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Why Crossref can not detect the DOI of the online published paper? How to fix this issue?
My article has been published online in a JCR journal and it has a DOI which works (yet the issue is not identified). The problem is that this DOI can not be detected by Crossref. When submitting articles with their DOI to our university system, articles are identified if the CrossRef recognizes them. My first question is why Crossref can not identify this DOI? and the second question is can I do something in order that Crossref recognizes this and how?

It is probably because the publisher has not registered the DOI with Crossref.
See https://www.crossref.org/services/content-registration/.
You can contact the publisher and request them to do this


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I worked in a specific direction without communicating it to master's thesis advisor, problem?
I am currently waiting for a meeting with my master's thesis supervisor and two people from a research institution i am associated with. The plan is to for me to talk about my literature review, and suggest possible directions for my thesis.
In a previous meeting with my supervisor only, we have already decided on a topic, but the method or framework are subject to the outcome of the next meeting. Since the research institution has a closely related industry project, it is to be expected that the decision process will be in some way influenced by the applicability to the project. To some people, this might be a limitation, but I would be glad to see parts of my work actually being useful.
I have prepared slides to give an overview of my literature search, along with suggestions on what to do next. Because I have not been too busy with other stuff, I have also implemented some methods already. In addition, I am currently working on deriving the extension of another method to our specific problem, which may or may not work. While it could be nice to have this kind of progression, I'm not sure whether it is appropriate of me to work in a direction without having checked with my supervisor first. This is especially since we might decide to do something entirely different.
I expect the supervisor to be in favor of methods that are similar to recent publications, and the research institute people to be biased towards methods that fit their project. I think the methods I have been looking at are rather geared towards the latter.
My questions are:

Should I bring up me working on selected methods in the meeting? This could be interpreted as going against our agreement to decide on a method together.
Should I update my supervisor on my progress prior to the meeting (via e-mail)?
Would it be a bad idea to steer the meeting into the direction of the methods I have  been working on, without mentioning it?

My concerns are not only having worked on the wrong things in vain, but also upsetting my supervisor for not checking in and not abiding the agreement (at least kind of).
I would rather not embarrass him in front of the other people, in case he would feel that way about me working without having communicated with him.

Additional Information: my relationship to my supervisor is somewhat formal since we haven't had too much contact up until now, but I already know both people from the research institution where I have been a research assistant for over two years.

It isn't a problem unless you make it a problem. I would think that what you have done shows initiative and would be praised normally. That should be true even if the committee suggests that you go in another direction for the thesis.
But, to me, at least, saying that you have been exploring one of the options seriously would be a point in your favor. But if other considerations are such that you should be taking another direction now, you can do that, and not insist that you follow up now on your current direction.
If they suggest a different direction, just put the recent work away for a while. You might have the opportunity to develop it further later and the experience of doing it might actually help in following up on the suggested direction.
As long as you don't fight with people, who might have good ideas as well as authority over you, then you should be fine. Maybe better than fine. Initiative is a good thing.
Likewise, a quick update to your supervisor on your recent activities should not be an issue as long as you are flexible.

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text:
I feel like a bad student
I'm at the end of my 2nd PhD. I dropped out of my first one after three years of abuse -- real abuse -- at the hands of a project postdoc. He would shout at me over anything and was sometimes physically violent. My supervisors wouldn't help me and I eventually dropped out with PTSD (not just because of him, but because that experience was happening alongside a lot of other horrible experiences in my life).
The trouble is, objectively I don't think I did anything wrong. I was recruited into a geography PhD and the postdoc was a physicist. He kept trying to make my project much harder than it was. I don't know why he was so angry, but his complaints about me were continuous. I think his standard was impossible, but nothing I tried made any difference.
Academia was my dream so eventually I tried again. This time is totally different, I have tons of support, I've published two papers and have finished a third. But the truth is that every second of every day I still feel like a bad student. I feel like there's this angry critical voice pulling apart everything I do.
Right now, my PhD is 95% done. I could finish it in a couple of weeks. But I just feel so bad about myself that I can't even look at it. I have a tiny bit of work on my third paper that I just can't do. I can't stop believing all of these horrible things about myself: that I'm lazy and stupid, I can't write my own code, I'm not smart enough, I'm bad at maths, I can't be trusted, my work is full of mistakes, nothing I do will come to any good.
I've seen a therapist, I've told my supervisors how I feel... nothing really makes a difference. It's got to the point where they are starting to be a bit critical of slow progress too, and these fears are becoming self-fulfilling.
Just wondered if anyone had any advice on moving forward.

Have you searched this site and elsewhere for "impostor syndrome"? And have a look at our most upvoted question of all time: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/2219/how-should-i-deal-with-becoming-discouraged-as-a-graduate-student

One day at a time.

If half of that is true, why are not in counselling?

@RobbieGoodwin, because counselling hasn't been useful for me. Therapy available to students is typically short-term and very basic, focusing on "correcting negative thoughts." The trouble is that real problems -- like abuse -- no amount of positive thinking is going to change it. It's very difficult for students to get more appropriate therapy: I was on a waiting list for nine months and then the funding for my counselling got cancelled after just three weeks. In my department, most PhD students are struggling, so mental health services are simplistic and overstretched.

@Kess Quite separately "He would shout at me over anything and was sometimes physically violent" is at first sight criminal and all good colleges should have both student groups and staff able and willing to take action.

@Kess Are you part of a study group? "… my PhD is 95% done. I could finish it in a couple of weeks. But I just feel so bad about myself that I can't even look at it…" suggests - however simplistically - your immediate need is for a coach.
In "… tiny bit of work on my third paper…" does "… that I just can't do… " mean for lack of skill or knowledge, or that you can't bring yourself to do it?

Actually, this sounds like classic burn-out. You've been at it intensively for a long time. A lot of us went through that, though not always so close to finishing. Add uncertainty about the future on top and it is bound to cause problems.
But, two things.
Take one day at a time and just get done what you need to get done. Try not to compromise more than necessary, but use something like a daily plan to make the progress you need so that the end is successful.
And, your education/learning/skill-development doesn't end when you get the degree. If you are a poor coder, you can change that. You can learn the math you need when you need it. You have a long time to go, yet, and the pressure is likely to ease a bit, at least for a while.
I found that getting some (aerobic) exercise several times a week was a good way to cope with the stress.
But, you don't sound like a bad student. Just a tired one.
Investigate Imposter Syndrome, though this feels more like burnout.

This is so useful. People have talked to me about impostor syndrome before but it never feels like it fits very well. Burnout though... somehow that has never occurred to me. It makes so much sense for me.

It sounds like you know what you need to do to finish. Make a list of things to do and go through it to the best of your ability. Your papers and dissertation don't have to be perfect. You've published 2 papers so your work is clearly good enough.
If your negative self-talk interferes with that, then seek professional help, like a therapist, before your perceptions of being a "bad student" start to really interfere with your progress. If your therapist isn't helping, you can always look for another one.

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Would it make sense to get an academic reference from a former student for graduate school?
I graduated from law school (which confers a bachelor's degree in my country) a few years ago.
I then switched to tech soon after (as a software engineer), and now I'm thinking about going back for a Master's degree in computer science or something similar. Most of the schools I'm looking at require three references, and I understand at least one (preferably more) should be from former professors, with a view to assessing your potential to perform academic work.
I have reached out to the tutors in my last two years of law school, but I'm not sure if they still remember me, and it's also an unrelated degree, so I might have a problem there.
After my career change, I was an instructor at a data science bootcamp for a while. A former student of mine from there later applied to a fairly highly ranked US university. He asked me to write a letter of recommendation for his application, which I did, and he was eventually accepted.
I know you should normally look for referees who were in a supervisory position, but I'm just wondering if I could actually ask this former student, if I can't get any other academic references.

No, I would not recommend getting a recommendation from a former student.
You want recommenders who are familiar with you and are familiar with the requirements to do well in whatever you are applying for. In this case, professors who teach graduate students and who have taught you in the past will be able to make statements about how you compare to the students they see do well in graduate school. A former student can't do that: they don't teach graduate students and aren't familiar with what makes a graduate student successful.
For some positions involving teaching you might present past teaching reviews or testimonials from former students, but that's not the same as references for graduate school.

If that former student has since gone on to a position with the experience to judge, in retrospect, your role as a teacher, perhaps. But it would have to be something like, "As a member of the Academy of Sciences, I look back to my undergraduate sociology tutor as a real inspiration"!

But even in that case, they may have the skills to judge now, but may not be able to remember what happened back then, or may remember it in a different light (limited by their prior understanding)


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Bibliography entry for website found via Google Cache
I am writing a paper and wish to include a website as a reference. However, the website died a few months ago and is no longer viewable. Interestingly, I've never seen the live website myself, but have only ever seen it via Google Cache.
So, how do I add this source to my bibliography? Do I do everything with the data from the original article (including the original URL) with the date that Google cached the website? Or do I put the Google Cache URL and today's date? If the latter, should I modify any of the other terms of the bibliographic item?

Have you tried the wayback machine?

@CaptainEmacs yes, and it doesn't have it. But I don't see how that's relevant for my question. The issue here isn't finding the website again (I saved the Google Cache URL), but merely how to add the website to my bibliography.

If it's there, you could cite it with the old link and date and also refer to it via (available via Internet Archive). The point of a reference is to provide the reader with a reproducible way (if at all possible) to identify the source and check it for themselves. Plus, it wasn't an answer, but only a comment/question because I am not sure about the perfect format to do so.

Save the website contents as well, google cache entries are not eternal. If it becomes unavailable, you could host an archived copy somewhere and refer to that.

Thanks @nengel, I didn't actually know that (thought cache was reasonably eternal). Do you have any opinion on how to do the bibliography, though? Should I use the original or cache URL?

Given that the cache copy of the content is very likely to be unavailable in a few months already, I'd vote for archiving it somewhere where it has a decent likelihood of remaining online for a long while, and referencing the archive. Or maybe asking the editor of your publication if you can include it as supplementary material, if it's significant enough.

Does http://archive.is/ save google cache URLs? If yes, that could give you a somewhat(!) permanent source.

As you've never seen the original website, you can't reference that. You don't know how accurate the cache is. For instance, I've seen Google Cache rearrange the formatting and strip out images from websites.
Based on that, the only place you could sensible reference is the cache file.
But, the cache file is likely to disappear very soon. It could only be live for a matter of days. I would save a copy as quickly as possible and grab images. Depending on the nature of how you want to refer to this, there can even be cases where it's appropriate to include a screenshot.
If readers will need to refer back to the information on the original site, I'd suggest archiving this somewhere online yourself (it could be on a blog). In that case, on your archive, provide the background to how this was obtained. In the paper, reference your archive.
You will also need to note somewhere in the paper that the original site was closed (and ideally a date).
I've come across this problem several times in my contract cheating research, where the sites we collected data from were closed, went offline, merged with another site, completely changed their format, or reset all their data. All it was really possible to do was to write a commentary around the changes.
You might also want to do a search for the quote you want, just to see if there's an alternative source you can reference. In some cases, it might really just be easier to not mention the website at all, unless this is absolutely crucial to the success of your paper.

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How to quit a potential paper with my Master's supervisor when I am already doing the PhD somewhere else?
For 1 year and half I did my master thesis in one laboratory, where although I learned a lot, it was mostly alone, having very reduced supervision and not having a project parallel to any of the PhD students. Finally by the time I delivered my thesis I learnt that I got accepted with a internship in a international institute (application that I did all by myself). My master supervisors were not happy as they wanted me to keep going with experiments to publish a paper. I did what I could before I left for the internship, even taught a new master students with the techniques I implemented. Also I transformed my thesis as much as possible in an article, still requiring just a few more experiments.  Now, one year and half later, having I already done 2 internships and started a very good PhD position in another country and scientific area, they still nag me with questions about the article. They did not contribute with any more experiments for the article and only one of the author corrected once the manuscript, only actually correcting the grammar and formatting. At this point I quitted  the article but clearly they still did not. I am indecisive if I should:
a) just stop replying,
b) sent an email explaining that I want to focus on my PhD now and so I have no longer interest in the article
c) if I send the raw data and tell them to do whatever they want as long as I have the name somewhere and I can read one of the last versions.
The problem with c) is that although is the most "polite", I know they will keep nagging me and I will have a lot of work to prepare all the raw data (which include tons of images) to send them and most probably they will never actually publish it. With the other hypothesis the issue is that I do not want to have bad professional relationships. It is also important to refer that my thesis was presented in a poster in an international conference so it will not really bring much more scientific knowledge to publish it.

A poster and a published article, that's huge difference for other people to find out what you did and what you achieved. There is a value to publish it! Why not finish it yourself, invest let's say a month, you are first author and go on with your PhD, but with publication +1?

(c) sounds reasonable. You show effort, and give them opportunity to match it with theirs. The way you describe it it seems quite a one-sided thing, so this can balance it out, and put some pressure on them to actually contribute, without them being able to consider it rude. Plus, if it works out, you have another publication. Looks like a smart solution, actually.

I would choose b) if I don't have much time to spare.
Work on every paper incurs an opportunity cost. Time spent at one place cannot be spent at another. If you have many exciting projects that need the time that you cannot afford to spend elsewhere, b) is what I would perceive to be the best option.
If however I have lots of time to spare, and no other project to work on, I would pick c). A publication increase is always a good thing in this case.

But in this case she already spent a lot of the opportunity cost. She's not starting from scratch. I would rather advice to get as much value from the cost spent as possible, and that would definitely be finishing the publication.

There are many aspects to consider in this question. Fromn what I read from your first paragraph, you did not feel that you recieved the support you needed or expected while you are working in this research group - and that you spent so much time explaioning it tells me, you are at least a bit upset or disappointed.
Now, someone who disappointed you want's you do do something you would not do by yourself - and it would cost you some of your valuable time and you are not seeing a benefit from it. Even more: They increase your stress level by sending you e-mails and nagging you.
From this point of view, a) is no option in my opinion, since you never draw a finish line under this highly emotional issue, and it will pop up once in a while and you will feel bad. You seem to be a person who cares about the social environment and it would be disturbed - and this disturbes you.
If you choose b), you would be much clearer and you could even talk about it to the people of the other lab if you meet them in person. Everyone in science has little time, so it is a good reason for not writing the paper. If you want to be polite, just tell them in a neutral way about your decision, if you want to given them an opportunity to improve their behaviour, you could try to tell them that you just don't want to support them since they did not support oyu and you feel that they just took advantage of you and you got little in return. This would make it more difficult if you meet them in the future, but might relieve you. If I were you, I would not do it, but I wanted to point out the sub-option.
c) might be a good compromise, but as you said: They will not finish it since it is too much work to dig into someone elses research work organization. You could do b) and offer c) in your mail and see, if they want the data at all. Maybe that's a compromise.
As others mentioned, there is an optiond d) which is writing that publication! Publications are the scientific currency and having one more never hurts. Of course, there is this time issue and the currrent PhD is more important then your masters stuff, but maybe there is some relation between both? Maybe some side aspects which make the publication interesting even in your current direction of research? If you can spend the time, I would try to finish it. Maybe you can offer them that you'd supervise another student remotely, who might do the remaining experiments.

c) if I send the raw data

When you say this I tend to think that maybe having the raw data is the reason why they write you...I don't like the fact that you left with the data honestly, it's not professional and perhaps even not legal. Have you considered that?
Anyway, I don't think option c) is viable. I get the impression that you are de facto the leading person in this project, for practical and historical reasons. It's a pity to leave this unfinished, so just make the extra effort and publish this, you'll have one more publication in your CV, avoid wasting good material, and finalise the collaboration optimally even in face of the difficulties.
If, instead, you have lost interest in this OR you have changed scientific field and this is not important anymore OR you are not interested in future collaboration with these people, then your option b) sounds a reasonable and polite answer to me. This might or might not deteriorate your relations with the previous collaborators, hard to say from here, it depends on their personality and perspective on the problem...you are the only one who can judge that.

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What to use to denote numbered list with hierarchy in Academia (ie. numerals, alphabets, roman numerals)
Perhaps I'm missing the right search words/terms. I recall there was a way to use a numbered list and how to structure it's hierarchy but can't seem to find the recommended way on the internet. How far does it go until it repeats? (if it varies for different styles please can we focus on APA style)
For example:

I found this: https://editorsmanual.com/articles/lists/ . It doesn’t answer your literal question but has some related advice.

Thank you @DanRomik, the multi level list seem helpful(https://editorsmanual.com/articles/lists/#multilevel-lists).
I wonder if it's APA or research compliant. I also wonder what happens if we go further down the levels.

@nvs0000 "Research compliant" is not a thing in this context, if you want a definitive answer for APA style I recommend you track down a copy of their published style guide. Dan Romik's link features five nested levels; in my opinion, any more than that would be quite difficult to read and would be best avoided.


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Can I send just the abstract before sending the full paper?
First time here, I hope I do well asking this question. I didn't any answer.
This is my situation: I presented a research in a colloquium last June. Now I want to publish it as an article. Is it OK if I send an abstract to several journals at the same time simply asking if they would be interested in the full article?
I mean, I guess it would accelerate a lot the process of getting my paper published if I don't have to wait weeks or months before being refused simply because my paper is not interesting to them...
I'm new in the academic world, so I don't know if it's unethical.
What do you think?

"...I don't have to wait weeks or months before being refused simply because my paper is not interesting to them" If your manuscript is a bad fit for a journal the editor will usually desk-reject without sending it out to reviewers. Usually, this takes only a few days.

@Snijderfrey In principle that's true, but in reality it's sometimes not so clear-cut and papers go through an entire peer review round only to be deemed a bad fit after all. However, in these cases sending the abstract to the editor before wouldn't have changed anything.

@xLeitix, You are certainly right. What I wanted to express is that there is an initial assessment step after submission anyway without the OP trying to force it.

What you can do is not to send the abstract, but send a 1 liner. "Dear editors, would an article that discusses X and Y be of interest to your journal? Best regards, Jojojojo"

Textbook proposals and maybe some other books work like that. Send a prospectus to several potential publishers. But not likely for papers.

@Snijderfrey Exactly, if it's obvious from the abstract that the journal won't want it, it won't go to peer review. If it's not obvious from the abstract, it might take a long time to get rejected, but you can't speed that up by sending the abstract in advance!

No, regardless of the content of the abstract, they still need to consider the whole paper and how everything is set out.

I recommend not to do this. If you think that a journal might be a good fit for your paper send the whole paper and if you think that it is not, do not send them the paper at all. Of course the editors might think otherwise but I think that such a decision can hardly be reached by looking at the abstract only. Whether the paper fits does not only depend on the topic but also whether it is written with the intended audience in mind.
Another aspect is that editors tend to be rather busy and what you propose does not really fit into the usual workflow of a journal.
Edit based on comments by Richard Erickson and Matt: the above does not necessarily apply to all journals since there are some which encourage presubmission inquiries. There is also an editorial by Roger J. R. Levesque which also deems these inquiries as potentially problematic and unneccessary.

Depends upon the journal and the field. But, yes, I generally agree with what you're saying. Also, this editorial does as well: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10964-019-01008-z. Consider adding it as a citation to bolster your answer

Right, not fitting the workflow is a negative.

The second part is absolutely correct, but some journals allow--and even encourage--presubmission enquires. If it's part of their workflow, you can certainly take advantage of it, especially if there's any concern about scope or "impact".

What you want to do is usually called a pre-submission inquiry.
It is somewhat common for high-level journals in some fields, where a major hurdle is convincing the editor that your paper is relevant enough or on-topic for the journal, before it enters peer review.
The outcome of pre-submission inquiries is not binding, but it may give you a better idea of your chances of getting into review.
Some journals even require pre-submission inquiries for certain paper types (such as review or method papers).
However, in other fields it is unheard of.
Some journals explicitly state whether they accept pre-submission inquiries (example).
If you are in a field where pre-submission inquiries are a thing and time is critical for you for some reason, you might consider this.
The major advantage of pre-submission inquiries is that you can send them to multiple journals at once, whereas you can only properly submit your paper to one journal.
(I list some further advantages here, but I don’t think they apply to you.)
If on the other hand pre-submission inquiries are not normal in your field, you’ll probably just waste everybody’s time and annoy the editors, who are unlikely to give you a constructive response.

Where such practice is the norm, screening is usually pretty quick (and usually requires the whole document, not the abstract)

@ScottSeidman Though definitely not required in my field, sometimes a pre-submission inquiry is an informal conversation at a conference, without any document.

@BryanKrause  If you ever submit to Science (and probably Nature, and some of the other more newsy platforms) there's always a review stage of this ilk,  It's not called by this name, but every paper is screened for whether it merits space before going out for peer review.

@ScottSeidman I do not consider a pre-submission inquiry to be the same as the desk rejection process for a typical manuscript. I have personally/through my coauthors used pre-submission inquiries to, for example, check on the rigidity of restrictions on figure/table counts and length, or to get an idea of the boundaries of basic science that an editor will entertain in a clinically-focused journal.

@ScottSeidman FYI, I was googling and found this https://www.nature.com/nature/for-authors/presub

You are not stating your discipline, which may make a difference here. In applied computer science, this would be utterly pointless - if you get any answer at all to such a request, it would be "we need to review the full article before we can say if it can be published".
The only cornercase where it may be useful to ask the Editor-in-Chief prior to submission is if you are unsure if your submission is in scope of the journal (most likely because you are doing interdisciplinary work), and even then the answer is often a lukewarm "depends on how strong the contribution of your work in < area of the journal > is".

As a counterpoint from neuroscience, the response to one presubmission inquiry we sent was along the lines of "Be aware that we reject a lot of papers on this topic for [methodological reasons], so make sure that yours includes rigorous controls addressing these issues." This advice was really helpful for structuring the paper we eventually submitted, especially since it came much faster than a normal review.

Follow the instructions each journal provides to authors about how and what to submit.
Being a newcomer to academia, you should assume that your ideas for how to improve the peer review system, however logical and efficient they might seem to you, are not going to be an improvement over the current system.

The process, on your part, involves doing your homework toward figuring out if a manuscript would be a viable candidate for any journal you send it to before submission.
Read the list of articles in the last few years, and if any seem to be in the area of your work, go read the papers and see if they're along the lines of what you're doing.  Look at where the papers you cite in your work are published.  Look at where the leaders in your field publish their papers.  If you need the help of a colleague to do this, get that help.
I appreciate your wish to speed up your process, but your idea is off base.  You should never send any portion of a document to more than one journal.  You're asking for confusion and problems, and you might even find your abstract published in isolation if all goes wrong.  Also, you're passing along a job that you need to do to others.

You are asking the wrong question. Get someone from your university involved to help you getting your work published. Either some professor you know or a person from the colloquium audience.
They might help you to improve your paper in the first step, like a internal review. Then they might name you a suitable journal.
Overall this will help the quality of your paper and increase the success rate.
Good luck!


text:
Publish short Research letter in high impact vs Research article in normal impact
After making a presubmission inquiry to a journal with a high impact factor (NEJM), I received a reply that a Research Letter could possibly be considered for publication.
I am not familiar with Letters, my question is should I try to publish a Letter in a prestigious journal, or should I aim for an ordinary research article in a normally prestigious journal, such as BMJ or similar?
I am a postdoc and I want the most bang for my efforts, but I am not sure if a Letter in a prestigious journal counts heavier than an ordinary research article in a normally prestigious journal?

Could you clarify, did the editors recommend you submit a letter to the editor about the work? They are not really true research articles, being <=400 words and 1 figure or table. They're typically used for commentary or highlighting particularly timely results rather than full research reports. As Clark mentioned, assuming your work has more detail than would be covered in the letter you would likely be able to submit a full article to another journal (appropriately referenced), even if the novelty is slightly reduced by the Letter.

Yes, part of the response reads "It sounds interesting and we would be interested in a Research Letter." <400 words, five references and single table or fig. Given that the results will be the same in the Letter as well as in the full report, I doubt I can make a double publication.

This probably depends on your research. Do you just have a single result which will be fully expressed in the Letter? If so, then a second publication wouldn't be possible. But if your research has additional supporting data developing the underlying hypothesis, validation in other endpoints etc, then a second publication may work. This can include the NEJM-published results, formatted and cited correctly - this is not uncommon for the outputs of large projects. Some high-IF journals may be slightly put off by a perceived reduction in novelty, but the NEJM approval may offset that.

The New England Journal of Medicine seems to publish two kinds of material under the general submission rubric of “Letter” or “Correspondence”—critical comments about articles published previously in the New England Journal of Medicine (including original research, perspectives, and commentaries) and “research letters,” which report original data about topics that are “timely.”  An example of the first type of “Correspondence” (critical comment) is here.
Comment about a publication in the NEJM.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2107926
Following are selected examples of data published in the “Correspondence” section of the New England Journal of Medicine about COVID-19 over the last 18 months and the number of citations to the Correspondence (AKA Research Letter) through July 29, 2021.  All three examples are about COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2 because only this correspondence is reliably available online in full-text form for free.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7121177/
Lu X, Zhang L, Du H, et al. SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Children. N Engl J Med. 2020;382(17):1663-1665. doi:10.1056/NEJMc2005073
This March 18, 2020 research letter had 804 PMC citations on July 29, 2021.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7304421/
Solomon IH, Normandin E, Bhattacharyya S, et al. Neuropathological Features of Covid-19. N Engl J Med. 2020;383(10):989-992. doi:10.1056/NEJMc2019373
This June 12, 2020 research letter had 222 PMC citations on July 29, 2021.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7727324/
Widge AT, Rouphael NG, Jackson LA, et al. Durability of Responses after SARS-CoV-2 mRNA-1273 Vaccination. N Engl J Med. 2021;384(1):80-82. doi:10.1056/NEJMc2032195
This December 3, 2020 research letter had 134 PMC citations on July 29, 2021.
Information about the citation history of these three research letters shows the potential impact of even a short publication in the New England Journal of Medicine.
OTHER PUBLICATION OF SAME MATERIAL FOR THREE RESEARCH LETTERS
This is clearly a small (very small) sample.  But, for the first two research letter publications (Lu, Zhang, Du, et al. and Solomon), no subsequent publication reporting the same data could be identified (as of July 29, 2021).  For the third research letter (Widge et al.), a second research letter with different co-authors but based on the same 34 (or 33) subjects in an on-going follow-up of antibody responses in people vaccinated with the mRNA-1273 vaccine (Moderna) was published in the New England Journal of Medicine June, 2021.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33822494/
Doria-Rose N, Suthar MS, Makowski M, et al. Antibody Persistence through 6 Months after the Second Dose of mRNA-1273 Vaccine for Covid-19. N Engl J Med. 2021;384:2259-2261. doi: 10.1056/NEJMc2103916. Epub 2021 Apr 6. PMID: 33822494.
Using Doria-Rose et al. as an example of publishing longer term follow-up of subjects in an existing study in the same journal (here, the New England Journal of Medicine), the practice if "publishing more about the same people" is clearly acceptable to the editors of this journal.  Whether publishing the longer-term follow-up in another journal would be considered a breach of publication ethics is unclear.
Also, considering these examples, publishing a follow-up “full” paper for a Research Letter is not (small sample) universal.
INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF MEDICAL JOURNAL EDITORS (ICMJE)
Historically, in medical journals, publication of exactly the same data in another publication would be considered to be duplicate publication and has been generally discouraged/frowned upon.  Simultaneous submission of exactly the same manuscript to two different publications without disclosure (see below) is prohibited.
The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) provides detailed guidance on the topic of “overlapping publication” for variety of situations.
http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/publishing-and-editorial-issues/overlapping-publications.html
Pertinent to your question regarding submission of a research letter to the New England Journal of Medicine with a plan to submit a “full manuscript” to another journal, the ICMJE states:

“When authors submit a manuscript reporting work that has already been
reported in large part in a published article or is contained in or
closely related to another paper that has been submitted or accepted
for publication elsewhere, the letter of submission should clearly say
so and the authors should provide copies of the related material to
help the editor decide how to handle the submission.”

A sequential publication might be justified best in cases where the “full manuscript” based on the same subjects with the same general findings includes more (and important) methodologic detail, more detailed results, a more comprehensive review of the pertinent literature (5 references is not a lot), and an expanded discussion of the implications of the findings and limitations of the data.  If the methodologic detail and the literature synthesis will support future work, the plan for an expanded manuscript and a "new" publication find further justification (to the science community and to journal editors).
Questions of copyright may come in to play, especially in publications that involve Figures and photographs. If a subsequent publication is submitted, pay attention to copyright issues.
BOTTOM LINE (OPINION)
Bottom line (this is an opinion).  A nice result that can be conveyed clearly in the Research Letter format gets a lot of mileage when published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Consider carefully what you (and the world) gain (or lose) by publishing "the same thing" someplace else.  Will readers be "confused" by having two publications about "the same thing?"  Will readers think the publications are (prohibited) duplicate publications?  How much time will the second publication (submission) take from other work?

Thank you for putting so much time into this. Excellent reasoning. I think NEJM will be my first choice.

@pha Good luck.  If NEJM doesn't take it, you can always submit elsewhere.  They are likely to make a quick decision.

This is a good question, pha. The answer is "it depends."
If the Research Letter is peer-reviewed, I would suggested trying to publish in NEJM. I checked NEJM's website and didn't see a listing about how they do peer review.
If the Research Letter is not peer-reviewed, then I would try for a typical research article in one of the other journals you mentioned.
Whether the work is peer-reviewed speaks to the scrutiny given to the work, and is evaluated as a higher bar on search committees or other evaluative bodies.
I would suggest a third option, which is to publish both a Research Letter and a typical research article if possible – the former in NEJM and the latter in another journal. Again, I'm uncertain of the scope of a Research Letter (NEJM in my search didn't list this as an option), but letters are generally scholarly commentaries rather than reports of original research, so the duplicate publication concerns shouldn't apply.

Thanks for your answer. NEJM Research Letters are peer reviewed but obviously not as rigorous as full reports. As to the third option: given that the results would be the same in both publications, I doubt that the journal that would consider the full report would find any reason to publish? Many journals require that the data has not been published beforehand, other than in Poster sessions.


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Becoming department chair while being good friends with some but not all members
I am considering becoming department chair of a small department (10 people, not including adjuncts), and not because I really want to, but because no one else wants to and I like to be a good member of the department in terms of service.
Here’s my concern.  I am close (platonic) friends with a couple of adjuncts in our department - I hang out with them socially outside of work, and just chat about personal things like my mental health.  In my current position, I have no supervisory role over their positions. But I am worried that once I become chair - and so I will become their supervisor - the power differential will affect the friendship - I would no longer be so comfortable being so emotionally open (and perhaps I never should have been so open with coworkers in the first place, but I never envisioned becoming chair, also I have had trouble making friends outside of work). Also, it would be very hard for me to not give a favorable preference to my friends in e.g choice teaching assignments, raises, etc. And that if some other faculty members see that we hang out outside of work (e.g. through Facebook posts), etc they may feel I favor my friends for teaching assignments and so on. And they would be right.
Any advice? Am I over thinking this and being too cautious or careful?
Should I tell the current chair that I have changed my mind and no longer wish to be chair?

My experience is that people who take jobs as place holders tend to regret it.

An obvious suggestion: have you asked the current chair what they think about this situation? You don't even have to be so frank about it: just ask how being chair has affected their relationships with other department members.

I haven’t asked my department chair but I’m sure he doesn’t hang out with coworkers outside of work. I have no friends in town outside of work despite many efforts

I don’t think you’re overthinking this. Your dilemma is very real and it sounds like you understand exactly the problematic issues here and how much your professional decision is putting at risk your social life and (potentially) personal happiness. Not much more to be said IMO, you just need to weigh your priorities and reach a decision. One last thing: do not allow yourself to be guilt-tripped into taking a role you do not want to take. That is probably the very worst reason to be making a major professional commitment that will have a dramatic effect on your life in the next few years.

@DanRomik on the other hand, this can result in departments and institutions chaired by the few people whom nobody likes, if every decent researcher tends to not want that role because they want to work on their research and not spend time on administration. There's this quote "those who want power probably shouldn't have it" which seems to apply a lot for academic administrative positions.

@Peteris yes, your comment is a good example of the kind of guilt-tripping I was referring to.

You should expect some professional distance between yourself and anyone you supervise. You can be "friendly" of course, and you can interact at departmental social functions in a friendly way, but you have to recognize that whenever a dispute arises you are the boss, not the pal.
Some departments, however, with a long history of very collegial relationships, mutually supporting in every way, these sorts of things are unlikely to arise. This is especially true if lots of things are decided by committee or by consensus, rather than by fiat. In such a place your fears would likely be misplaced, until something unexpected happens.
There are places, very collegial, in which the department head position rotates among the tenured faculty, with the job lasting a couple of years or so and then passing on to someone else. If a place has such a history, then it seems to change the dynamics a bit. The 'head' is an administrator but is seldom called on to be an 'ogre'. Note that such things as tenure are normally handled by committee, rather than by the head, but annual salary adjustments might fall under your control.
The more the position calls on you to be a personnel manager, the more likely it is that conflicts can arise and the less likely it is that you can be "just a friend" to other faculty.
If you already have graduate students under you and are responsible for their future, you can get a small sense of what the relationship might be like. You can be friendly, but you need to keep a certain professional distance so that your authority is recognized when it is necessary for it to be recognized. Hopefully not often, but it happens.


text:
Legality of downloading books from websites such as Library Genesis
I am an international student who will be joining a graduate program at a US university starting Fall '18. In my home country, I have used such websites as Library Genesis and BookFi to download textbooks, from such publishers as Springer etc., which are otherwise either not available or available at exorbitantly high prices in my home country.
Is it legal or illegal for graduate students to download books from such websites? Would I get into any trouble if I download textbooks from such websites either from my personal computer or from a university-owned computer?

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

The legality of possession of pirated content varies across countries. In many countries, it is perfectly legal to have copies of copyrighted content as long as you don't share it with others. In the US, downloading such content is illegal, but you are unlikely to get into trouble by having illegally copied content on your hard drive. I found a great answer on Quora by an attorney, parts of which I'm going to quote:

Yes, it is illegal to download ("make copies") of material that is protected by copyright.  However, all that is illegal is not criminal.  Copyright for the most part is a civil statute, with civil remedies (i.e. the copyright holder sues you for money).
Criminal copyright infringement is much more limited than civil copyright infringement.  The criminal portion of the Copyright Act (17 USC § 506) states that it is a criminal act to willfully infringe copyright 1) for the purposes of commercial advantage or private gain; 2) by reproducing or distributing within 180 days one or more copies of works with a retail value of more than $1,000; or 3) by distributing a work being prepared for commercial distribution (i.e. a work that has not yet been released for sale to the public by a copyright holder, but that will be made available or a movie that is currently playing in a theater).

It would be very difficult to classify what you describe as criminal. As long as you only download (and not share) publications for your private use, you are unlikely to have issues.

For the average person, generally there won't be any criminal consequences under copyright law from having pirated items on your computer.  That isn't to say that a creative prosecutor couldn't make a case (particularly if you have file sharing software installed, in which case you could possibly be looking at a violation of the second prong of the statute).  But in the real world, this is not the type of crime that most police go snooping for when they decide to rummage through your laptop.

There are some cases where students are getting into trouble by using school equipment or connection to pirate content (mostly audio and video), so it is probably a good idea to keep this business on your private computer. You can further decrease the chances of any legal trouble by using TOR, VPN and keeping the pirated content in an encrypted container with a strong password.
tl;dr: It's illegal. As long as you don't get caught downloading the files, you are unlikely to get in trouble. It's more about your own views on the ethics of scientific publishing and copyright.

If I go to https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/500681 , I can download the paper Dampened Power Law: Reconciling the Tail Behavior of Financial Security Returns for free. At the bottom of the page, it says © 2006 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. No other license mentioned. If I go to https://sci-hub.mu/10.1086/500681, I can download the same paper for free. (continues)

One of them is legal and one is not, apparently. Why? I assume that there is an agreement between the University of Chicago Press and JStor, so they can distribute it on the internet, but not one between the University of Chicago Press and Sci-Hub. Anyway, it's a private contract between these two parties that I cannot see and audit. Am I supposed to ask for this contract every time I download a paper?

-1 for advocating sneakiness. It isn't admirable. Those who aspire to the academic life should also aspire to high standards of conduct. Respect the people (authors) who enable your own work. Find ethical solutions to the problems you face, even when they are difficult.

@Buffy How do I advocate sneakiness? I actually tried quite hard to keep my personal views on the matter out of the answer and focus on the facts.

I was objecting primarily to your final paragraph, just before the tl;dr summary. "keep this business on your private computer".

-1 I also take issue with the last paragraph. I can't condone teaching others how to do something illegal without getting caught.

As long as you don't get caught, you are unlikely to get in trouble This is true for pretty much everything you can do that might get you in trouble.

@Matt That actually makes sense, the sentence isn't clear enough. What I wanted to say is that one does not get into trouble just by having those files, so I edited the answer.

@Buffy Thanks for the explanation, I didn't write that to suggest being sneaky about it, but because using third-party services/devices for legally questionable activities could be more problematic than doing it strictly in private.

@FedericoPoloni not an expert, but I'm pretty sure that JSTOR is licensed to distribute the paper and Sci-Hub is not. The symbol (c) 2006 by The University of Chicago simply indicates that the University of Chicago is the copyright holder. Note that when you attempt to download the PDF, you are asked to accept JSTOR's terms and conditions. Does Sci-Hub do the same?

@Allure Currently, as far as I know, Sci-hub doesn't ask you to accept any T&C, but since it's illegal anyway, it could make up one such page. I don't see it as a meaningful criterion. What makes you "pretty sure" that JSTOR is licensed and Scihub is not? Reputation? Do you have a practical way to check? Are you supposed to write to the University of Chicago to ask each time? Is it your job to do it, as the final user?

@FedericoPoloni a variety of secondary factors, such as reputation, the fact that they aren't being sued, that their T&C (as is typical for this kind of content) prohibit certain uses of the material, and so on. The final part is rather opinion-based. I'd say yes, to some extent. If something is too good to be true, it should raise red flags, e.g. say I offer to deposit $50k into your bank account. In return, you can keep $500, but are to withdraw the remainder in cash and deposit them at [address]. If you accept and later the police investigates, are you liable?

Once you are on campus, use your student ID to log in on the library website. You may be very pleased to find out that the library has an agreement with, say, Springer, and that you — as a graduate student — are allowed to download (in PDF format) as many technical books as you want! Therefore, why would anyone download books from sites other than the campus library's?
It would be wise to assume that such PDF files are watermarked. They are supposed to help you in your research. If you start distributing PDF files that can be linked to your student ID, I suspect that your career as a graduate student will be rather short.

It would be trivial to test is there is a watermark: get some friends and all get copies with their accounts and calculate hashes of the files.  If the hashes are the same, there's no watermark unique to the individual so it can't be traced back

@MStodd There still could be a watermark identifying the university or the library in that case.

I was writing this as a comment, but it grew too big. In addition to JohnEye's answer, I would advise using a VPN all the time and keeping anything of value encrypted regardless of whether it is pirated or not. It is a good practice/skill to have in today's world and it only costs about 5$ a month if you set everything up by yourself, which is the only secure way, must I add. If you end up traveling in your future career, virtual networking/encryption skills will be worth their weight in gold, regardless of your profession.
My personal view on intellectual property is that I like to try before I buy. Download it, see if it is any good. If it is, buy a copy, leave a good review, and recommend it to others. While it might be illegal from a certain perspective, it is also illegal for publishers to sell you junk not as advertised. Good luck getting your money back from those guys. Internet is loosely regulated and it is good that way, in my opinion.

While you say some interesting things here you are still advocating unethical behavior. Sorry. -1. Sadly it seems others here seem to agree that this is ok. It is not.

@Buffy I agree with you and in a perfect world everyone would act ethically and be happy. But the market for textbooks where poor students are forced by state-regulated and partially state-funded universities to get deeper into debt to government to buy specific textbooks sounds pretty inefficient to me and far from ethical either. Let people innovate and form a better market. Is a pay-first-read-later book the dead end for written knowledge? Hopefully not. Let them innovate and come up with a better market structure I say!

I agree with your immediate comment, if not your answer. Yes, work to build a better world in all ways open to you. Denying scientific and other knowledge to poor people/countries is distinctly unethical, as is denying them medical care. I note that someone else's unethical behavior doesn't justify mine. And yes, I realize you didn't say otherwise, so just an observation.

Never in my academic career have I purchased a book out of my own purse. That's what libraries are for. Also, A Uni library usually has, in addition to online access, sharing agreements with other libraries. Want to test it before you get it? why not loan the hard copy of the book from the library?

@EladDen lucky you, these statistics say

@ArthurTarasov Not lucky, smart. Go to the library, it has books, if it doesn't have what you need, go to your supervisors, they have funds.

No no, don't listen to that guy, just pretend you don't know about that stuff and get inspiration from other sources instead. The really good stuff is rarely so easily visible anyways.

This answer would be improved by an explicit answer to the question.

Downloading copyright material without permission is likely regarded as illegal and unethical nearly everywhere.
However, you should check with your local university library for what services they provide. It may be that the local university has arrangements with academic publishers that permit their own students access in some form, either e-books, or interlibrary loan, or even (possibly) downloading at a modest fee.
Another possibility is that you could seek to obtain a small grant from someone or some institution for the purpose of library building. Even a favorite uncle or aunt is a possibility for that.

Asking your uncle for pocket money to buy a book you need for a research project sounds like a joke...

@HermanToothrot, not intended that way, actually. I once had a couple of uncles who were proud enough of me that this would be feasible. They also happened to be quite wealthy, while I was not. Maybe I should have added "Explore all your options, even the not obvious ones."

Photocopying books used to commonplace, and downloading scientific material from pirate sites is not considered unethical by most academics i know. Let's not speculate about the legal system in an unnamed country.

I think that photocopying entire books was always frowned upon and illegal in many places. Libraries had rules about how much of a work could be copied "fairly". Your use of the term "pirate sites" indicates that you are probably wrong about what is considered unethical by most academics. I'll guess they (some) do it, but still consider it unethical. But university libraries can, in most cases, get you what you need through various legal and ethical avenues.

The answer would be improved by backing up the first sentence with reliable sources or personal experience. In particular, using Scihub is very widespread, and it is not obvious it is consider unethical in the countries that are not very rich or reliant on copyright monopolies for their income or imperialistic aims.

"Photocopying books used to commonplace": where I am photocopies (of parts of books) are legal because there's a lump sum deal between publishers/authors and fees collected on sales of photocopying machines and paper. Whereas copying from pirate sites is not coverd by any such deal.

Another maybe not so widely known option as OP mentions Springer books is Springer MyCopy: if the library has an ebook license, students (actually: registered library readers) can get a black-and-white printed softcover book for personal use for 25 US$. Which  does sound doable to me. Another "trade secret" not known to many students is that publishers may grant subtantial discounts to authors.

No, it is not legal. Downloading copyrighted material from unauthorised sources is, well... breaching the copyright. If I'm not mistaken LibGen was sued for that.
Many universities' libraries have online access to some catalogues, so you would probably be able to access and download directly from Springer and it won't be illegal because your uni would have paid for access.

Citation needed for the first paragraph. In particular, LibGen and an individual user are in very different positions legally. You should also specify the country whose laws you are discussiong.

@TommiBrander if you've not seen it: https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/33639/is-it-illegal-in-the-eu-in-germany-to-download-a-scientific-e-book

@Allure That link would improve the answer.

Usually your local law will prevent copyright violations, therefore it is illegal, independent of your status. It does not matter which computer you are using, but if you are using a university computer, your university rules might enforce further actions like kicking you out of university for using university equipment for illegal purposes, even if there is no official lawsuit against you. You'll have to check your local regulations for this, I assume they vary.
The other question is if you will get into trouble - well thats the same with using illegal games, movies, books, etc...

This answer should cite reliable sources or personal experience.

No, of course it isn't legal. But you should do it anyways. Books aren't exactly going to be cheaper when you get to  the US, and that's not because the author has to make a living or any of those sob stories you hear from the propagandaists ... the price is what it is because of the monopoly that certain publishers and journals have.
There is nothing unethical about not wanting to play a rigged game. Just make sure you download the stuff in a subtle way (don't tell anyone, use a VPN, etc).

Sorry. Advocating breaking the law isn't ethical in any but the most extreme cases. Advocating sneakiness isn't very praiseworthy. -1.

The pretense that the markets for academic journals and academic books are equivalent is extremely naive, rather self-serving, and ultimately incorrect. The academic-journal market is indeed deeply flawed, arguably to the point of market failure, but none of the things that make it that way (drastically reduced electronic publication costs, monopolic lock-in to journals by publishers, unethical market tampering) apply to books.

The harsh truth is that academic books, with the exception of the few introductory textbooks that become 'hits', just aren't cheap to print, as the potential market is generally too small for economies of scale to kick in and dilute the (substantial) cost of editing over a larger print run. If you wish to argue otherwise then you actually do need to argue otherwise, and provide or reference a cogent argument for the "monopoly" over books that you mention.

@E.P. that is why that kind of publishing is not needed any more. So we should do away with it instead of let it be the influential zombie lord that in it's last desperate hungers for brains does more and more desperate harmful things to the world of science.

The legal claims should be backed up by citations to reliable sources or by personal experience.

This answer applies to the European Union. Laws may vary elsewhere. Also, I am not a lawyer.
Short answer: No, it's usually not legal. Exceptions apply, but they are exceptions; one can assume it is illegal until proven otherwise.
Long answer: this basically comes down to whether it's legal to create a copy of copyrighted material.

Downloading vs. streaming: downloading involves creating a copy of the original item. Streaming means viewing the content without creating a copy. Since you are downloading books, you are creating a copy, and copying laws apply. (It is worth noting that even if you are able to stream the book instead of download it, it is still illegal, as a result of a landmark ruling by the European Court of Justice in the Filmspeler case).

Article 2 of the EU's copyright directive establishes that books are protected material (emphasis mine):

Member States shall provide for the exclusive right to authorise or prohibit direct or indirect, temporary or permanent reproduction by any means and in any form, in whole or in part:
(a) for authors, of their works;
(b) for performers, of fixations of their performances;
(c) for phonogram producers, of their phonograms;
(d) for the producers of the first fixations of films, in respect of the original and copies of their films;
(e) for broadcasting organisations, of fixations of their broadcasts, whether those broadcasts are transmitted by wire or over the air, including by cable or satellite.

However article 5 of the same law provides for a "private copy exception" wherein an individual may be allowed to make a copy for private non-commercial purposes (emphasis mine):

Member States may provide for exceptions or limitations to the reproduction right provided for in Article 2 in the following cases:

(a) in respect of reproductions on paper or any similar medium, effected by the use of any kind of photographic technique or by some other process having similar effects, with the exception of sheet music, provided that the rightholders receive fair compensation;
(b) in respect of reproductions on any medium made by a natural person for private use and for ends that are neither directly nor indirectly commercial, on condition that the rightholders receive fair compensation which takes account of the application or non-application of technological measures referred to in Article 6 to the work or subject-matter concerned;
(c) in respect of specific acts of reproduction made by publicly accessible libraries, educational establishments or museums, or by archives, which are not for direct or indirect economic or commercial advantage;
(d) in respect of ephemeral recordings of works made by broadcasting organisations by means of their own facilities and for their own broadcasts; the preservation of these recordings in official archives may, on the grounds of their exceptional documentary character, be permitted;
(e) in respect of reproductions of broadcasts made by social institutions pursuing non-commercial purposes, such as hospitals or prisons, on condition that the rightholders receive fair compensation.

However in a landmark ruling in the ACI Adam case, the European Court of Justice established that it is illegal to create a copy under this private copy exception if the source is illegal (paragraphs 56-58):

Consequently, all the users who purchase such equipment, devices and media are indirectly penalised since, by bearing the burden of the levy which is determined regardless of the lawful or unlawful nature of the source from which such reproductions are made, they inevitably contribute towards the compensation for the harm caused by reproductions for private use made from an unlawful source, which are not permitted by Directive 2001/29, and are thus led to assume an additional, non-negligible cost in order to be able to make the private copies covered by the exception provided for by Article 5(2)(b) of that directive.
Such a situation cannot be regarded as satisfying the condition of the fair balance to be found between, on the one hand, the rights and interests of the recipients of the fair compensation and, on the other, those of those users.
In the light of all of the foregoing considerations, the answer to the first and second questions [for context on what these questions are, see paragraph 19 of the same page] is that EU law, in particular Article 5(2)(b) of Directive 2001/29, read in conjunction with paragraph 5 of that article, must be interpreted as precluding national legislation, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, which does not distinguish the situation in which the source from which a reproduction for private use is made is lawful from that in which that source is unlawful.

Note the ECJ also ruled that this ruling precludes national legislation, meaning that EU member states cannot impose more lenient laws (although they can impose harsher laws).

The conclusion from all this is that, if the source of the copyrighted material acquired the material legally, then it is still possibly legal for you to make a copy of it (other laws apply in that situation; what those laws are is outside the scope of this answer). However if the source acquired the copyrighted material illegally, then it is illegal under all circumstances for you to make a copy of it.
The next question is whether Libgen acquired the book legally. I'll consider it self-evident that for most books, they did not (if they did, why would publishers be suing them?). Accordingly the conclusion is:
It is not legal to download copyrighted books from LibGen. You can still download if the copyright has expired (e.g. if the books are in the public domain) or if the copyright holder allows free distribution (e.g. a CC-BY license, which is typical for most open access journal articles).
See also: the answer to this question on the Law StackExchange, writen by someone more familiar with copyright law than me.

Assertion re  ACI Adam isn't  backed by the quotation.

@WHO'sNoToOldRx4CovidIsMurder it is, read it carefully.

The case didn't find anyone guilty of making illegal copies of anything.  It wasn't about that.  It's about the appropriateness of billing for estimated value of harms caused by reproductions for private use made from allegedly unlawful sources.  The sides weren't arguing over whether there had been such reproductions or not.

@WHO'sNoToOldRx4CovidIsMurder in that case, you should read my answer carefully. Note the assertion. However in a landmark ruling in the ACI Adam case, the European Court of Justice established that it is illegal to create a copy under this private copy exception if the source is illegal (paragraphs 56-58).

ACI Adam doesn't prove your assertion: "it's usually not legal."  It's a piece in an incomplete chain. In a sound logical argument, it is
impossible to accept the premises without also
accepting the conclusion.  You haven't presented one.

For the record, I have no more comment to make.


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Is a 3 year Ph.D. too short for MA/MSc graduate?
Or put simply, 3-year vs. 5-year PhD?
Many programmes in UK (and EU) take up 3 years, as opposed to a minimum of 4-5 years in North America. For a masters degree holder, with a goal to stay in academia, is a 3-year Ph.D. too short to prepare one for postdocs and academic roles? Or would the extra year(s) in a 5-year programme be a repetition of the masters?
Is the short duration enough in preparing an academic and his/her career? While the additional year(s) in a longer programme costly and dispensable? This question is informed by the many discussions here and elsewhere lamenting the competitiveness and difficulty of staying in academia, especially in the UK. I am asking from a UK/EU point of view (more specifically, social science), as I am not sure if this (potentially unwarranted) concern is generalizable in other countries and disciplines.

Notice that usually what is called a PhD in the US usually corresponds to master degree + PhD in Europe, that's why 2 + 3 = 5 years.

@GennaroTedesco not necessarely. In Canada, (most) people do a master + PhD (2 + 5)

The thing about a PhD is that you should end up in roughly the same place. The length is therefore determined by where you come in. US PhDs tend to be longer than UK ones primarily because in the UK we specialise much earlier, so there is less left to do to reach PhD standard in your field.
In deciding what is best for you, the key factor will be you. How much do you still need to learn to complete your apprenticeship as an academic? That covers many aspects: knowledge for your research, research skills, how to write papers and give talks, personal management, career management, teaching, student supervision, probably some I've forgotten. If you have suitable funding, your PhD is a good time to learn these things while you have relatively little in the way of responsibilities. Also, at least in maths, your research record is generally considered relative to when you finish your PhD, not when you start.
My understanding is that the extra time in a US PhD is taken up completing taught modules/passing exams, not extra time on research. I would investigate whether having already done a masters would mean you could skip some/all of that and so shorten the total time.
Of course there are other factors to consider, finances and family often being the biggest ones. Also consider where you will be happy living, and who you want to work with. I was advised that the right supervisor is the most important thing in choosing a PhD. Personally I like to add that choice of supervisor should include preferred working patterns and personality, not just research topic, because you need to work closely with that person for a sustained period of time.

Any number of UK social science academics have PhDs from UK universities (and UK PhDs work in other countries obviously), so it's clearly sufficient in a technical sense. Apart from the coursework component in a US PhD - covered by the Masters - there are two other areas that make US PhD holders more competitive in junior academic positions, teaching experience and publications.
In the UK, teaching experience during your PhD is a sort of 'optional add-on'. There are probably opportunities as a tutor, but there might not be. It's also poorly paid and time consuming, so many PhD students don't do it. This means you don't have teaching experience on your CV.
Similarly, the US programs seem to have more emphasis on getting some publications. Whereas UK PhD students may have a conference presentation or two, but are unlikely to have much else by the time they finish (particularly in social science).
So if you are intending to apply for UK lecturer positions, you would be competitive with a 3 year UK PhD. Possibly not for US positions though you could apply for US post-docs and then lecturer positions later on if you did some teaching and focussed on publications during your post-doc.

There is a (large) difference between the nominal and the actual length of the degree program: Most social science PhD students in the Netherlands and Germany (the cases I am most familiar with) take 1 or 2 years longer than the nomial duration of the program (regardless of what the nominal duration is...).
As long as everybody is realistic about what can be obtained in 3 years, then 3 years is enough. The PhD program is there to teach students the basics about doing real research (imaginary/ideal world research is taught during the bachelor and masters program), and gaining experience is what postdoc positions are for. I don't think prolonging a PhD program will be all that helpful.
(Disclaimer, I took 7 years to finish my PhD, but that was still within my nominal + 2 years bound)

I think it depends on what you value along with various other considerations.
I can't realistically think or, nor describe, all of the things you might value here, but I guess some of the big ones would be earnings, training, status, and freedom.
From this perspective:
A five year PhD is more likely to leave you better trained, but also likely to lead to you earning less overall, spending more time as a PhD (not quality time for most people) and having less freedom (e.g., you are trapped within that PhD). The three year PhD offers the converse.
However, all of this should considered in light of important considerations which mediate the importance of these differences, such as your ability, the complexity of the area, the quality of the job market, and the type of job you want.
For instance if you are i) a below average intellect relative to your peers in the area, ii) in a very complex area where you will need to learn a lot to succeed (relative to other types of PhD), iii) in an area where (relative to other types of PhD) the job market is poor and only the very best will get employed, and iv) interested in working in areas where a five year PhD is expected, then that increases the argument for the five year phd.
Please let me know if you would like any further clarification.

I think Jessica B is the only one to hit the nail on the head so far. US and UK PhDs start from significantly different levels, due to the fact that UK degrees focus on your specialisation right from the outset, whereas the US system explores a much broader swathe of subjects, before honing in on a speciality. There are merits to both approaches, and I think that you will find that most people are partial to the system they went through. However, this has an effect if you move on to a doctorate. It would not be a great idea to move from a US undergraduate degree straight to a UK PhD programme, without first doing a masters. However, it is quite common for UK students to skip a masters, or to do one integrated into their undergraduate degree. As a result, the UK PhDs essentially trim off the course work component that usually takes up the first two years of a US PhD.
It is entirely possible to do a relatively short PhD and then do well in a postdoc and onwards from there. I am a rather extreme example of this: I submitted my DPhil (Oxford's equivalent of a PhD) thesis after around a year and three quarters. Prior to entering that PhD programme I had done a BSc in Ireland (which is similar to the UK system). I also spent around 8 months as a PhD student at a different university before moving to Oxford, but had to leave when my initial supervisor moved to another position.
There may be a disadvantage in applying to US based positions initially, since they sometimes prefer people coming from US style PhD programmes, but I have honestly not really felt held back at all by having done a short PhD.


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Is it appropriate to ask for recommendations, which I'm not sure if I'd use eventually?
Is it OK to still ask for references, if I know I may not use some of them in my PhD applications?
I wanted to ask the potential referees if they're willing first - but I might not necessarily use some of them, because - for example a stronger prospective referee agrees to write letters for me later on; or that I decide to apply for fewer programmes than I originally intended to.
More specifically:

Is it appropriate to approach all (or more than enough) potential referees, in the first place, in one go?
Should I keep them (those whose letters I did not use) updated? And if needed, how does one politely do so?

You can ask several people whether they'd be willing to write recommendations for you.  Do not ask them to do any actual work until you need it and intend to use it.  Recommendations will generally go directly to the institution to which you are applying, so "keeping them updated" doesn't really apply.  You'll never see the letters that get written.
When you are ready to ask for the actual recommendation, be sure you provide all the information the referee needs. Substitute "research" or "lab work" for "classes" below as appropriate.Here is what I tell students:

Tell me what the deadline is!
Include your student number.
Remind me which of my classes you have taken, and when.
How did you distinguish yourself in those classes?
How would you describe yourself? What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? I am going to have to answer those questions when I write your reference, so the more details the better, but these have to be things I've observed myself.
What are some of your academic and nonacademic accomplishments that I may not remember?
What makes me particularly qualified to write a letter for you? That is, why should the recipient of the letter value it over a letter from someone else?

Be sure to tell how and where to submit the recommendation: online link, address for paper letter, etc.

Thanks. I think my other concern is also - if I have asked them whether they'd be willing, and received positive responses, then how do I tell them that "I don't need their references anymore". Or maybe I have overthought this, or not ...

@Sophia See my comment below, where I say, "Don't worry about it."  It is most unlikely that any of your potential referees will ask later, but if they do, just say, "I'm so grateful to you for being willing, but it looks like I will not have to impose on you because I've been accepted into the program at Oxbridge."

Thanks for this, you put it far more eloquently than what I had in mind, as I want to respect their time, as @Penguin_Knight said, while leaving enough time for them to respond and write, and not leave the requests 'hanging'. Also, it'd be great if I'm accepted into Oxbridge or other similar places thanks :)

I would say be respectful of people's time. Rank your reference people from the most desirable to least, then ask from the top. If you need 3, ask the top 3, and if any of them declines, ask the next best one. If you don't have all 3 by a certain time, also start asking the next best one. If you are in a time crunch and very risk-adverse, asking 1 more than what you need is also understandable.

Is it appropriate to approach all (or more than enough) potential
  referees, in the first place, in one go?

Don't do that in one go. Most of your reference people probably know each other and if they found out you're using a flooding approach they may decide not to write one because they may think someone else will be writing one.

Should I keep them (those whose letters I did not use) updated? And if
  needed, how does one politely do so?

Not necessary. That kind of update will only bring bad flavor, as you're telling them that i) I consider someone else's words a lot more valuable than yours and ii) I just wasted your time.
Most application processes (at least in the US) are online now. If you have gathered more than what you need, you can check with the school if you can submit them all or have to drop some. My belief is that the schools do not follow up with the writers of the reference letter. I have never received any follow up on my letters after I submitted them through the system.
So, some safety measures is fine but don't overdo it. And remember to thank everyone who wrote a letter for you. And if you do get accepted, inform and thank them all as if you have used all their letters.

Thanks for your answer. As a followup question, if I happen to apply for fewer programmes than I intended later on, how do I politely inform them of my decision that I don't need their references anymore?

@Sophia Don't worry about it.  When students ask whether I'll write a reference, but then never send the specifics, I'm more likely to be relieved than offended.

There is certainly nothing wrong in asking an employer for a reference and then not using it. It is part of the employee/employer contract that a reference, if desired, will be provided - much like it is part of the contract that you will work on things from time-to-time that benefit the company/institute/lab/boss more than yourself and your work. It's just a given, and it helps the world go around.
However, any reference should be tailored for the time and application it is needed. If i ask for a reference in 2015, act inappropriately during all of 2016, then use that 2015 reference in a 2017 job application, i am misleading my future employer. So a reference should be timely.
Regarding the application of the reference, this is more to do with the referee writing relatively. For example, you may be the best in the lab with computers, and your PI might write that in a reference, but would they have written that if they'd known you were applying for a job as a programmer in a tech company? Perhaps not. Many adjectives are relative, and so it obviously helps to know what the application will be used for before overstating how "good" or "proficient" you really are.
So bottom line it's absolutely within your right to ask for a reference and then not use it - but it's probably not OK to hoard references to pick and choose for them at some point in the future.

If asking for letters causes those letters to be written, one will have wasted peoples' time. If we're talking about letters from profs for grad school, you should be aware that short, non-descript letters would be fatal in the U.S., and there has been inflation of praise. Letter writers know this, so do need to spend a bit of time crafting the right language. Even with practice, it takes time to write such a letter. I'd be very annoyed if someone asked me for a letter, I wrote it, and then "it wasn't needed".

Yes, well, lucky for the student then that wasting your time isn't unethical. I see your point, and i'd be frustrated too, but at the end of the day it's a small price to pay for the free menial labour. The student has a right to put themselves in the best possible light.

Ah, but in math there is no menial labo[u]r. The food-chain is very different from the experimental sciences. Polya's quip is mostly ridiculous, but not without content: (in mathematics) "a PhD thesis is a paper of the advisor written under conditions of extreme adversity". I must say that interactions with my own PhD students greatly help my understanding of things, but/and ... in effect... I do my own laundry, wash my own dishes, mow my own yard, make my own coffee... No "menials".

Ah, that's a fair point - I sometimes feel I am totally unaware of what the PhD lifestyle is like outside biology... we are worlds apart. I doubt in Biosciences even 50% of the students are there because the PI cares about their opinion. Just a pair of programmable hands. I suppose as a PI in a more theoretical science, you put time and effort in to your student's development throughout their studies, so it would be unfair for a student to use more unnecessarily. I was thinking from a point of view of the PI enjoying the benefits of a students work without putting time in.

Now i'm sorry for wasting your time having to defend a valid point :-| haha


text:
Submitting as Regular paper in same journal after receiving "revise before review" from special edition of the same journal?
I had submitted my paper to the special edition of the journal (due to relevance of work and faster processing timeline). Now I had received "revise before review" comment (they asked to provide graphs in high resoultion) which I have done. Along with that, the deadline for the special edition has been extended to 4 more months leading to additional 3 months time till first notification (a total of 7 months time). So, now my question is should I resubmit the "revised before review" version to the same special edition (considering the long time is it mandatory?) or I can submit as a regular paper (considering it will process faster?).
Thank you for your suggestions.

Ask the journal, but you may have to withdraw from the special edition before resubmission. There is no guarantee this will save time, however.

Special Issues may often be run by different responsible editors. If you submit as regular paper, it may well be that the new editor starts the review process again from scratch. I'm not saying this is likely, but it's a possibility. Generally what your chances are that this runs faster as regular submission depends on the field and the journal. Personally I'd probably not risk the trouble for doing this, but you may be under more pressure to deliver fast publications than I am.

Thanks @Buffy .


text:
Recitation Grades
I'm a Graduate Teaching Assistant in a Mathematics at a large state university. In the fall semester, I will be expected to be a TA for Calculus I, which will be taken by first year students. The course coordinator has set aside 5% as the 'recitation grade.' The coordinator has allowed the teaching assistants to use these 5% points at their own discretion.
What are some effective ways teaching assistants can use to implement the 5% grading policy in the recitations.

What is a "recitation"? Is it an oral exam?

@AzorAhai A recitation is a term often used (in the USA at least) for a supplementary lecture section that reviews and expands on material from the main section. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recitation#Academic_recitation

In my own opinion recitations are best for two things:

Addressing any gaps in understanding your students have
Showing them problems that are similar to ones on the exam so they can practice

For that reason I think you should purposely show them hard problems which test many aspects of their understanding of a topic at once. Even do long multi-part questions if you must.
Next you need to address the issue of whether they will skip your recitation. It's worth only 5% on their grade which is significant, but your less mature students won't recognize that and might blow it off. For that reason I think you should consider making the 5% go towards either attendance or pop quizzes. And if you do pop quizzes, you should make them hard, but then grade them generously, maybe even throw in a curve towards the end of the semester.
The hard questions should be similar to the hardest questions the instructor is likely to put on an exam. Students have a tendency to focus on easy problems they know they can solve when they study (wrongly thinking the hard ones won't be on an exam), so you should try to get those problems in front of them so it's clear that those are fair problems for an exam.

In my experience, recitation grades are a good way of rewarding students who show up and show willing to put in the work, even if they're struggling with the material.  They are the discretion that teachers are supposed to have in interpreting performance.
Many of your students are already probably stressed, so it's good to make recitation a safer space for the "dumb questions" that they need to ask but may feel shy about.  Don't add quizzes (and stress) for the sake of justifying the 5%.  Instead, let the 5% be extremely easy to earn by just being there---basically, "Did you generally show up and try to engage with the material?"
How formal you need to be in your policy depends on your university policy. When I was a TA, we used it informally in the end of semester grading meeting.  First we would compute grades as though the recitation grade was not part of the formula.  Then, for students just below the boundary of a higher letter-grade the professor would ask the TA, "How hard did this student work?" If the TA said they were showing up consistently and putting in the effort, that was "a good recitation grade" and the student got rounded up.  If the TA said the student didn't bother showing up or was otherwise problematic, that was "a bad recitation grade" and the student didn't get the bonus and stayed at the lower grade.  I liked this system very much because nobody was ever hurt by the recitation grade, but if they needed it, they could be given a small bonus for working hard.
If the university has a computerized computation where you have to give a precise formula, you can't be so informal.  You can accomplish a similar effect, however, with something like: "5% if you attend at least 2/3 of recitations, minus 1% per skipped recitation below that."

Students probably need two things from you. The first is the ability to ask questions that they have from the lecture and couldn't ask there. The second is practice. If you have a bunch of practice problem sheets available for each session, you can provide the practice quite easily. These are graded and returned the following session. The problems could be at any level of detail and the answers don't actually need to be correct to be valuable. It is the practice that you want.
I would divide the class in to two parts. Practice and questions. Have the practice first since the practice problems might generate their own questions. Spend about 1/3 of the period on answering questions. The fraction is adjustable as you learn more about them and the course proceeds.
In essence, what you are doing here is grading on attendance. If you show up you work on  a few problems and you get a few points toward the grade. Use it just as a goad for participation. If some students don't need the small amount of grade they might not come, but make it valuable for those who do. And make it easy to get those few points if they do show up. You will then be likely to see the students who most need your help.


text:
How to address a professor in person at US universities?
At US universities, how should one address a professor while talking to him or her? In my home country, we usually address the professors as either "sir" or "madam" while talking about our queries in person.
What's the norm at US universities?

Whatever you decide, pay attention to your forms of address and make sure you address your male and female profs equitably. Female professors tend to be addressed more frequently by first name than by title + last name. Personally, I live in an area where first names for everyone is fine, but something to keep in mind.

"Professor Lastname" is a sensible default, unless and until the professor asks you to call them something else, or you become aware of local customs that are different.
"Sir" and "Madam" are normally not used.

Sir or ma’am is commonly used in responding to questions however ("yes ma’am", etc), although that's no different than for any adult, at least in the South, but not using it doesn't doesn't exactly cause offense these days either.

But absolutely agree on professor as the default. Not all professors are doctors so it avoids needing to know their degree

@user0721090601 Funny, "professor" is a higher distinction than "doctor" in my country, and all professors are doctors, while not all doctors are professors.

@stef In the US, at least, professor is a job-based title, and doctor is an education-based one, so one doesn't necessary imply the other.  Most faculty here in studio arts don't have PhDs because there aren't really any PhD/DFA programs, as the MFA is considered the highest degree generally attainable (there are some schools offering doctorates, but they're still more the exception than the rule).

Assume that you should be formal unless invited otherwise. Of course other students at the institution can give you advice, but Professor or Professor Williams is normally used. Some what less formal is "doc" or "prof", but only with permission. I was once on first name basis with most of the professors while a grad student, but not with my dissertation advisor. He was European and was always "Professor".
I don't think there is anything like a nationwide norm. At most there might be a departmental norm, not even one for an entire university. But it is best to seek guidance. Assume the formal until you know better.
In my own case I had to convince doctoral students to call me by my given name. They seemed uncomfortable calling me anything but "professor". But we wanted the doctoral students to think of us more like colleagues so we pressed them a bit to use personal names.

Do people in the US really give permission to use "doc" or "prof"? Over here (UK), I think saying "Call me prof" would seem insufferably pretentious! ("call me Bill" would be OK)

@Flyto Actually that wasn't the conversation. Some students started to use it (at various points in my career) and I didn't object so it sort of stuck. It usually started with people I was working closely with, as a supervisor or such. From there it passed around. These were often undergraduates.

Ah, I see :) 123

By default, it is always appropriate to call your professor "Professor Smith" or "Dr. Roberts".
However, it is usual that the professor will either ask you to call them by the first name, e.g. "Michael" or "Jane"; if this does not happen but you do work with the professor quite closely or are on friendly terms with them, there will be a moment when one goes on to the first-name basis anyway.
I heard that some professors prefer their relations with students to remain formal and to continue to be called Professor or Dr., but I've never experienced this personally.
Note: In some countries like France, an equivalent of Mr./Ms. may be the norm (e.g. Monsieur), but in the U.S., that may be considered as implying that the person is not a Doctor and, therefore, an insult.

There is no norm across US universities.
I have had lots of professors announce on the first day of class that they dislike being referred to as "Professor" and to simply call them Mr/Ms [lastname]. Some even said they preferred being called by their first name. Had the same experience when conversing with professors outside of class (I was not their student or anything).
Other professors would take offense and lecture you if you do not call them Dr [lastname] or if you don't refer to them as "Professor". This seemed to be a minority of professors.
In the grand scheme of things it does not matter to most professors. I have seen people refer to professors in a vast variety of ways and I don't think most mind unless it can come across as particularly disrespectful (avoid first name unless they say its fine to refer to them that way, don't use casual slang when referring to them like "Yo homedog stevens", etc). I would default to simply "Professor" or if there is more than one professor in the room I might say "Mr./Ms.[lastname]".
There is also no harm in just asking a professor if they prefer to be called Professor Stevens or Mr. Stevens or what have you if you are worried. It's not as if they will take offense at that question.

Where did you have people say they prefer "Mr./Ms."?  That's way way out of the norm in my experience in the US.

Maybe they were adjuncts or Ph.D students, but yeah, uncommon to use Mr/Ms.

Indeed, I'd suggest for "Ms." this is actively not the preference of a large number of female academics. See the whole #ImmodestWoman thing recently.

The tradition in the University of Chicago math dept, at least years ago, was to address faculty as "Mr./Ms. ...", not "Dr." nor "Prof."... But it was singular among math depts I was/am acquainted with.