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Avoiding conferences: Potential effects on an academic career and mitigation strategies
The following question is triggered by reading this recent question as well as by a recent case of an organizing committee member approaching me with invitation to present at a well-known (at least, within my discipline of information systems and a larger management sciences field) conference.
Unfortunately, I had to politely decline his kind invitation and an exciting opportunity for academic research career building and networking, especially considering that I am a beginning researcher. The reason for why I had to decline that promising invitation is twofold:
1) at this time, I'm a non-affiliated (independent) researcher with no financial support for research activities, including attending conferences - needless to say that I simply cannot afford to attend them on my own (but, even, if I would be, say, a postdoctoral researcher with some research budget, as far as I know, funds for attending conferences or similar events are quite limited);
2) my current life circumstances are not too favorable in terms of traveling (though, it is possible); moreover, I tend to agree with the "time lost" point, mentioned in this nice answer (though, I realize that it is a matter of assessing and balancing between time and effort spent on preparation for presenting at a conference and a potential academic and career value of a prospective event).
Considering all the above-mentioned points and circumstances, my questions are as follows:
Is it possible to build a good research academic career, avoiding publishing for (and, thus, presenting at) conferences and, instead, focusing at disseminating research artifacts via journal publications (in addition to working papers, industry articles, workshops, etc.)?
To what extent, if any, it would be damaging to a researcher, especially in early career, to use the strategy above and what are some potential mitigation strategic and tactical measures other than attending (and presenting at) conferences?
Note: My questions above imply conferences only, as workshops or similar smaller events seem to be more affordable and, sometimes, even, free to attend and/or to present at.

I think the answer to the first question is very field-dependant, as some fields (e.g. CS) use conferences as their primary publication venue. Are you in such a field?

@Mangara: As I've mentioned in my question, my field is information systems (IS) or, largely, management science (often referred to under the social sciences umbrella term). In IS, AFAIK, research dissemination occurs via both channels (journals and conferences) about equally. Having said that, journal publications rank higher then ones in conference proceedings (and that, I think, is a pretty common concept to academia in general).

@AleksandrBlekh I'm afraid that the answer to your question is so dependent on your specific field (and perhaps even subfield) as well as geographic region that only people in your field and geographic region can answer.  This is a concern not just about this question but about many other questions here; academia behaves very differently in different places and many questions turn out far more localized than we think.  I am skeptical you can get a good answer here that is more than a poll of how things behave in specific fields not yours.  That is why you need a mentor in your specific field.

@AlexanderWoo: Fair enough (+1). However, both IS and management science are very wide fields due to them being multi-disciplinary. Thus, my question is not very narrow. In addition, I'm indeed interested in a relevant situations in different, especially adjacent, fields (which are many, again, thanks to the multi-disciplinarity). I would love to have mentors, but, in the meantime, peeking Academia.SE's collective wisdom seems like a good idea (isn't that one of its goals?), hence my question.

The primary argument against your strategy arises when you go up for promotion: if senior people in your field can't really "tie" you to your work—in other words, if you're someone who has published some really good papers, but are otherwise "invisible" in the community, it will be hard to write the positive letters of reference needed for a successful tenure case.
However, that is not to say that the strategy of focusing on disseminating research is not important—indeed, the two strategies need to go hand-in-hand! So I would argue that networking will become more critical once you have independent work of your own to share.

Thank you for your insights (+1). However, I think that you somehow missed one of the main points of my question: the strategy I'm evaluating implies (as I said) not avoiding all types of disseminating research artifacts, but just conferences. (to be continued)

(cont'd) My first sub-question specifically asks about journal publications as an alternative to conferences publications (with the obvious reason / potential benefit being lack of the need to travel in the former case). I realize that conferences include significant element of beneficial and, even, in grand scheme of things, vital, networking, but journals as a channel of disseminating research seems to be as good, if not better, as conferences. Thus, your "being invisible" argument seems to be unfounded from that perspective.

In my experience, to a first approximation, no one reads any papers that they haven't previously heard about in a talk.

@AlexanderWoo: This is very strange, as IMHO any solid literature review should be based on existing research streams and state-of-the-art, not on researchers' direct exposure to existing research via listening to a talk (it is simply not feasible, considering the amount of research papers, produced in most fields).

@AleksandrBlekh: In pure mathematics, almost all papers are very specialized and technical, building on only one or two previous pieces of work.  A thorough literature review is rarely necessary, though a well-written introduction telling (with appropriate citations) the history of your approach to the problem you work on is usually well-appreciated.

@AlexanderWoo:  Well, if you'd read my question with enough attention, then you'd know that my field (IS) is far from pure mathematics, thus, making your comment irrelevant, while still appreciated :-). Most IS papers contain a literature review of varied scope and level of detail. [repost due to forgetting to mention]

A long time ago I was told in no uncertain terms that anyone's career prospects are critically dependent on whom one has beers with and that conferences etc are the prime occasion to have beers with the right people.
A few decades later, I can honestly say that nothing I have experienced points to the falsity of that statement, and most everything tends to support it.
I wish this weren't the point I am making, since I do not like it any more than you do!

I upvoted. One of the meanings of symposium is drinking party and conferences are symposiums. As well, my experience appears to be similar to what you describe: visibility counts.

Thank you for sharing your experience and thoughts (even though I have left academia, at least, for now). Apparently, if one doesn't like beer, their career prospects are doomed. :-)


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Is a cover letter required when enquiring about the potential to do a post doc in a lab when no position is advertised?
Do I need to attach a cover letter when no position is advertised and I just want to ask about the opportunities in a potential lab? Or should I just briefly incorporate the cover letter into the email?

Are you an undergrad looking for a lab, or grad student?  A few more details would help.

I mean for seeking a postdoc.

In my first post-doc currently - I sent a couple of solicitations out to some labs while applying to posted positions (one of which I got). Remember this - professors receive a dizzying amount of email in a given day; including a cover letter with your career goals, research interests, and a description of how those fit with the work of the lab you are seeking to join would likely go a long way in getting his/her attention. You don't want to end up in the numerous emails that go straight to the trash - show this potential employer how serious you are!

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Should you cite a paper that clarifies the name of a mathematical object?
Suppose I am writing a mathematics paper and discover some object and call it a "thingy"; not knowing of its existence outside of my discovery of it.
Later while doing some unrelated research I come across a paper that uses my "thingy" and it turns out to be well known object called a "doodad".
Should I cite the paper that gave me the vocabulary to describe a well known object if it only gave me its name?
This is my first real paper so I want to get my citations right.

Did you try googling the word, along with words and phrases associated with the specific topic, in google-books and google-scholar? After a bit of searching (including Mathematical Reviews, and if necessary, visiting a university library and asking for permission if you are not associated with a university), if you can't determine whether the word is "well known" or the origin of the word, I would at this point write the author(s) of the paper you found telling them what (and what not) have have uncovered about the word and ask for their advice (or who they advise you to contact).

For terminology, it would make sense to cite whatever paper coined the term, not the paper where you first learned of its name.

It is not wrong to cite the paper which clarified the term. In fact you must if you were to imply or use the definition that the paper provides.
A technical term may have multiple definitions in which some may even redefine it in different fields and aspects. It would be better to cite the one that connects to the most appropriate definition that connects to your use of the term.

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Do all authors contribute to a reviewer response or only the main authors?
I would like to know if all authors contribute to the reviewer response document for first revision, or do only the main authors contribute?

Thank you. This is my first paper.i have no idea how it will work.

What does your advisor says about this question?

What is a "main author"?

i mean the First author

I edited to remove second question about length of the reviewer response document. It's a separate issue. Feel free to ask as separate question.

Thank you, but my first question was about the response on reviewer comments   it self and not just document. Since we will have few days bfr the second submission.

The authors can arrange this however they want. If they all want to work on it actively, that's fine. If they'd rather agree to have one person write the response and then send it to the other authors for approval, that's fine too. All that matters is that everyone approves. Unlike the paper itself, it's not necessary that all authors make a significant contribution.
It's impossible to give any general advice on length: in some cases a short response is sufficient, in other cases you might have to write more to express what you need to say. But conciseness is generally desirable; nobody likes to read unnecessary text that doesn't add anything.


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Could getting an MS in CS be bad for my career?
I'm in the following situation. My first 7 months out of college, I worked software job I really didn't like, and then I hopped on to another job I like. I've been in that second job for about a year now, and even though my career is doing pretty OK, I'm thinking about going back to school for a MS and maybe a PhD. I have some concerns about going back to school that I was hoping I could get some insight on.
I didn't get funding for graduate school because I did no research as an undergrad and thus had weak references, but tuition for one of the better programs I got in to is rather low as its a state school and I'm in state ( Umass amherst). I was making a bit over six figures for both of my jobs, and I've saved up more than enough money to cover both my undergrad loans, and pay the entire cost of the master's program + living expenses.
I want to give grad school a try because I've gotten really into computer science these past two years, and I'd like to study it full time for two years while doing research. In college, I was too busy dealing with a deep depression and health problems to excell as a student to the degree I know I'm capable of, and I want to have the academic computer science experience I dreamed of when I was in highschool but was robbed of due to circumstances.
I am, however, concerned about my employability post-MS. I will have had two short stints on my resume - a 7 month job and a 19 month job - making me look like a disloyal job hopper, and I'm afraid that potential employers might be turned off by my over-education should I choose to go back to programming. I'm also concerned that my department might not treat me with respect as a self-funded student. If they thought I was good, they would have probably offered me funding.
How are MS degrees viewed in the industry? Are my concerns valid at all?

Whoa. 19 months? In silicon valley that's a paragon of loyalty. You'll be fine.

Any reason you aren't interested in a part-time MS? There's plenty of professional programs that are designed for people in the industry, and you'd take one or two classes a semester. I finished in a year and a half and basically swapped to a job I enjoyed.

One recurring issue I've seen in folks considering a CS M.S. or Ph.D. is a belief that the advanced degree will qualify them to employers as some sort of "super-programmer". This is generally not the case, and I think it's where folks get the notion that an advanced degree can hurt your job prospects. In my experience very few companies are interested in hiring folks with advanced degrees for jobs that can be handled far more cheaply by someone with no degree, but a lot of experience.
Where an advanced degree becomes helpful is in domain knowledge. Somebody with a C.S. Ph.D. may or may not be a decent web site developer, but there is supposed to be some (tiny) area of CS where they know as much as anybody on the planet. If they can find a company that needs that particular bit of knowledge (or something closely related), they have a good shot at a well paying job.
Once you have an advanced degree you shouldn't be looking for "programming" jobs, you should be looking for jobs as an expert in a topic like machine learning, compiler code generation, agile methodology, high-availability databases, etc. etc. There aren't as many of these jobs as there are "programmer" jobs, but there is also a lot less competition for them. Lots of excellent programmers are self-taught, but not so many experts in convex optimization.

That works as long as you are able to relocate.

I would take any advice about your employability post-MS you get at Academia.SE with a large, large grain of salt. Most people here are in academia and are not really qualified to judge your employability in industry.
In fact, your question may well be closed as off-topic here. If so, you may want to flag it for migration to Workplace.
That said, I see your point about having rather short stints on your CV after the MS. I agree that this may leave a bad impression. I'd suggest thinking about postponing your MS until you have two or three years' tenure at your current employer. Anything beyond two years should make it clear you are not a job hopper.
Do you have any colleagues, friends or acquaintances that went back to school after a few years in industry? What do they say? Did they typically have to explain their decision to potential employers after the MS? How did they do? (If you know anyone who was employed, went back for an MS and is unemployed now, buy him a beer and have a long talk with that person to learn anything you need to avoid.)
During your MS, keep your network current. Your current employer may take you on board again, or at least provide references. Make sure they still know you two years later. Think about doing an internship or so.
Or think about staying in academia, if you really find that the academic and researchy side of CS appeals to you.

I may be an academic, but I can count recruiters.

Unlike a few other subjects, CS does offer industry-geared degrees that don't require research, theses, or even a full-time commitment. One of my family members is both a full-time industry professional and a part-time instructor, for example.

I disagree with Stephan.  Leaving a job to go to grad school is one of the best reasons I can think of to leave a job.  If you have a strong recommendation letter from the most recent employer, you should be fine.

I can respond to one of your questions:

I'm also concerned that my department might not treat me with respect as a self-funded student. If they thought I was good, they would have probably offered me funding.

Nothing to worry about here.  Your professors won't care whether you have an assistantship, and they probably won't even know whether you do or not.
If you decide to postpone starting your degree by one or two semesters, you could register for a class either locally or online.  The key is to take it as a "non-matriculated" student, meaning that you won't be taking it as part of a degree program.  (You can transfer it later and ask for it to be evaluated for possible partial satisfaction of your degree requirements at the institution where you end up.)
The stand-alone course could result in a nice grade and a nice recommendation letter, if you're lucky.  However, the main reason to take it is to start to satisfy your intellectual itch.
I don't know whether you'd have a problem getting employment after the degree.  If that does pose a problem, I suppose you could neglect to include the MS in your CV.


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How to avoid plagiarism when you come up with an argument for a class paper and later discover that another author has the same argument?
I am a graduate student in English working on my final paper for a class. I was assigned a particular author to write on, but about halfway through the semester another student wanted to write on that author so I agreed to write on a different author. I had already read some articles on this second author so I thought I would be able to come up with a good paper topic. I thought I had come up with a good idea for a thesis, but as I did my research, I found that my thesis contained essentially the same idea as a supporting argument expressed in one of the articles I had read. I expressed my concern to my professor as I began working on my paper; he read the first few pages and said he did not see a problem. I have cited the author's statements and ideas that I feel coincide with mine, but I still have a troubled conscience -- I feel that my ideas are not sufficiently my own and that my thesis is far too similar to the arguments in this article. It is too late for me to start on another paper, but I'm not sure that I can in good conscience turn in this paper. If anyone has any advice, I would appreciate it.

Is it possible for you to present your paper as a review/critique of the author you feel you are plagiarizing?

If this is a paper for a class, then the requirements for originality are not as strict as they might be for a graduate thesis or dissertation. Are you sure you're not mixing apples and oranges here? Especially if your professor doesn't see a problem. If it's not a problem, then write the paper, and turn it in in good conscience. You don't sound like you've "stolen" any ideas, or passed them off as completely your own.

From your description, it doesn't sound like a question of plagiarism (you say you're referencing the relevant paper, and I assume you're either paraphrasing it or using quotation marks as appropriate), but a possible lack of novelty. Lack of novelty is more of an issue when you're trying to publish in a journal or present at a conference. Usually class assignments don't have to be novel; they just have to reflect your own work. If your professor is satisfied, I don't think you have a problem. I would do my best to extend the ideas from the other paper, i.e. add something to their analysis.

For a class essay, as long as you have discovered the idea on your own, and you link to existing literature you know about, I do not see much of a problem. "Lack of novelty" would be a killer if you, say, work for 4 years on a proof for your PhD and then discover that someone else proved it earlier. But, you may still be saved if your proof is different/simpler/more general. I remember an anecdote that Wielandt's thesis was only 3 pages long, proving an already proven theorem, nevertheless, a "summa", the top mark for a thesis in Germany. Why? The previously known proof was 50 pages.

I think your concern reflects well on you (as does agreeing to let someone else take your first choice), but the way I read your question is that (1) you formed an opinion what to write, then (2) discovered in other secondary literature that someone else agrees with you, and had already made supporting arguments similar to yours.
That's not plagiarism. It just means that your work is less novel than you'd probably hoped. As your professor considers it adequate for purposes of your class, you should be fine.
I'd shy away from reading more of that source though to make it less likely to be subconsciously influenced by their reasoning.

Meta joke: while typing my answer on my phone, someone posted a very similar answer, which I discovered after I committed my answer. :)

It seems the OP read the article previously, then wrote their piece, then discovered that what they were writing was very similar to what they had previously read: "I had already read some articles on this second author...as I did my research, I found that my thesis contained essentially the same idea ... in one of the articles I had read." So if your answer that this isn't plagiarism is founded on the sequence you illustrate then you might need to reconsider your answer.

@Adam: You are correct, that is essentially the sequence. I (1) was assigned an author to write on; (2) read an article on another author as part of a class assignment; (3) agreed to write on this second author; (4) formed a thesis; (5) reread the article and discovered the similarities. There were several weeks between steps 2 and 4, so I had pretty much forgotten what this article said. As I stated in my original question, though, my professor apparently did not see enough similarities to consider it an issue, so I have been moving forward with my paper, but I need to have this resolved.

I know this paper probably does not have the rigor of an academic journal publication but in many disciplines it is common to include a section reviewing relevant publications and how they relate to your work.
Perhaps you could include a small section in your paper reviewing other papers and highlighting the difference between those papers and yours (even if the differences may be small) or how your work builds and improves upon the other papers.


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Why are the German professors addressed as Prof. Dr. XXX?
I notice that in Germany, basically all the professors are addressed as Prof. Dr. XXX, say Prof. Dr. Mueller.
However, in other parts of the world, only Prof. would be sufficient,  since a non-doctor can never be a University professor.
So why are the German professors addressed this way? Isn't it kind of redundant?

Logic and customs don't mix.

Who said a non-doctor can never be a University professor?

I've often wondered how many titles one could accumulate.  If a university professor were to join the military and then go into politics, could she become Frau Chancellor Colonel Professor Doctor Schmidt?

Professor is (usually) not a title, but is associated with the profession. If you quit to become chancellor, I think you cannot call yourself professor anymore.

Just to clarify, your assertion that "a non-doctor can never be a university professor" is not entirely true.  Adjunct faculty, professors of practice, and other such titles are used for teaching faculty without a PhD, and are often referred to as  "Prof. XXX"  Though generally, these are not tenure-eligible positions.

It's worth noting that we often do this with titles in English as well. For instance, "Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth II". The "Queen" title implies the HRH title in much the same way Professor implies Doctor. Using a full title is generally to indicate increased respect.

I've seen that titles are taken very seriously is Germany, with e.g. triple doctorates titled by Dr. Dr. Dr. or DDDr.

Sergeant Frank Drebin, Detective Lieutenant Police Squad

I don't know for sure if the logic is the same, but in German when referring to a medical doctor one says "Frau/Herr Doktor K." - the polite honorific of Frau or Herr (Mr. or Mrs.) remains, even when using the job title. As to why this is so - as @F'x says, logic and customs don't mix.

Related: http://academia.stackexchange.com/q/8330/64

@PieterNaaijkens In Germany, it's a title. The "Dr" is even part of your name. However, the assumption of the question is flawed: except in very formal circumstances (like a laudation), this form of addressing rarely happens. At least in MINT; I'm told that people ... care more about their titles elsewhere.

@emory "Professor" means something else than "a person who teaches in a lecture hall" in Germany. Afaik, there is no way to become a university professor in Germany without a doctorate (see Eekhoorn's answer, though). People in professor-like positions may be (like to be) referred to as "Professor" but they won't have the same rights and, afaik, in particular not the legal title in the same way university professors have.

@Raphael what are the rights of German professors? In the US, everyone is equal.  The homeless have the same rights as university professors who have the same rights as the President.  My degree has verbiage about "rights, privileges, and honors" but as far as I can tell there are none.

@emory The fifth article of our Grundgesetz assures researchers academic freedom. In practice, you can be hired for specific projects and/or courses in which case that freedom is limited. Since there is little else in senior researcher positions these days, afaik, only (full) professors are truly free in what they do. (I may be wrong here; I remembered a phrasing different from Art. 5 GG addressing professors specifically but apparently that's somewhere else.)

@DavidHall: No, I don't think the logic is "the same", what you point out is rather a separate issue, namely that addressing in German normally works by using  <degree(s)> , rather than just <degree(s)> , as in English. Therefore, when directly addressing someone with a rank/degree, it is (w.l.o.g. concerning Herr/Frau) Herr Doktor X, Herr Kapitän Y, Herr Professor Doktor Z.

Wait till you see Austrian academia.

In Germany, professorships and doctorates are considered to be "legal" titles, and have special status not accorded to other degrees and professions. In particular, university professors in Germany are Beamte (appointed civil servants, sg: "Beamter"/"Beamtin"), which places them in a relatively small class of government employees.
It is to be noted that a professor in a German university can be called "Herr Professor" or "Frau Professorin" only so long as he or she is actively working as a professor. Following retirement or leaving the university profession, it is technically not permitted to use the title.
Thus, in this sense, the appellation "Professor"/"Professorin" is legally part of someone's name, and should therefore be used in formal greetings and salutations. (This can sometimes be annoying—for example, in a physician's waiting room, you can hear them call for "Frau Professorin Schmidt!")

I know several professors who just introduce themselves with "Herr/Frau X" in order to avoid awkwardness. Regarding retirement, though, I have seen "Prof. em." (for emeritus) several times. I think professors (at least those with older contracts) kind of keep the title in retirement.

Professor is not legally part of the name, the doctorate is, however. And even after retirement the Professor can be used. Germans like titles, Austrians like them even more.

It is to be noted that a professor in a German university can be called "Herr Professor" or "Frau Professor" only so long as he or she is actively working as a professor; following retirement or leaving the university profession, it is technically not permitted to use the title. This is wrong: cf. Wikipedia, Hochschullehrerbund

There are some flaws in this answer:
a) "Professor" is not part of someone's name (otherwise you would have the option to add it to your passport (you can do this with "Dr." which is part of the name)
b) You do not loose the permission to use the title after leaving university. The rules vary, but https://hlb.de/fileadmin/hlb-global/downloads/members_only/Infoblaetter_Mitglieder/hlb-Infoblatt_Titelfuehrungsbefugnis_bei_Ausscheiden.pdf gives a good overview.

Okay, but why Professor Dr.?

This answer makes several factually wrong statements.

@user2705196 Can you be more specific?

In Germany, in rare cases also non-doctors can become a professor. Then it's just "Prof. Müller". Regarding Doctors, we don't have a "PhD" title. "Dr." is the official title for a doctor which is traditionally a prefix to the full name.
See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_(title)#Germany

Very good answer. Those few professors without a doctorate are usually very successful people from the industry, government, media etc.

It can also be the case that the person is a doctor, but not from a university or country whose titles are automatically recognized in Germany (and didn't go through all to trouble to do so).

I don’t think this really answers the question: both points you give here apply just as much in other countries that don’t stack their honorifics.

@PLL, but that's the way it is in Germany, I don't know how this is handled in other countries.

It should be noted that these people are almost certainly not university professors (a job which, iirc, by definition requires not only a doctorate but also habilitation or something similar). There are other forms of higher ed in Germany, and a docent there may be called "Professor" somewhat informally, but they would not be able to, say, have doctorands on their own. (If this is incorrect and there are indeed university professors with the right to confer doctorates, I'd appreciate a reference.)

Doctorates are conferred by the faculty, professors at universities can advise, professors at colleges (Fachhoschschulen) can be examiners but not official advisors.

@Raphael An example of a university professor without without doctorate is Prof. Henke (now at DLR).

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Is it ethical for a graduate student to provide juniors with paid graduate school application guidance?
I have several friends, all graduate students at decent universities, who are providing paid graduate school application guidance services, where they help the future graduate applicants stand better chances to get admitted.
Originally, I regarded this as a 100% OK behavior, until I realize that they are very sneaky about their services, as if the services are something underhand. Some of them even provide the services anonymously.
My guess is that they may leak some information obtained from the admission committee to their clients. However, I feel that they can neither obtain any critical admission information nor make admission decisions, since after all, they are just graduate students. But why are they hiding?
Are such services unethical? If so, how will the school deal with such cases?

As you say, there is nothing unethical about charging for advice, but it does seem unlikely that advice from a grad student would be valuable enough for anyone to pay for it, so I also would tend to wonder if something shady is going on.  My first guess was that they are ghostwriting application essays.

Like you, I wouldn't expect a grad student to have access to any confidential information from the admissions committee. Perhaps that is what they're hiding from their clients. After all a grad student is about the second least-qualified person to give advice on graduate admissions: their sole qualification is that they once wrote an application which one admissions committee thought was pretty good.

I think you have largely hit the nail on the head in your own post. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with charging for valuable experiential information. In fact, this really could be an extension to charging for 'edits' or tutoring. Really if they are providing non-sensitive information regarding the procedures and what the admissions panel look for - then I don't see any major ethical quandaries.
However, you highlight a key point. They could be leaking information explicitly obtained from the panel (that I assume they would have delivered in confidence). If this is the case, then I imagine it should be intuitive what the schools reaction would be. The reason this is unethical (from my POV) is that they are no longer sharing experiential information, but providing them with explicitly 'leaked' outcomes that would give a disproportionate advantage.
By analogy with the edit example. It would be fine for a tutor to edit and provide feedback on a students work. To the majority of people, I think they are aware this occurs and there are no ethical problems. In fact, a tutor might go so far as to show them example assignments. In fact, my department actively encourages students and postgrads to seek and help out students, respectively. However, if the tutor provided the marking key (obtained from another postgrad running the unit) and gave this to the student - that is blatantly unethical.

Another reason for being sneaky about it is that they might not be paying taxes on it. Just a thought.

Or if they are international students, the visa may not allow it.


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Multiple journal submissions
I was a junior researcher and I submitted a paper to journal A. After not having any response from journal A, I submitted my paper to journal B. After some months, journal A mailed me to say that my paper was accepted.
I immediately replied to journal A saying that I wanted to withdraw my paper. They reverted within minutes that they have already published and paid x money for publishing. I insisted that I wanted to withdraw and they mailed me to pay y amount of money for withdrawal, which I paid. Then they mailed me saying that my withdrawal is complete. I have not signed any copyright form with journal A.
After a few days journal B published my paper. Now after one year, I see my name in a retraction list citing that journal A has retracted my paper due to “author’s personal concerns.”
How this can affect my career? I withdrew my paper, so how can journal A publish it without a copyright form? On the same day that they mailed me to say that my paper had been accepted, I reverted and wanted to withdraw. Can they publish it and then retarct it? What could be the consequences on me?

You should complete the withdrawal before posting in another journal. Did you contact journal A, after 3 weeks or 6 weeks asking about progress? Publishing takes time...

They reverted within minutes that they have already published and paid x money for publishing. I insisted that I wanted to withdraw and they mailed me to pay y amount of money for withdrawal, which I paid. — You got scammed.

Within minutes they replied that they have already published, requesting me to pay x money for the publication fee.

This sounds like Journal A was a predatory publication (i.e., a scam without real peer review), and not actually a reputed journal.  If this is indeed the case, then having a publication withdrawn from them may actually be better for your reputation than actually having published with them.
That said, you shouldn't submit to a second journal until you've already withdrawn from the first.  In the future, follow that procedure and also make sure that you're actually dealing with a reputed journal before you submit!

+1 for the unexpected (to me, as I was reading) observation "having a publication withdrawn from them may actually be better for your reputation than actually having published with them".

It actually kind of sounds like both journals may be predatory without any real review, and this whole episode is actually "consequences of not using an academic advisor."

I don't see any concerns even if both are reputable journals. "Retracted by author" or the equivalent should be perfectly fine.

@Buffy If they're reputable journals, the author might end up with and editor with a bad feeling towards them over the interaction. Since they aren't, though, who cares what a scam editors feels about you?

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


text:
How competitive is it to become a tenured history professor at a four year institution?
I am a current history undergraduate student who would like to teach someday! I would really like to teach at the collegiate level but I hear that it's becoming very competitive to find a tenure track? How come?

Not a (self-contained) answer, but I strongly recommend you read "The Professor is In" by Karen Kelsey. The first few chapters in particular give a great answer to your question and are a great way to get a realistic view of the job market.

The title of this question contained two different questions (the other being "how do I become a professor?"). I've edited it so that it has just the question that you've asked in the question body. However, it's still not totally clear to me, because I don't know what a "four year institution" is. Perhaps this is a regional term? If it matters, you might want to explain it.

A "four year institution" is a term in the US and other places with similar systems.  It is an institution where, in most programs at least. the highest degree is the bachelor's degree.   (Nominally, study there takes four years.  It corresponds to the European system of the finial year of secondary school plus the three years of a bachelor's degree.)

One rather high-profile take on this issue: https://www.chronicle.com/article/Graduate-School-in-the/44846 (TLDR; the humanities job markets are really, really bad)

My wife is a historian, and I can attest: it is extremely competitive.  The basic reason is that many more people are earning Ph.D.'s than are being hired to tenure track positions.

Interesting! I can believe that!


text:
Would a journal paying money for reviews, with open access and ad-based revenue, work?
I am considering developing a new journal, with an innovative publishing method, and would love to hear some insights. The main concept is to change the review process. I would like to have a extra fast review period, by doing two things:

All the reviewers should be still PhD student or post-doc students. They are the ones with higher knowledge on a specific topic and more free time to quickly review a paper.
Reviewers get paid if they review in less than one week, lets say 10 USD, as an incentive.

Also, all papers are open-access and there are no publication fees. The income would come from ads on the papers. What do you think? Would you publish a paper in a journal like this? Would you be a reviewer?

I don't think review in less than one week is very reasonable, at least in some fields like maths.

"All the reviewers should be still phd student or pos-docs students. They are the ones with higher knowledge on a specific topic..." Seems like a way to generate lower quality reviews.

Regarding the review time, maybe not accepting papers on fields like that is a solution.
Lower quality review is a bit subjective, a lot of times phd students have better comments but do not asked to be the reviewer.
By the way, the ads on papers does not raise concerns?

If I'm really busy, 100, let alone 10, USD are not an incentive to change my priorities to work on a review.

Most of the answers seem to are about the financing aspect. Considering a publication fee and leaving the other things as planned, might alleviate things financially.

Regarding the review time. Maybe gamification can help a bit (it works on StackExchanges). Give out badges for quick reviewers.

I can't get past the "Ph.D students have more free time."  I have no memory of free time when I was a grad student.  And I was surely much slower at reviewing papers back then.  My garbage detector is much more refined now than it was 30 years ago.

See https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8708/how-is-a-new-academic-journal-born ... in general, the advice is: do not start a new technical journal.  Unless you are a professional association, or you know the top people in the field well enough to get them to submit to you.

Aren't phd student or post-docs the most frequent reviewers anyway? Most professors I know like to pass down review-requests to their post-docs or phds.

If you do this, please let me know. I'll quit my job and subsist solely on 5 minute reviews for your journal.

I don't see what is innovative about the publishing method, only the funding. I doubt think there is enough revenue in advertising to do much more than cover your web hosting costs -- you won't be able to pay the reviewers or make a profit for yourself.

Would like to know if your model is comparative with the pre-submission peer review services. It may be the case that the authors may prefer to use it in addition to traditional journals. But maybe you can use this for your idea

Relevant: https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2014/05/28/what-motivates-reviewers-an-experiment-in-economics/

Your idea has no chance of success. I'll ignore the part about reviewers being PhD students and postdocs and just look at the publishing model, because that alone is enough to sink the concept.
Ad revenue is not enough to sustain a journal. Just consider: who is willing to pay to advertise in a journal?

You might be able to get some ad revenue in a print journal, but as a whole, print is declining (maybe ~20% of the journal market at this point and dropping), plus with the most lucrative markets (developed countries) almost fully using electronic articles, you're not going to reach much of an audience that advertisers will be interested in.
Plus, if you do print your journal, you have printing costs to pay for.
Even if you go fully electronic, academic journals don't have nearly enough readership to attract advertisers. Just compare how many subscribers you need on a YouTube channel to monetize content (I use YouTube because this is also an advertisement-driven service). YouTube wants one thousand subscribers. Academic articles don't come close to 1,000 readers on average.
And to top it off, not only are you generating no revenue (diamond open access), you want to pay your reviewers. Where are you going to get the money from? You can beg your editorial board members work for free, you can use a free editorial-management system, you can outsource copyediting and typesetting to the authors, you can ignore marketing your journal, you can strongarm your institution to host your journal's webpage for free ... but paying reviewers involves cold hard cash.

The only way this can work is if you manage to secure renewable, external funding. Depending on how much you're willing to skimp on a journal's operating costs, as well as on how many articles your journal gets, you might not need more than a couple of thousand dollars every year. However even this level of funding is not easy to get. There's a reason why diamond open access journals are rare.
tl; dr: you can try, but expect to fail.

I would also add the questionable ethics: running ads means that the customers are the companies who pay for these ads. It's going to raise all sorts of conflict of interests: they might demand that you don't publish a paper against their interests, they might display content that undermines the findings of the papers, etc. Even if the publisher is very careful, there will always be a doubt about the neutrality of the science they publish.

@Erwan Maybe. Then again, having ads in scientific journals is par for the course.

Some journals may attract enough advertisers to make a difference.  Medical journals, say, with ads for medical equipment and for prescription drugs.  But I agree, most academic journals do not.

20%? I wouldn't have guessed it was higher than 0%. Who is still using print journals?

@AzorAhai I think that 20% figure is revenue, not readership. Some libraries may still be getting print versions. (It's potentially a good idea because, if you end your subscription, you still have the physical print version, while online access is revoked.)

@AzorAhai You might be interested by this question and this one.

"Academic articles don't come close to 1,000 readers on average" I think the suggestion is that the change of subscription might change this... however it may take a while to get enough articles to get the number of readers up.  I think it's this upfront cost that's the killer; nothing else.

Everything in this answer. The problem of academic publishing is fundamentally a problem that capitalism can't solve. Academic journals need to be publicly funded for operating costs, including the cost of paying the people who do the work.

This idea seems odd, right? But this is exactly what the IEEE ACCESS has been done lately. They charge you with a $ 1750 bill for each accepted paper. For reviewers, 2 days upon acceptance of a review, and 7 more days to submit the whole review. I have just counted, and there are incredible 8,110 published papers only in the year 2019. Could you imagine that: $ 14 million on revenue. Does it sound good for you?

@IvanMachado if they charge the authors $1750 for each accepted paper, then they're not a diamond open access journal.

So the deal is that if you drop everything else you are working on to do a review in a week, you earn $10?
I think you need to reconsider that business model, or at least, make the gain worth the disruption. $100 might work better than $10 for "impoverished" grad students, but it's still only chicken feed for a professional.
If somebody offered to pay me $10 to review something, I would put in the amount of effort that $10 was worth. That's probably about 5 minutes of my time - long enough to flick through the pages, and write a couple of sentences saying "awesome" or "garbage". That counts as "a review", yes?
The above intentionally avoids the question of whether the whole idea is ethical from an academic point of view,  but if it won't work as a business model, the question of ethics doesn't matter much.

$100 (or preferably £100) would have made a lot of difference to me as a grad student. I agree with your $10 assessment.

5 minutes is too short. How about an hour? Anyhow, there is a service for you: pre-submission peer review

@Ooker Fine, if you want an hour of my time not 5 minutes, pay $120, not $10. Your choice! Alternatively, find somebody who flips burgers for $9 and hour and pay them $10 an hour to do the review. That's a pay rise for them.

There's a name for a "peer reviewed" journal that operates based on 5-minute or even 1-hour reviews of the submitted papers: fake.

@alephzero: It's NOT, because of spin-up/spin-down time. They can't just take a week off from flipping burgers then go back to it. The time they'll be unemployed waiting to get started on something else completely obliterates any gain of $1 or a few dollars an hour for what's ultimiately temp work.

The first thing you need to do when developing a new service is to come up with a realistic business case. What are your fixed and variable costs, and what kind of revenue you can expect?
Fixed costs: at least costs for hosting your website and papers, staff (maybe you initially will run everything yourself in your free time, but if this should become a real business you need to envision a future where you can't do it all on your own anymore), advertisement. All together not too bad (probably).
Variable costs: if you pay a modest 10USD per review, every article will cost you at least 20USD or 30USD to produce. Additionally, you may want to pay editors as well (why would they work for free if the reviewers get payed?). This sounds like peanuts, but it adds up since you are paying this upfront and for every submitted (not only accepted) article, and even for the ones that get viewed less than a 100 times in their lifetime. One journal that I am in the Editorial Board for accepts about 20% of submissions, so your unit costs of an accepted article may be in the range of 100USD or more.
Expected revenue: it is unclear to me if you want to put ads on the website, on the papers, or both. In any case, advertisement revenues live from large numbers of views. Nobody pays you to advertise contents that a few hundred people look at every month. In journals such as PeerJ you can figure out how many views articles typically get, while data from platforms such as Youtube can give you an impression of how many views per paper you will need to offset the variable costs. However, do take into account that views follow a long tail distribution - most content basically nobody ever looks at, so your high runners need to make up for it. This is true for all platforms - Youtube does not earn money with most videos, but when it does, it often makes a lot of money. It is unclear to me how many scientific articles you can expect that would hold the same mass market appeal.
All in all, I am not buying the business case based on this napkin calculation, but it's certainly in the realm of possibility that it could work out financially. You will need to do your own estimations.
That said, you also have some other considerations (which may also sink your business even if the monetary side would in theory work out):

Bootstrapping a journal outside of the big, established organizations (Springer, ACM, IEEE, ...) is hard. Authors today live and die based on reputation of the journals that they publish in, and your new journal will need to fight to be seen as serious. That it also operates differently will be a strike against it in this dimension. I assume that you hope that your fast reviews will provide sufficient incentives for authors, but I am not buying it - fast reviews are not typically considered to correlate with quality, and neither is that the reviews are done by PhD students and postdocs. You personally may be convinced that PhD students write better reviews than senior academics, but the larger academic world is unlikely to agree. If you want your business to succeed, the community needs to buy into your premise.
Another aspect that may be held against your journal is that your journal has somewhat unfortunate incentives: it is better for you to accept than to reject (given that rejected articles incur costs but never lead to revenue), and it is even better to accept highly controversial (but wrong) articles that get viewed a lot. Even if your journal never gives in to these temptations, I foresee that there will be a certain level of mistrust hanging over the scientific trustworthiness of your journal.

Actually, with the myriad of predatory open-access journals, I recon it is quite hard for a new true non-predatory independent journal to get through.

It isn't exactly an academic journal, but Scientific American is a high-quality publication in which advertising is a large part of their business model. But, the way they make things work is by being a reasonably popular publication. Without the popularity, the advertising wouldn't generate enough revenue (why would advertisers pay for ads unlikely to be seen by many?). Furthermore, they wouldn't keep the readership that they have unless they maintain a consistent high quality in what they publish -- where quality isn't just measured in terms of accuracy but also depends on writing quality and anticipated reader interest. They couldn't function if they relied on poorly-paid graduate students rather than professional editors to decide on what gets published. Your desired properties of being quickly-reviewed and advertiser-supported pull in opposite directions.

They couldn't function if they relied on poorly-paid graduate students rather than professional editors to decide on what gets published. – Can you elaborate this?

@Ooker A graduate student reviewing an article will concentrate on the academic merit of the article, but will have little knowledge of or even interest in questions along the lines of "will this article be interesting to a general reader?" or "will this article catch the eyes of someone thumbing through the journal in a bookstore?". The overwhelming majority of academic articles would be unlikely to garner the readership that would be needed to support a publication which depends on advertising. It is the difference between a subsidized PBS documentary and a commercial television show.

@Ooker by the way -- I looked at your profile. Your projects seem interesting.

Thank you. Have you read them? What do you think?

@Ooker I didn't look at them in detail. The ESL project looked helpful for those learning English and I liked the aesthetics in the one on perspective.

As others have stated, your approach is a bit naive, but I don't think it's unreal. Just improbable. If you are going for a new concept do it properly. 10$ is effectively zero. Consider paying hundreds per review.
Also consider paying real fees to authors. Almost every periodical except academic ones pay their authors. Newspapers do, tabloids do, comic journals do...
Should the access be free? Preferrably, but I don't think it's mandatory. People pay for Scientific American and The Economist. Why wouldn't they pay for a good academic journal? Of course, not the current fees but prices comparable to normal journals like the ones I mentioned.
Now how do you pull it off? Who's gonna pay for it?
For an inspiring example in another area, see https://letsencrypt.org/sponsors/ - here's a bunch of companies who are paying so every website could have an SSL certificate for free. I think it is possible to convince companies like Google or Facebook to sponsor academia, especially if you are going to improve a field that they care about, say - AI research.
I don't think you can survive on ads. For most fields there's no one audience. Like what are you going to sell to AI geeks or statisticians? Few of them are interested in hats, some in chess and others like cooking. It's not like you are going to sell them calculators and I doubt it's even worth advertising professional products like SPSS to them...

How much you're paid rates on youtube are terrible because youtube gets most of the cut and the targeting is very broad, so the ad impressions are not worth much (but they have to stream your video, handle ad campaigns etc... all of that is not free).
Youtubers make more of their money from the in-stream adverts (and paid review / product placement). Advertising in a scientific journal would refine the target and in theory increase the value of each advert, and you would get a bigger cut.
It's all a game of numbers:

how much is your audience worth to advertisers. (nVidia, google etc... might be highly interested in an audience of AI researchers, lab equipment manufacturers in biomedical journal...)
how big is your audience.
how high are your expenses.

Good luck


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PhD 'transfer' application: What to disclose?
I'm an international student in the US and I have just finished my 2nd year in a PhD program at University A. During my coursework, my research interests evolved significantly and they're not aligned anymore with faculty expertise in my department. I have expressed my wish to apply elsewhere in the US in order to 'continue' my PhD in a more suitable environment and my supervisor and committee have been supportive. My current PhD program doesn't award MA degrees. However, another department I've worked with very closely offered to give me an MS under a few conditions that are irrelevant here. (NB: By the time I graduate, I will have received a full ride from both programs).
As I will likely leave University A with a Master's degree, should I explain in my application (statement of purpose, etc.) how I transitioned from a PhD in one department to a Master's in another? Or should I avoid doing this and work on my applications as if I were a 'regular' master's student instead?
P.S. I know there's no such thing as 'continuing' or 'transferring' a PhD at another University per se, but for the sake of brevity I thought it best to use this vocabulary!

As usual, tell the truth. Will your 'supportive' advisor and committee provide letters of reference? Well, they will tell the truth.

Thank you, @JonCuster. Yes, they will provide letters. Lying is definitely not what I was thinking of when I wrote this post, although I understand that omission can be just as problematic. As many do, I'm probably worrying too much about people (admission committees in this case) reacting negatively to what they may label a 'failure', especially in very competitive programs.

I recommend that you "tell all" though the SoP isn't the place for it. If you have reasons for your actions there is no need to hide anything. And most such educational activities leave some sort of paper trail that can be discovered. If you hide parts of it you will raise questions and possibly be subject to disciplinary action.
People will, in general, be aware that individuals have various pathways through the educational system and may be limited by choices and decisions made by others. Navigating a difficult course is admirable.
But keep the SoP focused on your educational and research goals, not on difficulties or things you think might be failures that must be explained.


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How to tell an over-confident student they still have a lot to learn?
In one of my classes, I had a student who generally understood stuff faster than the others. In tutorials, he would ask a lot of questions, mostly of the kind

"I tried this method instead of what you suggested, is it correct?"

Now, this probably sounds like the dream student, but I quickly realized that he was not really after my input, but rather seeking acknowledgement of his superiority (possibly showing off before his friends).
The exchange would often go like this. If what he suggested was correct, fine, I would say "great!" and move on. But quite often there would be flaws in his argument, which I would naturally point out. He would always assume that I misunderstood him and when I was (finally) able to show him that his argument did not stand, he would say something like

"Oh yeah, that's what I meant to say, but I phrased it wrong"

Note that this was an math class, so "phrasing it wrong" really means "failing to prove". When he asked a genuine question and I started providing an explanation, he would cut me off halfway through with something like

"Right, I get it, it's because this and that"

and convincing him there was actually more to it was yet another struggle.
I am concerned because I really feel he could be an amazing student if he would only accept that he does not know everything beforehand and therefore sometimes makes mistakes. Also, it seems like my time could be better used than in convincing a student that I'm worth listening to.
How can one explain this to such a student without humiliating him? Simple reasoning and proof by example (you'd think after the tenth time I pointed out his mistakes he would have learnt that he sometimes does them!) apparently just bounces off of him.

He needs a compiler.

Ahh... I wish I was still 18 and knew everything. Those were the days before reality hit like a ton of bricks.

Give him a assignment to research and give you a report on the Dunning–Kruger effect?  /s

@Trylks what is that compiler reference supposed to mean?

@user13107 Computer programming.  Compilers are what convert the programming language (what humans use) to machine language (so that it can run on the computer).  They are very unforgiving and completely impartial - it's impossible to argue with them.  I used to be similar to the student in the question, but this was one of the things that snapped me out of it early on in highschool (with C in particular).

A strong tree bends. What is rigid is easy to break.

I would suggest against [a deleted answer telling to put a lot of weight on simplest textbook examples] (I consider "ha! you missed the example from chapter 2" to be highly unpedagogical, as it is "appeal to authority" and "you should read and remember rather than think").
I think two things may help:

give him problems and require written solutions (it is harder to boast, or mask omissions, when one writes), solved "down to the last $\epsilon$", as you "want to see the proof, not just be convinced that he can prove it",
give more advanced problems (still, which are within his reach), for which answer cannot be hand-waved (e.g. "what is sum of", "give an example of set, such that...") OR don't tell the answer in advance (so instead of "prove X given Y" ask "decide whether X holds for all Y").

In both cases, I would tell him (in person) that he is very smart, and you give him more advanced problems because of that. (And that he still needs to learn to be precise enough for mathematics.)
Maybe he does want to show you that he is smart, and as you do not acknowledge it he, well, tries again.
In any case, I would not undermine his skills. In mathematics & theoretical physics I know a lot of people who underestimate their skills, but not many who overestimate for a longer time (such subject makes one humble, sooner or later).

Whether to tell this student that he is "very smart" I'm not sure I agree with, but the two bulleted suggestions are excellent.  Overall this question resonates with me more than most on this site, and I would like to try to take the time to leave a careful answer...when I have it!

@PeteL.Clark If OP thinks that the student is "very smart" (or put here another positive remark about his skill) I think that telling him that won't hurt (especially if followed with "but..."). At least it is how I dealt with all (as I call it) "smart but reckless" (more than often it was some kind of attention-seeking and trying to prove that one is smart; or a typical "the first sip of knowledge" behaviour). But, anyway, a full disclosure: I used to be "reckless" (as used above).

+1 for "subject makes one humble, sooner or later." The best way for an instructor to help a student gain humility is to expose him to more of the subject, as you suggest, not by pointing out what he did wrong with the primary aim of humbling (rather than correcting) him.

About your last paragraph, this is actually a well known phenomenon: Dunning-Kruger effect. It's more about human nature than some specific subject though.

Also telling a student they are very smart can backfire (evidence from social sciences) instead tell the student that you are confident that they can solve the problems if they put in the effort.  Effort is something which we all have control over, but we consider intelligence to be innate...

@daaxix The question was about a student who can solve the task with little effort. (In any case, crucial is to keep his effort high, for which there is no way around by giving more challenging problems.)

@piotrmigdal Actually the original poster quite clearly indicates that the student cares more about being right and self validation than about deep understanding of the material.  This is a classic symptom of what I describe above...

I agree with daaxix that it could very much backfire - there are students to constantly think that they are smart, and when they are finally faced with struggles in academic work (well, it happens sooner or later), they cannot deal with and just resort to other methods (like pulling fire alarms during midterm). But exposing the student a more challenging problem could make the student humble, so that would be the way to go. Also, there is only so much you can do, and after a certain point the student is an adult and really should know what kind of person he wants to become.

@TheresaLiao (and daaxix) I've never claimed that one should tell or imply that the student should relate rather on skill or previous knowledge than effort (but it will happen in case there are no challenges). The question of a "average but overconfident student" is different from "a student who generally understood stuff faster than the others". In the earlier - well,  "written solutions" and "problems where the answer in unknown", but of the standard difficulty.

I feel that generally your focus is misplaced. It appears to me that by focusing on how to deal with this one student, the learning environment of the other students is somewhat compromised.
First, I would strongly suggest that you need to put this dude into his place. Let's not ask "How can one explain this to such a student without humiliating him?" Let's think "How can one explain this to such a student through humbling him?" There are numerous indications that what he does is disruptive:

Example 1: In tutorials, he would ask a lot of questions, mostly of the kind "I tried this method instead of what you suggested, is it
  correct?"

If the tutorial is about A and he decided to use K method to solve it. Wonderful, but were the actual materials covered? If he seeks this kind of "Look at me! I am awesome!" feeling, I will deter that gratification by allocating the last 10 minutes to discuss alternative approaches on solving the problem set. Don't feed the troll, make him wait and train on his patience.

Example 2: "Oh yeah, that's what I meant to say, but I phrased it wrong". Note
  that this was an math class, so "phrasing it wrong" really means
  "failing to prove".

Did you actually tell him this thought? You do not need to say "You are wrong." You can, however, say that a certain attitude or a certain pattern is wrong: "While your attempt is well intended, I wish to stress that in mathematics, one wrong phrasing can buy you the direct ticket to failure."

Example 3: When he asked a genuine question and I started providing an
  explaination, he would cut me halfway "Right, I get it, it's because
  this and that"

That's an unprofessional behavior and you should have slapped him right there. Simply smile, slowly raise your palm to signal a stop, and calmly say "Please hold on and let me finish, there is more to it, and I want to present a full picture."
Overall, I think this student needs circumstantial challenges (in other words, come to feel how the world actually runs) and he should turn out fine. I am more concerned for the rest of the class; If I were one of the students, seeing this alpha male's obnoxious behaviors go unchallenged, I would seriously doubt why I should be here, and should I even ask a question.

All these are relevant remarks and I did do those things. I just want to make one thing more precise: during tutorials, there are times when I let the students solve the exercises by themselves and move around the class, answering individual questions and giving pointers when needed, so those dialogs would take place when the other students are working on their own.

+1 for "While your attempt is well intended, I wish to stress that in mathematics, one wrong phrasing can buy you the direct ticket to failure." and "Please hold on and let me finish, there is more to it, and I want to present a full picture." Very good suggestions.

I also think that he seeks recognition, from you and maybe from his peers. I also think giving him more advanced questions might humble him, but I think this wouldn't be the most effective way, because it wouldn't give him the recognition he seeks from his peers.
The following is how I have dealt with these kind of students, and how my teachers dealt with a much younger version of me :) And it proved to be very effective.
Whenever he offers his new version of a solution, don't argue with him, but tell him "this sounds like an interesting approach, I think you should share it with other students". And ask him to come and write his solution on the board and explain it to the other students. You should also go and stand or sit in the far end of the class, so basically you temporarily switch roles. This has three effects:
1- He will ask fewer questions: Even though he wants to show off his superiority he doesn't want to stand in front of all students and explain a solution EVERY TIME. Even if he likes to, his fellow students will be fed up with him, and they will communicate it in their own way, in or out of the class.
2- It humbles him When writing and explaining to other fellow students, they are going to ask him questions and point out his mistakes. If they don't, you can ask them to ask him questions if they have any, or to point out the mistakes. If they manage to do so, he will feel that he is not that smarter than his fellows after all. If they don't, you should give them hints to find his mistakes. Also, since this is in written form, and in front of many people whom he communicates with on a daily basis (much more than you), it is much difficult for him to hide his lack of understanding.
3- He will think more about a solution before jumping in and offering a wrong one Because he is explaining it to many people, and not only you. Thus, the cost of making mistakes will be higher, and he will think his new solution through before proposing it.
Now these effects will not happen over night, but after 2-3 class sessions I expect him to improve his attitude enormously.
Let us know if this, or any other suggested solution, helped.

I like writing it on the board. It's a really good idea and deals nicely with the "I phrased it wrong" situation.

I am going to write an answer based on the student's perspective.  I'm graduating college now, but I feel like I was almost just like this kid in Freshman year of college / Senior in High School.
You mentioned the kid is smart, and quite talented.  Too much for his own good.  I hated mathematics and still got A on it while not even paying attention to the teacher.  The kid needs to be challenged but not at the expense of the class.  I later figured out I like challenges the most, and more hands on things than math even though I was super quick to learn it.  I sat in the back, solved a rubik's cube, and waved the teacher off because I didn't need to do my homework.  The previous week I corrected a question on the midterm exam and got extra credit because no one else saw the flaw.
Here is what my genius math teacher did to me that worked wonders looking back.
A) Instead of just numbers on the sheet, take what he is excited about learning and have him a problem on that.  For me it was programming so he said can you graph this on a computer where it shows and calculates the area under the curve?  Hah! I didn't even know what I was getting into.  Yeah! sure no problem.  By trying to do it in a way that made sense to me I willingly did more various types of problems than we would have in class because I was trying to graph areas under all sorts of various curves.  He tricked me, and I liked it.
Just use what he likes, and find a real world problem :D.  Even if it were surfing or something crazy ask him to calculate how high and fast he could go on a wave given a certain value.
B) Group project that is required to participate in and peers give a portion of your grade based on rating.  I didn't really care about my grade honestly because I knew I could pass any test.  I cared more about what others thought of my abilities.  When we did the group project and some of it was extra credit we all got a's because I wanted to solve the extra credit and I let my group do the other 2 regular problems.  It's a way of allowing your student to satisfy his show off ability and still learn.
we did not always do group projects, only a couple in the semester.

I recognize this student's desperate need for approval.  If you are going to try to work on him, try to nudge him in the direction of deriving satisfaction from the math itself, rather than impressing others with his abilities.  You might try this line of approach--"I knew a guy once [Hi, my name is Mike, I'm the guy, btw, just so you don't have to feel you are being deceptive.] who had a light turn on in his head at one point that changed his life.  He realized that he got much more out of loving the math itself than loving the attention he got from being good at math.  He had a lot of raw talent, but he realized he was wasting effort trying to impress people when he could have spent that effort getting better at, and more out of, the math."
This is a really delicate thing for you to approach, however, because that need for approval is probably due to some severe self esteem issue which you don't know the source of (and possibly the student doesn't either).  Seeking approval from other people is like an addiction--you can't change it over night, and you find yourself returning to it again and again even when you wish you could stop.  [Eventually, you post on message boards all over the internet seeking upvotes... :) ]
Another approach you could take would be to be much more indirect about his psychological issue, but possibly accomplish something in the same direction, while overtly focusing only on the math.
"I think you know that you are better at this than the other students.  But I think you're aiming too low--you can really learn to excel at this.  Do you want to do that?"
If he answers in the affirmative, tell him what you think he needs to do.  A critical skill in academia is learning from other people, so he needs to not cut people off in the middle of an explanation.  A critical skill in mathematics in particular is precision.  He needs to learn that "I meant to say x" is not going to cut it in math.  If he meant it, he should have said it, otherwise, it's wrong.  Tell him that up to now you have not wanted to be too hard on him, but if he wants to be really good, you're going to quit pulling your punches and not let him weasel out of a failure to make a complete argument.
Basically, ask him if he wants a coach, or a coddler.  If he wants a coach, you're going to judge every statement like a mathematician reviewing a submitted paper would.  If he doesn't want that, then it's his choice; you tried.  At that point you have done what you can for him, and all that's left to decide is whether he's enough of a distraction in class that you need to address that aspect for the good of the other students.

Your student was probably smarter than all of his teachers in high school, and has never experienced academic failure --I think a lot of college freshmen start out that way.
I would sit him down, and tell him plainly:" You aren't getting your money's worth from this class, because you aren't taking advantage of my teaching."
Chances are, nothing will get through to him but a F on his report card (maybe not in your class, but it will happen sooner or later).  However, you will have done your best.  If he doesn't respond, I would limit the amount of time you spend on him, and focus instead on students who might have less raw talent, but who are more open to learning.

"Chances are, nothing will get through to him but a F on his report card (maybe not in your class, but it will happen sooner or later)" Wait, what?  Being very bright and overconfident is a recipe for a future A- when you could have gotten an A.  I have taught maybe a thousand students over the years and I can't think of a single very-bright-but-overconfident student who failed the course.  (Like the OP, I teach mathematics.)

Also it seems like a rather uncharitable take on the student in question (or almost any student, really) that he is not "open to learning".  I do acknowledge that one must have concern for the other students in the tutorial as well.

@PeteL.Clark I wasn't intending to be uncharitable.  I was largely basing my comments on my own experiences as a bright-yet-overconfident college freshman many years ago.  And in defense of taking the tough love approach, I think the OP's descriptions make it clear that, at the least, this student isn't currently open to the learning available to him through his professor.  It seems like Ri49 has already made any number of good faith efforts to help his student get past his ego.

I take your point.  Ri49 has, through no fault of her own, not yet gotten through to this bright, interested -- but problematic -- student.  She hasn't given up, hence the question.  I see that you write this only in case the student doesn't respond.  That should be hard to argue with...but I still don't like thinking in terms of writing off this student.  I hope you see where I am coming from: it's a strong thing as an instructor to classify a student as "not open to learning".  To me, it sounds like this student is open to learning...but is doing something else wrong.

@PeteL.Clark I definitely agree with you no teacher should "write off" a student.  However, my advice was rather meant as presenting the student with a clear choice --to either take advantage of what the teacher has to offer, or to not take advantage of it.  You can't force someone to learn, and the original post indicates that arguing with this student is taking time away from other tasks --perhaps working with students who are more receptive.

I'm not sure if you meant to say that exactly or just something like that, but your exact words seem like an awfully condescending way to say what I assume is closer to: "I'm here to help, but I can't help if you don't listen." When I was in college, my classmates would frequently complain that the professors treated them like they were stupid, and though I thought the professors were very reasonable, I would avoid feeding that fire even so.

@PeteL.Clark: I have had a bright-but-overconfident student who failed my course.  But only one, a long time ago, and of a lazier mold than the OP seems to be describing.

Following what others have said, I think it might strengthen the answer to say "an unexpectedly low grade" rather than an F because a complete failure is probably pretty unlikely.

I am writing from a student's perspective, and I've got this to say:
Why try to humble this student? To me it seems that this student has his own pace at which he learns mathematics, and his pace and yours just don't happen to be perfectly synchronized. There are hard lessons in his future, to be sure, eventually something won't come as easily and will require deep and concentrated thinking on his part. But I think lessons like these are things that should be experienced with the body. Nothing teaches better than failure (or equivalently for well-motivated students, anything less than shining success), and these lessons you wish to impart to him will probably only be truly appreciated when he comes across his first real obstacle.
I am more concerned about the potential to hurt your student's youthful self-confidence. Let his energy drive him! Definitely press (as my professors have) the need for practice and getting your hands dirty! But it would be a great crime to him to shoot him down just because you see him as overconfident - if he is, then he'll have to pay for it eventually, but that lesson is well earned and well learned and should really be experienced for oneself.

Note that this was an math class, so "phrasing it wrong" really means "failing to prove".

That's something important to learn in a math class. If some of your students don't get it, it might be worth to spend half an hour of your next class to explain the context so that everyone gets it.
I think teachers way to often spend to much time on trying to teach techniques while not teaching fundamentals of their subjects like this idea.

I am currently taking part of an 8 week software development hack school.  The class has about 14 students with varying levels of experience and knowledge.  The informal format has been the best learning experience I've ever had for a couple reasons..

The teachers meet each student where they are at.  Each student is encouraged to excel at their own pace.  This is great because it doesn't slow down the students with more development experience... This is HUGE!  Fast learners shouldn't be forced to learn at a slow pace.
All assignments are project based (typically created small apps) and are generally "graded" on effort and not getting the correct or best solution.
Varying levels of experience creates a highly collaborative environment.  I'm somewhere in the middle of the class and am not afraid to ask the more experienced students for help and they are not afraid to share their advice.

I don't believe it's a teacher's job to tell a student they have a lot to learn.  Life generally teaches us all how much we have to learn :-)

I don't believe it's a teacher's job to tell a student they have a lot to learn. — I agree. It's a teacher's job to show students that they have a lot to learn, and then give them the tools and excitement to start.

You should not take this as an affront against you, but rather as a strange way of learning, and then work with the student to allow him to improve.
It seems like your student has a psychological need to be "right" and feels mental pain from being "wrong". As these things tend to be irrational, it doesn't need to make any sense to you or even himself. You can take this into account and instead of trying to prove him wrong, you teach him to take his mistakes not as failure but as key-points for tasks to improve.
Phrases that could help your relationship:

"I see that in its core your explanation is correct, but some words could be misleading to a reader, so it might for example be better to use this instead of that."

Concept: Accept that he got 60% right, help him on the other 40%.

"I see that you are a very eager student. How about you formulate your findings into an essay so that the others can benefit from your knowledge as well? I will of course give you a bonus for it."

Concept: Accept that he has a strong need to improve outside the bounds of the class, give him the opportunity to do so, and a reward if he does right.

"That is a great answer, but have you taken into account that this?"

Concept: Reward him from being a good student, then encourage him to optimize the details without explicitly calling them wrong.

“Problems are Only Opportunities in Work Clothes.”
  - Henry J. Kaiser

I think you should feed his curiosity and let the rest of your class benefit from his way of thinking alternate solutions to the problems. One way could be where you have already established there is a flaw in his solution; but, are having a tough time getting through explaining that to him and/or for him to accept it, share a portion of the board with him during class while you continue to teach the next concept to demonstrate that while his questions are encouraged, they are taking up too much of yours and other student's time just to level set with him. This will force him to think twice before defending a wrong solution. Who knows, he might also teach you something.
Another suggestion is to have different levels of homework based on your lectures over a span of a day or a week and increasing levels of difficulty for extra credit. The ability to do the more complex should exempt the students from doing the lower level. Finally, share the solution at the end of the deadline for submission and dedicate a 15 minute Q&A session over the complex solutions.
1. To demonstrate understanding of concepts
2. To use the concept in a real-life problem
3. To partially use multiple concepts over the span of the lectures or the level of understanding you expect your students to have at the point in the semester.
Note: The use of him implies him/her.

I had a very similar situation. And my first thoughts were: "Great! I have a smart active student". However, soon other students started to complain that he is confusing them, and they lose focus when I explain material outside of lecture material to him. Therefore, I stopped answering his complicated, though good questions. Ans said something along the lines off: "This is a very good point; however, it is beyond of the scope of this lecture, but I would be happy to discuss it after class." We had some great discussions after class.
My main point: Your active student might be confusing others by bringing up new concepts.

Possibly he is more comfortable processing problems in written format, but a little bit tongue-tied in verbal expression?  It seems quite a common combination - to be talented at abstract thought but less confident in oral communication.  I've definitely had that experience, of being frustrated and impatient with stumbling over concepts in speech, when they are perfectly clear in my head.  The fuzzy verbal arguments and the early interrupting could be signals "I'm embarrassed / not comfortable in this mode of communication".  Maybe you could meet one of his non-standard solutions by saying "can you write it down step by step and I'll check it over to see if it's correct".


text:
What is the appropriate length and specificity for a teaching statement?
A colleague and friend has been approached by another institution (a state university in the U.S.) seeking to fill a position. My friend, who is putting a package together, has asked me to review his teaching statement. Evidently, this was a good idea.
I read the statement, and, quite frankly, I wasn't too impressed. He and I are quite candid with each other, so I'm not too worried about what might otherwise be a delicate issue: me telling him how much it needs to be polished.
That said, I'll admit: I have very little experience with teaching statements (either writing them, or reading them). I'm not usually on faculty hiring committees; I don't want to give him bad advice out of ignorance.
My questions are:
1) What is an ideal length? (So far, I've narrowed it down to half a page is too little, and three pages is too much.) Would a single page be considered too thin?
2) How detailed should it be? My friend talked about different courses he has taught, even mentioning one course by its catalog number. I initially thought that generalities would be better. In other words, instead of saying something along the lines of:

Teaching styles should be adaptable, based on the student demographics in the class. For example, in my Intro to Programming course at Urbandale College, I taught had mostly freshman, but the Programming Languages course I taught at Westerville University, CSCI 352, was a more advanced course with juniors and seniors...

my gut instinct tells me it would be better to say something more general, such as:

Teaching styles should be adaptable, based on the student demographics in the class. For example, I've taught some courses with mostly freshman, and other more advanced courses with juniors and seniors...

but perhaps I'd be dishing out out some bad advice if I recommended a more general wording; maybe applicants are expected to weave such details into their teaching statements.

You might find an answer in some of the resources I linked to in the new teaching-statement tag wiki

Regarding your gut instinct: I have been coached that specifics are absolutely essential. Basically everybody can write a teaching statement that reads "BLABLA undergradudate courses BLABLA graduate courses BLA love teaching" (i.e., what you wrote). It's the specifics that make you stand out (ok, maybe not the course number, but specifics about the courses you taught and what made them cool). I find the first version much better than your draft.

My answer comes from Mathematics, but probably it's quite similar.
1) 1-2 pages is pretty typical.
2) My general advice is to include details and concrete examples where possible (though course numbers are not necessary).  One problem with just being general is such statements feel very generic, and lack any real content in the sense that they don't distinguish you, in the same way many political speeches turn out.

A teaching statement should go into your personal experiences and ideas about teaching. But the included details need to be relevant to someone who is interested in your teaching experience and teaching philosophy.
For instance, I would venture that:

Mentioning the course number is probably not interesting.
Mentioning that the freshman course was called "Intro to Programming" is interesting.


text:
After what period of time does a PhD position count towards the two possible attempts in Germany?
I am not sure if this holds true everywhere, but here in Germany you only get two attemps at getting your PhD. I am currently wondering at which point it counts towards those two attempts. If I were to start a position and quit during the first few weeks, would it still count?

This certainly does not hold true everywhere.  Why don't you ask your advisor, the director of graduate studies or some other faculty member in your department?

I don't think this is quite true in Germany either - or at least not in the generality that I read into your question.
Here is example 1 (Promotionsordnung (PhD bylaws) for psychology and sport, Muenster), and another randomly selected example 2 (Promotionsordnung math, Bonn).  Both stipulate much more restrictive conditions that relate to your question. They somewhat overlap, but not completely - so there is also no uniform answer for Germany. Simply stepping away from a PhD early on would not be a problem in either case. The restrictions on the number of attempts to be successfully awarded a PhD are as follows:
Example 1: you get one and one only attempt to resubmit a declined thesis, and to re-take the oral defense each
Example 2: no restrictions are mentioned on the number of failed thesis attempts. You get one attempt to re-take a failed defense
In particular given that even these two sources don't agree, you just need to pull your program's Promotionsordnung, and confirm which rules apply to you.

I think you are conflating the issue of being a Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiter (research personnel) with that of receiving a PhD. It is possible to work in a "research" position for an extended period of time without being part of a PhD process, so such positions obviously would not count towards "two attempts."
In addition, it is entirely possible that people might have to move or change positions because of personal circumstances (health, parental leave, or the two-body problem, among other reasons). Restricting people to two "shots" in this manner would be unfair.
Instead, I believe what you are referring to is the rule that there are at most two attempts at the thesis defense. If you fail the first one, then you must wait for a prescribed period of time (but not longer than another period of time), and attempt again to defend your thesis. If the second attempt fails, then you are not allowed further attempts. (However, if you work with your advisor, there shouldn't be a problem here, as you shouldn't be allowed to hold a defense if there's a substantial risk of failure!)


text:
How to cite a statement that cites several other sources?
The below is in a paper I am reading, written by Gareis.

One of the uppermost complaints of study-abroad students remains the lack of
  meaningful contact with host nationals (e.g., Gareis, 1995; Klineberg & Hull, 1979;
  Marginson, Nyland, Sawir, & Forbes-Mewett, 2010; Ward & Masgoret, 2004;
  Yashima, Zenuk-Nishide, & Shimizu, 2004).

Can I site this in my own paper as:

Many international students complain about a lack of meaningful contact with host nationals (Gareis, 2010).

Some possible other options include "(for a review see Gareis, 2010)" if that feels appropriate, or "(e.g. x)" where x is the most relevant of the citations in the long list.

Thanks. For a review doesn't seem appropriate because Gareis doesn't exactly review those authors herself. I guess I'm going to have to pick one of the most relevant and use it in addition to Gareis since Gareis's is where I found this info. Something like (e.g., Gareis, 2010, Ward & Masgoret, 2004).

One approach is to cite Gareis (2010) as the source of the other citations:

According to Gareis (2010), many international students complain about a lack of meaningful contact with host nationals (cited by Gareis, 2010: Gareis, 1995; Klineberg & Hull, 1979; Marginson, Nyland, Sawir, & Forbes-Mewett, 2010; Ward & Masgoret, 2004; Yashima, Zenuk-Nishide, & Shimizu, 2004).

If you use this approach, then you need to include ALL these in your References list (a.k.a. Bibliography).  In this case it would be 6 references total.
This approach is most useful if these specific sources are important for your purposes, either because they establish credibility, present details, or make important connections to lines of research or results.
Another approach is to omit the specific citations by Gareis (2010), but also to note that you omitted them.

According to Gareis (2010), many international students complain about a lack of meaningful contact with host nationals (five citations in Gareis, 2010 omitted).

This approach is most useful when you only need the main citation as support of the statement and the specific citations are not useful or necessary for your paper or for the reader. In this approach, you'd only have one entry in your reference list for Gareis (2010).

I do not think in APA style you included the primary sources when citing a secondary source, so it is probably best to check the relevant style guide when citing secondary sources.

I think StrongBad is right - I just spoke to a Reference Librarian at my institution and she indicated that my original intuition was acceptable.

A good strategy is to make it clear that the cited article is a review article that summarises other studies. So for example, you could write:

Gareis (2010) reviewed the literature and found that one of the uppermost complaints of study-abroad students remains the lack of meaningful contact with host nationals.

Or

One of the uppermost complaints of study-abroad students remains the lack of meaningful contact with host nationals (for a review see Gareis, 2010).

This is part of good citation practice whereby you show the link between statement and citation. The aim is to give the reader an understanding of the evidence provided by the citation.


text:
Is it okay to use the same footnote with exact same words in two different chapters of a thesis?
Can I use the same footnote with exact same words in two different chapters? The ibid. is used in case of a repetition of the footnote exact above. But what if I want to use the same footnote in different chapters.

Why would you need the exact same footnote? That would suggest duplication in the main body. Perhaps it would be better to reword. (There might be cases where duplicate text is acceptable.)

It depends what is in the footnote. If it is a standard reference to a book/paper/whatever, there is no way to 'reword' and still stick to the standard of you field.

@henning I don't think this is a duplicate. The phrase "the exact same words" doesn't sound like it refers to citing something for a second time.

Your question is predicated on the largely false assumption that there are detailed, sentence-level rules about what is and is not accepted in "academic writing".  There are no such rules.  Writing is a creative activity.  Use whatever words, footnotes, and anything else most clearly express your ideas.
If you are writing a thesis, check your institution's rules for theses. But I doubt they will include anything this specific.