text:
I haven't received the support promised in my funding letter. What should I do?
It has been 4 months that I have started my master's degree in North America. I got my funding letter from my supervisor when I was in my home country, in my letter it was written that I will be a fully funded student. Now I am here and he does not pay that amount money. even for my first semester, I paid all of my expenses and tuition fee from my pocket. I finished those amount of money that I brought from my home country. now my supervisor does not pay properly. Life became difficult for me, even the university restricted my access to add and drop due to the hold. I am a good student who cares about studying, I hate thinking about money and tuition fee. I am not the guy who can study and do research like this. My prof pays other classmates more than me. This situation really disappoints me and overwhelmingly hard for me. Several times my parents wanted to send money but I did not let them. (transferring money is difficult from my home country.)
I feel like crying these days and I could not stop it.
Do you have any recommendation or sample letter? how can I make him understand?
+edited: I tried to talk my classmates about this issue. But when I am explaining this issue to them they think that there is something wrong with me and my classmates do not offer any collaboration with me such as publishing something or studying together. This payment issue affected my self-confidence completely.

Sorry to hear about your difficult situation. It sounds like your relationship with your supervisor has fallen apart. However, your question does not give enough detail to give much of an answer.

Please see the question How should I phrase an important question that I need to ask a professor? and the answer for the example letters.

Your root problem is the funding. You need to talk to the professor and the administrator to find out why you are not paid. I don't think a letter will work.

Have you discussed this issue with the administration in your University (e.g. Head of Department)?

@dmitry savostyanov. i do not want to ruin my relationship with my prof, that is why I have never talked to head of dep.

@nikki2 It sounds like your relationship is ruined already, so I see very little harm in talking to others.

@Thomas, what do you mean by" I see very little harm in talking to others"?

You said that you haven't talked to the head of department because you are afraid of ruining your relationship with your professor. Firstly, it's entirely appropriate for you to talk to the head of department (or someone else like the director of graduate studies), so you shouldn't get in trouble. Secondly, it sounds like your relationship is already quite poor, so I don't see how it could get much worse.

Of interest here: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07479-7?utm_source=fbk_nnc&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=naturenews&sf202773717=1&fbclid=IwAR3YFWQVDF6B0VrDsUFsDzaOMz5aA5fqKO0fFzVygC-iDMDiITEJS9hLBL4

Since this question has resurfaced: In my university's systems, I have no ability to see what people are actually getting paid. At best, I see transactions between my accounts and a central HR 'salaries' account. These are not necessarily itemised in a way that makes it easy to relate them to named individuals, and I don't see the final transaction where the money gets paid out into a personal bank account. I also don't see records for any part of the salary paid from other sources (e.g. departmental funds). Students shouldn't assume their supervisor is aware of what they're getting paid.

Based on a conversation in the comments, so you have basically no reason to see this as anything but a mistake. You were never told you would be paid anything less than you were offered. You have not communicated to anyone that you are being paid less than you are supposed to be paid. Most likely no one knows you are not being paid correctly.
You have done a very silly thing by letting this go on so long. Go talk to your advisor face to face as if your advisor is a normal human being, let them know you think there is a mistake because have not been paid the amount you expected to be paid, and ask who you need to talk to in order to get this fixed or whether you have misunderstood something. If you cannot meet face to face, you can say the same thing in an email.
There is no need for this to be damaging to your relationship, there is no need for you to accuse anyone of mistreating or abusing you, there is no broken relationship already. It sounds like there is an administrative error that needs to be corrected. Administration in a university is complicated and involves people that don't know you or your advisor personally at all, they may have nothing in their records to show what you should be paid. The likelihood of mistakes increases dramatically if you are supposed to be paid from more than one source.
Only if your advisor refuses to correct the mistake and refuses to let you know who you need to talk to to correct the mistake should you assume any malice.

You're assuming the OP lies when he says the advisor isn't paying him correctly. I've had the same and heard of many such cases.

@Scientist Advisers do not hand the money to students directly. Students are payed from the research grants of advisers by University. Funding letters are written by advisers on behalf of the University.  Hence, the University/School administration has to be involved.

@DmitrySavostyanov Apparently this is not what's happening. OP claims the advisor isn't paying him what is paid to others. In comments the OP again claims that part of his salary is paid directly by the advisor. This isn't unheard of. Mind that in most places I know research grants expenses are directly managed by lab heads.

@Scientist I think OP is confused. This is a common situation in NA: a portion of the salary is paid by a department source, another portion of the salary is paid from the advisors grant. Both pools of money come from the university directly, and only indirectly from the advisor. The advisor will probably only see the actual amount come out of his/her accounts when they review their grant finances which may be annually or semiannually or whatever. Please check OP's comments on your answer. This is not China, it is Canada.

@Scientist Indeed if OP is getting screwed somehow, they need to escalate and make sure they are taken care of, but your advice which seems to assume already that they are being taken advantage I find very dangerous for the OP. They need to make sure they have acted responsibly from their end before they go lobbing accusations.

@BryanKrause What you describe about the two portions is exactly what I had in China. What happened is that amounts were not what was agreed and nobody wanted to discuss that directly. OP comments indicate the advisor is dismissive; he only needs to hear from the administration.

@Scientist Please direct me to where the OP indicated the advisor is dismissive. From comments and the edits to the original question, OP has only addressed this with other students (remarking that they are not paid as much), not their advisor. The students were, unsurprisingly, not that helpful, because this is really none of their business.

" before they go lobbing accusations" -- sorry if my answer wasn't clear but I told the OP to go around explaining the issue and asking openly, instead of fearing for making his "leader" unhappy about him fussing.

@Scientist You advised that their relationship with their advisor is exploitative and broken and that they should quit, and referred to a common "scheme": if the OP is feeling victimized incorrectly, your answer would suggest to them that those feelings are justified rather than suggest they investigate whether they are or not. If they follow this advice they will surely ruin their relationship with their advisor and university.

There is another possibility: foreign students may be deducted an extra component from their bursary - this is the case in the UK, where foreign students get effectively less than home students in their PhD bursary.

This is a really unfortunate situation to be in, I'm sorry to hear about your situation...
I would discuss this with your advisor and the administrators immediately. It could be that there is some HR issue/misunderstanding (either on their part or on yours). It is often the case that some salary is contingent on you completing some initial courseload, taking up teaching duties etc., it could be that the gross amount stated in the letter does not include taxes/tuition fees. If this was not properly explained to you it is a bit odd, to say the least, but it never hurts to make sure that you are not misreading something.
There are ways of approaching this topic diplomatically and without antagonizing your advisor/HR (assuming that there is not ill intent on their part). Approach them, with the hardcopy of the letter in hand, and your latest payslip. Politely ask whether there has been a misunderstanding: my letter says I am to be paid X but I was in fact paid Y; is there a reason for this discrepancy?
If you are still 100% sure that someone acted with ill intent/is negligent and won't correct their mistake, I would contact someone: if your university has an international student union (many North American universities do), or better yet one that is affiliated with your nationality, this is a good place to start. If your university has an ombudsman (person whose job is to mediate between students and university), reach out to them.
If such bodies do not exist or are unresponsive, reach out to higher-ups in the university (head of department, dean for undergraduate studies etc.).
If that fails, contact a consulate/a lawyer.
It is important to maintain a paper trail! Try to do things in writing (e.g. email) if you can, and note time/date of phone conversations/meetings that occurred.
Trying to mediate and reach an agreement without involving legal/consular means is going to reach your desired outcome faster, and will likely cost you a lot less.
Good luck!

+1 Because this answer is almost the same as what I was going to say. Would you mind adding "with your pay slip" after "Approach them, with the hardcopy of the letter in hand" because the OP said "now my supervisor does not pay properly". It sounds like what the OP got paid is not what she/he expected.

It is also possible that there was a simple error that the administrator treat her as an out-of-state student, but in fact she should be treated as an in-state student. So, there was a big tuition difference. At any rate, the OP needs to find out why.

I'd remark, from personal experience, that the Consulate won't charge anyone anything to mediate this, and should be among the first options. Given the situation of the OP and the sheer nature of the academic sphere a lawyer is likely the least productive resource.

It sounds like the big problem is rooted under your unwillingness to communicate problems to others. If you haven't said anything to your advisor or the department, they are likely unaware of the situation. Your advisor may not be checking financial statements on a regular basis and may not know that you're not being paid properly. The administrators in your program who process the enrollment may not know there's a problem. Or it could be as simple as the paperwork getting lost by the payroll department in the main administration and them not paying you.
But if you remain silent, nothing will be fixed. There is a proverb:

The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

If you have a problem, you need to speak up, or your silence will be treated as a sign that's nothing wrong.
In this particular situation, I'd start by going to the assistant who is responsible for graduate students. For a program in the US or Canada, there should be someone on the administrative staff—not the faculty—in your department who handles sending out letters and emails to students.
(As for working with other students, I don't see how they're in any position to make a difference here, or what studying or collaborating with you has anything to do with funding.)

It's not clear from your question what, if any, action you have already taken to try to arrange for this funding to be paid.  (Re your edit, your classmates are not the approprite point-of-contact for this problem; they have no control over funding and no power to fix the problem.)  Unless you have already done so, in the first instance you should make your supervisor aware that there are outstanding funding expectations and see if he can resolve this.  If he is unhelpful then you should take the matter to the administration of your department and make them aware of the problem.  Since you are experiencing financial hardship, make sure you are clear that this matter is urgent, and you are having serious difficulty funding your place at the university.  In the unlikely event that the university administration is unable/unwilling to assist you, you should seek advice from legal services at the university or some kind of free legal service.
The good news here is that you have a letter saying that you are a fully funded student, so presumably that entitles you to some baseline of funding.  Universities are not fly-by-night operations, so if they have promised to give you funding then they will honour that promise unless there is some good (and lawful) reason to rescind that promise.

I am sorry you find yourself in such a situation. Unfortunately, salary abuse of overseas students and postdocs is becoming increasingly common. Typically the whole "scheme" relies on your silence and submissiveness, which means the most efficient way of defending yourself is by being vocal about this.
You say you're avoiding approaching the topic directly because you want to "preserve your relationship" with your adviser. As you noticed currently your relationship is openly exploitative. There's no way of changing that without displeasing your abuser. In fact I believe your relationship with your adviser is already broken, regardless of whether this person smiles back at you at the intersections and/or taps you on the back.
You must find out the extent of this situation. Reach out for other overseas students and postdocs and inquire them directly. If they seem to avoid the topic altogether, they are likely in a similar stand. Go immediately to the administration and open out. Find the Principal. Have you considered contacting the Consulate of your country? Usually the right phone call can solve almost any situation.
You might like to read about my recent similar experience as a postdoc.
Since you're a Master student, if you conclude the situation won't change, I strongly suggest you to quit, take some time off to digest this mess, and try again elsewhere. Life's long and you don't want to let the bad attitude of others to ruin your plans.
Start now! Good luck.

It is not immediately obvious that the professor is abusing the student, and positioning things like this is not helping the asker, in my opinion. The professor could have made an honest mistake (e.g. ticking the wrong box on some form HR sent them), or HR made the mistake, or the asker misread the offer letter.

@YairZick I think it's more likely that the school admin mess it up. And it is less likely that the OP misread the offer. The reason I think so is because the consulate (I presume it's the US) should have checked the offer letter and told her how much money the OP should have brought with her when they gave her the student visa. Please see my comment below your answer. And I don't completely exclude the case that the OP's professor mistreated her. I really think the OP has not made her case clear.

Guys, I understand the good will to presume this is honest mistake, but the OP has mentioned 4 months have elapsed, there is a written offer and "now my supervisor does not pay properly". I find there's little room to suspect of some minor misunderstanding. Direct official inquiry is the way through this, and needs to be done ASAP.

@Scientist The OP hasn't said anything that makes me confident they have any idea how these things work, for example they are talking about their advisor paying them: no advisor pays anyone, they are paid by the institution. They are talking about the advisor paying others more than them: unless they are different types of positions, this is really unlikely. They mentioned how much time has passed, but importantly they have said nothing about what they have done during that time - it's possible no one, including their supervisor, is even aware this is an issue.

They did mention talking to other students (who can't do anything) and mentioned in a comment not wanting to talk to the supervisor (for fear of ruining a relationship?). This sounds like a student problem, not a supervisor problem.

@Bryan Krause, my supervisor pays us from his grant. His contract with companies. I have not asked my prof why he is paying me less. The reason I mean. I am thinking of preparing a letter to let him know that I am going through difficulties. But I need someone to read the letter and help me to write. Since I do not want to be impolite.

@nikki2 Have you just started with a face to face conversation? Do you actually get paid from your supervisor himself? It's common for students to be paid off of grants. It's not common for that money to come from anywhere but the university. Even a professor's grants go through the university. Administrative issues where people aren't getting correctly paid or are missing health insurance etc are common, but they won't resolve themselves automatically.

@brayan krause,he pays from his grant and through the university. No, I have not talked to him in person.

@nikki2 Did you receive any communication from anyone that told you why you would be paid differently than your offer letter or anything else that is a direct communication to you that your pay would be XXX and not YYY, besides the actual value of the payment?

@Bryan Krause, from who? no, I have not received anything.  my friends are mostly Ph.D. students, when I talk to them they usually tell me that you are master we are Ph.D., he has to pay us more than you. That is why talking to classmates were the useless thing that I have done. they make me feel Uncertainty and diffidence.

@nikki2 From the university administration or your advisor. See the answer I have written. This sounds like a mistake that you haven't done anything to bring to anyone's attention, most likely no one that can help you has any idea there is even a problem. PhD students are not people that are in charge of your pay.

"they are talking about their advisor paying them: no advisor pays anyone, they are paid by the institution" -- this is frequently not true. As the OP now clarifies, his situation is roughly similar to what I faced in China. There is an agreement which isn't met and everyone keeps beating around the bush. The OP must probe whether the administration is aware of the issue and willing to sort it out. If unlucky, they'll be dismissive, which means they're in it.

@nikki2 Would you mind adding all relevant details to your question? Also, perhaps you'd like to discuss specifics in a private room.

I can easily imagine salary abuse going on in China. But OP is in North America --- is it not a safer country with more rigid rules?

@DmitrySavostyanov I've tried to help colleagues around salary scams in Canada. I've heard of payment issues in Switzerland. Of course some places are more functional than others but the record clearly shows that unprofessional behaviour is epidemic in Academia.

@nikki2 When you state "I have not asked my prof why he is paying me less. The reason I mean." I understand your prof is fully aware that you're not getting paid correctly from the start, right? That you just haven't pushed into what's the problem with the payment?


text:
Co-author submitted new data post-review without my (first author) consent
I am the first author of a manuscript that was recently "accepted in principle". The submission, peer review and revisions of this manuscript happened after I left the laboratory of the corresponding author where I was a postdoc. I was actively involved in the revisions (by email)and guided the graduate student who did the revisions. Following peer review and revisions, the corresponding author wanted to include data (obtained by the graduate student) which I did not approve of. This data was then not included in the revised manuscript or the rebuttal letter. After we received the "accepted in principle" email, the corresponding author again informed me that he wanted to include this data. I objected again. But it appears that he has submitted this data (which was not part of the peer review and has not been seen by the reviewers) without my consent. I would like to write to the editors of the journal asking them to stall the publication of this manuscript since I did not consent to the content and since it includes unreviewed data. Am I correct in doing so?

Update from the OP:
I have an update on my issue and would appreciate more inputs. I made more attempts to convince the lead author to not include this data, but he did not agree. I finally contacted the journal editor. She sent a rather timid email to the lead author saying very clearly that it was okay to add in data after peer review since manuscripts are not "frozen" after they are accepted in principle. She said she was willing to include this data if it strengthened the manuscript and asked the lead author to contact all co-authors and obtain their consent before the final submission.
The lead author is still refusing to change his decision. He told me that he will easily get all other co-authors to consent to this. In which case, he said that it will appear that I am trying to suppress useful data. I feel bullied here since I cannot match up to his seniority and his relations with the co-authors. He has so far not provided any clear scientific reason for including this data.
Any guesses on what decision the journal will take if both I and the lead author continue to disagree, and I am the only one not giving consent?

"which did not go through peer review" - yet? Or was rejected, after the data were added? As intermediate statement, it is not ok that they submitted without your agreement. Your name is an author, so you need to support the contents of the paper. Do you have a specific reason to refuse? Don't you trust the data?

@CaptainEmacs I think he meant that this was added in the proof stage, where no peer review is happening.

@CaptainEmacs. Thank you for responding. I trust the data. But it is extraneous and does not contribute to the main story. It detracts from the main story and does not fit in. The manuscript has gone through full peer review, but this piece of data was not included in the manuscript for the 1st  or 2nd round of peer review and has not been seen by the reviewers. The data was included after both rounds of peer review. My question is 2-fold then. Is it ethical to include new unreviewed data in the final submission after peer review? And is it ethical to submit data without my consent?

@PsySp: yes, you have understood correctly.

@Anonymous In both your questions the answer is clearly "no".

For your first question, the answer might actually be "it is not even legal" as it could be breaking the contract with the journal. But that depends on what they do and do not allow as a change after review.

I do not think it is so much about legality. But it is not ok, neither the squeezing in of the data, nor not asking you for consent (when it is really clear you are against it, we are obviously not talking about minor changes which you may be considered to accept by default). However, keep in mind that you will break your relations with your co-authors if you go straight to the editor; it would be probably better to give them the chance to be part of this correction process (although the final outcome may be the same, it leaves at least a small opening).

I'll add, also as reaction to @xLeitix measured response below: if you trust the data and you believe them to be just detracting from the main story, this is more a matter of taste, and ruining your work relations with your colleagues may be not really worth it - more critical is the issue of sneaking the data in post-review. However, let's face it, the peer-review is somehow treated as a sanctification process, which it is emphatically not. That being said, I personally think that new information should not be sneaked past the review process, as a matter of trust between reader and author.

Dogmatically speaking, your co-authors clearly acted unethically. You claim to have made clear that you oppose including this data, and they did anyway. Independently of whether it is ok to add more data at the proof stage, all co-authors need to sign off on a paper or changes that are being made, and you did not.
That being said, there is always a pragmatic angle to these arguments. As much as we would like otherwise, miscommunications and differences of opinion happen in collaborations, so there will often be aspects that one or more of the co-authors are not fully on board with (and papers get published anyway). As such, you need to decide for yourself how important this issue is to you:

Is this issue important enough to you to go into a, potentially lengthy, argument with your co-authors and the journal editor (who may not be thrilled to be sucked into what is effectively an internal quarrel between you and your collaborators)?
Is this issue important enough to permanently sour the relationship with your co-authors?
Is this issue important enough to just not have the paper published?

Only you know the answer to this questions, but if the root of the problem really is that your co-authors wish to include data that "does not contribute to the story of the paper" then the answer may easily be "no" if you think about it calmly.

In general I agree. Observe that these arguments work for the OP's co-authors as well and, in their case, their answer to your 3 question was clearly yes.

@PsySp That's not at all clear to me. They may have just assumed it's not that big a deal.

I am not sure. If the OP made it clear in several occasions that s/he does not agree with the inclusion of such data, then ignoring in such a straight way the OP is a big deal.

I am not a regular visitor here, I saw this question just by chance. It seems it is a standard one here, and the pragmatism and conformism is being broadly preached here. Looks like scientists 'new religion'. In short, I strongly disagree with your perception! Why acting proper and honestly implies "permanently sour the rel. with co-authors". They have already been in a sour condition, and defintely not due to OP.

Thank you all. Your comments have made me sit back and give this careful thought. I am inclined now to talk more to the corresponding author and give him a chance to remove the data, before going to the editor.

@Anonymous Yes. It is better to talk with your co-authors and show your mild "surprize" (frustration) that they went on and did what they did. If that doesn't work out, and you still feel uncomfortable with the whole story, you could contact the editor (but maybe you could let them know beforehand)

I fully agree with @PsySp's last comment.

Seems to me the relationship is already soured.  If it gets published that way, I would write a letter clearly disclaiming responsibility for data that was added against your wishes.

@ WGroleau: Thanks for writing in. What would "disclaiming responsibility of data" do? I did most of the work, so publishing this without my authorship is not an option. Do folks here know how journals react to stuff like this?  I'm assuming if I write to the journal (before publication), they would either stall publication until the conflict is resolved or choose not to publish at all?

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text:
How to formulate a reminder regarding letter of financial support?
I have received my admission letter for a graduate program from a Canadian university. However, the letter contains no information about funding. I have already talked to my professor about the availability of funding. I contacted him again more than one month ago and he said that he will send me a letter of financial support. So far he has not sent me said letter. What should I write to ask him again for this letter? Could you please tell me how I can contact him or provide a template email? I am an international student and I need to apply for the visa.
Best,
Nikki

I would write something along the lines of:

Hello Professor,
I am writing to follow up on the letter of financial support we had
  discussed a while back. I was wondering if you had a chance to write
  it, or if you needed more documentation from me. Please let me know if
  I need to do anything on my end.
Best,  Nikki

I like the formulation a lot and I upvoted it.  But I think it fits better for the first reminder.  Now, it's time for an email that shows some of the student's consternation about the visa, OR BETTER YET, a phone call.  If you can't reach the prof, talk to a department administrator.

I sent an email like this. again he said I will send you the financial support letter. But he did not send me anything. Could you send me a template of an email which shows my concern about visa process?

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text:
Uncertain graduate study plans due to timing problems with visa and professor's funding
I applied for the University of Alberta. Fortunately I have got funding opportunity through my prospective professor's grant. I have applied for a visa expecting to go with the January intake, and waited for 6 months to get the entrance visa. As my visa came late I decided to start in the spring semester (May). I contacted my professor 3 weeks ago (in March) and he said he had a good job for me if I can come by May.
Yesterday, I finally got my visa and thus I contacted him again. My prof told me not to come for the May semester as "I have to give your project to other one since your visa delayed". And it seems he is on a sabbatical leave.
He says he does not have funding for me until September and my funding status will be clarified in 3 months. I already have my visa and I have done all the things that I needed to go. Now I am up in the air.
If I accept that I come in Aug/Sep, how can I make sure that he is going to fund me in 3 months? What he decided devastated my plans for starting my term in May. How can I ask for a guarantee? I think he should assure that he will give me the fund in 3 months since I have been waiting for 1 year now.
+from India and I need an entrance visa.

Do you have to use your entrance visa before September?

Hello, I sympathise with your situation but it is unclear what you're asking for exactly.

Hi if he "gave your project to somebody else as your visa was delyaed" means you notified him your visa was delayed. What was his initial answer? I feel you need to add more information. As for your question, I believe it is "can I make hime change his mind? Can I be assured he will fund me in September?" If so please rephrase, and we will try to help

You could also ask “how can your professor be sure you will turn up when he gives you the date in September”... meeting a start date cuts both ways.

Unless you have a contract you cannot be sure to have an employment. If you had a contract which stated a starting day in May and you had to breach the contract you probably need a new contract.

@Scaahu Yes I want to go 2 months earlier.

@farmargar The edit button is not active. my question is" how can my  I make sure that the professor will give me fund after 2 months?

What do you mean?@solar Mike

@nikki2 in your first paragraph you said you expected to start in Jan - so your professor expected you then. You let them down by not arriving - visa etc. So, how can your professor be sure you will arrive in September? Will the professor keep the funding if you decide to arrive in Oct - lost passport, wedding etc etc ... who knows - trust comes from both sides.

Adding a Canada tag based on your other questions.

@solar Mike is it polite to tell him that trust comes from both sides? And want him to keep my funding?

It would definitely not be polite to do so. This would suggest that the prof is displaying problematic behavior, while the fact that you did not come when you promised to come is a big part of the problem. He trusted you, and you broke that trust. So the question is not how can you trust him, but how can he trust you. The way forward for you is to keep your promises and hope that that will be reciprocated.

@MaartenBuis we do not know whether the visa delay was due to some bureaucrat, or to nikki2. Before knowing that, you should refrain from using hurtful comments.

Why he acts like this?

We cannot know, but there are plausible reasons. Some of my funding is available in the form "use it [in this time period] or lose it." If I have a project like that and a student indicates that it is likely (s)he cannot come, I will give that project to someone else rather than lose the money entirely. Here the prof has to make an educated guess: (s)he wants to avoid the situation you are in, but we have all been let down by students who promised they would come, but at the last moment did not. So apparently your professor made the guess that you would not be able to make it.

how can my I make sure that the professor will give me fund after 2 months?

If you have a contract, but apparently you didn't have one, so that suggests that you are from a country where it is common to sign such a contract at the very last moment or where funding is not considered a form of employment and thus there is no employment contract. As you can see that is hugely dependent on the local laws and customs. In those cases, the answer is: you cannot be sure. Since we don't know which country you are in, there is little more we can say.

He gave me a letter which indicate my funding and duration of it. This letter came from the professor, not from university, since the source  of funding is prof's grant.

In my university, it is the university alone that employs people. This is true regardless of how I collected the money. So only a contract with the university would count, and a letter from me would be worthless. Again whether this applies to you depends on your jurisdiction.

where is your university?  @Maarten Buis

The more important question is where is yours.

@MaartenBuis From the OP's other questions, it looks like Canada.

@Maarten Buis  university of Alberta.

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text:
When is the best time to send an email to a professor about a masters position?
Recently, I am looking for a master position so that I had to send emails to professors.I was wondering if you tell me when is the best time to send an email? morning or afternoon? could we send mail on weekends Saturday and Sunday?

The advantage of email is: You do not have to be there when it is delivered.  You can read it when it is convenient to you.

Be aware that emails can sometimes get lost or delayed.

In the past, I tried to optimally-time emails in this fashion. I found that it usually turned into delaying the email and needing to spend mental bandwidth tracking and remembering to do that for part of a week (to the detriment of some other small tasks).
My recommendation at this point would be: Right now. As soon as you have time to do so. Get it off your plate and move on.
Edit: I'm aware that among millennials, it's common to have email tied into one's mobile device, and therefore interact with it and view it identically to instant messaging (e.g., I've had one younger friend express irritation at receiving work emails after 5 pm). However, I will suggest that this is not the case for academics. We're usually getting hundreds of emails per week or day, and necessarily deal with it in a batched fashion at various times of our choosing (not necessarily every day).

Some studies have shown that you should leave your least demanding tasks for later in the day, and focus on your most pressing needs within 4 hours of waking up. However, I think a lot of academics will still end up checking their emails first thing. My own supervisor asked me to do the same, check it first thing. So while a window such as 2-3 or 4-5pm makes more sense, I still think a significant percentage of academics would check it early in the morning. So also consider 8-9am.
Although another strategy might be considering when other people would be likely to send their emails. If most academically related emails are arriving early in the morning, then your email gets lost in the heap. If you send your email at 4:00 pm or 4:30pm when things have died down a little, but still within the window of normal working hours, then you might separate yourself from the pile of emails. The only downside to this approach is that if the email is significant in its content, then sending the email at a time when most people have been worn out might not be the best bet. Refer to the last point to gauge if it makes sense.
Of course as mentioned, the biggest mistake to make would be to delay a pressing email. Send it as quickly as you can, and don't overthink it.
Lastly, you should also consider past experience (if you have any)! If 90% of your responses have come at 7pm, then why not go for 7pm? People have habits and routines, observe them.

Awesome response, I like it! It does make a lot of sense and it's also just a email at the end of the day.

I would assume this email is important to you, therefore you should email someone within specific time-frames that are convenient for that person, of course, they'll read the email whenever they feel like it but from your perspective, if you're looking for a time that you think is going to be the best for the receiver.
I got a few tips but I can't give you the exact moment, Many people, that are very busy read their emails only in their work-time. An example they work from 8 am to 4 pm and they'll read their emails only from 2 pm till 3 pm. Now since they're reading their work-related emails only in that timeframe whenever you send it is going to be the same for that person.
This is probably an academic email (because you posted it here) therefore that person doesn't have a preference. I would say my personal opinion is after the sun goes down in your country, Muslims call it Maghrib.
A person is relaxed but not exhausted. That's at least me.
And some people can get mad if you send them any type of message in their free-time (either they won't read(more likely) it or if they receive it they'll not be fine about it).


text:
How can I ask a professor about funding for Master?
I am looking for a master’s position. I emailed a professor, and we arranged a meeting on Skype, where he said that he would assess my knowledge and he told me that he will tell me the result afterward (whether apply or not). Now I think he likes to have me as a student. I performed well, and he forwarded my email to his Ph.D. students told them that I would like to work in this field.
How can I ask the professor about the possibility of applying and funding? I'm not a native speaker, and I have anxiety about being rude.
I was admitted to some European universities, but I would like to go to this particular university, and I need to decide and to know about the future. I was admitted in fall 2017 (Europe), but this particular university starts in winter 2018, so I need to decide earlier. If I can't decide earlier, I will miss European universities, which is undesirable.
Could you please give me a piece of advice and/or a template for a letter? How can I ask about funding and the possibility of applying politely?
Thank you in advance!

Starting point: Dear Prof. X, Thank you for the recent Skype conversation, and the friendly email.  Is it okay for me to go ahead and send my application?  Also, can you clarify for me, please, what prospects will there be for funding?  Thank you.  Sincerely, your name.

If you have offers from other universities you might want to mention this so they know that you have a time limit. 2) Be aware that funding for masters students is generally less available than funding for PhD students.

Did they actually say that they want you as a student? Because admitting that from them offering to meet and asking their PhD students for thoughts (one of them might potentially be involved in supervising you) is a little early. Did you already have the meeting on Skype? It is not clear to me in what part of the process you currently are.

my professor told me, go ahead with your application.and he will get funding from sponsors. But I feel anxiety about taking me from the commit. I have been accepted from some universities for the fall semester but this particular university will take me in the winter semester. what can I do about it?

It seems like you succeeded - maybe you can post an answer to your own question, then?

@rg_software I like the idea of fixing formatting errors in posts here but not in four year old questions. That just puts them at the top of the page. That wastes the time of people (like me) who then look at them.

@Ethan Bolker, agreed. This post just popped up in my search box, edited without much thinking.

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


text:
My hardware can't run the code I need for my research
I have started doing a project and I promised to report my results every week to my professor. At the beginning, he told me you should have a reasonably good laptop.
I thought my laptop could support the project.
Yesterday,  I realized that my laptop has a 2G graphic card and the project needs a laptop with the at least 3G graphic card. I have written the code but my laptop can't run the code to see the results.
What should I tell my professor?
If I buy a new laptop it will take about 1-2 weeks, however my financial support from my family is poor.

How long is the project over? What sort of project is it? Part of a PhD? A project based undergrad unit? Paid work as a research assistant?

I have written the code but my laptop can't run the code to see the results just curious how is this possible? In any reasonably non-trivial task it is very unlikely to write the code which behaves as you want without ever trying it

Can you revise your code to make it work with 2G? A decrease in performance and capabilities is better than no results at all.

@SalvadorDali: it could be that e.g. OP’s laptop can run the code on small test datasets, but can’t run it on the full actual dataset, or something like that.

When you said "my laptop can't run the code to see the results", what do you mean? What happens? Does the program just refuse to run, perhaps with an error? Does it literally tell you to get a 3 GB graphics card? Does it just crash? (...Did you try it?)

OP it's been four years, how did you solve the issue?

It should really be the responsibility of your professor to secure the required equipment to successfully complete your project; it's not quite right on his part to demand that you pay for any part out of your own pocket. Typically, a laptop is cheap relative to the professor's grant whereas it is unrealistic to expect a student to pay 1k to 2k. After all, the work you do is probably for a project that your advisor has funding for, and it's as much to his benefit as yours to successfully complete it. If he requests you to pay, it seems like he's talking advantage of his students.

I suspect part of the problem is that the professor made the point of having a good laptop at the beginning. Obviously, they should have been more specific. One has the impression that the university/professor of OP's question may not actually have good grants/financial support, and that may be part of the problem. More information needed.

What Captain Emacs said. I've experienced the same issue from the other side: A student was warned that the project she had set her heart on was only doable if she had a matching machine and she assured us that was the case. When at the start of the project it then transpired almost immediately that this wasn't the case, there was some scrambling followed by the assignment of a new project that could be done on existing resources. If she cannot find a suitable machine, the OP should expect to have to start from scratch on a new project that does not require any new resources.

@CaptainEmacs A laptop with a 3G graphic card is not simply good. It's much more than that.  Nevertheless, if the institution of OP does not have fin. support, how can it be involved in a project that requires heavy computational tasks on machines that are far from good (standard)?

@PsySp An institution gets involved in what it can. I think the key problem is miscommunication. The OP needs to talk to the professor ASAP, to not let the consequences of the miscommunication grow further.

Professors are (usually) not soulless monsters, and can understand your situation. A delay because the hardware requirements are slightly higher than what you expected at the beginning is not uncommon in research. Tell him right away, so he can tell you what options are available.
It could be anywhere from borrowing equipment from the department or getting access to a computer cluster, to getting log in access into his own machine to run things, or even help adapting the code to run on your card.
The bottom line is: you shouldn't be afraid of talking to him, you have a reasonable problem, and part of his job is to help you through them.

It's not quite clear form your post what kind of student project this is. However, it's highly unusual for the University to require you to have your own laptop. In most (undergraduate) courses computers are provided for report writing and similar tasks, which do not require powerful machines, but many students use their private laptop for these (mainly for convenience).
However, for research projects, when more powerful hardware is needed, Universities generally provide appropriate hardware, for example in form of access to some University owned supercomputer or even a personal laptop.
So what should you tell your Professor? Simply state the facts. Tell him that your personal private laptop is not as powerful as you thought and that it appears that you cannot do the project with it. You may add to ask what arrangements the University/Departmant/Lab has for such common situations.

Can you find other alternatives? Maybe you can install the tools you need on the computers in the library and use them to run codes. Many departments have servers which you can use remotely to run codes. Maybe that is an option too.
Tell your advisor about this situation. 1-2 weeks is not a significant delay. Explain why you cannot run codes and tell them about your financial situation and that you may not be able to buy a new one.

That kind of hardware (3GB of graphics memory) is almost invariably not found in university libraries, which tend to have machinery in the "obsolete 5 years ago" category available for public use.

@NGTOne: Yes and no -- some university libraries have multimedia labs for video editing, sound editing, etc. that may have such hardware. Whether or not they have the proper software is another question.

@tonysdg: Fair enough. In my experience, that sort of gear hasn't been associated with the library, but rather with individual departments that relied on it - Fine Arts, Geography, Engineering. The library computers were little more than terminals for e-mail, word processing, and printing.

@NGTOne Are you sure this is meant by 3g? Because I have a problem finding normal laptops with even 1gb of dedicated graphis memory ;) This would not mean decent, but high end gaming. It is more likely to refer to some Generation or something.

Another possible alternative is cloud computing: You can hire a server with a 4GB graphics card from Amazon EC2 for US$0.65/hour (or less, if you can put up with the possibility of being outbid). However I'd expect this to only be necessary if the university somehow literally has no spare hardware for you and can't purchase any.


text:
How to acknowledge my professor who isn't helping much with my master's thesis?
the main advisor for my master's thesis is a doctorate student of the professor who oversees my thesis. I had one conversation with the professor at the beginning of my thesis and I'll probably see him the next time at my thesis defense.
The professor will have final word on the structure and phrasing of the written piece, the topic however is not part of his research. I'm fine with that as the doctorate student is a great help and also knows what the professor wants to see in a thesis.
Other theses I've read usually praise the professor at the beginning of the acknowledgements.
How can i acknowledge the contribution of my professor in a honest and tasteful manner without making it look like he did nothing compared to the doctorate student?

Did the professor provide the topic of the thesis?

While your case is maybe not typical, I am not sure you have realistic expectations abot how much effort a full prof generally can spend on master students on daily basis. In a big lab, it is not uncommon the a senior student is your main support on regular basis, and the prof "only" gives you the topic, access to the lab,  and consult you only on broad topics, correcting the thesis etc

You could get around it by thanking him for the opportunity to work in his lab and the chance to explore this particular avenue of research.
All at the same time, you can thank the PhD student for all the insightful chats and helping hands throughout the project which should be clear to the reader who was primarily advising you.


text:
Writing affiliation as a high school student
I want to send an article to a math journal. As with many others, that journal wants a cover letter, which should include the author's affiliation.
I'm still a high school student and my school isn't in the U.S.
How should I write my affiliation?
My school's name is hard to translate to english, should I write its name as in my language? And, when I'm writing my school's adress, should I write it as in my language?
(If you see a grammar mistake and edit it, that would make me really happy.)

I'd write your school's name and address in both your own language and in English.

First of all, I'm impressed by your ambition here.  And I should warn you not to get discouraged if the math journal ends up rejecting your submission.  Do you have guidance from someone experienced in academic publishing, to help you through the process?
As @Nate-Eldridge pointed out already, you should simply state your affiliation, and the country doesn't matter.  But I will add:

If the submission is not double-blind, there is a risk that people will take you less seriously when they see the affiliation.  There's not much you can do about this, I think.
High school students do contribute to academic publications, though I was surprised to see this.  One was a coauthor of a paper in a very strong CS systems conference this year (others were at a university).

Good luck!

Simply list your high school as your affiliation, including the city and country where it's located (since there may be many high schools in the world with the same name).
It's irrelevant whether or not it's in the US.

My school's name is hard to translate to english, should I write its name as in my language? And, when I'm writing my school's adress, should I write it as in my language? Thank you.

Good question, I am not sure.  Please edit your original question to include that.


text:
On Copyright permissions for references in an article
I have written a paper in mathematics and the journal which I sent my paper has accepted to publish it. I have two references in my article, and they are like:
1- "The proof of Akranov can be found with some additional information in the book of Mikhail Kirkhov [1]."
2- "We can prove this using the Prime Number Theorem (see [2] pp.138 for the conclusion from the PNT)..."
My question: Do I have to obtain written permissions from the authors of the books [1] and [2]? Is this a copyright issue?

No, you do not need to get permission to cite other works. Citing works is the way you give credit for existing ideas to the people who originally generated or made accessible those ideas. (and it's a bit troubling that you are asking this at this stage - have you not cited other work before at any level?)
You often do need to get permission for copying parts of works, such as figures, but where it is actually necessary is a legal issue that depends on a variety of circumstances. See for example: Is it necessary to obtain permissions for copying figures from published articles in your proposal/dissertation?

Thank you. This my first paper, so I haven't cited other works at any level :)


text:
What to expect after post doc Skype interview
I had a Skype interview from Caltech. The PI told me I'm one among the 6 shortlisted candidates for 1 position and he said to all others too and hence not to have too much expectations. This he told in the beginning of the interview itself. The interview was kind of okay. Most of the Time he was talking about the position and his lab... He also asked if I will be potentially available. I said yes. I told briefly about my interests. He said he'll review applications during vacation.  He said mine was a strong application. Sometimes he responded very positively and sometimes I felt I'm not good enough. He cut call saying goodnight. I wished him a good day( I'm in India) saying that I look forward to talk to him soon to which he responded with smile. I know I'm  overthinking but this is really important to me. Is it worth hoping for a positive reply?

Can you be more clear about what your question is?

You need to become patient with your job search. Your best bet is to focus on writing more applications, so that you will avoid wasting your energy by waiting and worrying.

The whole process is unpredictable, and you gain nothing by worrying and second-guessing things. I nailed interviews for jobs I didn't get and got jobs from my worse interviews and everywhere in between. You did your best, you will know the result when it's done.

Relax!

You should expect that you are 1 of 6 shortlisted candidates.
He didn't say anything glowing that should make you think you are now the only shortlisted candidate. He didn't say anything definitive to warn you are not a fit. There is no good reason to think your position now has changed in any way.
You should be happy to be on a shortlist of six, but not expecting anything. You should assume your chances are about 1/6. To me, that clearly means keep looking for other jobs but remain hopeful. It would be foolish to expect you have a secured position at 1/6. It would also be foolish to expect 1/6 means it's impossible.
There's not much else to advise here except to keep at it and find some things to do that help you relax or feel enjoyment, and then just wait. :)
You should also know you are not just a candidate for a job, you also hope to bring something of value. Therefore, you should consider not just your chances but also whether it's a good spot for you as an individual. Just because you get a job doesn't mean you take it.


text:
Improving on a scientific paper (with source code) - publication of our work possible?
I and my students are working on a paper that has associated source code in GitHub. We are planning to change the architecture of the Deep Learning Network they have used, and check to see if we would get better results. Would we be able to do any kind of publication of our work by citing the paper we had used?

Yes: You can publish work that improves upon earlier results.
Whether changing the architecture of a Deep Learning Network will achieve better results is, of course, an open problem. Whether improvements are sufficient to merit publication is also an open problem.
In theory, negative results - e.g., we changed the architecture and didn't get better results - are publishable too. But, such results aren't published as often. I think you'd need a surprising-factor, e.g., if better results could be expected from such a change, but aren't achieved, especially if the reason they aren't achieved can be identified.


text:
Can I refer my sibling for a PhD position under my supervisor? How should I approach this?
I am an international student who is completing a master's degree. I am very happy working with my professor at the university. I am a good student. My professor and I have some successful projects and publications.
My sibling is looking for a Ph.D. position, and since my professor is a very reliable person, I would like him to start a Ph.D. under my professor's supervision at the same school.
He told us to introduce good students to him. I am wondering if it would be awkward if I directly ask my professor to hire him as a Ph.D. student. If so, how should I ask him? What is the best approach? Is it ok to ask this?

Also note that recommending someone who then doesn't perform well can have negative consequences for you. These might be worse if people think you tried sneaking an unqualified relative in. Plus, if your sibling and your professor don't get along, this could impact your relationship with your sibling. I'm not advising against it, but think it through prior to doing it.

I rolled back your edit, because it all the existing answers are based on the fact that you ask about recommending a sibling and not just “someone”. If you accidentally used the word sibling and noticed that this question does not reflect your situation, please ask a new question, as this one is valid as it is and useful for others.

I would worry a bit about asking the professor to "hire" your sibling. On the other hand, telling the professor that your sib is looking for a position in the same field and would like to meet them to talk about the possibilities would be entirely appropriate.
If the two of them, without you, come to some understanding it would be better. And even if that isn't possible, the prof may have some good ideas for your sibling to pursue.
So, I'd suggest a somewhat less direct approach.

According to your question, your professor has specifically asked you to introduce good students to him, so if you think your sibling fits this criteria (and you evidently do) then you should feel free to introduce your sibling to the professor.  I see no reason why that would need to be awkward.
In terms of how to go about this, don't ask your professor to hire your sibling (that is extremely presumptuous); just introduce them and let things go from there.  You can introduce them, but your sibling will need to do the work to interest your professor.  From your perspective, the easiest thing here would be to frame this as a response to your professor's request ---e.g., "You mentioned earlier that you are interested in having us refer any good students we know to you.  My [brother/sister] is a strong student in [subject] and is looking for positions in a PhD program.  Would you mind meeting with [him/her] to see if [he/she] is a good fit for your research group."

In Academia, seeking employment for a relative (nepotism) is considered a bad behavior.  I suggest you don't ask for your relative to be hired.
The exception is that, when you have been offered a job but not accepted it yet, you may ask for a job for your relative (typically a spouse) as part of employment negotiations.  This is rarely successful, and in some places universities cannot legally hire certain relatives.
Your sibling should use the usual PhD application process for your university.

This assumes PhD students are paid, as is typical; universities are quite happy to take on your tuition-paying relatives.


text:
My supervisor does not have time to read my thesis, what do I do?
I am a master's student, I started my degree in 2018. I wrote my thesis and sent it to both my main supervisor and co-supervisor a month ago and ask them to read but my main prof did not have time to read it. My co-supervisor reviewed it and he sent his feedbacks privately without including the main supervisor (it felt weird to me).
I emailed my main supervisor a few times and asked him to read it, and when he noticed that the co-supervisor is giving me feedbacks privately, he got annoyed. He (the main supervisor) then said that I can go for defense with my co-supervisor's revisions, and he does not have any revisions. He still does not want to read it.
I have a tight deadline to submit the final version. However, I would like to have his feedback, since he is my supervisor and knows my work more than my co-supervisor.
How do I get him to read the draft? Is it not rude to not consider his feedback?
What should I do in this situation?

How much power/control does the primary advisor have over your completion? Does he need to sign it, for example? It may be more important to know whether he has any objections to it, rather than giving feedback.

How do you mean by objection? He does not say I should not be graduated.

If there are places you feel need improvement ask about those only.  Ask your advisor if you're ready to defend.
Make the changes suggested by the co-advisor, then ask your advisor about specific areas.  Finally, ask both advisors if you're ready to defend.  Hopefully this will make your current advisor realize where you are in the process, and maybe get you some attention.

Your goal is for this thesis to fulfill graduation requirements. Although having your supervisor read the thesis is probably helpful to this goal, it is not necessary for graduation. Ask if your advisor has any objections to it before you schedule your defense.
You can't force your advisor to read the thesis, but scheduling the defense is usually done by the student if the advisor doesn't object. It is the advisor's job to prepare students for their defense, and it's an awkward situation for the advisor if an unprepared student attempts to defend. If your advisor will approve your thesis for graduation, then it may not be necessary to convince your advisor to read it.


text:
How do I write about suggested reading by my professor
I had a casual meeting with my professor and he recently learned about a topic and he asked me to look at that topic as well. This topic is not my research topic and it is just a further reading.
I prepared this email and a brief summary of what is that method is about. I want to show my interest and tell him that I respect here suggestion, but I am feeling somehow awkward. How can I write better?
PS. it is not to expand or redirect my research. only for my knowledge.

Dear Dr.X
Thanks for the suggestion regarding that I read and learn about ABC,
it sounds interesting and I wanted to follow up on our discussion.
and the rest my summary................
Best regards,  XY

Don't obsess over the wording. "Thanks for the suggestion...interesting... following up". Your summary might be valuable if the professor hasn't actually read the paper and asked for a summary.
But, don't get to deeply caught following "interesting" ideas that aren't related to your own research. If he is asking you to expand or redirect your research, then you need to have a discussion with him. That can be a serious matter.
But a certain amount of this is normal. Your professor wants you to learn, but he also wants to speed up his own learning. That can be good or bad for the student, depending on how much it helps build a relationship as well as an education.
You write better by practicing. To paraphrase another idea: Good writing comes from experience. Experience comes from bad writing.

Writing a good executive summary of technical material is a very useful skill, especially in industry.

@ Buffy, I edited my letter do you think it is good now?

In general yes, but name the article you were given, just to refresh is memory.


text:
How to congratulate a professor for a grant achievements?
I recently got the news that my prof and his colleagues were got many grants/funding.
Is it common to write them a congratulation?
I prepared this simple sentences, how should I wish him more success in the future for his ever growing research group?

Congratulations on your recent achievements.

You might also consider adding something to the effect of “I look forward to seeing the outcomes of this fascinating research proposal!”

A caveat: at least in the research culture I work in, many grants is a double-edged sword, and congratulating someone for winning them all might be perceived as sarcasm. Not inherently bad, but also not necessarily what you wanted and definitely best done in-person rather than "I've heard some rumors that..."

If you feel like congratulating your professor, go ahead and do it. He might appreciate it, or in the worst case he will ignore because he has too many emails in his inbox. But I cannot imagine a scenario where the professor would take such a congratulation email negatively.
As with most emails to busy people: keep the email short and to the point. Just one sentence like the one you wrote, though maybe using a more specific term than "your recent achievements":

Congratulations on receiving Grant X[!]

where the use of the exclamation mark [!] depends on where you are and what you have seen your colleagues do in emails (and also on whether you want to use it of course).

It depends a lot on your relation with your prof. I'd say something like "I spotted you got the xxx grant - congratulations!" when meeting them on the floor, or add something similar at the end of an email that you would have sent anyway (planning the next meeting, asking for feedback, etc) - don't overthink it.

If you are in a situation where you are likely to meet face to face then a spoken word is also an option. In fact, a colleague would be most likely to offer congratulations in an elevator ride or if they meet informally in a coffee lounge. The latter can lead to a longer conversation about how you are doing and your plans.
For a student, if you meet in their office for another reason, you can add something at the end of the meeting like "Oh by the way,..."
Pre-COVID this used to be pretty easy.


text:
how to have publication from thesis?
I have studied for two semesters so far, I got a research proposal from my supervisor now and I am reviewing it. It is crucial for me to have at least 2-3 papers based on my thesis. I am thinking of asking my professors about doing a literature review.
What kinda things we should expect from our supervisor? I think the student needs to be active instead of the supervisor. What kinda things the student can do in order to processed in his/her thesis and get it done in the expected time?
I appreciate any advice that comes from you.
Edit: There are not enough courses related to my thesis, so is this a problem? what can I do?

@JeffE, What do you mean by "two-semester ago"?'

According to your first sentence, you've been studying for about two semesters.  These would have been great questions to ask your supervisor when (or even before) you started.

@JeffE, is it late to talk about this now? professor won't like talking about it?

No, it’s also a good question now. In fact, it really ought to be a regular topic of conversation between you and your supervisor. Start now!.

Indeed, talk to your supervisor. S/he is the best guide for this and knows the expectations of your field and university.
For another view, talk to other students who have done this and get an idea about what is expected and how to go about it. It is highly dependent on field and on local practice.
I doubt that a literature review is sufficient here, though it is necessary for the thesis.
But, technically, it isn't that the publications come from the thesis. Actually, they come from the research results that will become the thesis.
So, examine your research. Find what results you have achieved that are "interesting" and "novel." Build your publications around those. What are the results? What is the supporting evidence? What directions does this suggest for the future.
Once you have enough of that, you have the basis of the thesis.
Note that the above is only one view. The other is that the thesis itself is publishable in whole or in part. The idea is really the same, except that you finish the thesis before you publish one or more papers based on the thesis as a whole or on interesting parts of it.


text:
Should I request a letter of recommendation from current employers that don't want me to leave?
Let me explain in more detail... I currently occupy a fixed-term temporary faculty position that is set to expire at the end of this academic year. The position I have now will go up for a national search for a tenure-track appointment starting next academic year.
My current department head and Dean both have repeatedly expressed their desire that I apply for the tenure-track position and I intend to. However, there's no guarantee that I'll keep this position and I want to be employed next Fall. I have found another position that would be a good fit in case my current position goes to someone else (a very real possibility as my field has many qualified applicants and few jobs) and as part of their application they want current letters of recommendation.
I know my department head and Dean both would recommend me highly, but I see a potential conflict of interest. I'm also unsure if asking them for recommendations could be perceived as a slight and I don't want to burn any bridges at my current position because keeping it would be my first choice.
Another complicating factor is that this is my first university position and all other potential references either worked with me as a student or professional colleague in a non-academic capacity.
Any advice on the best course of action to take in my position?

Why are you only applying for two positions?  In many fields there will be >100 applicants for each position.

As @AnonymousPhysicist suggests, I'd say you're almost certainly placing too much confidence in getting this one position. Decisions about who to give a job to should not be being made before the post is advertised. It's true that sometimes they are anyway. However, I've heard of a case where a job description was written to match a current department member, but it ended up going to someone else.

I'd strongly reiterate a point from the other comments: applying for just-two tenure-track jobs is (if you'll pardon me) wildly optimistic. There will almost-surely be hundreds of applicants for each, many of them very well qualified... so that things are reduced to some sort of crap-shoot/gamble even for the best applicants. Apply to several or many more jobs if your goal is to be fairly confident of being employed next fall.

While I do happen to be a wildly optimistic person, I'm still applying to as many positions as I could be conceivably hired/qualified for. I didn't mention this as I don't see its relevance, but I do appreciate your concern. I am very aware that though there's been a lot of talk about keeping me around at my current position, there will be many qualified applicants and I have no claim to the position.

@MunchyWilly, ah, ok, good. Sometimes people just aren't aware of the numbers... :)

Without further information, I would assume the department head and dean will behave ethically and ignore the conflict of interest.  They should understand you want to hedge against losing the competition for the tenure track position. Therefore you could use them as references.

The conflict of interest you are describing is extremely common. The variation of it that I have seen most often is this: Dr. X works at department Y. She does great work and either already has tenure or knows that she is almost certain to get it, but for one reason or another is thinking of moving to another institution. She applies for jobs. Naturally, her current colleagues, who know her extremely well and have been internally evaluating her for years, are some of the people most qualified to offer an opinion about her, so she would like to ask one or more of her senior department colleagues for a letter. This leads to precisely the question you are asking.
I have personally seen this situation from all three perspectives: that of the candidate, that of the letter writer, and that of the letter reader at the other institution. As the letter reader, I noticed that it is common for the letter to contain a statement like "Dr. X is a terrific candidate. You would be very lucky to hire her, and we would be extremely sorry if she were to leave our department, but I understand that she has reasons to seek other opportunities elsewhere." Note that this situation actually can end up making the letter stronger, since the writer has an opportunity to express their feelings about the personal stake they have in the candidate's future.
Moreover, my observation based on those experiences is that because this situation is so common, a norm has developed whereby it is strongly expected that the letter writer overcome whatever tendency they might have had to selfishly sabotage the candidate's chances by writing a weak letter. To do otherwise would not only be unethical and worthy of criticism in the ordinary, obvious sense that would exist even without the norm, but I feel that because of this norm there is a sense of "karma" (for lack of a better word) that pervades this particular kind of situation; a kind of "how would you feel if this were done to you?" sort of thing, or an expectation that the letter writer be extra good at putting themselves in the shoes of the other person, so as to make themselves able to restrain whatever demons they have sitting on their shoulders and whispering nasty ideas to them.
With this somewhat philosophical analysis in mind, my practical advice is identical to that of @AnonymousPhysicist, namely that, barring any specific reasons you have for thinking that the department chair and dean are dishonest people and will behave unethically in this situation, your best bet is to put your faith in their sense of professionalism and ask them for a letter.

If your current position is your favourite, you can be completely honest with your superiors and tell them what you wrote in your question. In this way you send out several positive signals: You do not take the tenure track position for granted, someone else is interested in you as well, and you are mobile. However, if it should happen that you get two offers and you pick the other one, they might feel cheated. So if the other position is your favourite, you might try to get your recommendations somewhere else, e.g. from people you know from conferences.

I'm not so sure the last sentence is good advice.  I think not having a letter from your department chair, or at least someone in your current department who knows you well, could seriously hurt your chances of getting another job.  People you know from conferences will not be able to say anything about your teaching or your general ability to carry out the duties of a faculty member.  A letter from your department is the best evidence that you are being successful at your current job; without it, other prospective employers might assume the worst.

So I think that regardless of your preferences, you should get a letter from your current department, unless you are legitimately concerned that they will act unprofessionally by intentionally writing a bad letter (in which case you probably wouldn't want to stay in this department anyway).

Thanks. I don't think they would write a bad letter, but I could imagine myself being conflicted if put into their positions. I was thinking along the same lines that without letters from my current employers my chances of getting another job are slim-to-none anyway.

There should be no issue here.  Since you can't be guaranteed a position next fall it is perfectly reasonable for you to seek other positions in case the tenure track position is filled by someone else.  Your current employer must surely know you would be applying wherever you could, that is only prudent.  Assuming everyone is behaving ethically, no one should have any issue writing a letter of recommendation for you.


text:
Papers differing primarily by examined dataset, not analysis technique
I am considering a specific topic in research paper within data mining field. I just found that my idea is being implemented and published in arXiv in the last month. So far, the published paper matches the flow that I was planning to follow but the author has considered the study with Twitter data. My question is: If I want to do the same experiments but with a different data set like facebook data set will it be considered a new contribution in that field ?
Ps: Row data crawled from Twitter API is way different from row data crawled from Facebook API, and the also different in structure and body.


text:
How to tell my research advisor I'd like to drop a class?
I'm currently in my first semester pursuing a PhD in Computer Science.

Since you are a PhD student, you should prioritize your research over classes.  Why do you think you need to tell your advisor?  Is his permission required?

His permission is not required, but he knows I'm in the course and has high expectations for me. @Anonymous Physicist

OP is pulling all-nighters at the start of the program already. Assuming this goes on cost of their total sleep time: This must stop; it's not viable, period. However, if it is just on cost of your general research time, it may be a good toolbox for their later research, so trading the course time with research time might be a consideration. So, ask yourself where the priority is for this phase.

@AnonymousPhysicist I disagree (in part) with this.  Courses are meant to be a component of the degree, and the thesis and associated research is only completed in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree.  It’s difficult to say from afar, but I find it refreshing to see that in this case it seems the OP has taken a course where there is substantial contents.

@ZeroTheHero The relation between coursework and PhDs is country dependent. (But if a country pads out undergraduate degree courses with irrelevant Gen-Ed "electives" it's not surprising that students need to take more courses at graduate level...)

Along the same lines as Captain Emacs comment: what you're learning now may not seem relevant to your research but in two years, you might find you need exactly some of the ideas you're learning in this class. This doesn't mean you'll recall the tools exactly, but it will give you the knowledge of places to go to answer your question(s) relating to whatever topic is at hand.

I understand this course may be relevant later on, but the amount of hours I'm spending on this is conflicting with my research efforts. I am more curious on how to approach my advisor which such an issue since I am leaning towards dropping it. I can always take another course that fufills this requirement. No one looks at the courses you took during your PhD, they look at your research, atleast this is what I've been told. Thanks for the comments.

@alephzero I still think not everything can be taught at the undergraduate level (irrespective of electives) and that meaningful graduate courses are part of what makes a meaningful advanced degree.

@ZeroTheHero So despite the amount of time I'm spending on this course and how much it's conflicting with research, you recommend staying in the course? I don't even have time to apply for fellowships. And my advisor is currently seeking NASA funding for my research so I need to be on top of it... I came to stack exchange to look for approaches on how to bring this up considering the detailed information I've given. I appreciate the first answer, but hoping to get an alternative perspective/answer as well. Thanks!

@Bwoods you're starting your PhD so yes I would expect you devote lots of time to your courses at the expense of your research (this might be discipline dependent but in physics people do, in their first year, spent a lot of time on courses).  Now, this may not be the best course for you to do this, but you should expect to have to do this in whatever course will replace this one if you drop it.  Only you can measure what you get out of that course, but "takes too much time from my research" could be a weaker excuse for a candidate starting a degree (up to discipline specific culture).

@Bwoods The research component is (at least historically) only one component of the graduate degree; the other components certainly include courses.  (Here's a meme on a situation graduate students in physics will recognize: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm-4PltMB2A&app=desktop)

@ZeroTheHero I see where you're coming from and I noticed this is a big difference between classic sciences like Physics vs. a relatively new field like CS... At my institution, it's definitely researched focus with course requirements, but we don't take a ton of courses. For example we only have to take 3 courses by the end of our first year. I've noticed a similar trend with other CS departments. Research is definitely priority #1, but yes there are the minimal course requirements

Dear Supervisor,
I am taking the AI course.  I need X hours/week to do well in this
  course.  My other courses only take Y hours/week.  I am considering
  dropping this elective course so that I can devote X more hours/week
  to my research.  Do you think this is a good idea?
Thanks for your advice,
Student

Note:  Most likely your advisor will support you if you want to spend time on research.  But they may know something you did not tell us on Stack Exchange.  If your advisor says no, you can still tell them you have decided to drop the course.

-1 Don't ask an open question if you have already decided. If you ask the question, make sure you are ready to follow the advice.

This is the sort of issue that should be discussed in person, not by mail. Go visit them. Talk it out.