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Do articles published in newspapers count as publications?
I have some analytical articles published in reputed national newspapers,local magazines relevant to my subjects. Do those count as publications?
I have to fill a form (graduate school) and bit confused about it (bit worried how it would be perceived).
Some of articles were quite long and extensive (based on local surveys) so rather than leaving “publication” section of form blank, I thought may be I can put those to show some publication experience (all as summary – not one by one in detail). After all, many say something is better than nothing.

Would you explain include articles published in newspaper as publication for what purpose? CV? Application for graduate school/faculty job?

They are publications, but they are not peer-reviewed publications.

If those articles are not peer-reviewed, you can still reference them in your CV under General Press or other relevant categories. For example, if if some of the articles are of a tutorial type, then placing them within Tutorials section seems appropriate.

Possible duplicate: http://academia.stackexchange.com/q/44809/19607

Whether newspaper articles count as a publication depends on the context.
In the general academic context, newspaper articles don't count as an academic publication.
Generally, the main works that count as academic publications are:

peer reviewed academic journal articles
academic books and book chapters, and
full-text peer reviewed academic conference articles.

Academic context - newspaper articles are not academic publications: So in general, if you are asked how many publications you have in an academic context, it will generally just be the above that gets counted. In other cases, you might only be being asked about a count of peer reviewed journal articles.
This kind of context often applies to job applications, grant applications, promotions and so on.
Showing how newspaper articles contribute to track-record: That said, in most academic contexts where your track-record is being judged, there is scope to communicate external engagement. Publishing in newspapers is one of many possible examples of external engagement. And in some cases there may be merit in listing the specific instances of external engagement (e.g., particular newspaper articles and so on).
Furthermore, the value assigned to writing newspaper articles varies substantially between fields, universities, and departments. For example, I briefly worked in a business school and they placed a lot of value on academics engaging with the media, and particularly the popular business press. I imagine this was related to the branding benefits associated with their academics being read by the business people who complete their courses. In contrast, in more pure-science disciplines, engagement with the media was really an optional extra.

The terms are very specific, and important.  An 'Academic Publication' may be different than a 'Publication', but it also depends on the field.
If the source is looking for 'peer reviewed academic publications', it would be referring to what @JeromyAnglim has pointed out.
The one exception field specific would be in the humanities or arts, in which a 'Publication' may refer to an article that others have written about your work, such as working on a Fashion Dress, which is 'published' in Vogue.  If your field is similar to this, it may be appropriate to include, but you should ask someone with knowledge in both your field and the application.


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Can too many submitted manuscript hamper your candidacy for getting a position?
I've been working in a lab for more than 3 years and during this time I have worked on several projects. I have collaboration works too. Most of my projects have been submitted recently. For example, I have finished a project a year ago but it got so many corrections from the supervisor that it took a year to be submitted. Side by side I finished another project. Now, while upgrading my CV, I see so many 'submitted' projects.
Will it make a negative impact on the Ph.D. admission committee thinking that my work might be substandard?
Or is it ok to include all the projects that I have worked on and still working? (almost 6/7)
P.S. All my published works have been published in good journals till now.

Of course submitted papers are not counted the same a published papers.  But as long as you have enough published papers, do not worry about having too may submitted papers.

About how many manuscripts are we talking? I can imagine that an excessive listing of submitted papers could appear a little off.

I have been on tons of search committees for faculty members, and I would never look at this in a negative light.
A submitted manuscript doesn't mean it is substandard work. Conversely, I believe, it means you are an active researcher and have the ability to build a substantial research agenda.
I wouldn't worry about this in the least.

It's pretty hard to imagine that it would be a problem. More is generally better. And the time to publication for a submission can be long. It seems better that you keep working and submitting rather than waiting for one to complete the process.
It shows you are active. Always a good thing.

I have heard people getting rejected because they were too good. Mentality here is, even if we make an offer to this person, he/she will most likely have a better option and decline us. Instead, lets make a faster offer to "lesser" candidates and not risk losing them on time.

Hmmm. You have heard from very stupid people, I think. "Mentality" is questionable. "Lack of" maybe better. There is little cost of making an offer except time, and you can control that pretty well.

I previously recieved a good offer but I was asked to reply in a short time (around a week). Meanwhile, I was waitlisted for another program. The first offer extended only an additional 3 days which was not sufficent. I have contacted both parties but find a working compromise. In short, I was strongarmed into making a decision without knowing all the options which I did not appreciate. I don't think anyone would like to be treated that way.

@BoatyMcboatface, True enough. But not making you an offer at all would probably have been worse.

I am not too good nor never will be :). I am just saying the time element is not very easy to control. Allegedly my department gets a lot of very good post-doc applications. Then they almost always refuse the offer. Hence, I believe the department has a policy of making some offers to candidates more likely to come. I have heard a similar mindset was in use in an "almost top tier" school for phd applications.

"Submitted manuscripts" count less, but are still viewed favorably.
Uploading these to a preprint server and stating the preprint number is a plus.
The only thing that could look strange are too many "manuscripts in preparation": a committee might wonder if you finish in time what you started.

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How to overcome the difficulties of starting of a PhD?
I have started my PhD this fall in the USA. Before starting the PhD, I worked as an RA and published a good amount of papers. Now my current lab is totally different from my previous lab. As I have so much coursework too, I am not getting enough time to concentrate fully in my lab work. I know I should read papers but I don't get time for that due to coursework and teaching responsibilities. So in my lab meetings, when my professor talks about my future project, I do not understand most of the things. I feel like I do not belong here and I feel helpless.
I am finding it difficult to deal with. How to overcome this?

What field -- hard sciences? I am surprised you have to TA, RA, and take classes all at once; usually you do only 1 or 2 of those at a time (and for exactly this reason!).

You're only a couple of months in -- give it time! It took me at least two years to feel like I knew what I was doing in my PhD. Even now, after ~18 months of postdoc, I'm still learning.

@astronat Being in the same field for over 10 years, there is still a lot to learn, and I reckon there are people who were doing it for upwards of 50 years and still feel the same...

@cag51-I was an RA, not now. Now I am a TA for two sections, have course work and need to be in the lab too.

I don't understand, why do you "need to be in the lab" if you are not an RA?

Don't actually answer HERE any of the questions I ask. These are deeply personal things that you should use to work on your situation.
Round up the usual suspects that can cause the kind of symptoms you are feeling.

Do you have any health issues? (Maybe your uni has a doctor you can visit for free, or at least cheap?)
Are you eating right?
Are you sleeping right?
Are you getting a little exercise?
Do you have some friends you see now and then?
Do you have "bad" habits that are interfering? (Alcohol, drugs, video games to excess, coffee to excess, fill in your personal item.)

Once you have those understood (not necessarily solved), move on to academic issues.
Have you got a faculty advisor? They should be giving you some advice. You should have some sort of scheme of when you talk to them. This far you should have talked to them at least a "few" times. Maybe some guidance as to what courses to take, for example.
A way you might get them talking is to go ask them what they are doing for research right now. It's a rare prof who can resist that question. Hopefully the reason you are with that prof is because you are interested in their topic. So this should be an interesting chat. And you can sort of drop in things like "oh, I'm really having to work hard on class so-and-so." And he will tell you "Oh, everybody has that experience. Prof S-A-S is an ogre who thinks it's his job to crush students."
Objectively, how are you doing on the classes? Are you getting through the homework? Have you had mid-term exams and how did you do?
Do you have co-students in your class that you can ask questions? Do study sessions? Is there a "common room" or some such thing where students in your subject hang around. Maybe other students under the same prof. If there is a class that is objectively a lot harder than it ought to be, maybe seeing the other students struggling will help a bit.
When I was in my PhD, we got a visiting lecturer, straight out of his first post-doc, and with something to prove. He gave a class in my subject, and nearly every student in that part of the department took his class. This one class wound up producing an average of 50 hours per week work for all of these students. He single-handedly shut down the research by students in the department for a full term. His take-home exam allowed us 5 full days to do, and many people required the entire time.
If I had not seen the other students suffering the same as me, I would have been panicked about how hard that class was.
And finally, take it on board that a PhD is not meant to be easy. At least, the usual person is going to find they have some stress during. It would be unusual if you felt this was easy going with no challenges. The thing is try to cope, and to make sure the stress does not crush you.
Don't stress over feeling stress. Find moments and ways to de-stress. Different things work for different people. I have tried to put in some of those things already. Go to the pub with the other students. Or go to a movie. Or walk in a place with trees and grass. Or use the university athletic center and get some exercise. Or go to a lecture on some fun subject by a visiting lecturer, something you can just relax and enjoy. Find something that works for you.
And, energized, dive back in and work as hard as you can during your regular work hours.

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What are some criteria to get an Australian PhD scholarship?
I want to apply for a PhD in Australia and I wrote a professor (who has an open position) with my CV. He was very positive in his mail and encouraged me to apply for that position. Now I want to know who is the decision-maker in taking a student and offering funds? I mean is it like the professor asks people to apply but the ultimate decision-maker is the university itself? Or the professor can take anyone if he wants to. What is most likely to be in Australia?
Also, is it true the scholarship committee focuses solely on GPA, rather than research work? I mean is it possible if the GPA is not high but research experience and works are excellent?

There are two possible scenarios: (i) the professor has scholarships from a funding source, which could be from the industry or the Australian Research Council (ARC), or (ii) the scholarships are provided by the university.  For (i), it is up to the professor to decide.  For (ii), multiple committees are involved in the decision process.  What the committee focuses on varies.  If you have an excellent research record, but a relatively poor GPA, you may still get a scholarship.  However, there are usually candidates with a high GPA and good research record.

@Prof.SantaClaus That's an answer that belongs in the answer box.

Why not ask the professor? "Could you confirm the source of this scholarship, and what the selection process will be?" is an entirely reasonable question. Whenever you apply for something, you ought to know who you're trying to convince and what they're looking for. There is no way random strangers on the internet can answer this for you - only the professor can give you a definitive answer.

For Australia, both the supervisor and the university might reject a PhD student.  Universities may often reject PhD students for inadequate language ability even if the supervisor wants the student.  These decisions are based on a threshold, not based on who else applies.
Some supervisors have funding they can use to pay PhD students at their discretion, but most PhD students are funded through a university program.  The fact that a position has been advertised does not mean the supervisor necessarily has funding for that position.  For funding by a university, research experience is essential.  Marks (not called GPA in Australia) are also considered.  There is a fixed amount of funding available, so decisions depend on who else applies.


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Associate editor's dilemma with inconsistent first/second round review
Say I work as an AE for an international journal. I managed to find only two reviewers for a manuscript submitted to the journal lately. Personally, I don't find enough contribution of the manuscript, but it is not fair to not base my final decision on the reviewers' comments.
For the first round review, both reviewers recommended a minor revision of the manuscript. Reviewer A appears to be more impartial than Reviewer B (who is positively biased). The same decision is delivered to the authors. However, during the second round, Reviewer A suddenly changed his mind to a major revision, which according to himself/herself is due to the failure of the authors to address his/her comments.
For this particular journal, there is usually only two rounds of review, and I don't think a third round will help improve the manuscript anymore. I am inclined to agree with Reviewer A and thereby reject the manuscript. However, it seems unfair to the authors and is hard to justify Reviewer A's change of mind in the second round.
Now I am inclined to reject the manuscript, but it has to be based on solid grounds. Solid grounds can be found (if I write the review myself, I can certainly make one), but the reviewers did not give me one: if the recommendation is minor revision for the first time, how can it be major revision for the second time? Therefore, it seems to me both the authors and the reviewers did a poor job.
So, how should I make the decision here? If I choose to reject, how do I appear fair to the authors?

You can certainly reject the paper on the ground that a reviewer is dissatisfied with the second version, especially if you provide a few of your own arguments. Be fair to your readership, not only to the authors.

@CapeCode Thank you for your answer. But what shall I do with the inconsistency of one reviewer's recommendation? It has to be properly addressed.

The reviewers make recommendations to you, not judgements.  As the associate editor, you have to decide how to interpret those recommendations, taking your own judgement into account.
I think that it is actually reasonable for a reviewer to become peeved if issues that they think are important were not addressed, and therefore judge a paper more harshly.  Usually that goes Major->Reject, rather than Minor->Major, but if it was borderline for the reviewer before, it's not bizarre. The real question is: do you agree that those issues are important?
If you disagree with the reviewer, you can recommend minor revision or acceptance.
If you agree with the reviewer, however, that this paper has some real issues that need to be addressed before it get published, then it's entirely reasonable to request another revision, even a major revision.  In your editorial statement, you then say something like:

In particular, Reviewer #1 points out that the following issues in the original manuscript have not been addressed in the revision, and these must be addressed for this paper to proceed toward publication: [key issues]

Now the authors have a clear editorial directive for what exactly must be done in their revision.  If they follow this directive, all well and good and they get published; if they refuse to follow it, then you have reasonable grounds for rejection.

First, you should not reject a paper/journal because you don't like its "research taste", you should look at the facts the paper/journal provides. Second, as an individual researcher any other review's decision; should not effect your decision anyhow. So, if you really do not find the contribution satisfactory based on the journal's factors then reject it; but, if you find it do be in the gray area, give it a major correction and see how the authors will respond to your demands.

Thank you for your answer. I didn't make myself clear:  'research taste' is inappropriate here; I should say I didn't find enough contribution. But "as an individual researcher any other review's decision; should not effect your decision anyhow" does not apply to my case. It is my understanding that AE's decision has to be based on reviewers' comments for most journals.

Nothing in the question warrants the assumption in your first sentence.

@CapeCode because after my answer the question got updated.

@CapeCode That is true. I can testify...

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Elsevier production team messed up my paper. What should I do?
I have a paper accepted by a journal of Elsevier, and it went under production for 3 months. Yet the production team has not been able to fix certain problems with typesetting which appeared during the proofreading. After the first month, I received the proofreading notification. The first production of my paper was really bad: a lot of errors in equations, symbols, figures and tables. So I prepared and submitted a lengthy list of request for correction, with as much information as possible.
A few days later, I received a strange email from the journal manager (who is said to be affiliated with Elsevier Global Journals Production), telling me that the production team has to ignore my request as it may cause them too much trouble. I gave a full explanation to this manager about how bad it is with the production and the request has to be processed. In the end, the manager agreed to make the corrections.
Two or three weeks later, my paper went directly online (early access), with all the typesetting problems unfixed, and even had some extra new problems. I was very worried because my paper DOI already took effect. I never heard of a paper which is already put online (for public download) can be fixed again. The journal manager apologized to me, saying that the production team was busy with other papers, but they will fix the problems and get back to me with another proofreading. Two months have passed, and I have yet to receive my second proofreading.
I fear the production team is just trying to avoid the proofreading by intentionally postponing, in an attempt to reach a point where it becomes officially impossible to make changes. As a matter of fact, my paper's official issue date is coming near, and the production team is probably already planning to have an early Christmas.
Question
What shall I do to change the result?

NOTE 1: And NO, it is not about aesthetics.
NOTE 2: I am not trying to be a PITA. Considering that I contributed a lot to Elsevier by being a frequent and responsible reviewer and yet received a very poor production of my paper, I am simply very disappointed.
The following is a demonstration of the kind of work I receive on my own paper. An altered equation is manufactured to accurately reflect a true situation.
Original equation:

Production:

Concluding remarks
I would like to thank all the people who have offered me valuable suggestion. As a matter of fact, after I posted this question here yesterday, I received a notification email, that I have been waiting for, for proofreading today. There are still many unsolved problems, but at least it is a good start. I would like to think my post somehow helped change the situation for the better.
My OP and comments might have caused some confusion and probably even dissatisfication as my posts usually do. It is probably because: I did not spend hours writing down every bit of details about the whole situation; I am not a native user of English language. But maybe most of all, because I was a little bit angry and that could be contageous. Therefore, my apologies. On the other hand, there is really no need for some of the repliers to call me a ranter. It is a hurtful language. I get that you are experts on this and many more forums and can't wait to show people your expertise. However,You really did not help and you have wasted your time. Please do yourself a favor and leave me alone.
About my attitude toward Elsevier, I'm not saying Elsevier this and that. It is probably one of the oldest publishers around, and probably the biggest contributer to dissemination of knowledge (its pricing policy being another matter). I am saying what it is: they messed up my paper and the first thing their production team did is to persuade me to give up trying to make corrections. I have worked with almost all the major publishers, and never have I encountered such a situation. To Elsevier from a contributor, you should hire more people for your production team, and I don't know, pay them more?

Lessons learned:

Don't expect the Elsevier production team to look into your TeX file, such as noticing the specified width/height of figures. You need to deliver a foolproof source package to them. In particular, Set BB size to actual figure size in the paper (ghostscript could do the job).
Elsevier production team doesn't like table cell shadings, not even non-cosmetic shadings (It should probably be put down in the instruction).
Elsevier team is not very good with math fonts. One should probably write an instruction of the symbols used in his/her paper.

Update
The manager got back to me again, much quicker this time, with an update. And they did the cell shading for me this time. Just so you know they didn't consider cell shading as "definitely violating" any standards. Not that I encourage people to use cell shading.
Update in 2018
I had the chance to work with the same journal again this year. I have to say the situation with the production team has improved dramatically! They respond much more quickly and the proofreading is much more professional (the software they use seem to have improved too). Many thanks to them (although I could not and probably should not name the journal) and Elsevier for the fine service they provide now.
This result is made possible, probably also because of the extensive measures I took to pre-process all figures, which I'd like to share here:
As most people know, transparency is usually flattened before the final production. However, hand in transparent figures directly to publishers will usually cause unforeseen results, due to the software incompatibility. My suggestion would be to manually reduce your figures to only two layers, one with all vector graphics, the other below it containing a rasterized version of all transparent objects (along with other raster contents). It is also suggested to simplify the vector graphics for smaller file size and faster onscreen generation. It might help to emphasize this to the production team too.
It occurs to me that figure sizing as in \includegraphics[width=...,height=]{figure} are sometimes unfortunately ignored in production. Therefore, it is suggested that one compiles all his or her figures separately, using \documentclass[multi=< environment name for starting a new page >,preview]{standalone} so that the figures are properly resized before being inserted back into the paper using \includegraphics{figure}, i.e., without size specification.
Hope that helps.

Is there any analogue of arXiv for your subject? It wouldn't be the first time that a corrected version of a published paper is posted on the arXiv...

The production team doesn't care whether you indulge them or not (they are probably subcontractors working out of India, for a compensation that is ridiculous and completely unconnected to your feedback). What you gain is that readers can read your paper in the form you intended it to be read, and the uselessness of Elsevier is once again revealed for all to see. I don't know if Elsevier will eventually learn, but at least the scientific community will have a marginally easier job sending them packing if they don't.

This will unfortunately not solve your immediate problem, but if you are dissatisfied with how Elsevier has treated your work (which you presumably gave them for free) I encourage you to join the ongoing boycott: http://thecostofknowledge.com

The author works for free, the production team is a bunch of underpaid subcontractors, … But where do the journal subscription fees go?

To the shareholders of course.

Are these purely typesetting problems, like not making variables italic, mixing serif and sans-serif, etc.?  Or is it something that changes the meaning of what you wrote, like leaving off minus signs, not putting the exponent in a superscript, missing variables, etc.?

I never heard of a paper which is already put online (for public download) can be fixed again. Elsevier has started putting online unedited versions of accepted papers as "very early access": see e.g. http://www.clinph-journal.com/inpress, or in https://www.elsevier.com/journals/the-journal-of-allergy-and-clinical-immunology/0091-6749/guide-for-authors: This journal makes articles available online as soon as possible after acceptance.[...] The article's PDF also carries a disclaimer stating that it is an unedited article. Subsequent production stages will simply replace this version.

(cont'd) This is a good thing in my view, because if you are an early researcher applying for a position you need publications, and so you want your fresh articles marked as "accepted" and published online as soon as possible.

@TroyWoo It still isn't very clear to me if you are talking only about formatting problems, or if they actually corrupted the meaning of the article.  See comments on my answer.

The funniest typesetting error I have ever seen was on a friend's paper: Italicized p (as in p < 0.05) had replaced with musical notes (as in "The differences were significant at ♪ < 0.05"). I'm reasonably certain that the typesetters barely read the text and are certainly not subject-matter experts. Also, it may help if you explain why they need to fix things as in  "Please preserve shading in Table N, because it indicates the difference between different types of objects"

Essentially what the answers already say. Email the editor in chief and tell them how unhappy you are with the production values of your paper. I can't imagine anyone disagreeing if it's as bad as the example you just added.
For things like table cell shading, it might help to explain why it matters. Overall, just stay calm and polite but annoyingly insistent when you need to be. You might think about reasonable alternatives where possible (e.g., an asterisk or dagger in the cell, instead of shading), but I wouldn't budge on reformatting your equation.

I very much empathisize with your situation, but I have to disagree with the "lesson learned." It is not your job to hold their hand and see to it that they do their job correctly. You are a scientific professional, your time is valuable, and it should be treated as such. There are publishers that do their job with extraordinary politeness and competence. Please consider submitting there instead next time.

Lots of comments. But just to add that it has happened to me that the advance online version to be the non-corrected one. This is usually fixed when the typesetting is done and the final version is up.

Ah no, you have to notify them of course :) I was referring to your part that the online version was "erroneous". I believe this is normal sometimes, while they are still in production of our article.

Incidentally, I had several issues with production of Springer paper, but I was quite happy with the way Elsevier processed my paper.  This is just to say I don't think one should necessarily think Elsevier is worse than other publishers from this one experience (admittedly, I am less inclined to submit papers to Springer now).

Are you not allowed to submit figures as images? That is, have the figures in jpeg or similar format that is not editable?

If you want to make sure this practice stops, make it clear to the editor that based on this incident you will stop submitting and reviewing for them. You are paying them (with your paper's copyright, which they can and do monetize) to do this job, but they do not have any incentives to change (and plenty of incentives to keep it cheap) unless you provide any.

@AE Is it ok if it is a lesson with 3 sub-lessons?

Which journal is this? There is no one to protect since it's not the editor(s)' fault, but the publisher for employing incompetent typesetters.

@DavidRoberts Now that the issue is fully resolved, I am very happy and I don't think it is necessary to lose anyone's job. But, yes, at some point, I did write an email to the manager telling him to fire his team and hire me instead. that was obviously a half joke/half complaint. But I never sent the email.

@Troy I don't think anyone would lose their job, but other authors might like to know if there is a possibilty of copyediting disaster.

@DavidRoberts I assure you it is an engineering journal and has nothing to do with pure math.

You could try contacting the editor in chief of the journal to see if they could get the problem fixed. This worked for me when I had similar problems with a paper last year.

+1. When reading the OP, I (for some reason) assumed that the EiC had already been contacted. If he hasn't, that's a really good step.

Indeed, you should contact the editor of the journal. It's their reputation at stake as well.

I agree with this suggestion, especially because the production folks (or at least their leader) probably have to deal with this editor on a continuing basis, whereas they might never see you again.

Thank you for your reply. As you have guessed, I haven't contacted the EiC yet, because I was following a logic that this has nothing to do with EiC. But I have changed my mind.

I had a similar experience (with Springer though), except I could notice the problems only by looking at the published paper. Contacting the EiC was helpful, my paper was entirely republished with the errors corrected (it is considered an erratum though, which seems to put the blame on me and bothers me a bit, but at this point it was probably unavoidable).

Based on your comments, the typesetting problems are not just about ugly formatting, but they actually change the meaning of the article (and significantly increase the chance that people will misread it).
This is not explained clearly in your question.
Did you explain it clearly to the journal manager?
He might think that you are a perfectionist who is being a PITA because you want everything to look perfect.  If he does think so, he would still be wrong, but the main issue here is how to convince him to correct the problems immediately.
Do not say: "The typesetting is all wrong!", like you did here. Typesetting is not the first priority.
Instead communicate clearly that "The errors introduced during the proofreading change the meaning of the article.  The changed statements in the proof are plainly incorrect, and do not match my manuscript."
If you don't get anywhere with the journal manager, then talk to the editor. Emphasize that this is not just about formatting, but the meaning of the paper has been corrupted.
Unfortunately, I have witnessed such problems myself: whoever typeset the formulas had about zero understanding of basic mathematics and mathematical typesetting. Not only did they break all math typesetting conventions, making the formulas hard to read, but they actually changed the meaning of the formulas.

Actually in the comments, it seems like OP is simply unhappy about the cosmetics of the final paper.

@CapeCode His response to my question wasn't very clear, but he did say:  "They ... have different glyphs ... they don't know how to make a table with cell shadings (not for cosmetic purpose, but for highlighting some entries).".  Most of the comment sounds like a rant, and doesn't answer directly to my question, so you may be right: It is possible I misinterpreted his answer. If he was communicating with the journal in the same way as he is here, it is entirely possible that the journal manager didn't understand why fixing the problems is essential ...

I agree, it is not clear if it is mostly about cosmetics. Also, one can argue that if simple formatting differences or some shading significantly influence the meaning, maybe the presentation of the paper was not the best. Off course, if equations were altered etc it is a problem, but if "a" written with 3 different sans-serif fonts represents 3 entirely different variables in manuscript, maybe there is a lesson to learn for the writer of the manuscript, too.

@Greg I have seen formula typesetting messups that you just wouldn't believe. $\bar x$, $\mathbf{x}$ and $x$ are all clearly different to someone who uses math.  It's not at all unusual to use these variations even in the same formula.  Yet I have seen the typesetter randomly leave off angle brackets, overbars, and pay no attention to italic vs roman bold (which is commonly used to distinguish e.g. vectors from scalars in some fields).

@Szabolcs I do not argue it doesn't happen or the OP was careless. It is a little hard to judge what exactly happened, anyway. I just pointed out that writers themselves can do a lot to make their argument "robust" and still readable even if some obscure shading is not exactly done well.

Given that publishers justify a good deal of their price by the cost of typesetting the papers, I would expect from them that at least their typesetting does not make the paper look worse than what the author submit, and this is not being a PITA (what ever that means).

@Benoît Whether that downvote comes from you or not: I don't think you understood my point. I was not commenting on whether either the OP or the journal manager were right or wrong in their attitude. I was trying to help the OP convince the journal manager more effectively. Do you disagree with the approach I suggested?

@Szabolcs: ok, you have a good point. I guess I am in fact upset with the fact that we need to adopt your approach (on which you are probably right), not with your answer.

@CapeCode Did you even see the equations OP posted? It's not about cosmetics! The produced equation is totally unacceptable for anyone!

Independently from whether you can get Elsevier to fix the problems that they introduced, my recommendation would be to take your own version of the paper (the one that you produced yourself, without the additional errors) and deposit that version to an open repository, e.g., arXiv. (Depending on the journal, it is probably possible to do this while respecting the copyright transfer agreement that you may have signed.) If you use arXiv, it's probably a good idea to fill in the DOI field (to keep the link with the Elsevier version), and indicate in the comments field, e.g., that the deposited version is free of publisher-introduced errors.
That way, if Elsevier doesn't fix the problems in their version, at least you can direct your readers to the arXiv version. And even if Elsevier fixes them, you get the added benefit that readers who are not subscribed to Elsevier journals can read and cite your work. :)

@TroyWoo: https://www.elsevier.com/about/company-information/policies/sharing says that the "Accepted manuscript" (i.e., your version of the article, integrating feedback from peer-review, but without publisher-added changes such as the errors you point out) can be shared immediately (no embargo) on arXiv (and in different ways also), under some realistic requirements (in particular, CC-BY-NC-ND license).

@TroyWoo That is a good idea of course, but why not also do it now, for the paper you were mentioning in your question ? :-)

From your comments:

It is a big understatement when I say typesetting problems. They don't understand alphabets have different glyphs, and that figure size in the paper is not the same as the BB sizes (I was using LaTeX), and they don't know how to make a table with cell shadings (not for cosmetic purpose, but for highlighting some entries). They don't know how to typeset a multi-line equation correctly.

Elsevier provides some really good support for LaTeX users. The elsarticle class is pretty nice and they have some good documentation. While they allow any package in TeXLive and custom user macros, their instructions say:

Use the standard layout or keep layout changes to a minimum. (Custom layout will be removed.)

Keep it simple. (Advanced constructions with for example TikZ or pstricks will be rendered as images.)

Looking at what seem to be your issues

They don't understand alphabets have different glyphs

Fonts in LaTeX are a pain. Not every "font" supplies every glyph in every typeface. If you are using a font like Computer Modern or Latin Modern, you should hopefully be okay. As you do more advanced things (and changing the font is "more advanced") you violate the keep it simple instruction. Ideally, only use fonts/glyphs that you have either seen in other articles in that journal or are explicitly mentioned in the author instructions. If the journal has done it before, tell/show the editor the example. If it is something you have not seen before tell the editor something along the lines of it appears that in your system these two glyphs [tell them the glyphs] do not look that different, what can we do to make it easier for the reader.

figure size in the paper is not the same as the BB sizes

The instructions are clear about how wide the columns are in the journal layout. Bounding boxes are a real pain and not every program outputs images with reasonable bounding boxes. Ideally your bounding box should be tight to the figure content and exactly the same size as the column width. If your bounding box is not the same size as the column width and/or tight to the figure content, the editor/typesetter needs to make a choice. Again politely explaining why the image needs to be exactly the desired size (although it is not clear to me why this would be true), would be helpful.

they don't know how to make a table with cell shadings (not for cosmetic purpose, but for highlighting some entries).

Shaded cells in tables definitely violates the keep it simple instruction. Most style guides I have seen use footnotes in cells to highlight them. This obviously changes the content of the article. You should make sure that elements of your table match things that you have seen in other articles in the journal.

They don't know how to typeset a multi-line equation correctly.

They have some rules, but breaking equations is difficult. Since you know the column width, you can/should put the line breaks in manually.

One would expect from a well-established publisher charging a lot the typeset articles that the typesetting is handled professionally, which includes not leaving the burden of complying with the journal style on the author, and asking him in the galley proof about any choice they had to make whether this choice is ok with the intended meaning. I don't get that one would find it reasonable that the author should spend hours to ensure nothing wrong happens to her paper: what is the subscription money for then?

The typical typesetting process, at least in my experience with Elsevier journals, is that the whole article will be re-typed from scratch. Large publishers usually use commercial typesetting software (i.e. not LateX) that are more appropriate for large scale publishing and match all the other steps in the production process.
You might have strong opinions about the cosmetics of your paper, but by submitting your work to a journal you need to accept that they have their own design and typesetting standards.
If errors effectively affect the meaning, then contacting the editor is the best course of action. The production team does not have the scientific background to understand what you wrote.

+1 for pointing out that typesetting is actually created by the journal, not just copied verbatim, and they also have to oblige local (journal) standards which may be different from OPs taste.

"Large publishers usually use commercial typesetting software (i.e. not LateX)" - interestingly, comments on this answer suggest Elsevier actually does use LaTeX internally at least for some of its publications.

Note that you can take Latex, change one single line in its source code, and declare the result to be closed-source "commercial typesetting software". The only legal requirement is that you don't label it as Latex.

"The typical typesetting process, at least in my experience with Elsevier journals, is that the whole article will be re-typed from scratch." That's a major part of the problem. In case of mathematics articles, it is a colossal waste of money that does nothing to improve the final result.

Also, typefaces matter a lot in mathematics. You can have the same letter appear in the same paper in 6 different typefaces, each having a distinct meaning that is not replaceable by the others. If the typesetters fail to recognize this, they are not doing their job. (I'm less keen on storing semantical information in shading in tables; bad printers may make it completely illegible.)

@FedericoPoloni so? Nobody would buy that.

@CapeCode I meant to suggest that Elsevier's "commercial typesetting system" might as well be a slightly customized version of Latex, for what we know.

"by submitting your work to a journal you need to accept that they have their own design and typesetting standards" But one would expect these standards to be at least somewhat professional, not to degrade the paper.

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


text:
Choice of Referee for Academic Job Application
I am preparing the application for an AP position at a local university. The documents I am required to submit include recommendation letters from three referees, who the university's website states should preferably be my ex-supervisor and/or employer. But altogether I have only two ex-supervisors in the past.
My question is, who could serve as an a alternative referee for me (other than ex-supervisor and employer)?
My understanding of the preference is someone who has worked with you for a relatively long period of time and therefore is in a position to speak on behalf of you. I had thought of my collaborators, but most of them work with me on a short-term. I have only one long-term collaborator, but he is from math dept. (I am an engineer).

I don't think it's a problem that your collaborator is from math department. Ask them.

What country/area is this? and is it a reasearch-focused or teaching-focused position? Usually the main criterion is that the letter writer is familiar with your work and is an established academic; it's not important why exactly they know you.

@Thomas Thank you. It is research focused but usually both research and teaching are required I suppose.

@OlegLobachev THank you. I think its a good idea to ask them too.

What is "AP"? It matters considerably in the U.S. whether it might be "associate professor" versus "assistant professor", or ... something else. Please clarify?

In order of preference:

Your other thesis committee members.
Administrators who supervised you, e.g. supervisor of TAs.
Professors with whom you taught as a TA.
Collaborators / coauthors.

For my job applications I had my advisor, a committee member, and a professor from another department with whom I had worked. One to speak about my research, one to speak about my writing, one to speak about me as a colleague.

This is very field specific: in (theoretical) physics a collaborator would hold much more weight than a thesis committeee member (who did not much more than read your thesis)

The OP mentions he is applying to a "local university", which presumably is not an R1. Institutions which do not rely mostly on grants look for well-rounded professors, ie someone who knows their stuff, can teach, and is a good colleague. In this context a letter from a collaborator is more likely to be seen as a letter from a friend. Of course, if your collaborator has name recognition outside of your narrow field, by all means go for it, but otherwise 3 letters talking about research is a hat on a hat.

The long term collaborator from math dept would be perfect.

It is a long term collaborator, so they should have found something positive in you;
It is from another department, so it shows that you are able to speak the different dialects of science (and you are an engineer that stereotipically behaves like an engineer, this is an enormous plus).

And the final important point:

it will distinguish you from all the other engineers applying for the same positions and providing boring, uninspiring 100% engineering references.


text:
ASME conference refuses to refund me after my travel faces visa problem. What shall I do?
I planed to present a paper at some ASME conference. After the paper got accepted, I completed the registration and book the airticket and everything. Then, comes the problem of US visa application. As I come from a developing country, the US embassy did not issue me a visa on the spot, but put me through administrative processing. I have waited almost a month and nothing came back. I fear that I might not be able to get the visa before the conference begins. So I started considering cancelling the registration. However, to my surprise, the conference says that refund is not possible within a month before the conference starts.
So I contacted the conference program chair, which is a very rude lady and she blamed me for everything. She said they have strict rules in order to maintain a high standard of their organization. This is, to me, a ill logic. ASME could maintain a high standard only because they have high standard journals, which in turn is because there are contributors like me who would work as reviewers for free. Yet, in the end, they overcharge the publication fee, the registration fee, and refuse to refund me even when it is not my fault.
I think their cancellation policy is very discriminating, because it does not take into consideration the difficulties some of the conference participants from developing countries face. It is a policy that discourages people from developing countries to attend their conference. If I realize how unreasonable and rude these people are, I would have never considered attending the conference in the first place.
Now that I have learned my lesson, is there anything I can do to have my money back? Is there somewhere to complain?

Update: the issue is finally solved. ASME finally agreed to reimburse me the registration fee. This at least shows that they can be reasoned with, but not without some persistence.
One last comment about the status of the post. I definitely think that my experience could help other researchers from 3rd world country to cope with similar situations. So it is definitely not off-topic.

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it has nothing to do with academia.

@FábioDias Visa troubles are something that every graduate student and academic needs to learn how to deal with. It's a practical consideration no less relevant for researchers and grad students than teaching and writing papers. Students from China, India, Africa, etc. have extra hazards for doing their grant-obligated networking and dissemination that their western colleagues take for granted.

@David but it has nothing to do with academia. A salesman for Boeing probably has the same issues, but it has nothing to do with aviation.... and I'm Brazilian, which gets me free pass for Europe, but not US, so I'm fairly familiar with this situation....

You won't get your money back and complaining isn't going to ingratiate yourself to the conference organizers or to your colleagues. Less than a month from the conference it's likely that your money has already been spent, which is why they can't refund it.
The conference vendors need deposits to cover their own expenditures. It's paying for the meeting rooms at the conference venue, it's been spent on food that has already been ordered, and it's paying for personnel contracts that have already been signed far in advance. Any money that isn't paid as a deposit is likely contractually obligated at the end of the conference.
Sorry about your visa troubles- this is not an unusual problem for academics in certain countries, particularly since a lot of conferences take place in the US or the European Schengen area.


text:
How to write the information related to referees in an application form?
What's the best way to give information about the person who's going to give recommendation letter, in an application form?

John Clark, Ph.D. in Physics and Mathematics
Associate Professor
Teacher of 'Web Programming' course during the 6th semester
Email address: email.address@example.com
Telephone Number: +00 1234 5678

Is there any need for the 3rd line, at all? Do I need to add information related to the department the person is working in?

What does the form say to provide?

"State the name, position/title/profession, organisation, contact information, and relation to the applicant of two people who can provide recommendations."

Looks to me like you've left out the "organization" and the mailing address. I'd change line 2 to something like: "Associate Professor, Department of Physics, The University of Exampleville". Then you should add several lines below the telephone number that gives the work mailing address of your recommender. If they can't provide that to you directly, you can almost certainly provide the departmental mailing address which should be on their website.

Thank you. Do you think having "Teacher of 'Web Programming' course during the 6th semester" is correct? And is it the best way to word it like that? What if the teacher has been involved in more than one courses? In that case, is writing something like: "Teacher on several courses including: [...]" acceptable?

"[R]elation to the applicant" seems to encompass the listing of courses that the recommender has taught to the applicant. Your wording is fine. You're not going to be judged in or out by the very precise word choice on how your recommender knows you as long as it's clear what the relationship is.

authors: xCovelus - Слава Україні


text:
How should I fill the "First name" and "Last name" in an application if I have two given names and two last names?
How should I fill this information if I have more than one given name and more than one last name?
For example, if my name is Juan Eduardo González Rodríguez. I have 2 given names: "Juan" and "Eduardo", and I have 2 last names (The first one of my father and the second one of my mother because that how it is done in Mexico): "González" and "Rodríguez".
Should I only write:

First name: Juan
Last name: González

or should it be

First name: Juan Eduardo
Last name: González Rodríguez (or González-Rodríguez)

I would just use one single First Name, and for the Last Name I would use both, using "-", as for instance; Juan González-Rodríguez. Just two "words", otherwise you will have trouble with indexing systems, englishmen, etc

I would use your names exactly as they are written on your passport.  If your actual legal name does not have a hyphen, don't add one.  If your actual legal family name consists of more than one word, use mor than one word.  Modern indexing systems have no problem with multiple-word names.

Every time I need to give my second last name in the UK I try to explain how in Spain we have 2 last names and they may not want  to use the second one or maybe the want to put them together. Every time, they smile, affirm understanding, and then screw it when they do it.... I just don't know what to do anymore! ;)

As an English person who has encountered (and worked with) Spanish people in the past, they have always just had to give in and put their last-last name in as their last name, OR hyphenate the two last names.  So, in your case, your name would become "Juan Rodriguez" or "Juan González-Rodríguez".  Eduardo would be your "middle name".  I totally understand how dumb this seems.  But from my experience you will cave in at some point if you try to fight the system, so you might as well just cave in now.  I'm sorry on behalf of our country!

@flow in Spanish, some surnames have an hyphen. So, one could be called Gómez-Rogríguez Hurtado.

Just to add a bit of fuel to the fire... you may want to drop those accents as well. In most cases they can't be put in (electronic) systems and, if you are filling an online form, chances are the devs did not know about the existence of accents and you will come out with some weird character instead (had it too many times, so I decided to finally drop the accent from my surname for most things).

Speaking from experience, pick one each, remove the accents and move on. Some countries simply can't deal with that many names (France was hilarious, even worse for my wife, who didn't change her name when we married, something else the frenchmen don't get)... (Ofc, full name for documents and stuff)

I am in your exact same situation: Spanish name with 2+2. I have lived abroad for 6 years now, most of it in Ireland.
There is no way out of misunderstandings, I'm afraid, and your second last name will often be assumed to be your only family name.
Here is a recipe that has worked out for me so far:

For a non legally-critical situation, e.g. your name on a paper or a name tag at a conference, use your first last name only or hyphen both last names. You can then initialize your second (or even first) given names. People from English-speaking countries often have a middle name, so that's not a problem.
For legal and official stuff, use your full name as per your identity document so it cannot be used against you. If they get it flipped over it's their fault.

The solution that involves the least hassle in most cases is to fill out the form so that it matches your name on your identity documents (e.g. passport).
This avoids problems (annoyances, mainly) that can arise as a result of having "different" names in different systems.

While this is a good advice for documents and legal stuff, using the whole name on a day-to-day basis doesn't work. This is even worse in some countries (my firsthand experience is France) where they never use more than one first and one last name (They have middle names, but it is never used, apart from some documents). I almost never use my whole name, even in papers (I'm dropping the 'á' as well....)

Anyone who believes this problem to be solved, or is building a system and wants to work with the issue should read this: Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Names
Essentially you will have to decide based on what you are doing and the longevity of your information in the system how to approach the problem. In most European and American systems this means your last name will be hyphenated, or you can choose one.
The first name will need to be one word as well unless you wish to deal with endless issues with clerks incorrectly entering the information.
In short, come up with a compromise you can live with that will cause the least amount of problems, or there will be constant issues with every entity you run across. This is especially important in academic publications, as you will need to reference them consistently later.

I know a number of people who deal with similar situations, and the last name will never cease to given you bureaucratic headaches in English-speaking countries, because no matter what you do, other people will sometimes enter it incorrectly into databases in a variety of different and unusual failure modes.
Most major institutions, however, will be capable of understanding the variety of names in the world, and yours is a fairly common case.  As such, for a government form, put down your name exactly as it is structured on your passport.  For any other form:

For the first name, put whatever you want people to actually call you.  In America, two first names is actually not uncommon: in addition to the Hispanic population, it's an long-standing Southern tradition.
For the last name, put both names, or else you will confuse people.
In both cases, you can add a hyphen if you want to reduce confusion by making it clear which name-components go together.  It won't stop the corporate screw-ups, though, so don't feel you have to compromise your heritage this way unless you want to.

I would say it partly depends on how you want be known at the school where you are applying. Fill it out the first way, and you'll be known as Juan González at that school. That's how your name will likely be printed on class rosters, and that's what professors will see when you've registered for their class. If you'd rather be known as Juan Eduardo, it'll be a constant uphill battle explaining that to your instructors each semester.
However, if you put Juan Eduardo as your first name, most professors will see that in the first name field, and they'll be more likely call you Juan Eduardo on the first day of class.
As for your last name, hyphenated last names are not uncommon in the U.S. Therefore, if you are applying to a U.S. school, it might be worth hyphenating the last name – but not if you feel like you are compromising your own identity to do so. If you feel like your last name is González Rodríguez (no hyphen), then list it that way. People might get confused initially, but they will adapt. Moreover, if they've never seen a 2+2 name before, some might even be thankful to learn something new.
Part of this is a tradeoff between how much you want to retain your name as it is, and how much you want to fit your name into a culture that is more accustomed to First MI Last.
As a footnote, perhaps a university registrar will read this question, and begin to wonder if they should tinker with their institution's online application form, to be more accomodating to people from other cultures.

I like the practicality of this answer, but it doesn't address the potentially very serious consequences of having the wrong name on important legal paperwork.  It's a pesky question because there are some games you can't win (what's legally correct will be misunderstood as if it were incorrect).

@tripleee - It's true that I let others focus more on the legal issues than I did in my answer. That said, I'm having trouble seeing how [Juan] [Rodríguez], or [Juan Eduardo] [González Rodríguez], or [Juan] [Eduardo] [González-Rodríguez] could be considered a "wrong name" for someone whose given name is Juan Eduardo González Rodríguez.

It's hard to predict when bureaucracy is going to go wrong.  I was almost unable to exchange currency once in Italy because my passport has inconsistent place names.  But it's when Juan González mismatches Eduardo Rodríguez that the real trouble is going to start.

@tripleee - Good point. Whatever convention the O.P. uses, he should try to be consistent.

Add room for generous misunderstandings, like [Rodríguez] [González] or whatever ...! (-:

I'm pretty sure this will get voted down as "Not answering the question", but the truth is we can not tell you what's right.
What kind of form is it? Does it have a legal status (ie: passport, Driver's license, academic transcript); something someone will ask, "How do I know this is really you, because the names do not match?", which may have consequences. I could share stories where people are at risk of losing government benefits or even their job because the legal names provided (exp. Asian legal + English common names) did not match originating documents. It has caused untold stress and countless hours of effort and expense to correct. One poor soul entered into a form his given name and in the "preferred name" box entered "Same". You can guess what they called him.
The best advise it to ask the provider of the form. You may also want to read for your amusement and share with them for their information the following:
Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Names
to help them improve their data systems.

As a Portuguese person with four names, living in the UK for a few years now, I’ve found that putting my first 2 names as First Names and my last 2 names as Last Names works virtually everywhere.
I got to this conclusion after having a British Airways staff person telling me the system couldn’t find my tickets automatically because I had filled them in with 1 first name, 1 middle name, and 2 last names.

It may depend on the forms and systems in use at the particular institution you're working with. Taking my university as an example (U.S., large urban community college), our systems work fine with your full name, i.e., option #2. The class rosters I receive routinely have two names per field (i.e., have a space in them; but not any accents or diacritical marks).
If you're filling out a form that has separate fields for first & last, then I would print your full name as given in those fields. If there's only one field for "name", then I would insert hyphens to reduce confusion about which parts go together.


text:
Should I avoid local journals?
I am considering where to submit a recently finished preprint, and one of the best fits is a journal associated with the country where I'm working. That is, I'm a postdoc in one of main cities of X-land, and the jounal is called 'X-land Jounrnal of Mathematics'. Is the connection an argument in favour or against publishing there?
The arguemnts for publishing in XJM are, I think, quite natural: given that I'm working in X-land, I want other X-ians to be interested in my work, and they're perhaps fractionally more likely to have a look at XJM than YJM for Y != X. Assuming that publishing a paper in a journal is mutually beneficial, it stands to reason that I'd be happier to help XJM than a random other journal (even if infinitesimally so).
On the other hand, I have heard arguments in the opposite direction. The key worry is that the paper may be taken less seriously, and some slight academic nepotism might be suspected. That is, someone could see the publication and think it was just published because XJM looks more favourably on papers sent from X.
Are any of these concerns valid? If given a choice between publishing in a "local" journal, or an equally good "non-local" journal, which is a better idea? Or is it just the same, and I'm massively overthinking?
The field is pure mathematics. I don't want to name names, but the population of X is of the order of 10 mln. I realise the points "For" are very minor, and the arguments "Against" are probably minor too. I'm not originally from X, but would gladly hear how the answer would change if I were.

What is the alternative? "Y-land journal of Mathematics", or "Journal of Mathematics"? I would expect X and Y-lander to read Journal of Mathematics, but X-lander are more likely to read 'X-land JoM' than 'Y-land JoM', and vice versa for Y-lander. I would prefer JoM (without xy-land). I always think that papers in Z-land Journal of Topic have tried Journal of Topic first, then A-continent Journal of Topic, and then ended up in Z-land Journal of Topic. Some even have to go to Z-land Journal of Very Specific Topic. They can still be good papers, but I think they are much less likely to be seen.

@Mark: The alternative is Journal of Topic (as well as Journal of Slightly Differently Phrased Topic). In this particular case, XJM and JoT are on approximately the same level. Of course, different countries have journals at different levels, and X-land happens to be relatively good when it comes to mathematics.

I'm only going on my own experience here but I believe:
Location of the journal should only be taken into consideration after some other, more important, factors.

You should choose a journal that is a good fit for the topic, length and style of your paper.
You should pick a journal with at least one editor who will know roughly what you are talking about.
You should aim for as good a quality journal as is reasonable for the quality of the paper (this will most help your career).
There may be certain journals you just prefer to avoid (obviously junk/scam journals, but also eg. many mathematicians avoid Elsevier).
You need to consider any publishing costs (eg. for open access journals) and any rules you must follow (eg. UK open access requirements).
Where your field allows, avoid sending multiple papers to the same couple of journals (which could suggest one or two editors happen to like you).

Once you have a short list that meets these requirements, you could reasonably choose a local journal in favour of a non-local one. I think the other requirements will avoid the suggested negative impacts, when your work is viewed as a whole.

A couple of reasons publishing in an X-land journal (like Math.Scand.) could make sense:

You'd like to commemorate and emphasize the fact that you were a postdoc in country X;
You're interested in getting another job in country X;
Your work is of somewhat general mathematical interest and not narrowly focused within a certain mathematical field (like that of the Journal of Topic).

Generally, a good criterion may be whether your work is of interest to editorial board members of the X-land journal (and conversely whether their work interests you), or whether the same is more true of Journal of Topic.

One consideration is if you want to help such local journals. If publishing your paper in a local journal will help maintain or even increase the quality of mathematical publications in that country, and you would like to contribute to the flourishing of mathematics there, then that would be a perfectly valid reason to do so, even if it means passing up on a more prestigious journal. It all depends on what your goals are.

I like this as an idea, but I think it's possibly not wise for a postdoc who wants to stay in academia.


text:
Is it OK to work on projects from research proposal before position starts?
There is considerable gap in time between submitting applications for academic positions and the time the postitions start. I'm wondering about the status of the problems listed in the research proposal during this gap. Are they off-limits and should be avoided, or is it OK to work on/think about them in the meantime? Suppose that I show up at the new institution already with a preprint on arXiv solving one of the problems from my research proposal - would it be considered inappropriate?
[My field is pure mathematics, meaning that the research tends to be relatively unpredictable and does not require external resuorces.]

As long as there is no conflict of interest with your current position (e.g. you are paid to do A for X and not B for Y) I cannot see how starting early on a research topic can be a problem. (Cases of ethical approval or restricted data may be a problem, but else?)

I don't think you should ever delay work, especially in mathematics. It is like trying to turn off your brain. Work away. I'd even say publish all you want. You aren't being hired for specific pieces of work unless you are a consultant or such. But academic positions are nothing like that.
The "worst" case is that you show up with everything completed and have to - horrors - work on something else that extends it or is otherwise "interesting."
Kidding aside, nothing is off limits in advancing mathematics. You will only be praised for working in the interim. Your research proposal just assured the hiring group that you have ideas and will be productive.