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How to remove a co-author from an article published on arXiv?
I have published an article on arXiv. I associated person X as co-author whereas he didn't contribute at any step of the paper. Note that he is not registered as owner of the article on arXiv and I didn't give him the password to access as author.
When I wanted to submit the paper to a journal, X began to do some harassment. After that, I decided to remove his name from the article on arXiv.
Questions: How can I remove a co-author from an article published on arXiv? Can he claim that he is the co-author on arXiv or for a journal submission?

Why the downvote ?

Besides the disturbing story, what is your actual question? Do you wanna know how to (technically) remove an incorrectly associated Co-Author from an article on arXiv?

@FuzzyLeapfrog, Exactly, If I remove her name from my article an upload an new version on arXiv, and submit my paper to a journal. Can he claim that he is an co-author ?

Okay, @Silldo. I suggested some major edits to your question.

@FuzzyLeapfrog, Thanks, can I get an answer to my question.

I associated person X as co-author whereas he didn't contribute at any step of the paper. — Note to readers: Don't do that.

Dear @JeffE Could you tell me if I remove X from my article, can he claim his authorship for a journal submission (by sending the previous version to the editor).

@Silldo Of course he can claim authorship, because you gave it to him. Will his claim actually stick? Maybe. Depends on the editor.

Several aspects spring to mind here: X didn't contribute, but was added as author. Now, X is going to be removed because of harassment? X was added for the wrong reason and now is being removed for the wrong reason. What if, later, Y were a deserving co-author and then falls out with OP, will they also be removed from authorship? Even if OP happens to be right about authorship, one would better be careful to work with them, as the conditions of collaboration acknowledgement are moving goalposts. TL;DR: Authorships are best decided for the right reasons. And, to add, before work is being done.

Yes, technically one can modify the authors of an arXiv article. See the replace instructions on arXiv. See also this answer on Quora. But, as far as I understand these instructions, the previous version with the initial co-authors will remain on the server.
Note that it was no good scientific practice to initially associate a co-author to the paper that didn't contribute to it. Regaring the claiming of the authorship by X after removing his name from the paper, I have no answer.

It is not possible to change the authors of the version you already submitted to the arXiv. You can update the arXiv paper, and in the process make changes to the author list. The original author list remains accessible however.
If you do this, submit the article to some journal without X as coauthor, and X complains to the journal claiming authorship, the situation looks as follows: The journal can verify that you at some point claimed that X were a coauthor of the paper, and that you are now claiming that he is not. Thus, it is obvious that you lied at some point, serverly damaging your credibility and demonstrating that you committed academic misconduct (they just don't know whether the misconduct happened back then or now).
The best course of action still available to you would be to resolve the authorship dispute with X prior to any further submissions of the paper. If you cannot come to an agreement with X directly, you may have to involve others, eg your department head. In this, be aware that you will need to own up to your previous mistake.


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Should you recuse yourself from the hiring committee if you have had a past romantic relationship with an applicant?
If you are on a hiring committee and find out that one of the applicants is someone you have had a past romantic relationship with, should you recuse yourself?

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

If you're worried that some people may perceive an action as unethical, chances are some people are going to perceive it as unethical. It's usually better to play it safe in those cases. ;) If you are worried that you yourself might perceive it as unethical, definitely play it safe; no need to lay that burden on yourself.

This is one of those rare questions where a one-word answer would certainly suffice...

I will almost guarantee that your university has a Compliance office. Here's the one for my university; you'll notice that it has both a number of links to written guidelines, as well as phone numbers for an Ethics hotline. Your university may not have the exact same thing, but there are people there whose job is to answer these types of questions. Make use of them.
That said, from my completely uninformed standpoint, your situation sounds like a conflict of interest. If I was in a similar situation I would definitely recuse myself.

I slightly disagree.  (Although it does not say so explicitly) the answer gives the impression that OP should stick to the ethics guidelines of his institution and nothing else.  What if OPs specific university does not have this conflict of interest covered under its guidelines but then he moves to another university and, in the new institution, the guidelines consider it unethical.  OP would then have been unethical in the past.  I'd argue that using your own (personal) sense of ethics and sticking to the union of it with possible guidelines is better.

@grochmal Even if the university asked about something like that (which they probably wouldn't unless something scandalous happened), the easy answer is "I followed the university guidelines and spoke to the ethics committee about it. They determined it was not a conflict of interest." and move on.

@Anoplexian - I admit that I'm being philosophical here but as far as I understand ethics is something that must be decided by the ethical individual.  i.e. that is part of the definition of ethics.  Therefore arguing that "I deferred the responsibility of being ethical to my ethical guidelines and ethical committee" can still be argued to be a culpability of being unethical, because being ethical includes performing ethical decisions as an individual.  Following a bad ethical code is still unethical.

@grochmal I disagree with ethical rules applying retroactively. Some universities code of conduct forbid people from drinking coffee, should I throw away my PhD if I ever go to work there?

@Davidmh - Ethics is a special case.  The origin of ethics definition came from Socrates, as coming from the definition of an individual, from the fact that every human can discern good from evil.  Of course that definition went a long way since then (and still evolves) but, in general, ethics is not something that can be canned as a group of rules.  If it could then we would have a perfect law system a long time ago.  Therefore you cannot escape ethics by saying that you simply followed rules.  Spartans were ethical in killing malformed children by their rules.

I would also suggest documenting that you consulted your ethics hotline in some way so that you have a paper trail in case someone tries to say that you should have checked before taking an action.

@grochmal I don't think this answer says anything of the sort. Rather, it simply says, "If you're not sure, ask. And don't just ask random people on the Internet; ask the people whose job it is to answer those questions on behalf of your institution."

@grochmal they're ethical standards. As long as the ethical code isn't super bad, things work best if everyone uses the same code (this is similar to the reason that laws apply the same to everyone).

From my own experiences on faculty search committees, administrators would be very unhappy if we went through the hiring process and I later provided such information, since it could be viewed as a conflict of interest or nepotism, even if you do not see it that way. What do you have to lose by making this information known to others and at least see if the administrators in your department believe that you should or should not continue on the committee.
Also, who doesn't search for a good reason to get out of committee work? LOL.

Or, more specified, your nephew. If we can stretch to other family members, then why not to "one's inner circle" of friends?

@David Richerby - Some definitions of nepotism include family and friends. This person could be viewed as someone who is a friend. I don't know their current relationship. I was being inclusive by using the word "or."

@NicoleRuggiano Ah, good point. In fact, the OED says it's been used to refer to non-relatives such as friends since at least 1859. Comment deleted.

@Mawg Well, it turns out that I was wrong about friends but your comment makes little sense. The original meaning isn't really relevant, since we're discussing what the word means today (see etymological fallacy). And, sure, the word could have evolved in any number of ways but the question is whether it actually did. In this case, it turns out that it did, so I deleted my incorrect comment.

Not quite sure what you are driving at. As today's meaning, I would say that nepotism is favo(u) ring someone known over someone unknown. Would that be about right? If so, it does seem to apply he

Note that the conflict isn't necessarily 'positive'. The obvious potential conflict could lead to perceived favoritism (former flame wins competition and there is the perception of favoritism), but the converse is also possible: former flame doesn't win the competition and claims bias due to the previous relationship. Either one could leave the school vulnerable to lawsuit.

@KeithDavies This is very true and the same issues apply. The a former partner could be highly qualified (or most qualified), but overlooked because of the conflict. This could cause future problems with the candidate. It also could be frowned upon by the administration, but I think that most faculty would pass over a highly qualified candidate who may cause inter-personal problems at work.

You almost certainly need to remove yourself from any decision about that candidate, especially if your interactions were recent, and you may need to remove yourself from the whole process.  It has nothing to do with whether you can live with it, but if your university wants to risk litigation if the shit hits the fan.
You can simply say "I have a conflict with one of the applicants, and wish to be removed from this committee", and then the nature of the conflict is your business alone, or you can find the appropriate person to discuss the exact nature of the conflict with.  I suggest a compliance officer or ombudsman, who will be able to understand the sensitive nature.

Good suggestion. I recommend using the gender-neutral "compliance officer or ombudsperson".

I have a conflict with respect to one of the applicants. // Otherwise, great answer.

The second paragraph of this answer is wrong. As I explain in my answer, at least at some universities the search committee member would be required by university policy to disclose the nature of the conflict, and cannot "simply say" that they wish to be recused or claim that the nature of the conflict is "their business alone".

To clarify Dan's comment: You may need to disclose your conflict to someone, typically the committee chair or the department head. You almost certainly do not have to disclose the nature of your conflict to the entire committee in an open meeting. (At least, this is the case at my university, which has similar formal policies to Dan's.)

@JeffE thanks, but even your clarified version of my comment is at odds with what Scott writes in his answer.

@DanRomik, In the UK, pressing the issue could make you run afoul of the UK Human Rights Act of 1998. And in the US, pressing the issue could make you run you afoul of Federal anti-discrimination laws. If one of your committee members ever tells you "I am recusing myself from the selection process because I've had a very close relationship with one of the candidates.", "No, I'm not telling you which candidate, nor am I going to tell you what was the nature of the relationship. This is personal information. You'll have to trust that I'm telling you the truth." Then legally, you better let it go

@StephanBranczyk well, ok. I don't feel too strongly about it, and it's quite possible that a university policy might inadvertently conflict with some law or other. So yes, if someone feels so strongly that they must protect some dark secret from their past, the course of action you are suggesting sounds like a reasonable one.

@DanRomik, Thanks. But It doesn't have to be a dark secret. It could just be that I had a fling with someone, I shared bodily fluids with that other person, that is now over, and I simply do not know how that other person would feel about being the topic of gossip when they're just starting out somewhere. Furthermore, some workplaces do frown upon (present or past) relationships at work. And for good reasons, they can be a constant source of conflict of interests. But at the same time, if I recused myself from the selection process, I don't want the candidate to be penalized over it either.

And if I did volunteer to recuse myself from the selection process, you should also trust that I will continue to recuse myself should another potential conflict of interests arise. But I do know my rights, so do not count on me volunteering more information than what I deem is necessary for the function of my job. And sure, you may not trust my lay judgement, and that's fine. This is my default setting, dark secret or not. And the only alternative after that is to talk to my lawyer and I can guarantee you that my own lawyer will be even less inclined at sharing private information than I am.

My university requires members of search committees to disclose any potential conflict of interest in connection with their evaluation of job candidates. The disclosure form is accompanied by an explanatory text titled "Aspirational Principles and Guidelines Regarding Conflict of Interest on Recruitment Committees", which states in particular (emphasis added by me):

Examples of situations that might create either a real or perceived conflict of interest for a member of a recruitment committee include, but are not limited to, the review of candidates who are current or former students, postdocs, mentees, co-authors, close collaborators or partners in a business or professional practice. Other situations may involve review of a candidate who has or has had in the past, a significant personal relationship with the faculty member, either positive or negative, that might impact the ability of the faculty member to participate objectively in the comparison of the qualifications of that candidate with those of other candidates.

The document goes on to list options for dealing with a potential conflict:

Depending on the nature of the relationship, and based on discussion with the recruitment committee chair, the faculty member may:

Voluntarily recuse him or herself from participation on the recruitment committee or in the review and selection process;

Voluntarily recuse him or herself from discussion and/or voting on the particular candidate with whom there is a potential real or perceived conflict of interest;

Continue to serve on the committee and in the review/selection process, but with full disclosure of the relationship to the committee and, if the candidate is on the short list, to the department;

Thus, at the very least, in the scenario you describe you are certainly required to report the fact of the past relationship to your department chair and other members of the committee. Given the nature of the relationship, I would expect that you would also be asked to recuse yourself from any discussion of the specific candidate, and possibly to recuse yourself entirely from membership in the committee.
All of this is according to my university's specific policy, but this policy is based on currently accepted legal and ethical norms in the United States that I would expect to also apply in any major US university. I also doubt that these norms will be materially different in any western country.

Sorry, stupid question: if the faculty member recuses him or herself, then why does (s)he also need to "report the fact of the past relationship"? I would have thought that the recusal should render the rest of it irrelevant.

I assume that the faculty member could choose to try to recuse themselves initially, without disclosing the specifics of the reason (as per Scott Seidman's answer); or they could choose to disclose and see what the recommended course of action is, which might turn out to be recusal. Maybe it depends on what they hope the decision will be.

@ruakh I didn't write the policy so I can't give an authoritative answer, but I do think the reporting requirement makes sense, since we don't want faculty recusing themselves from search committees for arbitrary or trivial reasons (say, because they once had dinner with the candidate). If you are on the committee your service is presumed to be valuable and we want you to stay on it and not recuse yourself unless there was a very good reason.But faculty are not trained in assessing the potential for a conflict of interest, so it's best to inform and consult the dept. chair on such a matter ...

A second reason I can think of is that if a member of the committee recuses him/herself without providing a reason, it can potentially create suspicions among the other committee members about the undisclosed secret reason for the recusal, which may cloud their judgment and prevent an objective assessment of the candidate. So again, in the name of transparency and ensuring that nothing untoward is going on, disclosure is the best solution. By the way I think your question is a very intelligent question to which the answer is far from obvious, and certainly not a stupid one.

@GregMartin as the document I linked to states, my university's policy requires disclosing the potential conflict of interest, so your assumption that "the faculty member could choose to try to recuse themselves initially, without disclosing the specifics of the reason" is simply incorrect, at least at UC Davis and probably at the vast majority of similar US institutions.

Actually, it looks like you must disclose a PCOI, but it doesn't look like you're required to document what it is.

Your form is for committee chairs, and doesn't say the reason for conflict by a member be disclosed, just the fact that there is a potential conflict.  In fact, if I were asked the reason, I might well decline to answer, unless a careful read of my faculty handbook suggested I must.  Note that a form is not your employment contract, but your handbook describes the conditions and regs associated with your employment.

I would, without question. The benefits of being seen to act in a way that leaves no doubt as to integrity will far outweigh the probably-zero benefits of sitting on a committee that's making a career decision on behalf of your employer and for a past romantic flame of yours. I can't see any good whatsoever coming out of putting yourself in that situation, and plenty of respect from being seen to avoid the conflict. Recuse without question, citing "non work previous social friendship with the candidate" or similar (you don't need to give the detailed reason)

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How much does a student's ranking in their cohort matter for PhD applications?
I am from one of the top UK institutions studying mathematics.  I am under the impression that UK universities tend to have a larger cohort (~150 per year) than US but perhaps I am wrong.
I would like to know is there any difference ranking 1st, ranking in top 5 or ranking in top 10 when it comes to PhD applications especially in the US, or is the personal ranking only serves the purpose as a benchmark (say top 5% is enough).
I have heard different theories about this as some would say it's extremely important to get top first or second to get into top graduate programs, and some say that having one or two marks higher than your course mates makes no difference and tells nothing more about your ability.
Thanks for advance.

In many countries/universities there is no class ranking. And if there is, it is not necessarily meaningful, as you would need a ranking of the university or that specific year amongst others and such as well. (I personally think when I hear someone say they are "top of their class", "Well, as long as I don't know anyone else from your class, I really don't care.")

Not really an answer, just my personal experience, but I'll offer it because it contradicts the consensus that seems to be building. Approximate ranking (top 5%/10%, etc.) in the cohort is one of things that we (a UK physics department) specifically ask for when people write references, and it's one of the first things I look at (accounting, obviously, for the quality of the u/g institution). References are otherwise not so informative at this stage, because no-one has much research experience.

@StephenPowell: Just out of interest: How do you evaluate people from places where there is no class ranking?

@O.R.Mapper: It's just one out of several things to take into account, so it's not a big problem if it's not available. But in most cases the referees are able to provide a sense of where the student ranks in the cohort, at least at UK universities.

@StephenPowell: Well, in the wider sense, my question aimed at the case that "the cohort" is not defined in a meaningful way. Of course, that case is also covered by your answer.

@StephenPowell just as anecdotal evidence, I did my BSc in the UK, my PhD in Spain and a post-doc in France (my field is biology/bioinformatics) and this is the first time I've even heard of "cohort rankings". Nobody ever asked me for this, nobody has even ever discussed the existence of such a ranking with me or anyone I know. Since your institute uses them, they obviously exist, but I find it hard to believe their use is very widespread.

@terdon I have not seen it, therefore it does not exist.

Your letters of recommendation will be much, much more important than your class ranking. Spend your time on getting the strongest letters you can (and learning how to do this, if necessary).
Source: I have served on grad admissions for a top math department.

Trying not to be just an "I agree!" comment but I want to second this from the perspective of biological sciences...I don't recall ever being asked about class rank in grad admissions, and research experience is much more important than class rank in my field. References are sometimes asked annoying questions like "what percentile would you place this student in?" though, but that is based on their opinion, not grades.

My experience (admittedly not in Maths) of (top level) UK institutions was that the first and often only question was 'can you pay?'. As long as you had a 2:1 or a 1st, you were in.

The reputation home university is obviously also  important. Being ranked 10th at Princeton is naturally much more impressive than 1st at Noname University of the Second-Rate Sciences.

Class rank is not inter-comparable, and also not universally available, so (in my experience) we ignore it entirely. "It's nice" to be highly ranked, but it's also hard to know exactly what that means. Big fish in small pond? Grade grubber? Etc.

"Grad grubber"? I am unfamiliar with that term. Definition?

@O.M.Y.: Check out this question: What to do about “grade grubbers?”.

Good point at the end. Yet another possible explanation is students who become so preoccupied with finishing in the Top 5 that they refuse to take challenging courses or go to great lengths to avoid professors known for being hard-nosed in their grading. Personally, I'd rather work with someone who pushed themselves and faced challenges than someone who avoided them so as to look good on paper.

In my institution, the absolute ranking of the candidate is one piece of information that is considered, but often is nowhere near as important as the candidate frankly thinks it is. There are so many other factors that determine whether or not an individual is well suited to a particular area of research that aren't examined by an undergraduate degree. I am sure I could easily find instances of students who came in the top 20% of their degree cohort having many more successful outcomes from their PhD years than those in the top 1%, not least because there are a lot more good students to choose from in the top 20% of the distribution!
Most universities set quality thresholds -- e.g. "you must usually have a 2:i [UK applicant] to be considered for a PhD place" -- which are important to meet. For each candidate meeting these thresholds, we will typically read their application and assign points based on some quasi-arbitrary list of good things (doing well academically gets a point; doing a summer research placement gets a point; publishing papers as an undergraduate and demonstrating that you actually did the work and understood it gets a lot of points, etc) which then form the basis of subsequent discussions.
In my field at least, students who come high up in the year rankings are very good at passing exams; typically they're able to min/max the exam system, do algebra very, very quickly and have a repertoire of "tricks" that have come up in the past. It isn't necessarily the case that any of these skills translate into a successful research career.
Additionally, the type of reference form often sent to your referees have a statement along the lines of "Of all the people I have taught, this person is in the top [50, 25, 15, 5]%" and require the referee to tick the right box. Nobody I know, if they like the person they're writing in support of, ticks anything other than the 5% box (even if they frankly should). The people who read these forms are aware of this.
Finally, as mentioned by all the other posters, year rankings are not comparable across universities, or necessarily within universities. A close friend studied biomedical and electrical engineering at a good university in Belgium and due to an odd set of circumstances involving changing course requirements finished simultaneously first and last in his graduating year!

Although i am not from the UK, i would like to share my impression, on this matter for Universities in Germany. Together with some factors that change the perspectives on rankings probably internationally.
For my Master Studies in Germany I was admitted in a quite competitive program, where that year only 18% of the applicants were admitted, and where being in the top 20% of your Bachelor was a prerequisite. It was an international Program in English, so there where students from all over the world. The impression of me and my fellow students were that the grading of our courses, were much stricter than for the usual programs, our averages were much lower. There where exams that were only passed by 3 out of 25 people. So in this case the combination of program reputation and ranking told much more about relative performance than the grades. My impression was however that at least in germany, grades are more important than ranking, so it was difficult for many to find a Phd position. Therefore I think that at the graduation ceremony there should also be handed out a list with the matriculation numbers, and all grades of the cohort, to give some relative context to the grades. This also helps to make sub rankings for particular subjects or directions.
But Of course such rankings are also very limited, because the situation of all students was fairly different, a few of the German students, still lived with their parents, and had no financial worries, some others had  scholarships, others had to do student jobs, some had rich parents, others took a big loan, some where married, others were ill. There is a story behind each grade, and thus ranking.
If those who will asses your application only look at rankings and grades, it means that they probably did not have any significant challenges on the side, besides their studies. So they will probably select those with high grades coming from a similar situation. Those who understand the limitations of grades and Rankings, will probably focus more on recommendation letters, or even read through your Thesis, or a publication. Some how such people seem rarer at top universities, but they are there!

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How to quantify potential supervisor's reputation at a non-top university?
I ended up in a decent but below 50 ranked PhD program for math, and I'm going to try my best to get an academic job after my PhD. I want to work with someone who is well-respected and well-known, and who allows me to do a great thesis, in order to even put my foot in the door for a career in academia.

How can I quantify a potential supervisor's reputation?
Should I look for number of citations, number of publications total, number of publications in recent few years, or number of students/where they end up?
Is there a threshold I should be looking for (e.g. at least 20 citations total, at least a few good journals, etc)?

The reason I ask:
This may be field-specific, but I'd like to know what risk I am taking with working with a new professor who has only one student and maybe 8-10 publications, the most popular of which having been cited about 13 times by other mathematicians, vs. an older professor with not many students total but with many publications and many citations per publication.

Would you be happy in an academic job that is 75% teaching, 20% service, and 5% research?  (I'm trying to figure out what you mean by 'academic job'.)

I suppose nowadays it is very hard to land a teaching job in any university due to supply and demand.

@AlexanderWoo Yes. It's not ideal, but I realize that that is the likely outcome.

Related to your second question: How to judge the reputation of a potential advisor or research group for good quality research for PhD?. Related to your reason for asking: Choosing between an older, prominent supervisor and a younger, junior supervisor for PhD.

@Anyon Thank you for the references! I may have seen these at some point in time (amidst my anxious-ridden premonitions of the future). But I am looking for a more quantitative way to judge an academic, if possible.

"Quantifying a reputation" is rather a contradiction in terms; you're asking for an objective measure of that which is inherently subjective.  Also, you're likely talking to a lot of people who have been on the receiving end of "quantitative" evaluations and are keenly aware of their shortcomings.

Exactly the same way you judge the reputation of a potential supervisor at a top university.

Assuming both of them are still research active, in the sense that they are publishing and going to conferences, you're looking at a lot of noise and very little signal.
Both advisors got a job at a university with a PhD program.  That already means they are pretty good and have significant research networks.  If you end up doing exceptionally good research for a PhD graduate from your department, they will both have the networks to recommend you for a postdoc.
For positions that are not research-focused, it really doesn't matter what their reputation is, because the people hiring for non-research positions are generally out of the network anyway (and even if they are not, they won't be hiring based on whether they know your advisor or not).
Work with the person you like working with better and whose projects interest you more.

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The drop/switch major rate for people "intended" major in engineering in US?
The drop/switch major rate of engineering bachlors programs for people "intended" major in engineering except software engineering in US?
Please notice that the attrition rate from most source are for student who already declare major typically in their junior year/very end of their sophmore year, but what is the average drop/switch major rate in the US for the "intended" freshman student who go to college of engineering? In another word, what is the rate of these intended engineers did not get a eningineering bachlors?
Related question: What is the dropout/switch major rate for engineering bachelor?

It's quite high at my place (upwards of 50% because many students enter without enough math background and never get up to speed), but I've no idea where you would find comprehensive data.

There was an article in the Sunday LA Times (Aug 7 2016) that touched on this, but related to minority retention in STEM from 2004 and didn't break the numbers down to individual fields. At best, the rate for "finished in under 5 years with same degree" was under 50%, and for blacks and Hispanics it was under 25%.


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Is it okay for a potential post doc to send an email to professor on the weekend?
I am talking with a professor to apply to a postdoc program. I sent a cold email earlier this week and we have exchanged a few emails.
In his last email he sent me some papers to read.
The thing is, I might end up sending my answer on Saturday, after I read the papers. Is this a problem? Should I just send it and wait until Monday for his answer? Maybe send it but include an apology for writing during the weekend? Or should I just wait until Monday to send it?
I usually text everyone during the weekend including my advisor, but I'm not sure if it might be considered rude, and as I do not know the person yet I want to be as careful as possible with etiquette.
Thank you.

Students send me emails at 2, 3 or 4 in the morning - they get a reply later that day , I’m not waking up for an email... I will wake up if my sons or daughter ring me though...

In general, I would advise not emailing between Friday afternoon and Monday morning, lest you get lost in the Monday morning backlog.

Do you send emails or text messages? You say you "usually text everyone during the weekend including my advisor", which sounds like a horribly intrusive thing to do. If by text you mean "send emails" then fine, but text or chat messages have a different etiquette and are much harder to mark as unread to deal with later.

Also, one of the benefits (or sometimes curses) of being in academia is that you're not stuck on a fixed 9-5 M-F schedule.

You actually get email replies back from your professors? wow! You should consider yourself lucky. Let me know which school you go to, I want to apply there :)

You should not worry about this. What your professor cares about is how good of a candidate you are. Besides that, as long as you don’t actively offend him, everything is ok.

Email is a form of asynchronous communication: it doesn't matter when mail is sent, it can be read whenever pleases the recipient.
High-ranking professionals should not sacrifice their operational efficiency to avoid the possibility of lower-ranking professionals feeling stressed, overwhelmed, etc. by out-of-hours emails. High-ranking professionals should make lower-ranking professionals aware of work-life balance. Managers and subordinates should discuss expectations.
Technology can help. Email should never raise notifications. (They're too numerous and interfere with flows.)  Messaging apps can be segregated: Some for work, others for home. (Signal at work, WhatsApp at home, for instance.) Work apps should only raise notifications during set hours.
Only individuals can establish their own, "best" work-life balance.

(Email software can be scheduled to send email at a predefined time, there's no need to wait until a particular time.)

I partially agree, but only in the student->professor (or low->high rank) direction. The other way around can put a lot of stress on the students, leading them to think that they should be ready for extra work 24/7 in order to succeed.

@DarioP I disagree. For a high-ranking professional to delay emails to avoid the possibility of a lower ranking professional being stressed is wasteful of the high-ranking professional's time. (Albeit, they could use scheduled emails.) The lower ranking professional should not be stressed by such emails and, if they are, then they should be discussing expectations with their superiors.

I agree witb @DarioP. Sending emails from bosses at unusual times gives the impression that it is normal or expected to work at those times. Especially for young phd students who did most of the time not have most experience in .) working out a good work-life-balance and .) are in the extremly hierarchical world of Academia, where your advisor has a ridiculous amount of power over them.

I agree with this answer and all the comments. However: It's been pointed out that there's a generational and technical difference in opinion about this. Many people have email tied to their phone text messaging alerts, and actually aren't aware of a difference in the channels. These (younger) people do in fact sometimes get very upset about emails sent after hours.

@DanielR.Collins: I see your point, but the solution to this would be to educate the (younger) people about the difference in the channels, not take extra precautions to keep them in (non-blissful) ignorance.

@DarioP I hope my edit helps

@DanielR.Collins I hope my edit helps you too

And yours too @Heinzi

The high ranking rockstar professional can easily schedule email to be delivered after the end of the weekend and thus show his people skills and consideration for his work partners while still having the same "efficiency".

@Heinzi the solution to this would be to educate the (younger) people — That sounds an awful lot like "Do as I say, not as I do."

@JeffE I can't speak for Heinzi, but I send e-mails during the night or the weekend occasionally, I do not necessarily read e-mails during the night or the weekend, and if I read them, I do not necessarily react to them immediately. And it's completely fine with me if other people do it likewise. What I do and what I say is fairly consistent.

@Mavrik And how would they do that?

@user2768 Pretty much every email client supports that functionality and any "highly ranked professional" should be able to figure out how to use something as simple as email client to effectively lead. Otherwise they're perhaps not as "highly-rankeked" or "professional" as they think and their time perhaps isn't all that important.

@Mavrik I've already remarked on scheduled email. It cannot be used without an efficiency hit: Some people work at the weekend. (Also, using scheduled email isn't without a cost.)

Yes, working on the weekend is the actual core of the problem that should be eliminated.

@Mavrik working on the weekend is the actual core of the problem that should be eliminated, that's your opinion: Only individuals can establish their own, "best" work-life balance.

@Mavrik: pressure to work at weekends is bad and should be avoided.  But working at the weekends isn’t itself bad — good work-life balance means having whatever work habits suit an individual best, and people’s tastes and situations vary.

It's definitely not rude to email on the weekend.

When you are emailing someone with more authority than yourself (as is the case here), I don't see any problem with doing it outside business hours, provided that you don't ask for an urgent reply and don't blame them for not replying during that time. Of course, sending these emails might communicate some side information about yourself (e.g., that you work during week-ends), but this could be interpreted either way ("passionate about your work" vs "poor/unconventional organization") so I wouldn't overthink it. But don't worry about the effect on the recipient -- if they can't answer during the week-end or don't want to be bombarded with emails at that time, they won't have trouble disconnecting.
By contrast, when you are emailing someone and you are the one who has authority, you should consider the risk that emailing outside business hours could be interpreted as an implicit request to read work email outside of business hours, e.g., "I'm working off-hours so you should do it too". If this is a risk, then it can be a good idea to explicitly say in your email or email signature something like "This message does not require a reply outside of working hours" or otherwise clarifying with your subordinates what your expectations are. But that's clearly not the situation here.

Well, applying to a program is something you would normally do in personal time. If you send an application e-mail during core working hours, they might wonder if you're going to be doing that on their time, too...

@user3067860 In this context, for a grad student or postdoc, you are in a position that is explicitly a temporary career-developing one, and taking the steps to find your next position is part of your job. And you are free to use your university email for applications. It is completely different from being in a professional, potentially permanent position where you should not use work time/resources to job hunt without clear permission.

There is an option to "schedule send" an email.
If you are afraid you might forget it or miss some information if you wait till the next weekday, write an email at that moment and "schedule send" at first hours of next weekday.
If you want to add some information, you can also do that before the scheduled time. This helped me a lot.

Neither of the two e-mail programs that I use regularly has such an option. (And I can't say that I ever missed it.)

which email do you use? @Uwe

Either mutt or my institute's web mail system.

@Uwe could https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/310451/how-do-i-send-mutt-postponed-mail-at-a-later-time be of some help?

As I said: It's a feature that I don't miss. Quoting user2768's answer, "Email is a form of asynchronous communication: it doesn't matter when mail is sent, it can be read whenever pleases the recipient." I don't expect instant answers on Sunday morning 2 AM.

In my experience, the time of sending/receiving an email can have an impact on the likelihood of getting a response.


text:
Chance of getting into engineering PhD if I have good references and research experience but don't satisfy 3.0 GPA requirement?
I graduated with 2.7 undergrad, and currently pursuing a masters degree and will graduate with 3.3. I plan to apply for PhD programs in engineering for 2017 Fall.
Here is my question: Many schools state that they require 3.0 GPA or so, but how do I know that whether they intend undergrad GPA?
Do you think should I apply to such school that states that

Minimum GPA: The MS and PhD program has a minimum GPA requirement of
  3.0 on a 4.0 scale.

?
Is it waste of my time if I have stellar letters of references and cool research experiences?

My undergraduate GPA was much lower than yours. My MSc GPA was also lower than yours. I got admitted to a top 40 US school (engineering and fully funded). I had good recommendation letters and few journal publications. This was five years ago. I know there are few guys here who have similar GPA, etc as your. So, It's very possible!

Thanks a lot. With your answer and several answers scattered through the website, i feel like i have a chance after all!

Of course you do! The is to stay motivated and never give up!


text:
What qualifications are required to teach undergrads at college level in the United States?
I have a Masters Degree in Computer Science from India.
I have been working in IT sector from last 10 years
From last 5 years I am working in US
I am very much interested in Teaching Undergrads(Bachelors Degree) at College.
I am not aware of Education /Degree/Credentials needed to teach at College Level in US. Can someone kindly let me know how to go about this.

With very few exceptions, you need a PhD in a relevant field. The exceptions are usually community colleges.

@Potato That is highly course-dependent. Especially for non-tenure-track teaching-oriented positions, it's not uncommon to have people who have relevant experience outside academia (e.g. an author teaching a writing course, or a practicing lawyer teaching a law-related course [by which I don't mean law school courses, but rather undergrad courses]).

@cpast Considered as a percentage of the undergraduate courses being taught, those do seem quite rare to me. Besides, the question seems to be about computer science.

@cpast but those are usually adjunct/part time positions.

You will also need to work on the finer points of writing in English. At college level, it is not enough to be understood, you will be expected to use correct grammar, capitalization, and punctuation.

I am not aware of any officially required qualifications for teaching higher education. While often universities "require" supervisors, committee members, and examiners of PhD students to have a PhD, these can often be waived if the person in question holds another comparable degree (e.g., ScD or MFA) or has sufficient experience.
From a practical standpoint, to be competitive for a full time teaching positions in the US, you will likely need a PhD, or the equivalent terminal degree in your field. Individuals without a terminal degree and lots of work experience can sometimes teach individual classes in their area of speciality. Even at community colleges, a PhD is a desirable qualification that improves your chances of getting a job.

Even "comparable degree" and "sufficient experience" can be waived. At the end of the day, the only must-have requirement is that you have sufficient mastery of the material you are going to be teaching. For illustration, Saul Kripke's wikipedia page says that "during his sophomore year at Harvard, he taught a graduate-level logic course at nearby MIT".

It seems like with your qualifications you could get a job teaching an adjunct class, and possibly get a full time job at a community college. I personally have seen many professors without PHD's at my college, but they are generally in charge of teaching courses like Microsoft office or beginner level Networking and Hardware repair. It depends on what you want to teach, if you're looking for a career as a professor at a 4 year university in Computer Science / Computer Engineering you will probably need a PHD to be competitive.


text:
Should you include press interviews and articles about your work in your CV?
Is it appropriate to include interviews (published online or in print magazines) in an academic CV?
What about articles/news published about your works? I mean brief (one paragraph) news that professional magazines publish about significant research articles.
If yes, how do you do this to avoid exaggeration?

I think it is ok to include a line about the interview if it highlights the value of your work. May be add a line in "Honors and Achievements" section.

I wouldn't put this under "Honors and Achievements"... rather under "Appearances in Popular Media", or "Popularization", or "Outreach" or some such.

It depends, but yes, I would include media exposure in a long form CV. This could be advantageous for grant applications, because it might be an evidence that you can generate a higher impact.
For each media exposure, just put one line as a citation format. If you have more than 10 such items, select only the higher impact ones, and merge ones with similar content.
Alternatively, you can put it is a footnote to your relevant publication.

For the footnote to your relevant publication, I think this might be more appropriate for something like a press release about a specific work than an interview, but even there, I think a different section might be better.

Officially no need to include newspaper or magazine article containing an interview about the results of your achievement in science and technology in an academic CV, but it can be a plus factor when you're applying for a grant or scholarship where other applicants quite competitive. It will gives the reviewer impression of your commitment to areas of interest and the society impact of your researches.

Remember that with CV, you don't aim at "officially", rather you aim at "put whatever there that's true and makes me get the money".


text:
Should PhD students mention small grants on their CV?
I'm wondering if as a phd student, typically people should mention the grants in their CV. For example, even some small grants that you get when you attend a conference.

I would definitely mention grant, awards and any competitive achievements.

Not to be rude, but they are so fundamental, that it makes me wonder if you know what should go on a CV. You may want to look at a bunch of CVs and ask you advisor for advice.

Just to be clear, it depends on what you are calling grants.  If you apply to an (internal or external) program that has some sort of name (e.g., University Student Travel Grant), then yes, this counts as something you can put under the "Awards" section of your CV.  (Incidentally, related question: List dollar amount of small grants on C.V.?)
If, however, you mean you got money from your advisor's grant, or the conference had a grant that provided you travel money (even if you had to request it), or the university automatically funds you, that does not count as an award.


text:
Should I send follow-up email one week after post-doc interview if interviewer said they will make decision in "week or two"?
I had an interview with an UK Institute for my postdoc application last week. At the end of the interview, the PI told me that they will make the decision in a week or two. However, I googled online and I found articles which state that UK Institutes usually make their decisions in two or three days. If you don't hear anything beyond a couple of days, it basically means you are rejected.
I am nervous now. I understand the PI said they will make the decision in a week or two and until today, a week's only past. However, would it hurt my application if I send an email to follow up the decision process? For example, could I send an email to the secretary to ask about the decision process?

Don't believe everything you read online.  Take into account that the people involved in the decision have a lot of other duties that may make it difficult to schedule a discussion of the candidates. // Waiting is hard.  You need to plan a strategy for the waiting.  Some people find it helpful to do some spring cleaning.  Some find it helpful to dive into a new project, or restart something that was on a back shelf.  Regardless, make sure whatever you choose is fun and helps you get your mind off your waiting.

No. Do not do that. You will receive an e-mail one way or another when the PI makes the decision.

understood... just want to know the decision... If it indeed a rejection, I may start to apply for other industry jobs...

1-2 weeks is virtually nothing. Usually could take 1-2 months or more. Be patient. You will get answer soon one way or another.

@JumpJump what prevent you from starting to apply elsewhere?


text:
How to prevent too many students from making appointments to meet with you when you put "Office Hours: ..., or by appointment" on the syllabus?
In the past I have included the following statement on my syllabus:

Office Hours: Mon 1-2pm, Weds 3-5pm, or by appointment

However, I am beginning to get too many requests for appointments. Appointments are really inefficient. They waste both of our time trying to schedule them, and with multiple appointments per week in addition to office hours, even holding them takes a lot of time away from research. How do you accommodate students who can't make your office hours without devoting too much time to this task?
I thought about setting up a class message board where they can ask each other and answer each other's questions - anonymously if they wish - (I can also answer questions on the message board) and put on the syllabus "All content related questions should be posed in class, on the message board or in office hours. I do not reply to questions about content via email. Please schedule an appointment to meet with me if you are having difficulty getting a question answered after trying the above options"
Some Background: I'm a graduate student lecturer. I teach 2 sections of calculus, so about 60 students. Since classes are small (~30), there are about 10 lecturers (some are faculty and some are grad students with masters degrees) and we all have office hours. Mine tend to be very crowded, about 5-10 students showing up (some from other sections). I tell my students to go to other instructor's office hours, but they say they aren't as helpful.

Don't you have teaching assistants?

Along the lines of Patricia's answer, if there's a tendency for OH requests around a given time, or by a select group of students, possibly another well-placed OH will improve efficiency.

Don't say "or by appointment". Students who really need your help will still try to schedule extra time, and students who don't won't.

@BenBitdiddle I've added some background. My university has grad students actually teach their classes to reduce class sizes. So I am effectively both the TA and the lecturer.

When your schedule is full, say no.

Maybe http://doodle.com and try to group students? While I haven't use it for that purpose, I am using it a lot for scheduling other e-mails: totally no back-and-forth e-mails.

What an interesting problem to have. When I saw the title, I thought, "This must be hypothetical, because this problem never, ever occurs." But I was wrong.
Anyway, I don't know how to deal with having too many students try to schedule office hours, because I have never had that problem, even when teaching 60 students.
I do, however, employ the message board tactic that you mentioned, which probably helps cut down on office hours (and dramatically reduces the number of emails I get). I suggest the free (and extremely slick) service Piazza. Students can collaboratively (wiki-style) answer each others' questions, and instructors can edit everything in sight, as well as create their own answers. When posting questions, students can also appear anonymous to their classmates, but not to the instructor, which eliminates any embarrassment they might feel.
tl;dr: Try Piazza.

+1 for recommending Piazza. This has definitely helped me, in part because it minimizes duplicate questions.

+1 for Piazza, too.  I installed the iPhone app and turned on badge alerts, so I get notified when there is discussion;  makes it super-easy to stay on top of things.

I poll students at the beginning of the term. I pick 3-4 possible slots for office hours and then post a poll on Piazza (or your favorite course management system or by show of hands in class) for the preferred times.
This gives students a sense of input into the schedule, but also maximizes overlap of office hours and student availability.
Before I did this, I found many students might have conflicting classes (e.g., they take my class in chemistry, but take another class in the major or a math or physics class) at the same time as my arbitrarily-chosen hours.
Update:
Also, for setting up ad-hoc meetings, I use doodle.com which connects to my calendars and lets students suggest times that work for them and me. It will anonymize your schedule and just indicate "busy" blocks. Highly recommended.

The website http://doodle.com provides a useful resource for attempting this.

Yes, good point. I use a "Meet Me" page to let students find appropriate times.

I think adding more office hours based on student feedback is obvious.
However that does not seem to cut into the real issue that you are having, which is - Why do your students need so much help outside of class?
I am not sure what kind of system is available to you but you need to find a message board clone that students can ask their initial questions.  It is highly likely that you may not have been explaining either the "homework" or the topic clearly and the students are confused a bit.  With a message board something is asked once, answered, commented/viewed by many.
And I didn't mean the above to be a knock on your teaching style.  We have all not explained something clearly and I have dealt with a barrage of phone calls from students when I did.  When I switched to an online format (I have even used twitter) it was much easier to deal with.
The only other time I have had the issue of too many appointments was when the female students believed that I was on the market.  I then started dressing shabby and talked about my wife more.  If this is your real problem, good luck.

-1: this answer seems to assume a lot of information not provided in the question ... women hitting on a professor? (women being nice can often be interpreted as flirting by males when it actually isn't, assuming they want you is presumptuous at best). Also at my school, bad teaching leads to the opposite problem as students will simply go to someone else for help. When you go to conferences is it the great talks that generate more questions or the incomprehensible ones. I'm not so sure why you think undergrads are any different. Good lectures stimulate interest in the students.

@WetLabStudent re: your parenthetical. See
Abbey, A. (1982) Sex differences in attributions for friendly behavior: Do males misperceive females' friendliness? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 42(5), May 1982, 830-838
tl;dr: The answer is "yes".

@WetLabStudent - I just mentioned that as a possibility.  I didn't infer anything at all.  I could be wrong but you never know if they are wanting help or social interaction.

I agree with the message board idea. This is in addition.
If you have a lot of students not able to make your office hours, there might be an issue such as conflicts with other courses they are taking.
Maybe begin any appointment scheduling with "Why can't you get to my Monday or Wednesday hours?". That encourages thinking of the appointment approach as an exception, and also collects potentially useful data. It may be possible that rescheduling the office hours to a popular time for appointments would improve the situation.


text:
Reading material on working conditions of women in academia
Like many professions, academia is a challenging environment for women. In some disciplines (e.g. computer science), the number of women remains low despite efforts to increase it. Have there been any academic studies on the ways of improving the working conditions for women, specifically focussing on women in academia? As an academic working in hard sciences (i.e. not gender studies), what book or review could I read on the topic, to help me get a better understanding of these issues (and possibly improve my own behavior)?
I'm not interested in “advice” (in part because I am not a woman), but in studies of how effective are various possible ways of improving the working conditions for women (in academia). Like “we study universities implementing policies X and Y, and show that they do increase gender diversity bu xx%”

The question “Women in academia” is related, but I'm asking for material with a totally different perspective.

A simple google of "women in academia study" pops tons of studies. That said, I cannot from personal experience agree with women having it any harder in academia than men - on the contrary.

@gnometorule I tried that Google search (and variations thereof), but I find that it contains also many results on “(academic studies) of women …” (i.e. the studies are academic, but not restricted to academic life per se.

are you more interested in questions along the lines "how to academically succeed as a woman in an environment largely consisting of men (1)", or "as a woman, how to balance academia with a 'regular' life (2)", or "... (3)"? I am not the right person to help here really, have just seen plenty of counterexamples to (1) (a woman 3 or so years ahead in my field, from me school, recently got the John Bates Clark Medal), but maybes LNG your particular interest more clear in your Wheaton could help others here to give you better advice?

I'm not interested in “advice” (in part because I am not a woman), but in studies of how effective are various possible ways of improving the working conditions for women (in academia). Like “we study universities implementing policies X and Y, and show that they do increase gender diversity bu xx%”.

@F'x  good last comment (Jan 24 at 19:02) - that's very helpful in clarifying what you're after - please could you edit that comment into the question?

Tangential to the literal question, but very informative to me, was the following collection of interviews with women in mathematics from past decades: "Women Becoming Mathematicians" Margaret Murray MIT Press, 2000, 2001 HC ISBN 0-262-13369-5 PB ISBN 0-262-63246-2

Doing research is nice (and pleasantly academic), but I also suggest actually talking with the women in your department and getting their perspective.

@gnometorule I deleted my snarky comment, but care to give an example of how men have it harder than women in academia? I am very curious.

@Amy: my older comment is horribly spell-adjusted by my beautiful iPhone, and I can barely read it myself. But care to point out where I said that? All I said is that I know plenty of women who do great in academia, and pointed out the most successful one. My program consisted of 7 sub programs of 1-5 maybe students each. In 2 of these, two women were among the most successful in all of NA at the end, finding themselves at MIT and Northwestern after. And my gf is doing great in her field. It doesn't end there.

Please note that what I said didn't imply that in 5/7 fields men were top of their class and highly successful on the job market. There is one man in one of the seven subfields who was similarly successful (also going to MIT). The other 4 fields didn't produce job market stars.

@gnometorule I was referring to your first comment. The fact that you know a few successful women in the sciences (so do I!) doesn't mean there isn't bias inherent in the system.

The most recent paper to make a big splash on this subject was "Science faculty's subtle gender biases favor male students", by Moss-Racusin et al.  You can start there, and dig backwards through the references - you'll hit most of the major reports on this topic.
A few notes on the topic of this paper itself:
It is the same gender biases that academics have towards their students that they also demonstrate against their peers, so don't narrow your research too much. And if your question is "why are there so few academic women in the sciences?" you need to look at the problem from top to bottom. Women aren't going to want to become professors if they are already noticing the bias in undergrad.

Thanks, nice reference. The question is not so much about teaching and students, than about working conditions for women in the staff (i.e. not students).

Look through the references - many of the papers they cite are about the workplace and various initiatives.

Indeed, sorry, I had only given it a quick look. Thanks, it's a very nice starting point!

You may want to check out the Association for Women in Science (AWIS) website. There's a resources area on the right side of the page which includes publications and factsheets. Elsewhere, there's a link to relevant committee or groups for different STEM fields.

I think that you read French, so there is this book: Parcours de femmes à l'université : Perspectives internationales and also this study: Les femmes à l'université:
Rapports de pouvoir et discriminations.

In the UK there is Athena SWAN Charter which

recognises commitment to advancing women's
  careers in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine
  (STEMM) employment in higher education.

They have a number of reports that could be of interest including Measuring Sucess and a whole section devoted to good practice.

A Google Scholar search of "academia women" seems to reveal a number of potentially-relevant studies.
Below are primarily retrospective/introspective qualitative articles, but some quantitative articles exist.
‘We make the road by walking’: a collaborative inquiry into the experiences of women in academia
Elizabeth Drame, Jennifer Mueller, Raquel Oxford, Sandra Toro, Debora Wisneski, Yaoying Xu
Reflective Practice
Vol. 13, Iss. 6, 2012
http://www.tandfonline.com/action/showCitFormats?doi=10.1080%2F14623943.2012.732939
Inspiration From Role Models and Advice for Moving Forward
Michelle G. Newman, Lata K. McGinn
Behavior Therapy, Volume 43, Issue 4, December 2012, Pages 721–723
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2012.03.001
Kleihauer, Sarah, Carrie Ann Stephens, and William E. Hart. "Insights from Six Women on Their Personal Journeys to Becoming Deans of Agriculture: A Qualitative Study." Volume 11, Number 1–Winter 2012 (2012): 64.
Silander, C., Haake, U. & Lindberg, L. (2012). The different worlds of academia: a horizontal analysis of gender equality in Swedish higher education. Higher Education (18 december), 1-16.
O’Brien, K. R. and Hapgood, K. P. (2012), The academic jungle: ecosystem modelling reveals why women are driven out of research. Oikos, 121: 999–1004. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0706.2012.20601.x
Multi-Institutional Study of Women and Underrepresented Minority Faculty Members in Academic Pharmacy
Marie A. Chisholm-Burns, et al.
Am J Pharm Educ. 2012 February 10; 76(1): 7.
doi:  10.5688/ajpe7617
You may also wish to check out well-known blogs and sites that discuss the academic environment, including http://theprofessorisin.com and http://chronicle.com/section/Home/5 and http://www.phinished.org.


text:
How do I cite RFCs?
What's the right way to cite RFC's of the IETF (Internet Engineering Taskforce)? like this one? That is, what kind of document should this be considered as? Is the IETF the author, the organization, or the publisher? etc.

There's a draft of IETF recommendations for citing RFCs in BibTeX. Using these recommendations, RFCs are considered as a technical report. The authors would be the people who wrote the RFC, and the publisher and organization would be "RFC Editor".
In your example, the BibTeX entry following the recommendations would look something like this:
@techreport{rfc4180,
  author = {Y. Shafranovich},
  title = {Common Format and MIME Type for Comma-Separated Values (CSV) Files},
  howpublished = {Internet Requests for Comments},
  type = {RFC},
  number = 4180,
  year = {2005},
  month = {10},
  issn = {2070-1721},
  publisher = {RFC Editor},
  institution = {RFC Editor},
  url = {https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4180.txt}
}

See also: https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/59284/citing-rfcs-with-biblatex


text:
If you no longer have your university email address does your Google Scholar Profile become invalid?
Google Scholar requires a university email address for verification. I have not signed up for the service yet. If I leave the university, does my Google Scholar profile become invalid? Or can I still use/update my Google Scholar profile? Can someone post their personal experience about this?

Apparently a .org address works too, even if you died >65 years ago. http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/61689/an-academic-who-died-over-50-years-ago-still-has-google-scholar-profile-with-ver

I have a google scholar profile for more than 5 years now and was never asked again to verify my account after the initial verification was completed. I can still edit and update my profile as usual.

Are you still in academia? Or have you moved to industry, etc?

I just finished with academia


text:
Should I choose a journal for submission from the journals I have cited and should I cite papers from the journal I intend to submit to?
Manuscripts should provide new contribution in the particular field which is listed as the scope of the journal. But is it necessary to cite papers from the particular journal for which I am going to submit my paper?

The two questions have different implications, because journals benefit from self-citation.  The first question implies the journal will try to manipulate the self-citation rate.

"Should I decide the suitable journal for submission based on the papers in references?"  In my experience there is usually not enough of a pattern for this to be attempted.

You have two different questions here.

Should I decide the “suitable journal” for submission based on the papers in references?

"Yes you should" seems overly strong, but "yes, this is a decent strategy" as a starting point to figuring out where you might want to send the paper.  You should look at other factors like how well that journal is rated/cited and respected by people in your field (as a starting point to understanding this, ask your advisor).

Is it necessary to cite papers from the particular journal for which I am going to submit my paper?

Not strictly "necessary" but a very good idea.  What's important is that you show how your paper fits in to the work that already exists in the specific field you're contributing to.  Probably, some of that work is in the same venue, so you should cite that work and show how yours is related to it.  Some reviewers may feel more at ease if they see citations to the same venue and are convinced you've described how your paper is related to the cited works.  You should at least be checking your target venue for papers related to yours, so that you aren't seen to be missing on-topic work in that field in that venue, which reviewers may be more likely to be aware of and thinking of as they read your work.
Be aware that when you're describing those prior papers in the field and the gap that leaves, which your paper fills, that you do so respectfully; the authors of those papers (even if the papers are not in the same venue) may be your reviewers.
You should also look at papers in that journal and see how they are structured (in addition to looking at how they are formatted).  Is there a particular set of section headings that most or all papers in that journal have?  Are they typically in the same order?  Is there a common series of points that are made, especially in introduction sections?  If so, give your paper the same sections and sequencing, so that you overcome the antibodies that might reject it thinking "this just doesn't look/feel/read like something that gets published here."  For formatting, follow the journal's style guide/templates.

is it necessary to cite papers from the particular journal for which I am going to submit my paper?

No.

Somebody actually answered a yes/no question with a yes/no answer... stop the internet.

But in order to reach the minimum number of characters for an answer he had to repeat the question.

@Mindwin we don't answer yes/no because they are not helpful answers. What we want to know is why is the answer no.

@StrongBad I know, I know.

The two questions you have asked are actually not the same, so I'll answer them separately. To answer your first question, it is not necessary to cite papers from the journal where you plan to submit. You should cite only whatever sources you have used or are relevant to your work, irrespective of where they have been published. If, during your literature search, you happen to come across relevant articles published in your target journal, you can cite them. If not, it is still fine.
Deciding on a suitable journal based on the papers in your reference list is a good idea. This is not because you will have more citations from the same journal, but because the chances of your work matching the scope of the journal is higher. Since the works on your reference list will mostly be closely related to the topic and subject area of your paper, the journals which have published these works will probably have an interest in publishing works on a similar topic. This is a good way to select target journals which will be interested in your work.


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Whether to add co-author who helped in modifying a journal paper based on a peer-review feedback?
Should I include as co-author someone who helped me in modifying a journal paper based on a peer-review I have received?

What was the nature of the modification?

Depending on the nature of it, you could simply add an acknowledgement of their help. This is common practice when you get external contributions.

By "nature of the modification" folks probably mean: If he helped you with spelling, grammar, and adjectives, then probably not a co-author. If he helped you with understanding the concepts, explaining the concepts, or correcting conceptual errors, then almost certainly a co-author.  If he corrected mathematical errors, then it's in the middle.

@puppetsockreinstateMonica Yes he helped to address one important point of concern of the reviewer.

You should consider it, I think, but there is too little information here to give a positive recommendation. It would depend on whether the other person contributed to the ideas at the heart of the paper. If they only gave advice on wording or presentation, then probably not.
Note that editors and even reviewers making suggestions don't become co-authors. You have to judge their contribution. But note that they may have an opinion about it that you should take into account as well.

But let me suggest something beyond pure accounting and ethical obligation. While this may not be true in some fields that depend on rigorous bean counting to rate people, I'd suggest a general view that you are generous rather than stingy can serve you well in the long run. If I were the commenter on your paper, I'd suggest that an acknowledgement is enough (or more than enough). If I were the author, I'd be more inclined to include the commentator than not, though the first part of this answer still applies. Over the course of your career it may matter little whether you are the sole or joint author of any given paper. But, having a wide circle of people willing to collaborate with you is a big plus in the long term.
But, if you are at the very beginning of your career and looking for a job, you might need a sole author publication at this moment. That depends on the field, I think. But I'd suggest short term thinking only if truly necessary.

Thanks. I have already started my carrier as researcher almost 10 years ago and the article counts already 11 authors, so one more would not change much. He supported addressing a whole review point from a review and he is also a good colleague, so I believe I will include him.

Heh heh. I'm glad I'm not the only person who cannot spell "career." I have to look it up nearly every time. :^)

@puppetsockreinstateMonica, or maybe the spell "corrector" just struck again. I get dinged pretty regularly.


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How acceptable is it to submit a paper where most of the references are written by the same group of authors?
I am preparing a conference paper. I have been looking for references for a specific topic related to my research. I have not found any that were not written by current/former members or my research lab.
How common is it and how acceptable is it to submit a paper where most or all of the references were written by the same group of authors?
In other words, my adviser is an author for most/all of them with a subset of his students.

Are you sure that you are working on something really scientific? I mean I'm somewhat pessimistic but it's not a really good sign to find out the only one that does research on your topic is your adviser or his/her former students. Also, in my opinion a paper that only has self-citations (I count a citation as self-citation even if the alleged paper has just one common author with the current article) is probably bogus...

@AloneProgrammer While I find your response intuitive, I also find it close-minded. Are conventional solutions to a problem always the best ones? I would say not always. I am more concerned with solving the problem than gaining approval from the academic community.

I understand, but I already said that I'm really pessimistic about problems, so my opinion might not be true generally and that's the reason why I put the comment instead of writing an answer.

@AloneProgrammer What if the research was published in leading journals whose peer reviewers care about novelty and significance?

@Laakeri I don't care if it is published in Nature or Science or whatever elite journal. A paper published in a leading journal doesn't mean necessarily everything in it is a god given fact. There are lots of excellent papers published in leading journals and there are lots of garbage papers also published in leading journals. So, you should check yourself to see if paper makes sense or not instead of relying on reviewers or reputation of the leading journal.

If your work is either very new or very esoteric, then I don't see that this would be unusual. However, for a more general topic there might be some issues. When I finished my dissertation the topic wasn't new, but it was very esoteric. I knew of only two universities in the world where there was interest in the problem and only about a half dozen people interested. All were either professors or students at those two institutions.
Research is very specialized and often balkanized. So, if there are, in fact, few or no other papers then the situation is determined by the facts and is therefore acceptable. Publishing may spread interest and the "problem", if any, will disappear in time.
Make sure your search was thorough, of course. It wouldn't do to be informed of a wide body of work that you missed.

This answered my question perfectly. Thanks!

In my field, computer science, this can be fine depending on circumstances.
E.g. it can be fine if you're in a new area.
Do your citations cite anyone outside the group? They may be a good place to find more citations.
Also make sure you've tried the 'related articles' feature on Google Scholar.

Have you tried looking for references in other languages? Finding one even if loosely related can cover for diversity. Other than that, if you dont find any then there is no problem.
Actually it is a good strategy because you are both honoring the original researchers on the field... and they can't exactly disagree with their own papers (this is not a joke, its an actual tip given around. To try and include a paper in your references from the teacher/teachers on your PHD that may be your supervisors/exam comitee ).


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Is it self-plagiarism to repurpose a government report into a journal article?
I wrote a report to the state department of transportation for a research project they sponsored. Can I use the same texts/paragraphs from the report to write journal articles? In other words, does it consider plagiarism to do that? I am the author of both, the report and the research papers. Does the final report for a project consider a published work?

Thanks guys for your answers. The state department has no problem in using the results for publishing research papers. My only concern is the self-plagiarism. I spent a lot of time writing that report and, I honestly want to copy several sentences from the report to journal articles. I just can't find a better way to rewrite these sentences and this will speed up my writing.

Copying some sentences should be okay. Just make sure you change the formatting  and style

Can I use the same texts/paragraphs from the report to write journal articles? In other words, does it consider plagiarism to do that? I am the author of both, the report and the research papers. Does the final report for a project consider a published work?

The short answer to your questions are it depends. The long answer is likely yes, you can probably publish both with some caveats.
In principle, there is nothing wrong with using a project report as the basis for a journal article. Speaking from experience, I have co-authored several completion reports that were used as the basis for manuscripts. For example, the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission Sea Lamprey Control Broad publishes completion reports on their webpage, but still encourages the investigators to publish the work in peer reviewed journal articles. However, there are some important considerations:

Make sure your funding agency is okay with you publishing their report. On a more positive note, some funding agencies will encourage you to publish.
Is your completion report public and is it citable? You may or may not need to cite your previous work. Mentioning the completion report in your cover letter would also help address this problem with the journal.
The completion report likely will not be formatted correctly or written in a style suitable for a journal. Likely your methods section will be okay and possibly the results section. Most likely, the introduction and discussion will need to be adapted to fit the journal's style and tone.

First of all you have to check with the state dept. if they allow publishing the findings/results as most of the time such projects are very confidential.
Secondly, it is better to rephrase your findings in a report. As a matter of fact, the writing norms and styles for report writing are quite different than what the academic audience expect. I am afraid if you submit your report (or excerpt from it) in form of a paper, the reviewers might reject it on basis of its write-up.

It's a department of transportation, not a department of foreign affairs.  Transportation is not usually confidential.

I understand this thing. But as far as project related to government collaborations are concerned, it is always advisable to consult the appropriate authority to avoid any untoward situations. The layers of officiality are often too complex.

This cannot be plagiarism, since it is your own work. It could in principle be self-plagiarism, but since the report you wrote is not an academic paper, this does not really apply either. If the report is public, your journal article should cite it and point out the amount of coincidence.
That said, Sjaffry is right in pointing out that making a paper out of a report typically involves extensive rewrite anyway, since the writing styles tend to differ.

@RichardErickson How do you disagree with me? I don't see any inconsistency compared to your answer.

I re-read your answer and agree with you. (Also, I didn't downvote your answer).


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What does 0/3, 1/3, 1/4, 1/11, etc. mean in the context of assigned reviews in a journal management system?
I have submitted a paper in a mathematical journal 04 months ago. A part of the online system of this journal is showed in the following figure.
I see that, after 01 month, status of "Assigned reviews completed" is "0/3". Next, after 02 moths it is "1/3", after 3 months it is "1/10" and now is "1/11".
What are this means? What should I do in this case? A letter to editor for a inquiry or no?
Thank you for your comments.

My intuitive guess is that it's the number of reviewers who have completed their reviews / been invited to review. The journal invited 3 reviewers in the first month. Two months later, one reviewer finished the review, but the other two either didn't accept the invitation (more likely) or didn't submit a review. The journal's policy is to have at least two reviews per paper, so they invited more reviewers, to the current count of 11.
If this guess is correct, then there's nothing to do except wait. You can also write to the publisher asking what the number means - it can cause no harm.


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Can a rejected manuscript be submitted to another Elsevier journal?

Can one submit a rejected manuscript from one Elsevier journal to another relevant/similar Elsevier journal after apply the given feedback from the reviewers?
Is there any minimum wait time?
Is it recommended to do so?
Would the other Elsevier journal know the status about the previous submission to the first journal? Will this have any impact on the decision of the second Elsevier journal?

What were the problems with the paper raised by the referee?

The paper was submitted to a very high Impact Factor journals from Elsevier. They decided that the quality is not at their journal standard.

This could mean a couple of different things, including "the paper was good, but not good enough for us" and "the paper was bad". If the reviewer comments go into the former direction, resubmit straight away. If they go into the latter direction, you are still allowed to resubmit, but it's not the best idea to do so.

in IOP journals, if they feel that the paper is OK, but not good enough for that specific journal, they automatically redirect you to another of their journals, often using the same reviewers.

[EDIT: I just submitted a review, and there was a little box ticked, saying]

In the event that this manuscript is rejected by this journal and
  transferred to another E******* journal I agree that this reviewer
  report, my name and email address may be transferred alongside it.

[This corresponds to the second point below]
So, unless you are banned by a society and forbidden to publish in their journals for some reason (e.g. plagiarism), there are fences between two different journal submission systems. And no rule known to me.
However, two aspects require caution:

close journals, especially with the same publisher, may have the same editors, area editors, etc. It is interesting to check the editor list and check for an overlap
since reviewers are hard to find, I suspect that a publisher may have a database of all its parts reviewers (whatever the journal). So with a similar paper, the same keywords, you might as well end up with the same reviewer. Who might have mixed feelings about reviewing "the same paper" twice.

From what I understand from your question, your paper might have been mildly reviewed, possibility checked by an editor, who made the decision himself. So the second point might be as less concern.

In general, when a paper is rejected, you can resubmit it to another journal as soon as you feel you are ready.  There is no minimum waiting time, and it doesn't matter whether both journals have the same publisher or not.
As far as I know, publishers don't generally share information about submissions between journals.  (However, it could happen that the second journal would require you to tell them about any previous places the paper has been submitted.)
In theory some publishers might have special rules, but I've never heard of this.

There's one (sort of funny) exception, the P vs NP policy of JACM. There is a certain problem in Computer Science (Is P = NP? See https://www.win.tue.nl/~gwoegi/P-versus-NP.htm for some explanations) that is open for a long time, and claims that it was solved are frequent. If you submit a paper to JACM claiming that you solved it, and a reviewer finds a flaw, you have to wait 24 months before resubmitting!

(And it could also happen that the journal is going to ask exactly the same reviewer to review your document: if you only made light modifications to your document, without addressing the reviewers concerns, his/her answer might be exactly the same!)

It depends upon the reason for the rejection.
If your science is fundamentally flawed and the paper in written particularly poorly, then I imagine that resubmission is not advised (to any journal).
Alternatively, if the paper is high quality but is rejected for addressing the practical aspects of a topic (whereas the journal in question deals only with theoretical aspects) then it may be perfectly reasonable to resubmit to a more appropriate location without modification.
I cannot answer your further questions about data sharing, though I believe the other answers begin to address this.


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Do all preprint servers have the non-updating issue in google scholar
It has been identified on stackexchange that Google Scholar has a bug where ArXiv  publications are not updated to match the final journal publication information in google scholar (for several months). And the answer claims that google has stated that fixing this bug is not a priority for them.
My question is: Does this bug exist for all preprint servers or just ArXiv? This a huge problem in my field (where the convention is to not cite ArXiv papers), so I'd rather post my pre-print elsewhere if this problem does not exist for other preprint servers.
BioArXiv and ResearchGate come to mind as possibilities.

I know that, over time, Google has made some changes to Google Scholar that were designed specifically to affect how it handles material from the arXiv.  This might or might not be related.

I've been following the Google Scholar Preprint Bug for several years. Claus Wilke (who first characterized the bug in 2014) and I tried reporting it many times. Finally, we caught up with the creator of Google Scholar, Anurag Acharya, in the comment section of Scholarly Kitchen. I was a jerk, which didn't help, but Anurag's responses kept us feeling frustrated.
Anyways, Anurag did shed some light on the cause of the bug in this comment:

Most preprints/ahead-of-print versions are indexed in early-version model — as they should be. Articles that are indexed in early-version mode are recrawled and reindexed frequently. Changes to their location, their content, their format, their versions are expected to be frequent; this allows changes to be picked up soon.
Occasionally, a preprint that has been in that state for a while can get indexed in the archival mode. When that happens, updates to that article (location, content, format, versions etc) take longer. Articles that are indexed in an archival mode are reindexed less frequently – as they must, if the indexing system is to use the limited crawl capacity at the journal sites effectively.

Therefore, the bug occurs when a record (preprint in our case) is stagnant for too long. Then that record is placed in archival mode, which triggers the bug, by causing newly crawled versions of the record to be silently ignored. Therefore, according to Anurag's description, the bug is not limited to any single preprint server.
In line with the description, it appears longer publication delays increase the chance of the bug. Perhaps a workaround is to frequently update the preprint so the record never enters archival mode.

It's been reported in other preprint servers, most notably bioRxiv.
ResearchGate isn't a repository or preprint server. It's more analogous to uploading your photos to Facebook. No long term storage is assured, nor any of the usual maintenance procedures and standards that preprint servers use.

I can confirm that, as of 2019, the pre-print non-updating remains an issue with arXiv. In this case, the Google scholar record has not been updated although the final version of the article was published 4 months ago. We'll see how long it takes for Google Scholar to catch up and update its record.

Any follow-up? Is the paper showing up on Google Scholar now?

Yes the record is now pointing to the most recent version


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Acceptance criteria for short papers
I feel overwhelmed for the acceptance rate of some conferences. If I submit a "short paper" rather than a regular one, Will that make easier to get accepted? I don't have any JCR* at the moment (nor any paper accepted on high ranked conferences). My research is a software artifact that has been tested (not only unit-tested, but integrated in a bigger architecture and proved to be compatible with external applications) but not evaluated by a broad audience of users.
*i.e.: I don't have any scientific article published in a journal that is indexed by the Thomson's Journal Citation Report. For more info on JCR, please visit: http://thomsonreuters.com/journal-citation-reports/ . JCR index is used, among other things, to measure the quality of a journal.

Also: it will depend on the conference: some are more likely to accept short papers, in other conferences, short papers and regular papers compete at the same level. In the latter case, getting accepted will not become easier with a short paper.

Thanks @DCTLib . Is there any hint on the CfP that I can use to know whether they'll compete at the same level? All I see is that in both short and full papers CfP they say that "submissions will be peer-reviewed by an international panel of experts"

I feel overwhelmed for the acceptance rate of some conferences

I know the feeling. I have just a few days ago received a reject (with mostly positive comments) from a conference with an acceptance rate of less than 14%. Happens to the best of us. (or more accurately, it mathematically has to happen to most people most of the time, otherwise you can't end up with such low acceptance rates)

If I submit a "short paper" rather than a regular one, Will that make easier to get accepted?

Generally yes, but the "short paper" tracks at some conferences have in the mean time become viciously competitive as well. In one major conference in my field, the acceptance rate for work-in-progress papers is nowadays below 20% as well.
By and large, whether you should submit a short paper or a full paper (potentially at a weaker conference) depends on how mature your work is. A short paper at a strong conference has good chances if it is ongoing work with very high potential; mediocre finished work is likely to be rejected as a full or short paper at such venues. You have better chances if you submit a full paper to a weaker conference in this case.

My research is a software artifact that has been tested (not only unit-tested, but integrated in a bigger architecture and proved to be compatible with external applications) but not evaluated by a broad audience of users.

In most fields, whether your component is "compatible with external applications" or whether it has been "evaluated by a broad audience of users" are not the core questions for scientific merit. There are almost infinite "software systems" out there for which both of these properties are true, and which are scientifically still entirely irrelevant (pretty much all standard software, for instance). More relevant is whether the research question underlying your work is interesting, and whether your work in its current stage is able to sufficiently and convincingly answer this research question.

authors: Александр Дробин