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What is meant by "Selected papers will be published" in conference proceedings?
Let assume that a submitted abstract accepted and then presented in a conference. In some conference they say that "selected papers will be published in proceeding". What they mean by term "Selected"? What steps are there after presentation of research work?

Maybe the field you have encountered this in is relevant.

What they mean by term "Selected"? What steps are there after presentation of research work?

In my field (machine learning), it means reviewers will be tasked  to select papers they deemed the most interesting (the criteria depend on the venue). Probably true in any field.

What steps are there after presentation of research work?

The exact steps depends on the venue. But the idea is that reviewer will do some selection based on what is sent to them, typically a paper.

The conference committee, or perhaps just the program committee, will select some of the abstracts/papers. For abstracts they may ask for a full paper to be published in the proceedings. Or, they might just publish the abstracts as submitted, perhaps after some editing.
There could also be a special selection committed organized for this purpose. The committee might include an editor who is part of the conference committee and who has a major voice in which papers are selected.
In some cases the proceedings are published by a major publisher, in others, by the professional association that sponsored the conference.


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Request for cancellation of an approved interview
I have been invited for an interview for a postdoc position. Because of some private reasons I want to cancel the interview which was fixed for interview one day before interview. Is it common to cancel interview one day before?

Cancel or postpone? Cancelling  means you are not interested for the post you applied for.

Do you want to reschedule it, or are you not interested in the position?

I want to cancel it not postponing

Why does it matter if it's "normal"? What is your goal, what are you trying to achieve?

I have another offer and I have to finalize that today. The interview has been scheduled for tomorrow.

Most people are still interested just prior to an interview so late cancellation and leaving the process isn't "normal", or at least "common". But every case is different. You will do everyone a favor by just letting them know that you are no longer interested, thank you.
You don't need to give a reason, or you can say "personal reasons". Detail isn't required. But it is better to let them know so that the interviewers are freed up in their schedules.
I hope everything works out for you.
In the alternate case in which someone is still interested but something makes the interview impossible to attend, just apologize for the inconvenience and request a future interview. Again, detail on the reason isn't required, but a timely message will help several people including yourself.

Thank you very much @Buffy.

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Choose dissertation topic for masters in computer science
I am pursuing my masters in CS and I have to come up with the dissertation topic on my own. It's very confusing to me and I am not able to come to any conclusion as to how to narrow down to specific topic in cloud computing(want to do my dissertation in this) . I know basics of cloud computing.
What can I do that will help me in narrowing down to a specific topic. My university requires me to come up with the topic and I am thinking about doing phd so I want to get my hands on research to see if I will be a good fit in phd.
My university does not have good professors who have done some good research work, so I am on my own.
Can someone please help me in this situation.

For your Master's thesis, I doubt you are required to find any original results.  Why don't you start with a general literature survey of the area you are interested in?  You can narrow it down as you are doing that general survey.  Note, this approach, doing a literature survey, will give you good preparation for your PhD work.

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Using a published paper which has some errors
I have prepared a paper in which I am going to use a set of calculations ( 3 calculations) in my previously published work. In my previously published work I found that one of my calculations was wrong, however,  it did not effect the final results for that work. Currently, in a new work since I  want to use those calculations,therefore,  I want to repeat them in my current work. But I do not know how to manage it. In other words, I want to know in the case of repeating all of them, how can I explain that? Is it enough to say that

it is a modified version

of those calculations? (with a comment on the wrong part). I know that my question seems to be a general question, but any advice to express this situation properly will be highly apprecited.

I suggest that you say more. Admit to the earlier errors, correct them, show, or mention, that they don't affect the results of that paper and then proceed from there with the modified version.
But saying that it is "modified" without saying how or why is inadequate. It would give an incomplete picture.

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What is the meaning of retrieved paper?
What is the meaning of "retrieved journal" ? Can a retrieved article be cited in a paper? The article has a publication date (2018), but it has been written "retrieved 2024". I do not know these terms.

Is "retrieved from the journal" a translation? What is the context in which you are finding this phrase?

It is from the journal. It is not a translation

Could you link to the the context? From what you've written 'retrieved' might just mean 'downloaded' but it's not very clear.

@Anyon, you are right, it means "downloaded". Many thanks

If you look at any paper from that journal, do they all say "retrieved 2024"? In that case it is probably just printing today's date as the date you retrieved/downloaded/viewed the paper. When things are cited from web pages, it's common to report what date that content was retrieved since content on the web can change over time. It's a bit weird to add a retrieved date to a journal article, maybe less weird for a preprint archive or similar where there is an expectation that content may change.

"Retrieved" means you accessed the article on that date. For example if I cite:
Yating Yang, 'Divorce pals': new China trend sees single mothers team up, live together, share resources, South China Morning Post, 16 June 2024 (retrieved 19 June 2024)
Then I am saying that the article was written on 16 June 2024, and I accessed it on 19 June 2024. If the author makes changes to the article next month, then the specific claim I am citing might no longer be in the article.

I believe that the main purpose of stating when the article was accessed is to indicate when the link to access the article was last found to work correctly. The article does not typically change, whereas links frequently do.


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What is interactive review stage in a journal's review process useful for?
I am in the process of revision of my manuscript that I have received feedback from reviewers. In the journal the paper is in the "interactive review" stage. I want to know what are the benefits of this stage? If I want to communicate with referees, for which purposes and matters can I send them my comments? Can I ask them whether the revision I have done is enough before submitting the the revised version to the editor?  (Frontiers journals)

Perhaps name the publisher? I'm unfamiliar with what this is.

A reviewer has a larger task than a reasoned yes/no answer for acceptance. One of the most important task is contributing to the comprehensibility of the final version (if accepted). This task becomes easier if there is some feed-back. Another reason is that reviewers are fallible and can misunderstand. For example, a reviewer might deem a result to be an application of a known result or method, when in reality it is not. The author can point this out and improve the paper by explaining better why the paper is novel.
There seems to me (from my limited perspective) a push towards extending these interactions between reviewers and authors, while maintaining anonymity.

Since the question is not specifying a journal, this response will reflect the open review process of Copernicus journals. The point is to allow anyone to comment on a manuscript rather than the traditional way of having a editor appointed set of, typically, anonymous reviewers, review a manuscript. Obviously review procedures vary between fields and also between journals so I am only able to provide a partial answer reflecting the publishing environment, with which I am familiar.
When a manuscript is submitted to a Copernicus journal it will be posted as a 'Discussion'. This means the submitted manuscript will be posted openly for anyone to read and comment on. At the same time journal editors will source reviewers to perform a traditional review of the paper. These reviews, along with any comments provided by the reading public of the manuscript will be posted with the manuscript for public viewing. The combined invited reviews and public opinions need to be responded to by the authors which leads to a decision by the editors on the continued faith of the manuscript.
As far as I know, no fixed open review process has been established as a norm. Hence, details in any open review process will be specific to the journal or publisher of the journal. I am convinced efforts on open review will converge, but now they will be journal specific.

It is a journal from Frontiers


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Submission of a manuscript to two special issues of the same journal
I have noticed that the content of my paper is in the scope of two special issues of a journal. Is it reasonable to submit that to both of them at the same time, or do I have to wait for the result of the first one?

Are both special issues for the same journal? Or, at least, for the same publisher?

They belong to Same journal

Though once ordinary, some publishing practices have led to some very questionable "special issues" so I would be a bit wary that you're not looking at one of these. https://retractionwatch.com/2024/01/26/springer-nature-journal-pulls-nearly-three-dozen-papers-from-special-issues/ https://retractionwatch.com/2023/03/09/wiley-paused-hindawi-special-issues-amid-quality-problems-lost-9-million-in-revenue/ https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2023/03/30/guest-post-of-special-issues-and-journal-purges/

Most (all?) reputable journals strongly (strongly) frown on duplicate submissions. Among other things, you waste the time of both editors and reviewers of at least one of them. I strongly suggest not doing this.
Instead, choose the journal (or issue) that you think is either most appropriate or might be most receptive.
If the editors of the issues are field experts for the issue, rather than publisher staff, you might contact them asking about the appropriateness of your paper prior to submission. You might get a response, but it isn't guaranteed. It might help with your decision.

Additionally, if the editors find out that you have double submitted, they might notify the other team, and you could get your submission pulled from both for policy violations. This could hinder future submissions. Better to contact them, and choose the best one as @Buffy suggests, than risk anything.

Are you aware of even a single journal that only “strongly frowns” on simultaneous submissions? The ones that I’m aware of all forbid it explicitly.

If indeed the paper would fit equally well into both Special Issues you can also think of what community you would most like to be aware of the publication (because of electronic publishing and searches this decision is not super-critical, though)

Assuming it is the same journal, you might want

to contact the editor and ask how to proceed, similar to what you did here.
submit it to one special issue and mention in the submission process that you would be also okay to be moved to the other special issue


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Inquiries about affiliation of some universities to US universities
In some countries, I have seen that some universities are affiliated to US universities. What is the meaning of this affiliation? Does it have any affect on the educational system and quality of that? For example, are the syllabus of courses in compatible with US universities?

I've seen enough different kinds of affiliations that this may be too broad. Everything from 'hey, you can do a semester abroad here easily' to 'we control and administer that site' and everything in between.

Perhaps giving some examples may help others explain the common features of this affiliation.

"are the syllabus of courses in compatible with US universities?" - this seems like it would have to be a specific question for a specific affiliated university pair, not something that could possibly be answered in general. If you're using this to decide whether you want to attend a particular school, you should analyze the specific relationship for that school and what it means to you rather than trying to make a generalization. Even if a feature applies to 95% of all such relationships, all that matters to you is the one specific one you're looking at which could be in the 5%.

There are many possible meanings. Some examples:
Some universities have subsidiaries in other countries. I think that CMU has one in Qatar. I assume there are others.
Some universities have research affiliations with various other institutions in which resources are shared. Harvard has many of these. Some are devoted to specific topics, usually of importance to the affiliate; disease in Africa, for example. Click "Locations Abroad" at: http://worldwide.harvard.edu/harvard-world
Some universities might have an agreement to define how courses transfer between institutions. I don't have international examples but there are many such within the US.
Such affiliations may or may not be related to the educational mission, and may be more to the research aspects.
Other possibilities exist, for example international experience for faculty or graduate students or even general faculty sharing/exchanges.

For those not familiar with the US higher education system note that it is extremely diverse. There is no national system though some rules governing all, mostly to assure honesty and fairness. There are very different sorts of universities. Some, private ones, set their own policies. Some, public ones, adhere to rules set by a state, but differ from state to state and even within states. New York and Minnesota, for example, have (at least) three different sorts of public universities: Research, teaching, and junior/lower division colleges. The latter are two year institutions. The rules will differ to some degree among these different types. And some policies are left to the individual institutions even  then.


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Why do some journals want to send the manuscript to arXiv before submission?
Some journals advise authors to send their manuscript to arXiv before submission.
What is(are) the reason(s) behind this suggestion?

Can you give an example of a journal advising this?

I don't know why a journal would recommend this, but as a fellow mathematician I encourage this in the strongest possible terms. It is the best way to disseminate your work widely, and to draw attention to your achievements.

A rumor I heard suggests boosting a journal's impact factor by:

Delaying Publication: Publishing papers as late as possible, exploiting extended peer review and printing queues.
Early arXiv Deposits: Encouraging authors to share papers on arXiv well before formal publication.

Assuming a paper is submitted to arXiv in 2024 and published in 2028, the four-year gap accrues additional citations that are initially counted towards the published paper, elevating the journal's impact factor from 2029-2030.
This is a cynical notion, and reputable journals likely do not deliberately follow this strategy. Nonetheless, it underscores the importance for an editorial board and author to maximize a paper's visibility, possibly through early publications on platforms like arXiv. (The publisher might have different opinions of the arXiv.)

From the best of my knowledge, the only place that merges preprint citations with the actual journal publication entry is google scholar. I don't think this "boost" can really happen considering that IF is estimated from more standard databases such as web of science, where preprints are not considered.

@TheDoctor I believe that is correct. Here's what Clarivate wrote when they added the Preprint Citation Index to Web of Science last year: "[Preprints] are clearly marked in search results and not included in any citation metrics including Times Cited Counts or the Journal Impact Factor" (first word edited for clarity).

Could you expand on how delaying increases the impact factor. I don't get it. The total number of citations will remain the same (or go down by lesser early visibility). So it must be about which year the citations are counted towards or something? Is it that "early" citations count more? (Where here early can even be before publication.)

@Kvothe Impact factor is based on citations in the first two years post-publication. If the content has already had its profile boosted and made a splash as a pre-print, one would expect citations in those first two years to be higher than if it had first appeared “cold” in the journal only, due to the lag in when citations themselves appear in the published record. ie the paper will hit the ground running, rather than have to build momentum.

@MichaelMacAskill Only up to a point. For most papers (other than the few that become major landmarks), most of the citations they generate are in a relatively short period after their appearance. So if the time lag between preprint and official publication is too long – relative to the norm for the area – then most of the citations to that paper will have already appeared before the paper is published and hence will not count for impact factor.

@DavidLoeffler I suspect that generalisation might be quite field-specific. But remember the measure is quite non-linear and hugely impacted by outliers. eg for a landmark paper that might be cited say 50, 100, and 200 times in years 1-3, shifting that curve so that years 2 & 3 fall in the impact window will be very beneficial to the H-index if typical papers in the journal are getting say 3, 2, 0 citations over the same period. Because the calculation is total citations over number of papers, shifting the curve on the outliers is worthwhile game-playing.

Also see: Allowing preprints boosts the impact factor – was this argument ever (prominently) made?

@Michael This is very interesting to know. We should definitely have been taught this. In my field it is quite common to have most citations occur before publication in a journal (publication is an after thought and the real thing to read is the arXiv). By the time an article gets published the rate of citation might very well have dropped down. It seems like a very stupid and gameable measure of influence. Strangely enough I never heard of an encouragement from a journal to time publication well for citations (in my field 6 months after would I guess be a nice sweet spot).

A non-cynical answer is that mathematicians seem to value collaborative work very highly and to be willing to share that work so that it can be extended. The same is true to some extent in CS and maybe other fields. This is more than just establishing priority. We ("mathy" types) are happy when our work is accepted and extended. It implies that we make some contribution, hopefully significant, to the march of human progress.
Note that math also tends to use alphabetical listing of authors, again emphasizing that the work is truly collaborative.
Combine that with the long time it takes to verify some math results, leading to long time to formal publication, makes use of preprints natural in such fields. It is an evolving recognition, I think, of the value of collaboration and the value of enabling future work on a research thread, even if it is by others.
In some sense, then, this is just a recognition of the pressure and value of making results known early and generating analysis of those results.
Moreover, if an author submits to a preprint service and gets immediate negative feedback, it might prevent submission to a formal process, slowing down the process for other, more valuable, papers. It is an easy weed-out system for good journals, speeding up everything else.

How does a preprint get "negative feedback"? It seems to me that silence is the most natural response to a bad paper...

Mathematicians talk to each other @DavidRaveh

@DavidRaveh It's not so much about "bad papers" (as the journals would want to reject these anyway), rather about finding the odd mistake or weakness and in this way improving already good papers.,

I know from an editor that has followed the submissions to their journal for a certain period and correlated to when (and if) the corresponding manuscripts appeared on the arxiv, that there was a significant correlation between manuscript being posted on arxiv before submission, and whether they would eventually be accepted. This suggests that the manuscripts that appeared on arxiv were of higher quality. One possible explanation was that posting on arxiv indicates a certain confidence of the authors in the manuscript, since it will be publicly visible there for perpetuity. This seemingly filters out the category of authors that are willing to continually fling garbage at journals, in the hope that it will eventually stick somewhere.
This certainly correlates with my personal  (anecdotal) experience in refereeing papers. Papers (in my field) that are not already on arxiv, appear to be almost exclusively garbage.
Journals may be advising this to help discourage the garbage submissions (that only cost them money).
Alternatively, I've pretty much stopped accepting referee requests for papers not already on the arxiv both because the general low quality, and because it avoids any future ethical issues regarding using results from papers that I referee. (I can simply cite the arxiv version, if I ever need to.) If others are doing the same, this may have stimulated journals to start recommending first posting to arxiv, since it will make it easier for them to find a referee.

It's a good idea (for you) to put your paper on arXiv when you submit, for various reasons that include establishing priority and raising awareness of your results. Indeed, arXiv is the main way I (and probably many other mathematicians) become aware of new papers.
As to why a journal might advise it, I don't think I've seen this happen very often. The most obvious case of journals that do are what is called "arXiv overlay journals", where the final published paper will be hosted on arXiv but linked to from the journal and with their formatting added. This is a low-cost way of achieving "diamond open access", that is, completely free for authors and readers. A fairly prestigious example is Discrete Analysis.
In other cases, I suspect that it is not so much "advice" as the journal wanting to make it clear that they permit putting the preprint on arXiv.

I see three reasons why a journal might want to encourage this. The first two already got mentioned.

It is a good idea.

It serves as an implicit screening. The main forum to advertise algebraic geometry papers is the math.AG section of the arXiv. If you aren't willing to advertise your paper there, how could it be significant enough for [our prestigious journal]? This works in practice, as mentioned in other answers.

There is also an ethical issue that is solved by this requirement. In principle, anyone could submit two similar papers to different journals (say, use the same methods to solve the case k = 19 and the case k = 20, but split the result up into two papers), and editors and referees would not be aware of the overlap (unless coincidentally it goes to the same referees). If the paper the journal receives for the case k = 19 is on the arXiv, the journal has some protection against this. (And yes, I have encountered seen versions of this in practice.)

With the growing concern around paper mills, use of AI and the growing numbers of retractions, journals are perhaps seeking to leverage the community review implicit to the preprint/preproof process. I can't see journals intentionally delaying publications for a long period- authors would stop submitting to them and this would damage their operational KPIs. Seems more likely any delays are most likely damaging to journals not helpful.

I believe that the citation number is not that important when putting the paper in arXiv as per say. For me, i see it as a way of protecting the idea(s) and the technical contribution. I had submitted a paper to a magazine paper where we talked about a certain theory to be leveraged within topic X. It got rejected and after 4 months the same core ideas where found in another magazine which was published. I meditated a lot and realized that arxiv is a way of protecting your work.
Nowadays, review process is not that ethical as editors and reviewers look at names of authors and whether they are IEEE fellows to give respect to the paper being reviewed.


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About a problem with finding potential referee for my manuscript
I asked this question About withdrawing manuscript in academia about one month ago. At that time, I decided to wait more and sent the editor in chief the name of three potential referees. Today I sent a tracking email. The editor in chief said that none of them accepted to be the referee and he told that he sent to more potential referees. ( I am sure one of the potential referees has not received any email to review my paper, because I asked him). Now I need your guidance in this regard, what is the best option for me now? Shall I withdraw the paper?  Now it is about 6 month that I have submitted my paper and unfortunately they have not found referee for that!

If you have a close enough relationship with the potential reviewer that you can casually ask if they received the review request, I'd question if they were an appropriate reviewer. Perhaps the editor did as well.

The editor knew that, because in bibliograohic there exists a joint work with him. But for me the question is that, why editor told me that he sent review request for mentioned potential referee as well!!

I can't tell you why the editor told you they sent the manuscript to that person, but if you have joint work with that person in the bibliography, that is likely why the editor did not select them as a reviewer.

Maybe the editor did not realise that he was a collaborator until after he spoke to you. Maybe keep approaching other potential reviewers that don't know you?

This kind of decision is always a balancing act with no obvious answer.
If you do not withdraw: Do note that the editor might not invite all the reviewers you suggested. That's the lazy thing to do, but they might also be doing their own checks, e.g. did you coauthor a paper in the last five years? Did you work at the same institution in the past five years? Et cetera. Remember there're systemic differences between author-suggested and editor-suggested reviewers; you cannot expect the editor to rely entirely on the reviewers you suggest.
If you do not withdraw, there's no way to tell how long it'll be before this journal finds reviewers.
If you withdraw: in this case you'll probably wind up submitting to a different journal, which means you start from square zero, which means they are also going to be looking for reviewers. It's possible the new journal handles things quicker. Perhaps their editor is more motivated and/or has greater connections, perhaps they invite more reviewers, perhaps they send more reminders ... but it's also possible the new journal handles things worse. They might not even respond to your queries.
Ultimately nobody can tell you the answer, because nobody can predict the future. You'll have to make the decision yourself. Are you willing to give up what you've already reached in this journal for the uncertain prospects at another journal? Expressed differently, is a bird in hand worth two in the bush for you? It's a question only you can answer.


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How do you build a healthy and productive relationship with your supervisor?
Some graduate students and post-docs have reported serious problems with their advisors and supervisors. Some of the problems are severe enough to be career ending. Not all problems can be avoided but it is possible that some can be if the student or post-doc takes some actions, especially in their first days of the new position. The goal is to build a solid and positive relationship with the advisor from the beginning so that small problems later don't escalate.
What can a student or post-doc do, starting in their first days and weeks, to help assure a strong and positive relationship with a supervisor?
There is no assumption here that it is all up to the student, but what can a person do in a new environment to maximize their chances of having a good and lasting relationship?
Students who have done this successfully and faculty members who can help students fit in are invited to give advice.

Note that I'm not looking to collect horror stories here in which things went terribly wrong. What can the student do so that the horror scenario is unlikely to ever become an issue.

I would say that one of the largest things that a student/post-doc can do to foster a relationship with their advisor/mentor is establishing expectations early. This can be in the form of goals, research statements, or mutually agreed upon research plans. One of my former universities had a research statement form that students and mentors were asked to fill out. It specified what the goals of the partnership would be, what types of funding would be provided, what publications (with authorship order) were foreseen, etc. The partnerships that actually took the time to fill out the form had a much lower "failure" rate in their relationship.
In my experience, many of the issues that arise between mentor and student center around differing expectations. Expectations about timeline, work load, authorship, copyright, publication rate, etc.
Now, of course, this is easier said than done. As a student, it can be hard to tell an advisor that you want to discuss "expectations." Some advisors would feel affronted by being asked to establish goals and plans. One thing that I have seen students do in this case is present their advisor with personal goals that the student wants to establish for themselves. This communicates several things to the mentor:

A willingness to be forward thinking and take responsibility for one's own work. It shows a "communication starts with me" approach to the relationship.
An actual structure for the mentor to build upon. It is much easier to advise a student that can build a basic framework for the metrics of the partnership.
A willingness to ask for feedback as a means of improving.

I will add an sort of post script to my answer: Some mentors are anything but. Vetting an advisor can be very important for ensuring that your relationship with you mentor is positive. Part of having a good relationship with your advisor is selecting a good advisor in the first place. (Which is much easier said than done). Not every mentor is in academia because they love students. That is a reality that does need to realized here. Some professors are in academia because they are too combative to survive in the "real" world. Attempting to foster open communication with a potential advisor can act as a litmus test in this regard.

Choose a good match between supervisor and student
I think that having a good relationship with a supervisor starts with the match between supervisor and student/postdoc. Not every supervisor is a good match for every student, so it is not as simple as "good" supervisors and not.
I think sometimes students make foolish decisions about how they choose their supervisors: they join labs only because they are accepted or because of the reputation of an institution. They join labs without seriously considering other options, without interviewing in person, without meeting their PI, without having outside support systems.
Admissions systems in some fields and in some countries make it worse, and abusive people can be skilled at hiding it, but the advice I always give prospective students is that advisor choice is the most important grad school decision.
Post docs can be a bit more independent, and so they may benefit more from a fancy name or pedigree, but they should still consider what they will get out of a lab and how the mentor/mentee relationship there will fit their goals.
Communicate regularly and honestly
I think a good mentor/mentee relationship means that communication happens freely between the parties. For mentees, it is important to share information with your mentor at all phases of work and especially when there are difficulties. When students try to hide negative results, bad things happen.
As a student, be prepared to deal with (and not fear) criticism and to learn and grow from it rather than be afraid. Because you are learning, you will not be perfect. Expect that, and be prepared to make and learn from your mistakes.
Additionally, it is important to communicate expectations and goals at all phases of work. For every paper/project, figure out up front who is responsible for what, including authorship expectations. Check in with updated schedules as intended goal dates come and go.
Along with my first point, prospective/interviewing students and post docs should be asking current students and staff about the communication style in the lab and get some sense of whether this type of honest communication will be supported or not.
Develop other networks of support
Sometimes, advisors might be too busy to meet all of their mentees' needs even when everything is going well in the mentor/mentee relationship. Students can avoid getting into a situation where they are stuck if they build other networks of support. Many graduate programs encourage this by forming thesis committees early that consist of other professors who can be the start of a broader network, but even if this isn't mandated students should be looking for these opportunities.
Along with my first point about choosing a good match in the first place, students and postdocs should consider these other peripheral support networks when deciding on an institution. Don't get stuck in an institution where only one professor does anything remotely similar to what you want to study. Don't go to an institution where these other support networks are discouraged. Ask people about these things before you go.
Moving on
These alternative networks will be critical if your relationship with your primary advisor deteriorates, which will sometimes happen even if the mentee does everything "right." It will always be easier to move on earlier on rather than later, when too much has already been invested. Still, it is important to address issues as they come up, before there is too much baggage.
By addressing problems early, it will be more clear whether the situation can be salvaged or not. If you wait to solve problems and try to hide or ignore them, they are unlikely to just go away and you will be stuck deeper.
Yet again, back to my first point: choose a supervisor who works at an institution that will support you if things go wrong. There should be policies in place to support students who have problems with their advisor. Avoid institutions who do not have those sorts of policies in place or that have no support system outside of your one advisor.

@Monika Nothing is ever 100%, which is why I give suggestions like building your own support network outside of your advisor. If the institution fosters and supports those networks, that would be a good sign. Having some sort of backup plan gives you more options. If your one advisor is the only person you can possibly work with in that institution, there isn't a lot the institution can do if you run into problems besides putting pressure on that one person, which is not likely to result in a positive outcome for you.

How anyone (assume PhD student) who is working under an advisor can find his own support network unless his advisor allows him to work and/or discuss technical findings with them?

@Mithun If an advisor doesn't allow you to discuss technical findings with anyone else, I would suggest running away. Sharing research is a key part of academic work, and other academics are important sources of feedback.

Agree. By the way, does the ‘own’ network of the student refer to the persons who are not colleagues or collaborators to the advisor? In general, an advisor often shares the research findings to his network, however seemed reluctant to share with outside of his network.

@Mithun They could be colleagues and collaborators as long as they have some independence.

Do your due diligence before choosing a supervisor
Many people skip this step, but it's incredibly important: talk to the prospective supervisor and their group, as well as any common contacts you may have, before signing on.
In particular, it's important to maneuver the interview schedule so that you have the chance to talk to the current students and postdocs of the group in a setting where the supervisor isn't present, and with enough time to let the conversation relax into a pace that allows for all the relevant aspects of the group's culture to bubble to the surface in a natural manner. And, if it is at all possible, do this in an environment as far removed from the strict halls of academia as possible (coffee, dinner, drinks at the pub, whatever you can get).
Don't just ask "is it nice to work here?", because the response will be polite and will therefore gloss over all the hiccups that can develop into serious problems. Ask the tricky questions: how is lab time allocated? how often are people left wanting for lab time because their project doesn't have a high enough priority? how often do students actually meet with the supervisor? how long do students generally wait to get feedback on drafts of papers or theses? how is authorship decided? have there been any issues with a student before? how were they resolved? is there e.g. resistance from the part of the supervisor to use the formal support mechanisms at the institution? how does the supervisor behave if they perceive that a student is under-performing? does the supervisor thrust sundry administration tasks to students or postdocs? if so, what kinds, and is due credit assigned properly?
There's a lot of things that can go wrong in a research group, and you won't find out unless you establish enough rapport with the existing students that they feel comfortable telling you. One effective technique is to provide a 'mirror': tell a horror story that you have personal experience with (someone you know, someone at your institution, etc.; the closer to you, the better), and it will often prompt them into saying things which are more specific and therefore more useful. And above all, be as honest as you can yourself, which will make it much easier for them to be honest with you.


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About similarity Index
Regarding similarity index of research mathematics papers, I would like to know what is the acceptable similarity index for journals in average?

Opinion-based questions are not on-topic on any (?) stack exchange site.

Are you asking what the average similarity score of all papers published in a particular journal? That says nothing about acceptability, but may be an interesting question,

I am assuming you mean a turn-it-in type similarity index. There is no acceptable similarity index. Even a 1% similarity index could be the result of an entire paragraph being the same in a long paper. That is not acceptable. It could also just be random matches and not an indication of plagiarism. Even a similarity index of zero is suspicious since it would be surprising for sequence of words to match in a paper and therefore suggests the authors may have intentionally hid something. In other words, algorithmic detection of plagiarism still needs a human to look at it. At the upper limit, a similarity index in excess of 50% is almost always indicative of something wrong.
The key is that plagiarism and copying other people's ideas is not allowed regardless of what the similarity index is.


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I have been asked for names of referees during signing offer letter
I have recently signed an offer letter for a faculty position.This is not a permanent position. One of the required documents in the offer letter was the names of referees. As far as I know my referees have not been asked for letter of recommendations yet. I am confused about why they asked me to sign the offer letter, whereas they have not contacted my referees in advance.

I'm confused. It seems to say you were offered a permanent position and accepted. Why would they want any additional information if you've already been hired. Can you clarify this? In particular what is intended here by "offer letter"?

I don't think we can help you unless you tell us what exactly was in the "offer letter". It may be that they offered you a position "conditional on something", and that that something included asking for letters of reference and getting positive results.

While I see a question mark, I don't see a question here.

@Buffy By offer letter I meant a letter from University like a contract to be signed by me. The position is not permanent. "Why would they want any additional information if you've already been hired. " This is my question I asked, and I have explained it in my question clearly.

@Buffy in my experience it is common to spend the first day at a new job filling out paperwork.  I have even filled out a job application on the first day.  At that point it is pro forma.  There was a 0% chance that any of the referees I listed would get contacted.  Still my first day tasks included filling out these reams of forms and I completed my tasks.

I haven't seen it before in universities, but certain corporate firms use conditional offer letters where the terms of the offer may stipulate that it is subject to referee checks, security checks, work-history checks, checks of educational credentials, medical tests, drug tests, etc.  In such cases, the terms of the offer will usually specify that you agree to assist them with conducting these checks, and if the results of the checks come back unsatisfactory (or if you fail to provide them the required information/permissions to conduct the checks), your offer of employment never materialises.  Firms do this partly as a time-saver and partly to try to "lock in" favoured candidates while they conduct pre-employment checks.
I haven't seen this from a university before, since they usually take their sweet time with academic recruitment anyway, so they usually conduct referee checks prior to offer.  Nevertheless, universities have become highly corporatised, and it is not particularly surprising to see them using this mode of offer.  You should look at the exact terms of your offer letter to see what you are obligated to do and what obligations the university has.  (Ideally, you should have had a good look at the terms prior to signing!)
The legal status of conditional employment offers is quite a complicated field.  From a purely contractual point of view, firms can make conditional offers and if you fail to meet the conditions then the stipulated outcome does not occur.  However, these contracts are also impacted by employment law and principles of estoppel.  In particular, in some situations where the final offer of employment does not materialise, the offering firm can be liable if a prospective employee relies on a conditional offer to their detriment, such as by quitting their existing job or moving to a new location for their expected position.  Here is an introductory article about the legal status of conditional employment offers, though it pertains to the legal jurisdiction in New Jersey.  Employment law differs over different jurisdictions, so if you need legal assistance understanding the implications of your offer letter, you will need to consult a lawyer in your jurisdication.

I've also been asked for references in connection with employment in industry (as a visiting researcher), at the time of the offer, even though the offer was not conditional in any way. As far as I know, none of the references were ever contacted. My guess is that HR requires references but the research unit considers them irrelevant for visiting researchers.

I have seen this before. It meant, references were a formality. Basically, the offer stands as log as your referees don't tell something horrible about you.


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No reply to the referee report from the author of a manuscript
Let assume that a manuscript needs to be revised after referee's report. If there is no reply from the author of manuscript, what happens? What are the rules and next steps in such cases?

The publisher can take no steps toward publishing if they don't have the consent of the author(s). The paper would just sit in limbo until contact is made.
I assume the editor will try to make repeated attempts to contact the author, but it may not happen immediately.
I assume, here, that the author has not yet passed copyrights to the publisher, so they have no rights in the paper at all.
But an author would also be mistaken to interpret no response as the same as a withdrawn. The editor should be informed if the paper is withdrawn.

I don't expect most editors would make repeated attempts to contact. They're just going to let it sit, and probably eventually it would be considered withdrawn.

@BryanKrause, depending on the paper, of course. They don't have any recourse if it suddenly appears elsewhere, other than to be upset with the author. I also suspect that editors have a pretty big pile of such papers. In some places, editors will have clerical help to follow up, also. Unlike mere professors.

I would expect that most editors have too much other stuff to do to remember months-old manuscript that have not been revised, unless some online system tells them.

It depends on the journal. The journals I've been associated with have an online system that gives authors a certain deadline by which they have to submit a revised manuscript -- I suspect that the deadline is often set at 6 months. Authors are reminded of this deadline by an automated email a certain time before the deadline expires. Authors can ask for an extension, and it is routinely granted.
If an author does neither, then the manuscript is moved into an "archived" state where the database still has it, but it is not considered a "live" or "active" manuscript. Unless someone takes action, that is the final resting place of these manuscripts.

If there's no response from the author(s), the manuscript becomes dormant. The status stays as "revise" indefinitely, until one day the journal decides to perform spring cleaning and remove all these dormant manuscripts from the system.
An actively-curated journal might have automated systems where, if the revision is not received in the designated time (many revise decisions say they're expecting the revision at __ date) then they send a reminder, followed by updating the status as withdrawn.
Either way a paper whose authors aren't responding won't be published.

The "withdrawn" status is not the default, though. I know several examples of papers where the revisions were received more than one decade after the referee reports were sent to the authors (sometimes, after significantly more than one decade) and were subsequently published (some of these examples are quite recent, too).

@AndrésE.Caicedo right, it depends on whether the journal is doing spring cleaning. If nobody does it, then the paper just stays dormant forever.


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What do Q# rankings say about journals?
As you know there exists a journal ranking namely, Scimago Journals and Country Ranking. And we see Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4 rankings. My question is that whether this ranking is a valid criteria of journal rankings in the field of mathematics?

I'm a mathematician in the US, and I've never heard anybody express any interest in   Scimago rankings.

Is it valid in the sense that it is likely roughly correlated with the prestige of a journal? Probably. Does anyone actually use the Scimago rankings? Not that I'm aware of. There's a general consensus about what the very top journals are in mathematics with a general consensus that Journal of the American Mathematical Society, Inventiones, and Annals of Mathematics, and Acta Mathematica (not to be confused with Acta Arithmetica) are probably within the top 5 or so, and Annals is probably the most prestigious.
Curiously though, looking at the Scimago rankings, the Annals isn't listed in the top 50 even, and while they have Inventiones and JAMS near the top, their top 50 also includes journals I've never heard of in specific subfields like "Swarm and Evolutionary Computation". They also don't include some decent journals at all on their list. So the upshot is I wouldn't read too much into it. If a journal is in Q1 it probably is a better journal than if it is listed in Q4, but even that doesn't seem conclusive. Talking to mathematicians is probably a better way of getting information about how prestigious a journal is than paying attention to these rankings. And certainly mathematicians don't normally talk about or pay attention to the Scimago rankings.

And certainly mathematicians don't normally talk about or pay attention to the Scimago rankings  My experience, too.  The only time we had to refer to journal rankings was to document promotion cases when the files were sent to the higher levels of the university for approval.

My understanding is that applied mathematicians and pure mathematicians publish in different journals and might thus appreciate different journals, but I have heard nothing about Scimage rankings in the applied side of inverse problems, either.

Nor in theoretical computer science.


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How to add details of accepted paper but not published in the reference list?
I have two accepted papers X and Y. I listed X as a reference for Y. I used "To appear" in front of X in the reference section of Y. But it has not published yet. How can I add volume details of X, while it seems that X will be published after publishing Y?

Sorry, but this is unclear. "it has not published yet" (which). And what is wrong with "to appear"?

Are both papers appearing in the same journal (or journals from the same publisher)?

You will not know the volume until it is published, so the answer is you can't.

not same journal

I think it is possible under one of the following options:

If possible and allowed by the publisher, you publish a preprint of X (e.g. arXiv or PubMed) and you cite the preprint (which is a very common practice nowadays). When X will be published by the publisher, most of the bibliographic indices/platforms will link it to its preprint and make two versions of the same paper.
You cite X without mentioning the volume and page range, which is also normal and common. There is no standard rule telling authors how to cite and up to my knowledge, no publisher has specific requirements on how to cite. E.g. for the sake of space, I abreviate journals and conferences' names.

Please refer also to I have two papers in an up-coming conference. Is it appropriate to cite one in another? and How could two papers which were both published in the same year and same conference cite each other?

I don’t know what your field is. I did my PhD in Molecular Biophysics ten years ago. It was customary to just list your paper X as “in press” and the corresponding journal name, if it’s cited in your paper Y reference.


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Can presented papers at conferences be listed in the reference section of Research Statements?
I have some presentation in conferences, which have not published as a proceeding or in a journal. I would like to know whether it is customary to put presented papers in the reference section and cite them in research statement?

The references for a research statement follow the same customs as references in other academic documents.  So yes, you can cite conferences.
Is it common to cite conference papers in a PhD?


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changing affiliation part of paper
I worked in institute A as a researcher. Then I started my study as Ph.D student at institute B. The work in institute A was not related to my proposal provided for my Ph.D studies. I sent a paper related to my works in institute A and they publish it. In the acknowledgement part I mentioned my gratitude to institute A and also affilitation to Institute A.  I think that I should write my affilitation to institute B? Am I right? If so, is it possible to change my affilitation after publishing?

Your affiliation on the front of the paper should be Institute A where you did the work. However you should also provide a current address for readers who may wish to contact you. So simply add a footnote to the paper (often this can be on the front page) stating that your current address and email is is now at Institute B. Once the paper has been published it cannot be changed.

sounds like the definitive answer to the question


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About a mentor who want to supervise postdoc
I have been accepted for a postdoc position. My mentor is a young and according to his list of publications he has not many papers and/or many citations. I would like to know whether this position add any value to my C.V or not? As I suppose, his experience is not much in supervising students, I have some doubts about his support. May you please list the roles of a mentor of a postdoc?
When I am looking at the other postdocs from other countries, they bold the name of their mentor of their postdoc as a big name in their field. This is why I have some worries.

I suggest you list your field. In high-energy physics, you will (should) largely act independently of your advisor; in other fields, not so much. From your interest in Lie algebras, I'm guessing math (which is not my area).

if you don't like the academic standing of the supervisor why did you apply to or accept the position?

Research-wise, if you've just finished your phd, then your postdoc supervisor will need to act for a while like a phd supervisor, and they should better have some experience. If you can do your own research then it may not be very important who your supervisor is. Career-wise you want to get access to your supervisor's network of contacts and later use their reference to apply for new positions, and if your supervisor is young, they may be lacking in their network and the strength of their name.

@AlexeyB.This sounds like an answer, why not post it as such?

@Mark Ok, did that.

Finding a mentor does not exclude that you have multiple ones.  As an illustration, it might be "mentor a" offers you insight and exchange how to address a specific scientific problem (for example, if your postdoc now includes methods not addressed during your PhD), and "mentor b" helps you in a different field like "setup and management of an own research group".

My choice would be to list the mentor unless you think the person has been an actual drag on your progress. In a more neutral case, don't think about a moment in time but about how things will go in the future. If the mentor is in the early career stage he/she will probably advance in reputation and, if so, it would be good to be linked to their success. Perhaps they are seen as "promising" if not yet a superstar.
It is easy enough to update your CV in the future, of course, if things change.
Additionally, if you are beginning the postdoc rather than at its end, you probably aren't yet in the job market. This gives you time to evaluate the situation more thoroughly. Perhaps, over the course of the postdoc you and the advisor will advance together. Such could lead to a profitable long-term professional relationship.

Research-wise, if you've just finished your phd, then your postdoc supervisor will need to act for a while like a phd supervisor, and they should better have some experience. If you can do your own research then it may not be very important who your supervisor is. Career-wise, you want to get access to your supervisor's network of contacts and later use their reference to apply for new positions, and if your supervisor is young, they may be lacking in their network and the strength of their name.


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I unknowingly submitted plagiarised work
I have received an email saying that my essay is under consideration for the ethics committee for suspected plagiarism. My lecturer had told us that we could work on our essays together as we were all using the same data. My friend handed in her essay in semester 1 and I handed in mine in semester 2. We used her essay as a guideline because she received such a good grade in hers. I have a meeting with the ethics committee and I want to be prepared. What should I say and what should I avoid saying?

I'm having a really hard time with your usage of 'unknowingly' in the title. You used an essay with a good grade because you wanted the same good grade and thought you would not be caught.

@JonCuster, when the lecturer says (is this written somewhere?) that cooperation is OK since the data is the same, and if the previous year did use the same data, the misunderstanding becomes more understandable. Students are supposed to learn what is and what is not academic misconduct and the lecturer may have blurred the line. "I misunderstood that" may be mitigation for a freshman, but not for a grad student ...

What precisely do you mean that “we used her essay as a guideline”? Who is ‘we’? Did you collaborate with her, or with someone else? And if it was with her, why was she working on this, considering she’d already submitted her essay the previous term? If you weren’t working with the friend whose essay you were basing this essay on, then you weren’t “workin on your essays together”. And if you were, you’ll have to explain how that tallies with her having already submitted her essay.

@.o.m - well, I suspect the learning will be coming soon.

I would add that at least in my department, people are extremely hesitant about bringing cases to the ethics committee and prefer to settle these things “in house”. If your case was brought up to the ethics committee, it means that it’s pretty solid, or your lecturer is looking to make an example out of you. Either case bad news...

When the instructor said you could work "together", they meant together with a student that hadn't previously completed the assignment. They expect both students (when working together) to contribute equally towards writing an essay from scratch.
Basing your essay on another student's essay (that you did not work together on) is plagiarism.
The best you can say for yourself is that you didn't realize that what you did constituted plagiarism. The ethics committee might be lenient, however, they might also consider that you should have known what the rules were. To be frank, anybody should understand that you can't work based off material previously prepared by somebody else and pretend it's your own work -- that is the very definition of plagiarism.

"anybody should understand that you can't work based off material previously prepared by somebody else and pretend it's your own work -- that is the very definition of plagiarism." - depending on how you interpret the phrase "work based off" it's also the basis of the entirety of academia...

@NicoBurns No, the basis of academia involves acknowledging the work of others through citations. I'm sure that in this case, the original essay was not cited.

Right, it's unlikely the second essay said "This essay is essentially taken from [1] without change." and "Acknowledgements. We would like to thank A. Beecie for sharing her essay."

And at the same time, the entire class (and the previous semesters too) had the same topic and the same data. Just how many genius new interpretations and conclusions do you expect to get here?

@Vilx- quite a few if this is a freshman course. (On a more serious note, there should be enough variation in writing style among even the correct answers to not get flagged as plagiarism or for the case to be sent to the ethics committee)

It's hard to say how different the final works were, of course. Perhaps they both made the same uncommon mistake? Nevertheless, I wouldn't rule out an overzealous professor either. During my own time I once had an experience where my girlfriend (now my wife) and I both handed in completely different solutions to the same task (it was a programming assignment). We explicitly checked that they didn't have a single thing in common - in fact they each used a completely different algorithm and no two lines were the same. [contd.]

The only thing in common was the way we output the result. This was a language unfamiliar to either of us (Haskell, if I remember correctly), so we googled how to do it and used the same output command in the end. Turns out we had missed the part in his presentation/slides where he showed how to do this and he used a different command. The result was the same and correct, just a different command to achieve the same effect. On that alone the professor decided that this was "plagiarism" and gave us 0 points for the task. [contd.]

So, yeah - plagiarism can be a serious problem. There are definitely lazy students out there who want the credit without doing any of the work, and they should be penalized accordingly. But you can also go too far in the other direction too, and punish people who have actually done all the work themselves and only consulted/gotten inspiration from others. To me this seems like the latter case.

@Earthliŋ When I was in undergrad we had a pretty silly CS assignment: "run this code and print the output". Me and three friends just printed out the homework three times and wrote on the front. "This is the same as the homework from A & B". We found out later on that the TA asked his buddy "Is it still plagiarism if they tell you?" Apparently they had a bit of a laugh and didn't penalize us.

I agree with everything Tom said, but I'd add that the in the meeting with the committee, they've likely already made up their minds. What you did was plagiarism and there is nothing you can tell them that will convince them otherwise. Do not be confrontational. Do not tell them that there's an interpretation of the rules that makes this ok. Do not try and justify what you did with anything other than "I misunderstood the rules." Don't blame anyone else.
These kinds of committees are generally looking to turn you into a good student afterwards, rather than trying to destroy your academic career. Help them help you.

Yup. Decisions aren't made in the room. This event is likely to be to give the illusion of interaction before their decision is handed down, unless OP can present some entirely new evidence for the committee to consider.

I would like to think your final paragraph is true.  But is it?  Or are those committees looking to protect the reputation of the school as a plagiarism-free environment, not caring much about the future of an individual student who has made a bad decision?

depends how the minds have been made up before. It's possible that their priority is protecting the school's registration, and this is just formality to properly expel OP.

@Valorum How is a conversation in a room illusory?  I think it's usually very real.

@ScottSeidman - What's said in the room is merely for the formality of the occasion. The real decisions in disciplinary meetings are taken prior to the decision-makers walking in, as a result of them communicating via email and in person. The entire event runs like a train on a track unless you come up with something that derails proceedings (like exciting new evidence of innocence or a confession).

It sounds like you know what you did and have a pretty good idea as to why you are being called in. Whether you broke a rule, or pushed the boundary, regarding working together by choosing to work with someone from the past semester depends on the instructions given, the instructor, and departmental policy. You should be prepared to tell the committee what you did and why you thought it was reasonable. You should also be prepared to explain how you can see it might have been pushing the boundaries, but I wouldn't volunteer this until asked. Finally, you should be prepared to demonstrate how what you wrote was your own work and that you only worked with the other student's essay as a guidelines.
Most importantly, you should prepare to tell the truth and not mislead the committee: Is it ethical/acceptable to give a lighter penalty to students who admit to cheating?

If you use your friend's essay "as a guide", that means she'd already done the work on her essay by herself (and perhaps others), and consequently you were not "working on your essays together".
The semester of separation just makes it more damning, but you could've done this in the same semester and it'd still have been basically the same problem.
So just realize you were not following instructions and be honest with them.

The question needs more clarification. It does say “we used her essay as a guideline”, phrased in a way that makes it sound like ‘we’ is the asker and the friend who’d already handed in the essay. If this is indeed the case, then the asker was working on his essay together with the author of the original essay, though it would be strange for someone to work on the same material two terms in a row when the essay has already been handed in.

@JanusBahsJacquet: I don't see anything unclear. They weren't working on their essays together. First because when the instructor says you can work on your essays together, it's clear he's referring to his current set of students and not the the entire human population. And second because they were at best working just on his essay together... not their essays.

I want to be prepared.

I suggest you do the following:

Talk to your friend. Have her attend the hearing as well, to testify or to speak on your behalf. Failing that, get her to write a letter in your support. What she could contribute is to:

Corroborate your version of the events and what the teacher had told you;
Claim that you had her consent for using the work the way you did, or even that you agreed on this in advance;
Claim that she, like yourself, did not understand that what you did constitutes plagiarism;
Claim that you did not have any intention to break the rules or shirk any duties.

If your friend can't attend, have her write a signed letter to this effect. But it would be really useful if she attended.

Try to get the teacher (lecturer) to attend. This is less likely to happen, but s/he could contribute would be to:

Corroborate your version of the events and what he had told you;
Explain that he did not clarify what kind of use of other people's work would constitute plagiarism, and argue that you may have misunderstood;
Claim that you did not have any intention to break the rules or shirk any duties.

    at least the first one is likely and does not require that much good will. The other two are less so. Also, in the teacher's case it is more likely you would get a signed letter (if anything) rather than him/her attending.
Clarify (to yourself and others) whether the problem was not citing your friend's work, or that it was using it to begin with. It's not entirely clear from your question.
In your situation it seems you should prepare for humility and penitence, followed by non-confrontational explanations, rather than for trying to argue why you did nothing wrong.


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A referral form asks me to list 3 negative aspects of this coworker's work. Will it hurt this persons chances if I don't?
I am a referral for a former coworker. The referral form, which is hosted online, asks me to list "the top 3 ways that this individual could improve upon their work performance."
I think this person would be a great asset to the research team, I am happy to write them a referral, and I don't feel comfortable trying to squeeze out 3 negative aspects of this person's work. Will it hurt their opportunity if I don't adhere to what is being asked of me? One thought I had was to perhaps list one or two and move on to the next field.

What is the connection to academia here?

Your title and body say to separate things. The title is about negative aspects, the body is about improving aspects. Surely there are some things they can improve to become even better?

This may be more on topic at Workplace.SE.

It is impossible to correctly second-guess the intentions of the person sending you the form. One possibility is that the question is deliberately provocative and that if you list anything negative at all, the person will be excluded from consideration. A second possibility is that you're expected to list something which, at first sight, might appear to be negative but that the person being recommended could turn into a positive at an interview. Thirdly, it might be assumed that any genuine and thoughtful referee must have something negative to say about another person.
In your situation, I tend to fill the unwanted space with "see below" or "see further comments" (even if I have to write those comments, literally, outside the box) and then simply stress that the person's attributes are such that I am delighted to recommend them without reservation.
It might not be what is expected but it's honest, and the best I can do.


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As adjunct faculty at four-year university, with no PhD, what should I have my students call me?
I will be teaching at a four year university as adjunct faculty. Is it okay to have my students to call me Professor LastName, even if I do not have this title formally? If not, what other options do I have? I quite dislike Ms.. At my old college, I had my students call me by my first name, but instead I got a strange combination of "Teacher" and "Ms. FirstName" and "Miss FirstName" which makes me feel like a kindergarten teacher.
(Note: I have seen this question asked in a variety of ways but not in the case where the asker does not have a PhD.)

An adjunct professor is still a professor, no?

Do also check with the dean and a couple colleagues about the convention in the department. Some places are more formal, some aren't.

Possible near-duplicate?

@PeterK. Not a duplicate- this woman teaches at a community college and I at a four year university.

@MathStudent1324 I suggest reading the linked-to article They Call Me Dr Berry. That seems like a direct answer, even if it's not on this site.

My friend's father, who is doing some adjunct teaching at our local four-year branch campus goes by Professor Anderson, even though I'm not sure he even holds a Master's.

@MathStudent1324 You're welcome. I thought it relevant.

If you want formality, and I agree that formality is good in a setting like yours, it ought to work both ways.  My students called me Professor Brown or Dr. Brown, and I called them Mr. or Ms Lastname.  (Long before Harry Potter, I may add.)

"Professor X is my father. Please, call me Legion."

How old were the students who struggled to call you by your first name? I know that in my classes in college, most people struggled to transition to calling instructors by their first names in the first year, but more or less everyone had adapted by the second. Might be related to how strict public schools in the States are about always, always addressing teachers with a prefix of some sort.

Which country are you teaching in? Please [edit] this to specify because it makes a huge difference.

@PeterK. I know the article is probably relevant for OP. But I wonder if she thought about that when asking the question. Because I can't infer some sort of "inferior treatment" from the question, unlike the article.

To a fairly large extent this can be student driven, actually. The students get into habits of speech. Some places it results in fairly formal address, in which case "Professor" would be fine in the US. Other places it is common to use first names. Your colleagues should be able to tell you the local custom.
In the US, "Professor" has both a generic and a technical sense. Students normally use it as a generic term. Undergraduates, at least. There are some places in which you are Doctor if you have a doctorate and Professor otherwise. Not especially consistent, but as the kids say, "whatever".
There are a few places that impose formal rules, but you'd have been informed of that if it were the case. But, no matter your wishes, the students will likely do what they do.
I once tried to impose "first names only" rules on a set of doctoral students. Some went along ok, but others couldn't make the jump. I was, forever, Professor Buffy to them.
If, on the first day of class, you write your name on the board as "Professor MathStudent1324", most will go along. And if you write "Maria MathStudent1324" you will probably wind up as Maria. But like I said, they will do what feels comfortable to them.

Yes, it really depends on the students.  I'm an adjunct at two colleges, and the students all call me professor. Unfortunately, my family name looks hard to pronounce so they often stumble over it.  I might try just putting up my name as "Professor K." in the future, so they know it's OK. :-)

I sympathize with your students. If I had a professor named Buffy, I would not drop the honorific either :-)

Professor Buffy, eh? Were you teaching in UC Sunnydale?

@Inkblot, unlikely.

I have to add a bit of local flavour to the answers: Whilst in some countries "professor" is just a job title, in others it is an academic title which may not be used unless you earned it. E.g. in Germany it could result in up to a year of prison (see https://dejure.org/gesetze/StGB/132a.html) in severe cases.
Therefore, in Germany you should not give yourself a title (neither "Dr." nor "Professor") unless you are holding the title.

@Alchimista yes, this will never happen if you are just writing "Professor XYZ" on a blackboard - this is why I cited the "up to". But I'll add a "in severe cases" to avoid misinterpretations.

In the Netherlands it is possible to have the job title of professor but not the academic title of doctor. My daily supervisor was prof.ir. XXX

It all depends on the customs in your institution and in your country.
When I was studying at Cambridge University for my masters in pure mathematics, one course was given by Mr Swinnerton-Dyer - he had never bothered with a mere PhD, was already a Fellow of the Royal Society, and it would have been inconceivable to address him as Professor, a job title to which he was not then entitled. We all called him Mr and everyone was happy.
Now, many years later, I am a student at another distinguished British university, and it would be considered odd not to use first names to address the variously titled lecturers, senior lecturers, readers, and professors with whom we have the honour of studying. If I addressed my supervisor as Professor he would assume that I was using formal language because I was upset about something.
These things are culturally dependent too. I worked at one time in Germany as head of a bilingual team. If they spoke to me in German I was always addressed as "Herr C" but if they happened to be speaking English I was equally invariably known as "Jeremy".
You just have to ask around to find out what is appropriate in your institution.

You must be really old. I am old myself and, by the time I was a student at Cambridge, he already was Prof. Sir Peter Swinnerton-Dyer. RIP.

I am really old.

@FelipeVoloch I had not realised the Sir Peter had died as recently as  26 December last year. Thanks for pointing that out. RIP indeed.

One of my colleagues was called Doctor R by the students and he was happy, while they avoided the formality of his family name but showed sufficient respect. Honour on both sides then...

Professor 1234 is the proper greeting.  You don't need to be permanent faculty or have a Ph.D. to get this title when in class and doing the work of a professor.

Please [edit] this to specify which country you're from. This would not be the proper greeting in many countries, for example, Australia.


text:
Do Universities go through old assignmnets to check for plagiarism?
I am new University student, in software engineering program.
I was FALSLY accused in plagiarism in my second semester and it resulted in a 0 on the assignment of course. I believe a student copied my code while on an online study group I initiated, but because I was pregnant and gave birth a couple of days after the accusation, I didn't have it in me to fight it, as I needed to appeal and the whole process would have taken probably a couple of months and I couldn't take the stress.
So I just took the punishment and "admitted" I plagiarized. Needless to say, it was the most stressful, terrifying time in my life, I thought my academic career is over for good. Of course, I learned from my mistake and  I stopped helping people through study sessions all togather as I have my family I need to think about, and as I have two babies and I am exhausted all the time it is very easy for me to not pay attention to things. But since then, I am absolutely traumatized and can't stop trying to think whether or not this might have happened to me before and I just happned to not get caught and the thought about this possibility is absolutly killing me and I find my self up at night thinking about it and it is really starting to destroy my life.
My question is, and it's only an hypothetical question as I only started with the study sessions that semster and stopped immediatly after being accused, what happens if god forbid someone coppied my code in a different course before and we just were not caught for some reason? do universities usually go back to check old submittions for plagiarism?
I am absolutly terrified, so much so that I am considering dropping out.
I know my fear is not rational but I can't control my thoughts and it's driving me crazy, I need some reasurance. I am terrified to work so hard for my degree, just to have it revoked by the university at a later point.
By the way, I take full responsiblity for my mistake, I realize that I should have never put myself in a position where I was at risk to accidently share my code with another student.

Please talk to your doctor about post-partum anxiety. This is a condition exacerbated by the hormonal changes due to giving birth. Your post bears many tell-tale markers. Do not worry about old assignments, do worry about getting a mental health screening by a qualified professional.

Well, my family's future solely depands on me and on finishing my degree, this is why I am so stressed.

Sure - all the more reason to increase your resources by talking to a professional. When you talk about racing thoughts keeping you from sleeping that is a classic sign of PPA. Dealing with that will decease your exhaustion and increase your ability to be there for your family!

If there is no assessment offence in the future, you should be fine. As mentioned in below's comment, I recommend actually having your case revisited, once your worst stress has passed. Be careful in future who you work with. You were clearly taken advantage of. There should be a student support centre that can help you. This is part of any good university student service and it is your right to use it. Good luck!

Did this plagiarism charge happen since early to mid March of this year?

@Buffy why is the time it occurred important? I’m very interested to hear what you think and if there is something I need to know

Merry, you keep redoing this comment - are you anxious about what she meant? I am not sure what @Buffy meant, but I am guessing that she is just asking because universities saw a HUGE uptick in cheating happening as classes went online because of COVID. It would just be interesting to know what % of those "found" cheating were actually innocent victims like you.

Yes I am anxious about everything. I don't know what is going on with me, my heart bits fast I feel like I am loosing it. I thought Buffy could have had any idea that could help me in any way as no one else was asking specific questions, although it all happned about 7 months ago, but I was still curious. I saw that Penn state has an online software engineering degree, I may trasnfer to there. I don't think any reassurance at this point will help me. I have a serious problem and I need a fresh start. I feel like just the fact I was accused and it's on my record drives me nuts.

@Merry, I am sure this comment may get deleted, but everything you are saying points to the fact that you need a mental health evaluation. Thinking about transferring should be done ONLY AFTER you seek professional help. You should exactly like my best friend, and she felt SO much better after she got this treated. She said that she didn't even know how much post-partum anxiety was affecting every single thought she had. It can last for multiple years after children are born. Please get evaluated.

If you are part of a university in the US, they almost always have free or nearly free options for an evaluation. Look up the name of your university and student mental health services. Or ask your OB/GYN for a referral.

@CaptainEmacs said: No, don't drop out! Especially if you helped a student that caused you to get that black mark of plagiarism. Your story is very sad, because I am in favour of helping people, but clearly, someone gained and you lost. Personally, I would suggest going to the ombudsperson and explain that, due to the stress of childbirth, you felt under duress and have admitted falsely to plagiarism. People should understand now better how stressful pregnancy is and any self-respecting university should give you a chance of reopening the case. Even if not, look after yourself. Don't drop out!

Actually, @Dawn, I was concerned about the possible additional stress of childbirth during the pandemic.

Thank you for your help. I just want to make sure I make the right decision. If I transfer, I will loose many credit points and will have wasted a lot of time. Is it really safe for me to sta where I am?

Don’t worry,
Just don’t do it or anything like it again.
You were punished for that infraction and they expect better of you now. As a lecturer I don’t go back through all old submissions as I don’t have time..
Just do your best from now on and don’t give up.
Best wishes.

Thank you I appreciate it. I will defintly not do this again,  But do you think universities have a department that does that (go through old submissions)?

@Merry none of the universities I have been at, either as a student or a lecturer, has a department for that but that does not mean it is impossible.

I've been through 5 universities in my career. None does that. It is difficult as is to catch up with the current workload. If we had to go back and retrospectively check old submissions, we would go crazy. Don't punish yourself anymore.

[Since my comment was well enough liked to be kindly salvaged from a deleted answer by @Dawn, I will expand it to a response]
Please, no, don't drop out!
Especially if it was your help to a student that caused you to be tainted by that black mark of plagiarism.
Your story is very sad, because I am in favour of helping people, but clearly, someone else gained and you lost.
Personally, I would suggest going to the ombudsperson and explain that, due to the stress of childbirth, you felt under duress and have admitted falsely to plagiarism.
In our times, there is so much emphasis on fairness and creating a welcoming environment to all kinds of people in all kinds of situations, so academic services and profs should by now understand better how stressful pregnancy is. Any self-respecting university should give you a chance of reopening the case.
Even if not, basically look after yourself in the future, you should not pay the cost for helping others.
But, first and foremost, don't drop out! Certainly not for this.


text:
How can a freelance writer get recommendation letters?
Suppose, a BSc in Computer Science student has been doing online freelancing for the last 10 years. The teachers who knew him in his undergrad school are either retired, or dead, or doesn't have any contact with him.
Where can he collect recommendation letters if he wants to get enrolled in a graduate school?

What do you mean by "online freelancing"? Like, making websites for others? Anyway, most letters would accept letter of recommendation if those who wrote them were in contact with you in the last 2 years maximum

Is this for masters or doctoral level admissions? Much harder for the latter.

Whenever an admissions-related question pops up of the kind “The application form has these boxes but I don’t fit into any box” the first recommended step is generally the same. Ask the institution in question.
The admissions people - I am speaking here of the administrators rather than the ultimate decision-makers - have seen it all before. They have almost certainly come across cases like yours and they can advise you about what is needed.
I don’t mean that they’ll say “Here is how to get a recommendation letter”. That would certainly be your job. But they may well say “The reasons we ask for recommendation letters are X and Y, and in cases like yours, evidence for X and Y can best be obtained as follows:“
Admissions office people love doing this because it gives them a chance to apply their experience and expertise to an interesting problem.
Just remember that none of this is addressing “How do I get them to admit me?”. It is addressing “How do I help them to make the right decision about admission?”. That is in everyone’s interest, yours as well as theirs.

Freelance workers can get reference letters from clients who are repeat customers over many years.  Business partners could also write letters.  If you are participant in any industry organizations, colleagues in those organizations could write letters.
If you do not have any of those relationships, you probably cannot get a letter without forming new relationships.


text:
Is it good practice to teach using real life experiences of the student?
I am not a professional teacher but I have students that seek me for clarification and knowledge. At times I use their personal real life experiences like how they relate to others to simplify the answer. Is it right professionally?
In the case of programming, when teaching of classes, using their families to signify inheritance. For example your father was tall so will you be... your mother is intelligent so will you be... with no interest of motivate them but educate them.

Why would it not be?

How old they are ? which level they are ? Bachelor / Master or school kids? in which region? which kind of certificate you have ? ...

Careful. For example, when you teach inheritance using parents example, most students think about inheritance from their parents, but some may think about other things: why they don't have any parents? Why their parents ...? Those students would hate you for bringing that up.

More broadly, upon observation, it seems that far more people learn by analogy than by strictly logical deductions. And, naturally, "analogy" means reference to their prior experience (as opposed to non-reference, that is, discussion "in a vacuum", for all the purity that that may confer).
Yes, there is a significant issue of avoiding accidental insults or clumsy remarks, so a little prior thought is very necessary. (It is almost impossible to un-do a bad impression/feeling made by unfortunate remarks, even if they were just accidental.)

Yes - to answer your question. If it helps them understand the materials then you should do it.

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


text:
Is it appropriate to give a student personal advice?
More often I am approached by some of my students asking for my take in matters that are personal to them. Truly random matters from politics to relationships.
What ought I do? If I offer the advice they come back for even more, if I fail they plead for an opinion at least.
Which approach should I take when asked for advice?

What kind of students? PhD students? Students from a class?

Diploma, Bachelors students.

Bachelor's students can know little about the outside world. Many may not have even done simple things like pay bills. Furthermore, in most countries they have either gone direct from high school to college, or direct to college after 1 year to travel or improve an entrance exam score.
You should lead with a disclaimer, and proceed to tell them at least 2 sides to their problem. Honestly, the advice you give will comprise of things they would not easily or never imagine themselves (in a short timeframe). It's either your advice or the aggregate advice from the internet. You will be one data point, but a credible one. Sometimes just advising (or encouraging) someone to actually bring their issue to the appropriate person is the push they need.
If you are constantly sought out for advice, I think it shows your opinion and life experiences are trusted. Considering the personal matters, I highly doubt the same students are asking more than 1 other professor. Be wise. Share your wisdom.

Plus one for “the push to see a relevant person”

Sounds fraught with liability and danger. One reason people look for advice is to avoid the responsibility of making a decision. That means they want you to shoulder it. Which of course means you could be blamed if they don't like the way things turn out.
For personal problems, look for a real problem behind it. E.g., they complain about their life or relationship, the real problem may be depression or anxiety. Under no circumstances (at least if you're in the US) should you try to address or advise on such mental health issues. Refer them to someone else with training who's job is to address these things. My school has an office for this kind of thing.
Also frankly, if students think they have a closer bond with you, they can get a lot more demanding in terms of extensions and grades they want, leading to bad evaluations...

For some questions you should refer the student to a more appropriate source, such as a counseling center. Likewise, legal advice and many other should be referred elsewhere. There are some things you just shouldn't know about your students.
However, for other things, there should be no issue, especially if you have a habit of sitting around with groups of students. Being human to your students is a good thing. You can, of course, express sympathy in situations in which the student is having external problems, and you can give academic advice since that is your field.
Politics is a bit dicey. If you disagree strongly with a student and your subject isn't Government or similar, then you are in danger of the student disrespecting you generally even when you try to teach them, say mathematics. It can make them less able to learn from you.
Likewise, relationship advice can be fraught if you aren't trained as a counselor. There are some things you can say (like "seek counseling"), but you are likely hearing only one side of the story if the student has problems and your advice may well get misinterpreted and applied in ways you don't intend.
Step carefully between being a human being and possibly getting into the middle of things for which you have no training.


text:
Ranking vs funding for MS in CS at USA
Suppose, I have non funded admit from a top 40 university for MS in CS. Another university is ranked 150. The rankings are taken from US News & World Report. Which one should I choose?

To be concrete the university is Arizona State University and another one is University of Alabama, Huntsville (funded one).

I mean how different would the coursework be at universities that are 100 ranks apart  ? I want to get the best possible education since MS is a huge time investment.

This is a strange question. How could we answer that? What are your priorities in life? Is either place culturally or otherwise (family, friends) important for you? Do you have money? Are you interested in adventures? Is one of the programs more interesting for you?

I would suggest that you ignore the rankings from any general ranking site. They look at a lot of things that are probably not relevant to you. In particular, they are probably not focused on MS programs.
Instead, look at the program you would be in and what are its offerings and its requirements. Look at the faculty in any specialty you are really interested in. Those are more important than the difference in "rankings" that aren't specific to your situation.
It may be that in one of them you would just be a face in the crowd and in the other you might be able to work closely with an experienced academic. In particular, what are typical class sizes in your program? How much teaching is done by doctoral students and how much by professors? Senior professors?
And, look, also, at the effect of funding, not just the fact of it. Graduating without debt is a really good thing.
And note that ranking of 150 is still very high, though I'll guess it is mostly based on the undergraduate experience.

You can get a better idea of the meaning of the rankings by looking at their criteria

I am now wondering if an MS degree in Computer Science is even worth the time even if one is fully funded.

Think about your long term goals. If it is academia, look for a doctorate. If it is industry, look at what the opportunities are with each degree you might obtain. Also look at the future prospects in industry, not just the starting position.


text:
What if the production editor does not respond to important email after a few days?
I sent my review of the proof for an article back to the production editor. However, due to the large amount minor corrections I made (roughly 50), I requested a second review. I sent two emails. But now it has already 4 days, and there is no response from the production editor.
I am so nervous because if the typesetter corrects the manuscript inappropriately or even publishes the paper without fully addressing the correction, it would be too late to do any further action.
Can anyone give me some suggestions?

How did you end up with 50 corrections? Does that imply that the version of the paper you submitted wasn't proof-read?

Thanks Wofgang for your reply. No, not all my fault. Some are caused during the proofreading process. The production editor replied me and said he would give me the revised version once they finished...So that's a good sign. However, during this period, I spotted three more (minor, but mine errors)... Should I tell him now? Or should I wait the revised version and give back to him at that time?

In all likelihood telling him now will be pretty pointless, since the manuscript is with the typesetters, not the production editor, so he can't do anything. But this - continuously finding minor errors - is exactly the kind of thing which will annoy production editors. I recommend finding all the minor errors you can right now, and send no more new corrections after the next revision.

Thank you Allure, and your answers are always helpful!

@Allure, just give you an update. After the production editor agrees to send me the revised proof back, he sent the article directly to the academic editor and therefore the manuscript is on hold now. I have not yet pointed out the other three errors yet. I am too nervous as I do not know what will happen, especially maybe the academic editor might reject the manuscript...

@MikeChen would be weird, unless the academic contents of the manuscript changed the academic editor is not likely to change their mind. It's odd for the production editor to send the manuscript to the academic editor instead of liaise with you directly - can't tell if it's because of it's the publisher's standard operating procedure, or if the production editor is inexperienced.

@Allure, I guess the reason might be what I took as minor correction is regarded as major correction by production editor, so that he cannot decide whether to make the correction or not. So... there might be a possibility that the editor in chief rejects the article....I am so stupid.

@MikeChen unless you really attempted something major (like deleting entire sections), relax. I'll metaphorically eat my hat if the editor-in-chief rejects your article.

It's been four days, and that might also include a weekend day depending on where in the world the production editor is. Have patience, and let the process work itself out :-)

Thanks Wofgang for your reply. No, not all my fault. Some are caused during the proofreading process. The production editor replied me and said he would give me the revised version once they finished...So that's a good sign. However, during this period, I spotted three more (minor, but mine errors)... Should I tell him now? Or should I wait the revised version and give back to him at that time?

@MikeChen: Yes, tell him.


text:
What do you say to a professor/potential advisor when you accept the offer from their school?
Is it common to contact professors you've been in communication with to let them know that you're accepting their school's offer? Do you usually contact the professors that met with you on a campus visit?
Is it usually just a brief FYI type email or a longer/introductory letter? I've already visited campus and spoken to my potential supervisors/advisors.
How does this sound?

Dear Professor L,
I hope all is well. I'm writing to let you know I've accepted School's
  offer for the PhD program. I am grateful for this opportunity and I
  look forward to working with you and the rest of the faculty in X
  Subfield!
Best regards,
Pomegranateseed15

Anything I should add?

Add your real name to the real letter

Lol of course I will

Your suggestion is good. I don't think it needs more. One option, though, would be an additional sentence asking if there are any papers or sources that you can or should examine in the short term.
But thanks is all you really need.