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Choosing between primary advisors for a PhD program
I currently work as a research assistant for Prof. A on a government funded project which ends this year. I have advised Prof. A that I am interested in pursuing a PhD and that I would like to stay at the institute I am currently at and to potentially complete it with them as well.
My job has ended up being that I do the bulk of my experimental work in Prof. B's group, as they have the necessary tools and expertise to answer the questions we have and I have established a healthy collaboration. As Prof. B's group is more focussed on work closely pertaining to mine, I find myself more engaged in meetings and conversations of the subject matter with this group than of my own with Prof. A.
Prof B. has since offered me to be a PhD student in their group next year, quite insistently, with 60% primary supervision to Prof. B and 40% supervision to Prof. A. Understandably, Prof. A would prefer it be the other way around.
I enjoy working for Prof. A a lot, but can also see working for Prof. B being highly rewarding albeit a little bit tougher on the expectation and 'cracking the whip' front. Both would offer me an excellent PhD opportunity, but with two very distinct outcomes and professional training. I'm a little stuck on how to decide between them.
Is it a better option for me to have Prof. B as my primary supervisor given that's where my professional goals lie, or is it more important to work for someone that I am much more comfortable with and have extensive prior experience with such as Prof. A?

If you feel that Prof. A is more likely to have your best interests at heart, see you as a whole person, and go to bat for you, that is a big selling point.  But it would be good to check if Prof. A feels confident of being able to handle the Prof. B factor.  (Prof. B sounds like a bit of a handful.)  You could also get the director of graduate studies/dean's viewpoint before deciding.

This paper asks about postdocs, but I suspect the conclusions would be the same:
https://f1000research.com/articles/6-1642/v2
After surveying Postdocs, they find that the only singificant predictor of life satisfaction is having how collegial atmosphere in the lab is.
Thus I'd say pick the supervisor who's group you feel most at home in. Your PhD will inevitably suck at many times, and the only people who will really understand what you are going through are those in your group. Make sure they are people you can trust and who will be there for you.


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Attending a conference with an abstract accepted but without a full paper submitted
I'm a Ph.D. and my abstract has been selected for an international conference. This is my first international occasion.
I have to pay now the fee as an author and I have little time to submit the full paper before the deadline for the future proceedings. (I'm also evaluating to take mode time and completing it in the future, for a journal)
I'm here cause in this call there is the option for not presenting the full paper but to register as an author the same. I have no experiences in this matter so here is my question: what happens if I decide to not submit the full paper? For me would be very important to present my work in progress at the conference and, maybe, one day publish the full paper in a journal.
Thanks in advance

Noting your field would be helpful - as the conventions for how serious a faux-pas it would be likely depends on your field. (In my field, while many established  conference will publish proceedings, it wouldn't be very unusual for attendees to not submit  while still giving their talk or presenting a poster on on-going work) - but I gather that it is quite different in other fields.

This might sound like a crazy idea, but have you thought about asking your mentor/supervisor/colleagues, who know your work and the conference you are talking about? And what's a conference where you have to pay as an author? Sound's like a ripoff. On proper conferences, every participant has to pay, whether he is presenting or not.

@Karl: "And what's a conference where you have to pay as an author? Sound's like a ripoff. On proper conferences, every participant has to pay, whether he is presenting or not." - it's not clear from the question whether only authors have to pay, or whether the OP is only going to attend if/because they are an author.

I do not believe this question can be answered well without the clarifying information that was requested by the commenters, and the OP appears to have abandoned the question.  I have thus voted to close as "unclear".

Tnx to everybody answered. It seems that after a positive feedback of my full paper from a double-blind peer review of the full paper I will be able to speak at the conference

source: Stack Exchange

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Email other people to cite your paper?
I noticed that someone posted a paper on arxiv that has a good overlap with a paper of mine, including some key inspirations/lemmas. However, it seems like there was no reference to my work or the results already proven by us. Is it considered OK if I send an email to the relevant authors pointing out our previous work? Would it be rude if I explicitly ask them to consider including the reference?
I am asking also in part because I myself have previously received such emails and ended up adding a couple of references in the revision of my paper. However, I'm not certain if it is a norm in general.

I would always go for just making them aware of the paper and its relation to your own research and not outright suggesting they should cite it, because personally I find that to be too much (and makes the sender seem pushy and/or desperate for more citations IMO), but others might view that differently.

Does this answer your question? Ethics of asking a colleague for a citation or this? https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/147402/are-please-cite-my-paper-emails-socially-accepted

I'm assuming by "posted a paper" you mean they uploaded it to a preprint server. I would argue that is the point of posting a pre-print. In a perfect world, people read your work and potentially comment on it before it goes to publication. Obviously this doesn't really happen all that often, but I would be happy if someone took the time to reach out to help improve my work.
So the point is, if you come across a pre-print (or any article really) that overlaps with work you've published in the past, reaching out is fine. I don't know how the authors would react to explicitly asking to be cited, but obviously you have responded positively in the past. I would probably just present your work to them and let them decide if it is, in fact, relevant enough to warrant citation. I don't think it would be necessarily rude to ask for a citation, but some might find it offputting (so be careful how you phrase it).
Whatever you choose, just know that the authors aren't really obligated to include a citation - no-one is expected to cite every paper related to their topic. And it's up to them to decide at the end of the day.

I would just add that if there are other paper (not authored by you) that you feel they should have cited, including those might reduce the "cite me" appearance

If they haven't read or used your paper in their work, there is no need to cite it. You cite the things you use and depend upon. They may have independently done some of the things you did and that is fine.
I wouldn't write them asking for a citation, but I definitely would write them informing them of your work and your common interest in this particular topic. It might lead them to do a rewrite that would require a citation, but it might also open up an opportunity for collaboration on future projects that extend everyones work.

I though you should be aware of this paper of mine. It overlaps with your recent .... Perhaps we should discuss further joint work, etc. etc.

If they have independently done some of the things he did, they absoultely should cite his work.

@theL, it is possible that they have never seen it. There would be no ethical obligation to cite it if so. It would be courtesy only. Cite the things you use.

But once it comes to their attention that this has been done already, they should acknowledge this openly at the very least...

I would say that often, in the related work section, you try to give a brief overview of the problem and approaches to solving it. There are often complementary approaches that you neither directly use nor depend upon, but they should be mention to position your own work correctly amongst current research.

Normally I like your answers but this one seems very off to me. Might be different field having different norms but I would say that giving credit is only a very small part of what citations are for. The bigger point is to provide context for your work. This can very often mean that you should cite things you don't use at all (instead it might have in common the same goal or is otherwise of interest to readers of your paper).
Still not sure the OP should email to make the authors aware of their work. I've done it once when I felt someone should really know. But it can be frowned upon.

@Kvothe, the question, however, isn't whether one should cite, but whether one should ask another for a citation. That can be abused and I am trying to suggest a better option.

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


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It is rude to offer a teacher the study guide you made for their class?
Is it rude to offer my professor a study guide I made for their class? I throughly enjoyed his class but the class he is teaching is extremely hard being it is a premed requirement. I made a study guide for every single chapter with the help of AI, YouTube, and actually reading the chapters. He teaches a lot but sometimes his slides don’t cover to full exam material. The class average is a 50. Id like to see a change in the whole department but I know I’m not the person for that. However, for every chapter I’ve made study guides including drawings and YouTube videos going into deeper explanations of the subjects he is teaching. Would it be rude if I offered it to him to give to future students? I’ve always shared it in our classes group chat and it gets around 60 views, and students tell me it helps them a lot.

Why do you imagine this would be considered rude?

Oh god please don't rely on AI for your medical training, that is quite worrying.

Tell them that you've made such a thing and would be happy to share it and their feedback on it would be appreciated. See what develops from that. Perhaps they would like to share it with others, or ask that you not share it. There is more value in creating it than in seeing it, actually.
It doesn't seem like a "big deal".

It is not rude.
Any teacher should be happy to see how their students have interacted with the course material.  Not only would it be a valuable resource for the professor, but for future students as well.  You are not presenting this as a recommendation for improving the class, but as a help for others.
As a teacher (high school) for 33 years I always found it at least interesting, if not informative, to see students' notes, study sheets, etc.
It seems you have put a good deal of time into these study guides.  Although it is proper to offer them to your classmates, you might seek a way to monetize them in the future.  Other students might be willing to pay for such a resource.

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


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Article accepted for publication by the managing editor of Taylor & Francis Journal
I received notification that my article was accepted for publication by the managing editor of Taylor & Francis journal. But when I previously looked at the site, I found that my article has been removed from the manuscript sent to journal section. In any case, it has been in this situation for 3 months, and only today I received the notification of acceptance of my article from the publishing director. Is this normal?

What's your concern? The timeline?

Yes, the publishing director sent me a message that my article had been accepted, but on the site the status of my article did not change to acceptance, not to mention that he told me that the publishing process would take a year.


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Should I tell the truth or just say I was a RA?
I am applying to PhD programs for the fall 2024 cycle in the US. However, I am very worried because I previously was a PhD candidate in Europe for 6 months. I left because of harassment and bullying. I was doing an industrial PhD and it was my industrial tutor who kept sending me threatening emails and late night whatsapp messages to the point I could not focus anymore. I talked to the university's confidential trusted advisor who advised me to leave because it was clear (from the whatsapp messages and threatening emails) that I could not work in that type of environment anymore.
My main question is, do I mention that I was a PhD candidate and left because I was bullied?  Or should I simply state that I was a research assistant at university X? I want to tell the truth mainly because I did very well in those 6 months and proved to be a good researcher. In my application, I want to be able to list my accomplishments there. I also want to tell the truth because it is neither fair what happened to me nor my fault.  I cannot even get a reference from my supervisor because he was upset I left the PhD position and he will now lose the funding.  Will a future university call my previous university?  I have excellent reference letters from my masters program, so I have 3 in total, but it would look odd that I don't have a reference letter from my previous PhD program.  Any advice?

This question has many details different from https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/148673/applying-for-a-phd-how-and-when-to-broach-the-fact-that-i-have-previously-left

You should tell the truth, but only the relevant parts.  For example:

I was enrolled in an industry-focused PhD program.  I felt the industry part of the program was not a good fit for my goals, so I left to seek a PhD position focused on ...

(US PhD programs are much less likely to have a large industry component than European PhD programs.)
The reprehensible behavior of the tutor was unfair to you, but does not relate to your application.

Thank you for your reply. It helps a lot

First, most applications (certainly in the U.S., and, I strongly suspect, in the EU) really do require complete, verifiable accounts of all graduate work and postdoc stuff. Omitting stuff would not be good. Do not consider it.
But/and, as others have commented, you can/should, in neutral terms, explain your choices. Don't "tell stories"...

This answer covers the serious flaw in the currently accepted answer. You can't omit providing records from all educational institutions you've attended. If you were a doctoral student you cannot just say you were only an RA.

I don’t suggest telling about the hostility with your advisor very openly because 1) it is not related to your new university and 2)application reviewer have tendency to judge you negatively when they see evidence of negativity associated with you already even though it’s not your fault. Regarding mentioning PhD candidate status, PhD candidate in US means you are done with your qualifying exam and only thing left to do is defend your dissertation (ABD). So, you might be still considered as PhD student. Being PhD student in US is much easier than being PhD candidate. So, If your experience or research that you did as PhD researcher in the past is relevant to your new university research you may include your experience and research experience without mentioning details about your advisor. That might help. However, given that you have done good work in master and your research interests matches with faculty/department in US, it is less important if you were a PhD student/researcher somewhere else or not. As long as you can fulfill all the application requirements without the help of your PhD advisor, you should be okay. The reviewer of your application may not have enough time to reach back to someone who you have not asked to reach out. Whether university will accept you or not after meeting minimum requirements depends upon matching in research interest, funding availability, papers, standardized scores such as gre. So your PhD researcher experience from past may not be significant for the decision. Regardless, having it as an experience in CV won’t hurt but don’t mention professor’s name.

Thank you.  I really want to tell the truth as I didn't do anything wrong. If I include my research experience, would you suggest I just state I was a RA at X University?  But the problem is I didn't publish a paper, I was in the process of publishing a paper already in my short 6 months there but because of the harassment I stopped.

Your answer is unclear. (I did not downvote) What do you mean by "I don’t suggest telling the truth very openly" You mean hiding the fact that the OP was a PhD candidate ? Please clarify.

Thanks @Nobody. This is constructive and helpful to improve my answer. I agree it’s unclear and I will edit making my answer clear. I really hate someone just downvote without asking follow up questions if it’s unclear.

Phd in Europe are phd candidates (at least in Italy). In the US from what I understand phds start "lower" in level then become phd candidates. In my program I am considered  a phd candidate

I won’t say “starts lower” because PhD in US requires MS or equivalent degree. There is direct PhD enrollment option after BS but generally requires to complete 90 credit hours but after MS requires 60 chrs only which is why I call MS equivalent. PhD students are called as PhD candidates after passing qualifying exams in US. But as per your writing, they are called candidates after enrolling into PhD programs in europe. So, I think it’s just difference in terminology.


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APA reference for uppercase word in title of book
I need to complete references for an assignment in APA format, but one of the books has an uppercase word in it and I'm not sure if it should remain uppercase or be changed to lowercase:
The SAGE Handbook of Grounded Theory, by Antony Bryant and Kathy Charmaz
In this context, SAGE is the name of the publishing company (https://sagepub.com) and the origin of the name is that it comes from the first two letters of the founders names: SAra Miller and GEorge McCune. So the company name is meant to be capitalised normally.
However, APA states book titles should use sentence-case, with capitalisation for proper nouns...


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Professor refuses to write a recommendation letter to students who haven't written a research paper with him
I am currently a fourth-year  Electrical Engineering student. I have been a top-ranked student in our department. I have passed 3 courses with a professor in our department and have received a full mark in all three. I did participate a lot in all classes and had many discussions about the courses in his office hours. He knows me very well. I have also been the teaching assistant of this professor twice, for two distinct courses. I believe that I have also done a decent job as a TA for him. I also have worked in his research lab for a year now.
Recently I have asked this professor for a recommendation letter for graduate school and he refuses, arguing he has decided to only give a recommendation letter to people who have written a research paper with him. By the way, he is willing to accept me as a master student, in his group but I prefer moving to another university.
My professor is new to the field I am currently working on and I believe it is hard for an undergraduate student to write a scientific paper in this situation.
I wanted to ask whether his refusal for recommendation letters is reasonable and also ask for some advice on how to handle this situation.
PS:
Maybe "reasonable" is not the best choice of word. I mean whether only giving recommendation letters to co-authors is something "common".
I am applying to a direct PhD in the US. But I am from a different country. Direct PhDs are not possible in our country.
I Professor obtained his bachelor degree in our university and his PhD in the US.
He has also worked as a professor in the US and in Europe before joining our department.

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

Has the professor refused to submit a letter or just to write one. Some professors ask students to write the recommendation letter for them, and then they will sign it if they agree with the contents. It's one way for professors to cut down on the amount of work without leaving students like you in a bind.

If it helps, during my Ph.D, I had a professor who'd only write recommendation letters if you got an A in his course. The rules "seem" unreasonable/arbitrary but when asked he said that it brought the amount of time needed for answering such requests. The ones who really wanted his recommendation would do well in his class and made his life easier. That was "his" POV - could be unreasonable for the student but then they'd usually go to another professor. However he'd be willing to bend the rules for exceptional cases - yours isn't. Best answer? Bad luck :(

Ask him for a letter stating his policy so I can justify my lack of a recommendation letter. Otherwise they will reasonably assume any work I performed was poor.

No matter what someone's policy is, if they liked you enough they would want to support your career and recommend you. After all you would be a future colleague and collaborator. Therefore the true underling reason is always that they don't want to recommend you (i.e. they view you negatively for some reason), and are giving a white lie about it, This question presupposes you are perfect and therefore automatically deserving of a recommendation. But this is a silly thing to postulate, since no one is perfect, making this question kind of useless.

@ASimpleAlgorithm That's a terribly flawed premise. Professors (especially those teaching multiple upper-level courses) are likely asked for recommendations quite often. If they are writing these recommendations personally, it would stand to reason that they want some kind of policy to help limit the number of requests they receive. While it might seem simple enough to suggest that they would bend their own policies in order to help a student they like, that may not be the case.

@BrianR : The conclusion that ASimpleAlgorithm makes is indeed false, but his statement is correct nonetheless. The professor could write a letter if he wanted to -- he isn't legally bound to follow some rule he made up.

@BrianR  ASimpleAlgorithm's premise is no more flawed than your explanation.  Only a handful of students are likely to have received full marks for all of the professor's courses, been a TA and finally worked in his lab for year!  This isn't about limiting the number of requests unless the professor is so unconcerned about his students that he wants to spend minimal time. Multiple pubs are also often with the same set of people and grad students who don't need many letters.  Does the prof only write 2 or 3 letters per year? If this was a real requirement he would have revealed it earlier.

@ASimpleAlgorithm  It's amazing how "silly" that you assume the OP is in thinking he is perfect when your own response is full of questionable assumptions.  It's just as silly to assume that "useful" questions must include a complete, balanced introspection or not asked at all(?).  Of course someone lists their best qualities when discussing recommendation letters.  It's not a useless question at all, at least in that it has generated advise and opinions both in support of the OP and also insisting that he re-evaluate his position and options.

@CPerkins that's not really amazing. A useful question would seek advice for how to proceed, as opposed to just recruiting people to hate on the professor and make the OP feel better. And it would seek such advice for a realistic human in a world with two sides to the story, not a perfect student who can't possibly be denied a recommendation by a rational professor.

There might even be a legality issue with the policy of this professor. He is requiring you to improve his lot in life in order to get a letter. That seems to point to bribery. If the policy was just that you had published it would be different.

So, this professor is willing to accept the OP into their own graduate program but is not willing to recommend them into any other school's graduate program?  Isn't that some kind of violation of academic integrity and fairness? Am I misunderstanding something here?

@CPerkins recommendation letters are not required outputs. There is no need to be upfront with recommendation letter requirements until someone asks for one or asks you what your requirements are to write a recommendation letter. People are generally upfront after spending a couple years dealing with having to reject students and realizing the simpler approach is to publish in your syllabus or some other accessible location your recommendation policy to avoid having to deal with someone wrongly feeling that simply going to your class and doing well entitles them to a recommendation letter.

@iheanyi  This isn't about "requirements", rather reasonable expectations that one of a professor's primary concerns should be with advancing his students' education and opportunities, not being so caught up in his own procedures.  The OP was not someone who simply did well in a class... they were a student activity working with the professor over multiple years in various roles.  You say "people are generally upfront after... a couple years...", so one assume that they eventually realize there is indeed a "need to be upfront" (contrary to your beginning statement).

@CPerkins you may not have completely read my statement. They are upfront because they want to save themselves the hassle of dealing with students complaining that it is simply unfair the prof won't write them a recommendation. It's not because there is a need to be upfront. It's like putting a sign on your property that says "no trespassing". There's no need for such a sign, that's the default state of the world. But somethings, one's personal experience at a particular location indicates that one can remove headaches caused by ignorant people by putting up said signage.

@CPerkins Writing recommendations is not a part of advancing a student's education and opportunities.This is not a reasonable expectation. This unreasonable expectation is the reason many end up being 'upfront" with their requirements, as I mentioned. Because for whatever reason, there's enough students with an unreasonable expectation that doing x, y, and z should be enough to get someone to write me a recommendation letter and are annoying enough that its best to be proactive and disabuse them of that notion as soon as possible.

@iheanyi  Hmm... What part of following common grad school admissions process is not advancing students opportunities? What part of widespread undergraduate research opportunities are not meant to increase experience and opportunity?  Are we to assume it's all only for intrinsic value, not to be shared or explicitly put forward in recommendation letters and resumes? What part of vying for good research and lab positions is not all about progressing through the academic system?  It is reasonable and expected that TA and lab positions are precisely the way to demonstrate praiseworthy activities.

@iheanyi  "x, y and z" (as you put it) may not be sufficient, but they may still be necessary on some level.  Instead of just throwing out abstract objections, perhaps you could share how someone with no prior academic experience outside their undergrad studies could relate their abilities and desires to go further?  Are they to only rely on past bosses, clergymen or high school teachers to write recommendations?  If a professor is really that turned off by individualized requests, maybe they should reconsider their role. Frankly, that whiny attitude is just as bad as the complaining students.

I wanted to ask whether his refusal for recommendation letters is reasonable

My personal opinion is that if you worked in his lab for a year (satisfactorily), it is unreasonable to refuse a letter. All the more so if you had other good interactions (TAing, etc.) with him.

and also ask for some advice on how to handle this situation!

Unfortunately, my opinion counts for absolutely nothing. You cannot force this professor to write you a letter, and would be unwise to try. All you can do is find someone else. Preferably someone who can comment on your research, or at least someone who can confirm that your advisor almost never writes letters for undergrads (i.e., vouching that the lack of a letter from your advisor should not reflect poorly on you).

It's the professor's recommendations. He is free to decide to whom he should give them. If every student got a recommendation, then they would become worthless

That little "satisfactorily" adverb is rather the whole argument though isn't it? Apparently being in this profs lab for a year with no paper to show for it is not satisfactory. Certainly a high standard of course.

You also absolutely do not want any "recommendation" letter that is won through coercion.

@AlexReinking That's what this answer already says.

@Bryan Krause It hints at it with "it would be unwise to try" but nowhere else. I am adding emphasis to this important point.

@AlexReinking You absolutely DO want a recommendation letter, especially if you deserve it. A false letter would be unethical, but so is allowing yourself to fail unnecessarily.

@MikeBrockington: I believe Alex's point was that, if the professor feels they are being coerced to write the letter against their will, they can easily — and without overtly saying anything negative about you! — phrase it in such a way as to all but guarantee that you won't be accepted anywhere based on it.

@MikeBrockington nobody deserves recommendation letters. Unless the prof has as specific set of actions that he posts that when carried out earn the student a letter, there's simply no way to do anything that results in a letter being owed to you.

@IlmariKaronen  You may well be correct, but what Alex's comment said on the face of it is rather the opposite of what you (and I) are saying.

We cannot say if they are reasonable. We only know the details you provide and, moreover, we are not judges.
But this is the wrong question. Why should it matter for you if we say the prof is reasonable or not? There are many unreasonable people in the world. Among those there are professors, students, astronauts, beggars, social workers, farmers,.. with one word: everyone.
So don't ask whether they are reasonable. The answer does not help you.
How to handle this: Ask another prof if available.

But, yes, it is ungenerous and unhelpful, in any case.

It is not helpful to the OP, but it is helpful to some other students: his PhD students will get a letter that will be more appreciated than other prof's letters apparently, because this professor takes his letters very seriously.

@Dilworth: Either very seriously or he just avoids work whenever possible.

@Dilworth, the professor--and his policy--would both need to be very well known for that to have any appreciable effect.

If this policy is well-known, it's likely this professor will have trouble attracting undergraduates to TA or do lab work for him in the future. This guy should also be up front about his policy so students can choose whether they should do extra work for him, or for somebody who will be willing to give them a minor assist in their grad school applications.

The fact that the OP is complaining to the world about not getting his way suggests at least one reason that he might not be getting a rec letter he thinks he deserves.

"Why should it matter for you if we say the prof is reasonable or not?" -- Because OP is an undergraduate and trying to learn the norms of getting recommendation letters. OP is not seeking validation. This second paragraph is off topic and condescending.

@ThePhoton, "it's likely this professor will have trouble attracting undergraduates to TA or do lab work for him in the future. "--- I don't believe a Professor in Sharif, the best university in Iran, is going to have such problems.

@Dilworth, There's probably more than one professor at that university. If I were a student there and was looking for research projects or TA work, I'd probably try to get them with every other professor before talking to this guy.

@Dilworth, in any case, I don't see where OP said which university this is. It may be buried in comments somewhere, but I don't think it was known at the time I wrote my comment.

@ThePhoton, it's in the homepage of the OP

Yes, the refusal seems reasonable in general. The professor is the one who should decide who he writes reference letters to, and if he has a policy of providing letters only to collaborators that is his right. Though unfriendly to undergraduate, it does have some merit: his letters can be trusted to a very high degree.
It is also possible that the professor does not think he can provide you with a strong letter. He already saw you in his lab, and may have not formed a positive view of your achievements at this stage. He may try politely to avoid the need to say this to you hiding behind other excuses. He may have suggested you become his master's student since he believes you are about to decline, or since he genuinely wishes to give you a second chance to prove yourself.
More importantly: any kind of hesitation from a potential reference letter writer should be an immediate warning sign that the person may not give you a good letter.
Conclusion: find another professor.
Important note: The OP has clarified that "Direct PhDs are not possible in my country." This means the OP is not from the US. Therefore, the Professor may not be accustomed to providing undergrads letters, only master's students, making the case even stronger for the professor to refuse a letter.

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

The policy to write recommendation letters only for undergraduate students you co-authored with is not reasonable (or common).
Suppose for a moment that all professors adopted this policy. A typical grad school application requires three recommendation letters. If professors provided reference letters only to co-authors, this essentially means that an undergraduate would need to have written three papers to obtain the required three recommendation letters. I know of no fields in which that would not be an extremely rare occurence.
Of course, everybody has the right to decide who they write recommendation letters for. However, as a professor you also have the responsibility to do your part in the recommendation letter writing process. By adopting such a restrictive policy, you are essentially off-loading this responsibility on other professors. This makes such a policy very selfish and egocentrical.

The student is not from the US and you seem to assume erroneously that he is.

Technically, it would be possible for the student to have written one paper, co-authored with three professors.

"Suppose for a moment that all professors adopted this policy." --- Then the system would have to change! Better for all!!

@Dilworth Imagine that qualification was adjusted to a more realistic "Suppose for a moment that all professors within the university/faculty adopted this policy.". This would merely put students of that university/faculty at a significant disadvantage in comparison to students from other universities. It would take mass collusion across numerous top universities and years of non-effort to influence any sort of change to application requirements.

Am I alone in thinking this sounds like a not-so-subtle suggestion to write a research paper with your professor?
You've been working in his research lab for a year, do you have any results? You could write them up and show him. If you don't have any results, maybe discuss with him what he might want to write about with you.
He may not need your paper to be published, submitted, or even fully completed in order to write your letter. An "in preparation" paper may be good enough. It demonstrates that you're a self-starter in the research sphere, which is necessary for a PhD. Also, if it looks like the paper has a good trajectory and he will be getting a publication out of it, then there's something in it for him to support you.

You could ask for a letter of evaluation, i.e. a one-page description of what you have done during your collaboration, instead of a letter of recommendation.
Although your professor's stand is legit, quirky and strict as it may sound, it puts you in a position of disadvantage by deviating from expected standards: for example, in those situations where a certain number of letters of recommendations are required to move forward.
You run the risk of not being short-listed, if the first pass is done bureaucratically, or of attracting more questions if you pass the first round.
The latter is not bad in and of itself, once you are able to pitch and detail what you have been able to do during your previous study: this is a valuable skill to train at any rate.
The curious thing is that, if I had cast an interested eye on non-standard application and had still been hesitating about your storytelling, I would be inclined to make contact with your professor to ask for more information. Then, should your professor not change his position in the meantime, another option is to ask him if you can share his contact details in your future applications for giving his feedback orally as the need arises. In lieu of the said letter, you can attach a sheet with "Professor X of institution Y ... prefers to be contacted directly at ...". At least you work around positions of principle and personal quirks proactively and reduce the risk of being short-listed in the name of raw numbers.
In the end, the important thing is that people get to know, and recognize themselves, that you are a fine candidate for what's at stake next.

I recommend not limiting your options. Since as you said, you are the top ranked student in your department, finding another teacher who's willing to write you a good recommendation letter shouldn't be that hard. If course it only makes sense to seek someone who you know can write you a good letter that helps your cause.

You can't make someone recommend you, and even if you could, a letter that says "I acknowledge that BBBB was present in my lab..." is not going to do you any favors.
Someone's passion and aptitude for research can be judged in many ways: class projects, in-class and informal discussions, and teaching/mentoring others can all speak to your prospects as a researcher. So, this policy is crazy, especially for undergrads who cannot reasonably be expected to produce three papers in three different labs in three years.  Nevertheless, you're stuck with it.
Several people have suggested that this attitude is not uncommon in certain parts of the world. If you are in such a place—and haven't already—you may want to remind the professor that US institutions request more letters of recommendation and, consequently, expect the letter writers to have a somewhat less established relationship with the applicant. For example, I eventually published something with one of my letter-writers, but the other two mostly knew me from coursework, TAing, and general interactions in the department. Not being the only recommender might also make him feel less responsible for any future outcome. I would honestly expect a prof to know this already--or at least, know that they need to look into it more, but you never know…
As an alternative, I suggest finding a replacement and asking them, or one of your other letter writers to

mention your work with the recalcitrant prof and
explain the recalcirant prof's policy.

This avoids a conspicuous absence of a letter from someone with whom you've worked closely, and might apply some much-needed peer-pressure to the prof too.

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat. Please only write another comment if you can reasonably expect that it will result in an improvement of the answer. Please also read this FAQ.

It is uncommon but not necessarily unreasonable as we do not know the core reason not to do so.
It could well be that this person wants to avoid a deluge of such requests and having a high bar is an easy way out.
It could be that this person feels he/she has done his/her share of writing reference letters in the past and it’s for others to step up.
It could be this person has been known to write a certain style of letter (either overly positive or overly negative) and wants to reset his/her reputation.
Writing reference letters is not an obligation, and at least this person was sufficiently honest to say no rather than write something negative or watery, both of which would not be terribly useful to the student.  Else: who really knows why except the professor himself/herself?


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PGCE usability and validity abroad
My two questions are about the English PGCE (in my case, I would be interested in Physics).
1) I did a bit of research online (and also know the Italian and French education system from direct experience) and it seems to me that the PGCE is not very useful in order to teach abroad. What about English speaking countries (Australia, Ireland, USA, etc.) and International or British schools?
2) I understand that the PGCE carries the credits of a master degree. Does this make it useful or "spendable" in any other sector? If, for example, after my Teacher Training Year decide to do something different from teaching, would the fact that I acquired a PGCE give me any advantage in comparison with another way of obtaining QTS?

you cannot teach with a PGCE, you need to pass the Agreg or CAPES examinations, at which point you are placed at a school. New teachers have very, very little say in where they teach.
PGCE credits are loosely equivalent to masters credits, but my experience is that few universities will APL them in because it's effectively a professional training course. If you carry on learning at the same institution, they might have a scheme to "convert" the PGCE to an MA or MEd.

Which country is this for?

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


text:
Asking for help regarding Statement of Purpose
I am a Masters' student applying from India to US graduate schools for a Ph.D. in Mathematics(some of them are top departments like Stanford, MIT, UCLA, Berkeley, Illinois Urbana-Champaign). I wish to work at the interface of Analysis and Differential Geometry. Hence, I wanted to explore Geometric Analysis and took extensive differential geometry courses, a winter course on Geometric Measure Theory and did self-study on Geometric Analysis. However, as we did not have anyone in our department working in these areas, I did my Masters' thesis (ongoing) on noncommutative geometry. For this, I studied operator algebras, followed by compact quantum groups and am currently working with quantum isometries of noncommutative manifolds.
I am a little confused about what I should include or exclude from my Statement of Purpose(SOP). I have written that I am interested in both Analysis and Geometry and have mentioned: (1) Geometric Analysis, and (2) Operator Algebras and Noncommutative Geometry, as the fields that interest me. Then I explain my background in both. Is this a valid approach? Or will it give the impression that I don't have a well formed research interest and work against my selection at the graduate school?
While I was towards the end of my school life, I had a publication modelling a small physical problem. I am currently developing it into pedagogic material with a retired professor in the USA. Also, during my undergraduate studies I had two more publications in applied mathematics (control theory). I am including the first one in my SOP to illustrate my motivation in research from younger days. But should I include the other publications? I am afraid that I might run the risk of giving the committee the false impression that I am too inclined in applied mathematics.

But should I include the other publications? — Yes.  You should include all your publications — giving the committee the false impression — Giving an accurate impression of your research interests is the whole point of the statement of purpose.  Just spell it out.

Take a look at this -- I think this will give you the guidance you need; if not, explain further: http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/58857/when-changing-fields-should-i-focus-more-on-describing-past-research-or-connect/58911#58911

Thank you for your replies.
Regarding my first question : (in the following, (1) = Geometric Analysis, (2)= Operator Algebras & Noncommutative Geometry, as I had written in my question )
My primary interest was (1) but I did my Masters' thesis on (2) as faculty working on (1) was not available at the institute. But in many of the places that I am applying, (1) is a very active area while (2) has not been taken up that strongly.
Will writing about my preparation for (1) and also talking about my research exposure in (2) make a strong SOP in terms of maturity, flexibility and motivation?


text:
My Professor thinks class ends 30 minutes earlier than it does
The title pretty much says it all - it's a 2.5 hr class and he thinks it's 2 hrs. The first 3 classes have been rushed and I want to tell him - but when I mention it to my classmates they tell me it's not our problem and adamately say not to mention it - I don't think anybody wants the class to be any longer than it is. What should i do?

You are a student of this class, right (and not a teaching assistant vor similar)? And what are the consequences of the class lasting 2 hrs?

OP here - I'm a student, yes, and it's on a pretty complicated subject matter which means we didn't get through all the material he was planning to cover.

Your country would be important. In some countries, going against a peer group over minor things can have much more severe consequences in  your later university and work life than in the US (and most people here write from an US background). I am not saying you should not go against them, but you should consider the consequences (which are dependent on your locale (and on other things)).

Who said it was 2.5 hrs?  The schedule?  It is not uncommon for professors to reserve a longer time than is always necessary, just to give themselves a bit of lee-way, in case they sometimes need a bit longer.  A 2.5 h time-slot it not necessarily a commitment to hold class for that long (but check your institutional rules if you feel cheated).  The first class of a term is also often shorter.
The above is true at least for the Australian National University.
In any case, if you will ask him, it pays always to be polite and not to come across as though you are accusing him of intentional wrong-doing; but rather as if you are ignorant of their traditions.

I don't think anybody wants the class to be any longer than it is

Really? I would be surprised if this statement were true. If I paid to see a movie and the theater stopped showing the movie half an hour before it ends, I would be upset that I did not get the experience I was paying for.
Similarly, it seems reasonable to assume that possibly you (since you are asking the question), and almost certainly at least some of the students in the class, are interested in learning the material the class is meant to teach, and in getting the full experience rather than an abbreviated version. Even for students who are not interested, it’s wrong to say that it’s “not our problem”. It sounds completely conceivable that you will be tested on the full material of the class despite the fact that the professor will teach it in a rushed and difficult to understand manner (as you say has been happening in the first lectures) because of his misunderstanding about the lecture time. It’s also possible that once he finds out about the mistake later in the semester he will end up scheduling additional lectures to make up for the lost time, which would end up inconveniencing you and the other students and making your life more difficult than it needs to be.
As for what you should do, that’s for you to decide. But what would strike me as most impressive personally is if you Do The Right Thing (whatever you decide that is) based on your own convictions and not listen to peer pressure from your social group.


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I am confused if this professor will fund me or not, I feel it is rude to ask directly
Recently I applied for a summer research internship in a lab in South Korea.
This was the reply from the prof.

Dear Student,
Thank you for contacting me for internship.
  You have worked with an excellent scientist, Dr. Manhattan, which draws my attention.
  With his recommendation letter, I am willing to host your internship in my lab.
  What you shall study, unless you have something else particularly in mind, will be numerical calculation similar to what is in the attached paper.
Best regards,
Professor X

What does he mean by "host"? Does it mean funding? How do I go on about asking him politely about it?

Did you give the professor a recommendation letter from Dr. XXXX already?

@NathanS. No, The prof. I have to get recommendation letter from is attending a seminar in a different country and would return in a few days and give the recommendation letter. Thus I  have mailed the prof. that I will be sending the letter in a few days.

"host" usually means making space in their lab and giving you access to a bit of their time.

"I feel it is rude to ask him directly": Get over that feeling now. It's not rude to ask for clarification when you're unsure about something. If you are afraid of appearing ill-informed, you will not do well in academia.

Try to reflect on how this issue is of your making -- if you needed the investigator to fund your stay, you should have included a direct question about funding in your original contact.  It's not rude to ask for clarification now.

How are these "internships" usually funded? In my understanding, an internship would only be posted if there was money behind it. But, I don't know how SK works.

Did you apply to a job posting? It should have had conditions. If you applied blindly, did you offered conditions? If not I would assume you are in for a tough sale.

@eckes I looked at his profile page and liked his research and thus mailed him directly asking if there is an opening. I did not mention anything about funding in my mail though. I assumed that generally there is some funding by the labs for international students applying there. But anyway I will mail him asking about clarification once I get the recommendation letter.

@PratikPatnaik I don't know how it is in US but in Germany you normally have an policy on institute or university level about payments for student helpers, the payment is rather low. If you are visiting from outside (I.e. applied to different uni) there might be additional support for visitors, I would ask for that specifically. Maybe they can also offer rooms or meals.

What does he mean by "host"?

Host means (at a minimum) that you can work in the lab - the professor will provide space for you during the internship.

Does it mean funding?

It is ambiguous. This partially depends on what you asked for in your original letter asking for an internship.

How do I go on about asking him politely about it?

Being hired is still contingent on a good recommendation letter from Prof XXXX. Assuming you can wait for that letter, I would ask about the terms of the internship after the letter is delivered when you confirm that the professor has received it and is still interested in hiring you for the internship. You still need to confirm that you are interested in working on the topic in the provided paper.
Asking about a list of different things can take off some of the stress around asking about funding directly. You can, for instance, ask about dates of employment, expected hours, whether there is a travel or housing allowance, and whether there is a stipend. You might also ask about whether you'd work with others in the lab and expectations for publishing.

The only caveat to asking multiple questions together, is that if you are only truly interested in the answer to one of them - you risk getting back answers to everything except that one thing.

@Bilkokuya I agree - although questions about expectations, travel costs, housing, etc, can be just as important as the stipend.

How do I go on about asking him politely about it?

Usually, the academics have their own funding, and it is not usually rude to ask them for some money.
Thus, you can simply go with this:

Dear Professor,
I am honored by your kind comments. I am willing to
study under your supervision.
I would like to ask one thing.  Is it
possible for you to cover my expenses partially? I need this knowledge
to state a budget to my supervisor for my potential visit.
Cheers,
Pratik Patnaik

This kind of mail is perfectly fine, because almost everyone in academia usually depends on funding for research visits.

Thanks. As I am a 3rd-year student and I haven't done any internships abroad yet, I thought it was rude to ask them for funding directly. My previous internships have been through research programs by universities who fund students directly and it is not the responsibility of the Professor. I will ask him about funding or stipends for the lab when I send him the recommendation letter. Also I liked the template.

Ask directly
You need a clear answer, and it's rather important for everyone involved that there is no misunderstanding. So you do have to explicitly ask about the funding.
What did you ask for initially? From the message you quoted, it seems that you asked for X and the professor responds that yes, they're giving you that.... but if you did not ask for funding, then it does imply that you asked for a non-funded position and that you were okay with that. In particular, the wording about 'hosting an intership' generally implies an unfunded position. So in this situation it seems possible that funding can be arranged, and it's also quite possible that they will refuse.
In any case, although it would have been far better to explicitly ask for this earlier, it's still better to resolve this issue (one way or another) sooner instead of waiting.

He’s written that he’s offering you an academic internship to work on a numerical calculation similar to the example he sent you, WHILE you continue your studies. You must be a Ph.D candidate, and as such, you more than likely can have up to three “internships” or rotations with different faculty members within the department to help you choose what your area of study and subsequent dissertation will be. Since your tuition and fees are covered as part of your acceptance into the program, the internships allow you to earn money for your room and board while simultaneously allowing you to pick a professor to work with towards your doctorate. Each professor you work with has applied for and been awarded research monies that include funding specifically designated to pay an intern who will hopefully become their graduate research and/or teaching assistant.
I would not ask the professor directly, rather I would reach out to the office of the Dean of Student Affairs, or Dean of Graduate Studies to find out what is involved in accepting an internship, i.e. what your commitment entails in terms of time and deliverables, what the pay rate and pay schedule is for internships, and what grants are available to help with a relocation. If those details seem reasonable, go get that recommendation. Just my 2 cents.

I agree that it's likely the stipendium is not organized by the prof or institute. However I would advise against contacting anyone directly without beeing refereed to. But you can use it as a good excuse "Can you introduce me to the contact at your institution who would be responsible to coordinate with handling expenses, internship payment and visitor accommodation?"


text:
Is it okay to work on colleagues' ideas after they leave academia?
I've just discovered that a former colleague is now working on some research ideas that I developed and laid the groundwork for now that I have left academia following failure to obtain funding. I'm happy that the work is being done, but feel that it would have been courteous to let me know that they were doing so. Are either of us in the wrong here?
History:
I did my PhD and a 3-year postdoc in a UK lab where we were expected to act very independently. As such I developed my own line of research during my PhD but didn't have time to publish the results until after I'd completed. I wanted to keep working on that line of work, so wrote a grant proposal with my supervisor, who acted as PI (I was named postdoc) which we were awarded.
During the postdoc, for complicated reasons, I developed another strand of independent research, with some guidance from a research fellow in the lab.
This strand then formed the basis of a large fellowship proposal that I was nearly awarded, but ultimately was unsuccessful. The fellow in the lab (who had a proleptic lectureship) acted as the academic host for the proposal.
Following a number of unsuccessful fellowship proposals, I undertook another postdoc for a year, then decided to take a different job and am now a software engineer at another UK university.
Situation: I've recently seen on twitter that the fellow who I had been working with (now lecturer) is now working on the project that I had proposed for my unsuccessful fellowship bid. We've had little contact in the intervening time and they've made no attempt to discuss this with me.
I know that it's kind of clear that I'm following a different path, and I'm happy to be doing so. But I'm a little upset that they wouldn't even send me an email to say "Hey, remember the stuff you came up with, well we got some money to do it etc.."
Am I wrong to be upset by this?
It's a small field, and my experience of my 7 or so years working in the area was that we all tried to be collegiate and courteous and not step on each others' toes. So this seems a little out of sorts.
I don't think there's anything to be done about this, but it has got under my skin for someone I trusted to have no qualms about using ideas I worked to develop whilst I had to leave the field to find work.

Your colleagues need to avoid plagiarism, by not presenting your ideas as their own. So, acknowledgement may be required here, but that is all. It would have been courteous, of course, had they asked you to participate.

+1 to @Buffy's comments, but I will add that it's a common assumption that someone who has left academia is typically not interested in keeping up with it.  So I would give the other party the benefit of the doubt that they didn't bother to mention it to you because they assumed (possibly wrongly, but reasonably) that you no longer had a stake in it.  I've had a few collaborators who've left math and I don't tell them (or sometimes even those still in academia) every time I do something based on our earlier joint work.

Ideas deserve to live. Originators deserve credit or at least the opportunity to credit. You should have been told. I even sometimes let past students I have contact with - no longer in academia - know what happened with their ideas, even if just for the interest.

Don't you feel like a "well we got some money to do it" email could be rubbing your nose in it, especially if you haven't been in touch in some time? I can see an email if they publish something substantial, but how would you feel receiving a "so we're going to work on this without you. hope you're well" email? Would that actually make you feel better, or just bitter that you're not a part of it?

Another question is, whether they have acknowledge you or even make you an author once they publish their first paper that might be based on your ideas.

If you find this upsetting, you're reeeeally not going to like industry.

In the USA the work you have done while an academic is the property of the University and/or the funding agency/business. While there may be social merit in the thought that you should be contacted on this and that you should be acknowledged, the ownership and rights may not be yours.

I consider the former colleague to be morally wrong (regardless whether you left academia), but not as severe as to be violating academic norm. When discussing ideas with others, one always risks that his or her idea being borrowed (or stolen if you put so) without being credited.

Supposedly, If I were to ask "the fellow in the lab" who was "the academic host for the proposal" I'd hear that the proposal was developed under his leadership not only organizationally but also substantially, and that you left and he continued on his own. No moral debt whatsoever. (But of course, like with a divorced couple, I cannot decide what the objective reality was, if there was any.)

@Buffy does plagiarism actually cover ideas though? As far as I understand, ideas cannot be copyrighted.

Plagiarism is a social issue, not necessarily a legal one (generally). It isn't about copyright. It is about honesty. If you use someone else's ideas, don't suggest to the world that they are your ideas. Just attribute them to the source. There may be no legal repercussions if you do plagiarize, but you won't be trusted in the future. For scholars it is an important issue because we need to trace ideas back to the original source to find the complete history and context. This is actually why self plagiarism is also important.

How easy are you to get ahold of?  It's often difficult to track down people who have left academia who typically no longer have a public website or an institutional email address.  If your email address isn't the same as it was when you were a student and isn't one of the top two google hits, then I think you can't really hold it against them that they didn't contact you.

@Buffy if you actually use someone else's work, then sure. But if it's just an abstract idea of "what if we do X with Y to accomplish Z", then does it really deserve a reference?

Is it okay to work on colleagues' ideas after they leave academia?

I'm going to be blunt: yes, absolutely yes. What is the other option? That the progress of humanity should be stifled because you didn't get a job?
Ideas do not belong to anyone. The way I read it, you did not even come up with the idea independently, but "with some guidance from a research fellow in the lab". Look at it from the fellow perspective: they helped someone develop a research proposal, the person didn't get a job and the grant wasn't awarded, the person left academia, and (correct me if I'm wrong) made no effort to keep in touch with the fellow and/or work on the topic again. What is the fellow supposed to do now? Trash the idea, waste all the time spent helping the other person?
This happens all the time of academia. Supervisor helps a student/postdoc develop a research proposal, the proposal fails, the student/postdoc leaves academia. Now what? Is the idea not good anymore? There's no reason not to continue working on it.
Now let's answer your apparent actual question:

I know that it's kind of clear that I'm following a different path, and I'm happy to be doing so. But I'm a little upset that they wouldn't even send me an email to say "Hey, remember the stuff you came up with, well we got some money to do it etc.."
Am I wrong to be upset by this?

I'm not going to tell you that you're wrong to feel something. But if the question is "did the fellow act reasonably", I would lean on yes. It depends what your relationship was, but based on what you've told us, the idea has been developed a long time ago (several unsuccessful fellowship proposals + a year of postdoc + since whenever you took the software engineering job, as far as I can tell), and it's not clear you kept in touch with the fellow. What is clear though is that you're not working on the idea anymore. At some point it becomes fair game.

I don't think there's anything to be done about this, but it has got under my skin for someone I trusted to have no qualms about using ideas I worked to develop whilst I had to leave the field to find work.

Academia and life in general is not just. Yes, it's unjust that you were unsuccessful and had to quit when you proposed this idea, but the other person is apparently successfully working on it. But this other person cannot change what happened or give you the job. I don't know you or your situation, but it sounds more like you're upset about having had to leave academia more than at your colleague.

Over time I've had various ideas of 'mine' worked on by other people independently, and I'm quite happy that somebody got around to pursuing them. And, of course, as for most experiments, they never worked out as expected - the process of turning an idea into a finished publishable experiment is a difficult expedition into the unknown.

It depends on the dimension of "it's okay":

On the ethical dimension, your colleague did nothing wrong. Ideas don't belong to anybody, and it's a routine thing to happen that a group of authors follow up on an idea devised by another group of authors (for example, an idea mentioned in a "vision" paper, or a "future work" section of a paper).
On the dimension of interpersonal relationships, your colleague pulled off a bit of a dick move, and it's legitimate that you're a bit annoyed by this. Since you devised the initial idea together, they should have had the courtesy to ask you if you want to be involved in the work.

For your second point, it does depend on whether they're still in contact. If he's still meeting his ex-colleague regularly, and they have each other's emails, then sure. If they don't meet often, or only maybe once a year at conferences, then not so much.

@Graham I don't agree. If the old idea is good enough to pursue it, then the colleague who co-developed the idea with me is good enough to be invited to the new efforts. Lack of contact information might be a valid reason, but only if the other party made at least a minimal effort to find the present contact information (like a quick Google search).

YMMV then. If it was a couple of months later, maybe. A couple of years later, everyone's moved on. The fact that your work has gone somewhere is a bonus then, but you're past having ownership of it.

The second point may depend somewhat on field.  If you're in a lab science, for example, then it's not easy to "involve" you in the work, while if it's mathematics that'd be much easier.

@NoahSnyder Potentially yes. In my own field, which has some lab fields aspects, it's possible to contribute to research without being physically in the lab, for example, by discussing the study design and writing the manuscript. But it could be different in other fields.

The courteous and customary thing for your colleague to do in such a situation would be to mention you in the Acknowledgements section of the first publication that results from the work (and perhaps subsequent ones, depending on further contextual details).
Until a publication materializes, I wouldn’t have thought that any action on their part to notify you of the project is expected.
Human emotions being what they are, it seems meaningless to say that you are wrong to be upset. But your colleague hasn’t done anything wrong so far as I can see.
And, in general, it is completely okay for anyone to work on anyone else’s ideas that they are aware of, assuming it is not some sort of competitive situation where a colleague tells you about what they are working on or plan to work on in the imminent future and there is an implicit or explicit expectation that you will not take advantage of this knowledge and work on the ideas yourself.

+1 for the third paragraph.  Of course this is upsetting, it'd be upsetting even if they had contacted you, because it's upsetting to experience rejection and loss and it's upsetting to be reminded of that.  Your feelings are reasonable and justified regardless of whether they handled this correctly.

If you have any interest in pursuing this, one approach would be to contact those concerned and say "I'm thrilled that you're keeping this project going -- feel free to contact me if you need to".  This can save them a ton of trying to retrace your steps.
This would, of course, be accompanied by either a subtle hint or a blunt statement that you hope your earlier contributions would be recognized with authorship at publication time.  I'd lean toward blunt statement, personally.


text:
APA7 citation - What to use for 'location' of an online conference poster/presentation
Since there's quite a few online or virtual (i.e. not in person) conferences happening these days (e.g. the 2020 AGU Fall Meeting), what do people use for the 'Location' field in a full citation? Section 10.5 of the APA7 style guide says:

Provide the name of the conference or meeting and its location in the source element of the reference.

I've seen people use 'online' or 'virtual' for the location, but is it ok to just leave out the conference location and put down the conference name itself in this case? Or is there a better way?
Example of a non-online conference citation to use:

Evans, A. C., Jr., Garbarino, J., Bocanegra, E., Kinscherff, R. T., & Márquez-Greene, N. (2019, August 8–11). Gun violence: An event on the power of community [Conference presentation]. APA 2019 Convention, Chicago, IL, United States. https://convention.apa.org/2019-video

where the Conference Name is 'APA 2019 Convention' and the location (City, State, Country) is 'Chicago, IL, United States'. If it's an online Conference, should we use something like 'APA 2019 Convention, virtual.' or an alternative format?
References:

https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/conference-presentation-references
How do you cite from a presentation or poster at a conference?

This should depend on where do you publish. "Xxxyyy 2020, date" seems a good identifier, to me.


text:
As a tutor, should I encourage exploration at the risk of incorrect information?
I am a junior undergraduate computer science student at a small engineering school. For the last term I have been paid as a teaching assistant for one of the more difficult courses in the CS curriculum. Because this is a small school, that means that I am basically a public tutor in our CS labs for about 10 hours a week and occaisonally help grade exams and assignments. I took the class earlier this year and did very well, but I am in no way an expert on the topic.
The largest part of the course is to write a small interpreter in Scheme. The students are given a starting point and are told conceptually how to implement most of the interpreter in the lectures, but the actual implementation is left fairly open. Because of this, there are quite a few valid ways to implement any given part of the project, and I do not think I could possibly learn all of them without dropping out of school to make this my full time job. The difficult part is that the advice I give to any given student depends heavily on how they have completed the interpreter thus far, and so I sometimes have low confidence that my ideas are correct.
I don't see a great way to avoid this without telling them to do it the way I did it when I took the class. I think that a strong point of the course is getting students to think about programming in different ways, and suggesting that my way is the best way seems to very directly contradict that. I also have low confidence in most of the students to tell me that I am wrong as they generally come to me at least a little bit confused in the first place.
As a paid assistant for our computer science department, should I encourage different solutions at the risk of incorrect solutions, and potentially at the risk of other students' grades? Or should I encourage solutions I am confident in at the risk of throwing out good ideas?
In the former case I don't feel like I am helping students in the same way that any of them are hoping for, but in the latter case I think I could just as well be replaced by a solution manual. I would like to nudge in the right direction as much as possible, but I don't always know exactly which direction is the correct one given several different thousand line projects in a single day.

A great question. Did you ask the instructor of the course about it?

@scaaahu I have not, although I would like to at the next chance.  Whatever my professor's answer, I am curious what some opinions are here.

Short version:
Encourage them, definitely encourage them.
Long version:
First of all I have to say that I am not familiar with Scheme, so in my answer I will assume an arbitrary coding project. Now, you have to consider that coding, especially a bigger project, is much more than just typing the code. As you said the class is quite difficult, I assume the students to have some experience already, so they should know it. Here, they can learn all the things that matter: A structured plan on what they want to code, good documentation of the code, time management, etc.
Be honest about what you can and cannot do, tell them that you will not look at a few 100 lines of messy code to find an error. Tell them for you to read their code and to look for errors in there, they should properly document it such that it is readable and understandable to an outsider. Tell them to differentiate between logical questions ("how to solve this problem?") and implementation questions ("I have this idea/algorithm, but I don't know how to call function XXX, which I need to implement it." ). Not only will this help you with helping them, it will also help them to look at their problems more structured. If a student comes to you and simply says "I don't know how to do this, tell me please." then don't just tell them how you did it. Take a little time to make a plan (on paper first maybe?) together with them of how this part of the program might look like, how to best do it, then let them implement it. If they run into problems with the implementation itself, they can come back again.
The same should go for errors in the program: You should not be the one to run tests, to do simulations or to input special cases in every last function to find the error. Tell and teach the students how to find errors, show them how to (if possible) narrow it down to a single function, maybe to a single part of this function (a good documentation of what a function or a code fragment is supposed to do helps here). In most cases they will find the error themselves, feel happy and motivated and go on. If they still can't find it, well, at least they can show you the wrong output that function F generates and you can take it from there and point them in the right direction.
It would be nice if I could stop my advice here, but unfortunately there is still one more point: motivation. The above might work well with a motivated student who knows what he is doing, who sits down at home to work on it and comes to you for help if needed. However, this is not the only kind of student. There are also students who are in the course just for a passing grade, who don't go to the lectures, who just want a step by step instruction on what to do to not fail and don't want to put any effort at all. If you don't have any of these in your class then congratulations, consider yourself lucky. But if you want to try an approach as I sketched above, you should consider such students in the plan and should think of what to do with them: Do you just tell them what to do? Do you let them fail the class? These points should be discussed with the instructor, as he or she might have own ideas on what to expect of the students. You should not just act on your own, especially if you might fail some lazy students you need his consent. After deciding on a plan together, make it public to the students, tell them exactly what you expect of them to do on their own before they come for your help, how they should properly prepare their project for you to be able to answer efficiently.

If a student is implementing an approach that you are not able to confirm as sound or not likely to be successful, then you should direct that student to the professor's office hours (and you should give the professor a heads-up).
When a student approaches you with a debugging or other straightforward question in lab, you can take the opportunity to ask him or her, "Have you checked with Prof. X, to make sure you're headed in the right direction?"
If you were a graduate teaching assistant, I would go farther.  I would say that you should anticipate these multiple approaches and, early in the semester, think about how you would respond to the variety of student questions, not hesitating to use the professor as one of your resources in your prep work.

Do you have advice for what to do if they are unlikely to be able to reach the professor before the assignment is due? I sometimes have hours as late as 11 p.m. when the assignment is due at midnight. I don't think I am the one at fault for late submissions when students are working an hour before the assignment is due, so does your answer hold for this case as well?

@jcolemang - In the case of the 11th hour request for help: Let's suppose for a moment that a student brings you some code that's not working, one hour before the deadline.  Let's further suppose that you realize that his general approach is so misguided the two of you together wouldn't be able to get it to work per the specs, even if you kept at it until 2 am.  In that case, maybe the best thing is for the student to hand something in so the professor can see that there was some attempt made.  And after that, maybe the best thing for both of you to do at that ...

... point is to go have a beer.  Or go home and do some laundry.  Or go to bed early and have sweet dreams and get up the next morning ready for the next challenge.  But what about the case that you're not sure whether his approach has the potential of solving the problem per the specs?  In that case, you just have to be honest.  Yes, the two of you can keep cracking away at it until 11:59 if you want to, but keep it cool.  A friendly, relaxed attitude can be very helpful in helping students cope in such situations.  I advise you to pretend you a Brazilian (if you are not ...

... already Brazilian).  Just be a nice guy/gal and help the student keep his/her perspective.


text:
Everybody cheats, administration does not care, what to do?
Context: A friend of mine is ending their first year in a community college (in France, called IUT, 2-year diploma) near my school, and apparently the school administration is quite lenient about cheating during exams ; I asked a few other friends of mine that are currently in second year there, and they have confirmed that nearly everybody cheats during exams, mostly because the questions don't change from one year to the other, allowing students to get the exams in advance and preparing for the questions. An important part of the exams are Moodle quizzes, which show the correct answers after submitting, and don't get modified from year to year either.
Problem: My friend does not want to cheat, for obvious reasons. The problem is that the way this kind of college works (in France) puts students in competition with each other ; your ranking among the other students is very important and is a determinant factor in your chances of being accepted in engineering schools after your second year (which is what most people in that community college do).
Multiple people have already tried reporting the cheating to professors and the college's administration, to no avail. Most professors don't seem to care, and the few that say they do care about cheating never act upon it. This results in mediocre (excuse the harsh term) students having an unfair advantage over good students trying to keep their integrity. This whole situation, combined with the Sars-Cov-2 lockdown has had quite a toll on her mental health.
My stance is to never cheat, but I'm having more and more trouble telling her to stay strong and do the same. It's gotten to the point that not cheating can have a significant negative impact on her future, and I couldn't help but feel responsible if she were to fail her year because of other people's dishonesty.
What is the best behavior to adopt here?

Related: Other students can easily cheat on a test and the grading system is relative - should I cheat, and what else can I do?.

"Nearly everybody cheats" - does it mean that cheaters are left alone or that only a random small sample is caught at the end of the exams? Because otherwise, it's pretty risky to cheat.

@Captain Emacs I haven't heard of anyone getting caught cheating in the last few years, again, the professors do not care and there has been cases of students getting caught red handed without consequences

Studying old exams is not cheating.  In the United States, every fraternity and sorority has a file of old exams.  It's up to the professor to vary the questions, and besides, one might learn something by studying old exams.  (Having pictures of old exams with answers on one's phone and viewing them during an exam is cheating.)

@Bob Brown I agree, in my school professors gave us old exams to help us study, but in this particular school almost all professors never change their questions between years so they consider having access to old exams to be cheating, and that's what everybody's doing, though lots of students are also really cheating by having copies of exams with answers during the real exams

Unfortunately, in this kind of situation, it might be best for your friend to look around for a different educational institution.  It is all very well to say "just stay strong and don't cheat", and of course she definitely should not cheat, but it is still demoralising to work in an environment that systematically incentivises bad behaviour and punishes good behaviour.  Particularly given that her relative standing and future opportunities are being harmed by being compared to a substantial number of students who cheat, it would be good to look around for other places she can go.
Now, if there is no escape from this school (i.e., if your friend has no opportunity to go somewhere else) then I would suggest she try to set herself apart from the other students by doing some kind of extra-curricular project that cannot be faked.  If she can use her coursework knowledge to create some valuable project that she can exhibit to show her skills (e.g., writing a good paper on a topic, building a working go-cart, creating a diorama of how a smelting plant works, etc.) then she will have something to show recruiters for later schools so that she can demonstrate her knowledge and ability.

Is the school in some way accredited? In addition to informing the ethics board (if one exists) at the local institution, it might be wise to inform the accreditation agency. University administrations become quite attentive when accreditation agencys breathe down their necks....

Don't do it. Do what you are told to do and nothing less. See my one and only question if you would like more clarification on why.
I did something I am not proud of, and was rightly accused of cheating by the instructor. What is next for me?

Funnily (?) enough, it was while reading your question that I thought about posting mine. Although here, the situation is a bit different, as u said, it's considered normal to cheat to the point that not cheating can have a negative impact on your scholarship. My stance is to never cheat, but I'm having more and more trouble telling her to stay strong and do the same.

Hah, seems I do have an effect on others. Maybe you need to give this person the link to that article. If that won't scare them away from it, don't pursue it any more. You don't want to be caught along with them if they do cheat, and you should not let it affect your relationship or your own work. Just do your own work and stay true, if they want to take the risk, let them.

Unfortunately, with the COVID-19 pandemic and the shift to online/virtual learning mediums, it is much harder to determine when people are cheating or create exams that are fair and reliably determine students aptitude without going overboard as to enforcing the rules.  I definitely agree with you that ideally, students should be helping, rather than competing, with each other.
The way I see it, you have two options:

Become a part of the pack and cheat for the grades.  Obviously, this is very morally wrong, but as they say, life isn't fair and there will be times where you have to step over others to get where you need to go.  This will carry risks that you do get into trouble though if you're unlucky enough, so I wouldn't follow this approach.
Do things the right way and take a slight hit in terms of grades.  Again, there will be consequences to this, but in my opinion, at least in the US, your grades are just a number/letter and it is more about what you know rather than how high you can get a number ranking.  Even if your grades are lower, you will feel like you earned those grades and be able to better assess yourself as to what you know.

I don't know how things work over where you/your friend lives, but you should definitely do what is best for yourself.  In this case, I'd stay towards doing the right thing and putting your best and most honest effort forward.  This will put you/your friend in a better position over the others who do cheat in the long term.
Best of luck and stay safe during these unprecedented times.

This is France. Relative grades means not just a "slight hit", especially for the top schools and for possibly a coveted career as a civil servant. They will have to leave the country for the grades "just to be a number/letter". This should be added to the answer. Again, I can only with difficulty surpress my ire with a system that so blatantly encourages cheating. But OP needs to understand what they are in for with the present response.

Again, I apologize if I misunderstood, and am not sure if this would be more related to undergrad admissions in the US rather than graduate admissions.  Regardless, I have been through similar situations even in the US.  I agree that this type of situation isn't right, but as they say, life isn't fair, and you'll have to evaluate your situation and do what you have to do to get where you want to go depending on what consequences you're willing to take.