text:
How to measure performance of a computer science algorithm for an academic paper? Wall clock or cpu time (cycles)?
I'm a new computer science PhD student tasked with benchmarking the performance of a new algorithm. What is the status quo for measuring performance? Is it wall clock time or cpu time or something else?
I'm running this algorithm on a dedicated AWS instance so I doubt the clock time or cpu time will differ much but I just want to make sure I'm using the accepted method.

It  depends. If you want to do something innnovative, benchmark it against electricty consumption.

What do others in related papers do?

Read the literature to see what authors do in similar situations. Ask your advisor.

It depends on what the algorithm is supposed to do. In many situations the most important thing is not speed but rather how good it does what it's supposed to do, in which case you need a metric that measures this (such as precision, recall etc. for classification algorithms).

This is not a question about academia. It is a question about research methodology in a specific field. If you do not know what the standards are regarding your research methodology you cannot proceed by asking the internet. There is so much more involved than can be answered in simple Q&A sites. That's why every PhD student has an advisor. You must regularly communicate with them so you can learn the basic norms in your field. Best of luck!

Wall clock time is going to be misleading, as all sorts of things can happen to your instance and your process. CPU time is a little bit better, but you still need to look at contention issues.
If you want reasonable timing:
Repeat many times. Use the minimum rather than the mean unless you are changing variables. Use a dedicated machine, even though it will cost more money. Best for timing is to run it on a few lab machines. Compare your algorithm against a reference algorithm.
In general, the OS and other processes can influence timing of a single process. Interpreting results using a single machine is difficult, as your algorithm on this special input might be limited by CPU, by the interaction between cache and memory or memory and storage, etc. The time is insufficient to find out what obstacle you are hitting.
There is a reason that people have written books about performance evaluation and you might want to look at some of them.


text:
PhD Defense Belgium
I received an invitation to serve as a member of a PhD defense examiners' board at a Belgian university. While they have offered to cover travel expenses, there is no mention of remuneration. I am curious if this lack of payment is standard practice in Belgium, as examiners in the UK and Scandinavian universities are compensated for their work.

Does this answer your question? Phd defense jury in Belgium

Source that examiners in the U.K. are compensated for their work please.

I have been in 4 UK universities, and as far as I know, none compensate examiners for their work. I believe its like reviewing a paper, "part of the job". I do not know 100%, but never heard of it.

That's strange. I have received remuneration as an external examiner in the UK. I know colleagues who have received it too. I didn't know that Belgium offers none (or perhaps not the case in other European unis).

Most universities do not provide renumeration. I believe the outlier here are Scandinavian universities, not Belgium. That said, even if they do provide a renumeration, it's not sure they would mention this in their initial email.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Job Market: should one hide their (young) age?
I am a 23 year old cis-woman in sociology. I entered college at 16 and grad school at 19. The program is in the US, so it is a five year program with a Masters along the way.
I have been reading a lot of advice about going on the academic job market (starting this year, ABD but with complete draft). Despite all my searching, there is one topic that I cannot find anything on: indicating or revealing one's age. I would never volunteer this information (like how women are especially aware not to reveal parental or marital status), but I am worried about accidentally dating myself with a comment. Would it be particularly bad? Would a committee be more impressed or wary? Any advice or insights would be appreciated.

I'd be surprised to hear a comment that could reliable distinguish a 23 year old from a 27 year old.

Given the paucity of faculty under 40, I don’t think you have to worry about accidentally saying something that reveals your age.  If for some reason it does come up I’d just say you went to college a little early, and I don’t think it’ll be a big issue.

You'd date yourself using work history.

If you have well regarded publications and some demonstration of teaching experience at the collegiate level, your age may not be of significant concern to hiring committees. If I was a 45 year old on the hiring committee, is there really that much of a difference to me between a 23 year old and a 27 year old? (Okay, yes, there could be a difference. But how much? Some of that difference would amount to life experiences like graduating college, experiences you already will have attained, just at an earlier date).
Long story short, hiring committees are used to hiring new colleagues that are "young" and fresh. Being 23, 24 years old is likely not a point of concern.
I will add this: Anecdotally, many of the people I have run into in academia that are very young for their academic age (e.g. 19 year olds getting a PhD) have not gained the soft skills necessary for actually being a college professor. You can have a PhD and still have no clue how to deal with the guy who's 5 years your senior being a discipline issue in class. I know that when I was a graduate student in my early 20s and teaching classes, some students took advantage of my being very young. This is not to say this is your case. As long as you can demonstrate that you can be a mature instructor of a college class (letters of recommend and teaching ratings can speak to that), you will be fine. (And frankly, at 23, 24 years of age, you should be fine). Being a mature teacher is something that every hiring committee will look for anyway.

I'd like to add age and maturity are weakly correlated; I know people in their 60s who would be unable to deal with people and maintain discipline. OK they might find it easier being older rather than younger but it would only be a matter of time before people realised that they couldn't maintain order (or would participate in the chaos)

I would suggests you out the years you attended college and grad school, or at least the years you obtained your degree, on your application. This is pretty standard in the US. From this along with the assumption you started college at 18, people will potentially think you are 2-3 years older than you are. Starting college at 16 is rare, but not all that impressive. The same with finishing in 3 years. So there is nothing really to brag about.
Given the gender bias that exists in academia, being perceived as older at your age is probably better. I wouldn't suggest you go out of your way to point out that you are young, but I also wouldn't worry about it.

@GeorgeM not presumably, she says she is a woman in the first sentence.

Personally I doubt it is a big deal.
Like others:  difference between 23 and 27 is minimal. If anything, perhaps it's a mild positive in that you are precocious.
Your resume normally won't have your age on it.  Perhaps applications may have a birthdate.  If so, just fill it in.  Don't volunteer or bring it up in interviews as that might seem immature.  But I would not refuse to answer the question if asked, either.
I would avoid dating yourself or saying things that are seen as immature (e.g. parents taking care of car insurance).
This advice would be different for a job changing mid-level professional who is 40 but looks younger.  In that case, being perceived as still moldable and growable is helpful.  (Not saying this is true...just the world we live in, in terms of how companies/people react.)

No, do not give birthdates on academic job applications. Graduation dates only.

Not a lawyer, but you can't ask about age in an interview in the US unless it directly pertains to the job (e.g. bartender). It is illegal.

@paulgarrett there might be some HR paperwork that requests race/ethnicity and birthdate, but they would be hyper aware that it is protected information.

I think you should use it as a way to promote your achievements.
In my case, which is slightly different, I might write in a job application something like

I published X papers from my PhD, while completing it at a younger
  age than 99% of US science PhDs (reference to NSF Survey of Earned Doctorates).

This shows I am very productive.
Keep in mind the typical age at which a PhD is attained varies by country and discipline.  Note that I did not mention my current age (20 when I got a Bachelors, 25 for PhD, much older now...) because that is not relevant.
In any case, there is no need to worry about your age.  Some institutions prefer to hire younger faculty because they are cheaper.  Others will only hire faculty who are already famous (and therefore older), in which case new PhDs do not have a chance anyway.

I would suggest caution with this for the academic job market, although sociology may be different than my field of computer science. Hiring is very competitive and concrete; I would be surprised if this moves the needle. The downside is it might imply you feel your CV is not objectively strong, or you deserve a handicap, rather than wanting to be evaluated purely on the merits of your CV (which hopefully will be the case). (Edit: However, I also wouldn't worry if it comes up in conversion or can be easily inferred from your CV.)

Chronological age ought not be disclosed. Age since PhD is ok.

I would avoid even bringing age into it. It's not a race. I spent several years living abroad as a volunteer for my church while I was in my early 20s. This meant I did not finish a PhD until I was a bit older than "normal." But is someone who finished a few years before me a stronger candidate for a job?

Thank you all! I certainly don't want to frame it like I think it's a bragging point! More so that I am concerned about how different things can add up (age, marital status, gender, etc) to affect one's candidacy, and how one can control these variable.

@Amelia learning how to boast (without overdoing it) is crucial to advancing your career.  A job application is no place to be modest.

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


text:
Is it lawful for a fellowship linked to a permanent faculty position at a British university in the STEM field to only be available to females?
The internally funded Anne McLaren Fellowships at The University of Nottingham state in their eligibility that "Candidates for the Anne McLaren Fellowships must be female and pursuing a career in a STEM subject". (link) One of the benefits of the fellowship is

The linking of the Fellowship to an indefinite academic post, subject to performance against a high-quality threshold and the continued right to work in the UK

What this means is that fellows will be presented 2 contracts. The first is a 3-year fixed term research only contract with a start date mutually agreed upon by the university and fellow. The second contract is a permanent research and teaching contract with a start date immediately following the end of the first contract. The second contract has stipulations regarding if you get terminated during the first contract (e.g., due to a loss of the right to work in the UK or performance issues) then the second contract is also terminated. There is no hiring process at the time of the second contract.
The Equality Act 2010 protects people from being treated less favourably because of their gender during recruitment. Section 159 of the Act does allow positive action (e.g. favouring an underrepresented group in a tie-break) but as those not classed as female are completely excluded from applying then this appears to be unlawful discrimination not positive action.
It could be that The University of Nottingham has a general exception due to being a charity.  But then it would need to be included in the aim of the charity and the  University's Charter of Incorporation contains "16. The University shall treat students, staff and other people solely on the basis of their merits, abilities and potential, regardless of gender".

It seems that there is some ambiguity in the question body regarding the nature of the scheme. Is it a "permanent faculty position" or is it a "fellowship"? What is the link between the two?

@JeromyAnglim it is called a fellowship, but it is linked to a permanent faculty position. It is in the link, I will edit something in.

I assume that the University of Nottingham would have been "lawyered up" before they embarked on this scheme and before their HR department approved the wording in the description. So while one is obviously free to "report it to the appropriate authorities" I think the odds are against the complaint being up held. Of course, depending on one's aims, the outcome may matter less than the complaint

@YemonChoi I used to work at Nottingham so know the history pretty well. I am not sure how lawyered up they are. The fellowship used to not have a permanent job linked to it. Schools/departments then started to offer a permanent position with it to attract better candidates. The university then made it a requirement since all the schools were doing it anyways. It wouldn't surprise me if they did not consult legal advice about it.

Can someone who is familiar with this fellowship please explain the meaning of "the linking of the Fellowship to an indefinite academic post"? Does it mean that after the fellowship ends one will be considered for a full-time position? Is the promotion automatic if the evaluation is positive? Does it go through an evaluation with other candidates?

@FedericoPoloni I added something. The contract just rolls over. This is actually pretty common in the UK. There are funding streams in the UK that permanent academics are not eligible for. There is a loop hole such that individuals with a fixed term contract are allowed to apply even if they have a permanent contract that starts in the future.

I asked a related question at law.SE

The original issue has been clouded by the discussion over whether this fixed-term position leads to an open-contract. The job advert is not an invitation to bid for external funding (e.g. from L'Oreal) but a fixed-term job at the University of Nottingham called an Anne McLaren Fellowship. The recruitment process for fixed term employment, just like that for open contract jobs, must not discriminate against people based on their gender. There could be an exception allowing this but I have not yet seen any justification in the answers why calling it a fellowship allows this.

@L.R the Anne McLaren is different, and potentially more interesting, because it is seemingly both a fellowship and a job. If you are interested in the legality of women-only jobs or women-only fellowships, then you should use an example that does not conflate the two.

@L.R the Anne McLaren is not a fixed term job at the UoN, rather it is a fellowship restricted to women who are newly appointed to jobs at the UoN.

In the UK, there are a number of fellowships exclusively for women (e.g., L'Oréal WISE fellowship). The Equality Act of 2010 allows for positive action outside of recruitment which these fellowships likely fall under. The Equality Act of 2010, however, does not allow for positive action in recruitment (apart from giving preference for equally qualified applicants).
The Anne McLaren Fellowship is a little strange in that it is a fellowship that is linked to a permanent job. If you view it as a fellowship, it legal positive action. If you view it as a job, it is illegal positive action. I think the key thing is that when the school is making a decision about the job, the gender of the applicant is not considered. It is obviously very relevant to the school that the applicant has a fellowship as generous as the Anne McLaren fellowship, but the fact that the fellowship is limited to women does not matter in the hiring process. So the Equality Act of 2010 is likely not being violated.
Providing fellowships that only women are eligible for may go against the university charter or may be illegal in some other manner, but I do not think it runs afoul of the Equality Act of 2010.

So basically they found a loophole? There's a job that accepts all genders but requires membership in women only fellowship, is that it?

In response to the previous comment, I would argue that the "loophole" is about increasing the proportion of good female applicants in a pool of applicants for the eventual permanent position. So no, the job at the end does not "require" all applicants to have come through this pathway

@YemonChoi The "loophole" is still about disregarding roughly half of the population based solely on their gender, which is wrong regardless of which gender is being discriminated.

@krillgar there is no loop hole. The law explicitly says positive action like the fellowship is allowed. The direct result of the positive action is that women become very well qualified for positions. Whether you like it or not does not matter, that is how the system was designed to work. To term an intentionally designed feature a "loop hole" is inappropriate. Rather, you should be asking why the system was designed that way.

@StrongBad I agree. I only used the term because of the previous comments.

@TomášZato No. Nottingham, like most UK universities, will give a permanent contract to most people (regardless of gender) who have secured a competitive 3 year fellowship (even if the competition is limited, for example, in regards to gender or field).

Please take further discussion chat.

Such fellowship is a strategy to promote diversity in academia by encouraging participation from underrepresented groups of people. The underlying motive here is the general acceptance that diversity correlates with productivity. The fact is that women are underrepresented in STEM subjects. A striking example is two years ago, when only 2 out of 43 recipients of Royal Society University Research Fellowship were women. Even if we accept this as an anomaly, on the whole only 20% of all URF recipients are women. Even if the whole evaluation process has been fair and unbiased, such statistic does seem to suggest that women have not been given a fair chance to succeed in science.
I think the relevant part of the Equality Act 2010 here is Part 11 concerning advancement of equality, which states that if "participation in an activity by persons who share a protected characteristic is disproportionately low", then "treating a person (A) more favourably in connection with recruitment or promotion than another person (B) because A has the protected characteristic but B does not" is not prohibited. In accordance with this, the offer of such fellowship to women only is a positive action, rather than unlawful discrimination towards others who are not women. The number of awards offered for non women are presumably the same, so non women are not disadvantaged in any way. It would be a different case if the number of awards for these other general fellowships is cut. This would perhaps go against the provision of the Act.

In the UK (and EU in general) positive action is illegal.

@StrongBad, the Equality Act allows it, as the OP pointed out. Section 158 I think caters for this very issue.

Okay, I think I get it now. The Equality Act 2010 appears to be the relevant reason why women only fellowships are allow. In terms of recruitment, which is what this question is about, the Act does not allow positive action (apart from equally qualified candidates).

I think the issue is that Nottingham is pushing the boundaries. They are offering a women only fellowship that guarantees them a job. In essence they have created a job that only women can apply to.

@StrongBad, as I understand it, the positive action as defined by the Act always requires the persons to be equally qualified. Otherwise, it does not constitute a positive action. I think the underlying problem is that there are too few awards sought by too many equally qualified men and women. The number of women applying is already low. The most obvious way to increase the proportion of women fellows in academia is to open up women-only awards.

Whence the downvotes??

@reinierpost Edit history shows the second paragraph was added later, maybe the DVs were before that? I ended up upvoting but on my first read, the first para threw me off because it seemed a little preachy / not directly addressing the question at hand. And the "productivity" comment seems irrelevant. IMO I'd condense the first para and focus on the second.

I agree the first paragraph does not contribute to answering the question stated here.

@StrongBad: This doesn't sound so borderline at all.  If there were a policy that irrespective of gender, all fellows completing their programs with distinction were offered a position, then it would be iffy.  But in this situation it sounds like the employment contract is offered directly at the conclusion of the search process -- that makes it an employment search process.

I appreciate everybody's effort in responding to my question. It is not that they are treating "a person (A) more favourably" (e.g. favouring A because of their protected characteristic when A and B are equally qualified) but preventing B from applying for the job in the first place.  There are three requirements that must be satisfied for positive action. The first "(a) A is as qualified as B to be recruited or promoted," is not achieved here.

@L.R, why is it not achieved?

There is a long tradition of grants, fellowships, bursaries etc which have very specific eligibility  requirements
These are usually charitable bequests from an individual or organisation and are more like  gift or inheritance than an offer of employment.
The very fact that it is called the Anne McLaren fellowship implies that it is funded by an individual bequest and just administered by the university ie it is effectively a gift given to a person who fulfils specific criteria.

But the Anne McLaren is different. The money is not a gift, but top sliced off of the budgets of the eligible schools. Recipients get a permanent faculty job at the end.

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


text:
How to safeguard marketable ideas from being stolen?
Say I plan to share an idea with a professor that has the potential to inspire a biotech startup. What forward-looking steps can I, as an undergraduate, take beforehand to ensure the professor won't poach the idea and pretend I never spoke with them? Assume that the quality of the idea merits this much caution.
I'm frustrated by the fact that I hold seemingly zero leverage in this situation. The only way I can bring my idea into fruition is with a professor's resources. Can anyone give me ideas on how to properly safeguard my idea instead of praying my professor won't screw me over?
Would any of the following help: emailing my ideas to myself before the conversation, talking to my university's entrepreneurial/patent office (our ombudsperson department is somewhat lacking), sharing my ideas with other professors...
(The professor in question has an entrepreneurial flair and successfully founded + sold a few drug companies in the past. While most people say this professor is great, a small minority have also said that they have a bad side. Not sure who to believe.)

Related: Is it appropriate for an undergrad student to ask a professor to sign a non-disclosure agreement?

Various answers-in-comments and other extended discussion has been moved to chat.

The current answers all suggest either completely dismissing any caution, or else a very high level of mistrust.  I’d suggest instead a middle ground: You probably don’t need to worry, and you shouldn’t let this concern get in the way of your discussions with the professor; but there are some easy low-cost precautions that you can take to set your mind at rest.
For the first side: Theft of ideas is rare (in all the fields I know), but it does sometimes happen.  Similarly, undergraduates coming up with ideas remarkable enough to be worth stealing by experts is unusual, but not unheard-of.  (Not to suggest your idea is worthless; the point is that most experts’ limiting factor is not ideas but the time/resources to develop them, and it’s unlikely that your idea is better than all the others the expert has to work on right now.)  So overall I think Brunon’s answer is right that you don’t need to worry much — but it’s not unnatural to have a bit of nagging worry about this, and want to set up a safety-net.
On the other hand, such theft is unlikely enough that I wouldn’t advise anything that’d slow your development of the ideas, either by requiring a lot of extra work, or by inhibiting fruitful mentoring and collaboration.  Many more good ideas get lost from demotivation or lack of support than from theft!  (In particular, I think the suggestions in subassembly’s and Allure’s answers sound counterproductive to me.)
But one simple thing that gives a bit of protection, at low-cost: Describe your idea+plans casually to a few friends/fellow-students, including in writing (eg by email).  This might not be enough to hold up priority in a court of law — but a lawsuit situation is vanishingly rare. The still-rare but slightly more likely scenario is that if anyone later seems to be “stealing” the idea, you can approach them, say “I brought this idea to you; X, Y, and Z can back me up.”, and ask to be included as a collaborator.  You can present it with an assumption of good faith, that they’re under-appreciating your contribution not deliberately erasing it — whether this is true or not, it gives them a face-saving way to acknowledge your contribution and bring you back on board, which is the best-case scenario for everyone.
To reiterate, I think that sort of situation is rare — but discussing your idea with multiple people doesn’t hurt at all anyway, gives a safety net for the rare chance of theft, and (most importantly) may help set your mind at rest and let you have more fruitful, less inhibited discussions with the professor.

If this becomes a matter of patent law, then those emails could well be prior art, and the idea is unpatentable (in the UK at least, not sure how international these rules are).

@Clumsycat: The recommendation of sending emails didn't seem to include any public disclosure.

@BenVoigt be careful with such amateur legal analysis. What is considered public disclosure according to a layperson is different from what is considered public disclosure according to patent law. I believe I read about a case when a public was deemed invalid because it was established that the inventor told about the idea to someone at a party before filing for a patent.

As with other considerations re plagiarism, you establish precedence. Set up some kind of paper trail with verifiable time stamps to show that you came up with the idea first, before you talked to the professor. You could for example write your idea on a piece of paper in grand detail, and bring it to a lawyer or justice of the peace and get them to certify it. It probably won't be free, of course, but we are assuming the quality of the idea merits this much caution.
Then if the professor steals your idea, you file a plagiarism complaint with their department using your paper trail as evidence.

Plagiarism requires that another's work is claimed as your own. Starting a company based on someone else's idea isn't plagiarism if you credit them with the idea. A university might not look kindly on a professor that cuts students out of their own ideas, but I don't think plagiarism describes the situation well, nor does it give any legal protection to the idea anyway. A simple citation eliminates any possibility of plagiarism.

If the aim is just to prove when you had the idea, why not just put an encrypted file on a github repo? The world can see when you uploaded it, but cannot read it without the key.

I gotta agree with @NuclearHoagie here, making a case for plagiarism would probably not be an effective way to prevent someone else from starting a company with your idea. Patenting is the right tool for the job. Unfortunately, getting a patent is a much more involved process than establishing precedence, but that gets into legal issues that would probably be off topic here.

If you have an idea worth stealing, it should also be worth publishing. Go ahead and write an article about it, then submit it to a couple of journals for review. Such submissions, even rejected ones, will have a much higher value for establishing precedence than e-mails sent to yourself or conversations with colleagues.
If you get your article published (which is not so hard if you consider second-rank journals), it will clearly establish your precedence as the author of the idea.
If your idea is something extremely generic and vague, e.g. "build a quantum computer to mine bitcoin" without any implementation details, you won't be able to publish it (except in a predatory journal), however, nobody can "steal" it either because there's literally nothing to steal.
Note that publishing your idea makes it impossible to patent, which means a publication will prevent your supervisor from turning the idea into a startup behind your back, but it will also prevent you from doing so yourself. If you want to exploit the idea commercially, you need to patent it before publishing.

This doesn't seem to accomplish the OP's goal - they're trying to make it so the professor can't use the idea without their involvement. Publication makes the idea available so that anyone can use the idea without the OP's involvement. This ensures the OP gets the credit for having the idea first, but doesn't protect the idea in any way.

''The only way I can bring my idea into fruition is with a professor's resources.''
It sounds like you have answered your own question.  You are not able to carry out the idea without the professor, so sounds like you don't have much of a choice in the matter.  Just having ''raw ideas'' is maybe not as important as you think it is right now.  You'll see as you progress further in your career that these raw ideas generally have to be ''minted'' and turned into something tangible ie. you have to get some actual new results or do something new with the idea.
It sounds to me like you need this professor's assistance to get this idea minted, so I'm not sure what choice you have in the matter.

As others have pointed out, ideas are common and generally worthless without execution — that’s where the value is. So, with that in mind, I’d like to present some thoughts that may help you be comfortable sharing your idea and understand what some of risks and benefits may be:

Fear around having an idea stolen is typically based on a fear of losing an opportunity to realize some large, but fundamentally abstract, future benefit. Most people think of this benefit in terms of money. But the reality is if point A is the idea, point B is almost certainly not money — rather, it’s probably the conversation that in you’re case you have anxiety around.

Some people are exploitative in nature, but it’s generally rare and in business almost always opportunistic. For example, think about the well-known saga of Mark Zuckerberg, the Winklevoss twins, and the founding of Facebook. The twins were exploited, but the only reason that was possible is because Zuckerberg had two things, at least one of which they lacked: time and expertise. Sure, your professor has the expertise, but there’s a very good chance he doesn’t have the time to launch a new venture. Time to give you advice? That’s a much more probable. And, from a purely cynical business perspective, providing advice will still keep him in a position to extricate value from any successful company that results — not that that’s necessarily a bad thing! Maybe he’ll want to be a scientific advisor, on the board, or a chief scientific officer (though that last one’s a much bigger commitment!)

As a general principle, especially as an undergrad (I’m assuming you’re in your late teens or early 20s), I’d recommend having faith in the process. When you’re young, the thing you often lack and the greatest value you can extricate from something like this is probably experience. Experience working closely on an idea with faculty, experience selling an idea, experience developing a vision, experience trying to launch a company, experience developing a novel technology. Some of these things may directly result in a great financial benefit in the future, but what’s certain is that no matter what happens after you share your idea, it will almost undoubtedly be a learning experience. And you’ll almost certainly have another brilliant idea after it. And when that happens, you’ll have more experience to leverage — and possibly relationships (e.g. with investors) and other contacts too.

Finally, you can test the waters before sharing it fully. For example, ask the professor: “Hypothetically, if a student came to you with an idea for a technology/business you found compelling, would you have the bandwidth to pursue it? What would you see your role as? Have you had it happen before? Was it successful?” Those types of conversations will likely help you gauge whether this professor is the right person to share it with.

One final (and very important!) point: Talk to the tech transfer office at your university before sharing your idea. It may be that once you bring the professor in on it (and you can ask them this too) that the university now owns the IP because he’s an employee of the university. You may also be subject to an IP agreement as a student, too. Here are a few common reasons IP ends up being owned by the university. 1. It’s something the professor worked on/provided guidance for in an official capacity, 2. University resources were used to develop it (e.g. lab equipment or a university owned laptop), or 3. You signed an IP agreement when you joined the university that gave them rights to any intellectual property you develop as a student. Not all universities are so onerous with their IP, but some are. Be mindful of that.

Before you speak to your professor sit down using, e.g. Google Scholar, and look deep and wide into the available literature. You might need some time to get used to the particular language in your field. After that review it is guaranteed that your idea is now on a more solid foundation.
If in this research you did not discover that someone else described something very similar to your idea or concept then play your own devil's advocate: "Why is this idea not working out?"
If you then conclude that your idea has a somewhat unique touch and potential go to your professors (plural!) and ask them why this might not work out. You do not have to specify every little detail here, a rough sketch is fine.
Now you have a lot of input to refine your idea. At this point you have to ask yourself about how to realize your much refined concept. This could be a patent, a publication or a biotech startup. Each have their benefits and disadvantages, now you have not yet really revealed your idea to the world and all the paths are open for you.
The only sad choice would be to let it sit in a drawer and collect dust because you think someone else will steal it.

This is a very real and important threat. The way my PhD supervisor taught me to guard against it is to always withhold an important piece of information that is required in completing it independently. Don't give people your working or your Mathematica notebooks etc. Always consciously leave a few things out that are required to actually realise the project. Hope this helps
EDIT: our group leader always said to be careful who you tell, if you tell a postdoc from MIT your interesting idea it will take you 3 years as a new student but they can do it in a few months

Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please [edit] to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center.

IMO if you describe your calculation method to your professor and withhold the the Mathematica notebook, recreating it shouldn't take more than a couple of days.

I am very new to this and have never done this myself, but you can save your idea in a document and then store a hash value of that document on a blockchain, e.g. Ethereum. That transaction will have a time-stamp, and in addition only you will be able to provide the document that produces the stored hash, which should suffice to prove you are the owner of the idea.
You can try to start with this post on the Ethereum StackExchange site, or find your own way to how and on which blockchain to do that.

This is worth doing, in my opinion, but it's important to state that it does not provide any legal protection. (That would require a patent or contract.) It could help someone prove that they had the idea first and get the recognition for it and embarrass anyone who stole it.
There are other ways of achieving this, such as timestamping services (e.g. digistamp.com) (the signed stamp received can be held by both the IP owner and the service). (I'm NOT the downvoter.)

Thanks for the additional info an clarification.


text:
Is a university instructor required to mention whether they allow late work in their course?
Does a instructor have to specify whether or not they accept late assignments? Only now, after three years of college, have I encountered a professor who does not explicitly state his policy for late assignments. Neither on the course outline nor in person. I would like to know if it is strongly suggested that professors set a policy on late assignments. Moreover, does the lack of a late work policy subject the instructor to the risk of students claiming ignorance?

@Anonymous M Edited, thanks. Also, there hasn't been a response in about 3 weeks via email. I and a few students have emailed him twice using his preferred contact.

A deadline seems like a pretty explicit policy to me.

I do not tolerate late submissions. If a deadline is mentioned, assume it is final. Most students don't realize that real life is even harsher than university. If you miss a deadline on your job you won't get away with it. Train for that and respect deadlines even if you need to submit incomplete work.

Having a late policy can make the deadline pointless depending on what it is. It doesn't stop you from asking for an extension on an assignment ahead of time though.

@BeniBogosel What I have actually found in real life is that there is a great deal of variation -- NSF submission deadlines are absolutely firm, the IRS will give you a six month extension with no questions asked, I probably shouldn't say what you can get away with as a referee for journals. Students absolutely should learn to manage deadlines, but there is also an aspect of college socialization in learning which deadlines aren't firm and how to appropriately ask for extensions.

Note that if instructor uses Moodle (or something similar) and sets due date there, students simply cannot submit their work late. In that case it would make no difference if you try submitting homework 5 minutes late or not making it at all - you didn't submit anything.

@BeniBogosel, in addition to what David there said, in some places those unyielding deadlines mean the student has to take the the course (or relevant parts of it) again the next year. That's hardly how it works in the real world: a client isn't going to ask for the same thing again next year just because your company couldn't deliver at the agreed time. Rather, they'd be be more likely to complain, ask for penalties, or find a new supplier.

@DavidESpeyer Don't you still need to request the extension from the IRS? (In any case, the extension is for filing, not paying.)

@BeniBogosel As someone who has worked on many projects in which intermediate deadlines flew past in a blur of Burma shave signs, I'd disagree.  Artificial deadlines are common in the "real world" and often can be ignored with a bit of elbow grease and explanation.  The difference is, of course, that the work product the student produces for the professor has zero use to the professor, so discarding late work product has no cost; in the real world, late work product is often (not always) 90%+ as good as on-time work product, and discarding it would be stupid.  Sometimes, deadlines are real tho

@ZizyArcher That's not true. Canvas can be configured to accept submissions after the deadline.

@AzorAhai-him- Yeah, that is probably also possible if you set it like that. But in all cases where I saw due date set in the system, it was the fixed due date when submission closes, unless student asks instructor to reopen submission. So I commented from that perspective - that late submission perhaps simply isn't possible.

@ZizyArcher Yes, it is possible to configure these multiple ways. Just saying "simply cannot submit their work late" is not a universal truth about LMSes.

@beni “Most students don't realize that real life is even harsher than university.” Like the other commenters, I find this to be rarely true. In my view, overly aggressive deadline enforcement in school is needlessly cruel, degrades trust (because students can tell when deadlines are abitrary), and often requires un-learning when students arrive in the workforce.

I must say I am surprised to see so many opposed to ferm deadlines. I'm not sure what message you want to send to students by allowing late submissions. Deadlines are not always artificial. Professors also need to submit grades up to a certain date. Homework for the current week should not interfere with the work for the next one, etc. Anyways, I spoke my mind and I would prefer a world where deadlines were respected not pushed back by many.

Does a instructor have to specify whether or not they accept late assignments?

No. If an assignment is described as being due by a certain date, then In the absence of any statements to the contrary, you should assume that will not be accepted after the due date. That’s basically implicit in the meaning of “due” and does not need to be stated explicitly, unless the university has a policy requiring this.

does the lack of a late work policy subject the instructor to the risk of students claiming ignorance?

Perhaps, but I doubt that’s something the professor is worried about, or that claiming ignorance would get you anywhere.

To your last point, if a student claimed ignorance trying to argue that "due date" doesn't mean the date something is...due, then they learned something new :)

In the UK, this would generally be a decision made at the University or programme level, rather than by individual instructors. There would generally be a duty to publicize the policy, but only via a webpage or student handbook, and again not applying to instructors. To pick an example (found by Googling regulations for a couple of likely institutions) Bristol University has a regulation

17.3   Students must be made aware of the existence of penalties for not meeting submission deadlines in the relevant school or faculty handbook.

The following regulations describe the actual penalty itself.

There is typically a procedure by which exceptions can be made, which varies in the means and difficulty to apply for it.  For example, if the student were to have an accident and end up in a coma on the way to submitting their project, maybe their supervisor could apply to the Head of Department for an extension.  That is typically mentioned in the rules (eg in the above Section 19 covers extenuating circumstances).  In general a student should not assume they have an exception unless one is applied for.

Note (although this is clearly an individual case) that this example only mentions penalties, rather than simply not accepting work submitted late.

@preferred_anon I’m not going to say no UK university has a “no late coursework” rule (academia is wide and varied, even in one country), but I’m not aware of any. On the other hand some rules are very close to it (e.g. up to 24h late is capped at the pass mark, any later capped at zero). The important part is that lecturers only remind students as a courtesy, and ignorance of the content of their handbook is no defence on appeal.

@preferred_anon In the US, "late work receives a 0" is a perfectly valid penalty for late work. (Generally that includes some broad exception for extreme emergencies...although what a professor judges an extreme emergency and what a student judges an extreme emergency is of course a point of contention--but also professors have increasingly moved to online submission open any time up to a specific date and encouraging submission before the very last minute so things like "my car broke down" or "my internet was out" are increasingly irrelevant.)


text:
What happens if I don’t have a prerequisite class for a grad school admissions but am in the process of taking them?
What happens if I don’t have prerequisite classes for grad school admissions but am in the process of taking them. The application deadline for a graduate school I am interested in is December 1, but grades for the two pre-requisite courses I am missing won't be available until December 20th.
Should I tell admissions that I am currently in the process of taking them?
Edit: My school is in the United States.

Have a look at your transcripts, which will typically be submitted with your application... In my experience, these include in-progress and registered courses for the current and subsequent semesters.
In the US, it is totally normal for students graduating in spring 2023 to be applying for grad school for fall 2023, with applications due around December 2022. When applications are due, students will typically have all courses they are taking/will take on their transcript as either in-progress or registered for the next semester.
There won't be any need to separately call out these courses as in progress, it'll be obvious and as expected from the transcripts. Possibly you can mention separately your planned enrollment if your institution doesn't include these on transcripts.
If you are admitted for grad school, your admission will likely be contingent on completing your degree and the coursework you planned to complete at the time of application, but it's totally normal and expected that not all requirements for admission (in particular, completing a bachelor's degree) are complete at time of application.

You do not state the country of the school to which you are applying. However, most universities are aware that there are students in your situation. You should provide them with the information that you are currently taking these required classes and, depending on the country, proof of enrollment. The admissions office is the best one to answer this question.


text:
Should a research assistant have the right to use their PIs research (data and ideas) independently?
I recently found out that a research assistant had made unconsulted plans to present, and possibly publish, a paper as a single author on the basis of a study conducted for their principal investigator. The research assistant was not involved in the original research design and worked under specific guidance from their PI.
Should they be able to publish a paper based on a study that is not theirs and be named as sole author? Could they do it with permission from their PI?
What would have happened if the RA had been listed as co-author in a paper with their PI? Would this then give them the right to publish further papers based on the same research?
The question, in sum, is who owns the research? And under what terms can this ownership be shared? And what are the limits of such shared ownership?

Although I think I understand the urgency of your question(s), you are asking toooo many at once, each one of which would benefit from further details of context. Surely you don't want an "answer" like "yes, yes, no, maybe, no, no, yes, yes". :)

“A study” feels too generic. Is this involving collecting some empirical data? Was it analysis of 3rd party data? Is the data open access  or otherwise publicly available because it was federally funded ?

What is your position in all of this? Are you the PI? Do you know that the PI didn't give permission?

This case has been discussed as part of an open conversation on authorship ethics in the institution where I work. The study inolved the collection of primary qualitative and quantitative data, and the data is not open access nor federally funded. And no, the PI did not give permission. To narrow down the question: can an RA claim any kind of ownership for the data and ideas from a study that is not their own?

Ethics in short:

Taking the PI's idea and presenting it as their own without giving any credit (sole authorship) = textbook plagiarism.
Building upon previous work (providing attribution in form of citations) =
fine from an ethical standpoint, but might be going against the expectations of the work culture in a lab. Research output is why the lab exists in the first place, one would expect such a major thing as a paper to be collectively discussed.
Deciding that the contribution was not significant enough to warrant an authorship and/or acknowledgements is valid, but needs to be agreed upon by all parties. If the PI and RA in question disagree on the merit of the research design, this is problematic from the professional ethics standpoint, not even specifically academic one. Likely not in favor of RA as well.

So, the people who did the research "own" it. If the PI made a significant intellectual contribution by designing an experiment and RA ran off with it, that would be a serious breach on RA's side. RA is completely entitled to use their own ideas to produce new research and publish it solo or in collaboration with someone outside the lab. If they are using lab facilities to do so, PI has to know. It is also prudent to let them know regardless; they would not "own" that research, but they "own" lab members' working hours, which makes it really unproductive to get into an argument.

The OP is indulging in the "begging the question" logical fallacy. Their clarification is circular in reasoning.
By the Vancouver Convention, authorship requires a genuine intellectual contribution, amongst other things. Simply being a PI, general supervision of the lab or providing the funds does not qualify for authorship.
These things need to be examined closely, and in the context of any working contract, but it is entirely possible that the PI does not have any claim on authorship, in which case they should be an acknowledgement. It is possible that they made enough of a contribution to warrant authorship. The initial judgement here is, of course, the first authors. In cases of dispute, the university should mediate.
If the PI declines authorship, then it is usually quite acceptable for them to be dropped down to an acknowledgement.
Essentially, depending on the specifics, it could go either way. Without more information, which it would be inappropriate to provide here, no judgement can be formed.
In a general sense, the idea that PI's are entitled to authorships is wrong. They must earn their authorships.


text:
How to protect ourselves from predatory reviewers?
When authors submit paper to a journal, the paper will go through the peer review process. When a reviewer accepts to review a paper, the reviewer is then given the power to delay the publication of the paper and the power to reject the paper. From time to time, it has been shown that reviewers abuse the power to commit misconduct. There are many types of misconduct that a reviewer can do, one example is slowing down the review process so that other papers with the same topic have the chance to get published first.
Another example (and considered as the worst misconduct that reviewer can do) is a reviewer plagiarizing the paper that they reviewed and submitting the plagiarized paper to other journal. In 2016, a reviewer from a high-level journal plagiarized and submitted a paper to another journal (read: [1] [2]), which showed that even high-level journals are not immune from this misconduct.
Due to the sheer volume of papers that a journal must process, it is hard for an editor to determine whether the rejected paper is actually a "bad" paper, it is possible that a reviewer intentionally rejected the paper for malicious intent. The same goes for a  situation when a reviewer intentionally makes the review process as slow as possible, it is hard to detect whether they intentionally slow down the publication of the paper.
Is there anything we can do to protect ourselves from predatory reviewers?

Yes. Publish preprints on-line.

@paulgarrett what if someone read the preprint and decided to steal the idea from the preprint, and then wrote a paper with the same idea , and then submit the paper in journal with faster publication speed ? Also, preprint tends to contain error, which is why peer review exist in the first place, to eliminate error in preprint (either by minor revision or major revision). When someone steal idea from preprint and then submit it to journal with faster publication speed, assuming the journal have good peer review, the final paper will not contain the error that preprint have.

The preprint will still pre-date submission to any other journal. The point about someone presenting a "corrected" version as their own independent work is valid, but suggests that your own publication/submission was premature: you shouldn't be depending on peer review to catch errors, especially major ones.

See also, What would be a good strategy to avoid being scooped?, What provisions exist to handle scooping..., Pre-print service like arXiv but with private option... and links within. This question duplicates many others.

Does this answer your question? What provisions exist to handle scooping when there are multiple reviews of research papers?

@paulgarrett Please do not use comments to post answers to the question.

I worry more about dodgy editors than reviewers.

I think the question is based on an irrational fear. Let me explain why, assuming that we are talking about high-quality journals rather than ones run by predatory outfits.
First, reviewers do not actually have the power to do anything. They only recommend what the editor should to do, but the power to reject a paper rests with the editor. And editors almost always know the field well and can judge whether a paper should be rejected; in fact, I suspect that in the majority of cases, editors will know whether a paper should be rejected based on their own reading of the manuscript, but expert reviewers are necessary to provide a more complete picture. As a consequence, if one reviewer suggests rejecting a paper, but others suggest accepting or revising it, editors will use their professional judgment to adjudicate the conflicting opinions and will be able to tell who is right and who is not. In practice, this decision-making is helped by the fact that editors often know the reviewers at least casually.
Second, while it is of course true that humans -- including reviewers -- have generally done nearly every ethically unbecoming thing one could imagine, this does not mean that it is common. I've been an editor of journals for more than a decade, and editor-in-chief for four years, but I cannot recall seeing or hearing about reviews that were ethically questionable despite reading hundreds of them. I've seen many reviews that were lazy, but I can't say that I saw any where I thought that a reviewer suggested an outcome that was not backed by at least some kind of objective reasoning.
As a consequence, my suggestion would be to focus on (i) writing good papers, (ii) sending them to good journals, (iii) posting the manuscript on some kind of preprint server.

This answer does not address the main issues raised by the OP (slowing down the review process and stealing ideas). Writing unfair reviews (as considered in the answer) is not even mentioned in the OP, so the answer even seems off topic to me.

I'll reiterate my basic point, already made in a comment so brief I didn't think it would be considered a good answer: put (carefully edited/proofread) preprints on-line, on an arXiv-like preprint server, or on your own web site (if it's well established). Or both, why not?
As in other comments: this will give you priority, with or without "peer review".
Yes, if your paper is full of errors, you squander your credibility. Be careful. On another hand, the refereeing process is not currently aimed so much at "improving/correcting" work, but in a gate-keeper function for status.
The prohibition of plagiarism and so on does not depend on peer review!!!

in a gate-keeper function for status. Academics do seem to be a status-seeking bunch.

@cgb5436 In my experience most academics don't care that much. Sadly though, the people deciding about hiring and otherwise funding those academics do...

@cgb5436 may former boss, a young professor one level below the status of full professor, likend the academic world to a feudal society. This was mainly in jest, however, one can find some kernels of truth ...

Predatory reviewers are so rare there is no need to do anything to protect yourself.  It's so easy to get caught plagiarizing a paper you are reviewing that anyone who does it will have quite a short career.  The probability that your reviewer has a similar paper near publication is very low.
If a reviewer is malicious, intentionally making the author's life difficult, then it is the editor's responsibility to discard the review.  Similarly, if the reviewer requests inappropriate citations, it is the editor's responsibility to decline.

'is the editor's responsibility...' -> the assumption is that the editor does his/her job.  Most editors I know simply wait for all reviewers to say yes/no to make their job easier.  In other words, they let authors and reviewers fight it out, and see who is left standing at the end of the day and declare an accept or reject.

@VitaminE: Exactly. It's crazy how so many people are living in a weird fantasy rather than reality.

Oh, I am quite aware that editors, authors, and reviewers frequently exhibit a level of responsible behavior that reflects their pay, which is zero.

Is there any source for the claim that predatory reviewers are rare? I suspect the same, but I don't see any evidence. And what can an editor do against reviewers who slow down the review process on purpose (e.g. to finalize their own ideas).

@Dirk Having read a lot of reviews.  Many widespread beliefs about peer review, publications, and grants are paranoid and/or folk tales.  That includes what supposedly rational science professors tell you.


text:
How do different National Labs "compare?"
I am looking at offers from multiple national labs and wanted to know broadly how each compared. Are there "more prestigious" national labs than others (similar to universities)? Are some known for being "better to work for" or "worse to work for"?
P.S. I am referring to USA Department of Energy Labs.

In which country?  Which agency?  My best guess is that you're talking about US DOE labs, but it's just a guess.

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is a "shopping question" asking for a comparison of particular institutions.

it is about DOE labs

While it's off-topic to discuss "rankings" of different work environments, since those are inherently opinion-based, I can comment on my own experiences and observations having worked in the US DOE lab system for several years.
My main recommendation is not to look at the "prestige" factor of the different labs; instead, you should take a closer look at the individual positions you have been offered, and more importantly at where the funding for those positions comes from. If you are being hired into a well-funded, stable project, your experience is going to be very different from someone in a "soft money" position who will be responsible for making sure she has enough projects to bring in her salary. In general, my experience is that people tend to be happier in the former type of positions than the latter type.
However, there is a downside to the former type of position: you may find yourself in the position that you may not be able to move out of that position later on if you want to switch or at least transition out of that path. (Since you're already in a well-funded position, why should you get any soft money that other people need more?)

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


text:
Problems with gift authorships on papers and how to solve it
Briefly, I was a PhD student in a lab in a developing country. I had two PIs one was my mentor and the second one was the Head of the Department, who was just added for administrative purposes (retired now and replaced by his wife). There wasn’t any funding for the entirety of my PhD in addition to not having the appropriate equipment to do my project. I managed to get scholarships and go abroad to get data and finish the degree. Most of the work was done abroad with the help of the PI there. Now, my previous PI wants to publish every single experiment done while I was a PhD student. This is all fine, however, they have added authors that have not contributed in any shape of form to the papers (the head of the Department who is retired and his wife btw they are added to every single paper coming out of the Department). To add, they are refusing to do any additional work to make those papers better, with the excuse that they don’t have money or time. At the time I was a PhD student that was true, but now couple of years later they have a big grant and still don’t want to make progress on the work. For one, the papers are not of the best of scientific quality and they don’t have a problem adding the new funding that wasn’t originally used to produce the results. I suspect that they are pushing to publish to justify the money they got from the project and their salaries, which is why now they are trying to publish old results and not spend any more time on experiments. There is no office at the University that deals with conflicts like this and that is how they manage to get away with it.
Here are my questions:
What can I do as an author to prevent gift authorship? Can I prevent it beforehand if I don’t agree with the manuscript before the submission or do I have to go with the journal in which the manuscript will be submitted?
Also, do I have an obligation to inform the other authors in the paper of this misconduct before the submission since we have public obligation for what we are publishing? And what if the other authors don’t want to bother to that extend?
Lastly, I am wondering if there is a potential conflict of interest or misattribution of funds if you put funding that hasn’t been used for the experiments in the paper, but solely because of financial gain to keep their big salaries.
EDIT: Thank you for your responses. Just to clarify few things that I omitted the first time, since I am trying not to give too many details. I do not depend on them now and it is not like they are famous lab or highly regarded in the scientific world. They made my life difficult during the PhD, but that motivated me to find a better lab where I do not have any issues. Since my career won't be affected at all regardless of what I do now, I am trying to understand if as an author have the right in a sense to ask for improvement of the results, get rid of authors that haven't contributed or otherwise say I don't agree with publishing the paper and if this is enough to stop the paper from being published until my requirements are met. Also, I am not sure if I should inform the other authors of the situation since gifting authorship is highly unethical behavior.

I think you may add what career you can foreseen and especially where. It might really help who tries to answer.

Sorry to hear of your situation.  I don't think there is much you can do, apart from leaving, given that you report directly to the head of department.  He/she can make life very difficult for you; e.g., denying your tenure, funding, etc.  This situation is not unique to you.  I know most researchers in a certain country include their boss or colleagues on papers to foster good relationship.

Does this answer your question? How can I oppose my advisor granting gift authorship to a collaborator?

@BryanKrause That question is post-submission.  This question is pre-submission.  Therefore the answers are different.

You should not agree to submission of a manuscript that includes an inaccurate author list.
Your coauthors should not submit a manuscript without your permission.
If they do that knowingly, you should tell the editor the manuscript was submitted without your permission.  This will lead to rejection or retraction of the manuscript.
You should be transparent with everyone involved about the author list.  People who might think they should be gift authors should not be surprised when the paper is published without their name.

In your case, it sounds like your colleagues cannot retaliate against you for doing the right thing.  Usually gift authorship occurs in a situation where retaliation is a possibility.

@ anonymous Physicist. Thank you! Your answer is logical and how it should be. I just didn't know that one author can actually prevent them from publishing. I am not trying deliberately to stop them, but make them understand that what they do is ethically wrong.


text:
How to withdraw an under review manuscript from a journal when you decide you want to submit to another journal with a higher impact factor?
I submitted my first article to a journal and the journal indicated that it was now under review.
Now, I want to withdraw my article. The journal has a lower impact factor than a different journal, and I want to submit the manuscript to the other journal with the higher impact factor.

Is it possible to withdraw a manuscript when it is under review?
How do you do this?

The golden rule is a good guide to academic ethics (treat others as you would wish to be treated if you were in their place).  If you were the editor or reviewers at the first journal, how would you feel about your time (spent on a voluntary basis) being wasted?

You don't.  That's outrageous behavior.

The reputation you get by publishing in a higher impact factor journal will probably not compensate for the negative reputation this move might bring...

You should only withdraw a paper if you have a good reason (e.g. you found a serious error). This is not a good reason.

I really don’t see why this question is getting so many downvotes.  Yes, the thing its asking about is considered highly unethical — so that’s the answer to the question.  But it’s not unreasonable for an inexperienced academic to be unaware of that: consider that similar things in other areas (e.g. “Can I withdraw my job application if I get an offer for a better job?”) are not considered unethical at all.

A journal is a business, like a bank or a shop. There are a lot of people writing reviews without being paid by the journal (they usually use their normal working hours for that, so they get paid by their university). So I don't like all this "unethical behaviour" answers. Nevertheless, you piss off some people and that might be worse than the low impact factor.

@J.FabianMeier In my field, doing journal reviews are in no shape or form part of your compensation from the University. Most of the time, doing review work is wholly unimportant to promotion and tenure decisions.  Your own research, teaching, and service on department/university committees are the overwhelming factors. Doing reviews is seen simply as an act of good manners, in the form of reciprocating a favor the rest of the community has done for you. The current system continues to exist mostly because of momentum; not because it's what we've been paid to do.

I know that in academia most people feel obliged to do this unpaid work for a for-profit company (at least, most journals are published by companies). This normally cuts into your research, teaching, department work etc. so at least indirectly, this puts a burden onto your employer because you have less time for other tasks. And yes, of course, you also help other researchers by commenting on their work, but this could also be done in a thousand other ways than through journals.

@J.FabianMeier There are academics that do all their academic work in their working hours?

@PLL Especially that the question may be hypothetical. I find many users often confuse judging a question's worth vs. judging the asker's behaviors. I think it's a totally worthwhile question for any new academic.

@PLL Not knowing the "how-to" per se, but the discussion that followed is especially valuable for any new academic.

Technical aspects of withdrawal: Technically, you should be able to withdraw your manuscript from a journal any time prior to acceptance. This would usually be done either by using some kind of button in the submission management system, or by contacting the journal (e.g., editor, action editor, etc.).
Ethics and norms of withdrawal: However, there are reasons for withdrawing a manuscript that are appropriate and those that are inappropriate. After you submit your manuscript, the journal, the editors, and reviewers may begin expending effort and resources in processing your manuscript. It is considered poor form to waste their time, by withdrawing the manuscript for no good reason.
The appropriate time to consider impact factor is before you submit your manuscript to a journal. This is information that is available prior to submission. Thus, I think most academics would consider withdrawing a manuscript from a journal after submission based on impact factor to be very poor form.
In contrast, some acceptable reasons for withdrawing a manuscript during the peer-review process include the following:

You submitted to a predatory journal.
They are taking an excessive amount of time to process your submission.
Following a revise and resubmit, and you do not wish to make the revisions. That said, if the requested revisions are minor, and you withdraw at this point, this may not be received favourably by the editor.
You identify a fundamental flaw with your manuscript following submission. That said, minor problems can typically be addressed at the revision stage or by notifying the editor and asking them whether they would like you to correct the error now or at any potential revision stage.

Probably, if it is extremely early in the submission process, it would be more reasonable. E.g., you realise a few hours or perhaps a day after submission that you made a mistake.

Another aspect is, the resubmitted article might end up going to the same reviewers who had started reviewing the paper before its withdrawal. They surely wouldn't want to waste their time again.

@dan1111 again it is a "Golden Rule" issue - how would you feel about it if you were the editor and reviewers of the paper that have invested their time and energy in the paper for no direct benefit to themselves?  Or the reviewers of the version submitted elsewhere that will be repeating work that has already been done by the first set of reviewers.  I'd say don't do it.

I've removed most of the comments from this thread. Please keep all comments civil. Also, please keep in mind that what is obvious to one may completely foreign to someone else. Lets keep this site friendly for everyone, even the newcomers.

You might be able to withdraw/retract the manuscript. This might be possible using the web interface by which you submitted the manuscript. Alternatively, you can write to the editor or associate editor that is processing the manuscript. Do not submit the manuscript to another journal until you have withdrawn/retracted the manuscript.
EDIT: The question has been edited since this answer was written. It is now apparent that the reason to withdraw/retract is to resubmit to a journal with a higher impact factor. This raises ethical questions.

How to retract that one i don't have any option there in that website to do that just only one thing I can do is tracking my article

@MouniMona, you can email the editor or associate editor.

Emails get responded to when they are processed. I cannot comment on how quickly your email will be processed.

I truly do not understand why someone would go to such a stretch for a marginal difference in impact factor...

@jwg, this answer answers the question as (originally) posed. Jeromy Anglim answers the revised question.


text:
How can I provide proof that my paper has been proofread by a native speaker?
I have submitted my manuscript to a journal. After several weeks the editor sent me the comments of two reviewers. The editor said that "the authors should provide proof that the paper has been proofread by a native English speaker".
So how can I provide the proof? Should I send the proofreading certificate which I recieved after using the service from a proofreading company?
And if I only ask a native speaker for proofreading without any certificates, how should i provide the proof?

'should' doesn't mean you have to.   My suggestion is to get someone that's proficient to fix your paper.  The proof is in the pudding -- meaning if the paper reads ok, that's proof.  Even native speakers do not necessarily write well.  Some reviewers are racists or discriminate against Asian authors; hence, their number one comment is always to get someone like 'them' to read and write a paper because only them can do good work.

My 10 yo son is a French native speaker and you definitely would not like him to proofread an article in his mother tongue. This applies to almost all of his class and then 74% of the population (the number is completely made up - this is based on my personal suffering when reading professional emails full of grammatical errors). In other words this is a ridiculous request.

It should be crystal clear to the editor if the paper was read carefully by a native speaker simply by reading it.

This is a bit strange. Is it possible that you are not telling us the whole truth -- that you already told the Editor that your manuscript had been proof-read by a native speaker?

It sounds to me that the proof-readers have done a rather bad job so the editor doesn't believe the paper has been proofed at all.

As a side note, I find the fetishizing of native speakers quite annoying. What you really care about is proficiency in writing, and this is not nearly as correlated with being a native speaker as people seem to think.

@NickS It might be obvious to you, but if the editor is not fluent in English then it may not be obvious to the editor.

While statements about native speaker's proficiency in other comments (@WoJ, @SashoNikolov) are valid, even proficient second-language speakers sometimes make mistakes that (at least reasonably proficient) native speakers never make (e.g. particle choice, collocations, etc.).

The requirement seems ridiculous, if taken literally. I see two possibilities: 1. The language of the paper is truly horrendous, and the editor is somehow very bad at communicating this. If you think that this could be the case, make the paper readable. A certificate won't help. 2. The editor really means what he says. Then something is fishy about this journal. It could be a predatory journal that only cares about the superficial appearance of papers, such as immediately noticeable grammar mistakes that give away the quality. In this case, ditch them and look for a decent journal instead.

@Szabolcs It's not "bad communication", it's actually a good technique in making somebody fix the language without having them be defensive. It's analogous to when tech support asks you to unplug and plug your mouse instead of asking whether your mouse is plugged in.

@user71659: I think your analogy is disingenuous: the communication is "bad" because the recipient is confused as to how to proceed. With the tech support example  the recipient understands what to do (ensure the mouse is plugged-in), albeit it is delivered in a indirect manner to help argumentative fools save face and thus be more receptive (why, yes I have worked in tech support, how did you know?).

@sharur It's fairly clear to me what the situation is. A request for evidence that it was sent to a professional proofreading service exactly prevents the situation the OP is asking about: having their friend/acquaintance/co-worker edit it. The issues with the latter case can clearly be imagined.

@user71659 They are not asking about a proof of a professional service, they are asking for a proof of a native speaker. So a friend or colleague is allowed. Besides, I don't see why a colleague or friend should be any worse. Especially considering a colleague is likely to know the topic.

@SashoNikolov I agree that the real issue is how well the person speaks English and that many native speakers speak and write poorly. However, the level of written and spoken English among educated native speakers is much higher than average and, in practical terms, somebody who is asked to get their paper checked by a native speaker is much more likely to turn to an academic colleague than a random native-speaker on the street.

@DavidRicherby I don't disagree but this is mostly tangential to my point. Why is such a request phrased to emphasize the "nativity" of the speaker and not their proficiency? Shouldn't the authors be requested instead to get their paper reviewed by someone proficient in technical English writing? Why are the authors asked for something which is only correlated with what they need rather than for what they actually need?

@SashoNikolov Probably because a lot of people would reply, “We are proficient in technical English writing, thank you very much.”

@WoJ: Well, obviously, people who say such a statement do not mean "children who learn the language". Nor do they mean "native speakers who are analphabets" or similar. It is not welldefi ed who they mean but that they don't mean any native speaker should be clear.

@user111388: the fact that someone is a native speaker is at best loosely related to their ability to properly speak that language. The expected proficiency for a serious article is way above the capacities of an average speaker. IIRC in French the threshold for "average speaker" is 4000 words out of the ~70000+. This is the level of the news at 20:00 on TV, which is expected to be understood by the majority of the population.

@WoJ: This is true and I agree with you. However, arguing with native speaker children misses the point quite obviously. I do agree that this point is not precisely made clear.

This seems like an unreasonable request. Frankly, it does not matter if you paper has been proof-read by a native speaker or not. If, after revision, your English presentation is still bad, the editor won't accept it even if you include proof that it was read by a native speaker.
I would personally be prone to just ignore this request, make sure that the English language is as good as it can be, and resubmit the paper.

I second this. We had a question once, which can't find now, from someone who had their paper proofread by a "professional" service. The service did a terrible job (it was almost a scam) but provided a certificate, so the certificate per se says nothing.

@henning I do recall that question. I also recall that the service even included a snippet on their website mentioning that often reviewers would be unable to see that the English they produced really was "flawless" (or whatever wording they used. It was really rather amazingly arrogant).

I think that this is probably the question @henning mentions.

And if I only ask a native speaker for proofreading without any certificates, how should i provide the proof?

Have the proofreader write a short letter to the editor, describing who they are, where they learned English, and stating that they have proofread your paper.  They can also state their opinion of the quality of the English after proofreading.  Have them sign it, and forward it to the editor.
While of course such a letter could be faked, I doubt that the editor would desire any more proof than this.

This is absolutely correct, but this also seems like an odd request to me. Many native speakers are not good writers and many people who know English as a second language write very well. I know several lawyers in the USA for whom English is not their native language.

If you want a technical solution, have them PGP-sign a the letter + the version of the paper they read.  Like sign a zip file, or sign an email with attachment.  We've had the technology to prove identity for a couple decades, if only people would use it.  (PGP depends on a web-of-trust for the recipient to be able to trust that the signer is who they say they are, so it kind of requires a critical mass of adoption to fully serve that purpose.)

The where doesn't really make sense for native speakers.  If someone asked me, in earnest, "where" I learned English I'd have no idea how to answer that.  Is the answer from my parents when I was a baby?  Is the answer all of my various English/Language Arts teachers in school?

@DeanMacGregor The "where" in this context is likely to mean "which country" more than anything. A native English speaker from America would give different results from a native English speaker from England, and there are various other places around the world that have English as a primary language such as India.

@KamilDrakari I can't really refute the possibility of that except that it seems such a vague and roundabout way of asking where someone is from.  Like I said, if someone asked me where I learned English, it would never occur to me to answer the country I'm from.

I have never seen a journal routinely ask for a proof of proofreading. The comment can only mean that the language of the paper is actually unsatifactory for the editor. Possibility 1: This is a journal you don't want to publish in, 2: it is, and you need to fix your English, now.

This sounds like an unreasonable request which makes me doubt the quality of the journal. If the journal's review process is good, the editor should be able to decide whether the standards of language are appropriate for the publication without asking for external "proof". Most journals I published with will also use their in-house proofreading service to improve the paper after it's recommended for publication. A request that the authors should use an external proofreading service is neither necessary nor sufficient to ensure the quality of the outcome. I would ignore it and resubmit the paper making sure it's as clear as you can make it.

In-house proofreading? Who ever heard of such a thing? Did you transmit this answer forward in time from the nineteenth century? ;-)

SIAM does it for all their journals, for example, and a couple of other journals which I do not remember ATM.

You can also just ask the editor what sort of proof he would like to see. Might be the simplest method.

Yes, send the certificate you received from the proofreading company.
There are proofreading companies out there who will edit your paper until it's acceptable, so if the editor comes back with "this still isn't good enough" that's what to do next.

Thank you very much. If I only as my friend for proofreading, he is a native English speaker, how should I provide them the proof?

Some editor, I forget which, said these certificates are worthless.

@DucTuan was going to write something, but then Nate Eldredge wrote what I was going to say.

This sounds like a strange request. Not all native english speakers are good writers. This should not be about who proofread the paper rather than the quality of the submitted work.

authors: Vladimir F Героям слава


text:
Can I mention my undergrad ranking in CV, when there is no official document about it?
Our university doesn't announce any rank and it is not present in our transcripts but I know that my rank is 7 out of 60 in my department. Can I mention this rank? Since I dont have any proof of my rank I am not sure if I can mention it or not.

How do you know your rank if the university doesn't announce it?

If you can't prove it, I wouldn't put it in your C.V.
For one, anyone reviewing your application will have no way of knowing if you're lying or telling the truth. That's never a feeling you want a reviewer to have.
Even more importantly: what if you were actually wrong? What if you were 8 out of 60? Or 6 out of 60? I trust that when you say you're 7 out of 60, you have a pretty good idea of that, but you can't be sure if your school doesn't issue an official rank.
For what it's worth, if your GPA is high enough, I doubt rank will matter much. #7 is great, but #7 out of 60 students is different than #7 out of 600 students or 6000 students. For that reason, the rank itself is less valuable than your actual GPA.

You may want to say Top X% of the department or Top 10 or Top 20 rather than #8. I never really found this ranking to be all that useful because your previous work/experience and GPA are self-explanatory. These ranks are not gonna matter. If you go to a more competitive college, your rank could've been lower. Remember, you are competing with others from other universities, so how you rank against everyone else is far more important than how you rank against your peers.


text:
How to describe my favourite scientific publication? And why I have to do that?
I recently obtained my degree and I am applying this period for PhD studies  in order to start next year. In one graduate program where I am applying they ask me to give details about my favorite scientific publication and the reasons why I choose this publication.
Honestly, I found this question harder than any other (describe my research experience/research interests etc.). I have research experience and a paper (first author in quite good journal), I have read quite a lot papers in the last two years however I can not say "This is my favorite publication" only a "review" paper which describes the achievements of my field in the last decade and the future goals.
Is a review paper a good choice for this kind of question? What should I to in this situation?

Hi, and welcome to Academia SE. I have improved your post a little bit. Check it out.

They just wanted you to check your judgments. This question is similar to classic interview questions like "Why did you choose our company/institute?".

@Dexter Do you believe that a review paper is good or bad choice ?

Any paper will be fine but most important will be "why did you choose that". They are looking for that answer rather than which paper you choose.

It's fine to say, "I don't specifically have a favorite publication, but here is one I like a lot and this is why" if you don't feel comfortable calling one your favorite.  I don't have a favorite publication either, not even among my own publications.

I'm not sure I understand the problem.  You have read a bunch of papers and you have a strong paper of your own, so you must have as much insight and experience here as you need.  So why can't you pick a paper that was "the best" (or among the best) according to whatever reasons made you like it the most and describe why you liked it / why it had a positive influence on you?  A review paper would be fine, it seems to me.

I think purpose of that question while applying to graduate program is to check your judgment or thought process. It will be similar to writing statement of purpose (SOP) where you try to justify why do you choose any institute/program/career etc. I think, any paper (research or review) is fine as far as you give reasonable answer to their question about "why do you like that publication".
There might be many different answers to that questions, One might like following things from that paper

The way research has done
The way authors have interpreted results
The way connections have made to other problems
The way they have formulated model from existing information (This is generally done in reviews)
The way authors has provoked future questions

Most important thing you should mention in your answer that how this paper has helped you in any way. For example, one might say, I liked the way authors have used very general methods cleverly to answer some difficult question which changed your perception about solving difficult questions with simple methods. In case of review, you can say how authors have used many well established and new concepts to make current model. This helped you in understanding some complex concept.