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Is it reasonable to have a mandatory in-person exam for an online course?
It has recently been proposed that our college's math department move away from giving remote, online exams to our online students, and begin mandating that all students take (at least) an in-person final exam. This was the format for years before the pandemic, so this would be a return to something all* faculty felt good about. The proposal is meant to address widespread cheating via Chegg, etc. [Online proctoring software is a solution that has its own issues, so I specifically want to discuss in-person, human-proctored exams.]
There has been some push-back from administration on this, citing that mandating in-person exams seems incongruous with the online course model. ["A student signs up for an online course and then finds out they have to take an in-person test." However, the proposal includes advertising this to students before they ever sign up, and makes provisions for students to take the exam at an off-site proctoring facility as needed.]
I am wondering how common this practice is these days and if there is any agreement (e.g. general trend in higher ed) that online courses should have no in-person components (e.g. final exams). If your college has changed its tune on this (moving to give proctored exams to online students), I'd also appreciate hearing how that move affected students.

That depends a lot on your institution (before and after Covid). I would think that most small liberal arts colleges were near 100% residential (students live on/near campus), so they are readily available. Larger campuses with more non-traditional (part time, older, ...) students would be (and have been) in a different boat.

Are your students all within easy commuting distance? Is it possible to take the course asynchronously now? That is not all students are seeing lectures etc. at the same time and can set their own schedules?

@Buffy I don't have data on where our students live, but we certainly have a handful that live out of area, a few who travel for work, etc. -- not a majority by a long shot. That's why giving the option for away-from-campus proctored testing is part of the proposal.

@Buffy I forgot to answer you: Yes, (almost) every math course we teach can be offered asynchronously (though some courses only have one section taught per term/year, so not everything has an online presence).

My partner's graduate program has a large online component at various points, and includes various in-person commitments. People do travel and stay in town for it. I'm not leaving an answer because it's not quite the same as a one-semester class with one test, but it's not, to me, prima facie absurd.

Ughh, I had that too. I had to teach a class remotely over Zoom for a whole year, and at the end of the year I was forced to give a mandatory in-person exam. I would have gladly done the exam online instead, and use the in-person time for an in-person lesson instead. This whole exam was a bunch of administrative hypocrisy by the university who was afraid that online exams would diminish the prestige of its diploma, but somehow did not care that online lessons would diminish the quality of the teaching.

Reasonable is whatever you make clear before people sign up for your course, isn't it?

You might exclude a number of people who would otherwise really benefit from having a fully online course, for example people who want to see their family abroad during that course or something similar. One option could be to have in-person testing as a default and have an online exam available by request. I think that a mathematics exam is also less sensitive to cheating, especially when the majority of that class is in-person and can't help classmates who are doing it online.

There seems to be an assumption built into the question that "proctored" means "at the university."  Is that true?  I think many of the answers have subsumed that assumption.

@user138719 That is entirely my error.  I apologize.

Proctored could very well mean "proctored at a test center that can ensure that cheating isn't going on."  In the US, there are many testing centers (e.g. you'll find one at most community colleges) that will proctor an exam for a student for a small fee.  Our department has used this approach in recent years.

At the FernUniversität Hagen, the German (or rather NRW state) long distance university founded in 1974, where I worked 1980 - 1984, we had all examinations supervised. In rare occasions, (inmates), by persons of trust, but most course examinations were taken in person, usually in rooms rented from another university. We bundled several exams in order to save costs (e.g. beginning Math with second year Math) and had them supervised by a person competent to answer questions. Students needed to travel about 1-2 hours maximum by car. We (scientific employees) did not question this model because at this time, cheating on exams in Mathematics was common, to the extent that state examinations for future teachers were done under much stricter conditions.
Therefore, I agree with you that in person exams are helpful. Once students get it into their heads that cheating happens (whether that is true or not) they are much more likely to engage in cheating themselves because they do not want to be honest losers. They  want to be honest in their great majority, but do not want to be severely disadvantaged by it. My impression at a US private university now is that students do not think that anti-cheating software is successful.
In some classes, it is certainly possible to restructure examinations so that they can be given as open-book, open-online, but if it is a class that is a standard undergraduate class, then paid help is much more possible.
We are having the same problem already with homework for a long time. If you have a large class, then having students explain their homework becomes impossible, especially since random samples would lead to accusations of picking on students.
I personally give online, open-book exams in my upper-division classes. Nobody interferes with this choice. If I give a coding project, I would include a clause that students need to defend their code. If they cannot explain their code then they get no points for the explanation, which implies that they get a failing grade on the code.

Open University UK may do something similar.

These days, for a standard undergraduate course in English, it is easy to pay someone in India to take an open book open online exam for you.

I have (in person) students whose families live an hour away from the nearest supermarket and farther than that from the nearest police station, never mind a university where they could be supervised taking an exam.

@Buffy: The Open University has in-person exams, but it offers exam venues across the country (and world) where you can take the exam. In the UK this means you can usually take the exam at the nearest major city (I had to travel 30-60 minutes to mine). Outside of the UK your options are more limited.

Prof. Kevin Bryan, U. Toronto: "I am shocked by how good OpenAI's new chat [ChatGPT] is. E.g., you can no longer give take-home exams/homework." https://twitter.com/Afinetheorem/status/1598081835736891393

Being an alumnus from the Fernuni Hagen, I can say that this is still how it's done. I even travelled to Germany (2x7 hours) for oral exams or for workshops where we had to prepare a talk about some subject. The written exams could be done in Switzerland. And in more recent years (but largely pre-pandemic), some workshops were held via online meetings.

@DanielR.Collins: Hmm, after I had read such praise on several occasions during the last few months, I tried it myself a few weeks ago and asked ChatGPT a few questions about basic ODE theory. It's fascinating how much nonsense this thing is babbling in perfectly polished English. Granted though, I think all this "ChatGPT could easily get an A in my exams"-praise certainly shows that some people should reconsider what kind of questions they put on exams.

@JochenGlueck: I agree, and have likewise tested, that it fails like that on certain math questions. But I don't hear that from other fields, so it may be a unique case, and unlikely to remain in the future.

From a student perspective, generally no.  I have taken online classes since circa 2004, some with proctored in-person tests at outside universities, some remotely using proctoring software, and some where I traveled upwards of 90 minutes to take the in-person test at the university I was attending online.
The language used to describe the course goes a long way.  Consider calling the class a hybrid class if in-person attendance is required for part of it.  At least in the US, online options are fully online so you could attend from the other side of the planet if desired.  Hybrid classes allow for flexibility on from where to attend class, but also come with the expectation of some in-person experiences.  In-person classes are 100% in person (even if recorded).  A hybrid class clearly sets the in-person expectation up front as opposed to burying it somewhere in the course description.
Asking a student to change their location for a single test adds barriers to their one-and-done chance to showcase their skills.  It is not a fair assessment of a student's knowledge in that subject.  The travel alone is enough to disrupt one's ability to focus and can add undue stress, plus taking a test in a new environment can increase test anxiety.
If in-person tests are a requirement for reducing cheating, consider strongly recommending students to show up in-person more than once or twice a term.  This will encourage students to a) learn the commute, b) develop good patterns around commuting, and c) learn the environment in which they are being tested.  Once every other week for in person discussions or group exercises or even just lecture will do the trick.  Even students who plan to take the test at different in-person location will benefit from having made the trip a handful of times before having a test placed in front of them.  Instead of asking students to change their patterns for what is often a high stress moment already, encourage habits so that the high stress moment is about the stress you are measuring (their knowledge) and not the stress about the change in their patterns.
As I mentioned, I have had to travel for these one-off in-person tests.  I prefer them to putting proctoring (aka, spy) software on my personal computer.  That said, I've had tests were I had to travel to the university the day before and get a hotel for a night because the test schedule didn't work with my schedule (work, access to the shared vehicle, accounting for commute traffic, etc.) even though it was a financial hardship.  I've had tests were I arrived to find that the test room was very very cold and I did not have a jacket handy.  I've had tests where the HVAC was broken, causing "whining" sounds in the room that we all just had to deal with.  These issues were noticeably distracting, and could have been mitigated by knowing the environment (including travel) in which I was testing before starting the test.

Yes, having a mandatory in-person exam for an online course is a reasonable and recommended practice by at least some experts in online teaching. For example, consider this work:
Ko, Susan, and Steve Rossen. Teaching online: A practical guide. Routledge, 2017. This was used as the official text in an online-teaching certification for my university; note that this predates the COVID pandemic.
Ch. 5 presents sample syllabi for both online and blended-course (hybrid) options. The syllabus for the "fully online version" version includes a single, in-person, proctored exam for 25% of the course grade (p. 131):

Proctored exam

There is a mandatory proctored exam that must be completed no later
than April 23. To schedule your proctored exam with an approved
proctor near you, see the classroom link for “Exam Appointments.”

Again, this is for the "fully online version" of the course. (The blended/hybrid syllabus that comes after expands to include required in-person meetings on alternate weeks.)
So it seems that the best-practice recommended by these online teaching experts is that at least one in-person proctored exam is necessary to maintain course integrity. I would suggest that with the rise of new cheating services in the last few years (e.g., Chegg, ChatGPT), this is likely more important than it was a few years ago.

Down voted because In-person anything is not compatible with an online course. If you want a hybrid course, advertise it as such, but do not pretend it is online if you demand that your scholars must physically present themselves to one of your employees.
If you have a problem with course integrity, that is the problem you need to deal with.

@PaulSmith It seems you have a specific definition of what a course can contain and keep the "online" modifier. Do you have similarly restrictive definitions for "in-person" or "hybrid" courses? Just to see if this works both ways: Would you say that a class advertised as "in-person" should not have any online/asynchronous content? While I am playing devil's advocate to a degree here, I am also honestly trying to figure out whether the "online" designation is seen as something special in a way that other modalities are not.

@user138719 - A course that does not include any in-person interactions is clearly not an in-person course and equally, a course that can not be completed online is clearly not an online course. Any course can have additional optional elements, so an in-person course can have online components and an on-line course can have in-person tutorials, seminars, met-and-greets and so on, but make them mandatory and it stops being an online course.

@PaulSmith "A course that does not include any in-person interactions is clearly not an in-person course and equally, a course that can not be completed online is clearly not an online course." -- I read in this that they are treated differently: "If in-person, then course contains some in-person interactions" and "If online, then course can be completed completely online". That is totally fine, but it seems like online is treated as special in a way that face-to-face is not.

Is it an in-person course if it can be completed without in-person interaction?

Let me give the purely cynical answer to this question.
If you require an in person final you will have fewer students.  For a typical US institution (i.e. not a private non-profite with a huge endowment), if you have fewer students, your university will have less money, either directly in terms of tuition, or indirectly because government subsidies are in part based on your number of students.  If you have less money, you will be able to hire fewer faculty and may even have to lay off some, or not replace them when they leave.  Furthermore, having less money means your working conditions will be worse in various ways.
Requiring an in person final reduces students in two ways:

Some students will find it inconvenient to actually come to campus for the final.  They will be able to get a degree from somewhere else that allows them to stay at home for their final; it makes sense for them to choose this option.

Because they do not have the option of cheating, more students will fail, and hence fewer students will continue to take further classes towards their degree.  Note that most universities have no reputation to speak of, so unless cheating becomes widespread enough that it becomes widely known in society at large, the cheating itself has no impact on the reputation of the university or its ability to attract students.

Just to address your second point... You can design online exams in such a way that "cheating" isn't really an issue

@ScottishTapWater Odd that at least in the UK this has proved to be impossible during Covid. We couldn't even require students to turn on their camera, because some of them had no private working area and we ran into all kinds of privacy issues.

@Marianne013 - I'm in the UK too, and sat exams during COVID. It was very possible. You just make the exams open book and 24 hours long. Then you make them harder such that students have to demonstrate the application of their skills rather than just regurgitate memorised facts. Sure, someone could still hire someone to do that for them... But that's possible for university exam halls full of people who the examiner doesn't know too. You'll still get some cheating, but it won't be any worse than for normal exams or coursework because most of the "forbidden" behaviours are allowed for

@ScottishTapWater - In a university exam hall, it's possible (and is frequently done) to require and check IDs.  Also, hiring someone to take your exam in an exam hall is much harder and more expensive than outsourcing your exam online, since online gives you access to a much larger and cheaper labor market, and online "tutoring" services facilitate this market.  Yes, similar cheating is also possible in person, but it's harder and much more expensive, so more rare.

@AlexanderWoo - I do take your point. That being said, as long as the exam isn't the only piece of assessment for a given module, it's fairly easy to tell if something looks as though it's been written by the same person. I don't think it would be that much easier to get away with it, even if the barrier to entry is higher. To add a second point though, I wouldn't imagine people intending to cheat on a course right from the start are numerous enough to affect your number of applicants significantly. Most instances of cheating I'm aware of were due to students panicking at the last minute.

@ScottishTapWater: It might be easy to tell, but can you prove it?  Many universities now require their instructors to prove cheating before assigning penalties.  I'm also not saying that people intend to cheat - rather someone who passes by cheating pays tuition for another semester rather than dropping out.  (Note US universities have exams at the end of each module (which we call courses or classes), but no exams for the degree as a whole.)

@ScottishTapWater: Also, you miss my overall point, which is that the administration actually wants (because it's in the financial best interests of the university) some level of cheating to occur.

@ScottishTapWater Well, QMUL had exams very similar to this, and guess what ? They showed up on Chegg. Also agree with Alexander Woo, even if the student's performance strongly suggests cheating, that isn't necessarily proof.

"They will be able to get a degree from somewhere else that allows them to stay at home for their final;"  This is too optimistic.  Many will just give up.

When I was involved (which is many years ago, using a snail-mail format) we had different subjects in the course handled differently. So no student could complete the qualification without supervision, but could complete elements of the course without supervision.
And although I wasn't involved in other programs, there were other programs where other kinds of requirements were in place for prior or subsequent qualification. So it would be reasonable, for example, to have no supervision for a 'certificate', but require supervision for a 'diploma', with a simple conversion exam.
That's all in the far past, but taking it as a template, it would be reasonable to offer some of your exams online, or to offer all of your exams online without conferring a headline qualification.

Not a direct answer, but a better more viable solution to the underlying question is too simply write more thoughtful and original exams. They don't have to be completely original questions, but changing the wording and a few numbers in each question on an old exam will go a long way to prevent cheaters from Googling the answers. You could even distribute different versions of each exam with similarly worded, but different questions to prevent classmates from sharing answers. This is a better solution as it requires a minimal time commitment from both the professors and students and is less invasive than proctoring software.

"...prevent cheaters from Googling the answers"
Unfortunately, this has not been the case with online exams. I (and others) give randomized exams so every student gets a different version of each problem, and cheating still persists. The worry is not (primarily) about students sharing answers, but the ease with which students can post screen shots to Chegg, et al. I've posted online exams at 6am and seen all of the problems posted-and-solved on Chegg by 7:15.
Randomization is the only tool I have, and I use it, but it's not really a deterrent.

Plus, randomizing questions for each student is not a reasonable solution in terms of extra workload for the teacher and having comparable exams for each student. Not every question can be easily adjusted by changing numbers! Yes, changing questions between years is reasonable but then all students will still have the same exam and many students will form a WhatsApp, FB, Instagram, WhateverApp chat group to trade solutions.

Sorry but this does not work.  It’s too easy to post questions on Chegg, and all questions can be uploaded there at a rate of 2 questions per minutes or more.  Thus, for a 10-question exam, everything will be on Chegg within 5 minutes of opening the exam, irrespective of the effort invested in changing questions.

@user2705196 That particular issue can easily be addressed by making sure you can reliably and demonstrably map a given randomized version of a problem to a student (using deterministic randomization, watermarking, steganography, etc.) and then failing/reporting any student whose version you find on Chegg.

@TooTea only by either generating completely individual questions for every student, or assuming a student would upload all of the questions (because if three students upload three different questions, they may match up with a fourth, innocent, student's). Both are unreasonable.

It’s not just this, but there are tools that allow screenshot detection. Universities need to think forward, not backward. I am coming as a student who is well versed in tech and chasing a psychology degree and has (limited) exposure to the academia underbelly through a previous non-faculty job. Biggest issue though is why are students cheating? My gripe as a non-trad student is how much university isn’t about learning but getting points. No surprise students then optimize that. Make them all oral exams over video and you have your problem solved.

To add, I am the honest student that will take the zero over cheating, and have, usually when time constraints kick my ass. But the temptation is there, and it doesn’t surprise me at all how rampant cheating is. I could see if I were a 19 or 20 year old with a still developing brain and set of morals that the obvious choice would be to cheat. Consider what is at stake.
Not the point of this question, hence being a comment. But to this point, I think this question is looking the wrong direction for an answer, backwards.

@Tami I don't think there is going to be a technical solution to this problem.  In essence it's virtually impossible to close the analogue hole with an online exam.

This answer rather reminds me of the common argument up to about a decade ago, "mass surveillance cameras can't work because you'd have to hire too many people to monitor them" -- fundamentally underestimating what computers can do.


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Is it appropriate for a student to have their phone face down on the table when in class?
I was wondering if it is appropriate to have my phone out on my desk face down during class. I have done this for some time and have never been told to put it away.
On the one hand, putting it out shows the teacher, Here is my phone, I'm not using it.
On the other hand, putting it out might imply, I am waiting for something more important than your class.
Is it generally inappropriate or acceptable to have my phone out during class?

The answer really depends on the local culture and on the professor. In some places it is frowned upon, whereas in others it is accepted as a sign of this era. And some professors would be annoyed, and some wouldn't. Most of my students keep their phones on the desk face up, and they might check them several times during the lectures. I don't find it particularly annoying, and, after all, I don't find this any different from when 25 years ago, as a student, I'd play Connect Four with my closest mate during the lectures.

There is some evidence that having a visible cell phone can be distracting and detract from discussion: http://time.com/3616383/cell-phone-distraction/

Here is my phone, I'm not using it. Replace "phone" with "gun" and maybe you'll see how ridiculous that sounds. A more likely interpretation is Here is my phone, I'm not using it... yet.

I use my phone to record lectures, with permission. Perhaps others do the same?

Turn it off and put it away.

I literally require what you have been doing. This way, students sent to be slightly uncomfortable by turning over the phone to see the screen. I personally think it is better than putting it into your pocket.

@padawan - That is very interesting.  I'm curious to know why you think it's better than putting it in your pocket.

@aparente001 first of all, vibrating or ringing makes a lot more noise. also, since it is visible, they don't just pick up and look at the screen. keeping it in the pocket is tempting to check because i cannot see what is going on under the desk

@padawan - I get it.  Thanks for explaining. // What's your view of what I described in my answer -- turn off and stow in knapsack?

@aparente001 that is the ultimate solution. but they might lie about that. if the students are trustworthy (in my country, not so much) this works better

@padawan This is fascinating.  Okay, so suppose the student is not trustworthy and has the phone in the pocket.  Aside from the possibility that it might ring, can you list the negatives?  One that I can already see is that the student might find it distracting to play with in his or her lap, and then would not do as well in your class, and you'd be teaching with one arm tied behind your back.  Are there other possible negatives?

This ultimately ends up as a very situational issue, depending on culture, professor, individual, and past experience. I generally wouldn't consider it automatically a bad thing - and I tend to do it myself.
The main issue is not so much the phone, as how you use it and interact with it in the context of a class. I had a professor who explicitly asked for no electronic devices to be out in class, so in that case obviously they were clear that they didn't like to have phones out, so you'd generally want to abide by that. I, on the other hand, made a point of pulling out my phone quite visibly when a due date or assignment was announced to put it in my digital calendar, or if someone asked a question the professor was unsure of, or if the professor said something I doubted the correctness of I'd squint and tilt my head, and then Google it on my phone to confirm or clarify (and would offer to share what I found if something interesting resulted).
In theory, I blatantly violated the rule, and this would be considered something you shouldn't do. On the other hand, I am A) older, and less likely to be accused of being hooked on Facebook, B) someone who had already established themselves as a good student, and C) I made a point to make it clear I was using my electronic device in a pro-social, pro-education, productive way, which added to the class in a positive manner. The result was the professor actually changed their policy to be explicit about not wanting devices to be used as a distraction or unrelated to class, instead of a blanket ban.
If you use any device in way that makes it clear you are not paying attention, engaging with the class, or generally are not respectful of the time and work being done by people you are present with, that is going to be correctly interpreted as rude and disrespectful. I don't particularly recommend having it out just to have it out, though - if you aren't going to use it in some way, just put it away because it's a waste of work space. But if you are indeed going to use it in class in an appropriate, productive way - and make sure it isn't going to make noise, even by vibrating on the table - there is nothing wrong with having the phone on the desk in most modern classroom environments. If the professor explicitly has a no device policy, then you can politely defer to it any put it away unless you want to make a point in some way.

I'm not sure which is worse, interacting noticeably with a phone during class, or putting it in a pocket that's too small, or perching it on your chair and expecting it to stay put, resulting in a clattering drop on the floor, apologies and thanks to all your neighbors who dove for it, scraping their chairs in the process.
If it's not needed during class, why not turn it off and tuck it away neatly in your knapsack during class?

@PeteL.Clark - I thought cell phones were collected in a bin as students enter the exam room.  Maybe that's wrong though.

@PeteL.Clark I have no idea if they go in a bin.  Yes, I wrote "bin" but I have no idea.  I thought phones might be checked at the door in some shape or fashion for some exams in some places, so I imagined some sort of container. //  I have no idea how common it is to collect phones before an exam. The main point of my answer has gotten lost: if there is no particular reason not to stow the turned off phone in the knapsack, then that would be the best place for it during class. (Unless it is needed for recording or photographing, which isn't relevant for this question.)

Okay.  I certainly agree with your edited answer, and I will remove the comments.

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Is it appropriate for random students to approach professors they admire?
I am a freshman, and over the summer I found out about a professor at my university who has recently published a book. Curious, I bought a copy and ended up falling in LOVE with this man's writing. As an aspiring author myself, I would be honored to receive advice from him.
But would it be too weird for me to go up, introduce myself to him and be like, "Hey, Dr. ___, my name is Jenny. I read your book and loved it. Is there a time we could possibly get together and discuss it? I just have a few questions."
I'm asking because I'm not sure how common it is for students to do this. I know it would be one thing if I was in his class, but I'm not. Unfortunately, I will not be able to take his class for several years, as he only teaches upper level courses.
I just don't want to seem annoying to him, or like too much of a fangirl. But like I said, I was mesmerized (cheesy as that sounds) by his book. I thought it was incredible, and I'm dying to talk to him about it. I definitely wouldn't want to sound demanding or anything; I'd ask him if he would be willing, and at what time.

I always loved my professors. It made me feel guided and confident

If they're really a professor, you should consider whether to address them as "Dr. X" or "Prof. X" (based on the local culture).

I think most academics would be overjoyed to hear that someone read their book and enjoyed it. The only way I can imagine this attention being annoying is if they're very, very famous outside of academia (so someone who's a major media figure or artist on the level of say, a Nobel winning author). Sadly, academics are rarely celebrities, so many would be honored to have their work connect with someone. And the worst that can happen is that they brush you off or ignore you.

I suggest an email message or a visit to the professor during office hours, which are likely posted.  Professors who are "out and about" are generally on a schedule.  Someone who is quite willing to talk to you may not be able to do so at the moment, and could unintentionally give you a discouraging response.  Also, see what the answers say concerning being specific.

There would be no harm as long as you stay right on topic. I mean, if you emailed him (her?) and got a chance for an actual meeting, you should try to talk about the book itself and not diverge to "not so relevant" stuff.

I once read a poster outside a professora office. When I was done I noticed he was behind me, kind of blushing. "You took youre time to read my work, no one usually does that." Than we talked a little about it.

Well, devil's advocate I guess: the only way I could imagine this appearing inappropriate is if your interest came across as overly flirtatious (which I only mention because I've seen it happen before and it's awkward). Unfortunately a very small number of female students will flirt with male professors in the hopes that they are graded more leniently. However, if you aren't one of this professor's students, your enthusiasm shouldn't be misinterpreted as brown-nosing. Ech, I feel bad for even mentioning this line of thought.

This is basically the point of University.

Guy wrote a book. You liked the book. Go get the book autographed. Be prepared for the actual guy to be very different from what you imagined as you read the book. If you have serious questions write them down ahead of time so you don't get over excited trying to remember them all. Be prepared for the questions to seem dumber and dumber as you learn more.

Since Buffy bumped this to the top, I will comment.  I agree with @candied_orange ... The best way to do it is to bring your copy of the book to his office hour, and ask him to autograph it.  If no one else is there for the office hour, you can probably talk about the book with him.

There's nothing wrong with approaching a professor whose work you are interested in and asking for an appointment. The worst that can happen is that the professor will decline to meet with you. However, most professors (like most human beings!) will be appreciative that someone enjoys reading their work, so I'd think you're more likely to find the professor will agree than not.
That said, I would probably change what you'd say. Rather than just say "I have a few questions," I'd say "I'd like to know more about X and Y." This shows that you're serious in your request.

Its also possible that in the time between writing the book and it publication, his or her work has taken a new trajectory or developed new themes. This is not a bad thing - in that it opens up other interesting question/conversations about how the prior work influenced current directions. The only caution is to remember that the faculty may be more excited about the new stuff than rehashing old stuff.

The other point here is to set sort of time limit for your request. So ask for 15 minutes or at most a half hour. Then if the first meeting goes well ask for additional time for a second visit to discuss point Z. And be sure to be prompt if the professor agrees to a meeting.

The earlier answers are correct and there is no problem with approaching the professor, but there's something you may not know about: OFFICE HOURS. Most universities require professors to have "open office hours" so students can ask them questions - literally the professor sits in their office with the door open, and tries to do something productive while waiting for any students who want to stop by. Those students are usually from their classes, but I don't think any professor would turn away a younger student. They are genuinely surprised whenever any student shows up. And it would be a lot more comfortable for them than meeting somewhere else.
You can probably find his office location and hours on the department website or on his personal page. That will also include his email, and you can send him a quick request along the lines of "Hello professor (professor's last name) I read your book (title) over the summer and found it very interesting. Are you available during your office hours on (whichever day)? It inspired a few questions, and would appreciate if you could set aside some time to help me understand more. Thank you, (your name)"

+1, I think this is really the right approach, with an emphasis on it would be a lot more comfortable for them than meeting somewhere else. This can later lead to whatever but as a first venue, the office during office hours is the best.

I would encourage you to do exactly as you wish and approach said Professor.
There are two main things to consider here: Motivation and being specific. If you think about it, the reason he became Professor was most likely to aquire and share knowledge. Writing a book which is understandable by undergrads seems to confirm that. Since he is per se motivated to share knowledge, he might be willing to do so also in person.
On the other hand, he might probably not want to spend his time sitting there with a girl admiring him as a person. So in order for him to agree talking to you, you would need to make your motivation very clear.
Here comes the point of being specific into play. In order for him to know that he wouldn't be wasting his time, you need to be specific. Let him know what you liked about the book and the subject and give him something to judge on whether it's worth discussing with you.
Instead of "I read your book and loved it. Is there a time we could possibly get together and discuss it?" you'd probably want to tell him what exactly you loved and more importantly, what you want to discuss.
Possibly, "I read your book and loved it, especially the chapter about ____. It made me realize that ____. In that chapter you say that ____ , to which I have a question: How can we know that ___?" (Or, "why is it that ____?") "Could we meet at some point to discuss this?"

This is perfectly acceptable, few people would object to being admired. You may want to take care about when you do it though- don't impose yourself on them by taking up their free time. You may want to send an email asking if they would be willing to discuss their work some time, or find their office hours and stop by their office when they arent busy (dont get in a line, or interrupt their students though.)

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text:
Suspecting an undiagnosed learning disability in a student
I have a student whose academic performance seems starkly disproportionate to his potential. He is full of interesting ideas and questions and enthusiasm, and frequently talks to me before and after class. I enjoy his company and I was fully expecting that his classroom work would be excellent.
It's not. In fact, he's only narrowly passing my course. His homework assignments are painfully underdeveloped and his test scores mediocre. Other instructors have reported similar experiences with him. It seems so incongruous. I don't think it's a problem of work ethic; he is in his late thirties or thereabouts and is happy to be pursuing a degree in my field (linguistics). I can't shake the sense that he puts a ton of effort into his work but can only get so far. Given the level of our oral conversations, it's difficult to believe how much and how regularly he misinterprets written guidelines.
Obviously, it's possible that there's something going on here that isn't any of my business. But the student himself keeps looking really disappointed in himself and his results, and my suggestions thus far that he simply keep at it and ask me lots of questions are starting to feel useless.
I have no actual credentials in psychology. However, I keep wondering if I should give the situation a little nudge. The idea of suggesting that my student get evaluated for learning disabilities makes me feel like I'm meddling or overstepping a boundary, but I keep wondering if I'm looking at an executive function disorder or even some kind of dyslexia.
Does anyone have any thoughts or advice?

he is in his late thirties Maybe he has a family to support, a night-shifts job to pay the bills that makes him not able to perform as well as the younger students?

You said that he's misinterpreting written guidelines. If that includes homework/papers, have you tried sitting down with him and thoroughly discussing the guidelines or instructions and what's expected? Make sure that he takes notes or writes down the 'extra' information.

If you haven't, you might also sit down with him and say, "I want you to succeed and excel in my class. Can we talk about how I can help you do that?" Is it conflicting priorities? Did he have issues when he was younger that precluded attending uni then, etc.

Due to the confidentiality of medical information, it may be possible that he already has registered with the disability centre and you just don't know about it.

I didn't have any diagnosis but I could follow the chalk-talk in an engineering summer program, but I couldn't do much of the engineering and programming. I made sure to major in mathematics (and I do have a high IQ).

Unless you are a professional qualified in such diagnosis, and this person is your client, you should probably not be trying to make such diagnosis as a learning disability.

I might meet with the student and ask about class performance without pushing any particular hypothesis. Going with the sandwich (good thing/bad thing/good thing) approach: "StudentName, I appreciate your active participation in class -- it's incredibly heartening -- but I'm noticing that your performance on assignments and exams doesn't show the same level of understanding that I hear from you in class. I really want you to do well here. What's going on? Can I help?"
And then listen. Have several referrals ready beforehand -- disability office, yes, but also the writing center, tutoring center, any helpful affinity groups the student might be appropriate for, and so on -- so that you can make the most useful, least overwhelming suggestions.

The best solution will depend on your location and the seniority of the student. But I would first recommend contacting your institution's disability support officer or similar if one is available. They will be bested placed to advise you on how to proceed.
Depending on how well you know the student you may consider bringing it up directly with them. However, I would be very careful about doing this. As you say they may feel you are meddling and many people can be very defensive if you suggest they have a learning disorder. Personally, I would only talk to the student if you know them quite well and have talked to the disability support officer.

While, as you say, this depends on locale, most American institutions operate under the assumption that the student is responsible for tracking down resources on their own.  Instructors generally cannot contact the "Office of Accessibility and Inclusion" (or the "Disability Resource Center" or whatever) on behalf of a student.  An instructor can recommend that a student contact that office, but even that is a little iffy.  On the other hand, an instructor my contact that office in order to get advice on how to broach the topic with a student.

Yes, as others have said, a conversation with the Disability Services office is a great place to start.  Collect one or more brochures and specific resources from them to offer your student.  Then, next time he comes in to office hours, after having your normal conversation about whatever he came in for, offer him the materials.  Don't act concerned or critical -- just be matter of fact, and say (this might be a white lie, but that's okay) that you have offered these resources to other students you've had where you felt that their academic results were not reflective of their potential, and that these services can be very helpful.  Then say a couple of glowing things about him and how glad you are to have him in your class.  Wrap up with something friendly such as: "Please let me know, at any time, what additional sorts of accommodations I can arrange, to support you in your studies.  Even after our semester together is over, you will always be welcome to come in let me know how things are going, or to ask for assistance with your studies.  I'm here to help."
The point is that you have been helping as well as you know how... but as you acknowledged, you are an expert in your field, but not in how to diagnose or accommodate learning difficulties.
By the way, in your conversation with Disability Services -- you may want to send them a couple of your assignments.  They might have some specific suggestions for how to incorporate some principles of Universal Design into your assignments, to make them more user-friendly to your special student, and any other students you have now, or might have in the future, with some not-so-obvious special needs!

And while acceptable, the word 'disability' still has a bad connotation...  I would avoid it, saying that "I want to understand why your grades do not match the potential I believe you to have"... positive spin ftw :)

@FábioDias - I don't think I ever suggested using the word "disability" when speaking with the student.  I said things like "their academic results were not reflective of their potential."  Also, one of the things that differentiates my Answer from some others is that I specifically avoided suggesting saying things like "I want to understand why etc."  My point is that the professor can offer resources, and s/he can offer to listen and to accommodate -- but I would not recommend that the professor try to do the things that an educational psychologist is trained to do.

And I didn't say you did, I was complementing the answer, not criticizing it.. It was merely the best place to put that specific comment to highlight that idea...

Does he wear glasses / contacts?

...it's difficult to believe how much and how regularly he
  misinterprets written guidelines.

This quote makes me think that it could very easily just be a sight problem. You mention that he is really bright and that the work ethic is good. This quote makes me think that it is purely a reading problem brought on by poor sight.

Many of these are great suggestions.  You could talk to the student first.  Or then talk to both the student and parents.  While I highly doubt they dont know about a disability it might be likely possible if hes highly functioning as you said orally.  Maybe he has a reading learning disability.  It could also be maybe the family cant afford testing.  You might suggest to the student that if he is disabled he can get accommodations that could help him in the class.  Or see if he wants extra help because you want too see him succeed.  It could also have to do with age. Sometimes school is much harder when you are older.  I suggest saying it if course all in a nice way but maybe the parents or student do not know about getting class accommodations or think they can get extra help. I would do this before just sending out a warning of an F notice.  Good luck.  I'm not sure when this was listed or if it was resolved hope it works out!!  Ih also it maybe the student doesnt tell you about the disability because he doesnt want different treatment. I am learning disabled and didnt tell my professors for that reason.

It was listed October 16th 2015, so a question from long ago... dates are shown on the questions including when edited etc.

The question states the student is in his late 30's, so involving parents would be inappropriate. perhaps you could [edit] your answer to make these small corrections.

In a previous academic course, a student quite obviously had some sort of not particularly mild autism spectrum disorder (e.g. the student brought a family member to office hours to act as a sort of translator). In lunchroom conversations with other professors it became clear that others were aware of the same issues and that institutionally they were not recognized. The issue was brought to the attention of the relevant administration, and it turned out that neither the student nor the student's family was aware that the student was entitled to assistance and had consequently never requested it nor notified anyone in the institution of the student's needs. I don't know exactly what the student's discapacity is (I have no need to know this information), but I do know that the situation was rectified and the student's needs are now addressed.
The moral is that if one suspects such a situation, one should identify the relevant administrative actors and contact them. This should be done with the appropriate discretion and tact. In particular, it may not be a good idea to addess the issue directly with the student. Different students want their discapacities handled in different ways; some wish to maintain maximum privacy, some do not. It is best to make no assumptions and to put the matter in the hands of someone trained to deal with such matters, both in terms of the interpersonal aspect and the legal aspect, neither of which is necessarily simple or straightforward.


text:
Is there a place in academia for researchers who write only white papers?
While being a Ph.D. candidate (software engineering), I've observed a strange tendency in academia: many mediocre researchers are writing lots of white papers with no evaluation at all. I was also initially encouraged by my supervisor and other professors to do the same, but working with other research groups, getting feedback from conference reviewers and from friends, I've learned that without evaluation of my work, without having an experimental section in my papers, I am only building sand castles. It was hard lesson and I needed to refuse my supervisor to submit papers too early, but it was worth it. I've learned that evaluation offers two benefits:

I can confront my ideas with reality and compare with other solutions
It provides feedback on my actual skills as a researcher, programmer, statistician, etc.

I can understand doing experimental evaluation is harder than just sketching ideas in white papers, but I don't understand one thing. How is it possible that so many white papers are accepted for conferences and publications and their authors can still work in academia? Or maybe I am missing something and my judgement is unfair, because there should be a place in academia for researchers who only write white papers?

I think you say it yourself: "mediocre researchers". While such people certainly get hired and some reach tenure, it isn't the optimal path to a solid career. If you want to optimize your chances for a good career, do solid research and report it.
Perhaps, however, your advisor was just suggesting that you "get some points on the board" early with somewhat easier papers while your research ideas germinate and solidify. I doubt that s/he meant that you should do only that.
But there is value in lots of kinds of things. Bringing new ideas to a wider audience can happen both in white papers and in more traditional research reports. The former can actually be very useful for presentation at a general conference so that the basic ideas percolate more quickly into the general population of the field. But you should probably not think that such things alone are a good path.
And, of course, even quite skilled researchers can produce occasional white papers and their general reputation gives them a broad audience.

How is it possible that so many white papers are accepted for conferences and publications and their authors can still work in the academia?

Technical reports (including white papers) are used for early dissemination. Any such document that is subsequently published is as valuable as a published work that wasn't released early.

I'm confused by the question, since the main body asks a different question to the title, but this is my best guess.

Perhaps I've submitted my question too early and I need to articulate my thoughts better. Thank you for your answer.

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text:
What to do about a student who missed multiple assignments and claims illness?
I am the professor in charge of a first-year course for undergraduates.
Recently, I received an e-mail from a student,
the general meaning of which is the following:

Dear professor,
I am sorry for missing the last few lectures and assignments.
  During the last few weeks, I was really sick with the flu.
  Could you please help me to get right on track with the class?

How should I respond to this e-mail?
Should I give the student an opportunity
to "make up" the missed assignments,
or should I give the student zeros for the missed assignments?

Check your school's policy. (For example: mine asks students who miss class due to illness to get medical documentation and share it with an office that will then coordinate with their professors to help them get makeup work while protecting the student's privacy.)

See: How can US faculty verify medical absences?

My institution has a "hardship withdrawal" policy that will allow a chronically or severely ill student to withdraw from a course to repeat it later.  That may be the best option for someone who is seriously behind if it is available.

@ff524♦: How/why would a student have medical documentation for something like the flu, for which going to a doctor wastes both the student's and doctor's time (since there's nothing to be done), and risks spreading the infection to everyone in the office?

@jamesqf I don't work in that office, so I don't know what they ask for. I just like that as an instructor, my students don't have to share any medical information with me.

I try to build a flakiness buffer into the course so that a certain amount of garden-variety screwing up and/or illness doesn't materially affect the final grade. I do it mostly because I don't want to have to decide which excuses merit special treatment (or whether the student is lying).

@ElizabethHenning: The problem is people view those flakiness buffers as "freebies" and use them up, then expect more leeway when they get sick (or "sick"). And those who don't use them up until the end feel it's unfair that someone had an advantage over them.

@Mehrdad I make it clear at the start of the course that once the freebies are gone, they're gone. (Students with serious chronic problems need to work it out with Academic Affairs--that's not the purpose of the freebies and it's not something the instructor should be dealing with.) I've never had a problem with complaints that it was an unfair advantage, because it isn't one.

This is why I tell students there are no excuses to not tell me beforehand. If they are sick, they can still email me that they are going to miss work before they miss it. I have not seen a good excuse for that yet. I was in a serious accident with six broken bones and still managed to let everyone know I wasn't coming in (well, I actually went in to let them know this, and take care of a few things, but I don't expect others to be as hard core as I am).

@neuronet I don't know about no excuses - I've woken up suddenly very ill and it's plausible someone could be sick enough not to let you know at 7 a.m. they're going to miss your 7:30 lecture and not feel well enough to do so until later in the day.

As a compromise, could you zero-weight the missed assignments? That saves you the hassle of writing and marking a new assignment, but doesn't punish the student with a poor mark.

@Azor-Ahai yes for a one-off. But if they wait two weeks to tell me, missing class the whole time? that's the kind of situation I'm talking about. And even if you wake up sick that morning, you email the person. That's how the real world works. You don't just not show up for work. You call in sick, especially if there is an important deadline at work today.

First, there may very well be policies in place to handle this, so I would check those first, in case your hands are tied in some way.
Generally speaking however, I'm fairly permissive with medical absences and helping students catch up, if (as it seems from your email) the desire is actually for them to catch up. In your case, for example, I'd schedule a meeting for the student to try and figure out a path forward.
I'm aware that this leaves me open to being exploited by the occasional student who has decided to fake an illness, but I'm far more concerned with make sure those students who do have major medical or life-related issues have the chance to do well in my classes, and I'd rather the occasional student get away with an undeserved extension than have someone who genuinely needed my help not get it.

I'll say that the effect of being permissive like this depends on the environment. The first year I taught at a community college, and was permissive with makeups like this, fully half of my classes were skipping the tests and taking it on the later makeup date (which thus threw off the whole course schedule for feedback and answers by at least a week, etc.).

@djechlin One of the reasons for it is unconscious bias - I don't want to be in the position of judging what a "real" illness is.

@Fomite: Isn't that why people require a doctor's note?

@Mehrdad Several friends and colleagues with mental illnesses have told me a doctor's note is especially burdensome for those having mental health crises. I'd rather take a student's word for it.

@Fomite: I understand, but then how do you deal with DanielR.Collins's situation? I'm guessing abuse is rare to nonexistent in your case? I feel like requiring a doctor's note might be the only way to deal with it once it becomes a persistent/widespread issue.

@Mehrdad It depends enough on the circumstances in question that I can really give a general answer. The community college setting is a particularly tricky one, as these students are also the students most likely to need a measure of help.

Check with your schools policy
Usually, such things are in general handled on a different and official level, like: bring a doctors certificate or similar. So in your response, politely point him to your schools policy.
Official repetition exams
Sometimes, policies allow for repetition exams for the ones who failed/were sick. This is like a second try, as if you booked the course again. Whether this is available depends on your school and usually on your willingness to prepare such an exam. This is although a more fundamental decision about how should students get a second chance? Repeat the whole course? Get a second exam?
Exceptional cases
Last, there can of course be exceptions from the policy under some circumstances. Test whether this is the case here (say, is there an extraordinary thing which makes it reasonable to apply special rules to this student?), but for me this does not seem to be. Also think of what the alternative for the student then may be (he has to repeat a whole year because of this but would have finished otherwise). Be careful with exceptions tough as they can create precedence cases! So choose them carefully, if at all.

As well as providing guidance to the student, the policy would also provide teaching staff guidance on how to proceed once the student has met requirements.   For example, by clarifying how much help catching up is reasonable (there's a difference between helping catch up for a couple of exercises due to a week or two absence and helping to catch up for ALL exercises in a semester).

We have a nasty flu going around that has left people being very sick for weeks. They would love to have had the limited version described by another person in this thread.
Why are people so quick to judge on these things?
to answer the question: give the opportunity to make up the work, but perhaps give a 5% penalty for failure to email you earlier if there's no third-party evidence coming along.

Requirement: Your duty as human is to provide help for that in
need (all humans next to you).
Requirement: Your duty as teacher is to provide information for that in need (students).
Requirement: Your duty as employee is to validate (check) the knowledge of the students.

Based on these requirements the solution of this is basically, that you help him out by providing him a path to reintregrate in class, because his illness could be serious. But, do not hessitate to give him small validation exams, in order to keep record of his progress. You should give him time to  regenerate from illness and compensate his knowledge lack.

This answer focuses more on addressing the issue in future semesters. If you have room to innovate, it may help to focus on your desired course outcomes and let assignment policy (and even the assignments) flow from them.
With a set of outcomes in mind, and a sequence of major assignments that (I hope) all play a role in reaching them, I knew I wanted to orient all of my policy around getting students to work hard, complete the full assignment track, and learn from their mistakes (both in coursework, and time-management/responsibility).
This orientation led me to a few specific conclusions:

Getting students to learn from mistakes means: making sure they have room to make them, providing clear feedback that they messed up, and expecting them to rectify it.
Unless I receive notice of a university-verified excused absence, I apply a diminishing daily late-work penalty that ensures it's worthwhile to turn assignments in on the due date, but leaves enough points on the table that it's always still worth completing late assignments.
Break major assignments down into a few parts to dilute the impact of an occasional discretionary absence or missed due date.
Require corrections on all major assignments.
Aim for a well-distributed workload with weekly deadlines and steadily-increasing assignment weights. This communicates my expectations (and puts procrastinators on notice) with clear grade feedback while the stakes are low.

A relaxed attendance or late-work policy isn't directly compatible with some kinds of work, but I think it's a good nudge to re-examine assumptions. As long as you still make appropriate full-credit accommodations for people with officially-documented excused absences, I think it's fine to have an office-hours make-up option (i.e., same exam for half credit, much harder essay exam, etc.)

We all know the student is telling a white lie here. I think that is a decent choice of action. One thing that really matters is that the student learns. Secondly, its important to uphold timelines in order for the school to be efficient. As long as no one perceives this student to be blatantly disrespecting the timeline given, there'll be little or no damage to the integrity of the rule, making the greatest good being achieved by bowing to their request.

I don't konw how you can "know the student is telling a white lie here". I thought academics were data driven. Where is the data?

@Floris If you are debilitated by the flu for weeks, your problem isn't the flu. It's the AIDS or cancer (treatment) or whatever that has destroyed your immune system, or that you otherwise have something worse than the flu. Severe flu symptoms, including fever, subside in a few days on average; minor symptoms can last a week or two, but the CDC only recommends you wait until 24 hours after the fever subsides to return to work/school. Not to say the student can't suffer from such a problem. Only reason otherwise to stay out for weeks is if the university insists on it (outbreak concerns).

Maybe the white lie is that the student had some disease they would rather keep private?

I had a bad case of the flu the year the vaccine missed it's target with one strain, and it knocked me on my ass for the better part of a week and a half. The idea that illness has two settings, a day or two and "AIDS or cancer" is absurd.

@zibadawatimmy You are aware that multiple flu epidemics in the 1900s killed hundreds of millions of people, right?  You are also aware that many countries with national health systems (including the UK where I live) issue flu vaccines to at-risk people, not just to reduce the cost from complications due to flu, but also to cut the avoidable deaths?


text:
First author submits manuscript before final approval of all co-authors
A first and corresponding author has submitted a co-authored manuscript after having circulated a near-final draft. She has freely accepted some comments of her colleagues' and rebutted others, but only shared the final version after submission. This is despite some co-authors specifically asked to view the very last version once more before the submission.
The manuscript is for a normal issue of a peer-reviewed journal. The referees' comments have been dealt with. All kinks concerning methodology, results and conclusions had already been ironed out. The remaining comments were of linguistic/stylistic/presentational nature alone and improved the readability of the paper appreciably. For example: removing repetitions, streamlining the content, splitting paragraphs into block of homogeneous content, and so forth. Let's regard these interventions as important for the standing of the paper --- see this guide of Elsevier's for a general appreciation of why linguistic editing is relevant to proper scientific writing. In other situations where 'heavier' matters of content might have been at stake, this post's concerns would hold nonetheless.
The reasons for not circulating the final version are a self-imposed deadline, tied up to office holidays, and the reasoning that the time for applying linguistic changes is over. This latter point is immediately questionable since the bulk of polishing takes place at the end of writing, almost by definition.
Within the authors' team, two lines of thought emerge as to whether the first author ought to share the final manuscript before definitive submission. Some say that the first author has the authority of moving on; others say that the first author should not submit without giving her colleagues the possibility of seeing what happened of the last remarks.
The journal's authorship guidelines are curt.
Note that the journal is not interested in authorship ranking that are internal to the group; it only deals with the roles taken by one author as correspondent.
Quoting the most relevant ones, these boil down to the following:

to be such, all authors must meet all of the following requirements a) providing substantial contributions b) drafting or revising the work c) giving final approval of the version to be submitted for publication;
the responsibility of the corresponding author is to dialogue with the co-authors and act on their behalf.

There is an interesting paradox in this formulation. A corresponding author will invariably act on behalf of people who have approved the manuscript, whether all collaborators have been asked or not. Those who do not approve are, or may fear to become, no co-authors. The first author can easily find leeway to disregard some collaborators, and move on with the submission with a malformed sense of entitlement. Co-authors may easily lose the aegis of the first author.
Say. The colleagues who demand a last glance at the final manuscript may face a rejection in the line of "co-authors only suggest, first author decides". This could be rebutted with something like "the first author is not fully acting on our behalf, though; she fails in acting as  corresponding author". Then, the challenge could be "you are missing the point on the way it works; she's the first author, do you really want to be co-authors?". The first author thanks and submits, some co-authors only see the show.
Further discussion is deterred by the fact that, once the manuscript has been submitted, the situation can only be reversed by summoning up the editor. This step might be felt as overly confrontational, and the authorship guidelines above may not help the editor much either.
My question is: does the first/corresponding author have an obligation not to proceed with submission of a manuscript before having given all co-authors the final say to what will be submitted?

Usually the matter of [t]hose who do not approve are, or may fear to become, no co-authors is prevented by an addition to journal guidelines along the lines that 'those rules are not be used to deny authorship where authorship is due'.

How much time left before the conference deadline did you have?

@Clément Added that "The manuscript is for a normal issue of a peer-reviewed journal. The referees' comments have been dealt with"

@XavierStuvw I tried to make the question (the way I understand it) clearer and stand out a bit. Feel free to change/roll back if you disagree.

Sounds pretty dysfunctional. I know I find it annoying when co-authors want to nitpick on style preferences. But I imagine it could go either way depending on who is being the more unreasonable. Is this a field where first authorship is significantly more important than the others?

"giving final approval of the version to be submitted for publication" -- that guideline from the journal seems entirely straightforward. This question seems like a complicated word-game to try to weasel out of that.

@Mark Fine, the change respects the original intent

@ASimpleAlgorithm Let's assume that it is not nitpicking, but a due regular grammar and style check as language editors do. We could also regard the nature of the last edit immaterial with respect to the nature of the corresponding author's behaviour. Re your question, in this particular case, authorship order implies some ranking in the involvement in the underlying research; nonetheless we could assume that the authors are in alphabetical order, and the first author is just the corresponding author regardless of where the alphabet places her.

@DanielR.Collins There is indeed some complication arising from the social game around this situation. In particular, there is a concern that authors can be discouraged from being vocal, for fear of being ostracised or isolated as nitpickers. The question is perhaps more about the role that the first author may take in counting in who is approving, and counting out who is not. The word game could be used by a first author to reinforce her entitlement to lead the (internal, external) reviewing and proof-reading processes in a single-minded way. Note this may be a matter of office/group culture.

@XavierStuvw First authorship and equal authorship are two very different situations. In the former, no one will fault a co-author for the primary author's use of an oxford comma or dopey title, so I'd say it's overreaching to claim control over such decisions (unless they're an adviser or something like that). Of course, I have trouble imagining how style could be anything but nitpicking. Can you give an example? Equal authorship meanwhile is not something I deal with.

@ASimpleAlgorithm To identify style issues and their relevance for a scientific paper I'd borrow this guideline from Elsevier. As mentioned, the crux is that the submission of the manuscript without consent of some co-authors; that the final manuscript differed from the final draft for style matters is incidental. Rather, you bring up a distinction between authors ranking and the role of corresponding authors, I'll edit the post. Would you elaborate on this in an answer?

The Elsevier guide is gone?

@DmitriZaitsev Apparently yes, at least for the moment. It goes about "Elements of Style for Writing Scientific Journal Articles" by Stephen M. Griffies, William A. Perrie, Gaëlle Hull  -- currently one other copy is available from https://elireview.com/content/curriculum/imrad/elements-of-style-journal-articles.pdf

@XavierStuvw Thanks! They must be eager to remove useful information, consistent with their "no free drink policy" :)
https://gitlab.com/publishing-reform/discussion/issues/104

An article should not be submitted to a journal (or otherwise distributed) without the explicit approval of all the authors. All authors can be held responsible for the contents of the article: errors or frauds committed by the first author can be blamed on the other authors as well. (Remember Yoshiki Sasai.)
This said, as a matter of convenience, some authors may give their go-ahead in advance and/or without seeing the last version, if they sufficiently trust the first author. Still, they should say it explicitly.

does the first/corresponding author have an obligation not to proceed with submission of a manuscript before having given all co-authors the final say to what will be submitted?
Yes, obviously. But I know a chap who submitted the thing to PNAS after waiting too long for Dr X to get back to him (and I can understand his impatience, knowing X), but when it was accepted, (nearly) all was forgiven.
By the way, the corresponding author is not a god who can kick people off the paper if they do not behave as the c.a. desires.


text:
Paper submitted by co-author without authorization
I'm one of the three coauthors (A, B, C) of a research paper, to which I (A) contributed extensively in providing results and drafting the initial version (I'm academically younger than B and C). The corresponding author is B.
We have recently received the third round of reviews for this paper (it's been quite a lengthy process, approaching two years). The Editor gave us 120 days to resubmit the new version. This happened just before I was going to be unavailable for two weeks. Therefore, I emailed B and C explicitly asking to hold the paper until I provide comments on my return.
However, when I was back I found out that B sent the paper the day after my email without waiting for me, justifying it with a need of speeding up the process. C supported B's justification. Note that this is the second time in a row that this happens, as well as other B's unprofessional behaviours, which I all raised personally with B to no avail (with C in copy).
The complication is that the paper has now been accepted (and the journal is rather good), but having had a careful read of the paper, I'm not happy with some of changes B made, which I wasn't given a chance to check for two times in a row (I've reasons to believe that C hasn't reviewed it either). Besides typos, there are some incorrect statements and very confusing parts (e.g. reference to parts of the text that have been deleted, including in the conclusions!), which however they won't twist the essential content and outcome of the research.
I'll notify my dissatisfaction to B and C soon, but I do not expect that B will bring this to the Editor, as he/she should.
My questions are:

What is your best suggestion to have such amendments in the published version, without losing acceptance? I believe they can be too significant to be picked up at the proof stage.
Perhaps writing directly to the Editor? In this case, how to justify the situation without jeopardizing acceptance?
Finally, do you recommend writing to B's Head of School to inform him/her of B's repeatedly unethical behaviour? I'm not interested in working with B any longer, but I'd like to keep fairly good relations (e.g. references) with C, who is a highly-ranked academic and unfortunately is de facto more or less tacitly supporting B's unprofessional behaviour.

Two years does sound like a long time, though in the health and social sciences, second and third rounds of reviews are common. Typically, anything other than "accept" and sometimes "minor edits" undergoes peer review again.

As you've described it, this is not really about "ethics" as that term is usually understood.  I think you should back off as regards any moral issues or judgement.  If there had been a real ethical violation, my advice would be different, e.g., if you had never agreed to publish the paper in any form.  IMO you are blowing the situation out of proportion by describing it as a matter of ethics. That doesn't mean that I condone B's behaviour.  But you should look at what you can learn from the situation - how can you avoid getting into similar situations (presumably, not only by avoiding B!)?

@JoeCorneli It might well be the OP meant 'unprofessional' in place of 'unethical' although the notion of 'professional ethics' exists too, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_ethics. In some institutions PhD's must adhere to a lifelong oath of upholding scientific integrity, not to mention the codes of conduct following employment in academy.

Ask the editor - with coordination with B and C - to fix these minor "slips" (as you will say).
Incorrect statements need to be fixed, and missing references to be amended, that's an objective thing that does not need discussion.
I would stay polite to B, even if you plan not to work with them in the future. You are angry, but you are not going to change them. Hopefully, you are going to be able to fix this paper, and that's what you should concentrate upon.

Agree.  I'll comment a little more on the disaster management aspects.  Since OP says "the journal is rather good", they definitely do not want "typos" or "incorrect statements."  OP should indeed try to correct these with the editor, though it is a messy process.  If the paper has been accepted but not yet published, it is important to act quickly.  Also, be as succinct as possible - only straightforward corrections, not "reworkings", or you risk getting the paper rejected.  And for the future, I think just don't work with B and C.

Concur with @JoeCorneli --- I guess that the issue here is the coordination of A with B+C, which makes the sensible solution above an awkward situation, especially if B has no intention to act any quickly to include A's observation into a slip-free version.

One possibility could be to email a list of typos to C, and urge C to take charge of the situation, purely with reference to improving this paper before it goes to press, not anything to do with so-called "ethics".  I don't think this is about ethics, incidentally, just courtesy.  So be tactful and focus on resolving the matter at hand in the most straightforward and polite way.  C, as a "highly-ranked academic" is just the right sort of person to get the journal to do out-of-the-ordinary things.  So use him/her as your ace in the hole.

@JoeCorneli From the OP's remarks it looks as though C does not show too much of involvement or proactive leadership. However, toning down the wording without giving in the good arguments can do no harm and might indeed invite a pragmatical agreement.


text:
Correct in-text citation, according to Harvard's referencing style
I read somewhere that you can reference, the Harvard way, by stating the author, before ending the sentence with a date - like so:

Author said this bla bal blabd bdalab d... (2017).

But, after reading through my dissertation, my teacher told me this was invalid Harvard referencing; and, he said I should cite the author like this:

Author said this bla bal blabd bdalab d... (Author, 2017).

Is this true, or can I indeed use the proposed method?

There can be disagreement on how to reference correctly within a style. I have referenced in both ways that you cite, with no complaints from my tutors. I have also had papers published using both methods of citation with no corrections from the copy editors.
However, I think what we are experiencing here is your tutor's preference. He clearly wants you to do things in method B rather than method A, for whatever reason. I am sure he has read through multitudinous publications, some of which use method A, though his own preference is B.
When I wrote my first essay for my master's I used footnotes for referencing. My tutor wrote on the paper that in-text citations were much better: neither was wrong, but my tutor was specifying a preference and recommending a better habit to get into. Similarly, seeing as yours is the one marking your papers, I would just go with it.

Are you sure that this is really ambiguous? Note that the OP specifically stated that this was to follow the Harvard style, not just some style.

@TobiasKildetoft yes, both are accepted as Harvard style. Maybe I should have rephrased my first sentence, I will do so for clarity. http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/referencing/files/Harvard_referencing_2016.pdf

I am in one of the fields where author-date (Harvard) referencing is common, and I have not seen the style that you describe. Normally, it's either:

Author (2017) finds xyz.

or

Xyz (Author 2017).

Of course I do not know all the citation formats in all different fields, so it is possible that such style exists in some fields I don't know. However, based on some common style guides, I believe such style, if exists, is not common. For example, the Oxford Style Guide (New Hart's Rules), which covers a few different common reference styles, only gives author-date examples similar to what I've given here. The same is true for the APA Manual, which is a widely used style guide that prescribes the author-date system.
In some contexts (including some educational institutions), authors are expected to (at least roughly) follow a particular citation style. In such case, you can consult the reference guide.


text:
Should you justify or left-align text when writing?
I've written a 5,000 word essay on a topic of my choosing.
While reading through my writing, my teacher suggested I justify my text, as opposed to left-aligning it, as this looks neater.
I agree, finding it looks much better; however, after looking around, many people stated that the justification of text makes it much harder to read. Also, most of the sources I consulted, as part of research, used left-aligned text.
Is it just a subjective matter, or is there a standard?

While Lighthouse Keeper answered your question from the perspective of academia, you may want to ask on [graphicdesign.se] the arguably more interesting question: “Is there any evidence that justification or left-aligned is easier to read (or does it depend on the application)?”

Note that the answer might also be software-dependent -- there are several word-wrapping algorithms, and the greedy algorithm gives uglier lines than the one introduced by Knuth for Tex. So it is well possible that the answer is Latex-justified text > left-aligned text > MS Word-justified.

Apparently this professor does not find justified text harder to read. // If you give the essay to someone else, you can leave it ragged.  I like ragged better too, but for a book it needs to be justified.... FYI.)

I guess there's a standard that differs between fields (as your sources had left-aligned text). The ten close-at-hand molecular biology papers and three books I just consulted all had justified text. I thought in general the idea was that snippets of text are left aligned and books (and perhaps longer articles) are justified.

@VonBeche APA style mandates left aligned text for manuscripts, yet their journals are all typeset with justified text.

@FedericoPoloni And some LaTeX packages, like microtype, make the justification look even nicer (in my opinion), though that does restrict you to pdflatex if you want the full feature set.

Look for the specification and implement it.
In your particular case, your teacher specified that she prefers justifying, so you should act accordingly, since she is the one who will grade your essay.
Later in your academic career, you may come into situations where the format is specified by an institution rather than an individual person, for example, a journal or a funding agency.

Indeed. In such cases, don't even take the time to get an expert opinion, because the opinion of a single person or small committee is all that matters. :)  On the other hand, yes, "justified" text, if it's done clumsily, can be harder to read, and weirder on the page, due to bad hyphenation choices, leading to bizarre inter-word spacing, etc. That is, there are better and worse algorithms for line breaks, indeed. But, first, do what "your boss" tells you, with regard to such essentially irrelevant things...  :)


text:
Why is the two-column format so popular?
At least in the field of computer science, I have noticed this to be a common practice.
Why exactly is this done? I find it harder to read and follow.

As a side note, double-column fits a lot more text

@FábioDias That literally makes no sense, as there's space taken up by additional margins

@Tobi but the left and right margins may be smaller...

You could have smaller left/right margins with a standard page layout

For each new paragraph, you lose (on average) half a line.    In double-column format, the lines are shorter, so you lose less.  End result: fewer pages.  That consideration was important when journals were published on paper.  Today it is less important.

I say this from experience. Take any text on latex and comment out the \twocolumn directive, it will get longer. I used to mock a friend from sociology that their papers were too long. Then I took a 12 page IEEE formatted paper and put it single-column (as they do in social sciences) and the thing had 21 pages. (https://github.com/fabioasdias/piccard/tree/gjyear/paper)

You can still have new lines on both sides of the page. So, not only do you have the margin vertically down the page, you can have just as many horizontal breaks between paragraphs. No?

Note that a multi-column based layout is also used by classical newspapers. It would be impossible to read a newspaper if it was only one column, the lines would be way too long.

There are some established standards for page layout in publications. One that I'm familiar with is a set of patterns for desktop (that is, personal) publishing by Andreas Rüping, published in the EuroPloP 1999 proceedings (University of Konstanz).
One of the patterns says that a page should be no more than about half text. A fair amount of white space, margins, and other elements besides text.
Another pattern says that a line of text should be no more than about twice the length of the alphabet used, so around 52 lower case letters in English. This isn't applicable to Chinese, of course. This limit is "imposed" by the physiology of how the eye works. Among other things, if a line is too long, then it is harder to pick up the start of the next line when scanning back.
But a full line of text in a reasonable font can be nearly twice that limit.
So, just those two patterns suggest two column format or some other accommodation.
And note that, if you are young, you have an easier time reading long lines than someone older with poorer eyesight.

The number of characters is the key argument here. Writing a single column on either A4 or US letter size paper with the font sizes commonly used is almost impossible to read. The only reason why most books can get away with a single column is because they are only half the size.

I suspect it's not a matter of being "common practice" -- rather, it's the standard for IEEE and all of its associated conferences and journals (e.g., CVPR). Further, it's a sort of a nice looking formatting with plenty of infrastructure (e.g., .sty files), so it's a common choice when no particular format is prescribed.
There are plenty of other journals in CS that use a single-column format (e.g., SPIE, NeurIPS). But, this does leave a question of how many characters to allow per line. So, these single-column journals either (a) allow a large number of characters per line, which introduces some difficulty in reading, or (b) uses very large margins -- over 2" (on "letter" size paper). With respect to the latter -- perhaps this makes sense in Europe where A5 paper can be used (not sure), but in the US, I think this looks just awful.

Just to add to this answer, part of the reason too is that for general graphic design , 2 columns can fit images more neatly (snippets of code and small equation too). Plus, for digital design the text is accommodated more easily in a justified way when there are those apparently extra spaces.


text:
Under what circumstances is it appropriate to have video cameras as part of exam proctoring?
When professors proctor exams, part of our job is to answer student questions and clarify the exam, and part of our job is to prevent/catch cheating. At my university in the USA, there is also a "testing center" where students with accommodations (e.g., the right to take the exam in a private space) can take the exam. These spaces have video cameras to prevent/catch cheating.
This made me wonder: would it be possible/appropriate to have a video camera in the primary testing location, for in-person exams? If so, there would be an added disincentive to cheat, and there would also be proof in case the professor witnessed cheating (to prevent a "he said/she said" situation). I found previous questions about video but mostly pertaining to remote exams during the pandemic:
Creating a secure test environment for a programming lab practical
Stance of universities on remote video proctoring of online exams
I also found a discussion of video cameras in academic spaces, suggesting that it's legally allowable:
Preventing leaking exam papers/cheating using phone cameras?
Let's assume that for any class where exams might be video recorded, this information is in the syllabus and students can choose not to take the class. For context, I have been at small liberal arts colleges my whole life, where cameras are not commonly part of the culture. I've never been at a large university so I don't know how normal or unusual video cameras in testing spaces are. Not sure what other considerations would go into the choice of whether or not to add video recording to testing spaces.

In my experience, it is unusual (I am at a large public university in the US). You should definitely ask about your specific university policy before doing anything.

This is definitely the kind of thing that can be regulated or disallowed under university policies. There are privacy concerns that different institutions may value in different ways. In the US, FERPA law is implicated as such recordings, especially if used for disciplinary action, would be considered educational records; see Department of Education's FAQs on Photos and Videos under FERPA. Overall, I would assume such recording is still rare, but, e.g., Indiana University's policies include the relevant GUIDELINES FOR VIDEO PROCTORING OF QUIZZES AND EXAMS. IU's policy seems relatively permissive. Besides CYA content ("All operators of video proctoring systems must be trained in the technical, legal, and ethical use of the equipment.", "All operators of video proctoring systems will be required to complete IU’s standard FERPA training.") some relevant parts include

Protection of Academic Freedom
The protection of academic freedom is of the utmost importance at IU. In accordance with this belief, video proctoring systems should only be used to monitor or record classroom areas when quizzes or exams are being administered or in cases of emergency. Video proctoring systems should never be used to monitor or record lectures or other instructional activities.
Notice Requirements
In all classrooms that are equipped with video proctoring capabilities, signs that are clearly visible must be posted to provide notice of the video cameras. Any instructor who desires to use video proctoring for a quiz or exam must give all students in the course written notice of the intention to do so prior to the quiz or exam.
Disclosure of Video Records
In cases of suspected academic misconduct, operators of video proctoring systems may disclose relevant video records to (1) the instructor of the course and/or (2) relevant University administrators involved in the student judicial process. If a student is accused of academic misconduct based on evidence recorded by a video proctoring system, the student will be provided an opportunity to view the video records that support the allegation of academic misconduct. If the accused student desires that other individuals be present for such viewing, the student will need to sign a FERPA release form in which the student gives consent for these individuals to view the video records. No other disclosures of video recordings may be made without prior approval from the Office of the Vice President and General Counsel.
Preservation of Video Records
Academic units that use video proctoring systems should maintain recordings of all video proctored quizzes and exams for a period of one year. In cases of academic misconduct or alleged academic misconduct, the full video of the quiz or exam should be preserved in the appropriate Dean of Students’ or Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs’ office for a period of two years following the internal resolution of the student judicial process.

Thanks, this is great! I'll accept later if there are no other answers, but right now I want to wait a bit to see a few more examples or other relevant general considerations.

Legal concerns aside (you should definitely check with your particular institution's legal consult team, instead of trusting internet strangers for legal advice). I fail to understand this from a pragmatic perspective.
In my experience with in-person exams, students are spaced out and there are usually at least a dozen proctors (human) sitting in high vantage points and a couple that are actively roaming around. Essentially, these proctors would have an unobstructed view of of the entire exam hall, which is essentially what your camera would have. So from a real time monitoring perspective, cameras aren't really needed.
If your goal is to record footage for post-exam analysis, then think about how many hours of footage that you have to comb through and also the size of the venue. The University I attended/worked at certainly did not have this capacity to my knowledge.
The only foreseeable scenario where I think cameras would come in handy is cases of cheating with no physical evidence, so footage can be used as evidence, which really there is only one case and that's when someone is literally looking at other people's exam papers in the exam hall. This can be easily prevented by spacing out each exam taker's desk.
I think the TLDR is basically, the cheaters that do get caught in an in-person exam, will get caught regardless if there are cameras are not. The ones that don't get caught, won't get caught even with cameras.

At my university, the professor is the sole proctor and students are able to sit right next to each other rather than spaced out. Also, they can now ask to take the exam in a separate private space, if they have a learning disability. And, in my experience, some who take it in a separate space do seem to cheat (at least, they get scores much higher than I would expect based on their homework and my conversations with them). Our classes have only 20 students per class. I don't think your situation is the same.

@DavidWhite You said that people who take exams into private areas already have cameras monitoring them, so I'm not really following your argument here. Your primary argument is for cameras in the primary location, which doesn't concern the whole "private space" thing.

@DavidWhite A continuation of my previous comment, even with 1 sole proctor, monitoring a class of 20 people should be more than enough with the right venue layout. If you want to disincentivize, have stricter punishment for academic misconduct. I personally cannot justify the cost (not to mention potential legal hoops) you have to jump through to get cameras set up, over the benefit it will bring.

I don't think "a dozen proctors sitting in high vantage points" is anywhere near as commonplace as your answer claims it is.

@Anyon Just to make sure you understood what I said correctly, I never said there is a dozen proctors all sitting at various vantage points like a prison system, most of them would be walking around.
Pedantics aside, literally every SAT/SAT II exam I took in high school (keep in mind this was back in the 2010s) had dozens of proctors. This is just for a high school exam. Perhaps this might not be true in a small scale University but any reasonably large University I can almost guarantee that this is ubiquitous and probably the bare minimum.

@Anyon A continuation of my previous comment: In a typical exam sitting not everyone is going to be doing the same exam. This is true all the way from SATs to Masters exams. It makes sense logistically to group exams that have the same length together, which leads to larger exam sittings which necessitates more proctors. This is not true for all exams I've sat (I've sat exams where there were only 20 people because it requires specialised environments), but definitely true for most exams I've sat.

@anon_user123456 1) You literally wrote "a dozen proctors (human) sitting in high vantage points and a couple that are actively roaming around". If you intended to describe a situation where most of them would be walking around you may want to edit the post. 2) I have no experience with SAT exams, but they also seem irrelevant due to the non-university context.

@anon_user123456 Thanks for the condescension. I was still finishing the second part of my comment. 3) I don't think any of the exams I've taken, proctored, or given had that scale of proctoring. Instead, my experience is that those 1-5h exams would usually take place in a class room with one proctor, sometimes in a larger lecture hall with maybe 2-3 proctors at most. This is all at universities with enrollments of 10,000-50,000 (which I would imagine meets the bar of "reasonably large", but size of a course/program probably matters more). I strongly doubt the generality of your statements

@anon_user123456. First, some of the separate spaces have cameras. But, the university does not have enough of those spaces and often I am forced to put students into an office (mine or that of a colleague) where they are unproctored.

Second, it has happened to me that I witnessed student A passing a piece of paper with answers on it to student B. I reported them. Student B claimed that he wrote the text on that paper himself and was not passed it by student A. The university honor board found in favor of student B, essentially telling me not to believe what I saw with my own eyes. Camera evidence would have been helpful.

I also disagree with "In a typical exam sitting not everyone is going to be doing the same exam. This is true all the way from SATs to Masters exams." I don't think that's standard at all. You're speaking with quite a lot of confidence and authority but making some sweeping generalizations that certainly don't hold at places I have been a student or faculty member.