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Is it standard to ask for an "equal contribution" footnote in a 60%-40% scenario?
I'm working on research that should be sent to publishing in the next couple of weeks.
The research is done by me and a friend of mine; we are both under the same professor. This started as an attempt to improve on another paper which I'm the third writer on, but it quickly turned into a new idea which we will try to publish as a separate paper; because of this weird sequence of events, we didn't talk about who takes the lead.  I'm taking tasks on almost every field of the research (building taxonomy, writing code, running experiments, writing the paper itself, etc.).
I'm also considering the amount of ideas and implementations that wouldn't be done if not for me.
I would say that overall my contribution is around 40%.
In my field, it's common to have an "equal contribution" footnote if two or more authors contributed equally. What is the common standard to ask for an "equal contribution" footnote?

i don't understand what asking for equal contribution means, or why you would ask for it if, by your own estimate is not equal?

Equal contribution regards to the order of authors of the paper.
Sometimes  you would see a * next to the two first authors' name and below the writing "equal contribution", this stands for that the order of the first two authors is irrelevant. see
https://support.jmir.org/hc/en-us/articles/360027270051-What-is-the-equal-contributions-footnote-

gotcha, I usually call it "shared first authorship." What about my second question?

Because my estimation is close to 50%-50% and I don't know what is the common standard in these situations. Maybe it is common the ask for equal contribution also in case of 70-30, I don't know.

Mathematician's remark that these percentages can be deceiving: a 66.6%-33.3% split sounds quite close to 50-50, but in practice it means that one person worked twice as much as the other.

@FedericoPoloni On the other hand, given that different people might have different working habits, estimating whether someone worked exactly as much or twice as much as someone else seems impossible.

@JiK Sure, that's another can of worms: how much work is having the idea? How much work is writing the paper? How much work is coding, making experiments, cleaning beakers in a lab? What if writing certain code takes 1 day to experienced researchers but 1 week to students?

I don't think there's a common standard for how to settle this after the fact, at least not one spanning all fields where author order matters. But my rule of thumb would be this:
If your estimation of your coauthor's contribution exceeds your estimation of your own contribution by more than the (likely also estimated) margin of error of your estimates, then you probably shouldn't ask for equal contribution. If the balance is too close to call, or the contributions are too difficult to compare (which is often the case in a theorist/experimentalist collaboration, for example) then sure, having a discussion about it is appropriate. (Just be open to updating your estimates based on the discussion.)
You could also consider including an "author contributions" statement in the paper to clarify who did what.

I think it's pretty clear that your buddy is going to be first author and you second, from the context (adding the asterisk, also that you even have to ask).  My advice would be not to ask for the co-first-authorship.  If it's offered, fine.  But I would not request it.  Instead find another project, where you can be first.


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How do I know that an educational institute is accredited?
How can I investigate whether an institute is authentic and accredited?
Which web-sites or listings can I check?
For instance, say I want to investigate The Chicago School of Professional Psychology.

Free Database to Verify the Accreditation of any College or University in the World?

I would note, of course, that there are some non-reputable "accrediting" agencies. The reputable ones in the US are all registered with the department of education. That is, accrediting agencies should, themselves, be accredited (US). See: https://www.ed.gov/accreditation

Your question, How do I know that a educational institute is accredited? is a good question. However, Which web-sites or listings to check? is a shopping question. Please consider removing it. Also, there are similar questions on this site such as https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/82955/us-accreditation-and-online-degrees

To add to @Buffy's comment: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accreditation_mill

Note that if you see a claim that an institution US is accredited by a particular agency it is always best to go to the website of that agency to verify that the institution is (still) accredited.  Furthermore, if you're not familiar with the accrediting agency you should check to see whether the accreditor is recognized by the US Department of Education.

A candidate for a “tltr” tag...

Does this answer your question? US accreditation and online degrees

Googling  'The Chicago School accreditation' leads to their accreditation page. There it is stated that

The Chicago School of Professional Psychology has been accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC) since 2011. To learn more about WSCUC, please see their contact information below. Click here  to view our Statement of Accreditation Status

You can then go to the WASC list of institutions and find The Chicago School listed there.
Having tried several other semi-random institutions, googling '[name] accreditation' usually results in a page on their site listing who accredits them. A second google search will get to that accreditation agency's list of schools that it accredits if you want to double check.
A further complication is that there may be multiple accreditation organizations involved, some for specific departments or schools within a university. For example, Princeton University is, according their Office of Institutional Research, accredited through the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. In addition, the Engineering School is accredited through the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, Inc. So, you may need to dig deeper to discover if a particular major, program, or department is accredited appropriately for what you need.
Although, one should be aware of just what accreditation means. Fortunately, what was horrendously prescriptive in the 1980s (particularly in engineering) has become more holistic in approach and focused on outcomes, not specific courses with a specific syllabus.

Hmmm. The downvote was surprising.

@Buffy - well, it is basically a description of how to google things...

Good answer. Also, consider adding in that specific programs are often accredited in addition to the university-level accreditation. For example, the ACS accredits chemistry programs and Engineering programs often are accredited.

@RichardErickson - yes, an interesting point to add (that I actually was well aware of, just didn't drink enough coffee this morning I guess).

Hmmm, how is that even a concept: not drinking enough coffee?

@Buffy - sadly, my thermos from home is now empty and the cafeteria is closed because of Covid... All downhill from here!

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What is the basic structure of American higher education?
When I go to university for four years and study, e.g., law or medicine, do I earn an undergraduate degree? And do I have to go to university for another two years or so to get a graduate degree? Also, is it the same university then, or do I have to go somewhere else? And do you have to get a graduate degree? I’m really confused by the American academic system.

This flow chart, from the National Center for Education Statistics, summarizes it better than any explanation I can think of.
https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d01/fig1.asp

Everywhere you see an arrow represents a potential change of institutions, or (above the black line) a natural place to exit formal education if desired.  In particular, most people who pursue graduate or professional study do so at a different institution than their undergraduate institution.  (They are usually eligible to apply for a graduate program at their undergraduate institution, if it's offered, but don't receive any special preference over applicants from other institutions.)
I'd also note that in many fields, one can go from an undergraduate program directly into a PhD program, without having to get a masters first.  In that case the PhD program normally takes more time (say about 5 years), and may or may not award a masters degree "en passant".

PhDs vary a LOT—in some programs, 5 years would be shockingly fast. You might want to add also that the length of professional degrees varies quite a bit more than this chart indicates, e.g. law school is usually three years and done, while medical school is four years with an additional mandatory three to seven years of post-graduate "residency", which combines formal on-the-job-training and study.

A lot of places have 5-year combined bachelors/masters programs in various fields of engineering now, and this is a growing trend.

@DavidPostill: The grade/age relationship only applies through the end of high school, though.  You can attend college at any age, and the four-year undergrad degree is just a norm for full-time students.  Those who work, or have other commitments, can take longer.  It's also possible, though difficult, to do it in less.

When I’ve went to university for four years and studied, e.g. law or medicine, do I earn an undergraduate degree?

The first four years of university, in the U.S., generally result in an undergraduate degree. However, in the U.S., typically you can't study law or medicine at the undergraduate level.

And do I have to go for another two years or so to university to get a graduate degree? Also is it the same university then, or do I have to go somewhere else?

Generally this is indeed done after an undergraduate program. The length of time varies greatly, depending on what course of study you choose. It is possible to earn a graduate degree at the same university where you earned your undergraduate degree, or at a different university.
In general, you have to apply for admission to graduate programs, and this is not guaranteed even if you are already an undergraduate at the same university.

And do you have to get a graduate degree?

It depends on what you want to do. Many people seek employment right after their undergraduate studies and do not go on to graduate school. If you want to practice law or medicine in the US, then a graduate degree is necessary.

It may be worth noting that in medicine in the U.S.A. (and the laws do vary somewhat by state), there are two Masters degree options for people who do not want to be physicians: Physician's Assistant (PA), and Nurse Practitioner (NP). To be certified (-C) requires many more (e.g., 2000) hours of clinical work in addition to the coursework.

@E.DouglasJensen Many NP programs now offer doctorates.

None of the answers have discussed this yet, so I'll mention that the 4-year undergraduate degree (a "Bachelor's of Science" or "Bachelor's of Arts" or perhaps "Bachelor's of Engineering") typically requires completion of a range of introductory "general education" courses as well as more specific requirements in a "major field of study."  In comparison with most other countries, undergraduate degrees in the US (even in very technical fields) generally require a much broader range of course work.
For example, an undergraduate student majoring in computer science might be required to take about 25% of their courses in general education subjects including things like English, History, Psychology, etc.  The CS major might include another 20% of courses in mathematics (e.g. calculus,  combinatorics, probability, etc.) Another 40% of the major might be in specific computer science courses.  The remaining courses would be "elective", allowing the student to take more computer science or branch out into other disciplines.  Of these courses, only the "Computer Science" courses would be taught by Computer Science faculty.  The general education courses and mathematics would be taught by faculty from those respective academic departments.

how much is on studying computer languages? AND  what is difference with Associate degree

Associate's degrees are typically earned at "community colleges" which are a different kind of institution from 4-year colleges or universities.  Some of these programs are intended to prepare students for transferring into a 4-year program (with the community college part being the first two years), while other community college degree programs are intended to prepare students for careers.  For example, a student might study surveying in a 2-year program at a community college and then go to work in that field.  See the diagram in Nate Eldridge's answer.

Although many courses in an undergraduate computer science degree will require the student to write programs, specific instruction in programming languages is usually limited to the first few courses.  Later courses are typically more theoretical.

@Brian Borchers: Also, many of the programs offered by community colleges are more vocational than academic. For instance, the local community college offers programs in auto mechanics, EMT certification, welding...

@jamesqf; that's what I just said...

The (former, we now offer several BAS degrees and cannot legally be called a community college anymore) community college I work for an AS in Programming you get HTML, javascript, c++,C# or Java, and Mysql, plus some basic gen-ed stuff.  The state university in town has a good comp sci engineering program.  The first 2 years of that are the same gen ed as any other engineering student - chem, mech, whatever.  In the 3000 and 4000 level courses, there is ONE programming course.  CompSci = Science and Theory of computing.  AS/BAS in Programming = Code Monkey who can actually code.

@Brian Borchers: Not as I understood what you wrote.  You seemed to be saying that CC courses were mainly academic.  I wanted to emphasize that a lot of them are skilled trades.

@ivanivan are you saying that AS at community college offer more about CS than bachelor programs?

@SSimon - no, I'm saying our AS covers more actual programming in more languages than the batchelor's CompSci program down the road.  Which considering the goals of an AS (enter workforce wtih specialized education, like nursing, x-ray tech, respiratory therapy, etc) is appropriate.

@ivanivan only purpose of BSC in CS is graduate study?

@SSimon - no.  But the course path seems to be more about computing theories and algorithm development as opposed to writing a working application.  Yes, plenty of folks with a BS in CompSci can program, but the focus of the degree track isn't learning how to program it is learning how computers and logic circuits work.

A 4-year degree (BS, BA, &c) just qualifies you to enter medical or law school.  There are undergraduate pre-med and pre-law programs, but they're general degrees with concentration on areas needed in medical or law.  You don't, AFAIK, actually have to take the pre-law or pre-med programs to get into medical or law schools.
A graduate degree requires extra study beyond the undergraduate degree, pretty much by definition.  There's no fixed length.  Two years is probably a minimum for a masters' degree, but you can take longer, if for instance you're doing it while working a regular job.  (This is also true of undergrad degrees.)
You may or may not do graduate work at the same school that you did the undergraduate degree at.  It really depends on your personal circumstances.  If you are really interested in a particular field, and have financial support so you can continue directly to grad school, you'll typically try to get into the best program for that field.  OTOH, if you are attached to the area you're living in, or need to work to finance education (and life), you might well stay at the same school.  (As I did:  I choose to live where I do for reasons unrelated to education, so I attend the local university.)
Also, in the US there's no need to go directly to grad school from undergrad.  I got my MS about 15 years after the BS, and entered the PhD program some years after that.  I also know several people who got undergrad degrees, became financially independent from jobs in industry, and went back to school to do grad work in fields that interested them.

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How to inform an emotionally abusive advisor I don't want to work with him?
I am an incoming PhD student.  Before I applied, I chose a particular school because it had a specific PI.  (Of course, this is not a good idea, but I did not know better at the time.)  The PI is very famous in my field and was extremely excited about having me in his lab, going above and beyond to get me to work in his lab (e.g. private tours, etc.).  I believe he was partially responsible for getting me into this school, but I can never be certain.
I had to take a year off for medical reasons, but for the last year and a half, we have been in monthly discussions about what I will work on and what I will do, and he has been giving me lots of work to do before I arrive.  Up until just recently, it was obvious to both of us that when I came to the school I would be in his lab.  He expects me to skip my lab rotations and join his lab immediately.
However, I recently learned from a conversation with one of his postdocs that he has being emotionally abusive to one of his graduate students (e.g. comments along the lines of "you know everybody hates you").  I also learned that he has been completely ignoring one of his postdocs (as a result of which the postdoc hasn't published in the last year and a half), and that he gave away the project of his other graduate student to someone not in the lab, and then lied about it.
So obviously I'm not joining this lab.  What is the best way to break off this relationship?  I am concerned about him retaliating, as he has a lot of power in the department.  I also cannot share my true reasons for leaving with him, because then he would retaliate against the postdoc who told me.
Is this something that should be done via email?  Skype?  I saw him recently when I visited the school (and learned this information) so I did not bring it up then.  There are many other labs in the department so I'm not concerned about that.  But I am concerned about what the consequences might be for leaving his lab.  Also, what kind of excuse should I use?  My present excuse is "I am questioning my interest in sub-sub-subfield X and want to do rotations before I start working with you."

To turn this question a bit on its head--you mention that you have 'heard' this person (the PI) is emotionally absusive, and gave 2 'examples'. How sure are you of this evidence, and is it at all possible that these perspectives are incorrect? Right now your title is misleading, as the PI has not been emotionally abusive towards you, you've just heard two scenarios which were interpreted to be abusive. Have you met this person face-to-face, and received any indication (from them personally) that they are emotionally abusive?

In addition -- telling someone you don't want to work with them is actually very straightforward and you have described the process quite well within your question. My initial comment was merely a warning to be careful of assuming this person is 'emotionally abusive' before gaining ANY type of first-hand experience.

So, you do not want to join his lab because of rumors that you heard from his postdoc?  Some comments do not seem serious. "he has been completely ignoring one of his postdocs" (postdocs are not spouses) "the postdoc hasn't published in the last 1.5 year". As a postdoc you are must be able to  publish on your own. "he gave away the project of his other graduate student to someone". That does not always mean foul play. If the PhD student has not produced any results in a reasonable amount of time or does not care, you may give a good idea to someone else to produce results e.g. for a grant.

"Obviously," you don't join his lab because you heard negative claims from one Postdoc? That's just stupid, sorry. My wife's PI is amazing, but he too occasionally has trouble students/postdocs. If you talk to just one of them, blindly believing everything, and don't consider the PI, it's your loss. All your personal experiences were incredibly positive from what you share here, and that doesn't even make you hear around more, at the least?

I am certain it is true based on the context. Before talking to the postdoc, I had also seen some flags, e.g. he lied to me about something significant and then denied he had ever said it.  I also wanted to be co-mentored by someone else but he didn't allow it.  He also talks about other people very negatively for no apparent reason, e.g. my undergrad research advisor (who is also very well-known).  These recent events are not the only reason, but rather, it's more like a very large piece of straw that broke the camel's back.

Sorry, but you have not given any sufficient evidence that the PI is "emotionally abusive". The only "evidence" is a sentence he allegedly said about "everyone hates you", and we don't know if he did say it and what was the context. My biased impression is that you are actually too judgmental and haphazard in your decisions.

My answer assumes that you are convinced that your presumptive advisor is emotionally abusive, and that you have made a firm decision not to work with him.
However, you haven't given a first- or even second-hand account of abuse or neglect; it's also possible that the postdoc is blowing a personality conflict out of proportion by spreading false accusations.  The only direct red flag I see is your presumptive advisor's expectation that you will join his lab directly without doing rotations.  You may want to have a confidential discussion with another senior faculty member about your concerns, before jumping off this particular cliff.

Pretend that your presumptive advisor is a reasonable adult human being.  Talk to them in person.  Be straightforward and honest.

"Thank you for your encouragement and your support, but I have decided not to join your lab."

That's it.  You do not owe them an excuse, an explanation, an apology, or a description of your alternate plans.  (I think you do owe them thanks.)
If you would be more comfortable giving an explanation, then do so respectfully, honestly, and carefully.  But if you have no intention of working with this advisor in the future, do not suggest the opposite, even indirectly.  In particular, you should not say "I want to do rotations before joining your lab" unless you actually intend to join their lab after doing rotations.  It would be better to say something like

"I have decided to do full rotations before joining any particular lab.  I want to explore a few different subareas, and I think the breadth of experience will help my long-term academic career."

Be ready for the advisor to pressure you to do a rotation in their lab, or to argue that you're actually damaging your long-term career by not joining a lab directly.  Thank him again for his advice and encouragement, but stick to your guns.  Or he might surprise you by being completely supportive and giving you good advice about other labs to work in.
Under different circumstances, I might suggest being direct about your suspicions of emotional abuse and neglect, but as you say yourself, that could backfire on the advisor's other students and postdocs.  That's their fight to have, not yours.
If the advisor is as emotionally abusive as you suspect, he may try to pull you into an argument or blackmail you.  He may say things like "I got you admitted to this department; you owe me." or "I'll have you kicked out of the program." or "I'm big and famous and important, and I know everybody, and you've just signed your academic death warrant."  Do not engage.  Do not argue.  Do not back down.  You have neither signed a contract nor sworn an oath of fealty.  The most you owe him is your sincere thanks and your future success, on your own terms.  Assuming you work in a healthy department, his threats are idle.
That said, you should have someone in your corner, just in case his threats are not idle.  Before you dump your advisor, I strongly recommend having an honest and confidential discussion with the graduate director, ombudsman, department chair, or another trusted senior faculty member.  (The other students will know who to talk to.)  Be completely straightforward about your concerns, especially about possible repercussions from your decision.  Hopefully they will reassure you that your concerns are groundless, or at least that someone else is willing to fight for you to be treated fairly.
If not, you're better off in a different department anyway.

My present excuse is "I am questioning my interest in sub-sub-subfield X
  and want to do rotations before I start working with you."

I think this is the key to buying time, and an opportunity to make more first-hand observations. You don't even have to immediately question your commitment to "sub-sub-subfield X". You can tell the PI that you feel you must do the lab rotations because they would be good, at this stage in your studies, for broadening your perspective and building your intra-department network.
Depending on his reaction, your observations during the lab rotations, and how you interact with the other labs, you can either go with the original plan, or decide you really, really like a slightly different research area that puts you in a different lab.
That way, you can frame your not joining his lab as a positive choice to do something you have found suits you even better, rather than as a rejection of him and/or his field.

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Why don't more academics write textbooks?
For example for an undergrad CS/ECE course, say Intro to Computer Networks, there are about 5 textbooks published by the top 15 publishers in the last 20 years. Why aren't there way more textbooks, since there are probably tens of thousands of people (academics) who have the necessary knowledge to write such a book.
Is it because:

publishers don't publish a book about a topic for which they already published a book previously;
or academics don't think writing a textbook is beneficial for their careers and royalties are very low?

Because it's a task as huge as it is thankless, would be my first guess.

a) Writing a book is a lot of trouble.  b) Unless you write a blockbuster, your royalties will be in the hundreds, not thousands, of dollars.

@BobBrown wow, I had no idea the royalties are so low.

See also: What incentives do academics have to write textbooks?.

@J.Roibal which leads to the question  If an author does not intend to make much revenue from a book, why not make it open-access?

Unless all of them are bad — Every textbook approaches the material differently than the instructor would, given free rein, unless the instructor actually wrote the textbook.  So if you're a control freak like me, then yes, all of them are bad.

@J.Roibal. Generally, I'd estimate that the royalties divided by the time it takes to write a text works out to an hourly wage that's less than you would get in a job where the only requirement was the ability to ask "Do you want fries with that?"

Textbooks are for trivial beings. To write a textbook is to admit one used to be a trivial being.

@J.Roibal: Well, the publisher has to pay for producing the book, pay the staff, and make a profit.  I am co-author with four others of a book that produced less than $5,000 in royalties over its lifetime.  On the other hand, a colleague co-wrote the world history text, now in its sixth edition, and probably does OK from the royalties.

Certainly the "book approaches the subject differently than the professor would prefer" thing drives me to prepare non-trivial write-ups to be used as replacement sections (and eventually replacement chapters). Perhaps, in time those will become the core of a book, but even a couple of really good sections a term is a significant extra task.

Ehm, give me a second...  Wait... It's 1.! Is it? Or, maybe it's 2... No, I go with 1. Or...  No, I give up. Tell if it's 1 or 2, plz.

Why do you think you need more than 5 text on Intro To Networking?  I it very defined topic and actually has not changed much.  Established books put out new editions.  Comer Networking is up to the 6th edition.

I tried. Nobody wanted to publish it. And it is really really really good.

A better question is; "Why do academics write textbooks?"

FWIW this was simultaneously posted on reddit

As in the other comments and answer: it's a lot of trouble, doesn't generate money, and doesn't generate status, either. In fact, it often generates anti-status, for various reasons: because of the other features, many academics (I'm in mathematics) would never consider writing any sort of book at all... and many of these people seem to subliminally want to rationalize this as a positive virtue by denigrating anyone who does write a book (especially a textbook). This is a fairly typical mechanism: declare the desired state a virtue... I've had "colleagues" say to me, quite snarkily, upon hearing that I was working on a book, "Oh, you must have a lot of time with nothing to do!" Sigh...
It is also true that there is pressure from publishers to make new textbooks as similar as possible to old textbooks... which perpetuates certain features that one might decide are not so good. That is, understandably because publishers want to sell books, a new textbook "has to" resemble existing ones enough to compete in the market for those books.
Another disincentive, of a different sort, is the point that nowadays with an internet, one needn't have pseudo-perfected a body of material before putting it on-line, because it can be corrected, tweaked, etc., indefinitely. In contrast, a physical book's immutability creates pressure for a degree of perfection that is (relatively) very expensive (if only in time and energy), due to severely diminishing marginal returns. The very linearity of a book creates similar somewhat-fake problems... And physical books are not searchable! It's crazy! :)
So, I personally have written some texbooks, didn't make much money... Nowadays, I mostly just put textbook-like material on-line, thus without the constraints of old-timey publication. This similarly generates no status-points at all, and no money. :)

Not that you need status points (which I imagine are about as useful as SE rep), but I think you get some sort of points in the eyes of many researchers for your "vignettes."  (I also think Rota's statement about people being remembered more for their expository work is at least half true.  I'm sure what I'll be most remembered for is something stupid like my Exceptional Math Reviews page.)

But, great mathematicians like Bela Bollobas and Terrance Tao write books ! Not to mention Hardy, Timothy Gowers, Herbert Wilf, Serge Lang, Paul Halmos, etc.

@user230452, oh, indeed, various sorts of people write books, but/and the original questioner wanted to know why people don't write more.

@paulgarrett Could you please share a little about how James Stewart "broke the mould" and became very rich off his Calculus textbooks? https://www.theguardian.com/science/alexs-adventures-in-numberland/2015/oct/05/maths-palace-built-by-calculus-rock-star-on-sale-for-14m

@Deepak, all that I know is from the public record, and direct observation: J. Stewart and his publishers really focused on giving the market what it would buy, many new editions, many variant editions, ever-more-colorful graphics, ever more this-and-that. So it's not that he broke the mold, but, rather, that he played the game to the hilt.

@paulgarrett Thanks for the insightful reply. So I guess it is possible to do really well writing textbooks, it's just that it's fairly rare, Would you say his success was due mainly to "smarts", skill and effort or in large part due to "luck" (right time, right place, right person sort of thing)? Basically, is his sort of success deterministically repeatable by a sufficiently able and motivated follower? I promise this will be the last question in this vein, I'm just really curious about this gentleman and his incredible achievement.

@Deepak, I've heard of a few other people in-effect-deliberately making a bit of money from a calculus text. Probably Stewart's timing was better, so, yes, some luck, in addition to deliberation, thus, more money. So it seems that some success is deterministically repeatable, but degree is not clear. E.g., how would you compete with the on-going enterprise of "Stewart's Calculus", for one thing?

@Kimball, it is heartening to hear that those vignettes are useful to people! Occasionally I've been told by "colleagues" and department heads that anything other than publication in peer-reviewed journals is not a significant part of a mathematician's job... can even be a sign of frivolity or dysfunction. Our yearly "activities reports" explicitly make a sharp distinction between that sort of "publication" and everything else. But it's pretty obvious that the vast majority of "publications" are of no interest to anyone except to put on the ol' CV to show dept heads and Deans and NSF. Sigh...

... and for a long time it has seemed to me that it would be a sad thing if parts of mathematics collapsed under their own weight, due to too much "traditional publication" or even the chaotic arXiv ocean of (pre-) publication, while lacking high-ish-end "synthesis". I think even an attempt at distinguishing "research" and "exposition" is misguided (and leads to dubious editorial mandates...) Oh, well, ...

Not to get too off-topic, but: upon receiving such a snarky remark from a colleague, what, in your opinion, is an appropriate response? I ask because, were I in your shoes, I'd be tempted to try to end the conversation as soon as possible; of course, academic professionalism might demand otherwise, but regardless I don't think I would forget such a comment quickly. Is there some witty one-liner you've been saving for the next unsuspecting critic, or - and I guess this is more likely - would you simply back-off and change the subject?

@WillR, although in my younger years (and still occasionally) I was fond of sharp rejoinders, I decided some years ago to try to not let jerks make me behave like a jerk also... if only because one can too easily feel guilty later. So I mostly try to respond to unreasonable (and emotional) personal attacks with responses about the issues rather than me-versus-them. I like to "keep the moral high ground". It's good exercise, anyway, and sometimes annoys an "attacker" more than would a low-class response. :)

In my experience, reason (1) is less important than reason (2). Publishers will publish a book if they think the potential market will pay off their investment in production, marketing, distribution, and all the other costs they'll incur. My first book was published even though the publisher already had a book on the same topic (yeah, stupid on my part, but I never thought about the pitfalls inherent in competing in-house), which is partly why I said (1) was not particularly important. If you look around, you'll find that many publishers, especially the larger ones, carry more than one book on a subject, particularly for intro- to intermediate-level courses, in the hope that a potential adopter will find some of their offerings acceptable.
The more important reason, in my opinion, is that at many schools in the US, a published textbook counts for little or nothing when decisions are made about tenure. Writing a text is a time-consuming project: most of the texts I've written took from one to two thousand hours of my time. For an untenured faculty member, a much better return on investment would be to use the time getting articles published in respectable journals, or whatever's appropriate for their discipline. When this subject comes up in conversation with a junior faculty member I'm unambiguous: save the book-writing until after tenure.

"you'll find that many publishers, especially the larger ones, carry more than one book on a subject [...], in the hope that a potential adopter will find some of their offerings acceptable." I've received as many as four texts to look over for one class from a single publisher. And two different editions of one of them.

You don't necessarily need to write books just to get published. You could write them for yourself too.

@user230452 Rick's argument is that the return on investment is extremely much worse than just doing research for pre-tenure people. Writing a book for yourself has an even lower return on investment, so his point will only be even more valid.

@DCTLib Hmm ... What about the satisfaction of creating a book ? And, the feeling of having understood something better and the feeling of having made something that will last ?

You can't pay the mortgage with feelings.

@user230452 The feeling of having understood something better and...having made something that will last --- Isn't that why we do  research?

First of all, without knowing much about the subject you mentioned, I'm willing to bet that the premise of your question is simply wrong and that there are actually quite a lot more than 5 books on Intro to Computer Networks published by reasonably well-known publishers in the last 20 years. The world is a big place, and the publishing world is also much larger than you think, and don't forget it includes books written in languages you don't speak (yes, believe it or not, many textbooks are written in languages other than English) or that cater to an audience from a geographical region or academic subculture you have no connection with. The numbers you cited (5 books, top 15 publishers, last 20 years) are clearly just your own private speculation and have no evidence backing them, so assuming that they're wrong with high probability is one way of answering the question.
Second, another way in which your question is unfortunately not very well-formulated is that it's phrased as a multiple choice question but offers only two choices, none of which really come close to the heart of the reason why more textbooks don't get written (to the extent that there's anything that needs explaining here, since as I said in the first paragraph, a lot more textbooks actually do get written than I think you realize).
The truth is that writing textbooks is simply very hard. Academics have to decide what they will work on at any given point in their careers and what they will invest their limited time and energy in, so naturally they will opt to invest those resources in projects that will have the best impact on the world, their scientific community, and their personal careers (where these considerations are ordered differently according to what that person cares about most), and that have the best chance of success. Writing a textbook is a big project that takes anywhere between 1-4 years, and sometimes much longer (I personally know an author who took 15 years). While there are a lot of people who would like to undertake such a large project in some utopian, hypothetical sense, when it comes down to the practical task of actually sitting down and writing one, many people end up being deterred by the large effort and degree of focus that this task requires. By contrast, some alternative ways for academics to invest their time in that can be just as beneficial as writing a textbook, like working on short-to-medium term research projects, or even long-term research projects that yield intermediate deliverable products like actual publishable papers on a short-to-medium term basis, end up being a lot more suited to the psychology of many academics and hence a lot of people will prefer to focus on those other approaches to making an impact and advancing their field and career.
Finally, I have two other remarks about some of the reasons mentioned by others for why more textbooks don't get written. One is that I disagree with those who say that writing a textbook is a thankless task - my experience is that if you write a good textbook that actually helps your field in a substantial way rather than just present a slightly different point of view from 10 other textbooks, then that is likely to win you a lot of respect and admiration from colleagues, and even translate into material career benefits - promotions, speaking invitations, maybe job offers, etc. Overall, if you choose your textbook project wisely and have the talent to write a good one that makes a real contribution, it can be just as good for your career as any other thing you could be doing with an equal amount of time. It can also teach you things that doing other activities will not teach you, and make you a better and more disciplined scientist in ways that will eventually produce their own benefits far into the future. So those secondary and tertiary effects also need to be considered, but perhaps it's true that those benefits are not sufficiently appreciated by many would-be authors.
The second remark is that I also disagree with people citing the low royalties as reasons why anybody doesn't write a textbook. All the other activities that academics do when they're not writing textbooks don't pay any royalties at all, so from that point of view writing a textbook is strictly more profitable than publishing papers, writing research software or whatever. This calculation of the royalties you get divided by the number of hours it took you to write the book mentioned in some of the comments is completely nonsensical - you are paid a salary by your university while writing a textbook, just like you are paid a salary when you write your latest paper or do anything else. So, to summarize, yes the royalties are low, and certainly I don't think a sane academic will write a textbook for the royalties it will earn them, but just as certainly no one will not write a textbook because the royalties are low. If an academic decides not to write a textbook, you can be pretty sure that they made that decision for completely unrelated reasons.

I can't really speak personally to what does/n't motivate an established academic to work on textbooks, but I do have a little insight on the work involved. I'm currently writing/editing for an established broad IT textbook series. I suspect there are a few big things that factor into an individual's calculation:

There's a tension between finding a field/niche that is both new enough that there isn't already an authoritative, entrenched textbook but large enough to support a book (both ways--there's enough content to cover and enough programs/classes/teachers/students to have any prospect of making money). I would guess a clear majority don't work on topics that clearly need a textbook.
If there is already an established textbook, you're probably going to have to go through several editions just to get legs under it unless you or your publisher have enough clout to convince professors/instructors/departments to leave a book they already have developed curricula around.
This treadmill effect means you're pledging to give up a certain amount of time every few years if the broader (trans-edition) project of the "book" is to succeed. My perspective on time may be skewed by the size (quite large) of the books I'm working on, but I'd guess most minor to moderate revisions (updating for gradual change in the field or your own pedagogy; no large-scale restructuring/rewriting) take between 2-20 weeks of full-time work (without accounting for time spent procrastinating by those who find writing/editing less fun than research/mentoring/teaching).
Given the above, I would guess there aren't many people with the stamina to write a substantial first-edition textbook in less than a year without neglecting (or being excused from, or not even having) teaching, research, and/or family responsibilities.
I think there's a relationship between how much time you get to spend teaching material and how successfully you can structure it in a way that is useful for students and other teachers, which I suspect makes it hard for early-career academics to quickly turn out a textbook that will really resonate with others, but may make it (relatively) easy for mid/late-career academics to build a textbook from a body of material they've been iteratively shaping for many semesters.

InRe: "treadmill effect" That is at least partly an artifact of the economics of the traditional publishing industry. Given the possibility of e-publication or print-on-demand these days, there ought to be a way to sidestep some of the traditional infrastructure of the publishing business. But simply going the vanity press route wouldn't be it. You need some kind of vetting by professionals (in the field, not in publishing) to certify that the book is ready for prime-time. Maybe the structure of open-sources journals would provide a model, but who has the time to look into it?

@dmckee If you just want to write an open source book, just post it and let people know, and some will start trying it out (at least in fields without a wealth of good free textbooks).  I looked at a bunch and picked one that looked good but I'd never heard of before for my Discrete Math class.  Similarly, I've heard some people used some of my online notes for classes without me doing any advertising.

Wow, what a lot of negativity re writing textbooks. Let me offer a more positive perspective, at least in the field of mathematics. I've written seven textbooks over 30+ years, some solo, some with colleagues. One is at a beginning undergraduate level, two are at an advanced undergraduate level, and four are graduate texts. The first was written primarily while I was a post-doc and appeared as I was applying for tenure track jobs, the second was written while I was in a tenure-track position. Yes, they were a lot of work; the rule of thumb I've learned (for me) is to estimate the amount of time it should take, and then triple it. Would I have done better, career-wise, to have spent more time on research. Possibly, who can know, but I'm satisfied with how things have turned out.
My personal answer to "why write a textbook" is primarily:
Here's am area of mathematics that I love, and I'm writing the book that I wish that I'd had available when I was learning the subject.
Or, in a similar vein, the undergraduate cryptography textbook that I wrote with two colleagues is designed for a course that we teach, and it presents the subject in the way that we find most interesting. This is not to say that there aren't plenty of other cryptography textbooks with perfectly valid viewpoints, but they don't say what we wanted to say.
There is also a great deal of satisfaction in holding in one's hands a book that one has written, and it's great to receive positive feedback from readers. There's even satisfaction in receiving lists of errata, since it shows that someone cares enough to carefully read your book!
As a practical matter, as others have indicated, it's easiest to write a book after developing the material as a course and creating detailed lecture notes. But the road from lecture notes to polished publishable book is neither short nor straight.
Finally, since it seems apposite, I'll end with a link to an article that I recently wrote entitled: Rational points on, and the arithmetic of, elliptic curves: A tale of two books.
It details some of the history behind the writing of two of my books, and is (freely) available at
http://www.ams.org/journals/bull/0000-000-00/S0273-0979-2017-01542-X/S0273-0979-2017-01542-X.pdf

While I'm not saying your post isn't valuable, it doesn't really answer the question of "why don't more academics write textbooks?". This answers why some academics do.

@tonysdg Good point,  it is a "non-answer". I guess that I viewed the question as implicitly raising the issue of "what are the pros and cons of publishing textbooks", but I'll admit I may be reading in something that's not there. However, I think that I will leave my answer, rather than deleting it, because otherwise this thread may lead young academics to believe that publishing textbooks is purely negative. And I don't think that that was the goal of the original question.

As someone writing a text there are 3 reasons to write one.

Money from royalties
Career advancement and reputation
Advancement of the field

Regarding 1 I anticipate that the money I have spent traveling to visit my collaborators will exceed the money that I will receive in royalties.
Regarding 2: My hope is that this establishes me as a leader in the field in the eyes of people outside the field (I'm sufficiently respected within) - which will then help my career.  The rewards probably don't justify the effort I have put in from a purely objective view however.  The same effort put into departmental politics or grant writing or publishing would probably yield comparable outcomes.
Regarding 3 - this is the reason I'm actually writing it. I think there is a gap in the field that is best filled by a single broad coherent overview (as opposed to review papers or more research papers).
Once this book exists, all 3 motivations are reduced for other potential authors.

In the UK there is strong academic pressure to produce work which will add to the research rating of the school/institution, since that in turn governs a critical portion of the funding received by the institution. Rating is not governed simply by the number of citations but by a system of rating how valuable your contribution is to the field Lure a Nobel Prize winner to your department and you may get lots of money. Support someone who's written a good textbook and you may get nothing. Which means a textbook won't look great as a reason to hire you.
This is a strong disincentive to those who might want to write a textbook early in their careers.
There is also a disincentive if there is already a strong or well-established textbook in the field - nobody will buy a text book which their tutors / professors have not recommended. And getting a new textbook recommended might be easier in a technical field, where old ones may be out of date or there may be no older ones. Doing it in, for example, history is much trickier.
Again, basing this on the UK pattern, most students will get by with purchasing as few books as possible. They will download stuff from the internet, use material from libraries or just ask a friend - again this applies less to technical and professional material. Trying to write a history textbook is a mug's game - no one will buy it unless they have to  and most students won't have to - "Why can't you just put it on the internet?"
The introduction of tuition fees in the UK over the last couple of decades has led to students feeling that they have already paid enough for their education and that the information they need should be provided for them - again on the internet.

2 is more like it, though perhaps the royalties for a well used text would be reasonable if all the students in all the courses for which it was set actually bought it. But my last book didn't net enough to cover the time writing it.
I've several times had publishers ask me to write a textbook in areas where I have a high research profile (and some already have multiple related textbooks). Early on I considered it, today I wouldn't (although I'm working on something that could be called a textbook but isn't). I'd rather write another research monograph, but in such a way as it could be used as a textbook for a senior undergraduate or postgraduate class (no exercises, problems or answers). As an EIC for a book series I seek research monographs, but if they also double as textbooks, great!
But, if you are interested in citations, writing a well used textbook is the best way to get lots of citations without doing anything original - because most students are lazy and cite the textbook, rather than reviewing the work and citing the seminal work, the key developments, and actually getting up to date.
An easier way though, is writing a good review paper.  A better way still, is writing a good critical review that doesn't just rake over the coals but organizes the work, and sets out a pathway for future work in the field - I liken it to SWOT analysis.
Many textbooks are written by people who are more experts on writing textbooks than experts in the field they are writing about. In fact, spending your time writing and revising textbooks tends to STOP you being able to be at the forefront of the research in the field. But there are exceptions, time out for a top researcher to write one good text (not normally the Q&A type), and back to good research.  Some combine good research with the textbook - and still get gazumped. I'm thinking of the Minix/Linux saga here with Tanenbaum's Modern OS textbook...
For me it comes down to time more than money, I want to be working on tomorrow's version of the field, not recapping yesterday's! But if some publisher paid me enough to fund my next three years' research (say $1M) I'd be happy to spend six months writing a textbook. In practice, the royalties would be a fraction of the salary for the time spent.

Because you can just hire an undergraduate to TeX his lecture notes and have an easily amendable script specifically tailored around your course. Although it does not generate you any income, it requires a lot less effort than going though the whole publishing process of a textbook and yet serves its purpose exactly the same.

Well I've seen (used) notes that have been inherited from others (and modified by me gradually over the years) that originally were the produced by a poor (in the pecuniary sense) but bright (in the intelligence sense) postgraduate contracted to fill in a missing but required bit of syllabus. So who owns these notes? And where would I find to write a textbook when what they (dept, govt) want is for me to spend all my time teaching and supervising and then write a dozen research papers a year.


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Is it plagiarism to translate a research paper and use it without citation as your own?
Is it considered to be plagiarism when a researcher translates a little-known paper from another language and uses this text, without citing reference, as his own? I understand that to use results of someone’s research work is ethically improper but does it carry a real punishment?

Punishment for plagiarism can be loosing your job, if you did so during your PhD research you can loose your diploma (even after it has already been awarded to you), and you loose your reputation. The latter can make it extremely hard to find a new job (which you need to do since you lost your old job), as we all work in fairly small comunities, so we all know the reputation, and nobody wants to hire a cheater. So the punishment can easily become very severe. This is not something you want to risk.

The key phrase in your question is "...uses this text, without citing reference, as his own".

How is this even a question? You are claiming credit for someone's ideas and thought process. That's as far as you have to go to have an unambiguous answer.

Is this a troll? This appears like deliberately misconstruing the logic of plagiarism. In fact, it seems even worse than plagiarism, as the translation may obfuscate the origin of the paper and thus additional intensity of intentionality can be assumed.

Short answer: Yes, it is plagiarism.
Slightly longer answer: In the process of translating a little known text and using it nothing has changed about the fact, that you copied text from someone else without citing it correctly. I would consider it unethical. Why would you not want to cite it anyway? You got the source, you can cite it! You shouldn't bother about possible consequences, because doing it right in the first place will prevent you from getting into trouble.

Citing avoids plagiarism trouble, but it isn't enough here: publishing an unauthorized translation can be a violation of copyright.

In many legislations (e.g. Germany) it is a violation of copyright as well: the translation is considered a derivative work/adaption. This means you need the permission of the copyright holder (typically publisher or author) to publish your translation. Citation alone is not sufficient.
As for "using it as your own": Your translation may anyways qualify as an own work, depending on how much original work you put into the translation. (Computerized translation does not qualify.) A good translation is not a mechanical process but constitutes a creative work in itself and therefore is considered a work with its own rights (at least in German copyright law).
Again, this doesn't change the fact that you have to obtain permission of the copyright holder of the original work for publishing your translation. Doing this will typically take care of possible issues with plagiarism as well:  re-use authorizations tend to specify how to reference the original work (slight disclaimer: the re-use authorizations I've seen so far were not for translations but for graphics and tables).

Yes. Plagiarism is, at its core, using someone else's work and claiming it as yours. The fact that you translated it does not diminish the fact that you are using someone else's ideas.
I should add that there is of course value in itself in translating a previous paper, and you will get some credit for this even if you make it clear that it was someone else's ideas that you are translating.


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Are there examples of classes with students publishing their reports instead of just turning them into TA & Professor?
Am interested in learning more about student publishing. Is there a list of courses where students are publishing their work instead of just turning them into their TA and professor?

In the U.S., it would be legally problematic to make publishing anything a requirement to pass a class. Can't imagine a professor who would go there. However, some professors assign writing on Wikipedia, either as voluntary, extra credit-type assignments (to avoid the legal issues I mentioned) or in such a way that the writing is required but the publishing is optional. I have done this myself, and discussed it on another answer here at some point - will try to find the link later and post it here.

Are you asking about publishing something akin to research? If so, most professors who encourage it still require everything be turned in to them as an assignment, but then also encourage interested students to extend into publishable research if they are so inclined.

It mathematics it often takes over 1 year to publish an article...

Here is the link to the question I mentioned discussing Wikipedia writing assignments.

@DanRomik While I agree that it's a bad idea, I'm curious what legal problems you think a publication requirement would create.

@JeffE off the top of my head, I think it could be reasonably claimed to be a FERPA violation (similarly to a professor insisting on publicly posting a student's final exam), and to raise copyright issues. Not sure if actual case law exists that makes any of this specific, so what I'm saying is speculative, and of course IANAL. Basically forcing students to publish things seems like a major invitation for trouble, legal and otherwise.

Disclaimer: As I've only been a graduate student at the university I'm currently attending (USA) I can only comment on my individual experience at this university in my particular field (computer science) and the classes that accompany it.
Experience: I have a publication currently accepted that is the direct result of a course I took.
Throughout my time as a graduate student I've observed several class formats as far as expected work goes, typically involving some combination of homework, exams, and projects. Those involving projects, particularly when greater emphasis is placed on the project, are those rife with opportunity for publication. An additional indication of this is if the faculty member is teaching the project-based course in his/her area of research.
If your intent is to take a class with the hope of turning your work into a publication I would recommend taking a course where the above align (project-emphasized course work being taught by a faculty member whose research area is the same as that of the topic being taught).  Additionally, I would recommend:
1) Choosing a class that aligns with your own interests and research.
2) Speak with the professor prior to the start of the class about your intention of turning the project into a publication. The professor should be able to comment on whether their project is a good opportunity for such an endeavor and perhaps be able to provide you with advice on how to be successful in completing the project and turning it into a publication.
3) In discussing with the class instructor, it would also be a good idea to discuss project expectations, particularly as they relate to (a) working with other class members and (b) the criteria that will be used to grade your work. Regarding (a), not all class members may be interested in going the extra mile to turn a project into a publication. Having this discussion with the professor up front will mitigate the chance of encountering "snags" related to this (e.g., you be given an exception to work on the project by yourself). Regarding (b), the criteria used to grade your project may be slightly different than what it takes to make a publication. Granted your intent, and what will almost certainly entail a greater amount of work, some leeway may be granted to you if tasks to create a publication and those needed to earn full marks on the project don't line up entirely. This, of course, depends on the instructor.
4) Getting [at least] some preliminary idea of the course material and ongoing research in the area of the topic of the course, prior to its start, will help. Furthermore, having some project idea (i.e., research idea) in mind, would be ideal. This can also be discussed with the professor.
I'm sure there are points and recommendation that could be made here, as well as other scenarios, which may vary by field and university, but for me, in my own unique experience, these were the highlights that led to my course-based publication. Best of luck!

Although this might not be exactly what you are looking for, I recently learned that a course at my institution publishes student work in a free online journal, found here.
Certainly, publication in this format does not have the same prestige or distribution of a typical journal, but the studies are original even if they are not ground breaking. The works are reviewed by several faculty members and give the students an opportunity to produce a professionally formatted research paper, and give them a citation they can use to demonstrate their research/writing ability as they move forward in their careers.
Personally, I think this sort of approach is excellent experience for undergraduates. I don't think the level of work that you can expect students to put into a course could ever be expected to result in a publication in a mainstream journal (in a large enough sample size there could be exceptions, of course), though work produced in a course could certainly motivate a project that is publishable in the future after appropriate elaboration.

Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with the course I link to, though I am an employee at the university.


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Right time to go for poster presentation and talks
I have multiple questions regarding talks and poster presentations. I am in my second year of PhD (computational biology) and have not yet published any paper. Keeping my background in mind do answer my question if possible:
My question is: Is it okay to give poster/talk of your unpublished work? Is there any risk of leakage of research idea via this?
(Leakage in the sense that I do a work and someone probably was thinking in the same line, now gets the idea from my work and works fast enough to publish it before me)

Generally speaking, posters must be unpublished work, and talks in many cases must be as well. You will have to explain why you think you have an especially high risk of "leakage" given one of the purposes of conferences is the discussion of unpublished research.

I think this is a wonderful question for your supervisor, who knows exactly the state of your research.

Is your poster accepted for any possible inclusion in proceedings? Considering your CSE background, many top-tier conferences have separate poster/demo track. These conference proceedings include the accepted and presented posters.

I have not yet given the abstract. I am just trying the understand the dynamics in the field of research... So asked this question

Your concern about leakage is a general issue for every researchers. You don't have to worry about it. Although someone gets the idea, the implementation and evaluation will be far away from yours.

Many people in computer science publish poster version in top tier venue prior to a full length journal paper.

Mine is bioinfo and computational biology. Not purely computer science

@MJeffryes "posters must be unpublished" definitely not true in physics.  I know a chemistry PI who forbids presentation of work unpublished in journals.  He claims someone stole his results once.

Is it okay to give poster/talk of your unpublished work?

Yes, it's okay.

Is there any risk of leakage of research idea via this?

Somehow, but not really. The chance is much higher that 1) people will find your idea interesting (if it's good) but keep working on the things they work on already and 2) the idea is already floating around or may pop up anyway.
I can't argue with Martin Argerami's answer that there is a risk when you present unpublished work. But you also can argue that there is the risk that you will run over by a car when you walk on a street.
So what I am trying to say is that the benefit of publicizing your ideas, get in contact with people, maybe even starting collaboration very much outweighs the risk of ideas getting stolen. Especially as a PhD student it seems crucial to me that you should take any opportunity to publicize your work in talk and with posters. This is how you enter the academic system, get in contact with all sorts of people which may be important for your academic career in one way or another (and you will meet many regularly for your entire career).
"Stealing" other's ideas happens rarely, but more importantly, in many cases it is really not clear if some idea is "stolen". Ideas pop up at various places all the time and especially good ideas tend to pop up at different places simultaneously (there is, for example, this famous BFGS-method in optimization which has its name since it was found by four people simultaneously in the same year). Actually, this is sometimes how you can recognize a good idea. I may also be that your ideas was inspired by talks with your supervisor (or anybody else) and she also talked with other people, thereby inspiring them to have similar ideas.
So, while one can't neglect that science is somehow a competition in that you have competitors for jobs and prices, I think that there a danger in viewing doing science as a competition. You should do science for the sake of science and not to win anything.

If you show a poster or give a talk on unpublished work, there is always a risk of your ideas being poached. There is also the possible benefit of someone contributing questions/ideas that can enhance your research.
To mitigate the risk, if your research is ready to be shown in a paper/talk, maybe you should be able to post a preprint so that your authorship is established. Your supervisor should be able to clarify what the ethos of your research area is about this.
There is still some risk, though. I know a mathematician who posted very good results on the arxiv. At the same time, he submitted the article to a good journal. The article took about a year to referee, and came with a rejection (not because of anything wrong but because of the high standards of the journal). Meanwhile, during that year, a pair of mathematicians read his preprint, improved on his results, and got this generalization published (acknowledging the original contribution from the arxiv). So this guy ends up with his best paper unpublished and unpublishable. Needless to say that after this experience, he was very wary of preprints. But this is an exception, and most mathematicians post in the arxiv all the time without major issues.


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Does impact factor of journal you publish in matter when getting a post doc?
I have heard from quite a number of PhD students, that one can get a good post-doc, if the summation of the impact factors of the journals published by a PhD student is nearing 10. Is this true? How does the impact factors that you earn before your post-doc have an effect on getting a good post-doc? I am talking about the field of computational biology...

No, it doesn't.

The folklore that is perpetuating in your group may be roughly true. However, it is probably a symptom rather than the reason one is getting hired to top positions. It matters much more that that person is doing good work that is respected in the community. Please don't try to "game the system" in this way as hiring is not all about numbers.

For curiosity, what is your country?

@MikeyMike India

The answer is that it might matter. Different places select candidates at different times in different ways. It is plausible to imagine someone on a selection committee adding up impact factors but it is more likely that they wouldn't do precisely that. However, more generally, publishing in high impact journals can only be good for your job prospects.

[Note: my experience is from mathematics.  I guess most will still be applicable in other fields, but I don’t have first-hand experience.]
It probably doesn’t matter directly.
For any kind of job application, grant application, etc, you will be assessed on (among other things) the quality and notability of your research.
How exactly people assess that will depend on how close they are to your work.  Specialists in your own subfield will be able to judge your work on its own merits, regardless of where it’s published.  People in related fields will have to judge it indirectly, and may look at (among other things) the prestige of the journals you publish in — but they probably have a better idea of the journals’ reputation than just the impact factor.  The impact factor may matter most when the assessment is by people outside your subject — for instance, some government research agencies or university administrations have official criteria that include impact factors or similar metrics.
For post-docs (at least in my experience in maths), the main people judging your application will be your potential research group leaders, and their immediate colleagues.  So they will be able to judge your work directly — so impact factor probably is not too relevant there.
Long-term jobs and grant applications are much more likely to be assessed, in part, by people not in your own field, or according to fixed criteria.  So for these, impact factor and similar metrics are more likely to matter.  (How much they matter depends a lot on the specific country, institution, and field you are in.)  However, I’ve never heard of the criteria being as crude as “the sum of the impact factors of the journals you published in is close to 10”.

The answer highly depends on very specific scientific culture. For instance, in high energy physics, I know many peers who have applied successfully to post-doc programs, and their publications record have a great dispersion. I know one guy who completed his PhD at a very respectable university without any publications(only conference proceedings, which in physics in not regarded as a proper publication), and have been hired based on a grant from CERN. Moreover, I know another peer who have completed the PhD based on multiple publications having difficulties finding a post-doc. Hence, the publication record matters indirectly, being a variable specific to the domain and culture. Either way, in a limited resource world, the connections of the supervisor might play a major role. We hope that in the future there would be no problems for PhD students to advance in their research. Good luck!

This answer seems to be focused more on number of publications than the impact factor of the journals these publications appear in, which is what is being asked.


text:
Asked for F grade voluntarily for a program elective. How does it affect my Phd Chances
I am a graduate masters student in the Computer Science Field in the final year of my masters program. Recently, in a particular elective course in which I had been doing quite well, I had a major falling out with the professor due to which 70% of internal marks got cancelled. The professor advised me to withdraw from the course, but in the middle of semester it's no longer possible. Since I have 70% of internal marks cancelled (Meanwhile the fault is all mine  as I didn't properly cited some work while summarization of class notes resulting in plag situation) , the best I could have done was to try for a D grade; but this would have drastically reduced my GPA which I really wanted to avoid. So I instead requested an F grade so that I can take another elective next year (in replacement) by taking an extra load. This also means that the F grade won't be counted towards my GPA.
But this has resulted in me asking the question: "Did I permanently nuke my chances of getting a PhD admission now?" How will it affect my chances of graduate admission in US/UK considering the subject in question is an elective course and not a core program course?

How did it happen that a falling out with the professor affected your grades? It seems to me that there is an underlying problem here that can be solved to remedy the situation in a better way.

Have you considered presenting your situation to the departmental director and/or the academic dean of the university?  Sometimes a petition can be submitted to forego the requirement of a certain class based on special circumstances.  I, myself, succeeded in graduating without one particular course which was supposed to be required but for which the professor and I had a strong philosophical disagreement and I could not have taken his class.  The academic dean accepted my petition to substitute another course in its place.

Yes I am fighting , and have done couple of the things . However this post is just to know whats the worst can happen . Meanwhile the fault is all mine and I don't have many options as I didn't properly cited some work while summarization resulting in plag situation

Sorry I should edit then

@Roland Edited to make it more clear. I recognize should have put it in the question itself

Where in the world?

Sounds like the problem that caused you to get an F would be more problematic than the F itself.  You may want to refocus the question on what your chances would be like given that specific situation, rather than just the F.

How does it happen that an F grade doesn't get counted in your GPA?

@shoover In Indian System a F grade dosent count towards the GPA but it does show up in transcript

@Nat Yes I did talked to the professor and he decided to give the marks based on my 50% of internal and end sem .so thankful for that

Answering for the US, graduate admissions are highly individualized - there's no formula, and decisions are being made by human beings tasked with evaluating a stack of applications that cannot be judged objectively.
All it takes to be admitted to grad school is for at least one admissions committee at a school you apply to to decide you would make a good graduate candidate. All it takes to not be admitted is for all of the admissions committees to feel they have better alternative candidates. How exactly that shakes out depends on some mix of the content of your application, the criteria each committee member considers, and the content of every other application they review.
If a program you apply to conducts interviews, you can expect to get questions about an outlier grade like this one. If you get to that stage, whether or not you are ultimately accepted may hinge on how exactly you answer that question. Some people have good excuses for specific poor grades, such as medical or other life events, in which case honestly explaining the situation is straightforward though balancing personal privacy is another important factor.
Your reason is that you got caught cheating. You may be tempted lie or deflect about it, by not mentioning it or using wording like you originally did with this question: saying you had a falling out with a professor, or that you electively  took a failing grade in order to take a different course. I think you can expect admissions committee members to see through this sort of thing, and even if they don't it doesn't exactly paint you in the best light.
Being more straightforward about what happened may be a better route, but it's important that you're sincerely contrite. Students caught cheating (or really anyone "caught" for anything) have a tendency to deflect and minimize. In your own question, you write both "I didn't properly cite some work" and "the fault is all mine" - this does not resonate as honesty with me. While you write words accepting blame, "not citing properly" is not typically the level of plagiarism that nukes your grade. "Not citing properly" sounds more like citing the wrong source, or when you break up statements during editing such that a citation for multiple items A,B,C seems like it only applies to C, or disagreements over the lines between common knowledge and what must be cited. If it's really that sort of issue, you should be contesting this at your current institution, as these are all reasons to lose marks on an assignment but not reasons to be failed in a course. On the other hand, if you have "not cited properly" by presenting work that is not your own (or partially not your own) as if it is your own, you've simply plagiarized which is cheating.
It's also possible there won't be too much attention on this one course and you will be accepted without it coming up because an admissions committee will see it as an unimportant outlier in an otherwise strong application.

Thank you I didnt asked for the F grade and would try to cover the low gpa . The professor decided to award marks based on writen + 50% of my internal which is still good deal considering how bad it can get

If there is no trace in the transcript of that F grade or in the GPA, it will not hinder your application.

I doubt that the F will disappear from the transcript when the poster takes a different elective.  I question whether it will be included in the GPA calculation or not, but courses you've taken just don't disappear from a transcript.

@ScottSeidman I don't know, the OP question is unclear, for what we know as presented that was my best assesment, in some western countries university you can refuse the grade you received for an exam and try infinite times to get a better one.

@ScottSeidman  That's Correct In Indian University, an F grade doesn't count towards your GPA but it does show up in the transcript .. I meanwhile decided not to ask a F grade


text:
Independent publishing of paper resulting from a project
[To clarify I am in an European university, have never published anything]
As part of my Masters curriculum in Electrical Engineering I had to do a research project during the semester along with the lectures. This is intended as a hands on methodology in investigation and research in general.
The project turned out to be pretty great (got the highest grade possible), and my supervisor (a PostDoc student at my university) and I were very happy with the results.
I did not consider it at the moment (or get it proposed by my supervisor), but with some formatting I think it should be at least good enough to be sent to some journals/publications.
Here are were my questions, considering I am not considering to get for a PhD after my Masters is done:
1) Since the project finished my supervisor ended his PostDoc and left the university. I don't have any contact info from him, and haven't found any from a quick Google search.
Question: should I contact my supervisor to publish along with him?
The ideas and theoretical proposal came from him. He did assist and help me during the project, but I did all the implementation and writing of the projects paper.
2) Not knowing what I am doing after graduation, I think there is little chance I pursue a PhD.
Question: should I be trying to get it published altogether or ditch the idea?
I think that even if I do not continue in academia, it is helpful for later on applying to certain industry jobs. I also would like to share the ideas and findings, since I think the work was well-structured and investigated interesting ideas.
3) As mentioned, I never published before, so I don't know the procedure, the jounals where I should aim, etc.
The field was Systems Biology, which is not technically my area, but the project dealt mostly with modelling, simulation (MATLAB), etc. (I followed a Control / Robotics heavy program)
Question: if 2) applies, where should I try to send my work?
Any help, ideas or similar experiencies would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Why not ask your advisor? He would know better than us whether the project has merit for publication and where to submit to.

Also ask those who graded the project and others in the department.  If your supervisor is not listed as a coauthor, check with people in the department for what sort of flack and fall out to expect from publishing.  (Someone at your department should have some contact info: even if they won't give it to you, you can request sending your contact info to the postdoc with a request for discussion of authorship.)

What are you using EE as an abbreviation of? Please can you edit that into the question?

@titusandronicus Are you sure that you are alowed to publish it?
I was also at a European university for my undergraduate, where one guy in the class for his Bachelor's thesis made some very good publishable quality results, however it is the university policy that work submitted for credit becomes the property of the university.
Maybe that is not the case in your country, but you must check it.

Publishing your paper is a good idea. Writing and publishing a paper is an educational experience. You learn things that may be useful to you outside academia. Specifically, academic scientific writing is  good training in writing precisely. Yes, definitely contact your supervisor.

You wrote "a PostDoc student". A Postdoc is not a student.

You should definitely contact your former supervisor. If you do not have his contact information yourself, then you could try asking colleagues at your institution - such as a professor in the same research group.
While authorship norms do vary by field, the supervisor's contribution (having the original idea, defining the project, helping you in general) is surely enough that he should at least be asked. My impression is that even in those fields where supervisors might not be authors, it would still be very bad to try to publish a paper without talking to the supervisor about it. For all you know, he is planning to publish, and would be justifiably angry if you pre-emptively submitted your own version - and even had it accepted. Even if did not expect to be a co-author, he may still be upset if he does not have the chance to help make the paper the best it could be.1
If the supervisor would like to be a co-author, then he should certainly be able to help with venue selection, and adapting the document from a thesis to a paper. Generally, it's not just a matter of changing the formatting - each kind of document has its own requirements, which aren't exactly the same. For example, in a dissertation you will probably spend more time on general background material than in a paper. The work you have done might not be substantive or original enough for all journals. Receiving advice at an early stage may well make a huge difference in the quality of the submitted paper. (You can still seek advice from others, if the original supervisor can't help.)
As far as whether you should submit a paper at all: I think you are thinking along the correct lines. It may help your career - it certainly shouldn't harm it - and you will be contributing to the general advancement of human knowledge. On the other hand, it will take some amount of work. Again, someone who is more familiar with your research area can take a look at your thesis and give advice about just how much work that might be.
1. Example: A colleague of mine is a mathematician. His student submitted a paper, based on the student's own work. The professor did not expect to be an author, especially since he didn't contribute to the mathematical content. But he was upset that the student hadn't asked him for advice about preparing and submitting the paper. He was also embarrassed that he found out about the paper's existence from a third party.


text:
How to get "Printed" versions of IEEE Transactions (Software Engineering) monthly journals?
I want to subscribe to the monthly Volumes of IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering monthly volumes in Printed form.
I tried to gather information about the subscription cost and visited the official website. As shown in the screenshot below, the subscription price is 129 USD in Germany (+135 USD for unlimited access to IEEE CS digital).
QUESTION: I don't find any information if am I going to get Printed journals or not. If not, where can I choose the option to get them? And, is the price monthly or annual?

After pressing the "Get Started" button on the right side, I get the following screen:

If you click on "get started", you'll likely found out, at least, whether the price is monthly or annual. When I want to find hidden pieces of information about a subscription, I usually follow the process until they ask me the credit card number.

@MassimoOrtolano: Tried that, but it does not say anything about being monthly or annual. I assume it to be annual because (129 + 135 = $264) would be a lot for a monthly DIGITAL subscription. Updated new screenshot.

That might be monthly. Here's the 2023 non-members subscription price list. T-SE is online only with a yearly subscription price of USD2520.

@mkennedy: oh, that's so expensive for me then. But they really have several prices mentioned on different pages. On another page of IEEE, the membership price is $339. So confusing!


text:
Is there a way to tell Academia.edu "My downloading a paper is not an opt-in to be spammed with ongoing related papers"?
I started exploring for sources for a paper I am working on on Academia.edu, downloaded a few papers, and got an annoying stream of (from my perspective) unsolicited related papers in my inbox. I tried to unsubscribe.
I looked at another paper, and found a fresh stream of new papers in my inbox, and unsubscribed with the most forceful option available, and in this or a previous attempt stated I had not opted in to a stream of emails and further emails on the topic would be reported as spam. I was told I had been unsubscribed from all emails.
I looked at another article and the spam continued again.
I can easily enough set up a Gmail filter to block such emails, but as a matter of principle, is there a way to tell Academia.edu "I am downloading this paper because I just want to download this paper. I am not opting in to an open-ended stream of papers connected to the one I read."?

Avoid them like the plague. You'll find every paper they have elsewhere for free.

Sending *@academia.edu to /dev/null is probably your best option. But if you feel like kicking up a fuss, here is the direct email of the CEO. https://www.richardprice.io/contact

Report them as spam to Google. That gives them incentives not to do this.


text:
Does FERPA apply to university teachers when they are working as private tutors?
In addition to teaching at a U.S. university, I also do some private tutoring on the side.  I am always scrupulous about observing my university's conflict of interest policy, which prohibits tutoring a student who is taking a course that I am currently teaching (even if he is in a different section of the same course).  When I'm wearing my "university hat", I know I am bound by FERPA, which prohibits me from (among other things) discussing any student's academic performance with his or her parents, regardless of whether or not they are paying the student's tuition.  (Some parents have a hard time with the idea that they are not allowed to be kept informed of their student's grades.)
It's not clear to me, though, whether the same prohibition applies when I am wearing my "private tutor" hat.  In particular, if a parent is paying for private tutoring for their college-aged child, and that parent wants updates on how those private lessons are going, am I allowed to divulge that information?

https://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html : "The law applies to all schools that receive funds under an applicable program of the U.S. Department of Education."

@NateEldredge I think it's not clear whether the OP would really be considered a "private tutor" and not a university employee under these circumstances.

Note, however, that FERPA only protects education records which are "maintained by the university or a party acting on behalf of the university". Personal observations about things that are not in, or informed by, the student's education record are not protected by FERPA.

Still, I can't imagine that it would be a good idea to share information about your students without their consent, even if it is allowed by law.

@Ben There's no reason not to get the (adult) student's consent. If the student won't consent and parent wants the info anyways, personally I'd turn down the job.

If you weren't an employee of the same university where your student is enrolled, the answer would seem to be a clear "no".  As it is, it is complicated - and your university might also have guidelines which are stricter than the law (whose requirements are vague).  To be safe, I think you have to ask your university authorities.

@BenCrowell After the student is an adult, you as a parent could just stop paying for their tutoring. If you want to keep doing it, as far as I am concerned, this is very different from paying for a minor's education. You are not responsible for them anymore, you are now someone deciding to help them out with money. This does only come with the same perks voluntarily giving money to not-related people comes (gratitude).

When I'm wearing my "university hat", I know I am bound by FERPA,
  which prohibits me from (among other things) discussing any student's
  academic performance with his or her parents, regardless of whether or
  not they are paying the student's tuition.

I believe it is incorrect to think that discussing student's academic performance with parents is completely prohibited, even under the "university" hat. Please see the following from the FERPA language (from https://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/parents.html) itself:

FERPA also permits a school to disclose personally identifiable
  information from education records of an "eligible student" (a student
  age 18 or older or enrolled in a postsecondary institution at any age)
  to his or her parents if the student is a "dependent student" as that
  term is defined in Section 152 of the Internal Revenue Code.
  Generally, if either parent has claimed the student as a dependent on
  the parent's most recent income tax statement, the school may
  non-consensually disclose the student's education records to both
  parents.

This was something that was brought up in several committees at my institution (in the US) recently.

On page 3, "FERPA applies to educational agencies or institutions that receive funds from programs administered by the U.S. Department of Education." Because you are a PRIVATE tutor and do not receive funds from the US Department of Education, you are not subject to FERPA. However, there is a fuzzy line on when you're tutoring as an agent of the University or when you are acting on your own. I would recommend as to not juggling the two, that you stick with FERPA laws and respect the student's privacy. Best would be to get written consent from the student to discuss his/her progress with his/her parents.


text:
What are the important factors I must consider while applying to a CS program for an MS after majoring as a mechanical engineer in my undergrad?
I have a master's in mechanical engineering from a pretty decent college in my country with a GPA of 7.9/10. I'd like to know what constitutes a good application to a Master's program in CS (ML, to be precise) and how I must choose my Universities that are safe and in those I have a chance.

What country is yours, and what countries are you planning on applying in?

Sorry about the late response. I am from India. I am planning to apply to USA, Canada and Germany.

Overall, your MS in ME will be viewed positively when you apply for MS in CS with Machine Learning specialization.  What will matter most are how many computer science courses you have taken (and grades you received) and how many relevant math classes you have taken -- calculus, probability & statistics, linear algebra, numerical methods, optimization.  The project work you have done in simulations could be very relevant and helpful, too, if the software you wrote was something more than procedural programming or deterministic simulation.
In your Statement of Purpose, it would be to your advantage to make a strong link between your ME education and work experience and your goals in CS-ML.  Are there applications or problems that arise in ME that you want to address with ML methods? Are there particular methods of optimization or classification that you've encountered in ME that you want to explore further in other settings?
Regarding what schools to which you might apply: I would suggest that you aim at CS departments that are part of an institution with a strong "engineering" culture or focus.  In the US there are many colleges, universities, and institutes that have an engineering focus, including the Polytechnics, Case Western Reserve, Harvey Mudd, Carnegie-Mellon, and many others.  In contrast, the CS departments at Yale, Harvard, etc. have less orientation toward engineering.

One thing that stands out in your question is your mechanical engineering background. That suggest a leaning toward more "theoretical," and less "applied" areas of computer science.
Computer science programs come in many varieties, and in your shoes, I would give the most weight to the ones "heavily oriented toward theory and simulations." Those are probably the "safest" and "best chances" for you.
Note: I have amended my original response based on comments below.

Mechanical is not necessarily a hardware thing. My projects have all been heavily oriented towards theory and simulations. I'd go as far as saying my "hardware" knowledge is quite limited.

@AkshayRangasai: In that case, I would give the greatest weight to CS programs "heavily oriented toward theory and simulations." Those are probably the "safest" and "best chances" for you.