text:
What does it mean upon budgetary approval?
I was going through one advertisement for the Tenure track position. The job advertisement has written something like this: What does it mean?
Effective Date of Appointment: August 23, 2023 (Subject to Budgetary Approval)

It means somewhere some budget isn’t finalized so there a chance nobody is hired because the money for the position never materialized, or the date of appointment may be pushed back because not all the money materialized.
This is a pretty standard disclaimer clause and so not much to worry about.  It does happen that positions are pulled because of budgetary issues but rarely, and when this happens the university has the black eye since such actions are likely to impact future recruitment efforts. I mean: if you advertise X years in a row and the position is always pulled, who will apply in year X+1?

Right. Basically at our uni they can cancel the search at any point, but usually when they have done so the cancellation only applies to positions where no offer has been made. So it is always an incentive for our department to move as quickly as possible!

It means that the job might be offered or not, depending on money being available. It is an ad for a "possible" position, but not a definite one.
This is probably necessitated by uncertainty of various kinds, such as legislative action at a US State university.
They can't make a definite offer, most likely, until the uncertainty is resolved, but they can look at candidates.
If the place and the position are interesting enough then it might be worth considering, but don't give up other opportunities "hoping" it will work out.

so the budget typically is on june/july, so even if I get the offer it will not be finalized until june/july ? why candidates would be interested in such jobs !!!

What a waste of time.  In many cases, they would ask for letters of recommendation as well.

You probably won't get an offer. They might express strong interest. Don't put off other opportunities, of course.

@Prof.SantaClaus, their alternative might need to be waiting for the next cycle. Sub-optimal at best.

@Chobi I don't know where you are applying, but in most places in the US the alternative would be to just fire you ("lay off") before you've even started, and there's nothing illegal about that - if there's no money to pay you with they don't need to pay you, the only thing you legally need to be paid for is work you've actually done. When interviewing I'd recommend asking about the budget prospects, it's possible it's a disclaimer for a rare event or it's possible that it's a stretch to fund the position at all.

In my state the legislature alternates between a 30-day session in January and a 60-day session in January-February. So with the normal faculty hiring rhythm they would prep an add and start advertising before the session. Often with good odds on the funding being approved, but it isn’t guaranteed.

@JonCuster +1 for the good odds.

@JonCuster so at your institution, funds got approval in February ?

The final budgets for state universities get approved in January or February of each year, yes. I'm not at a state university, so my institutions fiscal year is different. But I still know the legislature calendar...


text:
How can I deal with being overwhelmed with large/not very concrete tasks and little support as an undergraduate?
I'm an undergraduate doing research and I have some friends in a similar field who also started in a close timeframe. While my friends have very detailed and concrete tasks (e.g. watch X lecture, do X assignment, read X book to build up to X project/X paper) I don't get quite as much support and feel a bit overwhelmed with having to complete a single large task at a time (e.g. read X paper, do X project).
I would communicate how I feel; however I recently started and I don't know if it would make sense to communicate with my (grad student) advisor about this since of course I should be familiar with content for courses I already took (which for the most part I am but I still feel a bit lost) and it appears that my advisor wants me to learn any new content on the spot.
How can I get over this feeling of being overwhelmed by a large task? It feels rather difficult to break into small tasks, and I can just feel myself falling behind day by day and feeling less motivated to work on my project.

You should talk to your supervisor about it (no matter your familiarity with the material; research is a very different beast to coursework). Since they are a postgrad it is likely they don't have much supervisory experience. They need to learn when to provide more help and when to back off. It's perfectly reasonable to say something like "I don't know where to start; can you help me break the task down into steps?"

I don't think "read X paper" should been seen as an unreasonable request, though it might depend on field. I had to read a lot of papers just in my undergraduate coursework. "Understand all the implications of every word in this paper", on the other hand, is often too great a task for a senior professor.

Yeah, I guess that's fair to say. I think I mean in the sense that there was a difference in the level of understanding I had and the level I needed to discuss them.

@Revise If I asked an undergraduate to read a paper, I'd be very happy if they came back to me with an explanation of what they understood and what parts they are stuck on, especially if they can articulate clearly where those boundaries are and show they've made some effort to understand. That may include looking at other papers referenced by the one you're reading.

Your question is how to deal with feeling overwhelmed when approaching a large research task, and you have rightly identified that the best way to do this is to break the task down into small steps. It seems that the root of your problem is that you are unsure how to do this, and it sounds like your supervisor is not giving you much guidance.
A few general thoughts:

Always communicate as openly with your supervisor as you can. Their job is to help you, but they can't do that unless you tell them about the problems you are having.
If your supervisor is a postgrad, they probably don't have much supervisory experience themselves. A more experienced supervisor can usually tell when they need to give more guidance and when they can back off, but your supervisor is still learning how to do this. This makes communicating with them even more important.
Research and coursework are very different beasts. You can be the top in your class at solving textbook exercises but still struggle when it comes to research, precisely because of the difficulty you have pointed out: research has no clear defined steps or known answer. This often makes working out how to approach tasks difficult, so you are not alone in this problem. However, you generally get better at it with time and experience.

In summary, talk to your supervisor. It's perfectly fine to tell them "hey, I'm really having trouble knowing where to start on these big tasks. Can you help me break it down into small steps?".

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text:
How to pace myself on a project with no deadline?
I'm an undergraduate working on a project that's been in a backlog, so there isn't a real rush to get the project done or any sort of tangible deadline. The way things work at least from what I could gather is I meet with my advisor based on if I have questions or make progress.
I've been able to get myself to do some things like break the project down into tasks, diagnose and fix technical issues on my end, and familiarize myself with the scaffolding code/outline the implementation for my own project. However, I often find myself delaying my tasks due to other responsibilities, and these delays further demotivate me, and so on, creating a "shame spiral" of sorts to where I just end up getting nothing done.
This also makes me fear reaching out to my advisor any more as I've barely gotten anything done and I fear asking for help. I've had some research interviews in the past where I didn't know something and the grad students/professors rejected me on the spot, so I feel like reaching out for something trivial will just end up in me not being able to continue research. Does anyone have any advice on how to pace yourself and set deadlines?

By comparison, are your classmates getting ahead of you? What are you missing out on by not wrapping up what you need to deal with now?

There are a couple of ways to increase your productivity. The typical solution is to set aside some time each day (or week) to work on a particular problem. Keep a schedule list in a planner and stick to it. This works for some, but it isn't my preferred solution, actually.
Another way is to try to take advantage of "dead time" when you are waiting or things are boring; riding a bus, perhaps.
Get a small pocket sized notebook that you can dedicate to this project (or a set of projects) and carry it everywhere along with a pen. I prefer this to an electronic solution. In fact, my notebook is actually a small set of index cards held with a binder clip. Whenever things get boring or some idea occurs to you, pull it out and make a notation, perhaps on a new card or the back of a related card.
You can use cards to summarize groups of other cards and use them to transfer good ideas to the permanent record. You can also discard bad ideas easily.  But just reviewing the cards you carry with you is a good way to jog your brain into action by recalling where you are at the moment in the project.
There is a fuller description of this "Hipster PDA" at this answer to a different question on another site here.

The latter idea sounds really interesting. I'll definitely try to implement it; thanks for bringing it up. Also gives me a way to make use of the extra index cards I bought.

Think about different colored cards, also. Different projects or different aspects, or whatever.

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text:
Assistant professor (tenure track) netherlands
How long, it usually takes to hear back after the campus visit for assistant professor position in Netherlands?

I don't think there is any "usually" here - it will depend on multiple factors (including whether you were the first or last candidate interviewing, how many layers are still involved in making the final ranking, etc.).
On the bright side, I think it would also be perfectly fine to send an e-mail to your contact person at the university to ask whether they have a timeline for the decision making. No one will be offended or think that strange I think, if you just mention that you are curious.

Thanks very much. Maybe I will send a follow-up email..


text:
Is there any room for negotiation on my PhD program stipend offers?
I am excited to have been accepted to a few PhD programs in public health. The two top contenders have both offered me full tuition remission, a stipend, and health insurance, but there is a difference in the stipend offers of about 4.5K between the two (with the lower amount being a bit more than $27K). The program with higher stipend offer (which is perhaps a bit less well-known in the field) is also applying on my behalf for an additional university scholarship to augment my stipend. In conversation with my prospective adviser at the program with lower compensation I was told that the stipend amount was limited due to federal regulations, but I am wondering how I have been offered a higher amount at the other program, which is also funded through an NIH grant. I will be speaking with the adviser about whether there's any wiggle room in the compensation, but wanted to get perspectives on 1) what factors might underlie this difference, 2) what I might ask for to offset this difference should I want to accept the lower paying offer, and 3) what discretion the university and adviser may have to help me out.

Don't forget to consider cost-of-living. $27k sounds like the standard NIH PhD stipend. Institutions can supplement NIH stipend levels if they want, but may or may not have the funds to do so. In high-cost areas, they may feel it's necessary to offer more to everyone because it's not possible to live near the institution at the NIH rate. That said, an extra $4500 a year probably isn't going to cover the cost difference between living in, say, NYC versus Champaign, IL, and the smaller number could actually be the more comfortable living.
Another thing to look at is any fees you are required to pay: ordinarily if you're on an NIH-funded stipend you're going to have tuition remission, but there may be separate fees that graduate students still need to pay out of their stipend. When I was a student these were in the range of $500 per semester, but vary by institution.
There's rarely room for negotiation beyond what is offered, though I've known some programs who have a little "slush" money they can use to woo candidates they are especially interested in. Any substantial money available would likely be used in other ways, though: admitting another student, for example, or to fund students near graduation when other funding falls out from under them. I don't think it's bad to ask, especially if it will contribute directly to your decision making process, but it's also not a place where you want to use the negotiation strategies advertised for people taking jobs in industry.

No doubt the program “less well known” also realizes it must sweeten the deal if they are to attract top candidates.

@ZeroTheHero Could be, and seems logical, but not something I've heard of specifically in my area (e.g., in offers given to people I know). "Lesser program" and "has spare cash" tend to not go so well together, whereas the top programs likely see themselves as competing amongst each other for the very top of the top candidates. For a comparison check, I compared Harvard and MIT to Boston University in my field: MIT has the best, followed by Harvard, then BU. All three offer more than the NIH standard, probably because the Boston area is expensive to live in.

Instead of directly money, some universities also offer (or can offer) other benefits such as paid-for housing

Just to add a bit more detail, my institution sets stipend bands for graduate students, with higher rates for "experienced" students, in our case, ones who are on PhD candidate status. My department negotiated to pay all students the highest rate that the university will allow them.
You might look into the specific university's pay regulations to see if there are university/college rules that will constrain your PI. If they are already maxed out, there's not much your PI can do.
Academia likes to build in layers and layers so everyone has someone else to blame.


text:
Letter for Advisor's Promotion
I've been asked by my former department to write a letter for my doctoral advisor's promotion. What kind of information do departments typically want in these letters?
They specifically asked to mention any areas for improvement. While I got along with him very well overall, I can, with hindsight, see some areas in which he could improve. To what extent would this hurt his chances for promotion?
Thanks!

I would definitely check with a trusted insider whether they actually want to hear "areas for improvement", or if this will be a kiss of death. This sounds like the kind of thing an administrator would write.

I second @xLeitix's concern that actually doing what is suggested, in terms of "areas for improvement", could have a fatal effect. Even if you do think there is room for improvement, often in such situations there is a severe inflation of praise, and code about negatives... so don't get drawn into answering in artificial ways.

I agree with @xLeitix about the need to be cautious, but I have to say, it would be a severely dysfunctional department in which the request for a letter of recommendation isn’t meant to be read as literally as possible. Generally when we ask for letters and ask the writers “please comment on X, Y, and Z”, we consider the letter helpful if it actually comments on X, Y, and Z. By contrast, a letter that only comments on X would make me wonder if the writer has some ulterior motive for not discussing Y and Z. At the very least, it is unhelpful, and could potentially even hurt the promotion case.

@DanRomik I agree if this request indeed comes from an academic, but administrators being out of touch with academic reality happens even in departments that aren't particularly dysfunctional. And requests for promotion material are often send by an administrator (at least at my university).

@xLeitix I stand by what I said. A department that invites people to write a letter of recommendation asking for something and expecting them to read between the lines and write something else is, by definition (at least by my definition) severely dysfunctional. I’m not denying that such departments exist of course, hence the need for OP to be cautious.

@DanRomik ok, we are clearly talking about different things. Here in Sweden people usually mean secretaries, HR assistants, etc. when they say "administrators", not academic management such as department heads. And all formal processes, including promotion, go through this type of administrators (most importantly HR staff), who handle most of the procedural aspects - which includes soliciting letters and external reviews.

Write about what you know and don't speculate. Because of the power imbalance, let others (professors) speak about improvements.
Think about whether you have had a good experience and whether you would recommend him to other students. Make it personal. If some sorts of students might not thrive with this prof and you wouldn't recommend they work with him you can say that.
Be honest, but don't stray too far outside the limits of your relationship.
From a student I think that is all that is expected.
If you think he needs improvement, speak to him about it, privately. And preferably after you finish. "I wish that ..."


text:
Stepping around student religiosity
In the not-too-distant past, I was teaching a course on cognition and language. One class focused on language and communication in different species. A student later emailed me to ask a number of clarifying and follow-up questions. One of which was "If God wanted animals to communicate, why wouldn't He just have them talk"? This student was an international student from a country where religion is a much more prominent component of public life, so - for lack of a better phrase - I took it as a good faith question that would have been pretty normal back home. I don't think it's my place to put forth my theological views, I don't teach anything close to religion/theology, so I answered the questions that I could and ignored the religious question. Is there a better way to have handled this?
Thanks

You were correct in not engaging in religious argument in an academic setting. But a valid answer, that is probably acceptable to most people, whatever their faith, is, "I don't know. Your question is outside the realm of science."
If further asked, "What do you believe?", you can say that it is a private matter.
Unfortunately too many religious discussions end up here.

If you want, you could go on to address the variant of the question that (perhaps?) does have a scientific answer: why haven't all the different species evolved to communicate in the same way? What are the (dis)advantages to various forms of communication? "This question has religious and scientific aspects. I can't comment on what God might think, but..."

@avid, unlikely, though, that someone asking the first question would bring up evolution. It has a creationist sort of slant. I'll note that some (fairly) early hominids (Homo Erectus, I think) didn't have the gene that makes language possible. But they seem to have had communication since they were able to cooperate in some advanced (for the time) technology. Making seaworthy watercraft, for example, in the Mediterranean and maybe Asia.

Many secular universities have theology faculty.  You can suggest that your students ask them theological questions.  This is the same as if I, a physicist, when asked about human perception of sound, suggested that students ask you.

The "authority" you send them to might also be a non-academic religious authority. It is likely that they can supply their own, I think.

Answer: "I have no idea why you are bringing this up here. Speculations on motivations of hypothetical omnipotent beings are not part of this lecture".

I worry a bit that the person asking the original question might take this as insulting. It expresses a certain disdain for their beliefs. It seems quite different from suggesting that religious advice should come from religious authorities.

@Buffy No, it does not express disdain for beliefs. It expresses that religious belief has no place in a scientific lecture. It was not the teacher who transgressed the boundary, it was the student. If re-establishing the boundary hurts his feelings, his/her problem. Unscientific behavior must be clearly named in a science lecture.


text:
Is it possible to hide files on OSF?
Is there a way or option to hide a particular file in a repository on OSF (Open Science Framework) from users who access the repository with a view-only link?

So you want to be open without being open? What is the use case?

Would this work with component-level privacy settings as described here?

@JonCuster, the use case is that there are pdf files revealing the authors' names, which should be excluded from blinded review where the reviewers only receive a view-only link.

Unfortunately, the solution suggested by @Anyon does not work for hiding individual files from people with access only via view-only links.

Is not the solution to not upload such files until after acceptance of the paper?


text:
Can I become a US community college teacher on a UK Master's Maths degree, if so how?
I'm a British Masters student studying maths at university in the UK (one of the best in the country for maths right now). My boyfriend lives in California, and I have been looking to move to California (or the US in general) to be together. My passion is teaching maths and I am looking to become a community college teacher for Maths.
After I graduated with my Bachelor's degree, I attempted to become a qualified teacher for ages 11-18 (Secondary PGCE qualification) in school, but after 6 months of school experience I quickly found it was not for me and was crushing my wellbeing: the aspects of behaviour management, and disciplining/expectations of young students was a significant barrier to what I enjoyed - teaching hard maths. I did not finish the placement, but continued with the academic side and finished with a Postgraduate Certificate in Education Studies . I also took up 6 months of tutoring after finishing the placement.
During my Master's year I have taken on a part-time job as a first-year supervisor i.e doing small group teaching for first years, marking and discussing assignments etc.
All in all, my CV is looking as such:

A Master's Degree from a high quality British university
A Postgraduate Certificate in Education Studies
6 months experience teaching in high school
6 months experience private tutoring at high school level
1 year experience as a supervisor for first year university students

Would a community college even consider my application to some kind of teaching job? Would they support a work visa?
If not, what are my options? Do I need more experience before attempting to move to the US? Do I HAVE to do a PhD? Are there any other types of visas available?
Any help is much appreciated.

welcome. Please look over the tour for this site. You have multiple questions and, at least some of the questions, are duplicates.

Can you marry your boyfriend, in order to be authorized to work in the US?

You might also consider teaching at private schools, which may have a very different student body, one interested in calculus...

@RichardErickson It certainly helps! Just need the extra clarification of willingness to support visa, I can understand they may see a foreign masters applicant and think its too much hassle

@DimitriVulis We have discussed this, however we're both relatively young and haven't had the chance to properly live together, forcing a visa through marriage will be a last resort

@JonCuster I have considered this! However, exchange teacher programs usually require qualified teacher status and a couple years experience just for a chance

I think, getting authorized to work (legally) in the U.S. might be problematic. If you were authorized, then CC's would happily hire tou to teach as p/t adjunct, and maybe even f/t. But without authorization, to get a work visa, they'd need to show "labor condition" - inability to find anyone else to do the work, which doesn't sound plausible.

@DimitriVulis is this 'authorisation' what a visa gives? I've seen about H-1B visas too, not sure of their relevance compared to a standard work visa. Something about specific professional work including teaching

Yes, I mean H1B visa. US universities and even community colleges sometimes use it to hire non-US people with PhD to teach full-time. But they must jump through some hoops - advertize that they need someone to teach some courses, and show to the Department of Labor that they found no one, and so must hire this person. But for you, it would be hard to argue that no one else can teach CC math. Another  possibility is  O-1A ("genius") visa - unlikely, but think if you might possibly qualify.


text:
I was put on academic probation. What should I do next?
Sorry this is a bit long. I really need some advice and opinions on what to do.
Last year, I started my PhD program, but due to changing my field of study and suffering from anxiety, my grades during the first semester were very poor. These were mandatory courses that were not directly related to my field of study, and I'm not sure how bad my GPA was because it hasn't been released yet. However, I know that I didn't pass with a score of at least 3.0. As a result, I have to retake the courses in the upcoming academic year. The course instructor told me that they would give me an 'incomplete' grade, and I can fill in my final grade once I retake the courses next year.
Although my grades were poor last year, I still tried to perform well in my lab work because I wanted to make sure that at least I didn't mess up everything. I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder back (I'm an international student), and I didn't know how to seek treatment when I came here, also did not know that accommodations such as deferred exams could be requested based on mental health issues here. I could only get diagnosed with anxiety (my doctor here didn't agree with my previous diagnoses) and start taking medication after the last semester ended. This semester I'm making progress. I have been doing well in my classes and lab work, and I am still receiving my salary. Just when I thought everything was going smoothly, I received an email saying that I am on probation because of my poor grades from last year...
I'm feeling quite hope less right now. I accept responsibility for my poor performance last year, but is there any chance for me to argue or do I just have to accept the probation? The email regarding my probation did not mention my salary, only that I will not be able to participate in a minor assessment at the end of this semester (not the comprehensive exam) due to probation. I hope I should at least be allowed to take this assessment, as I am concerned that delaying it will only worsen my mental health...
Can you please advise me on what I can do?

Can you explain what "probabation" menas exactly? Also, don't you have written documents from your uni explaining this probation thing and whether you can or cannot argue?

You will probably have to accept the probation as graciously as possible and move on. It is not a good idea to try to argue in this kind of situation; you should imagine that the powers that be have a skeptical attitude toward you at the moment (which is essentially what the probation means) and trying to get out of things would likely make that impression worse. It seems that you’ll likely be fine as long as you perform better in the relevant courses next year, so focus on that.

This semester I'm making progress. I have been doing well in my classes and lab work, and I am still receiving my salary.

That's great! Sounds like this will solve itself when your GPA goes above the threshold. Not seeing a big problem here.

is there any chance for me to argue or do I just have to accept the probation?

What is there to argue about? You don't allege that the grades were incorrect, and I assume you are automatically put on probation when your grades are below a threshold. It sounds like your grades are getting better, so this problem should solve itself.

The email regarding my probation did not mention my salary...I hope I should at least be allowed to take this assessment

If you have questions about what academic probation means, it is appropriate to ask for clarification. But I do not recommend asking for special treatment.

First, as to moving forward successfully, I imagine that your Graduate School Office and your dissertation advisor will give you far better advice than what you can hope to find here. I also imagine that your university has the equivalent of an Academic Affairs Office, Student Affairs Office, or Counseling Services Office with staff who are professionally trained to advise students in exactly your situation.
Please avail yourself ASAP of the benefits from seeking out all of these services.
Secondly, as to accepting versus arguing against your probation limit, consider instead that a more important next step is to seek local counsel to help you sort through the complexities in your situation over the affected period.
Finally, for what it is worth, your situation is not unique (others have been there). It also sounds to be not yet hopeless. Your path out (e.g. to argue against the probation limit or to accept and move on) will become harder if not impossible to follow and/or may lead you to lingering self-doubts as you wait longer to ignore contacting the local offices at hand (versus seeking opinions here).


text:
How to exclude one OR either terms in Google Scholar
I am carrying out a meta analysis for my PhD using Google Scholar as well as Scopus and Web of Science. I am wanting to find all papers which document the presence of alien or invasive or non-indigenous or non-native or introduced species in kelp forests or kelp beds, excluding all aquaculture or mariculture papers, as well as papers that use the term "teacher" in order to exclude papers pertaining to My Octopus Teacher.
These are my search terms:
(("alien species" OR "invasive species" OR "non-native species" OR "non-indigenous species" OR "introduced species") AND ("kelp forest*" OR "kelp bed*") AND (-"aquaculture" OR -"mariculture" OR -"teacher"))
These terms have worked fine is Scopus and WoS, however Google Scholar seems to be having difficulty with the section: AND (-"aquaculture" OR -"mariculture" OR -"teacher")). This section works if I replace the OR with AND but my concern is that if I do that then I am only excluding papers that include all three of those terms rather than either of those terms.
Is there a way to rephrase that section or am I not using the boolean operators correctly in Google Scholar?
Thank you

These terms have worked fine is Scopus and WoS, however Google Scholar seems to be having difficulty with the section: AND (-"aquaculture" OR -"mariculture" OR -"teacher")). This section works if I replace the OR with AND but my concern is that if I do that then I am only excluding papers that include all three of those terms rather than either of those terms.

Replacing OR with AND is the correct thing to do.
If you want to exclude papers that include any of the terms "aquaculture" or "mariculture" or "teacher," that is equivalent to AND NOT ("aquaculture" OR "mariculture" OR "teacher"). By DeMorgan's Second Law, this is equivalent to AND (NOT "aquaculture" AND NOT "mariculture" AND NOT "teacher"). Translating this into Google Scholar's syntax gives AND (-"aquaculture" AND -"mariculture" AND -"teacher").

Thank you, this really helped. I also discovered that I needed to remove the brackets around "aquaculture", "mariculture", "teacher". Additionally it seems that Google Scholar cannot search more than one fixed/exact phrase (using AND) at a time so I've split my search into one with "kelp forest*" as a fixed phrase and similarly one with "kelp bed*" and that has given me a better result.

No scholar isn't quite as sophisticated as the others you mention for meta-analysis. So, it won't be quite as flexible. So long as you mention this up front in your PRISMA documents (presumably), it shouldn't matter very much. But no, I don't think there's an easy way to do this in scholar.


text:
How to give a pitch at a conference?
I am now attending (and presenting at) my first ever conference. I have already given the presentation of the paper. I received the following email:

Dear X,
your paper has been selected by the scientific committee as a nominee
for the  best short paper award.
Along with our congratulations, I would like to invite you for a 2-3
minute short pitch on the last day of the Conference. After the
attendants voting, the results of the single winner will be announced
on the final part of the Conference.

I have only a very vague idea of what a pitch is. And I am unsure what I am supposed to say/show.
Question 1: What should (and should not) be included in the pitch?
Question 2: Do you have any tips to maximize my chance for winning?
Question 3: Is this a common thing at conferences?

Re. question 1: Have you asked the person that sent you the message?

Yes and I haven't got a response yet.

Congratulations. This is a win for you even if you are not the eventual winner.
I can't answer your three questions explicitly, but have this advice.
Say you're thrilled and honored by the nomination.
Three minutes is a very short time. The audience won't know you or your work. So tell them what your paper is about (not necessarily what you discovered).
Practice once or twice with a timer. But don't try to memorize your talk.
Search elevator pitch.

Yes, "elevator pitch" is the way to think about this. :)


text:
Should you cite a summary in the introduction that's based on information to come?
If a paper starts off by saying:

"Technology X offers a number of advantages within Y, including A, B,
  C, D and E."

do benefits A-E have to be individually sourced if they are justified later in the paper? Should I try to find a review paper that supports the claim?

Could you please try to clarify this a bit? Is this about what you're aiming to demonstrate or about background or something else?

It sounds like you're asking two separate things here -- how succinct or complete you should be when writing your intro, and whether you need to cite a specific paper when referring to the advantages of X.  In which case maybe it would help to split this up into two questions.  Or, maybe you're asking whether in the intro specifically it's good to cite a source for a general claim about the advantages of X.  Is that it?

I think this depends on the technology you are writing about. For some cases, the advantages might be well known (Example: computers make it easier to do calculate complicated things) and would not have to be explicitly "proven".
If the benefits are not as perfectly clear in your field, you should definitely include a source on them. If you cannot find one which includes all of them, try to verify them indivually by providing a source or explaining why you consider them advantages (list reasons).
In case you show them to be benefits later in the paper, mention that you will do so later on. This clearly isolates them to be part of your work rather than a prerequisite.

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MSt in Ancient Philosophy at Oxford
I've considered applying to the MSt in Ancient Philosophy at Oxford, but I'm a little concerned that I don't quite fit the rubric of students attending the program. Having looked at the program's website quite extensively I've noticed that most of its graduates either studied Classics and Philosophy or studied focused on Classical philosophy as undergraduates. And of course, went on to get PhDs in Ancient philosophy all over the world.
I am currently a Masters student at Tel Aviv University working on German Idealism and French post-Structuralism and Deleuze and Maimon in particular. The only formal experience I have with ancient philosophy (aside from introductory courses) is a seminar I took last year on Plato's Republic. In the past year I've become very interested in ancient philosophy, and in Aristotle and the pre-Socratics specifically. The offering of courses on ancient philosophy at my university is lacking and I, therefore, thought that it would be a good idea to apply for a second Masters with said Oxford program.
Because my interests have so far focused on late modern philosophy, I have no experience at all with Ancient Greek or with Latin. Moreover, I'm not entirely sure that I would like to pursue a career in ancient philosophy specifically, but rather that the problems concerning philosophers like Hegel, Deleuze, Nietzsche and Heidegger cannot be comprehended and seriously thought through without familiarity with ancient thinkers (Aristotle and the pre-Socratic in particular).
Seeing as I have no experience with the language, not much formal training in the relevant philosophy, and will apply after having finished a Masters, I'm worried I might not be a good fit. From the website, it seems that the program is quite exclusive (only 8 students are admitted each year).
I would very much like to get some opinions and advice form anyone who has had similar experiences or is simply familiar with programs like this one.
While I don't have any experience with ancient languages, I still have time to study before applying, and I read both French and German at a reasonable level. (Also, my native language is Hebrew, which I suppose one could count as ancient language. I have no problem reading the Old Testament in the original.)
Thanks in advance!

You should either ask them directly or just apply to the program. Opinions here mean very little.

Since this program at Oxford is quite small, admission decisions might be strongly influenced by the opinion of one professor, and one professor's opinion could be extraordinarily favorable or extraordinarily unfavorable toward your unusual background. Maybe you can detect such opinions by looking at the professors' publications, but I can't.


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Statistics on the number of PhD/postdoc by Professor across fields/universities/countries?
I am wondering whether there are some available sources for statistics on the average number of PhD students and postdocs by Professor/supervisor across different fields, universities or countries?
I have the impression that some fields/universities favor a "chair" or "lab" system where one Professor supervises a large number of PhD and postdocs students, whereas others have a more "department" style with more Professors, but I haven't found any data/study that discusses this aspect?
Related yet distinct discussions on Academia:

How many PhD students does a typical STEM professor graduate during their entire career?
How many PhD students are too many?
Is it normal for universities to limit the number of PhD students a professor can supervise?

Funding constraints (which have country, field, and local factors) are very important.

Overall statistics are probably meaningless. There would be a vast difference, I think, between math and, say, organic chemistry. Moreover, in the lab situation, advising may be a shared responsibility. A PI there might be the advisor of record, but with little actual contact.


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Using a copyrighted figure for an article posted to a non-commercial preprint server
I need to use a figure from a published paper that is non open access, and copyrighted. What is the general advice for going about this? Do people tend to pay the fee for access to reproduce it? Or do you just not insert it into your preprint article? It would be difficult for me to not have it in my article, since it's the central framework I am using

Are you sure you need the figure? Can you not just cite it?

@BryanKrause the figure represents the theoretical framework I am using, it would be difficult to have the paper without it, as the whole paper is based on using this particular framework.

"Do people tend to pay the fee for access to reproduce it?" Paying for legitimate access to an article is a separate issue entirely from having rights to reproduce figures from an article.  You'll have to ask the copyright holder about reproducing their figure regardless of whether you bought access personally, viewed/downloaded it through a library with access, saw it on the researcher's personal website, etc.

If you're determined to include the figure from this paper in your article, you'll have to get permission from the copyright holder to reproduce it. Some journals allow free licensing through the copyright clearance center marketplace - you should check that first. If that doesn't pan out, large publishers typically have a licensing, reprints, and copyright department that you may be able to contact with your request.
If you can't secure a reprint license through those methods, you can always make your own figure based on the same data or concepts.

The copyright holder of the figure has exclusive rights to reproduce (reprint in exactly the same form) or adapt (reprint a version with elements added/removed) the figure. Paying the fee to access the article does not confer copyright. If you want to reproduce or adapt the figure, you need to get permission from the copyright holder, or else you can't legally do so.
What you can do is redraw the figure. Copyright covers the particular expression of an idea, but not the idea itself. You can take the original figure of a schematic or workflow or whatever it may be, and produce a new figure from scratch that represents the same information.


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Unresponsive/unhelpful supervisor with publication
I'm a recent master's graduate and I've been working on a journal article based on my master's thesis findings. I have never published before so I am entirely new to the process. My supervisor has agreed to publish with me, but is unresponsive to emails, late to meetings, and generally unhelpful with this whole process. It makes me feel uncomfortable because essentially I am allowing them to put their name on my work in exchange for publishing open access, since I am no longer a member of the university. In the beginning I welcomed this opportunity because I thought I would be able to learn something, but I've found myself to be completely alone in this. They haven't contributed anything expect very basic supervision, if that. All ideas were my own. I'm at a loss for how to proceed.

Do you actually need their help, other than the financial support of their institution? Giving up "open access" is an option at lower (possibly not zero) cost to the author(s).

Thank you for the response. That's a great question, and in truth, I don't. I wrote my thesis with minimal (almost no) supervision, and I'm learning as I go with this. At the core of the issue, is wanting to expedite the publication process to help with my PhD applications, as I've chosen a journal with rapid peer review. Although now I'm considering to change this.

Which field is this?

@gnometorule Thank you for the feedback. I completely agree about the importance of explaining the significance of the paper, and "selling it" correctly to the journal. However, at the moment it seems that I will be writing the cover letter to the journal editors myself. I am happy to acknowledge supervision, but contribution seems too much when all ideas were solely my own (theoretical direction, choice of methodology, analysis etc.) , and the only time I received any feedback on my work, was after I submitted the thesis to be marked.

@user2705196 The field is within the social sciences.

If the former supervisor isn't helping with the concepts/ideas/results of the paper, they should't be co-author.
Since you seem open to changing the venue, I suggest you follow up on that, especially if you don't actually need their help.
If you have a submitted paper to a reputable journal, but not yet published, you can include that in the CV and also offer to make it (privately) available in any admissions process.
But it would also be useful, for the long term, to have a talk (face to face) with the supervisor and discuss the issues. Say you are considering publishing it as sole author (with acknowledgement). See what the response is. They might just be too busy to offer help. But if the ideas and development are yours, then the credit should be yours alone.
I realize it is a bit of a tradeoff between having a published paper (still not guaranteed) and having a sole author paper in progress, so you need to make the final determination. Good luck.

Thank you very much! I will take your advice carefully into account.


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PhD funding Cambridge after supervisor contact
I contacted a potential supervisor for a PhD at the University of Cambridge via email (PhD was advertised on find a PhD). Surprisingly, the supervisor showed interest in me even after I had sent my CV in a follow-up email.
The PhD is competitively funded and he offered to help me with the application process to maximise my chances.
I am really not sure how to evaluate this contact. Is this a typical response that supervisors send to many students in order to get one candidate funded, or is it rather unusual? I am an overseas student so I am currently thinking about applying knowing that my chances are very slim. It would be great to hear from someone who had similar contacts!

It doesn't mean you are admitted, but your chances went up considerably. Not sure what else there is to say though ...

Heya, I work at Cambridge. Supervisor attitudes are however not university dependant, people are people. In any case, it looks like that person liked your CV and is willing to give you a hand on getting funding so you join. Stop listening to your impostor síndrome and trying to find excuses to believe it's not you, in particular you, that the supervisor seemed to like.

To add to the excellent general answer above, I would like to add some UK- and Cambridge-specific contexts.
Most UK PhD funding for international/overseas students is made available on a competitive basis. Across the whole of UK there is simply a much smaller pool of funding designated to students with an international/overseas status compared to 'home'/domestic/UK-based students. As a result, the potential supervisor can rarely decide solely; a multi-stage, committee-based approach is common. Navigating the process (see below) is nearly impossible without a supervisor already interested in you and helping you.
Most universities have set up competitive schemes to make sure that their limited international funding goes to the best international students that they can attract. To help the supervisors + admission tutors (and students), there are extensive lists of international qualifications to help decide whether a student has good qualifications. For example, here is the list from Cambridge: https://www.postgraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/international/international-qualifications
Note that these lists are institution-specific so another university may have markedly different criteria and cutoff points. If you are interested in doing a PhD elsewhere in the UK it is worth spending a little time checking the requirements for other universities.
For a good chance at securing PhD funding as an overseas student in internationally well-known universities in the UK, you need to ideally have undergraduate grades a comfortable margin above the standard for a first, which is short for "first class honours degree" in the UK system. The description of the PhD course might make some mention to "minimum requirements at 2.1" which is short for "second class upper honours degree", but ignore that. What the minimum requirements mean is that your application will be rejected immediately if it is not met, but it is far below what would get you through to the interview stage.
Assuming your CV states clearly that you are above the first class standard, and accompanied with a reasonable cover letter or email indicating why you are interested in that area of research, you will likely receive a friendly-toned email to invite you for a preliminary chat/interview, which I think is the stage that you are. I would still not worry about your chances at this stage. Take the opportunity to chat/email further with the supervisor and ask questions about the proposed project, talk at least briefly about your plans after PhD and figure out whether this supervisor can help you get to that envisaged future. If anything concerns you at this stage, raise it. If at this stage you realise you absolutely would not be able to work with this supervisor, thank them for their time and find someone else (can also be at Cambridge!)
Assuming the chat goes well and you are excited to work with this supervisor - great! But still a few more steps. You will now have to go through the process of actually applying to do a PhD and applying for the funding. Your application will get checked that it is above the minimum requirements. Then your application will get ranked with all the other international applications (across the department and university!) based on your grades, but also various statements that your potential supervisor will help you write, and possibly also your references, any publications and other achievements, etc.
From this ranking, they will shortlist a certain number of people to interview. Now this is the place where your chances can be slim. For a university such as Cambridge, which is very well-known, that list is always many times longer (I expect ~5-10x) than they have PhD student funding for. Everyone on that list will have first class+ grades and supportive statements from their potential supervisor and most of them probably would go on to be amazing PhD students somewhere. But to state the obvious key point: if you don't apply, you won't have a place on that list. Moreover, if you don't have the support of a supervisor, you won't have a place on that list.
If you get invited to the formal interview, that's great! Know that you are truly among the few already and that it is an achievement to get to this stage. My feeling is that by the interview stage, they probably interview no more than 2-3x the number of students that they have funding for. Your chances by this stage are no longer slim, but still not yet certain.
If you get to the end of all this and receive a funded offer: congratulations. It really should mean more than people realize but any academic at Cambridge/UK would know the magnitude of what you have achieved.
If you fall through some point in the process, you may still (in fact, most likely will) receive an offer, but it is called an unfunded offer. It may be tempting to take it up but really, unless you are independently wealthy and you "just want to go to Cambridge", don't. Doing a PhD is hard intellectual labour and can cause significant stress even when it all goes well, and you should be paid for your work.
Which brings me to the next key point: you should continue with your application, but you should also apply to places beyond Cambridge. If your CV is good enough to potentially get through the competitive process at Cambridge, it is likely good enough to get through the process elsewhere. Moreover, your chances of receiving a funded offer are unsurprisingly, higher elsewhere than at Cambridge.
Source: I am a UK-based academic and despite being relatively junior, have received a fair number of international PhD applications. I can say that what you have received is not a typical response (which in my case is actually "no thank you"), but it may be a more typical response for established academics (who would still reserve this response only to good candidates).
Good luck!

'Competitively funded' can mean a few things, but assuming it's the classification typically used on FindAPhD, this means that there are fewer funded PhDs available than PhD projects, and positions are assigned to the best candidates and the projects they choose.
In this context, the supervisor has a clear incentive to try and help people who are applying for their project - if one succeeds, it means the supervisor is getting a funded PhD student they wouldn't otherwise have gotten. So it would not be unusual for a supervisor to offer to support the application of candidates who are applying to such a scheme with an interest in their project.
That said, a bad PhD student can be worse than no PhD student at all, so the supervisor has at least some faith that you'll be able to make a useful contribution. But given the nature of competitive PhD schemes it's a much less strong signal than if the potential supervisor was also the decision-maker choosing who gets the position.

Agree, though few supervisors have time to waste - so if they actually do invest meaningful effort into helping you improve your application, that suggests they think you are competitive for a place. Of course, they might choose to support two or three people at this stage, knowing that (at most) only one of them will get a place.


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How to cite oneself as co-author without all names, for graduate school CV application?
I saw someone posed similar question before, but I would like to know for biostatistics/clinical trials papers, if my name is listed in the 10th authors, how should I cite the work without mentioning everyone's name to save the space on CV for graduate school application?
First author, second author, third author, my name, et al. "paper title" (1)
or
First author,..., my name, et al. "paper title" (2)
What about if I am on the 3rd author, or 4th author, I feel like format (1) can't tell whether I am really on the 4th author or later author? Thanks.

In your field, how important is author position beyond first, possibly early, and last?

There are two basic ways to do this, based on just how many names there are:

Choose a citation format that shows all the names, then highlight your own name with a bold or underline, e.g.:
Skywalker, L., Solo, H., Kenobi, O., Jinn., Q, Amidala, P., Maul, D., Vader, D., Binks, J.J., Palpatine, S. "High energy interventions from space facilities.", Journal of Space Combat, 1999.

Add an explicit note after the citation, e.g.:
Skywalker, L., et al., "High energy interventions from space facilities.", Journal of Space Combat, 1999. (Eigth author)

The first will work for anything under a few dozen authors, if you have the patience, and is nice because it will also let you show the senior authors at the end of the list. The second works fine for short author lists too, but is also the only real option once you hit 100+ authors or where you are part of a named consortium.

Yes, these are the best options. I have also seen e.g. "8th author of 23" to give slightly more information.

An alternative is to not clarify at all. If the section is called (or you call it) "My papers" and then you do Skywalker,L ,et al ."High... an reader would understand that you are in the "et al" part, I'd say.

@EspeciallyLime So if the authors are Kathryn Janeway, Chakotay, Tuvok, Harry Kim, Tom Paris, Annika Hansen, Kes, and B'Elanna Torres, then Annika Hansen would be "7th author of 9"?


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How much say does an associate professor have in accepting a foreign intern into his lab?
Let's say the professor had a lecture abroad and met a very keen and promising student there. He agreed on giving him a position as a student intern in his research at a university laboratory. It is completely outside of any publicly open positions but the prof seems to be very impressed by the student's smart questions and interest. However, apparently, it's the university who has the final say whether they will officially invite him or not. The university is Japanese. What are the factors upon which they make the decision? And what are the odds they will agree to that?
I am sorry if this question is off. It's torturous not to know if there is any hope or not.

Why not ask the professor in question how the process is going?

Had a similar experience lately, and the answer is: it depends on the university. Ask the professor.

Oh! May I ask how it turned out for you? I think it's better not to be bugging the professor too much yet, so that he actually tries.

It went well for me initially, but when we were ready for paperwork we ran into huge trouble (no good)... But yes that was all the university's fault, and the professor found that out for me actually.

It went smoothly after all. The university accepted the papers and I'm going for the visa process now.

Different schools have different procedures, but as far as I know, a formal offer of admission will come from an admission officer (or a graduate officer), not from a professor.
Usually, the most a professor can do is to recommend a student for admission to a program, and possibly indicate that she/he has already met the student.  The admission process itself is usually handled by a separate officer, which will check if all the admissions requirements are met.  Those might include various academic requirements, suitable background in the primary or a cognate field, language requirements etc.  (These requirements might be checked at the departmental level, and a recommendation then forwarded to the appropriate admission officer.)
In some cases, admission may depend on the availability of funding, so that a student who applies knowing a professor can guarantee funding has an advantage.
Funding is usually the trickiest part, but I am also aware of cases where a student had found a willing supervisor but the file was rejected on academic grounds.

Thank you for this perfect answer. Sounds like it really is not as easy as I was hoping for :(

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Should references to the appendix be removed from a camera ready paper?
It is not uncommon for conferences in say theoretical computer science to have a strict page limit for the camera ready version (like 12 pages). In addition, the original submitted papers might often contain perhaps even a long appendix.
The submitted paper might postpone proofs to the appendix, or say something like "due to lack of space, you can find this and that in the appendix". However, for the proceedings, it is my understanding that the appendix is completely omitted. I think I have often seen proceedings papers which make "forward references" to the appendix, but strictly speaking this makes little sense because there is no appendix.
So should one remove all references to the appendix in the camera ready version? Or do people typically not care, because it is understood that there is an arXiv version, or because a full version will appear later, or something else?

Welcome to Academia SE. Your question sounds like something that you better ask the publisher/conference. You can still ask here for what is better in case there is no clear guideline though.

As a general rule, papers should be self-contained. A reference to an appendix would violate this rule if the paper is distributed without the appendix.
Instead, a best practice is to have a reference to an extended version of the paper that includes the appendix:

The proof of this result is provided in [1].

A. Nonymous: How to write a paper (extended version). 2018. Available online at http://arxiv.org/some/url

The extended version would then have the same sentence, but with a reference to the appendix:

The proof of this result is provided in the appendix.

Using LaTeX, you can write: "The proof of this result is provided in \ifcameraready\cite{ExtendedVersion}\else the appendix\fi." (You'll obviously need to define \ifcameraready.) You can also wrap the whole thing into a macro \referenceappendix, which replaces the aforemention if-else-block. (The macro definition contains the if-else-block.)

Rather than the appendix perhaps use Appendix X, where X is the appendix number. (You can also write, [Appendix X, 1], which is \cite[Appendix X]{citationOne} in LaTeX, but I don't know how to replace X with \ref{refAppendixX}, since the appendix doesn't actually appear, so this is perhaps a little too much work.)


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Should I tutor a student who I know has cheated on their homework?
I am a Ph.D. student and I do private tutoring on the side for extra income. Recently a new student contacted me for help with a class, and I met them for one session, which went well overall. They told me they liked my tutoring and want to meet again. This student admitted that they are behind on the course material and are trying to catch up before the final (which is just about two weeks away). However, I recently realized that this same student is in another class which I am TA'ing, and I was grading the homework today and realized they copied the solutions for the last assignment. I had suspected they may have copied solutions to the previous assignment as well but was unsure. This time the copying is blatant, word for word from the solutions from a past year. At this point I have no choice but to bring this to the course instructor (who is also my advisor), who I know will report this student for plagiarism. My question is, should I still meet this student and tutor them in other classes?
A few thoughts that come to mind:

I now know this student is in the course I am TA'ing. I feel tutoring them for this course would be a conflict of interest, and I would have to clear it with my advisor. Is it also a conflict of interest to tutor them for a different course, knowing I will be grading their exam/homework for this one?
I enjoy tutoring because I enjoy helping students learn, and I do like to help people succeed. In our previous session this student seemed interested in actually learning, but clearly has shown that they are willing to blatantly plagiarise homework solutions. While I do rely on my extra tutoring income, it feels unethical to tutor someone who cheats. At the same time, I would like them to be able to understand what they are doing so they don't feel any need to cheat. But this student also said they have not attended class in recent weeks (for what reason I do not know).
If I meet this student again, I will have to tell them that I have reported them for academic dishonesty. This isn't exactly an issue though, they can decide what they want to do from there.

Run.  This is toxic.  You've already made a mistake that could get you into trouble.  Go to your advisor or whoever oversees the TA's and tell him everything as soon as possible and before you communicate with this student again.

To paraphrase Dr. House, "everyone cheats".

Perhaps with a decent tutor the student would have no need to cheat? IOW, do you want to be part of the solution or do you want to pile onto the problems the student already has? With that said, I agree with others that your grading this student's assignments/tests and accepting money from them at the same time is a major problem; so my 2 questions probably aren't very applicable directly to you.

@Dunk I agree, the primary issue is the conflict of interest, if not for that then I likely would still agree to tutor this student.

@ASimpleAlgorithm I refuse to believe Mr. Rogers, Carl Sagan or Alex Trebek cheated at anything.

As a side note, you should really suggest that your professor stop assigning the same exact questions year after year.

I once saw a statement promulgated by a dean on the topic of academic honesty, that began by saying students are presumed to have a "serious learning purpose". And all postsecondary institutions in the U.S.A. and Canada and probably most of Europe actively encourage students to enroll for other purposes, just because they bring in money. The consequences of that form of cheating are far-reaching, and sometimes I'm amazed that people don't see them. That's the big cheating problem. In the mean time, getting paid for tutoring by someone who's in a course you're grading should be avoided.

Whether their cheating should impact your role as a tutor is not the primary issue here, so I'll set it aside.
You should not be tutoring a student for additional money when you are also grading that student as a TA, even if the grading and tutoring are for separate courses. That sets up a financial relationship between a grader and a student. That's a big problem.
I certainly don't believe you've done anything unethical here, but you should most likely report the inadvertent conflict and stop tutoring this student immediately (I'd also offer to your superiors that you return any payment for the one session, or just do it yourself anyways). It's not a big deal that you did this accidentally not realizing the connection. It could be a problem if you continued with it now that you know.

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.

Stop tutoring them. They've already shown they don't play by the rules.  And this situation may "go sideways".  Disengage ASAP.  You don't want to get more enmeshed in this than you already unfortunately are.  Things can rebound and hurt you.  (Danger, Will Robinson, danger.)
Tutoring is very much a side gig and completely optional for both parties.  Disagree with the Buffy advice that you are obligated to continue.  I also agree with Bryan's comment about the conflict of interest even without cheating.  But I think the cheating situation raises the conflict of interest front and center.

-1 for several reasons: 1. Whether or not the student plays by the rules is not a reason for him not to be tutored. 2. If anything, getting a tutor means the student is trying to get his act together rather than continuing his "life of crime".

This is so funny.  Because he got a tutor, his same time frame cheating is changing?  With that theory, I guess if I get a gym membership after buying roids, it shows I want to lift clean!  Heck, if anything, I suspect that students that want/buy tutoring are (very, very mildly) correlated with students that cheat.  (Or at least orthogonal.  Definitely not anticorrelated.)  After all, they need assistance.

@guest your analogy is significantly different that einploklums point. A roider would benefit from gym membership, of course they would go. A cheater wouldn't really benefit from tutoring unless the goal was to know the material well enough to do tests without cheating, so it begs the question, why are they getting tutored?

Maybe, just maybe, we have a student who wants to pass his exams, but also wants to learn? Tutoring will make them better. It may not make them good enough to pass, so they may still cheat. But no matter what, the tutoring will benefit the student.

I mostly agree with @BryanKrauze's answer, but I'll strengthen the point further:

It is unethical to be the tutor a student whom you are also grading or otherwise evaluating as his/her TA.
It is doubly unethical if the student (or his family etc.) are paying you for this tutoring.

In both cases you are in a conflict of interests, being committed to the success of "your" student; in the latter case your commitment is more significant, since in a sense the payment is intended to ensure their success.
But since you're already conflicted, it's possible that it makes more sense for you to stop grading his HW (while continuing as a TA) rather than to stop tutoring him. I'd consult with the principal teacher for the course, or whoever is in charge of teaching in your department etc. - perhaps mention both options (not tutor him, not grade him).  You might also need to have your previous gradings of his assignments reviewed.
Finally, if you stop tutoring him, be kind - despite his cheating - and try to find an alternative tutor to take over for you, if you can, so that he can make a smooth transition. This is regardless of whether he is treated harshly or not for his cheating on a HW assignment in another course!

Let's see.  You have one position that pays more, helps more people, and is a primary task.  You have another that is self-sourced moonlighting.  And in that one, you're tutoring a cheater.  I vote for 86ing the cheater.  Keep your regular TA gig.

@guest: I didn't suggest not being a TA, just refraining from grading that one particular student. Like in the case of, say, a family member taking a class that you teach.

Both of your points are wrong; they are equivalent to the following ridiculous positions: 1. No staff member who has a part in grading can explain any course topics to a student except the grade allocation.  2. The aforementioned staff members cannot be paid.  The entirety of the conflict of interest here comes from the source of the pay.  There would not be a conflict of interest if the tutoring were sponsored by a university department, student organization, community education outreach, etc.

@BenVoigt: 1. "Explain" is one thing. A committed relationship as a personal tutor is something else. 2. Mostly agree with your point about the source of payment.

@einpoklum: A non-trivial number of students use regularly scheduled office hours to obtain personalized teaching not very different from tutoring.  Ditto help sessions.  But I don't think it's inappropriate for a TA (or the lecturer, or lab instructor) to have office hours simply because they have grading responsibilities, nor do they need to restrict questions to only those about grading policy.

@BenVoigt: I don't think office hours create a conflict of interests. But that's not like being engaged as someone's tutor. I've edited to (somewhat) clarify.

@BenVoigt The problem is the financial relationship or personal relationship, not the teaching.

I don't believe you have an ethical issue in tutoring them. In fact, there may be issues if you don't (because you may need to accuse them to justify it). But otherwise, you seem to be doing the correct thing in communicating with the professor and telling the student about what you have done. It won't make you popular, of course since no one likes being "ratted out".
But, if you can help them learn and, more important, learn how to learn, maybe they won't be as inclined to cut corners.
I also doubt that tutoring them in one course is in conflict with TA-ing them in another. Your professor, again, might have a different opinion, so you should ask. I don't think it is an especially difficult matter to keep the two relationships separate in a case like this.
In fact, while some commenters to this answer seem to think that accepting money to teach someone while also evaluating/grading them is a "clear conflict of interest" it is exactly what every professor does every day. If you can't handle that you are in the wrong profession.

Note that you haven't given the evidence that they copied in the other course. I hope you have considered other explanations as well. Two identical papers is cause for an investigation, but not necessarily charges. Publishing answers to questions and later claiming that "using the published answer, when the question is given again, is dishonesty" is malfeasance.

I don't agree with this answer at all.  "In fact, there may be issues if you don't."  What?  How could there be?  "It won't make you popular, of course." What is that -- peer pressure?  "I also doubt that tutoring them in one course is in conflict with TA-ing them in another." I feel strongly that it is, and probably the student should also ask university personnel about it -- just because the professor thinks it's okay doesn't mean others higher up in the university will too.  A professor is not an ethics master.

"Note that you haven't given the evidence that they copied in the other course."  Yes, of course the OP did.  What other explanation do you entertain for word for word copying from a previous year's solution sheet?  Anyway, the OP is not the one who makes the ruling on academic dishonesty: they did the right thing by reporting it.

@PeteL.Clark, I would still require more evidence. Was the "copying" a few words or a lot? Was it an obvious answer that has few ways of being stated or not? Was the "solution" itself copied from another source, such as a textbook? Why would a student copy from a published answer to a past question anyway? It makes little sense. And why would a question be asked in the next year when solutions were published in the previous one? I don't dispute that the student may be cheating, but I don't have the evidence, nor the rules applied. Neither do you.

Clear conflict-of-interest... "let's be real"...

And why would a question be asked in the next year when solutions were published in the previous one? — Because writing good problems is hard, and giving useful homework is more important than defending against cheaters.

A professor isn't paid directly by their students, and is not paid extra money for certain students - that's where the conflict is.

@BryanKrause, splitting hairs pretty finely.

@Buffy Huh? That's exactly where the conflict hair is split. The issue is preferential treatment or the possible appearance of such.

@JeffE: Professors are paid to do things that require work.  Giving the students well-known "useful" problems may be worthwhile, but the grading should reflect that they are optional.  If the student has a complete pre-existing answer to the homework problems, then by definition actually doing the homework is optional, because the answer can be obtained in other ways.

@BenVoigt Professors are paid to do things that require work. — Of course we are.  That's why I write as many new problems every semester as I do. And for me, that is one of the hardest parts of teaching.  But professors also only have a finite amount of time.

@BenVoigt Making problems officially optional would considerably decrease their usefulness.  Yes, of course, students can cheat themselves out of an opportunity to practice (otherwise known as "actually doing the homework") by copying someone else's solution. But if they do cheat themselves out of practice, they won't do as well on the exams, which exercise the same skills.  And they're adults.


text:
In UK, is the advertised salary range before or after tax?
I've been offered a faculty position at a British university (Russel group). I'm slightly confused about the pay/salary. specifically, my questions are:

I understand the single pay national spine (which is a point system), but each institution decides what point range would correspond to the grade of the post? for example, while at institution A, a point 44 position would be in grade 7, at institution B it would be grade 8? Is this a correct understanding?
I found from UCU the spine for 2017-2018, for the point that I'm assigned, i see that my stated salary is a lot LESS than what is stated on this chart (and I've checked with my university, they do use this single spine chart). Therefore, I was wondering if the salary they told me is in fact AFTER  income tax and national insurance (NI)? (i.e. the £ they quote me is in fact what I take home?). Or is this my wishful thinking? Or am I reading the wrong chart?

I've seen other posts on here noting that salary in the UK is not that negotiable (compared to north America). I was wondering if this is still true? for the record, I've already inquired with the University and they told me they've already assigned me the highest points possible given my experience.
Mostly I'm just trying to understand this pay grade and point system so I can make realistic calculation for my living arrangements.
thanks!

The amount of tax you pay depends on a personal circumstances. So if an employer posts a wage range for an employee that they hope to find, so don't know yet, then they obviously cannot compute the take home wage. They can obviously make a guess, but for them it is much safer to just report the gross wage. That is something they have direct control over. This prevents future employees being disappointed if they need to pay more tax than anticipated. Employees being disappointed about wage is no fun for all involved. So, if you can prevent that, then that is worth it.

What is the title of the job you have been offered. It is "lecturer" or is it something else?

Yes. Internal "grades" usually don't transfer between institutions.
I have just compared my (Russell Group, UK) university pay scale against the UCU one you link to and it is identical. That scale is gross, before tax, pay. I would expect net, take-home, pay to be about 30% less (after PAYE tax, National Insurance, and pension).

It is usual that the best I would expect you to be able to negotiate is one or two points on the spine system, in my experience.

thanks! is the single pay spine a requirement? or the university is allowed to not follow it? I found another table from my university that "includes on-costs", it lists the salary that I was quoted, the NI, pension, etc. and combined to give a new figure, YET it still is less than the UCU chart, I don't understand. I want to ask the university but don't want to appear rude. I understand that academia in the UK pays less than it does in North America, but when I do my budgeting I find that it's kind of hard to live on the salary they quote me. hence am trying to understand. what do people do?

I thought the single pay spine is a requirement. Some universities might be slow at giving nationally-agreed pay rises, but that chart is from August 2017 so it's unlikely it's that. Some universities do some tax tricks which means that the cash value of the deductions plus the actual net salary doesn't match the gross, but that should again work in your favour. I think you'll need to talk to HR/Finance to get them to explain, here: that should be part of their job.

@PandaPants: The single pay spine is compulsory for any university that either recognizes the any of the unions in the Joint Higher Education Trade Union National Claim (JHETUNC) or is a member or the University and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA). As far as I'm aware that includes all Russel Group Unis. At my uni I would expect junior faculty to start at grade 8 (people with principle responsibility for both research and teaching), which covers points 37-43 (up to 47 in exceptional circumstances) which is £39,992-£47,722 before tax.


text:
Typical start date for lectureship (UK context)
I received an offer for lectureship at a UK university. Their academic year starts in September. Usually (as far as I've seen), new faculty members start ~ 1 month prior to the start of the academic year. However, they want me to start 3 months prior  (basically before summer begins), citing the reason is for me to get used to the new environment and meet new colleagues (which would really only require 1 month if even that!).
My current position (fixed term) doesn't end until much later. And I have plenty of time to hand in my notice (although I rather finish my whole contract, just to tie things up nicely). All the same, I'm quite surprised by this very early start date. I reached out to the University and tried to negotiate with them, but they seem very firm on this (I didn't push because I was afraid they will rescind their offer, which I know is unlikely to happen in the US but this is the UK context so could be different).
No where on the original post advert mentioned a start date (or time). It's my bad that I didn't ask during my interview (as I just assumed).
My questions are:

is it typical in the UK to ask your new recruit to start so much
earlier? If not, should this be considered a warning sign? what
could be the real reason? They want to put me to work right away?
Can I negotiate (further) on this (How far can I push it)? and what
could be my leverage (I see none). This really early start date
feels rushed, not to mention it will be insane in terms of
relocating (and also breaking the lease on my house).
Thank you!

It wouldn't surprise me if this is related to REF 2021

@StrongBad ohhhh, you mean staff have to be at the institution for x amount of time to be included in the submission?

Possibly, or they want a peer review of the submission, or they need to count staff for impact statements (if those are still a thing).

@StrongBad, ah I see. this is totally valid reason, why won't they just tell me?!

(A comment not an answer, since my recent experience of UK academia is all second-hand and as such I’m not very sure of it.)  No, in my impression this is not typical at all!  It’s not hard to imagine good reasons, like @StrongBad’s suggestion, but it seems weird that they wouldn’t tell you, and their stated reason certainly doesn’t seem to justify the firmness.  Do you have some personal contact you could write to to ask about this, or perhaps phone/skype, in case the issue is that they don’t want to mention the real reason in writing (if e.g. it slightly conflicts with official policy)?

@PLL, thanks for your comment. I don't like the fact that they won't tell me the real reason, it's not a good feeling when you are about to commit for life (well for a long time anyway) to the university.

@PandaPants: I agree, it’s a bit disconcerting.  I would really suggest trying to bring it up in conversation (over a call or Skype), since if the reason is sensitive or complex it may be much easier to explain verbally than in email.  If you have a personal contact who’s sufficiently involved, that’d be ideal, but if your personal contacts don’t know the reason then I’d suggest asking someone directly involved in the negotiation (e.g. the head of dept) for a call to discuss this point.  If they still can’t either compromise or offer a better explanation, it seems a bit of a red flag.

@PandaPants A year ago I was giving you a suggestion on how to write a short bio when you were "unemployed after 1st postdoc" and now you secured a Lectureship! Congratulations! (even if this sounds a bit dodgy - my UK uni is much more flexible I think - so no, not typical, but can't think of any other suggestions to offer, so, not an answer, and mostly just wanted to say gratz since I remembered you name from that question a year ago)

@penelope thank you! I also remember your giving me the panda theme suggestion! (obviously I didn't end up getting that job, perhaps I would have if I'd gone with a panda theme presentation! anyway thank you for the input here. I just want to get a feel of what is the norm and the very helpful community here on academia did just that. :-) obvi. I'd hope more people out there can also pitch in and let me know what they think of this situation.

1) Doesn't seem too strange. I agree with @strongbad: it's probably an attempt to get your research productivity into their REF schedule. May also relate to when they set their teaching curriculum.
2) It's appropriate to push back. At worst, they just stick to their original offer.


text:
I have excellent grades in my upper div math courses. Due to personal events, my Calc I grade is a C. How will this affect my graduate admissions?
I am an undergraduate pure maths major looking to attend graduate school in pure mathematics.
At my first college, I had a fairly traumatic first semester that led to, among other things, a C grade in Calculus I.
Throughout the next two semesters, I received A grades in all of my math classes, and transferred schools (so that the Calculus I grade in my older school still shows up on a transcript, but it does not factor in my cumulative GPA at my new school). This includes A grades in upper division analysis and algebra. My current cumulative GPA at my new school is 3.85.
How will my poor grade in Calculus I reflect on my admissions into top universities for graduate school?
Thank you.

High grades in more advanced math classes should outweigh that grade in Calculus I.

It totally depends on the competitiveness and the regulations within the admission committee.
Usually, there are several possible criteria (not counting recommendation letters, statement of intent, etc) regarding student's grades that are taking into consideration:

Overall GPA
GPA for a specific group of subjects that are essential for a graduate program (say, GPA for STEM classes)
Grades in individual courses.

Grades for individual courses are usually considered by a potential advisor who looks deeply into the students he wants to add to his group. In that case, the situation will depend on the pool of potential candidates to his group and him believing that more advanced math classes outweigh Calculus I (@GEdgar) - which is a very reasonable assumption.
The priorities of criteria 1-3 can be shuffled depending on the admission process; however, there is nothing that you can do about your past grades. Moreover, I would lean towards the opinion that your situation is totally fine – a lot of students have bad periods during their degrees. In your case, it is limited to only one subject Calculus I. Nothing to worry about.
One thing that you still might consider is to reflect on this fact in your statement of intent (or some other document in the application package). You can view this situation from a very positive angle and highlight your best qualities. But in your situation, I would say, even this is unnecessary.


text:
Role of ongoing work when starting a postdoc
This coming year I'm going to be starting a quantitative post doc in the United States after finishing a PhD.
Is it typical that I will be expected to fully stop all of my PhD work while I'm at the post doc so that I can focus on the new work there? If not, to what extent? For example, is it often considered inappropriate to maintain a pre-existing collaboration?

This depends only on the local expectations. We can't give you permission if your PI does not. Ask them. In general, the answer could be yes or no.

Yes, heavily depends on your advisor - mostly on the extent to which they see you either as a their worker bee, or as a future leader that they aim to guide towards reaching their career ambitions (differs largely, often it's something in the middle).

While what you both say is true, it's not at all uncommon (unlike industry) and I think a blanket refusal would almost be a red flag re: the new environment.

As a supervisor, there's an element of 'paying it forward' here: at some point you'll leave my lab and go work somewhere else. No doubt there will be things that need finishing then, so it's in my interests to let you finish stuff now.

Your question has several aspects and I am answering for each of them separately:

Maintaining pre-existing collaboration is welcome in academia if not mandatory to get tenure. When applying for new positions, you might even be asked how large is your network and how it can help us.

You cannot just cut off your PhD work of your area of expertise. You spent years of research and you pushed the state of the art further to deserve the PhD and you got a postdoc position on this basis. You are required to use the knowledge you gained to develop new ideas and push the state of the art further and further.

You did not mention whether your postdoc position is in a project (paid by the grant) or paid by the university. For a university position, you have more freedom and independence in doing research but for a project position, you need to accomplish what is promised in the project proposal. However, there is always room to do independent research, which is highly recommended for postdocs. I have no doubt that your supervisor would support this idea as (s)he is supposed to care about the progress of his/her team members and because it opens new research prospects

If your area of research in your postdoc time is different than that of your PhD, it is even better because as a postdoc, you are still building a career and a research profile and it can be in an interdisciplinary field.

Not sure how all of the points generalize, but from my experience

If you're in the mid of an unfinished project (paper), you should tell your new advisor about it. Depending on the priorities both of you agree on, either you keep spending most of your time on that, or you do it at the side of the new main topic you're working on. Offer the new advisor authorship and involve them, even though they may refuse in the end.
For subsequent papers with your former advisor as a collaborator the same holds, discuss with the new advisor what they want you to spend your time on. It is nice to retain the collaboration and remain on good terms with them, but the one who pays your salary decides how to spend your working hours (they might be limited in this by a project grant from which you're hired). Things may be more flexible if you obtain your own personal grant.

I think it is normal for a postdoc to work on multiple projects at the same time, so for example an ongoing collaboration can be combined with other ones.

When I started my PhD I was in the middle of my MSc project which we had not finished.
I spoke to my MSc supervisor and he suggested that it would be better to stop the MSc work and start focussing on the PhD work.  I imagine the situation is similar here, so you basically need to ask your PhD supervisor what he/she would like to do next.

Here the situation is a little bit different as the PO is moving to post-doc. As a post-doctoral fellow, you may expect a little more freedom than at the moment of Ph.D. admission. Still, it is important to discuss all this with your new employer (and gauge his/her expectations).


text:
How would I reference a Linux man page in Harvard style?
I'd like to reference a linux man page, in particular the man bash page. This is accessed through linux command line by typing 'man bash'.
Any ideas on how I would do that..?
Here is my try:
In text: Free Software Foundation, Inc. (2018)
In references: Free Software Foundation, Inc. (2018) man bash. Available at: General Command Manual

You can reference a Linux man page the same way you would reference any software, since the manual is part of the software.

This is my try, based on citation principles, Open University's guide to citing software in Harvard format, and Mendeley's guide to core Harvard style.
In general, since the "man bash" page is a particular page, you may want to have the in-text citation specify that as the page/section. That will solve problems if you also want to reference the same manual about something else. Then you have just the more generic reference in the references section.
If this is the only manual citation:
In text: Free Software Foundation (2018)
In references: Free Software Foundation (2018) 'Bash manual page', Linux (Version X) [Computer program]. Available at [URL to get this version of Linux]. Copy of manual text available at http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/bash.1.html (accessed DATE).
If referencing multiple parts of manual:
In text: Free Software Foundation (2018, bash manual page)
In references: Free Software Foundation (2018) Linux (Version X) [Computer program]. Available at [URL to get this version of Linux]. Copy of manual text available at https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/ (accessed DATE).
Does the Free Software Foundation itself host a version of the manual online? That would be the ideal reference for the text. I realize that this response is kind of clunky, but it helps readers find what they need without having to download (your version of) Linux.


text:
What does 'substantial similarity' really mean?
I got puzzled by the definition of 'substantial similarity'.
Here is the case. I dealt with two related problems, say P1 and P2, that could be treated in the same mathematical framework. I aimed to show optimal appoaches to both problems. Perhaps more details:
P1: the optimality criterion was already there (which alone was an open problem for quite a long time, like tens of years) and the tool was also ready. So I'd like to say, if one realized the criterion and the tool, the problem could be solved easily following some standard techniques. But no one recognized this before.  In the paper, we examined three different approaches, with different preprocessing before applying the basic idea.
P2: the optimality criterion was not recognized. We proved it, which turned out to be of the same sense of P1 but still different. The tool for solving this problem was also not ready, and we proved it almost from scratch (like 5 pages long), which we thought as the most significant contribution. Some discussions and applications were also involved in the paper.
We did not find a unifying theme to put the two into a page-limited conference submission, while stating related aspects in a clear manner. We also believed each had enough contributions. So we submitted two papers to the same conference. Following the conference guidelines, we tried to rephrase some common preliminary in the two papers, and cited P1 in P2 for some common issues  and also for clearly stating the contribution of P2 over P1.
However, the two papers were deemed to be 'substantially similar' to each other. I searched for what it really means and what is a criterion, but failed. So can anyone share any experience on this? Maybe I just should not submit two related works to the same conference?
Thanks.

It seems to me that they have decided, for whatever reason, that they could not justify publishing both papers. The two papers are are too 'similar', the alternate method is not sufficient to justify publishing the same result twice (and it is really hard to argue agains this even in the case where the difference between P1 and P2 is significant and offers some interesting insights).
It may be simply poor/unclear presentation on your part or their failure to see the 'difference' you describe (Maybe you needed to `convince them' by giving explicit reasons on why both should be published, and why both methods are interesting).
Perhaps, depending on the field and topic, they were more or exclusively interested in the 'end result' and the 'interesting' background and detail regarding P1 versus P2 was beyond their interest.
It is possible that you could have chosen one or P1 and P2 and briefly discussed the other.

+1. I think this is exactly right. Both papers may have merit, but conference space is extremely limited. Two very different papers by the same author might find the same reception. You might pick one for the conference and send the other to a journal.

Thanks. I will submit P2 with brief discussion on P1 to a conference, and then put all details into a journal.

You could try submitting one if they will accept or you could consider writing one paper that deals with P1 and P2 as example cases for the method - that is, if I understood what you meant clearly.


text:
Is it ethical to post an exam question and answer to the internet?
I am a private tutor for (mostly) high school maths and physics students.
Recently a student came to me with an elegant little problem that he had been given on an exam. The problem was very short, and easy for him to remember, but he and others had found it difficult to solve. It required synthesizing the material he had studied in a way that required some creativity. (At least, at the high school level.)
I worked through the solution with him.
I create content (videos and papers) that I publish on the internet. I would like to share this intruiging application of high school precalculus.
Here's the concern: Does the teacher or whoever else who created the problem own the problem? Am I unethically making the problem useless for other exams or homework by publishing it? What if I alter it so that the process is the same, but the numeric solution is different? Do I need the permission of the problem's author to use it at all?
To be clear, it's not a "word" problem, but simply a "solve this interesting equation" problem.

Why not ask the student to ask the teacher, who might be interested in working on the web posting with you?

Another possible problem may be plagiarism.  That is: you publish the problem without mentioning the original source.

Maybe relevant (teacher sues students for copyright infringement after they publish an exam): https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/california-college-professor-sues-students-midterm-final-exams-are-pos-rcna20492

There is an alternative that avoids the question asked here entirely and would even be more valuable to your readers.
Think about what it is about that equation (or other question) that makes it interesting. Abstract from that to a more general question that also covers the specific case.
Then present a way of thinking about that class of problems that will lead someone to a successful solution. Explain the thinking process. Explain any connections to similar things. Etc.
Then, you can publish that freely.
Note that words, but not ideas, can be bound by copyright. Take the idea and expand it. Anyone is free to do that.

As suggested in Ethan Bolkers comment: Ask the teacher, either directly or through the student and aim for a joint or collaborative web posting.
Copying the problem from the exam verbatim is at the very least questionable. I'm not sure whether they are legal copyright issues but you shouldn't do it anyway. Using the key idea of the problem, rephrased in your own words and with different numbers is fine. It is also highly unlikely that the teacher came up with this completely new problem. More likely the teacher also just found it somewhere and adapted it for their exam.