sometimes there's also a third tier of acceptance for posters.)


text:
Minor revised article will take how long time for final verdict?
I submitted an article in June end and it came for minor revision on Sep first week. Then I submitted the revised manuscript within 10 days. After that, it took 2 and half months for getting reviewer scores, 3 weeks to get recommendation and now it is almost 2 weeks. Still the status is awaiting decision. Still how long will it take for the final verdict?
Thank you

Depends upon your specific editor and journal.

The reviewers and editors are people just like you and me. Today is the 3rd of January, thus, I would assume that they might still be on christmas vacation. In my personal experience, people often leave early for christmas, like in mid December. Some will return to work in the second week of January, so they might still be out of office.
Therefore I am not really surprised that you are waiting for almost two weeks now. Just give it some more time.

+1, since if I read the question right, the paper is waiting for the editors to make a decision, in which case your answer is the most likely scenario.


text:
Awaiting recommendation will take how long time?
I submitted a paper to some journal. Within less than two months it came for minor revision. Then I submitted the revised manuscript in 10 days. After two and half months the status got changed from awaiting reviewer scores to awaiting recommendation. Now it is almost 3 weeks. Still the status is same. How long I should wait for the final verdict?
Thanking you.

See here possibly : https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/65111/72855

I have to say that, in my opinion, academic life before on-line submission status was much, much nicer. You sent it off and didn't worry about it until you got an envelope back in the mail. These things take time.

“Patience is a virtue” and, unlike the internet, journals review material to control quality and as has been pointed out, the submission systems where you click and get told what is happening is mych faster than post... I sometimes think some people check the status twice a day if not more...

Check if there are any major holidays in the editor's country. If not, three weeks should be enough to make a decision. However, it can be that the editor invited another reviewer to have a look at the paper (possibly after receiving the 2nd round of reviews), which will cause a few weeks delay.
If you don't want to wait longer send a short, friendly email to the editorial office. They should be able to tell you if the paper is still in the pipeline or whether it got stuck somewhere, and maybe when you can expect an answer.
Maybe the editor is just on holidays...

Now Christmas is near. Between after the recommendation, through which step manuscript will go?

Editorial decision (accept, revision, reject). However, it can be that more reviews will be needed before a decision is taken. For more information on workflow, see here: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/55665/what-does-the-typical-workflow-of-a-journal-look-like

Dear Mark, if the status is showing awaiting decision, what is the meaning of this? And how long I should wait for final verdict?

Dear Mark, now the status is awaiting decision since 2 weeks. Now how long it takes the time? Thank you..

@thomus Usually it's quick, but dependent on the journal, it may take longer. As written in the canonical answer linked in my previous comment, for some journals the decision is taken by a team rather than a single editor. Many countries still have (school) holidays, therefore some editors may be on holidays, and the decision has to wait until they return. Given the holiday season, I would wait another week before asking. Check with your colleagues how things go with the specific journal in question. Then, if you think you waited long enough, send an email to a contact person at the journal.


text:
The ranking of the Romanian Journal of Ophthalmology
I searched the rank of the Romanian Journal of Ophthalmology but I did not find it on Scimago list of ophthalmology journals. The list ends with the 110-th journal: "Revue Francophone d'Orthoptie", having SJR 0.1 and H-index 2.
However, I found something on Scopus, after clicking on letters "Ro": The Romanian Journal of Ophthalmology is the last Romanian Journal in that list, with an index of 0.05, and H index of 9. It is situated immediately under "Romani studies".
In order to understand what is the effectiveness of printing there, I would like to ask you to approximate the ranking of the Romanian Journal of Ophthalmology in the continuation of Scimago list containing ophthalmology journals, extending it to 1000 journals.
The second purpose of my email is to ask why a journal with h-index 2 appears in Scimago List, and a journal with h-index 9 does not appear?
Dr CDB

It's not entirely clear to me what exactly you are asking. From all of the information you give, it's pretty clear that the journal is ranked pretty low -- how low exactly is probably not terribly important: nobody cares whether the journal is at rank 120 or 150 or 250 among ophthalmology journals.


text:
Are there English speaking countries for further studies where it's not necessary to be able to drive vehicles?
One thing that is stopping me from abroad studies is my lack of ability to drive. So, I was wondering if there are countries where it's not necessary to drive. Countries where public transportation is good in every part of the country.

Why…”in every part of the country”?

Very few students in the UK have Cars. I've made it to 41, as a permenant faculty member without ever owning a car.
That doesn't mean that public transport is good in every part of the country. Far from it. University towns like Oxford and Cambridge are so small neither public nor private transport is generally neccessary, and most people cycle most places. London does require transport, but the public transport in London is some of the best in the world.
In the big northern cities like Sheffield, Leeds and Manchester, the cities are big enough to require transport, but generally students live within walking (or at least cycling) distance of the university campus.

Pretty much all of them.
Just live in student housing. You'll usually be close enough to campus to be able to walk there, failing which the university is likely to have arranged for transport like shuttle buses to and from campus.
If you're interested in going places other than the university, then it becomes more complex - where do you want to go? How often? How far? - and that will depend on your exact requirements.

Indeed, OP likely has the US in mind, and yet in the US it's very common for college students and graduate students to not drive.

Much easier, however, if the university is in a large city (Madison, WI, say) rather than a rural place. And, one of the few places with good public transport helps. The US is mostly a failure in that department.

I think you are posing too many strong assumptions.
English speaking countries is a too strong limiting factor.
There are countries like the Netherlands, or Denmark, or Luxembourg, where you can live (not just survive) only speaking English, and they have excellent public transport services [1].
With time, of course it will be better to learn the local language, but it is not necessary (although it is a bit of philosophical/ethic question, whether you should speak or not the local language).
If you then expand your search to countries where English is barely enough to survive, you may consider Japan, or Austria and Switerland, countries that made some gigantic passes (with respect to where they were) in understanding english in the past 20 years. Germany is also ok, if you end up in a big city (Berlin, Hamburg, Munich) you will be rather fine.
But overall, the requirement in being able to drive is not that common, unless you are doing environmental sciences stuff, where you are expected to be out "in the wild".
[1] excellent on a relative metric, relative to the English speaking countries. The Netherlands, for example, destroyed their network of local transport to small comunities ... it still exist and it does the job, but it was way better.

No problems to live and study in one of the bigger cities in Germany. Public transport is quite good, and I know many people who live there (not only students) and do not own a car.
Edit: Many German universities offer programmes in English (and it is no problem to live in a German city if you speak only English), so you might consider this, too.

Germany is not an English speaking country.

Forgot to say that there are many degree programmes in English. I have edited my comment.


text:
How to find a mentor during my master's program?
I'm in my first semester of three for a Master's in Financial Engineering, and I have to say that it has inspired me to learn about so many new things.  However, I'm having trouble finding any kind of mentor to really foster that inspiration.
Three of my four classes are core classes with about 90 people, so after class there are always about 10+ people competing for a prof's attention. In addition, professors seem to want us to ask TAs first when we have questions, though the TAs don't seem so willing to connect during office hours and there are a lot of people during those as well. People in general aren't super responsive to emails, and even for career events tickets will be gone by the time I open the email to RSVP.  We have seminars from people who are friends/colleagues with my academic advisor, but when I emailed him to discuss one speaker who was particularly inspiring for me, the only response was that he would let me know when office hours were.
I recognize most people are extremely busy all the time, but I'd love to create a relationship with someone like a professor who knows so much more than I do to ask questions, get career advice, or discuss what research they're doing.  I know that people don't owe me any of their time, but to be frank, I'd like to get more out of an almost $100k program than the school name.
Is this just a question of persistence and showing some kind of initiative with independent projects, or is there something I'm missing here?

Is this a "taught master's"?

It is.  We have 4 classes a semester all taught by professors, recitations with TAs, and talks every so often by people in the field.

I think it's a good question but it really does not sound like your program is designed to foster one-on-one mentorship opportunities like a research-based masters might.

That makes sense and is unfortunately what I think might be the case.  I don't even care about having it be one of the professors who teach the core classes of the program or about using it for networking for a job, but instead would just like to have some higher-level discussions.  Given that the program is supposed to be highly ranked I thought it would be a bit better in that area.

Related: getting a mentor.


text:
Does securing a supervisor basically guarantee acceptance?
I received an email from a prospective supervisor telling me he'd like me to join his lab and that he'll forward my name to the grad office. Assuming my entire application is strong, does this mean an official acceptance is very likely? Or is there a chance I could still get rejected by the admissions committee? This is for a funded PhD program.

It depends on where the funding comes from. If the money comes from the professor's own grants, then you're extremely likely to get a formal admission. If the money comes from the department the professor now has to convince the admissions committee that you should get the position. Why not send an email to the potential supervisor and ask what the next step is? That should let you know where you stand.

If your application is as strong as you claim and you have your prospective supervisors support, your chances are good - but it is not a given.
I once was in a situation where I applied for a PhD program with the support of (and following their suggestion) my professor and supervisor. My application was strong (at least I deemed it so), but risky, since I had a background from a different subject than the PhD I had applied for.
In the end my application was rejected without much ado. From that experience, I have learned the following lessons, that should increase your chances of getting in:

get familiar with the application process through the official documents and talk to people:

who have applied successfully
who have applied and got rejected
administrative staff!

you want to find out not only about formal requirements, but also what the committee is looking for and what breaks the deal for them.
make sure also your potential supervisor is familiar with the process and have them speak to members of the committee, that they want you as their PhD student and they see you as a good fit. Have them inquire informally whether they see any problems with your application, and what could be done to solve them.

Not getting into the program did not break my neck back then, but it was a reminder that not all things go through perfectly and that more can always be done. Good luck!

I was with my group through undergrad and masters. Had funding guaranteed through my professors independent grants. It basically would have been a continuation of what I was already doing. Applied to the PHD and got rejected, it was a shock to everyone. I am still confused what went wrong (GRE score?) but I imagine there was some politics involved since my PI was a research professor but not tenure track. Anyways, I agree with the answer by mts, get your PI to speak to the committee, they are ruthless.


text:
Importance of work experience for MS in physics
I am currently enrolled in a 3-year Physics Hons. programme. I plan to pursue physics in my masters as well but from the UK or Germany(Right now, I am studying in India). I am doing a lot of freelance software work like web development and hackathons. I was wondering if they will contribute positively to my masters application or be seen as a distraction by foreign universities? Will my experience in coding and software add to my application or take away from it?

Also, how much is the value of a CV with a lot of work in software when applying for masters?

(I'm in the US, so only commenting.) If you emphasize how your computational experience can help support scientists with computational research projects (i.e. when you explain what groups you are interested in working with), that could be seen as a positive. If it's just something you did, maybe less so.

Web development might not be as directly related to the work of a physicist as some other applications.  But in general, I'd think this would be viewed as an asset.


text:
Discussing an unpublished approach of a former team member
I started my research as a PhD student a few years ago. I was assigned to researcher X's team and had to assist him in finding a solution as the project got stuck. However, X was not able to implement his approach properly and, after some time, I doubted that the solution's concept would work out at all. Nevertheless, X demanded that we continue following his approach.
After a few months, there was still no progress and people started getting disappointed. X got into severe and dirty conflicts (on a personal level) with his other team members. Conflicts escalated and finally X (and another guy) were removed from the project and forced to quit.
I continued working on X's approach for several more weeks. Since my work was not controlled by X, I was looking at the proposed solution more critically. I came across severe conceptual errors and also some implementation errors. I had to discard the current solution and started working on a completely new approach (not related to X's approach). After several more weeks, I finished the implementation and it was working quite well.
Now I am outlining my PhD thesis. One of the topics is my approach to solving the aforementioned problem. However, my approach is not that straightforward, compared to X's approach. It is more complex and expensive. Therefore I need to justify in my thesis, why I decided to use MY approach and NOT X's approach. I can show this his approach does not work. Therefore, I have to describe his approach, show the implementation and present some of the results. Unfortunately, nothing has been published by him. I would be the first to present his approach - this feels uncomfortable. In the department there is a huge fear of retaliation (e.g., accusations of scientific misconduct), since X was forced to quit. We know that he monitors our publications. I need to handle this at low risk without reducing the quality of my thesis.
My options are:

Leaving out X's approach in the thesis completely. I do not like this, since I invested a lot of work/time and, what is even more, my thesis appears to be not comprehensive without it. It's especially interesting for the reader to know, why X's approach (the most obvious one) does not work. Leaving it out reduces the quality of the thesis and creates open questions which remain unanswered (e.g., why I am using such a complex approach, could I not simply do X's method). However, this solution has no risk.
Describing X's approach without mentioning X. One argued that I had done enough work on it so I should just leave his name out. I do not like this at all as this is ethically not correct.
Describing X's approach and clearly attributing it to X (altogether on 2 or 3 pages). I would include an explanation of conceptual issues, leaving out implementation errors (=no personal blaming). That would be my preferred method, however, I am still publishing and discussing his (unpublished) approach. Is this acceptable or does it expose me to some risk?

I would like to use the third option. Is this acceptable or do other/better solutions for such a situation exist?

Why don't you ask your supervisor/department how to reference X's work? It used to be perfectly ok to cite this as X's approach and give a reference to it X, 2018, unpublished. Maybe this has changed because it is difficult to access the original material, but since you give an exposition, the reader can follow the approach as required. The only caveat is that, in some topics, such as mathematics, there is an unwritten rule (which I do not always see the rationale of, as long as the work is attributed) that the person making a discovery should be the first to present it.

"Describing X's approach without mentioning X" - Don't do this. It will leave you open to the risk of allegations of plagiarism/academic misconduct, which could prevent you being awarded a PhD or even cause it to be revoked.

I need to justify...why I decided to use MY approach and NOT X's approach.

I don't think you need any such justification: "[X's approach] does not work....nothing has been published by him." Thus, the literature contains nothing about X's work and you need not compare your results to his unpublished work. Nonetheless, if you feel that some reference to his work is necessary, then you could mention that X is working on the topic or that some of your ideas followed from discussions with X or ...

It's...interesting...to know...why X's approach...does not work.

Many approaches don't work. You cannot possibly mention them all. It is perfectly reasonable to omit discussion of X's approach. That said, in some cases -- e.g., when the obvious solution seems feasible -- you might like to very briefly mention why the obvious solution doesn't work. For instance, you could mention: This problem can be intuitively solved by ABC, however, ... (You could also mention that X pursued some of these ideas, or that you pursued some of these ideas with X.)

One option could be to mention the approach briefly as "an other approach which was followed in our group". If it does not work out, there is no reason to describe it in greater detail, but you can point out why it did not work.
Nonetheless, you should discuss your solution with your supervisor since potential problems will fall back on him/her.


text:
I'd like to conduct a personal research project as a master's student. What progress should I make before bringing it to a professor?
Last semester in my master's program, I came up with an algorithm that I thought was an interesting improvement on another algorithm we learned in class.  I brought it to my professor, but he never got back to me with any kind of feedback.  I'd like to start looking at it again (just as a personal project) to see if it is a legitimate improvement upon current methods, but I'm not sure where to start.  Is there any specific progress I should make when looking into this project before I bring it to a professor to get their quick thoughts?  For example, should I run a few tests and present them?  Maybe try to write an entire paper in the style of a piece of academic research?
To be clear, I don't need a professor to invest tons of time into me (I know they're very busy), I just don't know the general structure of how to go about conducting a research project and would want to make something I bring them worth their time.
Also, would it be acceptable to contact any professor in the school even if I'm not in a class of theirs?  Currently the only professor of a class on algorithms I'm taking is also my academic advisor, but he doesn't meet students one on one.
Thank you!

Just getting stuck on "he doesn't meet students one on one." Is that usual for masters students? That would be a problem for me as a student.

There is some context here: Looks like this is a $100K taught master's where the professors send you to the TAs, the TAs are non-responsive, and "even for career events, tickets will be gone by the time I open the email to RSVP." Yikes.

I completely forgot I posted that before, but yes that is the context.  It's gotten slightly better this semester but I think my expectations were a bit too high overall.

To make progress on this, you will certainly need to test whether your algorithm is better than the state-of-the-art. So I would recommend that you think about an experiment -- ideally, leading to one "money plot" -- that would show unequivocally whether your algorithm is better (and by how much). This probably involves taking a widely-used implementation of a standard algorithm and comparing it with your own implementation of your algorithm. This will let you convince yourself and others that you're on to something here. And you'll probably learn a lot by doing this.
Ideally, you could discuss this test with a professor (or even a PhD student in the appropriate subfield) before spending time on it. It may be, for example, that the "textbook algorithm" you learned in class is only of historical or conceptual importance, and so even a successful experiment would not really be interesting. Or the dataset you are thinking of using is not a good choice. Or your algorithm, while marginally more accurate, will be prohibitively slow. So getting a sanity check before spending time on this could save you from wasting time.
But either way, if you make the plot you have in mind and it still seems promising, then it's certainly appropriate to ask a professor for a brief meeting. Check our archives for advice on requesting this meeting -- a very concise, fact-dense e-mail is your friend here.
I would not recommend writing up a full paper at this stage. If professors are not keen to meet with you, they will be even less keen to read an unsolicited, unpublished manuscript. Good luck.

By the way, this is how things "should work" -- and usually do work -- but it sounds like your institution is not the best. That doesn't really change my answer, but I realize that you may have more trouble getting meetings than is typical.

Even if there is no research value (as described in the second paragraph), taking the steps suggested in the first paragraph are likely a useful exercise to learn the "process", as long as the time investment is reasonable (perhaps tens of hours for a student, rather than hundreds).


text:
Is it possible to get the assistantship(TA/RA) before landed in USA for PhD program?
We know that most of the PhD students would not get scholarship and they need to do work as assistanceship in USA. Is it possible to get these assistanceship before reaching into USA? If so, then how?

In many cases, an assistantship is offered alongside the offer of admission.  If it's not, then it may be a situation where assistantships may or may not be available, on a competitive basis, depending on the teaching needs from term to term.

In any case, the answer to "how" would be "ask the department".

@NateEldredge "alongside the offer of admission"--- you mean from PhD first semester assistantships are offered?

What field are you in?

Nate means that your offer of acceptance into the program would ordinarily tell you about funding - if you are guaranteed funding for some number of years, how you will be funded, etc. It would be very unusual (though it happens) to be offered and then accept an admission offer that does not discuss funding. In my view, a PhD acceptance without a funding offer should be considered not an acceptance.

@NateEldredge in one university TA form asking student ID? So, I am not student till now of that university, how to get student ID?

You already got a general answer: Discuss technical matters such as student ID with the department, not with strangers online. And work in your English grammar, you will need it when you arrive to your university in the US.

Is this an XY problem where you are wondering about a visa issue?

Note that you won't be able to get a student visa to enter the US without proof that you've been admitted to a university and that you have the financial resources to pay for your program of study and support yourself.  For most international students, an assistantship is awarded at the same time that the student is admitted to the graduate program at a university.

Details will differ between disciplines.
In Computer Science, most reputable, good programs will not offer admission to the Ph.D. program without assured funding, at least for the beginning two or three years. The exceptions among good institutions are mainly programs with a different flavor, e.g. those aimed at students that already work in the industry and feel the need to get a degree.
Assured funding means either an RA-ship or a TA-ship, or a combination of both. There is an expectation that once a student has entered a research group, usually after two years, the research group will pay for the student out of grant money. This expectation is not reflected in an admission letter. It is possible that a student is judged by all potential groups to be a bad risk, in which case the student will no longer receive funding and is expected to leave the program with a "consolation" M.S. degree. This is a rare occurrence.
In other disciplines, funding is more limited and many Ph.D. students will have to self-finance at least parts of their studies.
This means for you that if you receive an offer letter for admission into the Ph.D. program, it should come with initial financing in Computer Science / Electrical Engineering and a few other disciplines. If it does not, then this usually means that there is no RA or TA-ship available. If funding is only offered for one year or two years, that does not mean that you will loose support after this time, but the admitting university is not guaranteeing anything in case you turn out to be a bad student. You are not running significant risks if you accept such an offer. If your offer does not include any offer of financing, then this means that it will be difficult for you to find financial support from the department.

What does mean of significant risk? Give some example.

You need to be really bad or behave quite poorly. Or you acquire a criminal record, have lied about yourself, ...


text:
Unintentional Plagiarism: Advice?
I have a question about a mistake I made in an article that I recently published.
In the field I am in, we often discuss ancient texts in other languages. Ancient texts often have chapters with title names that we then need to use an English translation for.
In the article, I mention the titles of two chapters from a well-known ancient text. When researching, I had looked to see how others translated these titles and followed the translations from a published English translation. I had forgotten this during the time I was writing and forgot to reference the book from which the translations of these two chapter titles appear. I do not cite any other material from the book (if I had used translated text this wouldn't have slipped my mind), and thus the book is not in the references.
However, I feel that I made a pretty big error. It was an honest mistake on my part, but I am feeling pretty guilty about it. I am wondering if I should contact the journal and let them know. Advice?

I think we are in the realm of speculation a bit here, but I'd think your infraction is minor at worst.
It is clear that the idea expressed in the chapter title is not your own if it is stated to be a translation. I also doubt that any translation, if intended to be literal, adds any idea to the mix that would bring in plagiarism as an issue. Part of this is that there are only a limited number of ways to say certain things. That affects both plagiarism and copyright.
It would be different if the translation was highly creative and added ideas not in the original text. It might also be different if it were copying longer passages from a translation without noting the translator.
You might ask the editor whether they think a notation should be made of the specific wording of the translation. In any case, I think it is a judgement call.

Thank you for your reply. If I had quoted parts of the translation of the text I would not have forgotten to cite the source. I think when doing chapter titles, I had seen a standard translation, used it, and later forgot about it. Just like if I mentioned the translation of a title of an ancient text, it would be weird to then put in a footnote and say "I used so and so's English translation of the title of this ancient work." But I'm still feeling like it was a mistake on my part, so I will think of contacting the editor. Just wondering, could this mistake have long-term repercussions?

@Weilan, this is somehow related, and the answers there might help to reduce your apparent fear of mistakes: Are there small citation mistakes in published papers and how serious are they? How often are they spotted?


text:
How do I support my advisor on his most busy weeks?
I'm a postdoc at a US university and I have a truly wonderful research advisor. Sometimes, during our regular meetings, I find out that things are particularly tough for my advisor this week. The regular pains of academia (stress, hard work, external pressures) as well as any weeks when he needs to spend nearly 100% of his time on just teaching and departmental service, plus any issues in personal life, can take a toll on my advisor from time to time. I always notice that when I see that he's not as excited/happy/motivated during our meetings. He nevertheless is always there to talk with me and to help me research-wise as much as he can (he almost never cancels our weekly meetings for those reasons).
Because of how much I value him as my academic mentor, I'm wondering if there is anything that I could be doing (or anything that I should not be doing) as his postdoc during these tougher weeks to help him (even if it's simply helping him have a better day afterwards) and help our group. What's most sad for me in those tough weeks is that I know how wonderfully we progress in research together when we both approach science with a clear mind and excitement. So it's really sad for me when he's in the distracted mode, because I think our whole group loses out on that great experience.
Some of the things I've been trying so far, although I don't know if they really help:

Before we jump to talking about research, I briefly ask him how he's been doing. Sometimes he tells me the reason why he's been tired. Sometimes we spend 10-15 minutes just venting about things.
I try to stay generally positive and smile during our meetings.
When I describe the research I've been working on, I'm trying to sound enthusiastic, to help us stay motivated about our research.
When I see him particularly tired, I try to discuss only the essentials and end the meeting quickly.
I'm trying to catch up with his Ph.D. students to find out if they have problems with anything. If they do, I spend time helping them so that my advisor doesn't have to.

Is this enough? Should I be offering to help in some other ways? I'm looking for some perspective and guidance on what else/more I could be doing. I will especially value answers from those who are advisors/PIs on what kind of support would you personally like from your postdoc in a similar situation?
Note: My question is different from this question because I don't necessarily need my advisor's weekly input to keep going in my research work. By now (at the postdoc stage) I know how to propel my progress even without external help. So I don't ask: how do I get research guidance? but rather: how do I support my advisor and his research group?

Well, one thing I noticed is that so far, it seems like you've already decided/assumed what the problem is and came up with solutions based on that assumption. While friendly chit-chat, smiles and enthusiasm are probably welcome, maybe they aren't actually doing anything to address the root cause. Maybe your advisor is simply overworked, and what would help is to find a way to reduce the workload on them. Or it could be something else entirely. Nobody here can know, but you - you can find out.

You could try to put your last bullet point of helping the PhD students into a slightly more formal and regular setting. Pick a time when your advisor has a little more time and suggest to be some kind of co-supervisor for the PhD students. The PhD students will have regular meetings with you, your advisor or both of you together depending on the week.
This can be a win-win-win if it works out nicely. The PhD students have two senior people to get advice and guidance. Your advisor can pass on some of his work to you. You get some experience in supervising PhD students which will be useful for your future academic career and can be put on your CV. Of course this means extra work for you, so think carefully whether you have the time and energy to do this and do it well. Otherwise it is not helpful to anyone.

The things that go for me in those super busy times are things like organising the lab journal club, remembering to make it to weekly lab lunch, making sure there is coffee,  tea and milk in the lab break area.
Also things like organising a lab social programme - games evenings, lab hikes (during office hours, obviously). So perhaps just saying something like "we haven't had a social event in ages, shall I organise one?".
Also, rather than monitoring students projects, warnings about failing interpersonal relationships between other lab members.
All in all its the little lab culture this that get forgotten.  A friendly supportive and productive culture is hard to create,  and can easily get lost. So perhaps you can help with that.

Thanks for sharing your perspective! So far, I haven't sensed that our lab culture is hit by that. I think the group mostly misses out on inspiring and interesting scientific discussions with our advisor in those busy weeks. There are some ideas or insights that I still can't come up with as a postdoc, but my advisor can.


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Do faculties look at h-index including or excluding self-citations?
At the early stage of an academic career, it can be that the researcher's h-index is largely driven by self-citations. It is the case for me at the 1st year postdoc stage. I've got a few peer-reviewed publications that are only beginning to gain momentum in citations coming outside of me. But I've also had a chance to work with advisors that created many opportunities for me to publish review papers or book chapters in which I self-cite whenever appropriate.
When applying for TT faculty positions, do the hiring committees typically look at the h-index that includes self-citations, such as the one reported on a researcher's Google scholar page? Should I worry if at the point of my TT application my h-index is mostly driven by self-citations? In the end, it also means that I keep publishing and keep developing a research line, which might be looked at favorably (?).
My field is STEM and I will be applying for TT positions in Europe (within EU).

About how high is your h-index, with and without self-citations? I should think it is hard to drive the h-index into higher regions by (mainly) self-citing, at least if you do not follow a plan.

My h-index is about 6 and would be about 4 with only self-citations.

My field is math and, when hiring, we hardly ever look at the h-index.

Be aware that many EU institutions are signatories of DORA (https://sfdora.org/) and as such pledge not to use raw numeric metrics in hiring decisions.

Basically, the only thing your h-index says is that you (most likely) do not have a long history of publishing papers. Which probably is obvious from the rest of your application anyway. In your case, there is really no relevant difference between h-index with and without self-citations, so it is probably also irrelevant which one is assessed.

I was a member of my department's hiring committee for over 10 years and I don't recall h-indices ever being considered.

@Snijderfrey I once came across a researcher who cited almost all of his previous papers in each new paper. Even if no one else had ever cited him, he'd have an h-index of n/2 after publishing n papers.

@Snijderfrey It is easy to open WOS, look at the table and see which papers are below the line and just one or two citations would be enough to move the line below them. Self citations can do that.

@stef, sure, but that kind of plan works mainly in the lower h-index regions. Imagine you have authored 40 papers and cite them all in your next paper. That would be ridiculous.

@Snijderfrey in many subjects the citation counts are lower. Impact factors of Q1 journals can be around 2. In that case many members of the hiring committee itself may have h-factor values much lower than 40. Fresh graduates...

BTW, every grant application and every other bureaucratic form, like CV forms for members of various committees do explicitly ask for the value of the h-index (as displayed by WOS, i.e. including self-citations) and also for the citation count without self-citations.

Hiring committees typically do what they want. Actually, it is the individuals on any hiring committee that do what they want. Some will do this, some will do that. Some will ignore such numbers altogether.
Note that if you avoid self citation you may be open to charges of self plagiarism, so it is often necessary to self-cite. Someone hiring will understand that.
People aren't algorithms and don't typically use a completely algorithmic process to hire. Especially a process driven by a few numbers. They want to know how you fit into an organization and want to know about the significance of your research.

Self-citations are a very situational thing. Sure, they are generally frowned upon because often there is a piece of research covering the topic better, and both ignorance or deliberate deceit of the reader reflects poorly on authors... But what if you are a part of one or two labs in the entire world having bespoke equipment to work on a specific problem? Or, less drastically, you might well be discussing a branch of science narrow enough and with enough specifics it warrants referring your own old results. It depends.

I don't think it's self-citation which is the issue here, it's whether to include those in the h-index when applying for a job

For me, the slightly ''fishy'' thing is when a person's h index including self citations is a great deal higher than their h index without self citations.

@Tom oh, for sure. But if the difference boils down to a couple of papers describing experiments/datasets/methodology, it still looks pretty benign to me (and highlights the intrinsic problems of h-index as a metric). This scenario is mostly an issue for early career researchers, too: padding the h-index is usually very obvious for people who are in academia for 20+ years, less so for someone who just started like OP. Relevant discussion is under the question comments as well.

Self-citations themselves are not a problem.  To me that would be a bit of a red flag if someone's h-index with self-citations is a lot higher than their h-index without self-citations.
It's subject dependent, but as I understand it, in pure mathematics h-indices are rarely considered, whereas in physics, applied mathematics and engineering there is a bit more emphasis on it. So, for example, when making a ''rough assessment'' of how good a researcher is in applied mathematics or engineering, it is indeed quite common to look them up on Google Scholar or similar website and see what their h-index is, whereas in pure mathematics, this practice is much less common.
But even in the applied mathematics setting, this is really a very rough heuristic and I do not think it would sway a decision by a committee, since that committee probably has its own rules and ideas about who they want to hire and how they will fit into the work being done by other members of the research group.

authors: Vladimir F Героям слава


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How do I convey to the hiring committee that I want to be a good academic mentor?
I'm applying for a junior professorship position at a STEM department in the EU. I know that this department values collegiality and providing good-quality mentorship to graduate students and postdocs and that's one of the main reasons why I'm applying there. Over the last couple of years I've spent a lot of time thinking what kind of research advisor I'd like to be. I've learned many lessons by example from great mentors I had and by counter example from a lot of horror stories (some of which I've witnessed myself, some coming from this SE). I've decided to make it a mission for myself to be a caring, present, and supportive advisor to my future students.
The thing is, thus far I haven't supervised anyone throughout the full Ph.D. I've briefly mentored master students here and there during my Ph.D. and now during my postdoc I'm co-supervising a Ph.D. student who just started 3 months ago. While I already started applying my mentoring style with that student, I think it's still too early to show that "it works". How do I convey to the hiring committee that I will be a caring advisor if I don't really have data to back up my claim? I want to bring this up in my application and if I get there, at the interview. But anyone can say that they plan to be a great advisor. All I really have to back up my statement is that I've been taking notes for myself on being a good mentor, I've given it a lot of thought over the years, and I have my role models. I can also describe some items I implemented with the current Ph.D. student. I feel I have to be delicate to not make it sound fake/forced and also not make it sound negative like "I don't want to be like all those nasty toxic advisors out there!"...
What's my best shot at convincing the hiring committee that I want to be a caring mentor?

Sounds like your heart is in it. Is there evidence you can bring to the table?

How do you know that you're good? Just to be a bit self-critical, motivation is the first step, but this doesn't mean that you're actually good, does it? Not implying the opposite, but let's just be honest ;)

I would make sure to:
(1) Not focus on it, except where appropriate (e.g., a brief mention in a cover letter, or as part of a teaching statement).
(2) Have specific and concrete ideas for how you would manage students. Don't say "I would prioritize being a good mentor," but instead say "to effectively mentor my students I would do X, Y, and Z" and explain your reasoning. This provides evidence that you value mentorship because it shows you have thought carefully about it.
(3) Mention that you are attracted to the department because you think it values high-quality mentorship.

Other than saying you aspire to be a good mentor, but have had, as yet, few opportunities to practice it, I think there is little you can say yourself that will be convincing. There is no evidence that you can point to in such situations and a recommendation letter from a former mentee probably isn't a good choice.
You can also say that the reason you are applying to this particular institution is the importance they place on such relationships and that you hope to both learn and contribute.
But if you can have one of your letter writers, a professor, perhaps, say such things they will carry some weight. It would need to be someone who knows it is true, of course.
But much of what you might say will possibly sound obsequious, as if you are just checking boxes and saying what you think you should say. Think hard about what you might say and avoid such things.
As a side note, I'd also suggest being a bit humble about your style and theories of mentorship. Not just in what you say, but in how you think about it. You may have more to learn than you think.

Consider completing training about mentorship.
It is great that you want to be a good mentor for students, but this does not always come naturally, very often Professors do not have training on mentoring or supervision of Master/PhD students.
You can make a difference if you obtain explicit training on good supervision practices for Master and PhD students, particularly about PhD students, as there are many aspects that can go wrong during a supervisory relationship (culture, research, expectations, etc) and it is much better to get experience on these issues ahead of supervising a student.
As an example, the University of Groningen has developed a qualification about supervising PhD students. You can probably find something similar (short course, workshop) in your local community or online.
Disclaimer: I work at the University of Groningen and I have completed this qualification. It did help obtain an overview of the PhD process and possible issues.

Thank you for suggesting that, that sounds like a useful thing to do and not just for my application but for the benefit of my mentoring in general.

Depending on the University, you will potentially have a teaching philosophy statement (or for some, a teaching and mentoring philosophy). You can include it there. If there is not such a document, you can place it in the cover letter (in brief).
Unfortunately, however, while I laud your commitment to mentorship, it is frankly not that important at this stage for you. The presumption is that everyone should aim to be a good mentor, and that all incoming junior faculty have that intention. When it comes time for tenure/promotion, then your success as a mentor will be critically evaluated.
Your main focus should be a very strong research program proposal, backed up by a strong CV, and letters of support. That is what will get you an interview. When you interview, you will have many opportunities for open discussion, and there you can convey that you have not only thought about a research project/area, but also on how to ensure and promote student success.

You don't specify what career stage you're in, but I assume early stage? If so, the hiring committee will understand that you haven't had time to accumulate much mentoring experience, so don't feel insecure about this. If ideas are all you have, then phrase those persuasively.
To stand out against other applicants and interviewees, I suggest that you develop one or more of the following items:

A mentorship section of one or two paragraphs in your teaching and/or research statement.

One paragraph about mentorship for your cover letter.

If you're allowed to submit additional unrequired documents with your application, you could write a full-page mentoring statement, which you will also read and practice as preparation for your interview.

A concrete plan for a mentoring program, about one page, nicely formatted and possibly illustrated, that you can hand out at your interview. You will be the only applicant to submit such a plan!

You can include things like these in your mentoring statement:

How mentorship helped you in your academic growth; some examples.

Why mentorship is important for students, the institution, and your field.

Purposes of mentoring: expose students to the research process, scientific methods, instruments, preparing a paper for publication or a conference; increase equality for students from weaker academic backgrounds; encourage problem solving and creative thinking in scientific research; increase diversity and inclusion in your field…

Types of students who can benefit from mentoring: probably all, but you could mention young women and people of color in STEM fields.

Specific mentoring modes you envision. Emphasize including students in your own research, or supporting their research. Also: discussing possible career paths, supporting mentees with writing grant applications... What else do you have in mind?

Qualities of a great mentor, besides the caring that you mention.

Qualities, skills, and knowledge you want to help your mentees develop. Example: understanding the importance of failure in scientific studies.

I have the impression that you will be a great mentor! Present yourself confidently and show your enthusiasm for mentoring. There is no reward for humility in job applications or interviews. The hiring committee wants to know what creative new ideas you can bring to the department. Your ideas and enthusiasm may be as valuable as someone else's perfunctory and forced advisory experience.

Consider creating a teaching portfolio
It might be useful for you to construct a teaching portfolio and include material on your philosophy and practice for teaching and mentoring in this document.  A teaching portfolio is a useful resource to keep track of your teaching experience, but it can also include more high-level things like your aspirations, philosophy, approach, likes, dislikes, fears, etc.
Since you are early in your career, you are correct that you may lack evidence of much accomplishment/success in mentoring, but you can at least convey your thinking and approach on this topic.  Your teaching portfolio can convey your aspirations with regard to mentoring and it can also set out your thinking about how to accomplish your aspirations.  If you have had previous experiences with "toxic" approaches to mentoring then you might also include some material explaining the things you have observed that are bad practice and that you wish to avoid.
If I were you, I would construct a high-quality teaching portfolio that is an appropriate document to show to institutions where you are applying for positions.  You can offer to give this to the panel to show your philosophy, approach and experience in this area.  This would allow you to rely on written material and then you can speak lightly about this in the interview without sounding forced.  Your teaching portfolio is something you can build on over your career, both to keep track of the courses ou have taught and to build on your general philosophy and approach.


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Is there a difference in "quality" between a paper published in a special issue and one in a regular issue?
A journal is issuing a new issue which is related to my research area. I was planning on submitting my paper to this issue, but my advisor told me instead to submit the paper in a regular issue, due to the fact that special issue papers are usually accepted by reviewers without the reviewers giving them the required peer-review attention, and that it is known that publishing in a special issue is not as good as publishing in a regular issue.
Can someone please confirm or deny this information?

This might be field dependent, and it is good to follow your advisor's advice as they know the field better than you (or I) do. But I find it a bit strange.
The one thing that would seem to support the statement is that, having a firm date for publication, there are probably fewer review-rewrite cycles for special issues so that weak or marginal papers don't get improved much. But, they are also much more likely to get summary rejection early.
If a paper is good, then the venue in which it is published doesn't change the quality of the paper. It is what it is.
Moreover, in some fields, special issues have special editors that are top-level academics in the theme of the issue. They are in a good position to know what is important/interesting/novel in that field.
Frankly, I'd prefer a special issue for my own work since it is more likely to be seen by those who care the most, since a special issue is normally theme restricted.
But, your advisor is probably referring to a "perception" problem that they (and maybe others) have with special issues. If we "think" the papers are lesser quality then we won't consider them important, independent of the actual quality.

My perception is that for "ordinary" journal special issues in high quality journals, they are a bridge past editorial desk rejection. In that sense, it's less difficult to get a paper into a special issue in the same journal as a regular submission. I disagree with Buffy's suggestion that these papers have strict editorial review and more lenient peer review; I get the opposite impression (as Buffy mentioned, this may be field dependent). My colleagues have used and recommended using special issues for some of those papers where people we know in our subfield have seen and like our work, but we just can't seem to find an editor that finds it interesting enough. The options then are to send it to a journal that doesn't make editorial decisions about paper impact or to try a special issue where the editor is likely to be closely interested in the same field.
That doesn't really say anything about quality, though, it's just that a journal that publishes general basket weaving papers all of the time may not find your specific underwater basket weaving paper to be of interest to the broad journal readership, but when they're preparing a strictly underwater basket weaving issue, their expected target audience shifts a bit.
There is another category of special issue, though, which are those in lower quality journals where they've somehow snagged an editor to be a special issue paper wrangler or just have one special issue after another to try to convince authors to commit to that journal by making it seem like this is their special chance. These are just money grabs and the editors have other motivations than quality. Stay far away from those journals, but further away from their aggressive special issue editors.
As for papers I read, I can't recall ever paying a cent of attention to whether they were published in a special or regular issue to decide whether it was worth reading.