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Are Identical Make-up Exams Fair?
I recently took an exam, and our professor told us that we should submit our question sheets since 2 other students in our class are going to take a make-up exam. We were also told that we were not allowed to talk about our exam while the other 2 are around. I presume this means that their exams are going to be identical to ours (For the sake of argument, let us assume that this is the case, and it is not in fact a strategy or something of our professor).
Our class is on weekdays (MWF for 1 section and TTh for another), but we had our exam on Saturday afternoon. Since we all have class on Saturday morning, it is okay to have an exam on Saturday afternoon since we would already be on campus. Apparently those doing the make-up exam have conflicts with their plans for Saturday afternoon which the professor accepts.
Essentially, we can't tell them the contents of the exam. Our professor claims that this is so as to not compromise the integrity of the exam.
So here's my first question:
Is it fair to the students taking the exam earlier that the make-up exams are identical to the original?
Expansion:
It seems to me that the fact that it is too easy for the two others to find out the exam questions should be reason enough for our professor to give a different and possibly even harder exam and that doing otherwise is in itself compromising the integrity of the exam.
If it's not compromising the integrity of the exam, why not just have the same exam every year and collect the question sheet from students (which, cmiiw, actually doesn't really do anything since we can just copy the questions on a bond paper and bring the bond paper home)?
See possibly related question.
Second question:
I seem to recall that department policy is that make-up exams are "generally" (exact word in undergrad syllabuses but not in our grad syllabuses which makes no mention of such) more difficult. If the answer to the first question above is yes, then does it follow that the "generally" should be removed?
P.S. I truly cannot imagine how difficult it must be to a academic: research, teaching, consultation, conferences, etc. Thus, I am aware that it is no easy task for a teacher to just come up with a make-up exam, but nevertheless for the sake of maintaining the integrity (maintain is not compromise?) of exams, I believe this should be done.

If the make-up test is harder than yours, it is unfair to them. If it is the same, it is unfair to you. So, the main question is: Why do you care about their exam? You did yours and that is all there is to know.

@Alexandros "If the make-up test is harder than yours, it is unfair to them." Explain please?

As a (math) instructor, I was once of the philosophy that make-up exams should be harder for the reason you gave.  Then I realized, the students who tend to take make-up exams usually do worse than average even with the exact same exam (or one of similar difficulty).  (I still don't have any way of knowing which students have a valid excuse for a make up, but it almost never happens that students who take a make-up do much better than I expect, so I no longer worry about this.)

@Kimball Okay fine. Not harder. Just not identical. Is that too much to ask?

I'd like to strongly stress Alexandros point. In what way does the exam of other students affect you? You seem to have an misguided view of "fairness". Yes, other people will always have easier exams. Maybe next year, another lecturer teaches this course and has a much easier exam. Or the same course might be taught at other universities as well and will have a different level. Is that unfair to you as well? This has nothing to do with fairness. This also implies that you care a lot about grades; instead, you should care about learning things, good grades will follow automatically

@BCLC, I personally don't think it's unfair for the exams to be identical if you trust the people in the class not to share the contents, but it sounds like you do.  Sometimes I will change it and sometimes I won't (usually I will for a final--my other exams are usually not worth that much).  The danger of course is that when you change problems you can inadvertently make them harder, particularly with proof problems.  And in the cases where you can just "change the numbers," it doesn't really address the issue that the person might have found out that that type of problem was on the exam.

One time when I did the DAY SKIPPER boat licence theory exam early because I was going on holiday to UK the tutor gave me a different paper of the same hardness .I thought that this was totally reasonable and it means that there cant be any possibility of cheating.

Whether identical make-up exams are fair depends on the circumstances.  The key point is that you can't eliminate all potential for cheating: there are too many ways to cheat, and you can't even try to rule them all out without brutal and expensive oversight.  Ultimately, you have to make a trade-off, in which you take some anti-cheating steps but stop focusing on cheating once you reach the point of diminishing returns.  [For example, if you are really concerned about cheating, then you can't use take-home exams, and you'll have to police restroom visits very carefully for in-class exams.  These steps might be sensible under some circumstances, but counterproductive in others.]
So how does this apply to identical make-up exams?  If you're teaching a required, low-level class to a large group of unenthusiastic students who desperately want good grades, then cheating sounds like a real worry, and giving the same exam twice would be a foolish decision.  If you're teaching an advanced class to a small group of students you know and trust, then there may be no issue at all.  Reasonable people could differ as to where to draw the line between these scenarios, and it depends on their judgment of the likelihood and consequences of cheating.
There's more to this than laziness, although writing a second exam is certainly a pain.  Instead, there's a trade-off between several effects.  If you write a new exam, then you've eliminated the possibility of learning the questions from a classmate.  However, there's no way to calibrate the exams perfectly, so you've introduced the possibility that the make-up exam was inadvertently easier or harder, and the students may feel stress or bitterness over this.  Both the cheating and the differing difficulty are bad, and there's no way to completely eliminate them both, so you have to decide how much they worry you and balance between them.
There are also matters of educational philosophy.  I'm not fond of any approach that tells students I don't trust them or that challenges them to see if they can slip anything by me.  That doesn't mean I won't take countermeasures against cheating, but it means I consider the countermeasures to be problematic in and of themselves, so I try to use them as sparingly as I reasonably can.
In practice, how I design make-up exams differs from course to course.  Sometimes I write a new exam from scratch (while allowing some possibility of overlap with the previous exam, so students can't be sure something won't be on the make-up just because it was on the original exam).  In other cases, I just fiddle with some of the details or replace a few questions, while warning students not to discuss the exam until after the make-up exam.
Regarding outcomes, I find that students who take similar make-up exams rarely do surprisingly well, and on average they do a little worse than I would have expected.  Of course I don't know what's happening behind the scenes, and perhaps cheating saved them from scoring even lower.  However, I'm at least confident that students aren't using this as an opportunity to rack up lots of undeserved points.

If it's not compromising the integrity of the exam, why not just have the same exam every year and collect the question sheet from students?

It's not a matter of absolutes, but rather of how much the integrity is compromised and what the consequences are.  Re-using the same exams every year offers much more scope and temptation for cheating than a single make-up exam does.  The longer you re-use an exam, the more likely it is that unscrupulous students will piece together and circulate a list of questions, even if you collect the question sheets.  If you do this for all the exams in the course, then the potential benefits of cheating are quite a bit higher than in just one make-up exam.  (If I saw the same student repeatedly requesting make-up exams, I would wonder why and might become suspicious.)  If the ease of cheating in every exam is known, then the course will attract dishonest students who might never have taken it otherwise.  There's a big difference between possibly being able to learn about one exam if you convince someone else to help you cheat, and being able to learn about every exam by downloading a file from the internet.  It's reasonable to draw a distinction between these scenarios.

Assuming that your professor is really going to put forward the same questions in the re-exam (which I doubt he will), he's only saving his labor. There is no way he can ensure that out of all people who took the exam, not even a single person will disclose the contents to the two gentlemen. That's why, most sensible people in this situation would prefer to have a different set of questions over for exam no. 2.
As regards the difficulty level, the reason why we have these kinds of exams is the following: suppose they missed on the original exam because of genuine medical circumstances - that can happen to anyone. There is generally a provision for this at most universities, i.e. show medical records and you can appear in a repeat exam. You might argue that if the record-demand (or the verification of record part) isn't too firm, there will always be people who will use this rule to buy some extra time to prepare. Assuming someone's not genuinely unwell, he would have gone half-prepared into the exam and would have fared badly. But because he 'bought' more time, he may be better prepared now, and therefore may fare better than what he would have originally. Perhaps, this reasoning prompts your comment, and I reckon you would expect your instructor to make the re-exam tougher than the original. But, you see, all possibilities need to be covered here. If someone was genuinely unwell, and hence missed out on the exam, there is a possibility that he may be well prepared for the exam, and would have done as well as you, if he could appear in the exam. But he couldn't, for reasons beyond his control. In this situation, if the instructor is deliberately increasing the difficulty level for the exam, it is unfair to the ill guy. Here, he certainly did not have the benefit of extra time, as the detractors were imagining.
For this reason, sensible instructors will generally go for nearly the same difficulty level only - just to ensure that genuine cases don't get wronged. But of course, there has to be a different set of questions. Identical paper is absolutely wrong.

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

Unless you have personal knowledge of the students involved, I would not jump to conclusions about the nature of their conflict.  You seem to be assuming that they had plans to go to the beach or something.  My first guess when someone says they have a conflict on a Saturday would have been religious observance; and at least around here (US), such conflicts are accorded great deference, as a matter of university policy.  My point is that we do not know the nature of the conflict, and it's probably none of our business.  (continued)

It sounds like the professor is, quite rightly, being vague about it in order to protect their privacy.

@NateEldredge - OK. I was ignorant of this religious thing, but if you find my 'generous' comment unjustified, I assume others also will, so I'm removing it. I never meant it to be insensitive. :)

@NateEldredge Perhaps I was unclear. Sorry. What I meant was that I believe that their reasons are valid. Perhaps they do not deserve a difficult exam. My point is that their exam should not be identical to ours. Is that too much to ask?

@bclc: To be honest, I'm not really interested in second-guessing your professor here. These situations are difficult to handle; Anonymous Mathematician has done a great job of summarizing the issues involved. (I was considering writing an answer but he/she has made it unnecessary, as that answer matches my thoughts almost exactly.) I would say, though, that even if the exams are not identical, there could be valid reasons for asking you not to discuss the exam until after they take it.


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Translating Portuguese text to English that presents a quotation in English
I'm translating a Portuguese text into English and in the end there is a quotation in English, from a speech. I would like to know how to continue? Is it conventional to put the quotation in italics?

@ThejusMahajan - good edit.

Quote it as you would quote any other part of speech, whatever the language, according to the style required by the publisher: usually quotations are indented and, sometimes, in italics, but check the specific style guide.
Then, you can add a note specifying that the text was originally in English, if you think that this piece of information is important for the reader or in the context.
The Chicago manual of style [1, §13.71] recommends:

Typographic style of foreign quotations. Quotations in a foreign language that are incorporated into an English text are normally treated like quotations in English, set in roman type and run in or set off as block quotations according to their length. [...]

So, at least one style guide recommends to not change the quotation style, whatever the original language. As I suggested above, I'd simply add a note stating that the original text was in English.
But given that that translation is part of your evaluation of a Translation course you're taking, if you are still in doubt, ask the instructor.
[1] The Chicago manual of style, 16th edition, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2010.

There is no style required by the publisher because this translation is part of my evalution of the Translation course I'm taking...

@CristinaNóbrega: I've added a reference and edited the answer given your comment.

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How to write a Cover Letter for applying to a PhD program in the USA
I have completed my BS and MS in physics and I want to apply at different US universities for graduate program. What I have heard from my seniors that, I should mail the program coordinator to confirm if my profile is good enough to get admitted. For that I need to write a cover letter.

Am I in the right direction?
Who should I contact, my potential adviser or the graduate
coordinator, to know if my profile is strong enough for getting
admitted?

Cover letter is an integral part of your application. You may look at this and this.
You could find numerous articles by simple Google search explaining Do's and Don'ts when writing a cover letter such as the above links.

Who should I contact to know if my profile is strong?

If you are an eligible candidate according to the eligibility criteria put forward by the graduate school (usually published in the respective website), then you may contact NO ONE.
I am in Physics, now doing a PhD in France and a successful candidate in terms of International PhD admissions. I am strongly opposed to the idea of asking if your profile is good or not to a second person. It gets worse if you are going to ask this to your potential supervisor. In my opinion, it's something that you should feel withing yourself. Why do you care about Mr. X's opinions about the strength of your profile? Furthermore, if you are really motivated to work with Mr. Y then even if Mr. X tells you your profile is not strong enough, why don't you give it a try? Y will then decide if you are fit or not. I think this is a better approach than asking Y if you are strong enough to work with him.

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Short Research Postgraduate Courses
Are there any mathematics or physics postgraduate courses (not taught courses) in the UK where you can continue a piece of research work you did whilst an undergrad? So you effectively do a project that maybe lasts a year(ish) which is productive but you would not do it for 3 years+ and receive a PhD?

At my US institution we submit volunteering forms to HR, obtain permission from a faculty member for supervision, and enroll in a zero credit-hour "Independent Study" course. In this way you'd receive no credit, no payment, but tangible documentation of research. Funding would be the primary issue. I should also note that this requires enrollment with the university as a non degree-seeking student. I would speak to an advisor in your department of interest.

To second @Kimball's remark about the U.S. situation, there is often a "non-degree student" status that gives some sort of official status without requiring as much payment and without any promise of degree status enhancement. I have no idea about U.K., ...

In the UK it is possible to apply for an MPhil (Masters of Philosophy) degree (which is essentially a mini-PhD) or alternatively an MRes (Masters by Research) degree which is generally shorter.
A caveat: the MPhil may be interpreted as a botched PhD as the degree is often awarded to PhD candidates who don't cut the mustard or drop out. Don't let that put you off though.


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Research statement for a fellowship application: should I introduce my area?
I'm applying for a research postdoc fellowship in mathematics (I just finished my PhD) at a prestigious UK university. I've been told to write a research plan for what I intend to do with the fellowship. Unfortunately I have no idea who is going to be reading my plan.
Should I start off by introducing them to my area? My area is in evolutionary PDEs and professors in eg. number theory may not know anything about it. I was going to define a PDE and then quickly talk about my previous work and then my intended research work. Overall it's 3 pages at the moment.

You have to convince readers of two things:

The problem is important
You are qualified to tackle it

To that end, you should make the problem and likely outcome accessible to anyone, but your proposed approach can assume more skill.

You don't need to aim this at the number theory people.  They may not be experts about PDEs, but they will be smart enough to show your proposal to somebody in the department who is.


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How to write a Literature Review when I'm not researching anything
I am doing a degree in Computer Science. I am not in my final year, however my lecturer has asked me to do a dissertation over the whole of this year as a sort of dry run. This is so when I go to do my actual dissertation next year - the whole process won't be foreign to me.
My project (which I have had signed and approved) is to write a piece of software which converts SVG images into front end application code (converting a button design into an actual coded button which can be used in c# applications).
My problem is that I'm struggling to find areas to research for my literature review. My project isn't innately about any topic of research, it's just creating a piece of software.
Methods and results of what I've tried:

From what I've read, this part of the essay should include literature for/against (or opposing thoughts) of the topic at hand. The only way I can break this down to fit my project is - Should/Shouldn't User Interfaces be created from deigns. Could this possibly lead to less accurate representations of what was needed? Will the controls created be as efficient as a control created by a person based off of the designs
What is known or already understood about this topic. I've not yet found anything suitable that another person has done with regards to converting SVG's to code.

I would suggest you simply ask your lecturer what they are expecting.

@NateEldredge Yes I have emailed him however he is away for two weeks on paternity leave and I would like to start witting it up now.

@Ralt, I'd be surprised if a CS professor didn't check his/her email occasionally over their leave.

Figuring out what to put in a literature review usually involves taking a giant step back and thinking about (1) what someone needs to know in order to understand your work, and (2) how your work fits into the overall body of research. For example, you might want to address the following:

What are vector graphics (like SVG) and how do they differ from bitmap graphics (e.g. PNG).
Why is there an interest in automatically generating code?
What other attempts have been made to automatically generate code (not just from UI designs, but also from other types of designs like UML diagrams)?
How successful were these attempts?
What problems have been encountered?
What is the state of the art in automatic code generation today?
Why isn't automatic code generation more widely used?
What benefits and drawbacks are there for automatically generating code from a graphic, as opposed to from a drag-and-drop approach as is typically used in Visual Studio.

Ultimately you need your professor's take on this. However, a literature review doesn't have to just be about research. It would probably be helpful to find similar programs and study how they handle this problem. In doing this, you can learn what works, what doesn't work, and areas where you can add improvements. If writing a program like this is common for dissertations at your school, you can approach more senior students or other professors who are familiar with the process and ask them how this is handled.


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Literature review and authorship
Let's say a research assistant has provided help on conducting a literature review and that some of the references are eventually used in a published paper. Would the research assistant normally get some kind of acknowledgment or authorship if they did not contribute any written material?

Perhaps an acknowledgement. It is not very clear what the help consist of. If it is, say, accumulate and send hundreds  pdf papers to the author I would say acknowledgment is enough. The status of the helping person should not have any influence, by the way. ...

Depends what they did (and oddly the field you’re working in). See for example http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html for the rules in biomedicine.

I think you should definitely mention the research assistant in your acknowledgements, but not as an author. For such questions, I generally refer to the Vancouver Protocol, a widely used standard to determine appropriate authorship (search "Vancouver authorship" on the Web and you'll see that it is fairly well known):

The ICMJE recommends that authorship be based on the following 4 criteria:

Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
Final approval of the version to be published; AND
Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Furthermore,

Contributors who meet fewer than all 4 of the above criteria for authorship should not be listed as authors, but they should be acknowledged.

So, according to these principles, the research assistant is not a coauthor, but ought to be acknowledged.
Also, please note that coauthorship is often considered an ethical issue (that is, it is considered unethical to include someone who does not merit authorship, or to exclude someone who does), whereas it is more of a professional courtesy to acknowledge someone's contributions (that is, it is nice and collegial to acknowledge someone, but it is not considered unethical not to do so).


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Should we tell students they need to improve their English?
As an instructor or teaching assistant for a graduate class at a top institution, is it okay to tell students (e.g. in homework feedback) that they need to improve their English? What's the best way to do so without offending or discouraging them?
I'm specifically asking for math/science-based classes where, for instance, students are required to write proofs which involve a lot of "informal"  (i.e. using English rather than mathematical notation) proofs and reasoning.
This happens mostly with international students.

You may prepare a list of local resources where an international student could improve his or her English language skills.  For example

campus writing center
volunteer language practice pairing service
special courses or workshops for English language learners
opportunities to improve one's public speaking skills (the focus may not be on English, but this can be incredibly helpful) -- this might be offered in the Business school in your university
literacy volunteers program located in your town or city

Once you have your specific list prepared, you might ask your professor to distribute it for you.  You can point out in the intro that strong English skills increase one's employability!
In the meantime... set yourself a maximum amount of time per assignment you feel you can afford to spend correcting a student's English, and go ahead and make some corrections.  (Think what this will do for your karma!)
If a particular assignment is not gradable due to incomprehensibility, bump it up to the professor.

I realize this is an old question. Still, the question itself is fairly timeless. I can see this question has having been asked just this morning and having just as much validity as it did 5½ years ago when it was originally asked. That said, I have a few thoughts…

It seems clear (or at least I inferred such) the students have done reasonably well on the assignment. That is, they have satisfied the mathematics requirements to some degree of proficiency. So no matter what, you’re not going to adjust their grade based on their English proficiency. It’s really only suggestions you’re offering with regard to their English.
You no doubt have enough on your plate, but if you’re willing and if the number of students who need such assistance isn’t too great, offer to provide some assistance yourself. In doing so, first determine if the student wants help. If not, that implies no disrespect of the student(s) toward you, so don’t take it as such. If so, then follow through. If you can’t or don’t want to provide the help yourself, that’s fine but it’s good if you can point the student to other sources of help.
It’s important for the student to understand why you think this is important enough to mention. Describe it however you want, but the student should understand why it’s important to you. The student may or may not agree as to its importance. If it’s merely so you can understand the student’s reasoning and explanation of the assignment that’s a valid reason, but help the student understand how important communication is.

I think it's not so much "tell students to improve their English", but to make the point that coherent, precise English (if that's the ambient language) is important for communication. And to give specific details in feedback on write-ups, as I do in my graduate math courses.
It is certainly true that there is a widespread belief that math (for example) is insensitive to the ambient language. Of course, in some sense, this is true. But the communication of math certainly depends on the ambient language, unless we "go completely symbolic", which (in my opinion) leads to pretty unreadable stuff. It is inefficient to not take advantage of the built-in features of the ambient language... oop, but, then, we have to be acquainted with them.
A specific claim I'd make is that "natural language" (English, for example) is more robust to typos and small errors than is very formal, terse, symbolic mathematical writing. This is both an argument in favor of not-so-formal mathematical writing, and an explanation of why somewhat-flawed English mathematical writing is still "decipherable", at least by experienced people. But, then, there is also the point that this decipherability is much more difficult when the reader is not sufficiently expert...
... so, apart from getting grades on homework, improved quality of ambient language writing improves communication. (Not surprising...)

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My recommenders copied letters from online
I'm an international student applying for college in the US. I asked subject teachers from my current school to write me recommendation letters, specifically telling them not to just copy one from the Internet. I'm using the Common Application for four out of the eight colleges I'm applying to.
My recommenders submitted their letters to CommonApp and only then did they show their letters to me (which was okay, because I waived my right to review the recommendations) and when I checked online, they had ended up copying 99% of the letter from ones found online.
My question is, will this affect my chances of getting into these colleges? I'm not entirely sure if copying recommendation letters from online counts as plagiarism, and I'm also not sure if colleges check for plagiarism in LORs. Thanks for your clarification!

To prevent this from happening, I would advise you and other international students to tell the reference that he can write the letter in his own language.  I'm thinking maybe the reference was embarrassed about his or her English.

I wonder if you can comment on the outcome of this. It has been three years since you asked. Hoping you found success.

specifically telling them not to just copy one from the Internet --- I have to admit that I was surprised the OP would have even considered this possibility, although I probably shouldn't be. To me it's somewhat analogous to an Olympic runner (still young and healthy) parking in a handicap parking space to avoid walking an extra 10 meters.

Lesson: don't waive your right to see what people are writing about you.

@Buffy - we told the teachers off for doing what they did and found new ones. I think  I wrote in the extra comments section to ignore the letters of rec the old teachers sent and asked the reviewers to look at the other ones. I guess it worked out because I'm now a junior in college! :)

Yes, it counts as plagiarism on the part of the teacher. There are 2 possibilities if they check the letter and find the plagiarism:
1. the university thinks your teacher copied the letter from an online source. This will make them be highly skeptical of the teacher as an academic and it will probably negatively reflect on you as a consequence. They might think you have worked in an environment where plagiarism is pervasive for example.
2. They think you forged a letter from your teacher by copying one from the internet and sending it in their name. This is of course even worse for your chances.
Either way, even if the universities don't check all letter for plagiarism,you must consider the possibility that the reader at the university will recognize the letter. Or they might suspect plagiarism after reading it and check this specific letter.
My advice would be: ask for an original letter, but whatever you do, don't send this letter.

Okay... my counselor (who I said was one of the recommenders) uploaded the recommendation where the transcripts were supposed to be uploaded. Would it look suspicious to upload an original letter in the right place?

I don't really understand what the last sentence of this answer is suggesting.

If the copied letter was already send I'd quickly speak with the person who copied the letter and ask her/him to write an original letter and retract the copied letter. If not, I'd contact the institution the letter was send to and ask them to not consider the copied letter in your application. @NateEldredge :  my last sentence is suggesting to ask for a letter of recommendation that wasn't copied from the internet, but instead written by the recommender specifically for the OP. Also, I am suggesting the OP to not send the copied letter, for which it is unfortunately too late.

My question is, will this affect my chances of getting into these colleges?

Yes, obviously.

I'm not entirely sure if copying recommendation letters from online counts as plagiarism

Not really, and they are not going to check, the problem here is not ethical. More likely the person reading the letters will recognize it instantly as boilerplate and put your file into the rejected stack. Thats all.

It is still possible that you will be admitted somewhere if you have something interesting as part of your education, or if your school is known to the admissions officers in the US as having a rigorous program.


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Rejecting an offer of admission
I'm interested in applying to pharmacy school and programs for a PhD in chemistry. The PhD programs only admit less than 10 people a year and it's more likely that I won't get in to one of these compared to pharmacy school. The issue is that the pharmacy programs provide admissions offers earlier than when the PhD interviews start.
Is it acceptable to accept an admission from the pharmacy school and then later reject that offer in favor of an offer from a PhD program? I feel bad for potentially taking up one of the spots in a pharmacy program if I won't be going there.

Given the competition for places in medical academia, I wouldn't be worried about turning down the place there. It's almost guaranteed that a wait list exists, and that someone else will be happy to do what you propose: take the early offer, and switch if a more preferable one comes along. In this case, just as you drop pharmacy to go PhD, they'll drop [whatever] to go pharmacy.

Some relevant (non-duplicate) questions: http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/64022/accepting-a-graduate-offer-of-admission-and-then-turning-it-down?rq=1, http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/41105/rejecting-a-phd-offer-after-having-accepted-it-advice?rq=1, http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/66998/consequence-of-declining-an-accepted-offer-after-the-universal-deadline-15th-apr

At least in the US, PhD programs have an agreed upon "acceptance date" where you can wait until then to accept an offer - this procedure is to prevent the situation you are describing, and to prevent universities from competing with earlier acceptance deadlines and therefore not giving applicants a real choice. I don't know if PharmD programs follow these guidelines, but have you checked when you must accept by? Even if the offer comes in early, you may not need to accept until the spring.

Unfortunately PharmD programs have a "rolling admissions" and pretty much admit you based on what happens in the interview. And then they have a deposit fee to make sure that you're going to that institution.

There's probably nothing wrong with doing this from a technical/legal standpoint. That said, to echo StrongBad's response here, when you accept a position in a program the tacit understanding is that you are removing yourself from consideration elsewhere. In the eyes of the program, acceptance is equivalent to commitment. To that extent, you risk burning some bridges.
Your case is slightly different, given that you're in two different fields. The risk of burned bridges may mean less to you. Still, you are effectively reneging on a commitment, which is something you may or may not feel comfortable doing.

It is a fact of life that people renege on commitments all the time.  My son's math teacher quit three weeks into the school year, and the class has been floundering with one sub after another.  Now we finally have a permanent replacement who's worse than the subs.  But in OP's case, there will be no shortage of applicants ready to fill the spot one month from now, so what harm will have been done?  When one considers an ethical question, one needs to think about the harm one or another course of action might do.  (If I understood right, your answer addresses the ethics of the question.)

@aparente001 - I am addressing ethics. While there may be costs to the institution, the harm is likely greater to the individual. Being known as someone who does not hold to their word is not a good thing.

@aparente001 I think there is an ethical difference between reneging on a commitment due to unforeseen circumstances (especially things like illness, physical or mental), but it's different to make a commitment while fully planning to break that commitment in the future when another opportunity arises. I get your point about there not being a shortage of applicants, but those other applicants have to start making other plans if they are waitlisted or haven't been accepted - that is certainly causing them harm if it isn't necessary.

@BryanKrause - A candidate who starts out on the back-up list, and then is offered a spot, is free to jump for joy or say "No thanks."

@aparente001 Surely - but had someone not accepted ahead of them when they planned to withdraw their application, they would have been saved the added stress in the meantime of being waitlisted. Maybe they would have already accepted another offer to a less-preferred institution, or sought other employment. Then they are in an ethical quandary that they should not have been exposed to. These are all harms, even if they are not harms to the institution.

@BryanKrause - I am weighing that against the harm done if OP waits a whole year before applying to the back-up program.  But we don't have to agree on this.  Perhaps you'd like to support the answer by eykanal, or write an answer.

These are all considerations that I've made before making this post, and I still don't have a good answer for myself ethically. To prevent the burden on others (both the institution and other applicants), I've decided to go all in for the Ph.D. program.

Read the fine print on the acceptance letter and any links provided.  I doubt you'll find a problem there.  By double-checking, you will be able to proceed with more confidence.

I think taking action simply based on it not being legally problematic may be the wrong way to think about this question.

If you are pursuing your degree in the US or Canada then there is a good chance your institution belongs to the Council of Graduate Schools. Some international schools also belong to this organization.
Many of the best graduate schools in the US/Canada have explicitly endorsed the  April 15th Resolution, which states that students should not be obligated to accept a position (or specifically, an offer of financial aid) before April 15th. This is specifically to avoid putting people in the uncomfortable situation you describe, and to maximize the chance of good matches for all students and schools.
I would reccomend this: if the department that sent you the first offer is affiliated with any of the schools listed in the April 15th document, and your acceptance comes with any offer of aid (such as a TA or RA position) then write to the graduate admissions coordinator and ask if they are aware of the resolution and if it would be OK to delay your acceptance until you hear back from the other programs.
If the department that sent you the first offer is not affiliated with any of the schools listed above, then write to the graduate coodinator explaining your situation. Explain that you are hoping to do a PhD in chemistry at a competitive school and it is widespread practice to delay final graduate admissions decisions in that realm until April 15th. Ask if it would be possible to have an extension on the decision, or if it would be possible to accept the offer contingency.


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Is there Visiting Administrator in academia?
I am event manager in our university. I see that academics are very mobile through visiting scholar plans. I wonder if you have every seen mobility of university administrators?
I am very interested to go and voluntarily work in the event office of another university to earn new experiences.
Before contacting some universities to see if they have such possibility, I wanted to hear from people here, if it is a feasible and common idea or ridiculous one.

it should be uncommon but definitely not ridiculous.

The term you might be looking for is secondment.
To quote one example university (Macquarie University policy):

Secondment: an arrangement made with the mutual consent of the
  supervisor and staff member, where a staff member is released under
  specific agreed arrangements to work in another area within the
  University or with another organisation for a specific period of time.
A secondment arrangement may be made in the following circumstances:

within the University (internal secondment)
to an external organisation (external secondment)
from an external organisation (external secondment)

Thus, you may want to search your university for a similar policy.

I have heard of temporary administration positions being created to fill a special need of the university, but I've never really heard them referred to as visiting. This probably more likely to be well received if you have some particular experience or skillset that would be useful to a university.


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How do you present internal funding for facilities and staff in your record of secured funds?
One of the key factor in the resume of an academic is the amount of research funds he was able to secure.
Most research funds go towards human resources, for example, postdoc fellows and PhD students. In my resume, I write the total funds I have received. A significant part of these funds is paid to my research fellows.
However, sometimes my institution hires staff for me. For instance, if my university gives me credit to hire postdoc fellows for my research, this is also a kind of grant that I have earned, but it is not a value to be summed (to estimate total funds I've secured).
Questions:

The list of funds we secured are normally external funds provided by funding agencies. How do you calculate internal funds granted to you?
If your  research institution grants you special access (as a reward to your achievements) to human resources or facilities, but no money is transferred, how do you estimate the total fund granted to you? And is it appropriate to do so?

I agree with Wolfgang in that whether the funding is internal or external will not make very much of a difference, as long as the process is competitive.
However, external funding will usually carry greater prestige, earned or not, as there may be a perception that internal funding may be less competitive and more prone to "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine". So I'd probably separate external and internal funding into two sections.
And I'd always try to put at least a rough monetary amount to any funds or support received. Why? Like it or not, people will need to summarize your CV in a few key figures to compare it to other people's CVs, and total funds acquired is one of these figures. Make it easy for the person reading your CV to calculate this total. Don't force him to open a spreadsheet and fill in assumptions about the monetary value of resources your university granted you.
For support staff, just ask HR about the rough fully loaded cost of this person. (The exact number may be confidential, since it ties into the specific person's salary, but your university will probably have some bookkeeping rule of thumb they use. For computing cycles, use similar estimates.

Generally, what really only matters are awards and grants you receive through a competitive process. (Everything else is really only regular internal support of research.) If this is the case, whether it is monetary or through in-kind contributions is not really all that important. So I would say something like this in my CV:

Innovation Award XY-2015-05 from the College of Science, University of ABC; the award consisted of in-kind salary contributions to support a lab technician for my lab for 12 months. Innovation Awards are awards through a competitive process within the College of Science following a review of a peer committee.

In a case like this, it is not necessary to attach a dollar/pound/Deutschmark amount to it -- people can figure it out. The same is the case if you get access to expensive equipment beyond what one would ordinarily get. For example, getting one million CPU hours on a university supercomputing center's machine is not something special and there is no need to list it. Getting 100 million CPU hours on a state or national facility is special and would be worth listing. (Because 1 CPU hour is valued at around 10 US-cents these days.)


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Should I write my master's thesis in English, as a non-native speaker?
I'm currently enrolled in a Master's degree Program in Statistics in Italy. I just started working on my thesis and my advisor asked me if I wanted to write it in Italian or in English. Apparently, both languages are accepted but presenting a thesis in English would mean having to discuss it in English too.
It's a 10-min Q&A session so not that big a deal, however I wouldn't want to put the evaluating committee in a difficult position since none of my professors are native English speakers.
Given that I have no interest (at the moment) in pursuing an academic career beyond my Master, what could be the benefits of writing the thesis in English? Would it realistically make any difference for future job search abroad, for example?

Even though your thesis and your slides might be in English, you can orally present it in the native language (ask your advisor). This is actually quite often.

I wrote my master's thesis in English (instead of the local and my native language, German). It has a few hundreds of downloads on Researchgate (*gasp*), most of them from the US and China (afaict). Arguably, these would not have happened had I written it in German. So, do you want your stuff to be read? And, on an unrelated note, do you want to train your technical English skills?

Are you able to write it in Italian now and have it translated later? If it were me in this situation I would rather write it in my native language and trust someone with more experience in the foreign language to translate it later.

@Pharap Translating a work is a non-trivial exercise, even for those with fluency in both languages (even when one is native fluency).  As an aside, a German colleague of mine once told me that many German universities still have a rule in effect that says you can write your thesis entirely in Latin (and he had a friend who did just that).  He wrote his own thesis in German, and later on regretted it: he had to translate it into English to get it published in a top journal, and he could have saved himself all that time by just doing it in English in the first place.

@zibadawatimmy I have a German friend in the same boat; he wrote it in German and now he cannot provide it for reference to the students at his English-speaking university but has to translate it himself

@Pharap Sure but a high quality translation of a highly technical work is probably going to cost a few thousand euros.

I wrote my thesis entirely in English and presented (and had been Q&A'-d about) it in Polish. Then making the thesis publication value was more or less a matter of pruning the exposition of the basics.

Might be possible to to write in English and present the thesis in English, but then have the Q&A in Italian.

The reasons I write all my work in English, regardless of the country in which I work, are threefold:

The scientific community works in English
English texts are easier to reuse
English texts are easier to share and diffuse

Reasons 2 and 3 are effectively based on premise number 1. In terms of the ability to reuse my work, more often than never I might have to give a presentation, a talk or create a poster based on some report/thesis/paper I previously wrote. This scenario is  common to both academia and industry. When this happens I can easily extract sentences, keywords and figures from my previous work if all the text contained in them is in English, without the need to translate it.
Similarly a document written in English can be given to anyone and they'll be able to read and understand it without requiring a translation.
Therefore if I were you I would write the thesis in English, and present it also in English. I don't think that your examiners will feel in any way threatened by this. Ever more so if you are a foreign student and Italian is not your native language. You should not be expected or forced to write and/or present in a language you are not that familiar with, if English is an allowed option.

Especially for #2, if the thesis may contain results that could be published as a paper in a good journal, then that paper will have to be written in English anyway (I don't know of any international journals that publish papers in Italian).  So if you write in English now, you save yourself that later step of translation.

And since you asked about the job hunt outside of academia: #3 will help if you apply at non-Italian companies where your thesis would be relevant work experience. Also, not writing the master thesis in English would trigger  "I wonder if his English is good enough to write anything?" with the few HR persons I know here in Germany.

Here we had several students (native Spanish speakers, official language here in Chile) writing their theses in English, and do their defence in Spanish (even with the presentation text in English). As stated, English is useful for publication and reuse. In any case, it very much depends on the school's guidelines/environment. Ask beforehand, we certainly can't give an authoritative answer.

When you said "none of my professors are native English speakers", did you mean that they have difficulty understanding and communicating in English? The fact that someone's native language is different from English in no way implies their inability to communicate in English fluently enough.
If your professors indeed have difficulty understanding and communicating in English, then it would IMHO be impolite and, even, unethical to choose English as the language of your thesis, thus, making your decision an easy one.
On the other hand, if your professors can communicate in English with enough fluency (and will heave no problems understanding your subject domain terminology), then I think that producing a thesis in English would be preferred. The rationale is that your thesis can be shared with (and understood by) much more people and, while you might not see value of that today, perhaps, tomorrow you opinion will be different. Sharing your thesis with more people might be beneficial from two perspectives: academic (disseminating research) and professional / non-academic career (communicating your professional knowledge, skills and abilities to potential employers).

To clarify, I believe most of my professor would have no difficulty reading and discussing a thesis in English, of course. However I know for a fact that some of the older ones are not fluent in spoken English. I'll inquire if it's possible to write in English and discuss in Italian, as it might be a sensible middle ground.

@LambdaVu: Sounds like a good idea. Good luck with your thesis!

I strongly disagree that it would be "impolite and even unethical" to write a scientific thesis in English. Nearly all science is done in English, these days. If the professors can't understand the language their whole field uses, that's their problem, not the student's. It's their job to examine the thesis within the limits set by the university: those limits include that the student may write in English. One could even argue that it would be impolite and unethical for the professors to pressure the student to not write in English.

@DavidRicherby: I strongly disagree with your disagreement. A student, by definition, is not doing science in the vacuum. Thus, since the science in this case is being done in the context of an institution, the institutional rules and regulations as well as relevant ethical norms should be followed. There are tons of universities around the world, including some very well-known and respected, where instruction, communication and academic artifacts are mandated to be performed in national languages (English is, of course, encouraged, but it has clear status of the secondary language there).

@AleksandrBlekh The "context of the institution, the institutional rules and regulations" are that theses can be written in English. The fact that other universities may forbid this is irrelevant.

@DavidRicherby: Well, just because something can be done, does not mean it is the best or optimal course of action. This question is not about what is legal, but what is right in a particular context (circumstances).

A professor once told me that the international language of science is "broken American English."

For a hard sciences thesis, elegant language is not required, especially if the people who are going to grade it wouldn't notice, anyway. (But you might be surprised. The passive language skills of most people are much better than their active language skills.)
The grammar should be correct. Ask your department if mistakes in grammar would reduce your grade.
The professional vocabulary must be correct. But you need to learn it anyway if you're working in the field.

It seems likely to me that your professors would have no difficulty reading your thesis in English and even understanding your presentation in English.  They might, however, feel uncomfortable asking questions or making comments in English.  If that's the situation, then you might consider doing your writing and your presentation in English but making it clear to the professors that you are willing to take questions or comments in Italian.

It would be surprising if the committee did not take into account the language in which the thesis is written, and thus you should mainly consider your own preference for the language. Of course, ask your advisor or the administrative staff at the department if there are specific requirements for submitting a thesis in English.
Also, you should take into account whether your capability for writing in English is as good as your capability for writing in Italian. As your field is Statistics, I would argue that the language is second to the statistical content, method applied, and results presented. Some find comfort in writing academically in a second language, but that comfort should not weigh heavier than the ability to write in said language.
Finally, a value of writing in English could be the use of the thesis as an example of your ability to write academically and concisely, as well as your control of the English language. Having the thesis translated, or doing so yourself, would not be valuable in this regard. As you are not interested in a further career in academia, you might find more use of it as a writing-sample.
Decide to write in either Italian or English, not both, as the time spent writing should be focused on content and presentation. The final grade will be more valuable than the language it is written in.

In addition to asking your advisers if they feel comfortable assessing your thesis if it were written in English, also check your department's / university's rules on this.
The universities I had interactions with all had very clear rules about thesis written in languages that were not the country's official language. Sometimes it may simply be allowed, sometimes a pro-forma request is needed, yet others required approval by the examination board.
(The same applied to the language for the final presentation / defense)

You don't say which is your native language, but I'd suggest you write it in the other one; you effectively get two credentials for the price of one that way (the subject itself plus second language competence).


text:
Bad signs in a department for PhD
Is it a bad sign in a department if most of those who do their thesis in that department also did their undergraduate studies there and most of those who get their PhD there either

are employed in said university

or more often than that

find themselves outside of academia roughly within 5 years after defense?

EDIT: The department is a European mathematics department. It is mostly focused on teaching. There are (maybe?) roughly 10-20 PhD students. The department has been around from 1959 I think. The country in question has a handful of universities.

Yes, it is a bad sign.

Maybe. What country? How many PhD-granting institutions are there in that country? Etc. There may be extenuating circumstances. EU, UK, US/NA, it's probably bad.

I think it also would depend on the population size. How many PhD students are we talking about? Maybe it is young department mostly focused on education and not on research (which might or might not be a problem depending on circumstances)

It's good if you want to stay in that city and get a job in that department! If you're motivated to have a highly successful research career then it's likely not so good.

I live in a small European country where the described situation - academics spending their entire careers at a single university - is the norm. Part of this is because there aren't many national universities and people tend to value social/family life over mobility/prestige. Part of it is a (IMO) dysfunctional system that makes universities focused almost exclusively on undergrad teaching, with research often being secondary (funding problems due to lack of political interest in research don't help). Whether or not this is bad depends on your ambitions and values.

I teach at a university in the USA where there are several faculty members who received many degrees from the same university. Yes, most of them did venture out and then return to be faculty. One of the main reasons, we see this at my university is because the weather is so darn cold that only those who have been "branded" by the fierce weather for long periods of time and liked it would seem to have the inclination to remain or be back here. This is one of the driving factors, as our hiring data would suggest.

I agree that this is generally a bad sign, especially your number 2, but I would add a "but" to this answer.
When the language used for teaching at the University is not English, situation number 1 can arise. Some department have a hard time recruiting and keeping researchers that are willing to learn a second language and teach in it.
Another way to evaluate the quality of the department would be to look at the collaboration they have with other institutions and the scientific literature they produce (among other things).

In any country with established PhD programs, this is a bad thing. If it was in a country trying to establish a research program, then it is harder to say. There may be extenuating circumstances, but I'd definitely be wary of joining a program like this, without significant research ahead of time.


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Are three year degrees from India equivalent to Four years degree in the US?
Is a three years bachelors degree in Commerce and three years bachelors degree in Law from India termed to be equivalent to have a four years graduate degree from the US?

Not sure whether duplicate but definately related : http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/41984/can-people-with-a-3-year-bachelors-from-india-apply-for-a-ms-degree-in-computer

I don't understand the answers so far given. I think if you substitute UK for India the answer would be yes. I've assumed that the education system in India is very similar to UK. Not so? Can someone who has answered explain why the difference? UK degrees, at least, are more specialized than US degrees so the "in field" education is at least as strong over 3 years in UK.

US does not have centralized rules about such things. It's in the hand of each university how they want to handle it.
Very few US universities will admit students with a 3 year bachelors from India. You can check that by writing a mail to the admissions office of the respective university.
Majority of the universities however will not accept the 3 year bachelors. For these universities, you will have to complete 16 years of formal education(10+2+4). This means that you will either have to complete a masters degree or some additional one year degree.
Note that most of the B-schools accept Indian 3 year bachelors nevertheless.

Many universities in the US will not admit students from India (or other commonwealth countries) with 3 year bachelors degrees into graduate programs.  In such cases the expectation is that students will have either completed an honors year or gotten a master's degree before applying to the graduate program in the US.  In this sense, a 3 year bachelors degree from India is often not considered to be equivalent to a four year bachelors degree.

There is no such thing as an honors year in India. Students need to complete masters from India or some additional one year degree to complete 16 years of formal education(10+2+4). Also, B-schools accept all Indian 3 year degrees

@spunkpike Incorrect. There are 4 year bachelors programs in basic sciences. Notable one is from IISC.

@Sathyam Only the IITs and IISc offer 4 year "BS" degrees. Most of the Indian universities however, provide with 3 year degrees, not 4 years

Your comment There is no such thing as an honors year in India. included IITs and IISC which are premier institutes in the country. Isn't it a blind  presumption to make? I was making this exact point.

@Sathyam, for IITs the fourth year is mandatory and does not imply anything about "honors" in the traditional sense. From your link for IISc, I think that the situation is similar to IITs.

IISc, IITs etc have BSc/ MSc (Only very few Indian university can offer BS/ MS after proofing that their name will not create any contradiction, like ISI is offering MS(QE), MS(QMS) and MS(LIS), BS/ MS is reserve for Bachelor/ Master of Surgery) degrees equivalent to BTech/ BS/ MTech/ MS, Which are four year Degrees, In addition IITs also conduct MSc programme through JAM, Which are equivalent to traditional MSc degrees.
Most of the tier one US Uni doesn't consider 3 year degrees for postgraduate admission in general circumstances (I know some guys who made their appearance in PhD program of Stanford/ Pennsylvania/ Harvard with 3 years degree from ISI) but more than 80% of Uni do accept 3years degree, provided that student has studied in a college having A++ NAAC Grade(3.5+ cgpa) and scored more than 60% or 6.5/7.5 cgpa on 10/9 scale.


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Is it common to be given 6 months for a minor revision outcome?
I received a paper back with a verdict of minor revisions on August 30th. Both the letter from the editor and the scholarone submission system states 'minor-revision.'
I've read the reviewers' comments very carefully, and everything is, as the editor states, a minor revision. Nothing requires me to re-analyse the data, or engage with new work. Rather, most revisions are of a small nature, such as fixing up some grammar and clarity errors, ensuring consistency with terminology, and further developing a couple of sections (drawing out the analysis a bit more, being more specific about methodology). This would at most, take a week or two, and then an additional few weeks to get a peer to proofread for me one more time before submission.
However, I've been given until February, 2016 to complete them! For a minor revision that seems like a lengthy amount of time. So now, I'm unsure as to whether they've just given me a lengthy timeline because the journal itself articulates a 6 month turnaround time for peer-review (it took about 5 for this article), or if the revisions are meant to be more substantial.
I read this What is a reasonable time to resubmit revised papers after they have been peer reviewed? but didn't find it helpful.
Is it common in some fields to be given 6 months for a minor revision outcome that will only take a few weeks? I'm concerned that I should be making substantial revisions despite the letters indicating otherwise due to the time-frame provided.
My field: Social science

I suspect that what happened is that the editor used a web form to notify you of his/her decision, and to send the referee reports. 6 months is probably a default in the software which the editor did not bother to change. The only thing it is likely to indicate is that the editor sees no need to rush you, and is happy to receive your paper when you're ready.
It's certainly a good idea to finish your revisions much more promptly, and it will likely result in your paper being accepted sooner.

Generally Not. But it depends on the journal. You can check the review process of the journal itself. Other reasons could be:

Editor might have notied a large amount of minor corrections,
particularly the language. This may need a native check.
The publication frequency may be bi-annualy or may be the slot is
not available in next six months.

But in any case, you can submit the manuscript at any time once you finished it, no matter whether it is within 1 month or 2 months or 5 months.

This isn't a bad thing - if you can make the changes in a few weeks then nothing is stopping you from submitting sooner. But, let's consider why you might actually need six months. Hypothetically, and plucking numbers out of thin air:

the decision has come back in the middle of conference season. You're travelling, and preparing for trips, for a month
when you get home after a month of being mostly away, you have a huge amount of catching up to do, other deadlines to meet, and research to get underway again
after three weeks of firefighting, you get time to tackle non-urgent things such as these revisions.
making the changes takes you two weeks. At this point, nine weeks have elapsed.
now you send the revised manuscript to your co-authors. One of them responds quickly, but one is a senior professor who is notorious for being difficult to get feedback from, and another is out of office on leave for two weeks.
after three weeks of waiting and one week of chasing, you get some comments from coauthors. Thirteen weeks have elapsed. If you're lucky, you can submit at this point....

So that's eaten up over three months. Getting to six seems far fetched, but...  Never complain about being given time :-)

I'm in a different field (biology), and for us those limits are an UPPER bound to the time frame you have to fix them, and is often quite standard. It protects the journal/editors from having to further consider a submission if the authors take an unduly amount of time to implement requested changes. Nothing, for an editor, quite like getting an revision a year or two after the changes were requested.
If you can get the revisions done in days or weeks, so much the better!

Yes, it is quite normal and common. Six months is no doubt the system default for any kind of revision, whether major or minor. There is not a different deadline for a major or a minor revision. So, there is nothing unusual about that.
Of course, you probably want to do the minor revision as soon as possible and not luxuriously use your full six months. But that is another matter.


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Student taking a make-up exam sees exam she would've taken: Unethical?
Suppose we have a Psychology class of 20 people. They have an exam scheduled on, say, Tuesday April 12 2016. One of them, Shion, is sick and so takes a make up exam on Tuesday April 19 2016.
Edit: The make-up exam is different from the original exam. It is also significantly more difficult.
Edit: Shion has an advantage of seeing the original exam which is nothing like a random sample of homework questions.
Is it cheating for Shion to see the exam taken on Tuesday April 12 2016?
I have a feeling the answer might depend on the university, department or professor (which seems weird: If professors can compel students to not see or discuss original exams why not extend this to exams since the beginning of time? Why is the most recent exam any different?).
If not, ignore what follows.
If so, another question:
How can the answer depend on the university, department or professor? One university could allow it while another can't? Can some universities really leave the decision up to the departments or professors? Can two professors in the same department have different decisions about this? I understand if people have their own opinions so two professors could have their own personal opinions, but I don't think their personal opinions should matter.

It's not a matter of opinion, it's a matter of "what is the content of the original exam and the makeup exam, and does the student get an advantage from seeing the original exam before taking the makeup?" That's why it depends on the professor and the course, because the answer to that question varies from course to course.

Is the make-up exam supposed to differ from the actual exam?

@ff524 Sorry. The make-up exam is different from the original exam. It is also significantly more difficult. I'm going to edit that in the post.

@JoelReyesNoche Ditto

That doesn't address whether there is an advantage to seeing the original exam.

@ff524 How doesn't the student get an advantage?

For example: students in the class know (based on previous year's exams, for example) that the exam will be a random sample of the homework problems, with different numbers. The original exam is a random sample of homework problems, as expected, and so is the makeup exam. Everybody knows equally what to expect for their exam, whether they take the original or the makeup, and knowing what's on the original doesn't give the student any new information.

Similarly to what @ff524 says, if there are sufficiently many previous exams available, then having seen one more will not mean anything.

I think, to an extent, it depends on how the student got to see the exam and if they were given any instructions. For example, if the Professor gave her the previous exam, then there are no ethical issues. If the Professor told the student she was not allowed to see the previous exam and not discuss it with other students, then there is a clear ethical issue.

@StrongBad What I find problematic about that is non-uniformity. I think all universities in the world should have the same rule namely that students taking make-up exams can't be compelled to not see the exams they were supposed to take. It's unenforceable. I think it's better to simply assume that the student sees the original exam and then make the make-up test on that assumption.

@TobiasKildetoft Doesn't sound very similar to me :P

@BCLC that would basically be the same as the Professor showing the exam to the student and hence no ethical issue. Given the world we actually live in, it is quite possible the professor said "don't look at the exam", in which case looking would be unethical.

@StrongBad Perhaps this is more of a political issue then. Anyway, what I mean to ask is how a professor can say that unless it is specifically the policy of the state or university, which would be a weird policy. You mean whether or not the student is allowed to see the original exam depends on the professor? I think the university or state should decide that, and the professors should follow. It seems very inconsistent otherwise. So biology departments assume students see original exams while sociology departments compel their students to not see original exams? Why not extend this to

@StrongBad To exams since the beginning of time? What makes the most recent exam any different?

You are asking two related but distinct questions here. First:

Is it cheating for Shion to see the exam taken on Tuesday April 12
  2016?

No, unless she promised that she would not see the exam (for example by signing a form to that effect as mentioned in The Fire Guy's answer). And it is not clear that there is any reasonable basis for the professor to ask her to make such a promise, unless the professor is giving her the make-up exam as a special favor that he/she is not required to do.
And second:

Student taking a make-up exam sees exam she would've taken: Unethical?

Yes, this could very well be unethical, but it is the professor who may be behaving unethically, not the student. I see several issues here: first, the professor allowed all the students to keep their copy of the exam, which makes it easier for them to share that information with Shion. Second, the professor is planning to give Shion a make-up exam in which knowledge of which questions were on the original exam could give her an unfair advantage (at least I'm assuming that's the case, otherwise the question wouldn't really make sense). And third, the professor is planning to give Shion a make-up exam which is "significantly more difficult" (note that although this goes in the opposite direction from the first two items, it is still unfair and the three sources of unfairness do not necessarily cancel each other out).
All of those things point to the professor not really thinking through very carefully his or her approach to fairly assessing Shion's performance. At the very least it seems like sloppiness on the professor's part, and depending on the level of negligence involved could potentially rise to the level of unethical behavior.
Summary: It is the professor's responsibility to design a make-up exam that assesses Shion's performance and knowledge as fairly as possible compared to the other students. Different professors may take different approaches to doing so. Some would find a way to ensure that Shion cannot look at the original exam; others would write a make-up exam that is of the same level of difficulty as, but different enough from, the original exam. Creating a situation in which Shion can easily have access to the original exam and benefit from this information is a recipe for trouble and probably means the professor is not doing his/her job as well as he/she should be. In any case, Shion could only reasonably be accused of cheating if she made an explicit promise that she would not look at the original exam and then did so anyway.

Can Shion ever be 'forced' to make such a 'promise' ? Thanks Dan Romik!

She cannot be forced to make a promise, but, in a scenario in which the professor isn’t required to give a makeup exam but is considering doing it as a special favor, she can be offered an option to take a makeup exam if she agrees to make the promise. At least, this seems like a reasonable condition to me.

Dan Romik, wait does this apply to my other question When is it wrong to look at previous exams?  Seems Nate Eldredge might disagree with you.

This is not a direct answer, but it might it help. I worked as a TA for different professors. They would ask the student to sign a form stating that they have not seen/discussed the exam with other students. If the student signs (most do anyway), then s/he gets the same exam the other students got. Otherwise, s/he gets another exam. I don't know how ethical is this but this is what I have seen. Keep in mind most professors have multiple versions of their exams and they don't have to grade them (TAs grade them). So, I'm not sure why they tend to ask the student to sign such a form rather than using a completely different exam right away. Maybe a department policy? One question, how did you see the exam if you weren't there in the first place?

Oh okay, I guess there can be variations of rules for make-up exams. Thanks. But can professors, departments or universities compel students to not see or discuss the exam with other students? Shion saw the exam from her classmate, Monokuma. Monokuma and the others were allowed to keep their exam.

Also I think some would find that kind of unfair, how do we know that the student has not seen or discussed the exam? Why don't we just assume that the student has not discussed or seen and then give a different exam?

In my case, the student who missed the exam must take his/her exam before the other students get their marked exams back. To clarify, students can come and see their marked exams during office hours, we don't post the solution online nor give the question sheet back (only give back their solution sheet). I doubt that students do not share information on the exam with the one who missed it! But, depending on the nature of the course (i.e., design course), the format of questions can be known (to some degree) so in a way, all students know what kind of questions they will be facing!

Please fix ethnical -> ethical. Tried to edit, but changes must be at least six characters to be accepted :-(

@gnasher729 thanks! Next time you can do this (changed "ethnical" to "ethical") this way you will get the needed number of characters :)


text:
Code in a conference paper: should I put license terms there?
I am currently writing a conference paper (an IEEE conf, if that matters) in which I include a piece of code. Pertaining to the license of the code, should I, at the beginning of the code, write something like
-- Author: Ton Ami, 2021.
-- License: MIT License. ------> this
--  Below is code to help you make a better world
...

Or should I just put the code without any license terms?
In any case, what would the license of the code be?
Related questions:
License of code accompanying a published article
Is there a default license for code libraries that accompany scientific research papers
Include code snippet which is licensed under the MIT License in a paper

How long is this code? Two lines? One page? More? 2. How is it 'included'? Directly in the main text? As a separate file?

@FedericoPoloni None of your questions matter - it would not change the answer. OP should contact the journal or publisher to ask about copyright of published code (or maybe you can find the answer on their website).

Is the code yours? (I assumed so in my answer. That might not have been your intent.)

@Louic I disagree; maybe it would not change your answer.

@FedericoPoloni There is no such thing as "my answer". If answers are opinion based the question should be closed, but that is not the case here.

@Louic I disagree on this, too. However, feel free to add an answer if you think there is sufficient detail to give one.

If you can and want to license the code, assuming you have copyrights and are able, then put the license terms into the header of the code itself, as you suggest. This avoids the problem of the license being somehow separated from the thing licensed. Once you license it, any transfer of copyright will need to respect that license. But you can't license it after you transfer copyright. Only the copyright holder can do so.

If you publish something and don't give an explicit license (US, anyway), the default is "all rights reserved". You can provide the license elsewhere if you like, as long as you still hold copyright. But if you transfer copyright to someone else, and it doesn't already have an explicit license, then they own copyright and you can no longer provide a license.
If you do provide a license before copyright transfer then, for most such licenses, the license is "sticky" and can't be withdrawn, even by the new copyright holder. If you do that without informing the new copyright owner then you can be in some trouble, since you can no longer transfer "all rights", but only the limited rights you still hold.
Some publishers, including conferences, will be fine with this. Others not and you could wind up having a paper rejected/withdrawn. I suspect IEEE might be lenient here, but they need to be informed of any prior license to anything they publish. Putting it in the paper itself makes it obvious, of course.
However, it isn't where you provide the license terms (in the paper or elsewhere), but when you detail the license terms, assuming that you can, at all.

Technically, you should include the full MIT license at the head of any major source files in your code. (here's a link to the full license text).
Since you are using the MIT license, which is incredibly permissive, it functionally doesn't make much of a difference if you include it or not in all your source files.
This is assuming you are posting a link to the actual code (e.g. to the github page or personal website etc.). If you are posting the code in your paper, definitely do not include the license there, as no one ever does that.

Ask your university's lawyers. They'll need to check whether the publisher's copyright agreement attempts to overreach, perhaps resulting in the inadvertent transfer of rights to the publisher.
Alternatively, include code extracts under fair use, attributing yourself as the programmer (rather than the author), removing any claim that the code is a contribution, and mentioning somewhere that the code is under MIT License. (Strictly speaking, university lawyers should still check whether you've complied with fair use and not violated the MIT license.)

I assume code was written by the OP.

"publisher's copyright agreement attempts to overreach, perhaps invalidating any claim that code is licensed."  In my experience (with journals not specializing in software) this is always the case and is plainly stated.

@AnonymousPhysicist Publishers clearly cannot reasonably claim to control copyright of code included under fair use, so why do publishers try?

@AnonymousPhysicist Also, assuming you're right (overreach is always the case, licensing claims for code are invalid), then code can never be published (without assigning copyright to publishers), unless code extracts are include under fair use (i.e., code isn't a contribution of a manuscript, code belongs to an independent project, governed by independent copyright/license.)

This has nothing to do with fair use.  Closed access journals generally demand the copyright to the document.  If you do not give them the copyright, they will not publish it.

@AnonymousPhysicist This has everything to do with fair use: No publisher can claim copyright of extracts included under fair use, authors do not control copyright over such extracts.

But publishers can refuse to publish if the author does not grant control.  If you say "You must publish this because it is fair use" they could, and probably will, say no.

@AnonymousPhysicist I speculate that no publisher says no to manuscripts containing extracts under fair use. That'd exclude any manuscript containing a quote, some code the manuscript evaluates, some third party figure, etc. Sure, publishers may say no, but that's a corner case.

I think that a number of commenters here don't understand "fair use". It isn't the same as "public domain" and is, instead, a limited exception permitting some copying of copyrighted material; usually short segments that don't affect the (monetary) value of the whole. The author doesn't "release under fair use".

@Buffy Absolutely agree: fair use [is]  a limited exception permitting some copying of copyrighted material. (Have I inadvertently misused the term in a comment?)

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


text:
How to deal with a complete failure in a group research?
I’ve led a small research project with another researcher. I’ve proposed a certain approach to a problem, but in fact, this approach doesn’t work, as even its simplest toy version doesn’t work. In retrospect, this toy problem should have been tested right after my part of algorithm was completed, so that two months of my co-worker’s subsequent effort wouldn’t be wasted. But coming up with such a toy problem wouldn’t be possible given the level of our experience, and especially this is my first group project.
Is this kind of situation common? How do I deal with it?

There is no failure, only feedback: This is nowhere as true as in science.

Failing only means : try some new approach instead of the one which didnt work.

Although the research did not end with the expected result, it still adds value to the field, right? Now there is one less possible path to go down.

@Math.StackExchange I have no right to advice in research, since I am highly inexperienced.But from a simpler viewpoint, we do wish to see a lot of honest researchers.Success or failure,I personally dont care.  Reason being, only such honest minds can bring phenomenal changes, since the intention is purer compared to someone who might do it for commercial success.Good hearted people fail, more often.  Good hearted people contribute to the world more often,  Correlation between good hearted people and success is very low, but not zero. Also, you could document reasons for failure and use it.

Related: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30995/what-to-do-when-you-spend-several-months-working-on-an-idea-that-fails-in-a-mast/31082#31082

Thanks everyone for changing my perspective. I will investigate a related problem to use this experience.

Samuel Beckett famous quote fits here very well: Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.

Failure is intrinsic to science: how can you think of exploring the unknown without ever failing? Alas, it's a certain modern, distorted, entrepeneurship view of science that brought us thinking that science should always be successful.
For my master's thesis, my PhD thesis and part of my subsequent research, I worked on an experiment that eventually didn't work. Ten years. But I learned a lot, and now that more than ten years have passed from the moment I realized the failure, I don't regret it.
So, don't be discouraged and focus on what you have learnt and not on the failure.

Failures should lead to papers. Unfortunately, in computer science there are far too few papers saying "We tested approach X to problem Y, and it does not work for reason Z."

Implicit in this answer is either a) your 'failed' project was nonetheless productive in terms of papers, or b) you had other, more successful projects with which to sustain your career. I say this because "failures pay out in lessons learned" is frequent succor here, yet lessons learned do not pay bills or satiate the pressure to produce

Thankfully, this failure doesn't really affect my career. It just affected me emotionally, since it wasted my worker's time. I don't really mind about my time wasted, since I'm used to personal failures. The answers I've received changed my perspective. I will exploit my experience of failure as much as possible to be productive.

@benxyzzy You're right, I had other projects, but they were, too, long-term projects and could not guarantee enough scientific output. This strained and eventually led to a breakup in the relationship between me and the PI, who was also my former PhD advisor, because I thought that our group should have had more short-term projects to assure a relatively steady scientific output. Since then, I changed field but, as I said, I don't regret that experience even though it had some unpleasant consequences on my career (but I got tenure right after the PhD, so I wasn't too worried). (cont.)

The above part,  however, was a consequence of the PI's goals and should not be generalized, and that's why I haven't told the whole story in the answer. Anyway, I strongly encourage anyone, especially at the postdoc level and beyond, to have several projects in parallel, both to boost the scientific output and also to broaden the scientific interests.

@MassimoOrtolano: "I got tenure right after the PhD" - that's unbelievably great!!!

@Haudie Yes, indeed, and I was quite lucky, but it was also almost twenty years ago, another era for the academic job market in my country, and moreover I work in a small field, which is not too crowded: so, e.g., a comparison with the US job market would be totally unfair.

I would take it as a lesson on strategic planning and move forward. I grasped from my first supervisor that even in the small group there must be certain sub-projects planned according to BCG-matrix (yes, this marketing scheme works surprisingly well beyond business-models). Going va banque with a single idea or focusing on one problem is never a safe strategy, there always must be a fallback option.
Let me illustrate with the planing for the research group in chemistry using this terminology:

"Cash cows": steady income of results from a well-established procedure. Usually the results of analysis of homologous components (spectroscopic studies, x-ray diffraction, etc.), or continuous collaborative work.
"Stars": sudden success in complex synthesis resulting in a new compound with outstanding properties. The process is tedious, random and requires skillful scientists, but pays off a lot when finally works.
"Question marks": observed side-effects in certain reactions which look suspiciously interesting, but might need further investigation.
"Dogs": ideas which kind of work, but are trivial or hard to reproduce, or obtained using obsolete experimental technique or equipment.

Obviously, "cash cows" is a must-have, that is the only reliable option on the chart. Even if you start from scratch, do some related work aside to have a back up option. If you have talented and/or motivated people in the group, assign some of them to the "stars", but by no means the entire group. "Question marks" should be noted and kept track on in the background; often they are turning into "dogs", but sometimes they can be reassigned to the "stars".
This assures that either way you have some positive results at the end to present or even to publish. Also, you cover the entire field of your scientific interest, assuring your approach is complete and accurate in details. Long story short: manage, prioritize and divide.
One more thing: if I have a student assigned for a period longer than 3–4 months (typically to accomplish MSc, rarely BSc project), I'd usually ask how this person would like to work:

Intensively: focus on a specific problem which involves complex sequential actions. Implies in heterogeneous working environment. Best fit for future "stars" projects. For example: synthesize, analyze and find the single-crystal structure of a new compound X. This requires work in different labs using various methodologies and contacting a lot of people.
Extensively: perform routine parallel actions. Implies homogeneous working environment. Best fit for "cash cows" projects, also for students who are just passing by (not interested in a subject, but have to attend and perform). For example: spectrophotometric titrations or try-and-error syntheses. This implicates similar day-to-day activities with a little deviation in skill set.

I noticed this often helps to partially sort out psychological issues (e.g. between introverts and extroverts in a group), and people feel that they are treated more or less fairly from the beginning.

Portfolio optimization in which individual research efforts are considered investments seems like a really neat framework for modeling risk-vs.-reward in group management.

That's one of the better ideas I have read here in the last months. Something to try for 2018!

Ok so cows and dogs, got it, but what about goats and cats?

@mathreadler What about them?

@andselisk where in the classification of research would they fit?

@mathreadler I have no idea what you are asking about. You either don't quite understand the metaphoric essence of these terms, or just trying to troll.

This failure might not be enough material for a paper, but please be sure to mention this experience during your next presentations.
It doesn't have to last more than a minute at the start of your talk. Experienced researchers will smile because you've lost "only 2 months" and younger researchers will be happy to learn that failure is part of the process. It wouldn't be called research if every single attempt worked flawlessly.
After this honest introduction, listeners might be more inclined to hear what you have to say because they will know you are not only here to blow your own trumpet and lie by omission.