text:
Is it true that foreign students have very limited academic prospects in Germany?
My question is about this apparently well-received answer on Quora:

Q: Which PhD programs in Germany would you recommend?
A: NONE...The German Ph.D. system is feudal and archaic. At the top is the professor, who, unlike his Anglo Saxon counterparts, can take as many Ph.D. students as he wants. 20 to 30 is very common. They are used to do the grunt work. If you are a foreign student, the professor will do nothing to help you stay on, network, or find a job in Germany....
In Germany, [it is very difficult to find an academic job]. In practice, unless your Professor pushes you, and he will only push a bunch of favorites who are German, you won't get a job. Why do you think there are so few foreign faculty in German universities? And surprise! Those who are there have PhDs from the Ivy League...If you take a PhD and then try to move to industry, you need to have a job that requires a PhD, and...it will be an immigration officer who decides that....

Is this really the case? I have known few non-German people with German PhDs and none of them mentioned these issues. I especially find it unlikely that anyone can have 20–30 PhD students worth of grunt work in fields like mathematics. Many of the other issues also seem to be present in other countries. On the other hand, there is also this article, which largely agrees.
To narrow the question, let's ask specifically about foreign graduate students in mathematics who seek academic careers.

Since the OP has the goal of staying in academia after PhD, I wonder if anyone can supply some statistics on how many graduating PhD students in mathematics stay in academia (say for  2/5/10 years after graduation), for students who get their PhD in Germany compared to those from UK and US. Based on personal experience my guess is that Germany has significantly lower rates, but it would be good to see evidence.

Also "foreign national" seems like an unhelpfully broad category here, in particular when discussing employment law. The quoted text appears to be written from a US perspective, but presumably the claims about employment law do not apply to EU nationals.

It's unclear whether the "20 to 30" PhD students refers to students a professor will supervise over their entire career or at the same time. Of course, this makes a lot of difference.

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

Is started a meta discussion on reopening this question.

The German Ph.D. system is feudal and archaic.

Sounds like an opinion. Let's check all points to form an own opinion.

At the top is the professor, who, unlike his Anglo Saxon counterparts,
  can take as many Ph.D. students as he wants.

True. But it's more like "as many PhD students as he can pay".

20 to 30 is very common.

No. More than 6 is rare in math, more than 10 is extremely rare. About 1 to 4 is more common.

They are used to do the grunt work. If you are a foreign student, the
  professor will do nothing to help you stay on, network, or find a job
  in Germany.

This can be true for any professor in any country as well. I do not see any evidence why German professors are worse than others in this respect on average.

Of course, they are happy to see you leave for your own country to do
  technology transfer!

I have no idea where this conclusion comes from. In Germany the companies often struggle to get good applications and there is no reason for anybody to be happy when a well qualified PhD graduate leaves the country to work somewhere else (except to be happy for that person...).

In Germany, unlike in most other countries, a PhD qualifies you only
  to teach as a docent.

No. A PhD qualifies for a bunch of jobs depending on the discipline. What is probably meant is jobs in academia. See below.

To become a professor you need another degree a Habilitation. After
  that, you need to be called to the chair.

Not anymore. There are more ways to become a professor. There are junior professorships (vaguely similar to assistant professorships), you can become a junior group leader at Max-Planck institute or a bunch of other research institutes, get your own funded research group (DFG and BMBF are just two agencies with funding in this direction) and of course being a productive postdoc (with or without doing a Habilitation) is possible.

If you cannot find a job in the 12 years after your PhD you are barred
  from applying to academic jobs.

No. What is true is that there is a law that says that you can only work on limited time contracts for six years after PhD. But this excludes contracts based on grant money and I've seen more exceptions to this (e.g. for junior professors). Even if you leave university, there is the possibility to return to academia (depending on the discipline) and a professorship at a Fachhochschule even requires work experience in industry.

In practice, unless your Professor pushes you, and he will only push a
  bunch of favorites who are German, you won t get a job.

This is an overgeneralization.

Why do you think there are so few foreign faculty in German
  universities.

There are not a lot foreign professors in Germany. Probably the required teaching in German plays a role? Other than that, foreign applicants are treated equally.

And surprise! Those who are there have PhDs from the Ivy League.

No.

If you are a Masters then look for a job in industry. If you take a
  PhD and then try to move to industry you need to have a job that
  requires a PhD and in practice it will be an immigration officer who
  decides that.

Immigration officers play a role, but I don't know of any PhD graduate who could not get a job that was offered to them because of immigration policy. As noted in the comments, there are simplified rules as of March 2020 which I don't know yet (link in the comments).

True, except for the last one. As far as I know the rules, if you finish a degree in Germany and look for a job immediately after (within 18 months I think), there is no need to show that there is no better German applicant. The only condition is that the job fits the field of the degree, which in most cases should not be so hard to prove.

Yeah the last part actually just got changed this month (immigration law got changed on the first of March 2020).

@Olorun  Any source on that?

Found one

Thanks - updated.

Could you make it clearer if your answer is about math students or students in Germany in general? FWIW, I have seen a lot.of unpaid phd students (in the social sciences, not in STEM) in Germany.

My answer is not specific for math. Regarding unpaid students: This can happen in any discipline (but is extremely rare in STEM fields) and usually only happens if the student ask for it. But I am sure that there cases where a professor says they'll have funding but then don't and the students starts or continues  without funding.

I think you need to clarify more about 6 years in academic positions after PhD. The actual situation as I understand it (I am not a layer!): you have 6 years for your PhD. Then you have 6 more years. The unused years from before your PhD add up. This 6 year limitation is concerned with middle-tier postdoc positions that are not permanent (i.e., almost all of them). If you have a grant-funded position, you are exempt. If you manage to get a permanent position, you are exempt. If you have a (permanent) industry position, exempt. If you get a professorship, you are exempt.

As for the last part: It's worth pointing out that immigration officers (in fact immigration law) does not apply to EU foreigners at all: They are treated equally to Germans.

"This can be true for any professor in any country as well." Is the converse true? Do German professors ever not use their PhDs as grunt work? (E.g., do they ever mentor their own growth and research interests without recourse to labor exploitation?)

Why do (some) German students ask for not being funded?

@Alexis Yes. https://www.genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=21760 Did you have a slightly more serious question/comment in mind?

@user111388 They ask to get supervised for a PhD thesis without being employed. Note that doing a PhD thesis in Germany is not usually with an employment including social security and such (and rarely with a stipend). If there is no money for a position, the student may want to start anyway if they can make enough money in a different way.

@YemonChoi Confirmation bias frequently bites one in the ass, that is why I asked for evidence in the other direction.

Summary
The quote mostly reflects individual experiences.
In general surveys on satisfaction with supervision and employment of international PhD (and other) students, Germany only scores slightly worse than the international average.
Individual Experiences
The quote in question is a great example for one of the reasons why we do not allow shopping questions on this site (quoting myself):

No single person can compare the alternatives in life-changing career decisions (such as choosing a field), because everybody only has one life. At best you could statistically evaluate the experiences of people who made a similar decision a decade ago. However, during such a long period of time there will likely be changes that invalidate the comparison.

Specifically, the quoted text mixes some clearly individual experiences (“If you are a foreign student, the professor will do nothing to help you […].”) with ones that could be based on general facts (“20 to 30 [PhD students per professor] is very common.”). This suggests that the author of the quoted text is just stating their experience as general, while lacking any true means of comparison. And since you can go through the experience of doing your (first¹) PhD only once in your life, no single person can.
In general, doing a PhD is a highly individual experience.
The impact of the individual professor or workgroup is much higher than that of the country or even university (in particular in countries like Germany, where there are no such big quality differences between universities).
Therefore, I suggest to focus on assessing your supervisor when deciding for a PhD.
Predictions
On top, all statistics and experiences you find now are inevitably outdated since they at best apply to people who were in the same situation as you three years ago, but usually it’s rather five to ten years ago.
This particularly applies to pursuing an academic career in Germany after your PhD, it’s hard to predict how the academic job market will look in three to fifteen years, which is the relevant time span for you.
For example, the mentioned twelve-year time limit on fixed-term academic jobs will only apply to you in twelve years².
There are good chances that the law is changed until then.
Statistics
I am using the following sources:

BuWiN: Bundesbericht Wissenschaftlicher Nachwuchs – This is a big-scale general study (it has its own web site) commissioned by the German government.
It doesn’t separately address the experience of international students much, but it serves for some general information.
ISB: The International Study Experience in Germany. Findings from the International Student Barometer 2018 and 2016
– This aggregates some statistics from the International Student Barometer.
It was published by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
Only some of the data is specific to PhD or post-graduate students.
I am including the 2016 version, because it contains some data not featured in 2018.
Sozialerhebung: International Students in Germany 2016 – This is a study commissioned by the German Studentenwerk, conducted by the Deutsches Zentrum für Hochschul- und Wissenschaftsforschung (German centre for research on academia), and financially supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

Mind that none of these resources contains relevant data specific to mathematics.
However, the quote in the question suggests that the alleged problems are a consequence of the German system, culture, etc. Hence they should affect the general statistics.
Conversely, while it is conceivable that mathematics is the big bad outlier here, I see no indications for this and nobody has suggested so so far.

At the top is the professor, who […], can take as many Ph.D. students as he wants. 20 to 30 is very common.

According to BuWiN (Abb. B47 on page 150), the average number of PhD students per professor in mathematics and physical sciences is 6 (at a given time, not over the entire career).
Mind that this number is not limited to mathematics, where the average number of PhD students is lower.
Other groups of fields have similar values, with the main outliers being engineering at 11 and veterinary medicine at 9³.
The study also states (p.149) that only 1100 professors (of 46700, Tab. B8) in all fields have 21 or more PhD students.

If you are a foreign student, the professor will do nothing to help you stay on, network, or find a job in Germany.
  […]
  he will only push a bunch of favorites who are German

ISB 2018 (p. 37) asked all students (not only PhDs) “How well has your experience prepared you for your career goals?” (final year only). For Germany, 10% answered “not well”, 26% answered “moderately well”, 41% “well”, and 22% “very well”, whereas the international averages are 8%, 25%, 42% and 25%.
Also, in ISB 2018 (p. 37) 71% of all students (not only PhDs) were “satisfied that their course will help them to get a good job”, 71% were “satisfied with making good contacts for the future”, and 62% were “satisfied with the career advice from academic staff”, whereas the international averages were 72%, 73%, and 60%.

If you take a PhD and then try to move to industry you need to have a job that requires a PhD and in practice it will be an immigration officer who decides that

ISB 2016 (p. 52) included the question “What would make you leave your host country after graduation?”.
For Germany, “Work permit restrictions” ranked at 28% (vs. 25% in the international average), “Visa restrictions” at 35% (vs. 27%), and “Employers are not interested in foreign candidates” at 36% (vs. 35%).
Note that this data is not specific to PhD students.
Other Satisfaction Scores
In ISB 2016 (Figures 6 and 11), there is data comparing the satisfaction of “postgraduate students” with the international average for certain items:

“managing research”: 85.9% (Germany) vs. 89.6% (all)
“topic selection”: 81.0% vs. 86.7%
“opportunities to research”:  65.1% vs. 71.5%
“graduate school”: 93.1% vs 94.2%

ISB 2016 (p. 10) also reports: “Of the 1,835 international PhD students who answered this question, 40% stated they would actively encourage others to apply to a German higher education institution.”
ISB 2018 (p. 40) asked “How likely is it that you would recommend this institution to family or a friend?”, grouping the results into three groups (detractors, passives, and promoters).
Germany scored 25%/42%/32%, while the international average was (20%/42%/38%).
In Sozialerhebung (Fig. 6.15, p. 71), 56% of international PhD students answered “yes, absolutely” and 28% answered “yes” as to whether they would recommend Germany as a place to study.
These scores considerably (measured for all students) considerably improved between 2006 and 2016 (Fig. 6.14, p. 70).
To give some comparison, BuWiN (Tab. B29, p.151) cites two studies (from 2011) of satisfaction of all (not only international) doctoral students in Germany, according to which 55%–65% are satisfied with their supervision and 15%–19% are dissatisfied.
Further Remarks

In case you think I am just bitter, here is another link that discusses this
If You’re Considering Graduate School in Germany

This link is mostly about part-time employment in addition to your PhD, which is not very common in Germany, as your PhD position should give you sufficient money (though, admittedly, this is about Munich, which is notoriously expensive).
Also, taxes in Germany are much higher than in the US because of the social security system (health, pension, etc.); in the US, you would have to pay all these things from your salary (or not have them).

If you cannot find a job in the 12 years after your PhD you are barred from applying to academic jobs.

This is not completely true, as it does not apply to several funding programmes for junior professorships and similar.
It should be noted that it is generally considered an asset (or even a condition) for such programmes to have international experience – for which your experience probably already counts, while people who did their PhD in Germany usually do a postdoc abroad to fulfil exactly this.

¹ Doing a second PhD is inevitably a completely different experience since you already know how academia works, etc.
² Technically, it can affect you somewhat earlier, as it also prevents you from entering fixed-term employments that exceed the time limit.
³ This is not about PhDs, but VMDs (doctors of veterinary medicine), which have considerably different requirements in Germany.

Students in the US do not have to pay FICA taxes (Social Security and Medicare) from their salary, which would normally be deducted as taxes if students weren't specifically exempted.

@gormadoc: My point is that German taxes (and similar deductions, to be precise) are much higher since, e.g., the healthcare system covers much more than the US one.

@Wrzlprmft Looking at the pages of a few mathematicians and considering some discussions here, it seems to me that having 6 PhD students at a time would be very rare for a mathematician. Also in engineering, in my experience, unless you are a very large group having 11 PhD students at a time seems rare.

@MassimoOrtolano: it seems to me that having 6 PhD students at a time would be very rare for a mathematician – That may be, but this is averaged over all of mathematics and the physical sciences, so it also includes computer science, chemistry, biology, geology, etc.

While the thoroughness of your answer is commendable, it does seem that the OP was intending to ask about mathematics PhDs in particular, no?

@YemonChoi: Indeed, but I failed to find specific statistics for this. That being said, the quote in the question is not specific to mathematics, but suggests that the problems are consequence of the German system, culture, etc. Hence the consequences should be seen in general statistics. Conversely, while it is conceivable that mathematics is the big bad outlier here, I see no indications for this so far and nobody has suggested so.

@MassimoOrtolano I might just have seen outliers, but at least in some areas of engineering (e.g. automotive), where there is a lot of industry funding, a German professor will often have several dozen's of PhD students. But usually they are split into many smaller groups, headed by some late Post-Doc level "Oberingenieur", who for all intents and purposes, apart from title and the signature on the diploma, is the professor for those students. But luckily, engineering seems to be the only discipline that does this.

@mlk: luckily, engineering seems to be the only discipline that does this. – This doesn’t seem inherently bad to me. The PhD students may still get proper supervision etc. It may be indicative of a bad employment situation for their de-facto supervisors, but that’s a different issue.

Point taken, but the quora rant seems (reading between the lines) to be about a discipline like a lab science. So my comment was more for the benefit of those reading your answer or commenting on it

NONE. Don t do this mistake. The German Ph.D. system is feudal and archaic. At the top is the professor, who, unlike his Anglo Saxon counterparts, can take as many Ph.D. students as he wants. 20 to 30 is very common. They are used to do the grunt work. If you are a foreign student, the professor will do nothing to help you stay on, network, or find a job in Germany. Of course, they are happy to see you leave for your own country to do technology transfer!

There clearly exist some poorly managed research groups in Germany, but also some remarkably well-managed ones. The onus is on the applicant to make the necessary research. Relevant questions are: How many PhD students does the professor currently have? How many PhD students has the professor recently graduated? In the case of a big group, is there a sufficient number of post-docs that may support the professor with the hands-on aspects of supervision? (None of these questions is specific for Germany.)

If you cannot find a job in the 12 years after your PhD you are barred from applying to academic jobs

Effectively true, as far as academic jobs in Germany are concerned. If your goal is to find a permanent academic job, you either need to become a rock star or be prepared to change countries after your PhD. If you're open to the latter option, a PhD from a German university might, if anything, have a mildly positive impact on your chances, due to a better-than-average reputation.

There are so many other elements to this rotten system. DON T EVER DO A PhD in GERMANY ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE A FOREIGN STUDENT. YOU WILL REGRET IT

Clearly, the author is generalizing their own, negative experiences to an unfair extent. I say that as a co-supervisor of two foreign PhD students in Germany who will complete their PhD this year.

"you either need to become a rock star or be prepared to change countries after your PhD" I was told Germany was trying to get out of "rock star chair" and their orbit of people system via their "excellence clusters". Do you have any further comments on the issue?

@BoatyMcboatface Participation in excellence clusters is one of several ways for a university to get funding. It then, again, depends on the chair if the money is used for sane research and PhD training or not.

I support this answer. The original quote is clearly opinionated and removed from any reality in its generalization. While there may well be problems (as there are in any country), there are many professors who care about their academic offspring and do everything to help them in their career. I am a product of one such group.

@WolfgangBangerth While I agree that the original quote is opinionated, I think the point made in the quote, i.e., international students are at a unique disadvantage amplified by the German system, should not be so easily dismissed. I'm somewhat disappointed with the current available (2) answers, which either only speak of PhD experience in Germany in general or is too much based on individual bad experiences that may not be generalizable.

@Drecate I agree to your concern. I think the question would be better without the quotation, as it's too tempting (and, in my opinion, necessary) to attack the evident weaknesses of the quotation.

I like Wrzlprmft's edit to the title, as it allows to have another question which is more open and not about that particular quote.

From my experience as a student in a very math-heavy course on an university in Vienna (Basically Germany), and plenty of contacts to people trying or finishing their PhD there: The quote feels accurate. I'm not arguing that the quote is not biased (it is, of course), but reading it I was surprised that the writer implies it is different somewhere else.

@RobertTausig "Vienna (Basically Germany)" The Viennese might want to have a word with you.

@lighthousekeeper: I am Viennese, so it's fine (And more seriously: The systems are nearly identical). That should also tell you, that being a foreign student has nothing to do with it; natives suffer just as well when doing a PhD.

I came across this question and I feel obliged to address it. I personally experienced everything that the original quote says. And when I say "everything" - I mean it. This quote pretty much summarizes my entire PhD experience. Similarly to an original poster, I do NOT recommend doing your Ph.D in Germany, if you have any other options. Let me address it point by point:

I had no mentor-ship, no support, no input from my "supervisor".
The group was very large and not well managed.
German students were treated differently than foreigners. There were more tolerance toward them, a blind eye was turned to their behavior.
Zero networking opportunities, zero consideration or support for an alternative careers for graduate students.
Customarily bad reference letters (or no references at all) for foreigners, esp. those that didn't speak good English.
Unrestrained power of German PI.
Absolute inability to recognize own mistakes. I was under impression that my PI is a genuinely kind person, simply overly busy or maybe unaware that he hurts people's careers. But when all postdocs and PhD students [repeatedly] complained about multiple issues and all complaines were given no consideration...in your face!!!
Again, a lot of subtle discrimination: Germans are treated better than foreigners, women are treated differently than men.
It is considered as a Kindness to tell a foreign scholar / grad.student that he better look for a career elsewhere, because he doesn't look/sound German.
Industry - the original poster said it all; there is a complicated immigration rules which pretty much ban any hiring of non-EU people.
Generally, across the globe you are far better off with a PhD from UK, USA, Canada. It is much easier to switch to alternative careers with degrees from those countries. USA PhDs and English are in demand everywhere, no one cares about German PhD.
Worst of all: you have ZERO chances of doing you due diligence. You have no way to understand who your PI is until you are in and it's too late. No one will ever warn you or disclose anything negative. Many places do not have "alumni" pages, so you have no way to contact former group members.

A couple of points more:

German academia (faculty) is 90% white and 80% German. There are no Visible minorities and no diversity. Can be proven by simply opening a web-site of any German University or research Institute. Where is diversity? Are these international PhD programs simply supplying cheap labor?
Germany is the richest country in EU. Several centuries of academic "freedom" tradition and university history; developed research infrastructure, big universities, major corporations headquartered in Germany, multiple academic societies and research institutes (like Max Plank and Fraunhofer). Why with all these enormous resources the survey shows only average or below average PhD student experiences in Germany? Why with all these unparalleled resources PhD students cannot have the best experiences possible ?
Why there are only Germans who "whitewashing" German academia here? Why there are no "international students" with wonderful experiences, who launched their successful careers by doing PhD in Germany? O would really love to hear from them? Any comments from them?  This Question has more than 3K views now. Is it a big enough sample size?  Where are comments from happy and fulfilled foreigners (Grad students/postdocs) residing in Germany???

@user136555: While I do not want to deny that you had a bad experience and do not want to say that the German system is flawless, your answer suffers from the same problem as the quote in the question: You are mixing clearly individual experiences (e.g., bad reference letters) with some that could be generalisable to the German academic system (power imbalance). If you want to be heard, it would help if you focus on generalisable aspects and explain why they are generalisable.

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat. Leaving the above comment as a summary of the discussion.

I am happy and surprised that a criticial answer has a nonnegative score on this site. Well done!

Regarding the final point 3 in the edited version: if it is not bad form to mention actual mathematicians rather than indulge in lots of generalization, https://www.genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=167832 and https://www.genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=63820 (I don't claim that Xin and Roozbeh were overjoyed and had wonderful experiences, but I don't share the conviction of the author of this answer that everyone must have had terrible experiences.)

(Forgot to also add https://www.genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/id.php?id=184258 as one of my other anecdotal data points)

regarding your final point (why are there no international students with good experiences?), I was just in the process of writing one. Unfortunately the question was closed before I finished it. For what it's worth, 9 years after moving to Germany to do a PhD, I'm extremely happy with the decision and my career since finishing the PhD. Professors with 20-30 PhD students who won't help you network if you aren't German is something I've never heard of, let alone experienced. That said, I did my PhD at a dedicated research facility. Universities may well be very different.

as a German who went to study in Asia, I'm signing all of this what @user136555 wrote

Thank you, Simon, for understanding! My replies, as emotional as they may seem, are not dictated by"Germanophobia" or any peculiar idiosyncrasy. In my opinion, present academic system does great dis-service first and foremost to German people and to Germany as a country by causing significant waste of money.

@user136555 that is ok. Germans tried to make difficult for all others. A lot of examples of billing and institutional misuse.

As already better answers regarding statistics have been proposed I will comment on the "preference towards Germans" issue that has been mentioned both by the main post and subsequent answers.
I am a foreign in Germany and finished a MSc from an international MSc/PhD program and have contact with many foreign PhD students and the number one problem that I see and that is behind this "there are not a lot of international academics, they are all German because they prefer Germans" is that foreign students come to Germany and expect it be an English speaking country! If you do not speak German you will feel left out, period.
In Germany, people speak German, German is spoken in the workplace, and if you expect to be an academic in Germany, it can also be that you have to write grants in German.
A big bunch if not the majority of the international PhD students that I know have lived up to 5 years in Germany without learning the language beside the basics for buying things in the supermarket and have surrounded themselves with English speaking people.
What results of it? They leave Germany at the end of the PhD and go the US or back to their home countries of course.
The foreign professors that I know, can speak German ( and btw they are not all white, like a previous answer was suggesting).
Conclusion: If you expect to find a job after completing the PhD in Germany, learn German fluently.

+1: "it can also be that you have to write grants in German [...] learn German fluently.". In addition to that, by learning German, one can apply for German citizenship after holding the EU Blue Card for 21 months.

Three of the four master courses I took this semester were announced in English, one of the English courses were switched to German after the first lecture when the lecturer noticed that no one in the audience didn't speak German. The second English lecture had one English speaking student and stayed in English, until the Shutdown happened and the classroom was inverted (i.e. lectures became supplementary).  People started asking questions in German which I did not even realize that this was happening until the lecturer asked whether there was anyone not speaking English...

... Not sure whether the English student never joined or left due to that. I think asking the questions in German was somewhat disrespectful from the other students, and the lecturer could have handled it a bit better as well, but I also understand that a lot of people are not as fluent in English as I might be. So I am not sure what to think of it. But this could certainly create barriers for exchange students. The last English lecture announced was held by a Chinese lecturer and had to stay in English due to that.

In general there is an effort to increase the number of English lectures (additional funding for junior professors with the requirement for English lectures). But often it can look like the above, where the lecture is announced in English but held in German. In general people will accommodate anyone not speaking German though and one person is usually enough to switch to English at least in academia. Not sure how work afterwards would look like. Additionally personal relationships probably suffer to some degree. Which is always a disadvantage


text:
Trying to publish my first research paper (as an independent researcher), lots of rejections. What am I doing wrong?
I am an independent researcher in mathematics. I wrote a research paper and I intend to publish it.
It is my first math research paper, I have no prior experience in this.
I submitted my paper to multiple journals, but they found out about the multiple submissions and replied negatively.
I tried to list my article on arXiv, but they require endorsement, which is hard to get.
These days I have been sending about 40 emails per day to either universities professors and to authors on arXiv and ask for the endorsement.
So far zero success.
My article is about number theory. First year at uni math knowledge should be enough to understand.
Can I please have an advice?
Publishing an article seems to be a real nightmare.

Your question seems to be more or less: What do I have to know in order to get a manuscript published smoothly? That's a rather broad question, probably too broad to be answered properly here. It would be best if you knew somebody personally who has experience with publishing and can guide you. Anyway, what you have learned already is that simultaneous submission to multiple journals is strongly frowned upon. There are various questions on this site about that.

A research paper should prove theorems that no mathematician currently knows and no mathematician could figure out easily from what they know.  Given how much number theory is already known, it is extremely unlikely that a paper that can be understood with first year uni math knowledge has theorems no mathematician currently knows (or could easily figure out).

I think Bryan Krause has given an excellent answer to this question, thereby demonstrating that the question is answerable as it is. Thus, I voted to reopen.

Here is some more advice. The first option is to break up your paper into questions suitable/acceptable to math.SE. There's plenty of expertise on that website capable of determining the correctness of your ideas. If the math.SE option doesn't work, consider googling the following phrase: math PhD tutor. There is a surprising number of math PhDs offering their services as math tutors. They can quickly determine the correctness of your work, where the faults are if they exist, and what to do about it if it's correct...

....(Disclaimer: I am neither a math PhD nor a tutor. I have no financial interest in posting this nor anything else to gain.)

First, congratulations on your result! One of the rules is that you can't submit a paper to more than one place at the same time. I recommend that you find an established and trusted mathematician who agrees to take the time to understand your result. Are there any at your university?

It is my first math research paper, I have no prior experience in this.

The purpose of PhD programs is to train people to do research, including the process of publishing papers. If you're an independent researcher with no prior training, you should not expect this to be easy and likely not even possible. Imagine if instead your post was "I'm an independent carpenter with no prior experience. I have some wood and I'd like to build a house; I put in some nails but no one wants to live there even though I've been handing out pictures of my wood pile to people on the city bus. Please help." I don't write this to be rude, I write this to help explain that doing and publishing research is a trained profession, and no one without training should expect they can do it without training, and that this is totally okay and does not mean you don't have potential to publish good research or talent any more than someone with interest and talent in carpentry is not expected to build houses from scratch with just that interest and talent.

I submitted my paper to multiple journals, but they found out about the multiple submissions and replied negatively.

Yes, they replied negatively because this is extremely rude behavior - reviewing a manuscript in academia takes volunteer time. You've asked a bunch of different volunteers to simultaneously spend their valuable time all on your manuscript rather than the many others they've received to review. An advisor would have helped you avoid this.

I tried to list my article on arXiv, but they require endorsement, which is hard to get.

ArXiv requires endorsement because they're trying to limit the amount of junk that gets posted on their site. An advisor could help you with both the endorsement part and with knowing whether your paper is useful or junk.

These days I have been sending about 40 emails per day to either universities professors and to authors on arXiv and ask for the endorsement.

This is also rude. Don't do this.

My article is about number theory. First year at uni math knowledge should be enough to understand.

If your article is understandable with just first year university math knowledge, it might be a good demonstration of what you understand about first year university math, but it is almost certainly not useful research-level mathematics, the kind that gets published in journals. An advisor would help you understand what sorts of papers are useful to publish and whether yours fits this category.

Can I please have an advice?

You need a research advisor/mentor. One way to obtain such a mentor is to apply for graduate programs - PhD programs and many masters programs provide mentorship in research; for PhD programs it's the main point. It may be possible to find someone to mentor you even without formally enrolling in a program, but this is also difficult - possibly more difficult than applying the normal way (why should a professor spend time mentoring someone who isn't admitted to their program, when they have other students who are admitted that also have questions?). You're more likely to convince someone to be your mentor if they appreciate your potential for research rather than this paper in particular.

Hmmm. The advice is good, but you are a bit harsh on a newbie in the first paragraph. A newbie on several levels, actually.

@Buffy I don't consider it harsh to let someone know that they shouldn't expect to be able to do something that requires training without having training. It doesn't reflect poorly on them at all to be unable to publish research without training in publishing research.

I think the first paragraph is a work of art. The carpentry quote is a worthy candidate for the Academia.SE Hall of Fame, right along with the Holy Grail, or some other famous cup.

@cag51: I also liked the first paragraph, and I think the last sentence of that paragraph quite adequately takes care of any possible perceived meanness. Regarding the Holy Grail example, I find myself unable to resist coming up with other examples: a 1000 terawatt fusion power plant, or some other power source; a Noble prize, or some other award; the Frontier supercomputer, or some other digital device; the SLS rocket, or some other horseless carriage. However, none of these really do it like the Holy Grail example . . .

@User Given that the OP said "I submitted my paper to multiple journals, but they found out about the multiple submissions and replied negatively". I think the OP needs this kind of advice to seriously consider getting a mentor to learn how to publish.

The advice in this answer may be “a bit harsh”, but it is also truthful, informative, and useful. In other words, it is just the sort of advice people come to this site to receive. I’ll take such advice any day over the polite but mostly useless advice that some people here seem to prefer.

I echo @DanRomik's comment. Telling people what they want to hear is not always good advice; and not all good advice is what people want to hear.

If you're an independent researcher with no prior training, you should not expect this to be easy and likely not even possible. does this imply something is broken in research publication process, since it would likely mean someone with brilliant subject knowledge but little procedural/process knowledge would likely be declined/unpublished/ignored? Are there any counter examples of extremely unpolished yet groundbreaking research actually going all the way through to publication?

@stevec: In modern math, it is next to impossible to have "brilliant subject knowledge" without proper training. At the same time, amateurs sometimes do solve important math problems (in areas where very little depth of knowledge is required, see e.g. here).

[submitting to multiple journals] is extremely rude behavior - not just rude, it is unethical and dishonest, as you typically have to agree the paper is not under consideration elsewhere when you submit

@stevec In some fields, those aren't distinct concepts.

@stevec I'd agree with Azor Ahai - research that is "extremely unpolished" is of little value and doesn't actually break ground - ideas are cheap, converting them into knowledge useful to humankind requires polish. Otherwise, you're just producing work for everyone else, and if it's your own idea and you won't put in the effort to understand how it fits in with what is already known, why should anyone else?

First, congratulations on your result!
One of the rules is that you can't submit a paper to more than one place at the same time. Also, there are different kinds of mathematical journals. If you submit a paper to a journal, you want to make sure your paper is suitable to that journal.
The reason your e-mails are not getting responses is because mathematicians do in fact receive e-mails from people who are almost certainly writing faulty proofs, so their "default" position is to not respond to your e-mail.
I recommend that you find an established and trusted mathematician who agrees to take the time to understand your result. Is there a local college or university you can go to? Going to a secretary at a physical location would probably be a better bet than e-mailing. I think a liberal arts college (if you're in the US) would likely be more welcoming than a research university.
Do you know anyone who knows the mathematical background to determine correctness? Maybe an undergraduate math major?
Wait a minute: was your paper by any chance about the Riemann hypothesis? I got an e-mail from someone about this a couple days ago.

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Should I still ask for a letter of recommendation after doing poorly (80%) on the final?
There is one professor whom I wanted to ask for a letter of recommendation for grad school, but I just learned that I got an 80% on the final exam. This is a first-year graduate course, and the exam had simple questions (mostly computational), yet I still managed to mess it up. Very dumb mistakes. Now, it appears that I will still get an A+ in the class due to other things (HW, midterm, etc), however, I do not feel comfortable asking for a rec letter after messing up the final like that. I had this professor for other graduate classes where I got an A+, although I also did not do very well on the exams (about 82-83% on average, yet better than the average student in the class). The professor knows me well since I always asked questions and went to office hours, but because I didn't do well on the exams, I feel like they might decline to write a letter.
Is it still okay to ask for a rec letter after a poor performance on the final?

Do you have a better alternative?

Is 80% low?????

You got an A+. Seriously? You passed the class with flying colors. It sounds like a great reference to me!

Sounds somewhat like imposter syndrome to me.

What is the reason for the downvotes here? If they're misled about their grade's value, state that in an answer!

You want letters that can confidently express your likelihood of success in grad study and beyond. This might be that professor or not, but I doubt that even your supposedly bad grade on the final would be the determining factor.
If you have a good relationship with them and have impressed them generally with your skills, then there shouldn't be a problem. However, personality enters in to it so it is impossible to predict from this distance.
If they decline, they are doing you a favor. Better that than a lukewarm letter.
Everyone has a bad day occasionally.

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Can I pursue a bachelor degree at 42? What should I consider when deciding whether to do so?
I am contemplating pursuing a bachelor degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering or System Engineering. Not to look for a job with it but just to expand my knowledge. I have a reasonable income as a programmer.
I have a certification in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from City&Guilds 20 years ago but ended up being a self-taught programmer. for the past 15 years, I have been able to win and deliver myriads of projects projects successfully. I'm versatile in various programming languages: C/C++, Java, Python, Rust, Haskell, Lisp (and its derivatives).
I thought of expanding my knowledge in Electronics Engineering either by self-thought or via school. My worry is, I will end up having my degree at 47 if I enroll.
What do you suggest I should consider when making this decision?

Why do you think this might be a problem? Do you think you'd have difficulty getting accepted anywhere? Do you think you'd struggle with actually doing the work involved in getting the degree? Do you think you might be judged by your classmates or others (not that this should matter)? Do you think it wouldn't be all that valuable professionally (but you mention mainly wanting to expand your knowledge, so I guess this isn't applicable)?

Please avoid answers, alternatives, anecdotes, or extended discussion in the comments; this conversation can continue in the chat. Please see this FAQ before posting a comment below this one.

Are you able to attend classes full time? Going for ECE on course to finish in four years is gonna be a pretty big thing to balance with still working!

The question would benefit from information about where you live and how expensive it would be to get the degree (which appears to concern some answerers more than it appears to concern you ;-) ). City & guilds could be a hint that you are in the UK where there are currently significant tuition fees.

location, location...... in some countries this is very common, but in others may be impossible

Firstly, to answer the actual question at the top: yes, absolutely. There is no age limit on doing a degree. It is not at all unusual for people significantly older than you to complete degrees.

My worry is, I will end up having my degree at 47 if i enroll.

Is that a problem? Most people with degrees have degrees at 47 - they just happen to have had 26 years to forget most of the material in between. Sure, having a degree earlier might have been a financial/career advantage, but unless you've got a time machine (in which case present it and collect all the degrees you could ever possibly want) you can't change that, so your choice is, instead, between being a 47 year old without a degree and being a 47 year old with a degree - I can't see any particular disadvantage to the latter, unless the process of doing the degree course is going to cause you problems (via stress, loss of income, cost, work-life balance issues, etc.).

You'll do ok. But you might be a little bored as your cohort will be unorganized students fresh from high school who are in the process of growing up. You have all the skills in self motivation, you're engaged with the subject and interested, you'll actually do the assignments and with covid you won't spend all your time in the pub.

I second all of this. But as a practical matter, note that the analysis on the financing can change later in life. Taking out student loans in particular may have a very different analysis for someone at 42 then 22.

Sure, you could, but you should consider if you really should.
Mature-age students are nothing new; there are plenty of people who get degrees in middle age. There's nothing wrong with that.
In your particular case, though, I'd wonder how much value you'd get from it. Are you planning on transferring into a field of employment where electrical engineering qualifications are required? Will this allow you to get a promotion or a pay raise? Are you just doing this for fun? If the latter, are you prepared to pay tens of thousands of dollars for whatever enjoyment you get out of the course?
Doing some back of the notebook estimations for my university (in Australian dollars), you'd be looking at paying about $1000 to 1500 per class for a domestic student, times four classes per semester, times two semesters per year, times 3-4 years, or about twenty five to fifty thousand dollars total.

@Roland I'm not denying that the OP might enjoy the process of getting the degree, I'm just not sure if he'll get $25,000 to $50,000 of enjoyment out of it, and that's a lot of money so it's not a decision you can really make lightly.

OP hasn't stated where in the world they are or if they would have to pay anything at all for tuition (in much of the world this is free or cheap).  Of course OP would still need to invest a lot of time.

Maybe the OP will lose their job, you never know. Having a degree will make more people trust and value their CV, than just stating that they are proficient in X programming languages.

Plenty of European universities offer both full-time and part-time programmes, usually costing anywhere between €0-€1500 per full-time year. Even with a low income, this is hardly a financial burden at all.

@Roland getting a degree and education are separate but related concepts.  Jared Kushner's father donated mega buck$ to Harvard.  JK was physically present at Harvard for a number of years.  JK received a degree from Harvard.  JK does not appear to be educated.  JK is a counter example to the idea that degree==education.  OP could be another by learning about electronics outside the context of a degree program.

@Roland It is a pragmatic view. Someone who is independently wealthy can afford to pursue education without thought of the cost. Most people need to be at least aware of the costs and the cost-benefit-analysis. It may still be worthwhile (I went back to grad school in my 30s for instance) and education does have value outside of economic benefit, but most people cannot afford to completely ignore the economic costs.

@Roland determining if education is "worthwhile" requires establishing it's worth.  $50k is a lot of money and even if education is a noble cause, is it the best use of the money in this case?  Lots of causes are noble: sending a kid to college who needs money so they can get a good job, planting trees, donating it to science.  These things all cost money (or time), and a wise person should evaluate the opportunity costs of making a major decision.  Maybe the person could get the same amount of knowledge for free on the internet if they don't actually need the "degree."

Many years ago I taught at a university that (in addition to lots of traditional 18 year olds) specifically catered to older, non-traditional students (i.e. had staff decicated to their advising et al). I remember fondly one woman who was well over sixty. She felt frustrated that she dropped out of university when she got married, so she went back to school and got her bachelors degree.
So, if you just want a college degree because you don't have one, and can afford to spend the time and the money - sure, go for it. You'll probably feel very good when you graduate. (I suggest that you look for schools that state specificlly that they welcome non-traditional / returning students, and research what resources they offer.)
If you want to expand your knowledge, then you're probably better off taking specific courses that you're interested in through a non-degree continuing education program. (You can find pretty much anything you like, especially if you're open to distance learning and are willing to pay the tuition. Given your experiences that you list, you may, for example, like some graduate-level course in category theory and functional programming that would not be a part of any undergraduate degree program.) To get a bachelors degree in any major in the U.S., you'd be required to take lots of "fluff" courses (usually called "core curriculum" or something similar) that might not be hard, but would not be useful or interesting either.
If you think that getting a college degree will improve your chances of employment, or that you'd have a good time socializing on campus as portrayed in Hollywood movies like The Animal House - sorry, I doubt that very much.

Good answer but quite country specific. For example, a bachelor's degree in the UK in engineering would not contain any "fluff" courses: you would only take engineering modules (and relevant maths, possibly taught by the engineering department itself).

very true. In the U.S. an engineering undergraduate would have to take lots of humanities courses that in most other countries are done with at high school level.

I don't know what you're referring to by "fluff" courses.  I've never had a humanities course in my engineering university in The Netherlands, unless you count history of science.  Is this an American thing?  OP hasn't stated where in the world they are.

Yes, my answer is U.S. cntric. Here is an example of "fluff courses" requirements https://www.ccny.cuny.edu/engineering/flexible-core

Yes, you can. You know this of course.
The deeper more relevant questions is am I afraid of social biases and norms. Will I stand out/fit in? What if I fail? Or what if I succeed? What if I get recognized as a natural gifted student and I have waited this far in life to do this, what is I did this and that earlier in life..how different my life would be at the present moment?
Throw your thoughts to the abyss of nothingness, and let in the mindfulness of the now. Let this moment be your start to the path of your tranquility and may the knowledge of what you seek be bestowed upon thy now. Be free to the transients of time and settle in the comfort of this moment in the awareness that you are in control of the actions you take like you have always been.

You can, but consider whether the courses or the diploma have more value to you
In principle, there is nothing wrong with getting a bachelor's degree when you're already in a late stage of your career. However, there is an important difference between you and someone who enters college at an age of 18 or so: they often need a diploma to start their career, while you do not (as you already have a career). As such, the value of a diploma could be negligible for you. It may still be the case that you want to follow a formal program completely, but if you do not need a diploma, you do not have to. So I urge you to explore the possibilities, because maybe taking only half or just a few courses from the full program suits you better. Or maybe you just don't know yet, and want to start at a slower pace than in the normal program. (My advice stay the same in the case that there are no "filler" courses in the full program that have no direct relation to the topic of the degree. Each program has some courses that are essential for any course that follows, but there is always a point where you can stop or sometimes courses you can skip. )
For an example, some of the lectures during the first year of my bachelor (in the Netherlands) where joined by a man who was likely over 40 years old. I haven't spoken with him much, but I gathered (from other students that collaborated with him in projects) that he did not follow any formal program, but took a few key courses from the mathematics and electrical engineering program. I do remember that he was always very enthusiastic during the lectures, always well-prepared, and it seemed he was enjoying his time in the lecture hall. From the perspective of a teacher, older students can be very good students, as they more often have an intrinsic motivation that is more rare among the younger students.

Yes. Let me add: you will have professors who have never worked in the real world, you may find that their exam questions are annoying. Electrical Engineering is math intensive, if you haven't been using advanced math much, you will be at a disadvantage.

This is perhaps an overgrown comment, but it fits more as an answer, to help align your expectations. You probably don't want the classic student experience anyway, being a bit older, but still, consider how much you want to fit in to the social aspects.
I'll assume you've thought through the financial aspects, and that you can qualify (likely to be no problem).  Don't neglect to think through/discuss the effects on any meaningful relationship/family.
I returned to university in my 30s, in a much more settled lifestyle than my peers.  I'm also in the UK.  The study aspects were fine - I'd forgotten some stuff they knew, but had learnt other things (like how to run projects), and socialising with the students I worked with was easy despite 10-15 years age difference.
Where I did less well was I'd been hoping to get back into university sport (kayaking, but hoping to do some other adventure sports) and maybe some societies.  As someone more mature I just couldn't deal with the 18-year-olds' approach to the inherent risks of the activity, and socially I had nothing in common with them - so I gave up on the idea.

"As someone more mature I just couldn't deal with the 18-year-olds' approach to the inherent risks of the activity, and socially I had nothing in common with them - so I gave up on the idea." yes, that aspect is also important you need to command some respect though.

@alexander luckily this only related to a strictly optional activity so I could walk away. In situations closer to the academic part of university life, there were no issues

The other answers are fantastic in covering the financial problems and value of a degree.
I want to provide a perspective that I hope will be motivational.  I'm a professor at a top-tier US university where most of my students are traditional youngsters.  I have, however, had the opportunity to teach three students who were non-traditional.  All three had successful technology careers and were looking to expand their knowledge into neighboring domains.  Sure, this may just be a small data-set problem, but I think there is something to my experience.
All three of them were some of the best students I have ever taught.  They were certainly the most fun to have in the classroom, as they were clear-eyed, asked penetrating questions, were able to provide useful examples to the rest of the class, etc.  They were in the class because they truly saw the value of the knowledge they could gain in the class, which is somewhat rare in the rest of my students.  They also had the confidence of their years and plenty of earned experience to speak from.
It sounds like you would be one of those students.  Go for it!  I'd love to have you in my class.

Some countries have specific schools targeted for employed people. In France, I know about CNAM

YES. I have never met someone who lamented having done a degree. And I am in Philosophy, one of the degrees many people think are useless!!

"I have never met someone who lamented having done a degree" Clearly you haven't gone looking very hard, given how much complaining about student debts I've heard from Americans. Bernie's policy for the forgiveness of student debts got him a lot of support for a reason.

@nick012000 Maybe Philosopher of science did their degree in a country where students pay little or no tuition.  OP hasn't stated where they are.

Exactly, Licenciatura and MA practically for free!

Yes, absolutely. You have to consider the financial and time-management implications of your choices seriously though.

Are you planning on quitting your job to take a full-time course? Will you be absorbed back in your industry in a post-Covid economy after four years? Are you ok with missing income for four years?
If you're going to do this part-time then do you have the time to devote to classes after a 40hr work week and family responsibilities?
Can you afford tuition?
If you only care about knowledge, then could you be better served taking targeted online courses in specific topics?

Also, what exactly is your worry of being 47 when you get your degree? If you were looking to get hired as a fresh electircal engineer at 47 then yes, you have a legitimate worry about ageism. You will find it very difficult to be hired, especially with global economy shrinking so much. But if you wanna stick to your current profession then who cares how old you were when you got your degree?

As part of your decision process, consider the "degree-by-examination" approach.
Roughly, this is the approach where one self-studies for course tests and then transfers in test results as credits towards a degree at an accredited university.
While this is the most financially and temporally efficient path to a bachelor's degree, it is largely devoid of the other aspects of campus-based learning, which may be valuable to you.
A less extreme alternative could be to test out of some/most courses and reserve a few courses for in-person learning.


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What to include in an "explanation letter" after being falsely accused of cheating?
I am a student at a university in South Africa. 300 out of the 400 students in my class, including me, were recently accused of cheating by receiving a paper before an exam. We were given the letters of suspension for 11 months without valid evidence or proof that we cheated. I did not cheat, and this is really messing up my plans.
My lecturer said that each student will have a chance to write a letter or affidavit to share their side of the story, but he said that winning the case is unlikely. So my question is how to proceed. In particular, what approach should I take in this letter?

Welcome to academia.SE. Your question was attracting close votes, so I made some changes -- feel free to fix anything I botched.

Is there a third party, i.e., an office of an ombudsman, who could investigate the matter on behalf of the students?

There is so much needed information missing here that I don't see how anyone could give a good answer.

Remark: I am NOT a lawyer and following are opinions.
Collective punishment is, to my opinion, lowest anyone can go. The event you describe certainly reminds this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbzJTTDO9f4&t=1s
There are few very inappropriate things here.
1) There must be a case, i.e. disciplinary hearing, for each individual (or for small groups of people if there is evidence that they collabrated in this act)
2)Presumption of guilt. They accuse you of cheating and you are asked to prove you are innocent. This is absurd. Presumption of innocence, i.e. innocent until proven otherwise, is a fundamental legal principle. It is the core of modern legal system.
3) "My lecturer said each student have a chance to write a letter or affidavit to share their side of the story but he said they are a few chances to win this case." They seem to decide what proportion of letters are going to "win" before recieving any. Again, very inappropriate.
What I would suggest, can't stress this enough I am not a lawyer:
1) Try to talk with higher administration about this. Don't skip levels. Communicate your worries including above that you agree. You may say it is unjust. You may say it is unmethodical. You may say this is defamation. Start with mathematics department head. Their answers or actions does not satisfy you try to contact the faculty head. Even that does not do it try to get in touch with the respective vice-president of the university. That probably would be the one in charge of student affairs or education.
2) Consider your legal options. I don't know your country's legal system. There seem to be enough to ask a lawyer if this would count as defamation or damages. If they don't have any evidence against you, they have no justifiable reason to defame you or damage your academic standing. Legal advice should apply to the letter you are considering to submit. If you have access to a lawyer or a law student, you might want to explain what is going on and possibly, at the very least, run the letter by them. Ideally, you would have a lawyer throught this phase and act within his/her advices.
edit: I forgot to point out. They are the sole judge on their accusations. That also is quite absurd.

-1 Your answer seems to be suggesting this is a legal matter, but universities, at least in the US and UK, have very wide latitude in making decisions to suspend students.

@StrongBad, they might have latitude, but not to just ignore student's rights.

@vonbrand student's rights to what? Students, especially undergraduate students, are not employees. They are essentially customers and if they don't like the education they are getting, they can go somewhere else. US universities reserves rights about who it is willing to educate (apart from protected characteristics).

@StrongBad accusation of plagrism is beyond "willingness to educate". It is defamation with severe academic consequences. Also, from a far, law seem to work  unlike what you suggest. 2 Stanford students are suing UCLA, USC and Yale over the application scandal. I understand a lawsuit is not a guilt charge but if what you suggested were true, this lawsuit would be a very stupid one.
https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-college-admissions-scam-stanford-ucla-usc-lawsuit-20190314-story.html

@BoatyMcboatface Universities do not talk publicly about disciplinary matters precisely because they do not want to be sued for defamation. As for the admissions scandal, it seems like the students are suing for their application fees back from other schools and then claiming their current school (which was also involved) misrepresented itself and therefore the product they bought (i.e., their degree) was not as valuable as advertised.

"innocent til proven guilty" is the core of a modern legal system, true. BUT this is a university with rules that you signed to abide by when you enrolled...

@SolarMike: I cannot imagine what the rules could be that someone could possible imagine such an absurd scenario before subscribing.

While I suspect the best course of action is non-legal, Boaty's recommendation to "consult with a lawyer" seems very reasonable. While universities do have wide latitude to set and follow their own procedures, there are plenty of examples of the courts getting involved, particularly when these procedures are not followed, or when the school's negligence leads affects the student's reputation and future earnings

@cag51 is right, I probably should have stressed this enough. Best course is to solve this within the school however caution is needed. If you will ever consider legal action you should not do anything (while trying to solve this within the school) that can be used against you in the court of law.


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How should I respond to "no research position available" from a cold email?
Yesterday, I sent a "cold" e-mail (i.e., an unsolicited email to someone I do not know) to inquire about whether a professor has open research positions. Today I got the reply as shown below. Obviously, it is not positive.

Thank you for your interest in my lab – unfortunately while your skill set looks to be ideal for the lab – I currently do not have any positions available.

The answer is not very surprising. But how should I respond positively? Because we are in the same city, and probably one day I would have a chance to work in that lab.

There’s no need to respond.
An (uninvited) question has been asked and (kindly) answered. Answering required the professor’s time. There’s no need to follow up, because that will require more of the professor’s time.

Obviously, [the answer] is not positive.

I don’t know whether you mean “the professor answered that the lab has no open research positions” or the professor does not see you as a promising candidate or similar. Regarding the latter, you should not be concerned. The professor probably receives many such requests and simply doesn’t have the time to provide lengthy replies. (That’s why I recommend not to respond.)

Why would a professor waste their time with evaluating the suitability of a candidate if there are no positions available

The professor might not have even read the email, let alone evaluated the suitability of the candidate. Indeed, the professor might be using canned responses, which can be sent almost as quickly as an email can be deleted/archived and are perhaps better than non-responses.

To add to this: Why would a professor waste their time with evaluating the suitability of a candidate if there are no positions available?

I don't agree that one should not respond. It's always good to respond and appreciate the time that was spent to review your CV. I wouldn't write the email in a way that needs to be answered. But a nice email can save your CV for feature opportunities.

That's a great answer because he answered.
As others said, it is a good idea to provide a concise positive answer, stating your interests in future openings: he may remember your availability in 3/6 months.
There are no opening, correct, but are you looking for a research positions? opening comes with funding, and funding come with proposals.
If I were you, I would offer to give a presentation to the group about your work done and your interests, to explore potential future collaboration (to the professor say explicitly "I can/am interested in cooperating towards applying for fundings").
Regarding your expectations (if I read them correctly)

Because we are in the same city, and probably one day I would have a
chance to work in that lab.

That has almost zero value in the Academia world, it may give you a bit of edge, but do not count on that. It would surely help you in visiting the group investing little time&money, maybe getting some helpful connections to other people in the professor's group.

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Does being a lab tech count as research?
I'm currently a sophomore studying chemical engineering. I completed a summer internship as a chemist and subsequently took a job with the same people as a lab tech. While there, a civil engineering professor asked me to assist in running a research project in the same lab. I now keep the reactors running, perform maintenance as needed, and collect some data from different points in the reactors. I keep the project alive but I don't do much with analysis.
My question is: does this count as research? Can I say "yes" to yes/no "do you have research experience" questions (and then explain in my resume)? Or?

It's not really clear what you're actually asking. I'd hazard this is too broad and personal a question for Academia SE.

From the task you described, I would say "no".

I would think the answer might depend on the context in which the question "do you have research experience?" is being asked. If you were applying for a professor job, clearly the answer is no. But if you were applying for a masters program, a yes answer would seem more plausible (but maybe would still depend on the details of the program).

Did you consider talking to the professor? Maybe he can let you in on the analysis if you declare your interest, maybe he can write you a letter of recommendation describing the important work you did?

Does being a lab tech count as research? Probably not. Research means making contributions that go beyond the state-of-the-art. Keeping the machines turned on isn't really research.
But!! Don't sell yourself short. You say that you collect data and "don't do much" with analysis. Do you do anything with analysis? Do you understand the aims of the project? Do you write up the data? Do you discuss the results with anyone? Also, your internship seems like it should have had some research associated with it.
Can you answer "yes" to a yes/no question about having done research? I would say yes -- let the reader decide whether your research "counts" or not. So long as you are clear elsewhere in the application about what you did, you should be fine.

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


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Why don't more professors utilize their students as research help?
In my field (data science), undergraduate students usually have to compete for research opportunities. Many resort to things like Kaggle competitions. At the same time, faculty are constantly being asked to do more with the same amount of resources.
There seems to my naive mind an opportunity for a more symbiotic relationship. In particular, it seems like students should be able to do some of the "grunt work" like data exploration, clean-up, and visualization that would save the professor's time. In turn, the students would gain research experience.
So: why don't more professors offer research opportunities to students? Is it just due to the obvious ethical issues that might arise from a sort of indentured service?

I do employ students to participate in my research. In my department these students (Bachelor and Master students) are paid. That is the first limit to the number of students I can employ: I can only employ so many students as my budget allows.
The second limit is that in the kind of research I do these students cost me more time than they save (unless they are really good). Doing real research is for them a whole new experience, and they have to learn. That costs time, I need to do a lot of explaining, errors happen that need to be found and than fixed, etc.
That is fine, giving them that experience is why I employ them. They can see if this is something they are interested in pursuing as a long term career. If so, then they start with a bit of experience. If not, they are saved from starting a PhD and than dropping out. Either way is a positive outcome for them. For me, employing students for research is more a teaching task; an enjoyable and rewarding teaching task, but not something that I expect to improve my productivity as a researcher (If it happens than that is a nice bonus).
This obviously depends on the kind of research one does, and the kind of tasks that needs to be performed to do that research.

The last point can't be overemphasised- this does vary a lot between fields.

The most simple answer is (at least in my mind) the professors know what the student can do or not. Most undergraduate student do not know how to do good research. It will cost the professor more time and energy to explain how to do research and explain the process. If the student is a upper undergraduate or a graduate student, then they might be interested in the research and may want to pursue it as a career, so it will help them.


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Can I transition into quantum machine learning with a CS (rather than physics) background?
I'm currently pursuing an undergrad in Computer Science and Engineering from an Indian university. I really like machine learning, but of late, I've been doing some digging and I think I really like quantum algorithms. So I thought it'd be for the best if I could intersect the two subjects: This is how I stumbled upon Quantum Machine Learning. But the problem is, I noticed that most of the contributors in this field are from a physics background, which I found very discouraging.
Is there any way I can study quantum learning models and related stuff, keeping in mind my current background? I'll be applying for my GRE's and making applications (most probably for a PhD) by the end of next year. What are some of the courses that I should look out for?

My impression is that you can understand quantum computing without knowing much about physics. What you really need, I think, is linear algebra. You might try reading Quantum Computing Since Democritus by Scott Aaronson. You could also check out Q is for Quantum, a short book that attempts to explain quantum computing for people with very little math background, but also without watering down the ideas.

I feel it's actually easier to get into quantum computing with a CS background than with a physics background, at least if you want to do algorithmics

Thanks for the optimistic comments. I checked out the books as recommended to me by @littleO and they were great! On a note here, I really like the math behind Quantum Computing and I'd prefer not to shy away from the gritty mathematical ideas :)


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Am I considered fulfilling postdoc duty in this situation?
General question:
I am a postdoc supported by a grant A. Is it OK for me to work with people not in the grant supporting me on a topic related to grant A, given that I will acknowledge the grant in all publications? Am I expected to include the PI as co-authors?
Details:
I am supported by a grant A. Then I did some works related to grant A and got a publication with other individuals not in the grant A. I acknowledged the grant supporting me in the publication, but without including the PI of grant A as a co-author.
I already did this, it seems the PI of grant A is OK with that. But I am not sure if I am doing something wrong/unethical. I just wonder if it is commonly acceptable. I am doing that because we are not fit each other, I stay for family reason and will leave soon.

I agree with Buffy's answer, there's nothing wrong with that in general. However you say " it seems the PI of grant A is OK", I'd suggest you make sure of that by asking the PI explicitly.

Thanks for all of the answers! @Erwan I did, and he/she just reminded me that I should acknowledge the grant supporting me (I did that) and did not say anything further on this issue.

I don't see any ethical consideration as long as your PI is happy and you aren't violating any specific contractural arrangements from your funding. I think that is unlikely. Whether you need to list the PI or not is a different question, and depends on your field and somewhat on the PI. If the PI can help in your future career, it would be good to consider them as author, but my opinion is that would imply that they contribute something.
But authorship of PIs and supervisors varies by field.
And yes, acknowledge the grant and its funders.


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How can I ask why this European university booked me a 15-day trip for a 2-day exam?
I am going to visit a European university to take a PhD course entrance exam. The university prepared a 15 day trip for me, but the written exam and the oral exam will require only one day each. Therefore, I have 13 days free. I do not know why they planned my trip like this, nor how they expect me to spend these 13 days.
How can I politely ask about this via e-mail? "Could you tell me what I am supposed to do in the rest days of the trip before and after exam?" sounds a bit too direct. Also, is this kind of itinerary normal?

Asking if there is an itinerary might get the job done

Thank you very much. Itinerary sounds very good.

A few days between travel and exam would make the exam results more accurate, especially if you live in a different time zone.

Yes, I live in a bit far away place from Europe. Thank you very much for your comment.

This does seem strange; I'd be concerned about a mistake (though I'm not familiar with the European system). I'd send a concise note like this:

I'm looking forward to this trip. Could I ask about the itinerary? In particular, can you confirm that my visit will require 15 days (31 March - 14 April), but the 2 exams will be only one day each? Thanks! --Nana

I exchanged emails with the university several times and it is they who booked the tickets of airplane so "15 days" is actually correct. Thank you for the correction of my post!

You are welcome. I understood that the university booked your tickets, but it's still possible they accidentally bought you tickets for more time than necessary, no? Even if not, asking them to confirm is perhaps a polite way to figure out what's going on.


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Who is a "Vowel" (from Portuguese: "Vogal") in a panel of Jury for a Master's Defense?
I have to give my Master's defense soon. I am provided with the name of a "Jury", a professor. And two professors in my 'vowel', one of whom is my advisor. (total 3 on Jury)
What is the definition of this 'vowel' and what does it mean? What is their role in relation to the 'jury'?
My university is Portuguese and the Portuguese word is Vogal (singular).

"Vogal" has more than one translation. The phrasing of this question is misguided.

It is, but fixing it would invalidate some of the existing answers, which responded to an earlier version of the question (i.e., before the untranslated word was provided). Moreover, preserving the misconception may have value in case others make the same mistranslation in the future.

"Vowel" is likely a translation error from Portuguese, Spanish or another Romance language - probably caused by Google Translate.
In a committee or a board, a "vogal" or "vocal" is a member without a specific role. For example, in a committee I was recently to grade end-of-degree dissertations, the three members were the president (tasked with chairing the committee), the secretary (tasked with writing grades down) and one "vocal", with no specific task besides deciding grades with the other two members.
Another meaning of "vogal" or "vocal" is vowel. Both meanings come from the Latin word for voice or speak, because a "vocal" is a person who just speaks in a committee and vowels are sounds or letters that can be pronounced alone.
I tried to find a translation into English but no dictionary gave me a suitable one. Then, I would translate "vocal" to "board/committee/jury member". Maybe boards are organized in a different way in English speaking countries.
Just for reference, definition of vogal in Portuguese (see meanings 3 and 4), and vocal in Spanish (meaning 5) and Catalan (meaning 2).

The Oxford Spanish-English dictionary gives "vocal... B masculine and feminine (de un consejo, tribunal) member".

On several occasions, I have been a member of an academic jury at a Portuguese university. In Portuguese, the structure is usually the following:

Presidente do júri, the "president of the jury" who presides to the dissertation. His participation varies between symbolic to active — he can make 1 or 2 questions or comments, if he so desires, or just present the thesis and sleep until the end, when he officially concludes the event.

Arguente principal, the main examiner, who will be relentlessly and exhaustively putting the student under scrutiny with questions and remarks of all sorts concerning the thesis and the oral presentation.

Vogal. The "vogal" are, well, "vocal", i.e., members of the jury that will have a limit of 2-3 questions, usually targetting the impact of the study in the global context, but can also target very specific things of the dissertation that where not covered by the main examiner, which often happens when the dissertation covers multiple scientific subjects or is interdisciplinary. The number of "vogais" in MSc degrees is actually 1 only, currently, and for PhD degrees it is usually 2.

Orientador, the supervisor, his task here can be summarized as follows: to defend the candidate against unreasonable questions, praise the work developed and the efforts of the candidate, and finally, ask the candidate for future perspectives concerning his work and professional future projects.

Awesome answer, thanks for adding. It is difficult to read long blocks of text, so I suggested an edit that makes it much more readable.


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Communication difficulties with advisors - starting to impede work
I could use some advice about my relationship with my doctoral advisors. Some context:

I'm about 1 year and 8 months into my PhD.
My program has relatively heavy course requirements. I have now finished most of my coursework, but much of my efforts until recently were focused on courses.
My field is relatively new, and very interdisciplinary. There are a lot of foundational challenges especially regarding synthesizing methodology from different contributing fields that haven't really been solved yet. My advisor is an expert in one of the fields, but not in the others.
Seven years ago, I was diagnosed with what is essentially schizophrenia and depression. It is still a struggle to manage symptoms, and that is not likely to change. My collegaues know about the issues in generalities, but I have not shared specifics due to bad previous experiences.

With respect to research, I have about 100 typed-out pages summarizing key related/foundational work, outlining my project methodology, system design and research questions. It's a lot of work, and I think it's very useful, but it's not results, and hence no publications. My advisors aren't happy with this.
Besides having no publications, they seem to think that I have focused too much on groundwork, and that my thesis's scope is too large. I know they are right about the scope -- in fact, we recently renegotiated the scope after my initial literature review revealed many unanswered questions that we would've had to address.
Since then, they really want me to (1) get some initial results, and (2) focus on one thing at a time. I am trying to do this, and expect to have initial results within a week. Still, in general, this is a problem for me:

I'm not used to working on one thing at a time. In my experience, working on a project usually involves working on 2-3 sub projects with the intention of integrating them at the next step, so that issues on one sub-task won't invalidate work on other sub-tasks.
I feel like we need a broader vision for where this is heading before we start potentially wasting time heading down one path.
Focusing on one thing is hard for me due to my mental heath issues. I don't always have control over what subject matter I'm able to process. I've found the best way to be productive is to switch between multiple tasks. The problem is related to focus, not to my understanding of the subject matter.

I haven't been able to discuss any of this with my advisors (and the last one in particular would require a discussion of my mental health, which I don't want to do). But leaving it unaddressed is also not working -- whenever I mention anything other than working on this one narrow task that we have all agreed that I should work on, it's shut down immediately under the heading of "you need to focus on this one thing." In fact, this recently led to a condescending and rude email from my advisor, which was really upsetting.
Another issue is an upcoming symposium. The head of my research group recently mentioned an online symposium on a topic that I think will be useful. Further, there is a good opportunity for me to present my "new research directions." I could easily put something together and attend the webinar, but I would have to talk to my advisor first. I have an (I think reasonable) anxiety that if I try to broach this subject, it will immediately be shot down and it will make him even more frustrated.
How should I approach this? Any advice is appreciated.

Your post was pretty long and hard to follow, but I think I understand the main points to be:

Your advisor wants you to do task X above all else
You have not done X yet, for various reasons that include mental health issues.
Whenever you talk about anything other than X, he gets frustrated
You want to discuss going to a conference, but are afraid it will get him more frustrated.

is that a fair characterization of the issue?

"the best way for me to be productive is to be able to switch between multiple tasks at first sign of difficulty" - This strategy might actually be unproductive in research. In my opinion, it is an important skill to become comfortable with feelings of mental discomfort and to know how to break down seemingly overwhelming problems into manageable chunks. If you are struggling with this, perhaps you can try setting a time limit when you feel stuck? e.g. This is difficult and I don't know how to do it, but I will try for 15min/60min/an afternoon before giving up

In addition to medication to help manage your symptoms, do you have access to mental health support in the form of therapy? This might be a place to work on your issue of not being able to focus on a singular task. Pushing through research roadblocks is basically a prerequisite to a PhD, and you will need to address this to be successful, imho. Not placing blame on you (your advisor(s) should definitely not be belittling you) but just as a practical point, if you were able to show concrete progress on the topic they want you to focus on, the relationship as a whole will likely get smoother.

@Daniel K I should add that task X was asked of me about a month ago, and though I have not finished it yet it's nearly done as I work on it fo most of the day every day. Otherwise that's a good characterization of the issue.

@Superbee it's not as though every time I reach a roadblock or a challenging issue I stop and leave it for the day. The time limit thing is something I started doing a long time ago - I'm not talking about mental discomfort or a bit of stress. I'm talking about working on something and having my thought process slow down for no good reason, and if I try to push past it, it won't work. I used to be stubborn about it and that led to many evenings of extending my work hours until midnight and getting nearly nothing done after 5+ hours. I'll edit my post to explain this better.

@roger-reject I do go to therapy (though for trauma related reasons more than anything). Either way, the issue isnt pushing through roadblocks - it's not difficult in the research itself that makes me want to switch tasks for a little while, and when I do, it's for a few hours, at which point I try to return.

@exeree great to hear you have access to mental health support! If you're making good progress on your research then I'm sorry for misapprehending your situation. If you've already nearly completed task X, then you should simply update your advisor on that work, and don't try and steer the conversation to other topics unless they're absolutely directly relevant to task X. That will keep things more on-track and less likely to bring up interpersonal relationship issues?

@exeree If you are trying for a sufficient amount of time and find you can't think clearly or make any progress, then that sounds like the productive thing to do might be to take a break (or switch tasks, as you mentioned). So it sounds like your experience is the same as mine, and many other researchers. My original comment was just to say that switching tasks might not be the best bet if you are doing so "at the first sign of difficulty"

Welcome to Academia.SE. As others mentioned, I found your post very long and confusing, so I took a stab at editing it. Please feel free to make additional edits if I botched anything, but I strongly recommend keeping the length as short as possible.

Also, I recommend specifying (in a general sense) your field. For example: writing software, in a wet lab, doing human-subjects research, fieldwork, etc.

I think the core issue you are describing is relevant for many PhD students. Your mental health may excabate the effects, but does not seem central to the situation to me.
A PhD is a journey through uncharted territory, and that can feel uncomfortable. So in particular for industrious students, there always is a temptation to to not go where the dragons are yet, but to prepare just a little bit better - maybe read another paper for the literature review, revise the project proposal again, those things. But even within a single field, it will almost always be impossible to read all potentially relevant literature. At some point, a PhD student just has to take the leap.
For me in math/TCS, its just my own time which is on the line when doing research. Sure, maybe if I had read another paper I'd have seen that the theorem is already known, or found an incredibly useful ingredient to make the proof easier - but the time I spent trying to proof it still isn't wasted, as I learn from how I tried it. I'll concede that if you are eg doing experiments with animals or expensive chemicals, you do need to prepare well - but the point remains, at some point you need to do.
Polishing aside, you have 100 pages worth of research proposal + literature review. That is an enormous amount for what I am used to - 30 pages already seems pretty extensive to me. For a supervisor, getting a student to take this leap is something you can influence only in a limited way. So I can empathize with your supervisors frustration (although this doesnt excuse the mean remarks).
When it comes to the issue of preferring to have multiple active tasks, and to work on the best match to one's current mental state: I share that preference, and I think it is explainable very well without referring to any medical diagnosis. The moment to bring that up probably is once you have completed your designated task; and you should make clear that you understand that these tasks need to move you forward.

Incidentally, the large amount of typed review material could be made into a review paper, perhaps. So that would make it a good investment of time, and potentially a solid first publication.

Thank you, this is really helpful. I think I have been thinking of this too much like work (as in, developing something that someone has already done well essentially doesnt count as work because it didn't produce something unique/better), when learning experience is valuable as well. Also it's good to know that switching between tasks is something others find helpful - I've been reluctant to discuss things from the angle of "this helps me be more productive" because it's too close to the subject of my mental health for me to willingly approach...

@Bzazz While I agree that turning extensive literature surveys into review papers can make sense eventually, I really don't think that this is the what the OP should be looking for as their first publication.

@exeree Its good to hear the this is helpful. It could make sense to wait for another day to see whether you get an even more helpful response from others. But if this does not happen, you can mark this answer as "accepted" by clicking the little checkmark. [You can change the accepted question later on, if needed.]