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Should I use abbreviations such as PDE or DN map in a paper?
Should I write PDE or partial differential equation in the body of a mathematics paper? In a similar way, should I expand Dirichlet-to-Neumann map or write DN map or DtN map?
A somewhat related question Can I use abbreviations in the title of a research paper? considers only the title; I am more interested in the rest of the paper.

Yes, if the paper is in the field of the abbreviation. Dont use DtN without defining it before in a biology paper, as they wont understand it. Do it in an inverse problem paper.

@AnderBiguri most journals I've come across say you shoudl never use an abbreviation without defining it first (from which it follows that you shouln't use them in titles and probably not in the abstract).

@ChrisH I know little about that, to be honest. Just speaking out of experience, where I have seen abbreviations tons of times when they are supposedly common to the field.

Whenever doubt, just use the full expression first "Dirichlet-to-Neumann map (DN map)", and then you can use freely the DN map later. If you mention this only one, there is no point of abbreviation anyway.

I think you should consider whether the abbreviation is known more broadly than your immediate field.  For example, as an electrical engineer, I knew "PDE" the moment I saw it, you should have no fear that using that particular abbreviation will limit your audience.  "DtN map", on the other hand, excludes outsiders.

I'd be wary of using undefined abbreviations, even if they are common in your field. Your paper may be of interest to an outsider that has the technical knowledge to understand it, but may lack the culture of specific abbreviations.

Just spell it out.  Ink is cheap.  Concision is not a virtue.

I use four factors to decide when an abbreviation should be used:

Is the "thing" known principally or exclusively by its abbreviation? DNA, for example, is almost always called "DNA"; no one mentally expands it to deoxyribonucleic acid every time they encounter it. In cases like these, I would find it off-putting if you insisted on spelling it out; in fact, it even seems a little weird to define it as in "We extracted deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, by...." I suspect that PDEs are also treated similarly, at least for some audiences.
Do you want to draw attention to one component of the abbreviation? If, for some reason, I were writing about the acidity of DNA or the partial-ness of PDEs, I would spell the words out. Otherwise, they can be abbreviated.
Do I want the reader to treat the term as a single entity? Abbreviations tend to reify a concept. Mentioning rodents of unusual size makes one think about mice and rats that happen to be at the far ends of a bell curve: they're rodents, but rather large (or small) ones. If we call them ROUSes instead, then one begins to think about them as a separate thing. What are the properties of an ROUS? Why are they here? Why aren't they "normal" rats?
How often is the term used? Each definition (and reference) of an abbreviation incurs a little bit of mental overhead. If you're only using the term occasionally, just write the words out (unless #1 applies). This is particularly true if the mentions are far apart. Pay attention to this when editing, since you may add or delete a lot of the mentions.

If the term is sufficiently long and sufficiently frequently used, it is reasonable to use abbrevations, as it may be very helpful for reading. I once reviewed a paper that was almost unreadable due to using some very long and complicated term all over the place (and I recommended introducing an abbrevation). For example, compare the following:

Using a solver for partial differential equations to solve a problem after applying the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map was first suggested in Ref. 42.
Using a PDE solver for a DtN-mapped problem was first suggested in Ref. 42.

However, you should explain the abbrevation the first time you are using it, e.g.:

partial differential equation (PDE)

The only exception from this are abbrevations that are extremely common like JPEG or Laser, i.e., abbrevations you could also use in the title of a paper. Depending on your field, PDE might be such an abbrevation.
As a sidenote: I recommend to decide about the usage of abbrevations and explaining them in a piecewise manner. For example if you use a term as follows:

once in section 1,
not at all in section 2,
a lot in section 3,
not at all in section 4,
a lot in section 5 and 6.

I recommend not to use or introduce the abbrevation in section 1, but only use it in sections 3, 5 and 6, introducing it when it’s first used in section 3 and 5, respectively. Depending on how likely it is that somebody reads section 6 without reading section 5, it may also be wise to introduce it again at the beginning of section 6.

I rented a satellite phone with a manual that kept talking about the subscriber identity module.  It took be a little while to understand what they were talking about.

As a fellow mathematician, you can certainly use PDE without further explanation anywhere in the paper (title, abstract, body) but I would write "the DtN map (Dirichlet-to-Neumann)" in the first use and then DtN as suggested by the other answer. This is presuming you're submitting to a math journal.

A thought.  Is there another branch of mathematics that used the abbreviation PDE for something else?  Like positive definite eigenvalue problem?

@GEdgar It's easy to imagine an applied math paper that uses PDEs to model PDEs - e.g. pulse detonation engines, photon detection efficiency, potential daily exposure (to radiation, etc), phosphodiesterases, ....

My personal rule is always explain the abbreviation first, even for stuff that is supposed to be "known". As mentioned in the comments, the same abbreviation can have several different meanings, even in the same general field.
Another issue is not to use several abbreviations in the same sentence, which is even worse if some of them are similar... the objective is to make the reader understand, not get him dizzy with so many letters :)


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What should I ask my potential Ph.D advisor in advance, before actually signing a contract?
I'm currently applying for a Ph.D in Germany. Next week I'm sitting down with my potential Ph.D advisor to have a talk about the program.
Currently I'm collecting questions about things like

teaching duties included?
working hours
what's the salary?
vacation?
budget for conferences?

I think I'm missing some important stuff.
My real question is: What should I ask my potential Ph.D advisor in advance, before actually signing a contract / starting?
(The question What questions should one ask to the former/current students of a professor before deciding whether to do PhD under him/her? is related, but I feel it doesn't fit my situation)

How will paper authorship be handled? (Who is listed as an author, what order will the names appear in)

What courses are you required to pass?

Is your question specifically about administrative points? I would think a good portion of the first discussion with your prospective advisor should be on scientific aspects (e.g., what's her/his ambitions about your potential contribution to the field). Bombing your prospective advisor of questions about holidays etc. will not necessarily be at your advantage.

@Jigg I strongly disagree. Administrative matters need to be discussed before the contract is signed.

Release clause!! I cannot stress enough.. Release clause!!! But it would have to be in the correct light -- you don't plan on abandoning ship but if you were to due to extenuating circs, then how is that handled? I have seen grad students sign contracts and then eventually suffer due to no release clause. Of course, most contracts are "at will" but you don't want to be unsure if you are signing a CONTRACT.

@xLeitix It's important that these matters get sorted out to everyone's satisfaction before signing the contract. Equally, most professors will start to feel nervous about hiring you if your questions seem to suggest that you are more interested in the money and the holidays than in the research itself. So, by all means all those questions, but make sure you also convey the impression of being truly interested in the topic!

@xLeitix I agree that administrative matters need de be clear before signing the contract, but most of them can be figured out by reading the documentation of the graduate school or asking the department's administrative staff. What's left should definitely be addressed (That being said, who signs a contract without reading it?).

I would add:

What the average time-to-PhD is, and how many percent roughly drop out (although this is a question that is much better asked to other PhD students, as you may easily hear somewhat "tuned" numbers here)
Paper authorship policy (via mhwombat's comment) - however, note that theory and practice may diverge quite strongly in this topic. This is again something better asked the colleagues.
Grant / project duties - if you are e.g., paid by an FP7 or H2020 project, your project work may cost you much more time than teaching duties
Administrative duties
How free you will be in choosing whom to collaborate with, and what topics to collaborate on
Whether you will be required to work on other projects on the side (e.g., consulting work, paid research, etc.)
Whether you will be expected to help with writing grant proposals (time sink number one if yes)
Whether there is a culture for working from home
What office / lab space you will get, how many other students you share it with
Whether it will be possible for you to do an internship, e.g., over the summer.

There may be more. I will extend the list once I remember more important things.

Senior PhD students should be involved in grant writing. I would see this as a positive not a negative. In fact, no responsibility to help with grant writing would be a big negative for me. I don't think a student should be required to do the bulk of the work, but students who have seen the process before are much better prepared to work on grants after they graduate.

@BillBarth Fair enough. It is still something to clarify.

Agreed, and +1.

In addition to xLeitix's list, here are a few more considerations:

With whom in the group will you be directly interacting?
How often can you expect to be able to meet with the institute leader, as well as your direct supervisor?
What are the expectations for you to be able to graduate (paper output, etc.)

To directly answer two of your questions:

Vacation time is regulated by German law. You should expect to be able to take between 5 and 6 weeks of vacation per year, with the amount of time escalating with age. This should be in addition to the official holidays. How your advisor expects you to take the time, however, may be a suitable subject for discussion.
Salary depends on your funding source and field. If you are funded as a standard Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiter (academic employee), then your salary and benefits are calculated according to Group E13 of the TV-L scheme. Your salary will be some percentage of this—typically 50% or 100%, depending on field. Presuming you have not been employed full-time for at least a year somewhere prior to beginning your position, you will probably start at TV-L 13/1. (Note, however, that this determination is largely made by the HR staff at the university; a professor can recommend a higher starting position with a valid reason.)

There was a recent-ish court case (*Bundesarbeitsgericht Aktenzeichen: 9 AZR 529/10) that declared the practice of awarding more vacation time purely on an age basis "discriminatory". Last I checked, the practical meaning wasn't decided from a legal perspective, but the obvious solution would be give everybody the full 6 weeks.

Also, the question of contractual vacation time versus actually finding time to take it is a serious issue. If you can demonstrate that you were unable to take your full vacation, then the university is required to financially compensate you for that time, but that's a big if and a big mess in terms of paperwork.

If you are interviewing for a Ph.D. position in Germany, the supervisor will probably already know what you will be working on, since he will have gotten a grant on some particular topic, and you will be the warm body to actually do the work. So, in addition to everything else already mentioned:

What is the specific project that will pay your salary? Can the supervisor send you a copy of the successful grant proposal? Read that proposal carefully, especially concerning any timetables and financial information.
How much leeway will you have in actually implementing the grant proposal?
Presumably, the grant proposal builds on previous work by the supervisor's working group. Can you talk to current Ph.D. students working on the topic? What are the specific challenges in this topic? Would it be possible to get any additional information, like manuscripts? Will you have to take over existing stuff, like experiments that are already running, or legacy code (which pretty much nobody wants)?

The goal would be to get a feeling for the topic you will be working on for the next couple of years. Will this be something you can get sufficiently excited about?
And of course there are additional questions. In no particular order:

What kind of supporting infrastructure is in place? Is there a full-time sysadmin, or will you keep your IT running by yourself? Is there a statistician to help you with data analysis? Somebody technical to keep the apparatuses running? Someone to feed the lab rats? Or will all this be your responsibility?
If you are interested in this kind of thing: is there a possibility for you to work in a different lab for a few months, perhaps abroad? This kind of thing can be enormously valuable for your network.

@aeismail already mentioned asking how often you will meet with your supervisor, and I think this is one of the most important questions. If your supervisor tells you that he meets with each and every Ph.D. student once a week for half an hour, great. If you only meet once a semester when you give a seminar talk... not so great.

+1 for supporting infrastructure. There's a reason why getting your doctorate at the one of the MPIs takes less time than at a normal university. While doing all the support work is valuable experience, it also has a profound effect on workload.

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Is it possible to do a Masters dissertation at a different university?
I am currently enrolled in a masters program and am struggling to complete my dissertation as I have no real interest in what I am doing and have lost my motivation. I have completed all my coursework to allow me to gain a PGDip and would like to know if it is possible to transfer and my complete my dissertation at another university in the United kingdom?

Why would doing your dissertation at a different university make the situation better? It seems to me that most possible motivations (e.g. being nearer to family, having a different living environment, etc) may be met by asking a different question: "Can I find a way to complete my dissertation at my current university while also doing X/Y/Z?" The answer is often yes, if you can find a supervisor who is sympathetic to your needs and willing to work with you to find a mutually acceptable solution.

You need to consult your university regulations as well as your department for advice on this. My gut instinct would be that it should be possible, but you need to make sure you follow the appropriate rules. I can just about guarantee that you'll need to find someone at your home university who will be willing to act as the "internal" supervisor for your thesis.
However, the possibility of being able to do it and actually surmounting the obstacles and being able to do it are quite different. It can be very hard to get another research group outside of your "home" university to be willing to take you on short term as a master's student—primarily because they probably have no idea who you are, and how reliable a student you will be. Nobody really wants to take a risk on a completely unknown quantity based on a "cold call" email.
So your best bet would be to work with the faculty in your department to find somewhere else to do your research.

has summed up everything important. I just want to point something that you might want to consider. If you are lucky some of your current supervisor(s) have some former students working in another university; If you somehow get a good recommendation from your current supervisor they would accept you. On the other hand, if you are trying to "get rid" of your current supervisor and group altogether, hope that you had some ties with someone who has a former student working in another university

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Should I ask for generic reference letter?
I was given advice to apply for multiple PhD programs because it is difficult to get in.
Some programs require reference letter from professors or supervisors.
I don’t believe that professors have time and will to give me multiple reference letters for each school I apply to.
I have considered asking them for a generic reference letter.
How would a generic reference letter be received by a graduate school committee?

Faculty members will not write "brand new" letters for every school and program you want to apply for. However, once the basic letter has been written, addressing it to the intended recipient is not very challenging. So it is OK to ask your advisors to write a letter for you, and to send it to multiple places. (If you're applying to schools in the US, the faculty member will be responsible for uploading it herself in any event.)


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Writing a research statement in mathematics without having any research experience
It's pretty common that European universities ask for a Research Statement when applying to a PhD program. The problem is that at my current university where I did my undergraduate and where I'm currently in a masters degree program, I haven't had any research experience at all. My adviser told me that I should wait until enrolled in a PhD program to start worrying about doing research. (My B.Sc. is in physics and I want to work in mathematics - hence the M.S. in math - so he told me I should work on having a solid basis in maths first.)
I'm pretty sure I know in which area I want to focus my future work, but I haven't worked substantially in that area (it's quite advanced) and I'm far from being able to contribute academically to this area.
How should I formulate my Research Statement on my PhD application?

Doesn't your MS require doing research?

I suspect most MS programs don't really do that, for an interesting definition of research.

Your research statement should set out the background to the problems that interest you, what you think you could contribute to their analysis/solution, and an overview of the approach(es) that you anticipate that you might have to take. People want to be reassured that you understand the nature of research (ie. how it differs to an undergraduate programme of work), that you have a substantial and interesting problem in mind, and that you are potentially equipped to make an original and nontrivial contribution to knowledge.

In addition, while research statements are generally of low quality (that is not an issue as in some ways research is indeed part of the programme), it is a very important help in determining whether your interests match those of prospective supervisors.


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My master’s defense was cancelled with no clear reason. How can I deal with this?
I have been doing my master thesis in Germany for the last six months and submitted my thesis this week. I kept in touch with the supervisor while I was writing the thesis and the result was satisfactory to him.
But as I was preparing the slides for my defense today, I suddenly received an email saying that my defense will be cancelled and that a meeting is needed next week. The professor and supervisor want to talk to me regarding the thesis. I asked the reason, but the supervisor did not give a clear reply, and just said that I don't need to prepare anything.
I am pretty sure that my thesis was written and completed independently by me. I am now very anxious about this unexpected situation. How can I approach this situation and prepare for the meeting?

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I don't understand what is meant by "I am pretty sure that my thesis was written and completed independently by me". Why "pretty sure"? Why not 100% sure that you wrote it?

@alex - I hope you've been able to prepare and, more importantly, also relax a bit over the weekend. I'm curious what the outcome is, so I'd like to ask if you can update the question after you've had the meeting.

So, what happened finally?

The following is obviously an educated guess, so you have to be the judge whether it fits all the information you have:

Your examiners found something of serious concern in your thesis. This could be potential plagiarism, data manipulation, etc. Otherwise they wouldn’t go through such extreme measures and wouldn’t have cancelled the defence already. The only reason I see for expecting a small issue is that your examiners may not know what they are doing at all (see my third point).

Your examiners want to see whether you can defend yourself against an accusation properly without preparation. They are fixated on not telling you anything; otherwise your supervisor would not have reacted to your request like this. It is very unlikely that you will get any information out of them before the meeting. (Mind that I don’t condone this strategy here; see the next point.)

Most importantly: Your examiners are way out of their depths and have no idea how to properly handle such a situation¹. They probably don’t know the default or official method to handle shortcomings or suspected academic misconduct in a thesis (which almost certainly exists) and fail to see things from your point of view, in particular the anxiety they are causing. Even if they want to take you by surprise, they could have just called for a meeting without cancelling the defence or did this at the defence itself – after all, that’s what it’s for. They probably cannot even cancel the defence unilaterally just like this.

Now, what can you do and keep in mind?

Be able to defend everything you did in your thesis, in particular potential shortcomings. For example, if there are passages where one might want more citations, be able to explain why there are so few. This is not only a good preparation for the meeting per se, but also for the actual defence as well as your confidence.

Get familiar with the pertaining examination rules. Know which ways you have to handle extreme situations and respond to accusations. In particular familiarise yourself with all the steps that need to happen to fail a master’s thesis (it’s usually a lot). You probably have a second professor to examine the thesis who should be able to intervene if things go awry; see whether you can get some general information on them. Finally, by knowing the rules you can also better react to inappropriate procedures being suggested during the meeting and instead insist on the proper procedure.

As much as your professor’s behaviour sucks for you right now, it probably goes against written or unwritten rules and common sense. This in turn gives you some leverage if the situation escalates further, i.e., end up before a higher committee. In particular, in most fields a proper supervision includes pointing out issues with your thesis before you submit (save for misconduct, which may not be obvious).

You have little to fear if you did not do anything wrong. While this saying sadly doesn’t apply in many areas and is often abused to downplay injustice, it applies to your scenario to a large extent. It is (unfortunately) already very difficult to stick academic misconduct to those who actually committed it – the cases that you get to hear are the extreme ones. If they think you committed misconduct, they have the burden of proof.

¹ This is unfortunately very common. Keep in mind that professors are mostly selected for being researcher-group leaders and not for being bureaucrats. I have seen several professors display astounding ignorance about the procedures and rules of their institutions.

♦ Thank you for your answer. I am very sure there is no  academic misconduct in my thesis. And in my opinion, even if they think there is academic misconduct in my thesis, shouldn't I be asked to give evidence? How can I defend myself if I don't do anything?

@alex: I expect that they will ask you to provide evidence (defend yourself) during the meeting or after that, depending on whatever the issue is. But remember that you don’t have to provide evidence that you are innocent, they have to provide evidence that you are guilty first (and then you can react to that evidence).

"Your examiners want to see whether you can defend yourself against an accusation properly without preparation" is an excellent point. Nice catch.

@Buffy: I agree that this may be what is in their minds. But what they get the way they proceeded is that they'll interview an OP who has been simmering  for several days in  anxiety caused by deliberately keeping them in the dark about the reasons for a procedure that is completely out of the ordinary. Not what I'd call a situation that is conductive to finding truth.

"Get familiar with the exam rules": this. Also get in contact with someone trustworthy who knows about the specific rules (Vertrauensprofessor? I've also been in places where the Prüfungsamt was very friendly and helpful to students.) Also, this is a situation where I'd bring a friend. The more so, since OP speaks of professor + supervisor in plural.

Unfortunately, I've seen not only the inexperience @Wrzlprmt writes about but also subtantial amounts of abuse of power, so this is something to be wary of here. Since OP says they did not commit any misconduct, IMHO their best bet is to insist on proper procedure. Including again asking (email = leaving a "paper" trail) the agenda of the meetig and what procedure will follow for the defense. Also write a protocol of the meeting (ask your friend to take notes). If this is a situation with abuse of power, accepting the "secretive" terms of the professor puts OP very much into their power.

... following the official procedure and keeping a protocol trail can help to counteract this. Let me emphasize that abuse of power doesn't need to be conscious (and I guess it mostly isn't), but the unconscious variety is of course also plain unacceptable.

@DanielHatton: While I have seen some bureaucratic shortcomings as well, I don’t think they will reach that level in Germany – we may be overly bureaucratic, but we also have centuries of experience with it. Either way, that would be an “understandable ignorance”, not an astounding one.

"such extreme measures and wouldn’t have cancelled the defence already" - what "extreme measures" are we talking about exactly?

@O.R.Mapper: Mostly cancelling the defence unilaterally. Also, calling a meeting without saying what is going on.

@Wrzlprmft: I see. I can't tell how big a deal this actually is at the OP's university (regardless of how big a deal the OP perceives it to be). At the university institutes I was in touch with, agreeing on the date of BSc/MSc presentations was usually a rather informal procedure - students would usually pick one of the next free slots in the institute's internal colloquium after handing in the thesis, and rescheduling of those slots could easily occur for various reasons.

@cbeleitesunhappywithSX Discussing certain issues informally can also be in favor of the OP: A papertrail of something which could be regarded as scientific misconduct (which might have happened unknowingly) could harm the OP more.

@user151413: I am not exactly sure what you are aiming at, but I understand the asker’s situation such that they did not even informally reveal what was going on. At the very least they should have had opportunity to do so.

@user151413: while in general an informal way may be favorable for OP, this would come with an opportunity for OP to answer whatever issue is brought up. If the professor/supervisor thinks stating this in email leaves too much of an official trail, a phone call would have been a very obvious solution. But we have instead the refusal to state the purpose/topic/issue of the meeting even when OP asked for it. Plus a  unilaterally cancelled defense also without giving a reason. Both are to me red flags pointing to "unfavorable".

@cbeleites Agreed, the specific circumstances in this case do indeed suggest otherwise. I just wanted to mention that deviating from official protocols and not writing things in emails is not necessarily a bad thing.

@Wrzlprmft Imagine the OP copying parts of papers in their thesis, potentially due to not being aware that this is not ok (can be a cultural thing, e.g.). Then, it is much better for the OP to tell them informally to get this fixed and resubmit the thesis rather than to take this to the dean of studies. - Not saying this has happened here, just pointing out that keeping things inofficial can be beneficial.

I don't have a truly similar situation, but it seems that something has come up. Something that needs to be dealt with seriously. One case I know of was parallel work leading to two very similar doctoral theses, presented simultaneously, answering an important question. The plagiarism question naturally arises. In this case it was worked out satisfactorily to all parties including the wider community.
But it seems to be something that needs to be discussed before people are comfortable going forward. I suspect that the chances are good for a happy outcome, but can't say. That is the reason for the meeting.
I suggest taking a relaxed attitude until you know more.

Thank you for your reply.  What I can't understand is why I can't be told the reasons.  If it is my problem, just tell me where the problem is. But my supervisor just said that he can't give me more info.

Possibly a misguided attempt to lessen your anxiety, or a way to defer all discussion until the meeting.

@alex Until next week, just keep in mind that if the guy/woman really wanted to give you a failing grade, there would be no need for a meeting. He/she would write a thesis review with an "insufficient" mark underneath and be done with it. If he/she wants to invest time in meeting you, then you are unlikely to fail.

@DCTLib  Thank you very much for your help. It really makes me be not so anxious.

You are worried about why they did not explain the matter in the email. Actually, this is for your advantage. If there is a problem and if they explain it in the email, that makes the problem official. If they haven't explained in the email, that means they haven't made up their mind about how to deal with the problem yet. I sense compassion, and opportunity for you to explain your side about the problem.

There is no reason to pre-empt these types of situations by guessing what people might want; just wait until the meeting and you will find out what is at issue.  In the event that any serious concern is raised, stay calm and do not feel the need to respond contemporaneously; just ask for time to think over any matter raised.

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Examiner proof-reading master thesis before submission. Is this allowed?
I know someone who is currently writing their master’s thesis. They will be the single author of the document. Our (German) university requires a statement that says something like: ‘I wrote all of this thesis myself unless otherwise specified’, meaning everything not cited is your own work (Eigenständigkeitserklärung).
Now the amount of supervision given for students of course varies between both students and supervisors, but it is generally understood that thesis examiners will read the thesis for grading.
However, one of the advisor’s/examiner’s of my acquaintance offered to proof-read their thesis. This proof-reading can be expected to be both for grammar and content, as the same thing was apparently done by both advisors for the person’s bachelor thesis.
This is not common in my department as far as I can tell. It seems unfair to me: the thesis to be graded was already improved by comments of people who will grade it. In addition, why would they proof-read something for their own examination?
I will most definitely not take any action in this issue. My opinion though is that this is different from proof-reading, e.g., a publication, because the thesis is subject to grading and will not necessarily be published.
Question: Would this situation be considered cheating, micro-managing or just better supervision than average?
(or none of the above?)

This question is somewhat related, but the proof-reading is done by peers instead of examiners. Comments and answers are generally in favour of proof-reading, and one answer mentions proof-reading by supervisors is customary in the UK. I'm not sure whether this applies to Germany, since I haven’t heard about it before.

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Whether it is allowed depends on the specific regulations of your university, but your advisor proofreading your thesis and offering suggestions is quite common. I would consider not having a proofreading round to be lazy on the part of the advisor.
Keep in mind that the examiner can still have the initial reading influence the grade. Somebody who submits a perfect thesis that requires no corrections would usually get a higher grade than somebody who submits the same thesis after receiving detailed comments on how to improve it. The proofreading is part of the teaching process, and how well you implement the suggestions is part of the assessment.
What do you think is better from a didactical perspective?

Telling a student that they got a barely-passing grade because X and Y need to be improved

Telling a student that they could improve X and Y by doing Z, and having them do that before assigning a final grade

Clearly, the student will learn much more from option (2).

Also, in my experience the grading includes the whole process of obtaining the thesis, not just the final product. It surely has the most weight, but even if your write up is kind of crappy because of reasons (bad at writing, time management, etc.) but your actual research was outstanding the final grade will typically be somewhere in the middle.

"Somebody who submits a perfect thesis that requires no corrections would usually get a higher grade than somebody who submits the same thesis after receiving detailed comments on how to improve it." This is actually not allowed at my university (Denmark) as I should only grade the final product (the thesis) and not the process.

"Somebody who submits a perfect thesis that requires no corrections would usually get a higher grade than somebody who submits the same thesis after receiving detailed comments on how to improve it."  In fact the opposite might happen at my university; the final grade explicitly depends not only on the final product, but also the processes of researching, writing and communicating that go with it. Someone who hands in a thesis without even once having had someone look at it might score poorly on the writing process.

I mistakenly down voted this instead of up voting!!!!!!!!

@Araucaria - Not here any more. Tried it but still not allowed. :(

Finally upvoted :)

Let me start with a quote from Good scientific practice for scientific qualification reports and theses in physics (German version).
These are recommendations are published by the conference of German physics departments, whose prime purpose is to coordinate teaching and thesis standards. This document is specific to physics (and makes this point itself) but after all I heard, it holds at least for all the physical sciences, mathematics, and computer science:

At the same time, in physics it is part of the scientific discourse that parts of the qualification report or thesis are presented in advance to another person, e.g. to the supervisor, for critical commentary. Such commentary can refer to the interpretation of the scientific results themselves, the organization of the subject matter, or the chain of arguments within the report or thesis. For doctoral theses, the commentary should rather have the character of a collegial feedback. For reports and theses within undergraduate or master studies, it is also a duty of the supervisor to aid the student in developing the competences necessary for writing such a report or thesis. Within the development of the study program, this aspect should play a lesser role.

In my experience and from what I gathered from colleagues, the rationale for this is:

Part of the purposes of a thesis project (and studying in general) is that the student learns how to present their own work in writing. Providing constructive criticism on the thesis before submitting and having the student implement this (often in multiple iterations) is the best way to nurture this, as the student is forced to revisit their own writing and engage with the criticism. Critical comments on the final product do not achieve this, as the student has no motivation to revisit their thesis and doesn’t get the fruit of their work examined.
I have never encountered any student (including myself) who had sufficient writing skills to write a paper before finishing their master’s thesis under proper supervision (i.e., with criticism before submission). Usually the pre-supervision writing skills were abysmal by any standard and then were considerably improved during the thesis-writing process.

We train the student for real writing, whether in academia (papers, grant applications, etc.) or in industry settings. And it is rare and inadvisable to write anything important in a vacuum. One always has co-authors and colleagues or similar whom one can and should solicit for constructive feedback. Even for the papers I wrote as a single author, I solicited the feedback from colleagues and supervisors before submitting them. By contrast, I did peer-review some papers where I was very likely the first person to read them and they often had severe shortcomings in writing. Thus having feedback from the supervisor is a more realistic writing conditions and also trains the valuable skill of handling feedback on one’s writing.

The supervisor (usually) doesn’t dictate sentences to the student, but just shows them what is wrong and provides guidance on how to fix these issues. Thus the condition that everything written is the student’s own work is not violated.

In particular for bachelor’s and master’s projects, the stated purpose is that the student performs a scientific project under supervision and I see no reason to exclude the writing process from this. With other words, applying constructive criticism from your supervisor to your thesis is part of the project and the grade captures how well this was done. (Thus there is no paradox of “proof-reading something for one’s own examination” does not really arise.)

One hardly ever compares theses under different supervisors with respect to their grading and even if one does, the topics may be considerably different in how challenging it is to write about them. Thus the unfairness issue simply does not arise. Moreover, a supervisor has far stronger means to give an unfair advantage to their supervisees.

Finally, some further remarks:

I strongly urge students I supervise to hand in the very first page as soon as they have written it. This way I avoid that bad practices become a habit and their further writing already has a better quality before I first see it. For this reason, I think any good supervision should engage with the thesis long before it is complete.

I disagree with the idea that the initial thesis (before critical comments) should influence the grade. As already stated, one of the points of the thesis project is that the student learns writing about their own scientific work and they have no chance to acquire this skill elsewhere (except for previous theses and similar). A student who considerably improves their writing during the supervision process should be rewarded. Students who already have the skill are likely to have it not due to their own ingenuity but because they enjoyed a proper thesis supervision before. Moreover, implementing constructive criticism is part of the skill we want to teach and thus the grading should reflect it. Finally, there is no clear separation between before and after supervision in case of a good supervision (see the previous point).
That being said, in my experience there is a strong correlation between the quality of the initial writing and the final result, with the latter being considerably better. The main exceptions are students whose initial writing is bad and who do not respond to the supervision for some reason. I have never experienced a student whose initial writing was above standard and who did not improve.

Mind that this is still field-specific. In particular, in the humanities, wording holds a much higher value and thus things may be different. (It is for that reason that plagiarism is much more prevalent in those fields.)

"One always has co-authors and colleagues or similar whom one can and should solicit for constructive feedback. Even for the papers I wrote as a single author, I solicited the feedback from colleagues and supervisors before submitting them." - this should possibly be highlighted more. Expecting people to work in a vacuum is for undergraduates and below, where this is really a trick to get students to work harder to learn the basics. For any sort of "professional level" of writing, from scientific publications to novels, everyone should get feedback from others.

@BryanKrause: Very well, I added some highlighting.

There is a generally agreement and understanding across academia that theses must contain the student's own work. However, when it comes to details, the customs vary dramatically.
In some places BSc students are expected to come up with their own project proposals and are free to execute them as they will under a gentle advisory guidance of their supervisor. In some places, projects are specified and proposed by academics, together with the list of recommended literature and expected outcomes; students simply go through what is effectively a taught material delivered in one-to-one mode.
Considering the dramatic variation of what the projects are in form and purpose, it is not surprising that there is also difference in details, e.g. the role of supervisor. It often stems from the fact that some supervisors perceive the projects as some kind of competition between staff. This is often reflected when it comes to marking, and some staff make a major effort to secure higher mark for the students they supervised, while offering a much lower mark to students of other supervisors. The situation can become particularly nasty if "successful supervision" is a promotion/progression criteria in a Department.
Needless to say, if some academics wrongly understand the quality and mark of theses as criteria of their own success, rather then the success of their students, their behaviour can deviate far from being fair and objective. It is quite common that such academics may become overly pro-active and offer to proof-read theses, edit them, etc. In one extreme case I've seen an academic who kept all good projects from past years in his office and could offer a struggling student to "look at" a successful project on a very similar topic, effectively encouraging plagiarism.
This behaviour if unfair to other students and detrimental to students' learning. Unfortunately, academic administrators often turn a blind eye or even support this sort of behaviour, because it keeps the struggling students happy and allows them to pass, improving the statistics of outcomes for the department. This is particularly typical in countries with strong marketalisation of Higher Education, where education is considered a service, and students are treated as customers. In this model, administrators find nothing wrong with keeping the clients happy, and may even reward academics for "supporting students who need support", creating an additional incentive for the wrong behaviour.

@TheoreticalMinimum There is a subtle difference between showing past work to a aspiring student who has a significantly different task and wants to apply a significantly new approach vs showing past work to a clearly struggling student who repeats a very similar project.

There may be exact rules, but they exist mostly for the fools to obey and...
I don't see anything sketchy happening here. Sharing a few possibilities that occured to me.

It may be that the examiner put on the co-advisor hat. May be parts of the thesis rely on a piece of theory that a colleague of the advisor is more familiar with. Surely it is to everybody's advantage that the said colleague (soon to become an examiner) takes a look in advance. Possibly improving the thesis. I have acted in such a capacity at our math department, examining master theses supervised by a colleague mostly working in a different part of math.
It may be a scheduling problem. I have also been involved with cases like the following: For the student to graduate this Spring, the thesis must be processed before a given date. A signed statement from the examiner is required for the process to go through, but their schedule makes them unavailable for two weeks prior to the deadline. Again, surely it is in everybody's interests that the examiners looks at a slightly unpolished version. They can then write their statement in time without compromising the integrity of the process. If no suitable alternative examiners are available at the department the alternative would be to delay graduation to the next semester for a trivial reason.
A third pair of eyes/brains may spot something the student and the advisor both missed. One of the examiners my own dissertation spotted an error I understand what you are claiming here. That claim is important, correct, and follows from the preceding discussion. But look carefully how you phrased this theorem. It says something else, and it's not what you are really claiming, is it? Of course, the examiner was right. When I told my advisor about it, he just laughed.

Also, the recommended edits coming from such a reading by an examiner are not going to substantially change the thesis. Any effect on the grade would be somewhere between non-existent and minimal. To have a marked impact on the grade the edits would need to be substantial, like completely rewriting parts of the thesis.
Whenever I am the examiner, I make it clear that any implementations of my suggested edits are left to the discretion of the advisor/student. Recalling a case when I served as an examiner of a PhD dissertation. A day before the public defence there was "the informal but grueling real defence". When preparing for that I spotted one possibility for further simplifying one of the formulas. I brought it up in passing (it was by no means essential). And the candidate ran with it! He spent the night to work it out, and extended his slide set to cover it. I thought more highly of their ability after this, and I think most of us would do likewise.

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


text:
Why am I taught theory that I have no idea how to apply in practice?
I am a third year Computer Science student. The question that I reach out to you with is featured in the title.
There are some lectures that make me ask such questions. For the sake of this discussion it is worth noting that I am also working as a developer.
It may be true that the first (at most) two lectures try to introduce a new field of study in a way that somehow speaks to me (I affiliate that with a feeling that a new segment is being build onto my mind and the way it holds on are at first only a few nerve connections between the segment and my brain). However, the concepts introduced next stop falling into place. In order to deal with that I've tried reading books that take up a given field of study in a scholarly way and the effect seemed to be similar.
Another approach that I've taken is studying tests from previous years in order to see what are the key problems the lecturer is trying to convey. Now, that can only work provided that the teacher himself intends to create the test focusing on those points, which is not always true. Regardless, in most cases the tasks focus on small differences between two (or more) very similar notions which during these 3 years I have observed in practice only a couple of times.

The problem with the last point is that if those small differences are to be noticed at all it has to happen now, and not when I have working experience of 5 years, because I won't remember them then.

In other words: How is it, that despite being active professionally in the field I am studying and working on projects for university lectures it is so hard to find connection between practice and the theory taught during lectures?

Or pessimistically: What is the point of studying this way if there is one? How to make it beneficial for me?

University is not trade school.  You are supposed to learn theory to become smarter, not for use on the job.  Computer science is about programming as much as astronomy is about telescopes.

In Computer Science discipline the second word is science and that is not about learning about particular tools that some companies might need now (but in few years become obsolete) but about learning the principles on how to design and analyse such tools. In order to do that, you need basic principles (aka theory) and this is true to every scientific discipline. Otherwise you wouldn't be called computer scientist but simply programmer.

If you prefer a brutally utilitarian answer: You are learning theory because employers value graduates with strong theory backgrounds, and in particular, because interviewers will ask you theory questions.

In addition to other answers, consider this: It is certainly possible that you will use only 5% of what you learned, but you don't know which 5%. Other students will use a different 5%, and in the end almost everything taught will be useful to someone. BTW you will be surprised how studying the theory of one problem will eventually help you think about other problems - in fact this is the essence of computer science.

To @PsySp and Alexander: the fact is that in my language there is no Science in the name of the field Computer Science. I think you focused to much on the question I included in the title. In the third paragraph I've stated a problem with many of lectures that I have to attend. It would be kind of you to refer to this problem too.

@AlexanderWoo it is worth noting that I am a student of a university of technology which where I come from is much more of a trade school. When someone wants to study CS from a mathematical view point, they study it on normal university, and when a person plans to spend their 20s creating smart solutions to complex problems, they go to uni of technology which is expected to provide you with the knowledge and skills for the industry.

Very surprised about the downvotes. gourmej is asking a completely legitimate question (for which completely legitimate answers may exist).

@PsySp: I think the semi-pejorative term code monkey is appropriate here.


text:
Is it necessary/useful to include the publishers in the list of editorial board memberships?
When listing the journals in which you are a member of its editorial board, is it necessary or useful (maybe overdoing) to include the publisher, impact factor or any further information?
We had a debate among colleagues and there were two opposite opinions:

Any further information is superfluous, as the audience should know the journals, as the publishers are not mentioned in the list of publications too.
Because of numerous new journals, the audience may not understand the journal's reputation if not mentioning some further information.

WHat do you think? What is the most professional/standard/acceptable approach?

Who is the audience? Is this your tenure file?

Unless you work in exactly the same area as someone else, you likely have no idea how good a journal is. For example, I know that the SIAM Journal on Numerical Analysis is good -- but is the Journal of Number Theory good? the Journal of Mathematical Sciences? But if I know that one of these is published by a professional society located in the US or Western Europe, then I can infer that it is likely a good journal; whereas if the journal is published by a company I've never heard of and that is located in Egypt or India, then I may have my doubts.
So, yes, I think it is useful to add the publisher.


text:
Lose my nerve while doing research
I'm a starting graduate student in math. Without a doubt I'm not a genius or even that smart, and that creates a serious problem: I often lose my nerve while doing research or studying other people's paper. I feel that some of those people (if not most) are just too good and I crack under the pressure to produce works of similar quality. I know the right thing to do is to be "brave" and power through and see where I end up. But this issue of "cowardice" has severely hurt my productivity. Do successful researchers have same problem or are they just totally engrossed with their work and do not care about anything else? How can I somehow be more disciplined with my emotions?

I hesitate to flag this as duplicate, but you should certainly read this site's most upvoted question. The fact that it is, in fact, the most popular question says something in itself, especially regarding your first question.

That would be this question: https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/2219/75368. Likewise a search on this site for imposter syndrome will turn up much more advice.

Also, this: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11765/ive-somehow-convinced-everyone-that-im-actually-good-at-this-how-to-effect (and just for the record, I'm the first to say 'imposter syndrome')

You are not alone in feeling doubtful of your abilities. This is a very common feeling amongst grad students. Let me just state: being a grad student can suck.  The professors (despite what they say) usually have forgotten how hard it is to learn really complicated ideas, which, if you are in grad school for math, you certainly are doing.  Read Buffy's and henning's links.  They may help.

@Buffy, nooo, I was second again.

I'll note,  in addition to the "imposter syndrome" references, that a world class swimmer or tennis player didn't start out at that level. It takes practice and in some of the practice you stumble.

Does this answer your question? How to effectively deal with Imposter Syndrome: "I've somehow convinced everyone that I'm actually good at this"

I think that you may experience what can be characterized as Frustration.

frustration is a common emotional response to opposition, related to
  anger, annoyance and disappointment.

As you're reading scientific papers, you're on higher level of scientific work than is expected from graduate student - I did not read too much papers during my MSc.
And it depends also what is expected of you by your colleagues, so compare whether your frustration is not combined with Imposter syndrome mentioned in comments.
E.g. Authors usually spent several months or years to produce some results and to write a paper. So understanding the paper may take also some time to readers. Other problem is that some papers are so brief thus it's rather a problem of the authors if they can't explain their scientific problem or solution to somebody outside their domain niche.
I have been experiencing frustration personally many times during my MSc, PhD and my current postdocs projects. When it happened I gave myself a time limit. So during that time limit it's good to consult the problem with somebody else. If I don't make any progress and frustration continues after the time limit, I give up and move to somewhere else.
The limit and tolerance to frustration is very subjective. Nobody should expect you to grasp all problems and in short time. My oppinion is that mental health is more important than scientific achievements.


text:
Does research experience in mathematics help when applying to a master's degree in electrical engineering?
I am a second year electrical engineering undergraduate student. This summer, I found an opportunity to do research on geometry analysis with a mathematics professor. Can this help with both mathematics and electrical engineering master's applications?
I am interested in both mathematics and electrical engineering, and haven't decided which one to go for a master's degree.

What is the research topic? How applicable it is to electrical engineering could make it easier to answer your question.

Perhaps you can add detail to be more specific than "math professor" as there is a wide variation between pure math, applied math, experimental math, mathematical physics and all these can be found in a math department.

It's a pure math project related to geometry analysis.

Yes, it is a positive, but it is impossible to say how much since admissions committees have their own standards and are made up of individuals.
But, if you do well in the research and are able to get a good letter of recommendation from the PI then it will certainly indicate that you are serious about learning "stuff" and practicing the art. While (pure) math research is quite different from engineering research those who can focus and succeed are probably going to continue to succeed.
And certainly it is more positive, even for engineering, than not doing any research at all. And, it might help you decide which field you really want to pursue.
Applied math, on the other hand, might be much more applicable to engineering. And, of course, EE requires a lot of math in any case.


text:
Do I have a chance to postdoc without any papers?
I finished my Ph.D. in Plant Biology almost a year ago, and I am very interested in continuing my research in a postdoctoral fellowship. But, unfortunately, due to some problems I encountered during my Ph.D,  I have not published any paper yet.

Do I have a chance for any postdoc position?
Or Should I attend another Ph.D. program and do I have any chance to
get a second Ph.D. position?
Is it possible to text the professors directly or to tell them that
I can support myself for a trial period in your laboratory?
If yes, how should I tell them?

I will highly appreciate any kind of suggestion. Thanks in advance.

This depends on your resume and how other researchers publish in your field. If it is normal that PhD students in your field do not publish so much, and it is not expected of them to publish so many papers, then you do not miss so much in this regard.
But you should seek what other factors are important for the supervisor you are going to work with or the department you are joining. It is very frequent that it is expected from post-docs to show they can manage scientific projects, write proposals, search for some funding and resources, shape collaborations, coach a few students in their teams, write research and educational publications, etc.
Some job offers need one or more of the above skills. But do not underestimate the scientific knowledge. Some supervisors find an applicant who shows that they know a very specific methodology which can open many research opportunities in the future, so without seeking for traditional factors, they decide to hire them.
By the way, I suggest that you do not pre-judge your resume and give yourself a chance to submit your application. You will get a more clear understanding on how you should shape your resume to fit in such job offers. After that and with sufficient discussions with your PhD supervisors, then you decide what your resume lacks. Maybe you decide to publish a few papers out of your PhD research project and search for more relevant post-doc positions. Your previous supervisors have much better understanding on how you can improve your resume, find positions that fit your skills, what parts you need to work more on, etc.

From my point of view (physics): I wouldn't hire a postdoc without any publications, unless they had a very strong recommendation letter from their supervisor (whom I would need to know well enough to judge their trustworthiness), and there would be a good reason why there were no publications.

In our field (Computer Engineering), Ph.D. students are required to have some publications, in order to earn their PhD title (the number of required publications depend on the university).
As such, post-doc positions always require candidates with some publications.

Is this a rule specific to your field (e.g., there are other STEM fields at your university that don't require this?) or a country/university standard?

@Kimball,  Fulvio's profile says that he is in "Turin, Italy". I guess that, perhaps, his answer could be for Italian universities. (Just a guess).

I think is depends a lot on the country (and in some cases on the "selectivity" of the University). My experience is mainly for the Computer Engineering field, both in Italy and in Europe.
I don't know if the practice also extends to the wider STEM fields.


text:
How can you find the DOI of an article that doesn't seem to have one?
I cannot find the DOI number of this article. It has ISBN, but it does not help me find its DOI number.
How can you find the DOI number of articles where it's not listed, but other identifiers, such as an ISBN, are available?

What leads you to think that it's got a DOI?

There is a conversion agreement between DOI and ISBN. For the actual converted DOI, perhaps you can contact the ISBN organization (contact in the provided link) for details. For citation purpose, ISBN alone should be sufficient; it is for the physical book and it's as specific as DOI.

Wait, isn't ISBN for books only? How come an article got one assigned?

It appears that the reference is a chapter in a conference proceedings. I would think the ISBN refers to the entire proceedings and not the chapter.

@Penguin_Knight that would make a good answer: please could you post it as one, with a bit of info from that doi.org factsheet thrown in for good measure?

Try these sites to search for a CrossRef DOI:
http://search.crossref.org/
or
http://www.crossref.org/guestquery/

Those did not work.

Then please make sure whether article has DOI or not?

It does not have it, so those link do not work.

If the article does not have a DOI, then those links worked perfectly.


text:
How best to present publications in different areas on a CV?
I am trying to list my publications in my curriculum vitae. But, because I have publications in three fields x, y, z of study such that x is my major and y, z are not, I am looking for how to best display them so that it can be emphasized that I have works in different areas.

In order of publication date is standard.

Thanks so much. At first I use this style. Later, however, I want to emphasize that I have works in different areas...

If not given the two following conditions, I simply wouldn't do it: 1. The fields are truly different and not related to each other. 2. You have several publications within each of the three fields.

Why not just make three lists of publications (one for each field) and place each with its own subheading under the general heading "Publications"?
i.e.:
Publications
Biology

pub 1
pub 2

Astronomy

pub 1

Mathematics

pub 1
pub 2

If the importance of topics is not important for you, you can also list your topics alphabetically to make it easier for finding a specific topic.

@EnthusiasticStudent: There are three topics. Alphabetical order isn't going to be that obvious or important. And even then, the primary field should be at the top of the list.

I agree with David Ketchesons answer.  One alternative is to keep a standard method such as by year, and create tags at the end.

My Publication 1, Journal of Biology, 2013 [Biology]
My Publication 2, Journal of Mathematics, 2012 [Mathematics]

This will make it easy to see your publications and may give faster accessibility to your career.  For example, if you started in field X, and then went to field Y, and now you are at field Z, the chronological order will show tags at earlier publications with field X, and more recent at field Z.  In the same way, if you want to show how you publish in different fields throughout your career, it will show the mix of fields through the chronological order.


text:
Should you hide that you are already enrolled elsewhere when applying for another PhD?
I plan to re-apply for a PhD in the US next year, but meanwhile, I decided to enroll in a PhD in my home country
I read the similar post: Is it a good idea to stay an extra year at my masters institution while re-applying to PhD programs elsewhere?
However, I am wondering whether you should admit/declare (in your application), that you are currently enrolled in a PhD program or it is better to hide this information from the US universities?
Thanks!

Why hide it ? there's no shame in doing a transfer ?

Follow the golden rule (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Rule), if you think the US university would want to know this, tell them.  Likewise you ought to tell your current supervisor that you are applying for a place elsewhere.  Speaking as someone that had put time and effort into supervising a student that then left for a place at another university without telling me until afterwards, honesty is generally appreciated.

I answered a similar question here: No, you absolutely must not hide it.
The application will request your complete educational history, with official grades and records from each institution.  At the end, you will be asked to sign a statement that everything is true and complete.
Submitting an application that is false or has significant omissions is considered completely unethical.  It's very likely that the institution where you're applying will eventually find out, and there can be extremely serious consequences.
If they find out while reviewing your application, they'll reject it immediately, even if you would otherwise have been accepted.
If they accept you into the program and then find out while you're enrolled, they may kick you out of the program, even if you're doing well.  With a record of dishonesty, you will probably not get into another one.
If you enroll in the program and finish your PhD, and they find out about the false application years later, they can revoke your degree.  You will almost certainly be fired from whatever job you have at that time, and you will not work in academia again.
So you really do need to include your current institution in your application.  You'll probably also need a letter of recommendation from someone at your current institution.

I think I am in a similar situation here. I am really not satisfied with my current PhD and I am thinking to apply for another one. Is it OK not telling my current supervisor about this? I mean like both ethically and legally.

@imoutidi: That's actually a rather different question.  I suggest that you post it as a new question.

No, you should not hide it.
Consider the alternative scenarios:

Unbeknownst to you, the supervisors know each other and find out that you are re-applying without informing either.  This may leave you known as dishonest and cause lasting damage to your reputation.
The supervisors do not know each other, and you do get the new position.  Your old supervisor will naturally find out that you leave, and likely be annoyed (he/she will hopefully have invested time in you).  As for your new supervisor... are you going to keep it a secret forever?  Is the previous place so bad you would rather have a gap in your CV?  I hardly think so.  Eventually, your new supervisor will find out — which may again be detrimental to your reputation, because if you suddenly leave place A for place B, who knows if you may leave place B for yet another place, again unannounced?  If I were a supervisor, I would be reluctant to invest resources (time, effort, money) in someone I'm not sure would live up to commitments.

The only exception one might think of is if your old place is so bad that the association would actively damage your chances.  But as a PhD student, I think that's very unlikely.  In fact, if you were at a bad place but realised it soon enough to change, that could be interpreted positively and the bad reputation of a former supervisor need not reflect badly upon you.
So, no, in my opinion you should not hide that you are already enrolled elsewhere, ever.


text:
How should you deal with a teacher who is difficult to understand?
Related but not a dupe. One of my Japanese teachers often explains things in a difficult to understand way, or because she uses a lot of Japanese quite quickly, sometimes with constructions we haven't quite covered. I often don't understand the tasks that are set. Usually I can ask, but there's a point where I feel like I'm annoying my classmates, and there are a few lessons where I've walked out and everyone was confused. It's just this teacher, the other four communicate very well in general. I'm not going to say anything yet, but the question is: what should I do if this is a persistent issue? What is the most polite and appropriate way to approach her out of hours and tell her that I am struggling to understand her.

To clarify, are you taking a class taught in Japanese at a university that is not generally taught in Japanese? If this is correct is it an introductory language class, an advanced literature class, or something else?

Directly.  Just as if she were a human being.

It's an introductory language class for English speaking students

Related / maybe duplicate? Dealing with listening/talking to researchers with difficult accents

Let me see if I'm understanding you correctly: you're taking a class learning introductory Japanese as a native English speaker. The professor may be fluent in Japanese, but not the best at English. The other classmates are possibly fluent in Japanese.. You feel like you're behind because you are not fluent in Japanese. If this is the case, I can address it. If it isn't, please help me correct my interpretation.

We're at mixed levels, but we're all on the first year of the course. The issue is less of my classmates' fluency than that I worry I'll bother them and impede the progress of the class by constantly asking sensei to clarify the task. Otherwise yes, you've understood correctly.

I was in a similar position as your classmates in my language course. I'll describe the situation so you can "step into my shoes" and see how it looks from the other side. Hopefully, this will help you understand your situation a bit more.
I'm fluent in spoken Chinese, but being illiterate in would prevent me from passing the equivalency exam, so I took the Intro 101 course with most of the class not being able to speak any Chinese.
Our professor was a grad student originally from China. Her English was acceptable as she was a native Chinese speaker, and she had only come to the US after college.
I had no issues with other students (the class was probably ~15 people) asking for directions to be repeated again more slowly.
Reason? Because, from experience, I know languages are hard to learn. I may be fluent in Chinese, but if I were to take a French class, I'd be in the same boat.
The other students in your class should be able to recognize that you are a new learner. Now, leaving the class might not have been the best response, but you can't change that now. I would recommend not leaving class in the future. That's counter-productive.
Have you tried talking to the other students or asking them for help? I'm sure they're willing to help you learn Japanese as well. Certainly, if they already know the material, they might not even want to be in a rush to go through all the material.
I guess a final concrete example is in order.

If you were an English teacher with a college mastery of English, and teaching a 1st grade English class, would you be annoyed when the 1th graders asked 1st grade English questions?

Leaving the class? No, I think you misunderstood, I mean that when we left the class - at the end of the class! - we have sometimes felt confused and that we didn't understand a significant portion of what was going on. As I said in another comment, we're very mixed levels, although we've all had some prior knowledge of Japanese, so some people appear to feel the same way I do about this sensei's communication.

there are a few lessons where I've walked out and everyone was confused walking out has a connotation related to protest. You should probably reword it to something about "everyone was confused at the end of the class"

You can always ask for the task instructions in English, as it's an introductory class she probably won't mind repeating it in English. If the problem persists you might want to just privately say you have some problems understanding her, and explain a bit why, some of your peers might have similar issues.
(I have been in three introductory language courses and had such an issue as well)

And suggest to publish the task instructions as well (speaking English might be hard for her) - online, handout, ....

If the other students are also having difficulties, speak with another member of staff who is a friend of hers - indicate that your group is having trouble keeping up with the lesson plan, and ask that staff member if you should approach your teacher directly.   Often word will get back about you asking for advice.
If it's just you, then ask your teacher if there is tutorial or support lessons you could do to improve your phrasing/parsing skills.  Often this is the best way, as you asking for help is polite and acceptable - as opposed to complaining.  Often your teacher will then consider if her phrasing or speed is a little too fast and will slightly adjust their teaching method because often if one person can't keep up then two others are only just managing.
  And if you truly can't follow the phrasing or meaning of what you're asked then you do need some extra remedial work.
It's normal.  Many of us have been there.  The sooner you act the better.
Just be prepared to be passed through a lot of hoops or have to run with it yourself, as in the end you are the one responsible for your life/learning.


text:
Is it necessary to write "United States of America" in bibliographies when describing the place of publication?
I'm from the UK, and currently writing my dissertation. I'm citing several sources from publishers in the USA, and am unsure what the best practice is for writing the place of publication. The publisher is based in Hoboken, New Jersey. I could write it in any number of ways:

Duanmu, S. (2011) ‘Chinese Syllable Structure’, In: van Oostendorp, M. and others (eds.) The Blackwell Companion to Phonology. Hoboken, New Jersey, United States of America: 1-24
Duanmu, S. (2011) ‘Chinese Syllable Structure’, In: van Oostendorp, M. and others (eds.) The Blackwell Companion to Phonology. Hoboken, New Jersey, United States: 1-24
Duanmu, S. (2011) ‘Chinese Syllable Structure’, In: van Oostendorp, M. and others (eds.) The Blackwell Companion to Phonology. Hoboken, New Jersey: 1-24
Duanmu, S. (2011) ‘Chinese Syllable Structure’, In: van Oostendorp, M. and others (eds.) The Blackwell Companion to Phonology. Hoboken, NJ, USA: 1-24

I don't think I can simply write New Jersey or NJ, as I've cited another publisher from Norwood NJ. I'm not sure whether it's necessary to write "United States of America" in any form, as to me, New Jersey is unambiguously a US state (just as I wouldn't need to clarify that London or Oxford was in England). But given that I'm not in the US, is it better to do so? And if so, which form is it best to write it in?
I can't refer to my reference guide for help, as we use the unhelpfully inconsistent MHRA Author-Date system, which varies between just about every resource.

Are all the choices provided valid according to the style guide of your university?

Our style guide is the web equivalent of a powerpoint presentation, with a single slide per referencing style... it has next to no useful information beyond the basic format. And there are contradictory guides... on the same website. (I don't like MHRA author date :'(...)

So the style guide is MHRA?

MHRA Author-Date, yeah

It's a good idea to take a step back here, and think about what the purpose of the bibliography is. Ultimately, it is supposed to allow a reader to unambiguously determine what publication is being cited, and further to help them get a copy of the publication.
In order to achieve this goal, I'd argue that specifying the location of a publisher is in most cases an anachronism. Given there is only a single 'Blackwell Companion to Phonology', which I can find in seconds with a web search, I don't really need to know that the publisher is located in New Jersey. We only still do it out of tradition. Incidentally, a far better way of unambiguously referencing a book is to state its ISBN.
However, bibliography styles may require that we include a location. In your case, you are unable to find a single 'correct' way of stating location for your bibliography style. So I would say, do whatever you want. Frankly, even if one of these is 'correct' under your bibliography style, I doubt anyone would notice, and if they did notice, I doubt that they would care. My personal preference would be towards brevity (e.g. Hoboken, NJ, USA).

To counter the single argument: Just because there are no other "Blackwell Companion to Phonology" today, there is no way that anyone can guarantee that there will not be others in 10, 20 or 30 years time, and while historically digging possibly will give an unambiguous result, it is much better to just be explicit.

@hlovdal Surely the date is sufficient for distinguishing in that case?

@hlovdal Perhaps there will be another "Blackwell Companion to Phonology", and perhaps this publisher will move out of New Jersey. I'm not sure which is more likely, so I'm not sure whether the location information will help or hinder a search in the future. (I've stopped putting locations in the bibliographies of my papers, and I've heard no complaints from editors.)

@hlovdal – I always have a fun time when thinking of Cleveland –  there is so many of them. This makes me think about being more explicit.

Author-date MHRA is a somewhat unique style in that the style guide says

The form recommended for use in MHRA publications is as in the following examples

It seems that author-date MHRA style is only a recommendation and not a strict style. That said looking at the style guide, the author-date recommendations for publisher location do not deviate from the regular section devoted to their unique handling of names of towns and cities and countries as well as giving the place of publication in book citations:

The two-letter abbreviated forms of names of American states (see 4.5) should be included if there is danger of confusion (e.g. Cambridge, MA; Athens, GA). These are not required if the name of the state appears in the name of the publisher (e.g. Athens: University of Georgia Press).

Interesting, so in other words you can just omit the country when it's obviously a US state?


text:
Article awaiting reviewer invitation 6 months after submission
I submitted a paper to an internationally reputed journal. Two months after submission I was asked to suggest possible reviewers, which I did after a couple of days reflection. Since then it has been 4 months and the paper is still "awaiting reviewer invitation." I sent an email to the editor-in-chief as this was the only contact information given for queries. It has been almost two weeks without any reply. The day before yesterday I emailed the managing editor to know if the paper is under review or still awaiting reviewer invitation, but still I have received no reply from either editor.
How should I get in contact with the journal regarding my paper's review status?

What's your field? This is relevant information. For some fields like math, 6 months is normal. You just sent an e-mail to the managing editor two days ago. Wait a few weeks before further action.

After you already waited for so long, you might wait a little longer. Your field would help to compare, and possibly what kind of publication (full paper, short commun, rev.,...)

@scaaahu Six months is normal to even find somebody who'll agree to review? I'm not surprised by six months to get the actual review back (that would be pretty normal in theoretical computer science, too) but six months passing without the review process even starting seems excessive.

@DavidRicherby I have no idea what happened to the review of the OP's paper. All I know is that some journals in some fields are notoriously slow responsive. That's why I asked the question. The OP has not come back here since he asked the question. Hopefully he's got some response from the journal.

If you feel your paper is strong, then I would send one last e-mail in a week or so stating that if there is no response, you will be compelled to withdraw from that journal and resubmit at their leading competitor.
Note that sometimes the e-mail queues at journals are broken. If you can find an alternate way to contact the editor, you may want to try it.

. Since then it has been 4 months and the paper is still 'awaiting reviewer invitation'.

I find "awaiting reviewer invitation" to be a slightly strange phrase, but taken at face value it seems to mean that they still have not even asked anyone to referee the paper, let alone found a referee, let alone gotten the report back from a referee!  If true that is indeed problematic: six months is waaaaaay too long to wait for this.
I have two plausible guesses as to what has happened to you.
1) They are having a lot of trouble finding a suitable referee.  They tried on their own, failed, then asked you for help after two months (kind of a long time, but not a priori unreasonable).  The people that you suggested somehow didn't pan out, and they reacted badly to that, putting your work on some sort of long-term queue.
2) Whatever electronic system is conveying to you the message "awaiting reviewer invitation" is simply malfunctioning.  Possibly (as @RoboKaren suggests) the journal's email system is on the fritz as well.  If that's the case, who knows what's actually happening: maybe your paper has gotten lost entirely. (Almost anything can happen.  Once, almost ten years ago, when I inquired after a few months on the status of my paper, the answer was "We're having trouble finding any record of your submission.  Are you sure you submitted to our journal?"  This may be hard to believe, but...eventually we sorted it out -- in particular, they found the record of my submission! -- and the paper was published by that journal.)  Or maybe the referee report is actually in and it is just the part of the system where they tell you this that is malfunctioning.  (That also happened to me, much more recently, and again the paper was eventually published, although this time I am less thrilled with the journal and will probably not submit there again.)
Either way, you need to actually get in contact with an editor of the journal and find out what happened.  Not responding to your emails at all within two weeks is certainly unacceptable behavior: every professional deserves to be treated better than this.  In my opinion this total lack of response empowers you to take more vigorous steps to contact the editors of the journal.  Such things include, in roughly increasing order of vigorousness:
A. Emailing the editors at their university accounts rather than the journal account.
(This is definitely the least intrusive: try this first.)
B. Sending multiple emails at the rate of one a day.
C. Calling the editors at any phone number they list on a professional webpage.
D. Enlisting a more famous / senior / powerful ally to try to contact the editor on your behalf.
E. Contacting other professionals to tell them that you must get in touch with Editor X and can't, e.g. the secretary of Editor X's home department, or the head of Editor X's home department.
I would not: contact an editor on a social media site like facebook, try to look up their home phone number or address, or anything like that.  I think that's too much.
Once you do hear from an editor, find out how far off the rails your train actually is.  After losing contact with you completely and advertising your paper as "awaiting reviewer invitation" after six months, in my view the editors should be apologizing and telling you what they're going to do to fix the situation.  If you get the sense that they don't see it that way, it's definitely time to try again with a different journal.

Awaiting review invitation means "Awaiting Reviewer Invitation: Manuscripts where you have listed potential reviewers, but have not sent an invitation email." (as the associate editor)


text:
Is it appropriate to give university lecturers Christmas cards?
Are there any issues or concerns a with student giving lecturers Christmas cards? I am apprehensive that the religious connotations of Christmas might offend some card recipient(s). However, if the card is appropriate and professional I can't imagine why it would raise concerns. I wanted to gather the opinions of others in the same position as my possible card recipient(s).
Is it appropriate for students to give university lecturers Christmas cards?

If I were your lecturer, I would be happy to receive your happy new year card. However, I would not be too happy to receive your Christmas card because I am not a Christian.

I'd like to point out that OP is from Europe, where Christmas is now almost entirely secularised. Nobody here takes offense at receiving a Christmas card on the grounds that they are not Christians.

@fkraiem:  That's at least mostly true in the United States, too; it's even hard to find a card that says "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy holidays."  I still stand by my advice below.

fkraiem is right. Christmas cards have no religious connotations to them attached where I live (England.) There are very few people who would actually reject a Christmas card, and of those I don't think many would do for religious reasons, but because they dislike the superficiality of it. But the reason I ask this question is because I want to make sure that cards don't overstep a boundary between students and lecturers.

The question here is not only for you in England, but also for everyone in the world.

But how does it help if I know that there is a religious stigma attached to Christmas cards in other places in the world, if there isn't one over here? Talking about whether Christmas cards are acceptable within a secular sphere just obfuscates the question, because yes, they totally are here. The question isn't about cultural customs, it's about appropriate relations between lecturer and student.

I have no intention to argue here. The cultural custom/religious issue is imbedded in your question when you said Christmas cards. If you change it to holiday greetings cards, it would be a different story.

There probably depends on where you are. A Christmas card at a Christian university is probably fine, while a Christmas card at a Jewish university is probably out of place. The US is different from the UK which is different from China.

I don't see the issue with religious/secular. I just find it very weird to sent (or receive) a christmas card to a lecturer. For me, such cars are for friends and (possible close) friends only. I would never consider sending one to someone work related, let it by a professor, a co-worker or my boss. I think it is inappropriate.

I don't understand the fuss. Even if a card had religious connotations, if someone gave me a Hanuka or Eid card I'd be grateful for the thought. Granted customs vary from country to country, but why be so up tight? I'm completely irreligious and Christmas is my favourite time of the year! I suspect this may be unique to Britain. Besides, Christmas has little to do with Christianity since the celebration is a pagan assimilation.

Most Christmas cards are so secularised that I would rather expect Christians to be offended, than irreligious people.

@Lee Totally agree. I'm not Christian but I still celebrate Christmas. For me it's about spending time with your family and showing your loved ones you care, nothing to do with Jesus. (I'm from the UK too, though.)

What about a "happy holidays" card?

In my opinion, it is appropriate, but I would get one card and sign it together with your peers.
Others have pointed out that it's culturally dependent.  That's surely true.  In some countries one will see nativity scenes throughout towns and villages.  Personally, I think all other public decorations I remember seeing are pagan, and I'd speculate pagan celebrations ("Christmas" trees, Santa Claus/Father Christmas, lights, etc.) should rather offend Christians than irreligious people.
However, there might be an issue if the lecturer always gets cards from some people but not from others.  Therefore, I would recommend to get one card together with your peers, and all sign it together.  That mostly eliminates the problem of favouritism.
(Personally, I would not be offended at all by receiving a religious Christmas card at Christmas, a Jewish card at Hanukkah, an Islamic card at Eid, etc.  It would make a delightful collection above my desk!)

This is my favourite answer, but I'll give it a few days. It's a really nice idea. I'll probably do that for my main Japanese teacher, it's a small class whom I can easily find. I'll get my linguistics lecturers individual cards, as those classes are a hundred-odd, and passing a card around a slanted lecture would hardly go unnoticed!

I'd just like to point out that with the "other religion" cards, you are probably an exception...

@yo' What makes you believe so?

@gerrit My own experience. It very likely depends on the country/department where you are.

The religious connotations of word "Christmas" can be confusing and depend on the region. My UK university has Christmas and Easter vacations while most US universities now call these winter and spring vacations. In the US, a Christmas card implies a religious celebration while a holiday card is secular. In the UK, a Christmas card that says "Merry Christmas" would be seen as secular and the same as a US card saying "Happy Holidays". There are of course religious Christmas cards in the UK.
The level of appropriateness (or inappropriateness) of a Christmas card depends on the level of religiousness and the recipient. While I would not say giving a secular holiday card is inappropriate, it is pretty rare. I teach probably 500 students a year and I receive on average of 1 holiday card a year from my students.

In the UK, a Christmas card with a picture of the virgin and child might be seen as religious; one with a picture of a snowman wouldn't be.

I rarely see people actually complain that you're "infringing on their rights" by saying something religious.  In general, even if they're not Christian (or of whatever religion you're acting from), they seem to understand that you're trying to be nice.  This seems to be much more of a politicized issue among very specific groups than something you really have to worry about on a personal level.

I think that as long as it's not attached to an invitation to attend church it would be fine even here in the US.

Don't do it.  First, as mentioned in the comments, not everyone is a Christian.  Second, your religion is none of the lecturer's business (unless you're in seminary or something.)  Third, your professors are not your friends, at least mostly; they're your professors.  Finally, it could be perceived as an attempt to curry favor.

Your third and fourth points are valid, but your first two, as I've said in another comment, don't apply where I live. Giving cards has nothing to do with religion in England. (And FWIW I'm not religious.)

@LeoKing I don't think that's a safe assumption.  First, the lecturers in a UK university might come from anywhere in the world.  Second, it appears that some people in the UK don't agree with you either.  Do not mistake a watered-down state endorsement of religion for a secular practice.

Christmas as anywhere I've experienced it (Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Canada) is almost entirely pagan (santa claus/father christmas, christmas tree, light decorations, etc.).  Only in Spain I've seen religious elements in public celebrations.  I don't agree at all that there's anything inappropriate about sending a card to the professor for christmas, new year, or birthday, in particular not if you get one card and sign it together, which would reduce Bobs final point.

@jakebeal Thanks for the link of the Wiki page. I didn't know its existence.

"it could be perceived as an attempt to curry favor.": Oh, c'mon, really.

I have never heard anything saying there are issues, and on a quick search I wasn't able it find anything. Based on my own experience I would think there aren't any major issues in the UK with this (with regard to @dirkk's comment, I think this is again a cultural thing, and giving (suitable) cards to those you know more formally is not considered inappropriate. I think that how common this is is changing rapidly though, and could be very sensitive to respective ages etc).
I think though you are wise to consider whether it's a good idea or not. As you mention, overly familial expressions would be bad. If you're also someone who includes a Christmas letter, that would also be best avoided here, I would say (usually). You should thing about how it will be viewed. Handing over a card along with an assessed project might be different to giving one to a lecturer who will never be marking your work/has no way of identifying it. You might also want to consider the effect of giving one to all/only some lecturers, or if you're the only person doing so.
I take it the question primarily refers to current lecturers, but it is possible the question could be asked about past lecturers, who you might have developed a closer relationship with. In that case, one point to remember might be whether you are likely to be asking them for a reference any time soon.

I would be more concerned about the ethical aspect of this than the religious one. The lecturer is grading your work, so I would suggest that if you do send them a card to leave it until after you have received your grade for the module.

If it were a gift of some monetary  value, I would agree, but I don't see an ethical problem with giving or accepting a greeting card of negligible value.

Giving someone a christmas (or other celebration, i.e., birthday) card is a (somewhat) personal matter, so that will depend strongly on the personal relation to the lecturer, and also on "general environment". E.g., here some departments insist on strictly "professional" (distant) relations between students and lecturers, others are much more relaxed and friendly. This will probably also vary for undergraduates/graduates, a lecturer you know well (e.g. have been a TA for several terms) and more so between you and e.g. your thesis advisor).

I'd say it depends on how well you know the lecturer. Have you talked to him/her in a more personal manner?
But in the end: if the country where the University lies does celebrate "Christmas", then I see nothing wrong with a "Christmas Card". Highly-educated people (such as professors or lecturers in the academic domain), usually know something about the culture and what holidays are celebrated (and in what way (commercial/religious)). If it is a tradition to give/send/receive postcards for some holiday they should not be offended by it at least.
A "long story short": When in Rome, do as the Romans.
Yes, there are some left-wing "liberalists" who do not like common sense, but hey that's their problem as I see it :)