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I forgot to deliver tutorials
I feel like I have made a massive mistake of my career. I do tutorials for three subjects and although we are almost end of the first trimester but one of the module just started last week and I supposed to do the second week's tutorial today for that module.
This morning I felt sick and i had constant headache. Even though I went in University and I did one of my other tutorials but I completely forgot to deliver tutorials for the module which started last week. I realised that I missed them after two hours. I never felt that much disappointed in my entire life.
I have Phd submission soon and the fact I was not feeling well today seems to be the major cause and I also completely forgot to organise my calendar for this week.
Well it has happened now and I have informed the course coordinator. I didn't hear back from her yet.
But my question is how today's mistake can affect my job? What likely consequences I will face? How should I handle this mistake? And finally, will they judge my previous performance based on this mistake?
Cheers

As much as I sympathise with your feelings, I don't think the question is answerable in this form. We don't know your contractual obligations, or what are the customs in your Department, and how badly this can affect your job.

Can you just rearrange the tutorial you missed? That would seem the simplest solution. It might be a faff if a lot of people are involved, but it's probably doable.

I don't know what delivering a tutorial means, but if you have the email addresses of the people who were counting on you, perhaps you could email them all, using the bcc field.  If you do, keep it succinct.

@StuartGolodetz Yes this eventually I will do. So next week I will cover two topics. But the biggest fear I am going through is to face likely consequences, especially on my reputation.

@aparente001 After the lecture students take one hour session to do some practical work and engagement base activities mainly to learn further on the topic that was discussed in the lecture. I just do tutorials. I have emailed course lecturer and I will meet her next week. Cheers as your comment helped me to write a succinct email than a long.

@Ahmad - It's okay.  You're human.  Just try not to let it happen again.  Glad to hear you are conscientious about your teaching duties.

I would say that you started rectifying the mistake by informing the coordinator. I would apologize sincerely and offer to to deliver the tutorial at another time. Mistakes happen and you are only a human and you were sick and that is understandable. Also, make sure not to miss any other tutorials in the future.

Hi Thanks- this instantly helped to cop with the pressure i felt. Of course, it was a lesson learned.

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Professor just gave an exam that was way outside of the scope of the class, various other issues with assignments, what should the class do?
80% of the exam was super in-depth questions about a topic glossed over for fifteen minutes about six weeks ago, with no prior warning. Its a relatively large class and most students are very perturbed.
There have been other issues with this professor including mistake-filled assignments, assignments given out late, reducing the amount of time students had to work on them. The instructor is very disorganized and does everything at the last minute, and consequently so are the TAs.
Who should the students go to first?

"Its a relatively large class" How do you know most students are very perturbed?

They should go to whoever deals with complaints about the administration of a course. That's not something we can answer for you.

If 80% of the exam was about a topic discussed in class, I don't see how the exam was "way outside the scope of the class." Way outside the scope would mean that the topic wasn't covered at all. Also, are you sure you didn't miss any assigned readings?

Go to the dean of undergraduate or graduate studies (whichever fits).

Actually, I don't think there is much you can do. Professors and administration hear complaints about "unfair" or "too difficult" exams all the time and most of them are exaggerated.
If your university has some official representation of students, you should go to them so that they can bring up the issue at an appropriate place. And you can hope that the professor sees that the results of his exam are very poor and that he reacts to it.

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Should you email a journal after 3 weeks kindly asking why a manuscript hasn't been sent for review, or is this too soon?
Am I simply being impatient? It's a computer science/biomedical journal. Don't want to seem pushy, yet it seems like it shouldn't take 3 weeks to see if a manuscript is within scope and decide whether to send it for review. It's been sitting at the "with editor" status with no status updates.

The title and the body do not match.  The title says "hasn't been sent for review" and the body says "decide whether to send it for review" which can make the difference of many weeks.  Which is it?

Probably too early. Don't assume that the paper isn't evaluated yet. Most likely it was judged in scope and they are simply looking for referees.
Wait a little bit more.

Depends on both the journal and field, but at least in some engineering journals this would be too soon. Editors can often be overworked. Also, it can be difficult to find willing reviewers - and that's a process that the editor can't speed up even if they want to.

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Are low acceptance rates at journals more attributable to desk rejects or the peer review process?
It seems like the review process rigor does not vary much at reputable journals. Is a low acceptance rate therefore due to lots of desk rejects?

I think reviewing is often pretty random (at least in math).  But are you asking about rate of desk rejection versus rejection after review?  Or just if the desk rejection rate is high?

My anecdotal impression is that while both phases are important and certainly the top journals have higher rates of desk rejections before review, they also tend to have less editorial leeway for revisions after peer review.
The rigor of reviews is the same, which makes sense: ultimately, the actual people doing the reviews are coming from the same pool of "other scientists in the field". They aren't reviewing more or less sloppily according to the journal's stature or "impact factor": they're offering their professional opinions about the work in front of them.
However, the higher end journals are looking for glowing peer reviews in the first round; if the reviews aren't glowing (both in terms of scientific rigor and perceived "impact"), they're likely to either reject the paper outright, or more recently as journals have adopted a tiered system, recommend continuing the peer review process at a lower-tier journal by that publisher (for example, Scientific Reports for Nature).
I publish in neuroscience and medical journals; experiences may vary in other fields.

It is similar to job applications. While processes are similar everywhere, getting a job obviously is not. More people will be 'desk rejected' for sure, but even those candidates getting the interview will have a harder time.
Scientists writing the review are conscious about the venue. If asked to review for a top journal, established scientists know the quality of the result required and communicate appropriately whether such quality is found in the submission.
The more reputable the journal the more competitive everything becomes and competition introduces randomness and focus on superficial things. Editors of weaker journals need to decide, which work to accept, while editors of strong journals, once the subpar submissions are gone, need to decide what to reject.
So reputable reviews receive more critical reviews and tolerate less criticism in such reviews.

It is similar to job applications. - If you're talking about proportions of "desk rejections", I don't think this is true at all, at least in my experience in pure math.  Also, I'm not sure how your second paragraph answers the question.

Thank you for you help, improving my answer.
You are correct that I indeed do not answer the question in the title but the question in the description, whether low acceptance rate is due to lots of desk rejects.
The second paragraph details how the disputable assumption that review process rigor does not vary much at reputable journals does not imply the conclusion that only desk rejects matter.

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Is DeepAI.org a preprint server?
I've noticed lots of new papers at deepai.org. I don't see very clear info. It seems you can submit a paper there, but it's not clear what this means in terms of copyright, etc...is it a preprint server? Has anyone posted a paper there and also published it in a journal?

Good question. It is definitely not just a preprint server, at least. I have seen it automatically create profiles of authors and connect it with their twitter profiles, and list and link their papers on arXiv.

It does not seem to be a preprint server. From spending a few minutes there, I do not see anywhere you can upload a paper. There are some featured papers, but they are all hosted on arXiv.
They don't have much of an about page, but they do say:

The most popular research, guides, news and more in artificial intelligence

This sounds about right; their role seems to be curating existing content, such as articles, datasets, and even job ads, as well as some basic original content, like a glossary. They are a bit light on details about how this curation works.


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As a reviewer, is it appropriate to look up other work by an author and factor that into your decision?
Assuming the process isn't double-blind, do you often look at other work by an author out of curiosity, and do you think this should influence your decision on a paper?

This seems like an "it depends" question. Can you clarify? What are you hoping to find? How might that be relevant?

If you are referring to 'reputation', then famous authors indirectly convey that information ; in my area, the title 'Fellow' conveys that a paper is of high quality (in theory).  Having said that, personally I do not really care about the standing of authors.  I judge a work purely based on what's presented to me.  I've rejected papers from many famous authors.  It is especially disappointing if these papers are sub-par, meaning  these famous authors have essentially sold their reputation/name -- they get a down vote from me.

As a referee, you don't make a decision on the paper.

I wonder what legit reasons you would have to factor in the previous works of the author(s). It is not like a paper suddenly becomes a bunch of lies if the previous paper or the author was a low impact one. Can you give examples where you think it may count?

As a reviewer, is it appropriate to look up other work by an author and factor that into your decision?

No, this is not appropriate.
I would argue that this is one of the exact things double-blind review is supposed to prevent. In the context of double-blind reviewing I have heard the following scenarios / arguments, all of which I feel are invalid:

"If the authors have a history of writing bad papers, I should be more critical." No, you shouldn't. You should judge the paper in front of you, not previous papers the authors have written.
"If the authors are more famous than me, I am nervous that my criticism may be wrong." Uh oh. If you are unsure, don't criticize. If you are sure, criticize even if the authors are the most famous in your field. And don't worry, even the best researchers (and their students) get things wrong.
"If the authors have a history of academic misconduct, I should be more critical (e.g., not give them the benefit of doubt if data is not entirely provided)." I understand the sentiment here, but I would argue that you are overstepping your role as reviewer once you start judging the trustworthiness of researchers as people, and then apply different standards to the manuscript based on your assessment. Given that much reviewing in the sciences in practice operates on a certain basis of trust, and given that we also know that a minority is abusing this trust, there is likely a level where we need to take prior behavior into account, but individual paper reviewers are almost certainly not the people who should be making these decisions.
"If the authors are presenting many similar papers (or many papers building on top of each other), we should rather reject to prevent salami slicing": Ultimately, if a paper would have sufficient contribution if written by somebody else, it should also have sufficient contribution if written by the same authors. Conversely, if the contribution is very minor in comparison to existing work it should be rejected independently of who exactly wrote said earlier work.

The OP specifies not double blind.

@Buffy yes, and the same principles apply regardless, it's just that double blinding makes them more likely to be followed. I guess this could be pointed out in the answer.

One of your jobs as reviewer is to determine the novelty of the work. For that you should acquaint yourself with what was known prior to it (if you are not already very familiar with the field), both due to the work of the same author and of others. To that end it can be useful to browse the author's earlier work.
It would not be ethical to let your judgement of the author's earlier work influence your opinion on the quality of the work under review just following the "logic" that the previous work was "meh", so this can't be any good either, or that this is such a famous author that the work under review must surely be great.

Checking originality is indeed a good reason to check literature, though strictly speaking it is not much to do if the previous (possibly overlapping) results were made by the authors or by others.

Indirectly yes as I like to read or browse through some papers in the bibliography, which often contains papers by the submitting authors.  This is pure intellectual curiosity, is independent of the review style (single or double blind): I often discover (or rediscover) unknown, unfamiliar or forgotten interesting papers.
I will also sometimes quickly read recent papers of the author (or group) to understand how the current submission is different from previous work.  I did this more regularly in the past because, when I was associate editor, I was regularly floored by the amount of self-plagiarism and duplication in some of the submissions I had to handle (the journal had access to a specialized plagiarism detection software).  Now I am more selective with my reviews and the journals I tend to review for usually check ahead of me for plagiarism, but I still do this on occasions.
Of course if I suspect (or detect) plagiarism it will influence my report.


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A recently published article of mine in a reputable Elsevier journal does not show on Google Scholar. Why?
I recently published an article in a reputable Elsevier journal, and it is not indexed by Google scholar. Other articles in the same volume of the same journal are indexed on Google Scholar already, so it doesn't seem like it has to do with Google's crawling cycle. I added the article manually to my Google scholar profile, but you can't add a DOI or link to the article so it still just looks like only the Arxiv preprint exists and not the journal publication. What can be done about this?

Or https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/93764/63475

Potentially but I've tried the steps suggested there and they have not changed the situation yet

"it doesn't seem like it has to do with Google's crawling cycle" - that's a bold assumption. If you really strongly suspect there's been an error, write to their support (obviously). Otherwise, don't assume the implementation works in some way which makes sense to you - for all we know, it might be "add random 70% from a given volume, then add another 60% from another volume while adding some priority to the first one for future passes". Orchestration/task scheduling is a hard problem in IT, and you may well end up spending hours trying to understand why it works the way it does.

Many journals have the 'next' issue available on line, adding papers as they go. So, other papers may have had a month (or more) to be indexed, while your article was just added and hasn't been seen yet.


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How should I decide what I am interested in research?
I am an incoming freshman to college. I am majoring in physics and math with the intention of one day becoming a professor specializing in theoretical physics. My question is: how should I go about deciding what exactly is my passion for research? Something I wouldn't mind spending so much time on. Specifically, something I would actually enjoy spending all my time on.
Thank you for your answers

Well, what do you like spending your time on?

Out of curiosity, what particularly attracts you, at this point, to being a professor of theoretical physics?

The best way is to get involved in research as early as you possibly can.  Since you are about to enter college this fall, as soon as you can, get involved with whatever project that seems most interesting to you.  It may not be directly related to what you will eventually research in your graduate studies, but by getting involved in undergraduate research earlier, you will know what you may be interested in, as well as what you may not be so interested in.  You may have to jump around a few times to find out what you are interested in, and you'll also learn the great and not so great things about academic research in the process as well.
It is somewhat less common for freshmen to get involved in research, but before you know it you'll be a sophomore, junior, senior then graduating college.  So make sure to get involved in your classes first (by asking questions and going to office hours, or OH), this way you'll get to know your professors.  If you find yourself interested in their research, read up on their papers, then go to OH and ask about what their research is, as well if you could possibly assist with it in some way.  (From my experience, finding out what you are most interested in, like many things, take some, if not a lot, of trial and error)
Also, while at it, also get started on crafting a statement of purpose or essay about your research interests.  While graduate applications are a (seemingly) long way down the road, since you haven't even entered college yet, many summer REU or research internship programs (great opportunity to gain research experience especially if there aren't many such opportunities at your university) will want some kind of essay component as part of the application process.

(+1) In case the OP does not know: OH means office hours. These are one of the most underutilized valuable resources: take advantage of them! And best of success!

@EdV Great catch, edited that in.

I would also recommend doing a weekly trip to the univ library, and spend a few hours reading the abstracts from various journals. Make plenty of notes in order to clearly understand what are the latest developments in your field, what kind of interesting research is being done at the moment, what are the latest problems that need to be fixed/solved/researched, etc. By doing this regular background work, you will probably be intrigued by certain papers or research approaches, and you might find yourself inclined to know more about a certain topic. You can either contact your professors during office hours to know more, or even send an email to the corresponding author of the paper to ask for more info (just be as polite as possible and don't ask for too many things, keep it short and simple!).
The fact is, that unless you take a bite out of all/most of the various dishes being offered in a menu, you will never know which dish you like the most. The same applies to finding a research topic that intrigues you and motivates you. Try doing various little things, usually after a month or two you can tell whether a certain research topic is right for you or not. Do not procrastinate and good luck!


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Not listed as author despite doing statistical work
I work in a medical field and recently contributed statistical analysis for a paper and was not listed as a co-author despite being told I would be. I spent a few weeks fielding questions about this paper and feel as though my contribution was significant. There are many people listed who I am certain contributed nothing to this paper.
Should I say something to my PI or just let it go? I understand the authorship likely can't be added to at this point but I want to express that I am slightly hurt. However since I am not vying for academic jobs I don't want to come off as being needy or petty since it ultimately won't matter for my career.
Any advice would be appreciated.

Who told you that you'd be a coauthor, and who submitted the paper?

The PI told me I'd be a co-author

Were you aware the paper was submitted without you as an author? Or not until it was published? Is "your boss" and the "PI" the same person? Who submitted the paper?

I was not aware, I found a pre-print online that was recently submitted where I wasn't listed. My boss and PI are the ones who submitted paper. I was told in a meeting with the two of them that I would be listed.

If there is only a preprint to date, you can still be added as co-author.

Wasn't there almost an identical question asked very recently?

Related https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/166158/promised-authorship-was-not-given-am-i-supposed-to-get-an-automatic-acknowledge

Hopefully it is a honest mistake. Otherwise, it is awful. If I contribute an iota to a paper, I expect to be on it, no matter what. Otherwise, it is plagiarism of my iota.

@coco Do you mean that, your boss and the PI come together in the meeting, and then they told you that you won't be listed?

Talk to the PI who said you would be an author, or your boss, whoever you are more comfortable talking to first. Best to assume it was an honest mistake (there's really no cost to adding another author in medical sciences). There's a bit of gray area on when statistical support is included/not included in authorship in medical science.
Let them know you expected to be an author (and remind them of your previous conversation), but that you found a preprint that didn't have you listed.
A preprint is just a preprint; hopefully you can still be included on a submission of the paper to an actual journal.

To be honest I'm not sure it is a gray area, if you're the person who performed the analysis then you should be on the paper since you're ultimately responsible for the results. If you've only provided advice, however, that's a different question, and perhaps an acknowledgement is more appropriate.

@Tarquinnn Depends what you mean by gray area. As far as i'm concerned, there is absolutely no moral gray area. Statisticians should absolutely be authors. But in practice it is often regular practice in some fields, including medical sciences, to leave people off who are deemed to have "only provided a service".

@Tarquinnn As Ian suggests, sometimes especially in medicine the statisticians used are employed by a hospital/university department and are treated as a service providing statistical support more like other support staff like technicians and vets who care for animals. I don't think that really makes sense but it does happen and it might lead someone publishing in that area to discount someone who more certainly deserves authorship. There's also the gray area you mention, between "advice" vs "doing".

Authoring practices differ a lot across scientific fields. In medicine or biology, the list of authors  may include people vaguely related to the paper, to say the least (see * footnote below). Therefore, some ranks in the author list can be considered as important: first, last, second, second-to-last, third. Those who fight for such a meaningful ranking (cough-cough) often accommodate well people in the middle who don't modify the ranking.
To complete that list, the end of the paper sometimes contains contributions:  X wrote the paper, Y designed the experiment, Z did the stats...
It does not matter whether you want to pursue academic honors or not, now. And maybe later you may change your mind. This is a question of scientific integrity, and if you were said to be included, this is well-deserved. If you did not do enough work to be included afterward, you should be said so as well. No surprise should reside among authors and their order. Even if for some reason (you cannot endorse key aspects of the paper you would not be listed) your contribution should be acknowledged: in the acknowledgment section, or a footnote at least.
In case of a blatant mistake, changing the author list is doable. In my experience, we had to remove one.
Related answers:

Publish the paper without letting know one of authors?
Is it appropriate to add a co-author at the stage revise & resubmit?
Why do people sometimes put authors with equal contribution in non-alphabetical order?

(*) In bioinformatics work I had been involved with/informed of, it was requested (by contract, apparently) that the bio-sequencing would have x persons set as co-authors, some who (one sometimes suspects) would even not read the paper before submission. What a contrast with mathematics, where people are usually listed in alphabetical order, being expected they all had contributed equally to the paper and endorse it totally (yet, there could be mistakes still).

"In medicine or biology, the list may include people vaguely related to the paper, to say the least" - in particular, in medicine it has historically been common to include physicians who enroll patients as authors, even if they weren't particularly involved in the design or summary of the paper, though some journals explicitly forbid this now or gather those authors into a "group" that is credited as an author but without naming the individuals (except in a note/appendix). It's a bit of a touchy issue because it can be a lot of work to be involved even at that level.

I did not mean any shaming. In bioinformatics work I had been involved with/informed of, it was requested (contract, apparently) that the bio-sequencing would have x persons set as co-authors, some who (one suspects) would even not read the paper before submission. What a contrast with maths, where people are usually listed in alphabetical order, being expected they all had contributed equally to the paper and endorse it totally (yet, there could be mistakes still)


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Advice on choosing a CS undergraduate thesis advisor (picking between 2 profs)?
I'm currently a college junior and looking to apply to grad school for CS in the fall. I'm currently choosing a thesis advisor for next year but would love some advice.
One of my options is a HCI professor who I've been working with since freshman year, but she'll be on sabbatical next year. She said she'd be willing to advise me, but I don't want to give her extra work while she's taking time off.
Another option is a professor who I haven't worked with before w/ a different research area (more systems focused), but I've heard really great things about her from other students. She also said she'd be happy to work with me, and I'm pretty interested in branching out/trying new things.
In terms of applying for grad school, will it strengthen my application to have worked with the same professor all throughout undergrad? Or is it good to show some variety of experiences? I'm having trouble because I'm also not sure which area of CS I want to pursue in the future, but it'll probably be something at the intersection of HCI and AI like Human-AI interaction or intelligence augmentation.
Any general tips/advice on how to handle this situation would be much appreciated. Thank you!

A sabbatical isn't usually time off from work. It's time off from teaching, so a professor can focus on research and possibly travel to visit collaborators for a longer period than normally possible. So, if this professor is willing to supervise you during that time, don't be concerned that you're infringing on her holiday.

I agree with the comment of @astronat. I can‘t give any clear advice on what you shold do, however, it won‘t be to your disadvantage to work with the same professor you worked with for a longer period of time now. Especially when searching for a thesis advisor, it is good to know what you are getting into (in my opinion).

There is hardly any basis here for a distinction. Both are good. Both are willing to work with you. Both will provide a valuable experience.
You could just "flip a coin", actually, and reach a good outcome.
But once you decide, make a firm commitment and stick with it. Don't break contact with the other prof, however. Both can be valuable as letter writers.
Having worked, closely with more than one prof is probably more advantageous than working with only one, but it is, I think, a marginal effect.

I think you should decide between these (both good) options on the merits of the experience - the technical aspects and the mentoring possibilities. The fact that you have worked with one of the professors (a plus) but that she will be on sabbatical leave (perhaps a disadvantage) may be one factor in your decision.
I don't think you need consider any possible small effect on your eventual grad school application.


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Professor won't let me see final exam grade
I emailed a professor asking for my final exam grade (just the number). Nothing else in the email, tried to keep the inquiry as short as possible. The professor refused.
Is there anything I can do about this, or are professors able to withhold grades at their discretion (other than the final course grade)?

Was the professor's response "No," or was it "No, not at this time"?

Have others already gotten the grade for the exam? If you are asking him/her to tell you your grade although others haven’t gotten theirs, it is completely understandable that he/she wants you to wait for the official results like everybody else.

It's possible that the teacher couldn't give you your grade because it wasn't ready yet.

The response was "No", and my (and everyone else's) course grades have already been assigned.

it might be that some regulation about privacy etc. does not allow e-mailing grades, have you checked that?

If you know your final course grade and all your other assignment grades you can work out your final exam grad given the relative weights for the course (which is presumably published/known).

@user2705196: In theory. But this blank foils the possibility of double-checking the final grade calculation for errors by the instructor. E.g.: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/150071/how-do-i-articulate-my-grade-dispute-in-a-letter-of-complaint-student-grievance/

@DanielR.Collins "blank foils"?

In most universities professors are encouraged to be transparent about grading, but whether they have to show you your grades is up to university/department policy.
If it’s important to you then seek recourse elsewhere: does your school have an ombudsperson or undergraduate academic support? If so - ask them to help mediate. It may also be helpful if you get other students on board: if you’re the only one complaining it’s less likely that you’ll be taken seriously.
In my department, for example, I have to tell students exactly how much they got in each assessment criterion (assignment/project/exam etc.). In addition, I must tell them (in the syllabus, before the course starts) what the numerical to letter grade conversions are (so what grade qualifies you for an A+/A/A- etc.). But this is by no means the norm in other universities to my knowledge.

Ok, thank you. I will take a look at the policy.

One should probably add that in some places such a decision is not up to the university/department, but is regulated by law (or by
legal precedent from earlier court ruling). So depending on the OP's location, it might also be worth checking whether it is actually legal to withhold grades from a student.

Usually grades are published on a specific location (either physical or digital). It is not a duty of the professor to communicate grades to you personally (not in the majority of western countries, at least).
The duties of the professor or whoever is responsible for the exam/course are usually limited (for good reason) to make grades accessible to the people attending the exam/course (it does not mean public).
Some Western countries have even a stricter policy regarding communications between professor and students, preventing to exchange this kind of information in written or via remote means. You may be based in one of these countries.

In the UK, most grades that count towards the final degree grade are preliminary until they have been certified by both the external examiners and the departmental exam board, which generally takes place at the end of the semester. Marks for indevidual piece of work are subject to changes due to moderation by the internal moderator, grade boundaries can change on the recommendation of the external examiner, or the exam board or examiner could (in theory) refuse to certify marks they didn't think were arrived at correctly.
Thus it is normal not to give marks to students until they are official.

Email can be used as a formal means to communicate, especially with time stamps. Email is however not unilaterally considered a respected forum to share course grades.
In the US, this lesson hinges tangentially if not primarily on guidelines from FERPA.  In a nutshell, an instructor cannot share FERPA-level information such as course grades when he/she has no certifiable permission from the student to do so. This guideline is interpreted as limiting if not restricting entirely the use of email and even phone calls to give out course grades, sometimes even with a release from the student to waive FERPA restrictions.
When a FERPA-based policy is in place at an institution and when that prohibits a US instructor from sharing grades via email or the phone, the policy holds regardless of whether any policies exist that require instructors to share grades with a student. The latter question is addressed here. In the US, the general practice is that instructors should not/cannot prohibit students from valid requests to review their own graded submissions. Indeed, in the US, FERPA gives students the right to inspect and review their course records. Instructors may be allowed to set the manner of the review. By example, a university policy may be in place that allows instructors to hold the final exam for one year before releasing it back to the student. But the student should still be able to request a chance to review the final exam. The instructor may also be at liberty to prohibit such things as pen/paper or camera devices during the review.
Also, a FERPA-based institutional policy that prohibits instructors from sharing grades with students by email and an institutional or departmental policy stating that email is the only sanctioned method to correspond with students are not mutually exclusive. An instructor can be required to correspond with a student about official class policies only by institutional email (e.g. not by the university learning management system or by private email), but the instructor can also be cautioned about if not restricted from corresponding via any form of email with any student about the details of their performance in the course.
Policies with restrictions based on FERPA may not be in place at your institution, perhaps especially if your request originates somewhere other than from a university in the US.
In summary, you may need to determine whether instructors are or are not permitted to share grades via email. Ask at your university offices of academic affairs (starting perhaps through the offices of academic affair or the Provost for institutions in the US). You may also need determine whether your institution has a policy on how to request to review graded work (e.g. you may be required to file a written petition). Ask through the instructor or the departmental offices.
With all this said and done, and allowing for grace for the bluntness of the instructor, you might simply try asking the instructor for ...

Clarification on the policies to review your final exam and grades.

An office visit to review the final exam in person.

A video meeting where you present your university picture id to review your final exam "in person".

An email from a university email is certainly formal communication, at least in the universities I worked for. If I send students important course information via email, it is considered to be delivered formally. In fact, a lot of formal matters are better discussed over email since it is official written communication with a time stamp. This is especially true during COVID, when in-person meetings are not an option.

At Berkeley we were expressly forbidden from emailing about student grades because it was often parents using their kids email to get their grades.

@Spark -- I have said nothing that indicates that email is not formal. I will clarify however explicitly.

I've seen interpretations like this, but I think they're silly. Admittedly if your institution or department lays down this policy, then you should follow it. My department allows communication by school email (and only that channel). The given answer is incorrectly framed as a general rule.

@DanielR.Collins http://psych.fullerton.edu/mbirnbaum/psych101/grades_by_email.htm and https://registrar.vanderbilt.edu/ferpa/ferpa-for-faculty.php ... As I've noted, I speak not for institutions outside the US.

@JeffreyJWeimer: If your thought is that refutes my comment: it doesn't. As noted, those are interpretations (and unconvincing ones) given by individual institutions, and not generally applicable. My department, with a different policy, is also in the U.S.

@DanielR.Collins So, your institution allows you to send FERPA-level information via email or phone? Granting such permission at an institutional level would be rather blunt news to me. Would you do  me the respect to ask your Provost directly whether instructors at your institution have unlimited permission to use email and the phone to report FERPA-level information (student grades) and report back. I'll stand corrected and report that at least one convincing exception exists in the US.

LOL, no, I'm not going to bother the college Provost because you want an online argument. And I didn't say "phone". Read more carefully.

@DanielR.Collins I have edited to remove the generalizations. Email can be sanctioned at an institution as the only form of valid communication between an instructor and student yet FERPA-type guidelines can still be held to prohibit instructors from sharing grades with students via email. The two statements are not mutually exclusive.

It's true that FERPA compliance at some schools prohibits sharing grades over email, but it seems to me that if that were the reason in this particular case the professor would have said so.

@ElizabethHenning Is this not guessing without fuller context? Alternatively, consider "Can I have my final exam grade"? "No" as a natural flow of the brevity initiated by the OP.


text:
Notations for integer in thesis
I am creating a list of notations for my thesis and I have difficulties trying to avoid overlapping notations. The main problem comes from indexes notations, for example:

e_{i}, e_{j} with i,j = 1,2,3 when j is already the current density
d_{lambda,mu} where lambda is already the wavelength

Can I leave these overlaps or not? Would there be a way to mark them as integers without over-complicatiing the notations? Should I include these integers in the table of notations?
EDIT
The document Quantities, Units and Symbols in Physical Chemistry from the IUPAC seems to write the notations with the indexes included without  describing the indexes themselves (see page 57, resistivity and conductivity tensors).

Have you looked at some standard advanced level physics texts to see how this is handled?

I just looked several physics texts and most of them do not have a table of notations. One of them lists "Symbols with the same meaning in all chapters (unless the text makes clear an alternative meaning)" but there are no indexes in the list.

If you use LaTeX, you should use macros which will permit you to play around with index notation. In physics, you can distinguish a j as index from a j as vectorial quantity by boldfacing or choosing some other font.

@CaptainEmacs The bolfacing for vectors is already done. I started with more than 250 notations, that is where the overlaps come from... The main question is whether or not indexes are a notation of their own.

Unfortunately, not in physics. In math, every theorem/example/definition have their own "variable declaration", not so in physics. You can add an explanation that indices are treated separately - but there is a reason why Misner et al.'s famous Gravitation book uses a larger number (7?) of fonts.

do not have a table of notations --- That's not what I meant. I meant look in, for example, electromagnetic theory books (especially engineering oriented, which tend to be more symbol intensive), to see how they deal with this. For example, discrete analyses (e.g. discrete Fourier transforms) involving charge distributions, where the current symbol and multiple summations might appear. By the way k, m, l, and n are common natural number index symbols.

It is okay to reuse or “recycle” symbols - I sometimes joke that this is actually good practice since it is “environmentally friendly” and saves mental overhead. However, you must make sure that you do not use the same symbol to denote two different quantities within the same proof or calculation. That is a mistake and invites potential confusion or misunderstanding, even if in some cases the reader can perform disambiguation of the symbol based on context and figure out the correct interpretation.
A way to think about this is that each notation has a scope: it is created, used, and then discarded, often within the space of a single proof or even a couple of paragraphs. Some notations are local and live for a short time; others are global and retain the same meaning throughout the paper or thesis. Overlapping notations are fine if the scopes of the notations do not overlap. This is analogous to the use of variable names in a computer program. (Or to use a physics metaphor, notations can overlap in alphabet space, but not in spacetime - their world lines should not intersect...)
Finally, a list of notations should only contain notations that exist for a significant length of time (say for a whole chapter of the thesis), not “temporary” or ad hoc notations that are used in a short argument. That’s what matters, not whether the quantity represented by the notation is integer-valued. The main consideration is whether the notation is used long enough that a reader might encounter it far from where it is defined and have difficulty figuring out its definition.
It is also a good idea for the notation table to include columns to specify the page number where each notation is defined and which chapters or sections it is used for, to make lookup easier.

+1 for overall good advice, and the last paragraph especially. Although I do not like recycled notations in physics books, sometimes it's the best compromise between writer's and reader's efforts.

In physics and engineering it's generally better to avoid reusing symbols as much as possible, to avoid confusion and reduce the reading burden. It's true, though, that sometimes that is unavoidable for lack of symbols.

@CaptainEmacs thanks, but to clarify, this isn’t about a compromise between the writer’s and reader’s effort. This is about not distracting readers with weird symbols like \Xi to denote a coordinate index just because of some stubborn insistence that i or j can only be used once throughout the thesis. It’s common sense that symbols can be recycled (except for important ones you want to keep with a fixed meaning throughout the document) at benefit to the reader and no extra effort to the writer.


text:
No Systems Course CS Master's
I majored in math and minored in CS. My grades are excellent and I have coursework in all the core areas of CS except for Computer Systems/Computer Organization/Computer Architecture.
Is this going to really hurt me in admissions to (self-funded, US-based, terminal, thesis-based) MS CS programs?

Unless you plan on focusing in systems, it shouldn't really be too much of an issue.  Especially since you are doing a self-funded MS, though I would contact the programs you are applying to just to be sure.
In some (if not all) cases, CS departments have an option for graduate students to take undergraduate courses if they are missing the background courses in certain areas (my department does this at least).  If your programs require systems courses, check to see if this is an option.

If you do really have everything else, then I doubt that it would have much effect for most MS programs. There are probably exceptions, but, generally, admission to a MS program doesn't imply the need for a BS in the same field.
But only by applying (or otherwise asking a university) can you be sure. You may need to take a systems course as part of your MS, though. With a math degree, I doubt you'd have much trouble with it.


text:
Citation style that writes X-Y if citations are inserted in row
I typically use reference managers to handle my citations automatically and insert them in text in the IEEE style:
    This is a statement backed by research [1], [2], [3].

However, in the case where citations are first mentioned in a text and inserted in a row, articles typically show them as something similar to:
    This is another statement backed by research [1-3].

I have recently started using Mendeley as a citation manager, and wanted to see if there was a style I could install that would organize my citations using numbers (as in IEEE/Nature styles) but additionally automatically "join" my citations, as in the second example. If there isn't one, I would have to edit my documents manually to show the citations like this (something I wanted to avoid, since it makes reference managing a lot harder).
Does anyone know if it exists or if it is possible to automatize this in the program settings of any reference manager?

To the best of my knowledge, Mendeley uses styles written in Citation Style Language (CSL) unlike, for example, EndNote which uses a proprietary method. Because Mendeley uses CSL, you will be able to search Citation Styles for the citation style that you want. They have lots of IEEE styles.
That said, I think you have made an error. This document from the IEEE (see page 3) appears to contradict your statement that
This is a statement backed by research [1-3]
would be an appropriate way of referencing sequential references [1], [2], and [3]. Instead, the IEEE document indicates that the correct approach would be to write
This is a statement backed by research [1]-[3]
(with an en-dash between the two bracketed numbers.
In any case, you should be able to find the style you need on the Citation Styles site. Moreover, having found the style that you need, you will see that there is a clickable button labelled "install" which (when clicked!) gives instructions appropriate for Mendeley.

I much prefer the first option frankly, but what the journal wants is what they should get...

Thank you for this answer! The statement I presented was just to be meant as an example of what I wanted the style to be able to do (sequenced numbered citations), I now have clarified that in my question. The link you provided did have updated versions of different citation styles. I tried the ACS model which places the sequence inside regular brackets: (1), and it automatized the in line sequence citation of my document.

@JonCuster The IEEE uses the [1-3] arrangement to indicate page numbers (!), so one might have [4, 1-3]. It seems like a system with very low symbol redundancy to distinguish elements. Unlike the APA format, where one has Smith, J. (1977). My paper ... with a right parenthesis and a mandatory full stop to terminate the year.


text:
Is it weird that a journal spend two weeks to evaluate for suitability of the manuscript before assigning it to the editor?
Usually when I send a manuscript to a journal, in about 1 or 2 days, the status changes to "with editor" and after a maximum of 3 weeks the status changes to "with referee". This is the first time that a journal already spent two weeks until now to evaluate the paper for suitability before assigning it to the editor. Is it normal and what is the maximum logical time for me to wait?
p.s., my field is physics and the quartile for this journal is Q1 (IF: 3-4).

I don't see anything weird. Too many possible explanations to list. Relax.

The automated system is there for the editors, and I wouldn't put too much stock in what it's saying. For example, I've gotten requests to referee from editors who simply emailed me rather than using the automated system. You don't have a reliable way to know what's going on behind the scenes at the moment, and I second Buffy's advice not to worry about it.

In some academic calendars, was this the pause between terms?

I find nothing odd that assigning the handling editor takes a few extra weeks for some papers.
Finding the correct editor to handle a paper can be harder in some case than others.  It is better that the journal takes time to get that assignment right.  I had a paper go out to referees and then months after submission it was given to a different editor who again sent it to referees.  Sometimes it takes a while to find the right editor who could find the appropriate referees.  By the way, this case involved a physics journal.
Also, maybe an editor got covid or just melted down from too much working from home.  We live in interesting times.

For your question, it can be inferred that your paper was submitted to one of the research journals published by the American Physical Society (most likely one of the Physical Review journals).  So what I am going to say here will be, in part, based on my specific knowledge of the APS journals.  However, most of this answer could be applied to a much more general situation.
In short, this is perfectly normal.  Most of the time, manuscripts move through the early stages of the submission process more quickly; however, there is nothing especially unusual about it taking a few weeks longer for the status of the paper to change.  A modest delay is nothing to worry about and can occur for totally innocuous reasons.  For example, I have had first-hand experience with submissions to APS journals that appeared to be briefly held up for all the following reasons:

There was discussion among the editorial staff of whether the manuscript was more appropriate for a different Physical Review journal.
The editors were having unexpected problems getting one of the figures to appear correctly.
One of the editors was out sick for a week.
Someone at the editorial office forgot to change the manuscript's status in their system.

If I were you, I would not be worried at this point at all.


text:
I have written my affiliation in the incorrect format. Will the journal correct it after the paper is published or published online?
Unfortunately, I made a mistake in writing my academic affiliation (the format of my affiliation is incorrect: instead of University of X, I wrote X University), which makes my paper not to be accepted by the university. One of the papers with this incorrect format is published about 2 weeks ago and on of them has been published online. Will the journal correct it after the paper is published or published online if I send an email about this issue?
p.s., Unfortunately in my country (English is not the first language), the university does not accept my paper and I may lose my job. This wrong affiliation means I will lose almost 2 years of my attempt.

First, inform the editor(s) about the situation and about the importance of the problem.  Your "p.s." changes the picture greatly, so don't wait for the editor to think the error is minor.  Second, if the affiliations cannot be corrected and if your university administration can't be persuaded to be reasonable, then you may need the help of a lawyer.

@AndreasBlass Sure, I'll let them know about the importance of the issue. I desperately hope they will accept to change it.

The journal isn't going to know about it and publish it exactly as you wrote it. If you want it fixed, you will need to tell them about it.
At the same time, the right approach is to just not worry about it. It is clear to everyone that "University of X" and "X University" are the same, in particular for universities in countries in which English is not the first language. In that case, the actual name of the university has to be translated anyway, and "University of X" and "X University" are both correct translations.
In other words, just let it be. The stating the affiliation of authors is intended to allow others to contact you. Whether they address a letter to "Kheeyal, University of X" or "Kheeyal, X University" doesn't matter: Both letters will find their way into your mailbox.

Thank you very much. But unfortunately in my country (English is not the first language), the university does not accept my paper and I may lose my job. This wrong affiliation means I will lose almost 2 years of my attempt.

Miami University is quite distinct from the University of Miami. The former is in Ohio and the latter in Florida.

@Kheeyal Well, that makes no sense at all. But if that's how it is, write to the editor-in-chief of the paper and explain the situation.

@WolfgangBangerth - I have seen something similar. You can not claim to be familiar with the laws of all countries in the world. Some of them are weird and cruel.

Same with Washington University and the University of Washington, in Missouri and Washington, respectively.

There's also apparently a University of / Rochester / University in New York and Michigan.

Fair enough. I still think that a letter that also includes the city/state/zip code is going to find its way, and as such the misspelled affiliation should not lead to misunderstandings. But I get the point. I still think it's petty for administrators to be unwilling to count such publications, and I'm going to insist on that latter point: It's petty.

In countries with rampant bureaucracy, sorting out one such incident is easily thousands of taxpayers' dollars and the university is right in demanding attribution done properly. Otherwise it is just passing the issue on to the next person: the university may lose a big chunk of financing or fined for fraud when a semi-automated system or a bunch of clerks find this mismatch. It is rare that someone would take this burden upon themselves instead of scolding researchers. Thankfully, editors are usually forthcoming with such issues.


text:
Should I upload my big C-language project to Github in hope of it helping me get a job in the future?
Recently I have finished my big project, which is basically PDP8 Computer simulation made in C.
I was thinking about uploading it to Github because I hope it may help me get a job in future after I show my big projects to the owner of a company I am trying to work for.
Considering I am at the first year of Computer Science and IT university, do you think I should upload these kinds of projects on Github?
Will it help me get a job in case I want to show my past work to the boss hiring me?

This really isn't a question for Academia since your goals are job related. But there is no real rush to decide this, given you are in the first year. Your profile says you are "awful at coding". If true, think again about this.

This site is for people working in academia. You seem to be concerned about getting a job in industry ("the owner of a company"), which would make this question inappropriate for this site.

@Buffy Eh i am just exaggerating in biography.

I thought that might be the case. Good luck in the future.

If it's solid work, you're proud of it, and you don't mind sharing it with the world, then sure!  Having examples of past code to point at is always helpful, especially when you're very early in your career and have little else to distinguish yourself with.  It's even better if you think that someone else might find use in the thing.
That is... assuming that it's a personal project, or otherwise somehow unique to you.  If the "big project" you're referring to is effectively homework for a class, and everyone else in class is also producing a PDP8 Computer simulation in C, then it's a lot less interesting.
Additionally, it's probably a good idea to keep adding projects to your account as you go.  Being able to show progression to your potential employers when you go for your interview is great.  Having the only example of your code be the thing that you bodged together as a freshman is not so great.
...and for the next project, you could even start out with the thing on github, and use it as the source control tool it's meant to be.  There's a number of kids out there your age who don't really understand about source control, and having a low-key way of indicating that you're not one of those, without making a thing about it is all upside and no downside.

Thank you for the given opinion, means a lot!

Hmmm, there are a lot of people of any age that don't understand source control.

It can basically never hurt you by making your code public on github.
The thing is most repositories are never used. If you want your code to get attention you need to write papers about it and give talks about your code. There are literally hundreds of millions of repositories, and a search of any keyword will give thousands of results. Typically, for any well known problem/use case, there are already several prominent repositories, in addition to the many hundreds of repositories that receive essentially 0 attention.
If you want your code to stand out, it needs to do something that none of the existing repositories can do. This is a nontrivial task. Probably the easiest example of something that would "stand out" would be to implement a method in a well known paper, when there are currently no public implementations of that paper's method.
So in short: it won't hurt you to post your code, but it also probably won't help you unless your code can do something notable and unique.

If you advertise in your resume having a few repos at GitHub I can assure you someone on a hiring team will have a very critical look. I'd be sure it's good quality stuff, done well, and shows a bit of maturity. One hears people  refer to "grad student code"; it's not a compliment and doesn't seem to help ones case. Applicants can be plenty and the competition cutthroat.

@Taw Thanks for the opinion, means a lot!


text:
Is there a flaw in the Elsevier green OA license?
I'm checking the Elsevier article sharing policies and I think there is a problem with their license of the accepted manuscript (post-review article). Indeed, the instructions say:

Authors can share their accepted manuscript:
Immediately

via their non-commercial personal homepage or blog

However,

After the embargo period

via non-commercial hosting platforms such as their institutional repository

I don't understand the reason of this limitation, but ok, these are the rules.
However, Elsevier requires you to add the CC-BY-NC-ND license notice into the accepted manuscript. But, here's the flaw: if I can distribute the article on my website with CC-BY-NC-ND license, this means that anyone can re-share the article without limitations (excluding commercial intent), so anyone can upload it to any non-commercial repository. This, in turns, means that I can then upload it to my university repository without embargo.
Isn't this an obvious flaw of the Elsevier's policies?

Interestingly, someone seems to have published a paper arguing this a number of years ago. IANAL so cannot answer in detail about whether Elsevier can place a separate condition on the author that doesn't apply to others, or sanction the author for doing something notionally within the terms of the CC license. However, I would say that I'm not sure anyone cares that much - I've seen plenty of people post copies of papers inside embargo periods on various sites without consequence, so I think this rule is more to discourage systematic abuse (YMMV).

I don't think that Elsevier can put additional conditions to authors because the CC license says "No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits."

Just to emphasize IANAL again, but my reading of the license is that 'you' refers to the recipient of the license, not the licencor. Under a normal submission copyright would transfer to Elsevier and they would then become the licencor, so they could e.g. in principle request you comply with a condition before releasing it in that format. I'm not sure what their recourse is if you don't - they may not be able to sue you for copyright infringement, but I don't see anything in the license that would, for example, stop them blacklisting you for future submissions if you didn't comply.

Good question: I had also noticed this and wondered. My suspicion is that Elsevier does not really care about the specifics, so long as sharing author-accepted versions at scale is sufficiently inconvenient that universities continue to pay high subscription fees to access the publisher versions. (If you want a publisher who works to make your research available instead of trying it to make it harder to access, I would not recommend working with Elsevier.)

@StephenMcMahon: You may want to post an answer referring to (and summarising) this article.

The sharing policy also allows updating e.g. the arXiv version to the accepted version, so I wonder what the rationale is for demanding an embargo for institutional repositories? In many cases there is hardly any difference, and people are more likely to find the paper on arXiv anyway.

@a3nm I agree. What I suspect is that they don't want it to hit PubMed Central until after the embargo period, which is easier to search and access than individual webpages.


text:
Dilemma when my supervisor isn't necessarily a mathematician
I am a mathematics master's student. I intentionally decided to chose a thesis supervised by a PhD student with a non-mathematical, but pretty quantitative background, as the project is very interesting to me. The project involves a field A, a field that is very widely used/developped by engineers, mathematicians, physicists, computer scientists, etc.
I am currently trying to get up to speed in field A. Naturally I'm trying to study it in the "correct mathematically" way. However what I expected mathematically isn't reflected when I do simple experiments on a software implementation of field A. To me these inconsistencies perhaps show a lack of understanding of field A by me, and I probably shouldn't try to interpret the available data by using theories of field A yet.
I brought this up to my supervisor, and we "cleared up" the inconsistencies: he answered why the theory isn't holding up in the software. However I could also tell that these are pseudo-explanations a mathematician would give to non-mathematicians. In this case a mathematician told my supervisor so.
My dilemma is that what should I do now? If I try to explain these inconsistencies myself, it might take too much time, and I am already slightly behind schedule. Furthermore, my supervisor is clearly a very sharp person, he and his own supervisor published several important papers in their field. If they could work with partial understanding, I suppose I could to. After-all, this field A isn't necessarily what I was "contracted" for in the thesis.
Question: What should I do when a supervisor with non-mathematical background encourages me to hand-waive the math a bit (with good reason) whilst I have doubts about the hand-waiving.
As a side note it might take too much time to clear up the inconsistencies myself because I couldn't find a source that is mathematically-rigorous enough for every subtopic I need. I have to assemble bits and pieces from multiple notes & books and I'm struggling to maintain a coherent notes for myself. What I have is composed of small little detours explaning small peculiarities.

Would you describe your own field as pure math or applied? And I don't see a real question here. To avoid closure you should probably edit it to provide one.

@Buffy My studies are mostly the theoretical aspects of applied math subjects. The thesis topic requires applied math techniques, but isn't in mathematics itself. Even considering it under computer science is a stretch I would say. I will make the question more explicit.

This may depend on what exactly you think are "inconsistencies". This may rather be a topic for another site like Mathematics Stack Exchange or maybe CrossValidated if Statistics is involved. Just one blind guess: There may be theory regarding a global optimum of some function but any existing algorithm can only deliver a local one. Sometimes there is no theory for the local one delivered by the algorithm but one would use that anyway as nothing better is available. This kind of "inconsistency" cannot (currently) be removed, although one can try to improve matters in "future work".

For pure math this would be an insupportable situation IMO. For applied math, the structure can be made to work if done with care.
However, and this is key (writing as a pure mathematician), hand waving is fine for simplified explanations of things that are known to be true with complete proofs available elsewhere, but not stated. Hand waving for things poorly understood or not yet proven is, again, insupportable. Things in math aren't "sort of" true. Inconsistencies need to be resolved.
If the validity of the thesis depends on some math, then you need to know that the math holds up. If the presentation of the thesis depends on only generally following the mathematical arguments then a bit of hand waving, probably with references to complete treatments, is possible and will probably be appreciated by readers.
But if your "supervisor" is sloppy about the math, take care (i.e. TAKE CARE). You need to know that what you say is valid even if you give "popularized" explanations.

I'd worry less about crossing fields. Math and CS have interesting intersections. Note also that if you are relying on statistics (rather than math) that things can, in fact, be "sort of" true; true in general but not necessarily in a particular case.


text:
ATCing with a project that both my advisor and I don't think will become a thesis project
I've found myself in a precarious situation. For various circumstantial reasons (which I can elaborate on if curious), I was only able to start working with an advisor in my 3rd year of grad school. In my field of research, I have to teach each quarter to get paid. Unfortunately, my school has a policy about the number of times I can teach before I advance to candidacy (ATC), and I have reached the maximum number. No one warned me of this until it was too late.
So basically I am now forced to ATC before the Fall, and if I fail I will not be able to get paid. What is worse is the project my advisor started me off with is not the best. I can most likely write a nice paper out of it, but after the paper, both my advisor and I agree that there aren't very many further questions to be answered. Not a very good project for a thesis.
I'm hoping for some words of wisdom or advice that might calm my nerves about ATCing when I know this project wont be my thesis. Any thoughts?
Edit: In case this is not standard terminology, advancing to candidacy (ATC) is an exam I have to take in which I demonstrate to three or four faculty that I am working towards a thesis. I am supposed to present the work I have done in front of them, and at the end they decide whether that work can lead to a thesis.

Air Traffic Control?

Haha, I assumed that was a common acronym. ATC=Advance To Candidacy. Is that something I should clarify?

Unfortunately, it seems like a lot of local regulations specific to your university (or even your department) are in play here, and it will be impossible for someone outside your university to give a reasonable answer.

It does indeed seem to depend crucially on specific regulations or customs. It might well be possible to "ATC" on a specific project, and explore different directions later, but we can't know if that's the case or not. You should probably discuss it with your advisor.

@fewfew4 While the step is common, I haven't ever heard it by that acronym. We called it "prelims" for preliminary exams. The content, timing, and importance of that step varies a lot.


text:
Leaving a Math PhD program in India to join another in the US or Europe
I am currently a second year masters student in Math in India and I wish to go to the US or Europe for pursuing my PhD.
But due to a low GPA in my first year, I plan to apply next year after completing my masters with a decent aggregate GPA. This would also aid my application because I will have taken more advanced courses related to my research interest. Moreover, I need to save some money for an year so that I can pay the hefty TOEFL and GRE fees, not to mention the insane application fee per university.
Now since the grad school admission process is quite erratic (so have I heard), I also wish to join some grad school here in India just after my masters. That means I plan to be in the coursework phase of my PhD in India while applying for a PhD abroad.
Simple, straight query : Would it negatively affect my application?
Any advice/suggestion shall be highly appreciated.

How would the American school know you are already registered for a PhD in India, if you don't tell them?

I can share my personal experience and observation. I know PhD students (from India) who have quit to move abroad (US) to pursue a PhD. I had a classmate who pursued a PhD in his late 50s and successfully completed. Each application is different. My personal belief is: No, it would not affect your admission.
I took a Toefl, GRE and GRE physics (there is also gre math, please check with the department) 8 years ago and it was very expensive (since you mentioned costs). Like you pointed out, you need to account for the US admission fees. I can understand your concern. That said, most Universities outside of the US/Canada do not ask for GRE or GRE Math, they may ask for IELTS or TOEFL, if you go to an anglophone country. I don’t think they have an admission fee either. You could apply to those European institutions. US scholarships are offered for one year. You need it renewed every year, depending on the department's funding opportunities. I got paid as a TA, a fellowship for a summer, then as RA for the rest of the PhD. However, I have seen friends who had to teach for the rest of their PhD. I have never seen anyone pursue a PhD without funding. It sounds odd to me.
I have always thought that the GPA is not the ultimate reason for rejection. I’m nobody to judge your score, I’d probably score worse in math. It’s an accomplishment to get into a top school in India, it takes a lot of effort. What you need is a solid letter of recommendation, a well written statement of purpose (and good gre scores for US) and an attractive CV along with your GPA. Like you said, you can mention the advanced courses in your statement and maybe have a Professor comment on the courses you took in their letter of recommendation. A publication never hurts your admission and is an easy path but having zero published research is not a reason for rejection at this stage of career. Think of it as an application package. If you have an “unreasonable” score, you can explain it in your statement. If nothing works, you can always purse a PhD in India and then plan for the future.

Since you are mentioning your difficulties to pay for GRE and TOEFL, I am wondering whether you will need a full scholarship in order to study in the US. Depending on the branch of Mathematics you are aspiring to, support can be hard to get and competitive. If your first year GPA is disappointing, and your GRE scores are not outstanding, you might be better off planing to study in India for your Ph.D.
If I were on the graduate admissions committee in the US, I would not care about you being currently enrolled in a Ph.D. program in India, but not every-one might have the same opinion. It could be seen as using up a rare resource.
The most important quality that admissions committees are looking for is the capability to do independent research. Publishing a paper is tough, but the best way to get into a good program.

I don't know if it's disappointing. It's 68%. But our courses are like grad level courses in the US (I have compared the coursework). I am in a top school of India but I am definitely not the top 10%. For reference, by the end of second year, I will have done graduate level courses in Modular Forms, Harmonic Analysis and Algebraic Number Theory. But yes, I will need a 100% scholarship to pursue my PhD abroad.


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Can I ask a professor from another institution about getting involved in their research (undergrad CS)?
I am going to be a senior next year and was hoping to get involved with research for my capstone. The professor I was planning on asking to advise me had been one of my favorite professors and seemed to have really interesting papers based on my readings of his work.
However, he will be moving schools this fall. He will be going to a school that I was hoping to apply to for grad school. We didn't build much of relationship from the class I had been in, would it be weird to reach out to him to see if I could possibly get involved in his work? Is it even really possibly to do work for a professor remotely like that at another school? I am not asking how I should correspond with the professor, I am more asking if that is an ok to get involved with research.

"Is it even really possibly to do work for a professor remotely like that at another school?", Yes, it is possible!

In my opinion it's okay to ask, but you should expect the answer might be no. You might have more luck if you find an official mentor at your own school; possibly, this professor might be reluctant to take on any formal responsibilities at your school but happy to talk science. Good luck.

Whether you can do research with a professor at another school depends on (among other things) your field. In mathematics, it's entirely possible; I've supervised research projects of students at other schools (or at my school while I was away). In a lab science, it seems impossible.


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Transferring PhD from Germany to US?
Background info:
I am a PhD student in Germany who is rather frustrated with his research progress. I am almost 3 years into my PhD now. My field is Theoretical Computer Science. I started working in subfield A, which is my current advisor's specialty, but gradually became more and more passionate about subfield B. Subfield B is a much more "hot" and theoretically demanding topic than A, but unfortunately there is no-one in my department who works in it (so changing advisors is not an option).
My dream is to be a researcher in subfield B. I have tried to find connections between A and B and have managed to "squeeze out" a publication that was accepted at a mid-tier conference, but I feel I am just terribly handicapped. Neither my advisor nor me have any connections in subfield B. I feel I could get to grips with the current state-of-the-art and make some contributions had I more time to do so, but my contract (as a research assistant) is only being extended for another year maximum. I get the feeling I am essentially being told to "get the thesis done and get out".
I have no real intention on further working in subfield A, so I am thinking of just throwing everything out the window and starting my PhD from scratch at a different institution. It appears almost all renowned researchers working in subfield B are in the US (with perhaps a couple exceptions in the UK), so I thought about enrolling into a PhD program there. I have a comfortable financial situation, so personally I would only really have "wasted" 3 years of my life here (but acquiring some useful experience nonetheless).

Question:
How likely is it for me to be admitted to a PhD program in the US compared to I never having started my current PhD in the first place? Am I at a serious disadvantage (as, e.g., questions like this seem to imply)?
Since I studied in Germany too, I have a master's degree from there. So far, I have 4 publications in total, two of them being from my master's and bachelor's theses (one publication each). I am the single author of 3 of them, the other (about my bachelor's thesis) has my advisor as co-author. My grades are fairly good.
My fear is that my application might be frowned upon (e.g., "Why doesn't this guy just finish his PhD where he's at?") or possible advisors might be highly skeptical of me due to me "almost having a PhD" (even though I'd be willing to start from scratch).

I am in no position to give advice in regards to your question. However I am intrigued by your story and I am wondering what subfield A is and what subfield B. This might also be informative to anyone trying to help you out

@BranBar I suppose I can say that subfield B is within complexity theory. I am afraid disclosing A would give away my identity though (since I am possibly the only person working in the intersection of the two). Let's just say it is a rather offbeat field and very Europe-centric.

Get your PhD done asap and look for postdocs in field B. The PhD to postdoc transition is a great time to switch fields. Also, after three years of PhD it's quite normal to be frustrated with your research :) everyone goes through it and it's a sign that you're nearing the finish line!

Don't enter field B just because it is "hot" as measured by number of publications / reports in the news than your current field A. It may be a disadvantage for you if it is so popular that seemingly everybody in your community aims to implement it in his / her research because it is just en vogue; e.g., keeping up with the literature (while performing your research) and visibility of your work (it may feel like standing on an overly crowded market / by chance of many researchers in the field, someone else may publish an idea very similar to yours you hadn't yet the manpower to complete.).

Are other European countries an option? Switching to a different university within Germany will be tricky due to the 6-years-before-PhD employment rule in academia (but technically doable in the scope of a third-party funded project). Switching to the US is tricky, as a PhD there involves coursework, so it actually needs a long time. But perhaps the UK is an option? They have this system with short PhD times which are very challenging to make, so some advisors may be grateful for incoming PhD students who are actually ready to make it in a short time span.

Finish your PhD and do a postdoc in the other field.

While some people might wonder about your motives and/or commitment, I think that most will believe you when you give reasons for the switch. So, there may be some small effect, but I doubt that it would be a true block.
However, changing might be the longest and riskiest path to your goal. Certainly it will cost you time, as you need to pass comprehensive exams in any new program unless (unlikely) they are waived. That takes time and maybe some courses for preparation. You would also be starting from "scratch" in a new research area and it will take time to manage the "deep dive" required.
It might be more efficient to just finish your current program and then work to get a position, maybe even in US, in which you have some freedom to set your own research agenda. This is pretty common in some fields, especially math. There is nothing in academia that ties you forever to the research you do to obtain the doctorate.
If you follow this path, look for positions in places that support your desired new field, with several faculty and (preferably) an continuing faculty seminar.
Think long term. You aren't locked in.


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A result preempted by XYZ in 2003
I was attending a conference recently where one of the presenters had put it in their  title slide, "this work is preempted by XYZ in 2003". What does this exactly mean? I didn't see this in any other presentation. Are they talking about some conflicts?

You might ask the presenter, actually, but I would read it as follows:
This work was done independently but repeats work that was actually done previously in 2003 by XYZ.
It is possible that no one noticed the early work, the paper was accepted by reviewers, but prior to the conference the authors learned of the earlier work and want to be completely honest about it. But they decided (along with the committee) that it was fine to do the presentation.
This sort of thing happens, though the review process tries to make it rare. But some works are fairly obscure.

I went ahead and emailed the authors. They are saying, the results were published with some other name(terminology) and they missed the literature. It also escaped the reviewers knowledge and it was figured out 1 week before the conference.


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Order of name and title in references of CV
Since the references in a CV includes a few names of people and their titles, I would like to put them in an alphabet order. Note that in my country, family names are always put first, for example: Prof. Nguyen Van An, then "Nguyen" is the family name. So can I put names in the following way:

Nguyen, Van An, Prof.
University of XYZ

Smith, John, Prof.
University of ABC

It seems maybe your question is about inverting the order within names and not others, such that the family name is first for all: writing John Smith as Smith, John, but Nguyen Van An as Nguyen Van An. Is this correct? It seems this is not quite the same as the title question about alphabetical order, as in your example these are not in alphabetical order.

Thanks, it is correct, I have just changed them in an alphabet order.

Prof Ngyyen Van An then Prof John Smith somewhat respects the order. I think that none of the involved people care as much as you, to be honest.

I would suggest either going for an international format as <Title/s> or as you mentioned is the format in your country <Title+first name+middle name> since it makes it easier to read.
You can find this post helpful which states that if there is a convention you need to follow then you can do that.


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Cold-emailing researcher from same country
I am a PhD student in the final year of my PhD who has been struggling with creating new connections in my field, especially due to the current Covid situation. Conferences are only taking place online and nobody of relevance really sticks around for longer than their own talks. Also, my advisor unfortunately does not have that many contacts in my field to begin with.
Recently, I found out there is another researcher in the same field as me, some years my senior, and who comes from the same country as me (Brazil). As it so happens, we are I suppose the only two people from there who currently work on this field (but I am sure he is not aware of my "existence" just yet).
Since I also find his research interesting, I thought about cold-emailing him with some form of collaboration or even a postdoc in mind. There is already a myriad of advice on this site in that sense, of course; I was wondering how the common background may affect the best strategy to do so. Perhaps I could use it to make my email stand out from the rest? Still, my fear is that this might be seen as "lame" and that I might end up being perceived as only looking for "favors" on the basis of being from the same country as him.
Question: Can I somehow use the common background to my advantage? Or do I risk shooting myself in the foot by doing so? Or am I just overthinking all of this and the main focus should be on the research anyway (where the common background is nothing but a nice triviality)?

What is it exactly that you want to get out of contacting this person?

@henning Edited question a bit to reflect that.

What does your adviser say? Maybe your adviser could send a brief e-mail before, saying something like "I have this great student who's also in Brazil, working on blah blah and is very interested in your work. My student has been trying to reach out to more senior researchers. Would you be willing to chat with my student?"

I think if you use a common background to build rapport you're good to go. There's no guarantee it'll increase your chances of a response, but it might pique a little interest. I see no harm in it. I'd expect it might be more effective if you had come from a smaller country (or restricted region in a larger one), but in a narrow enough field it might be notable enough.
If you think of it as an expectation for assistance then you're on shakier ground, and the insinuation is even likely to offend someone. It seems you've already got this concern covered, though, so I think that will prevent you from saying anything too off-putting.
Cold emails are generally low-success ventures, but there are lots of advice Q&A on this stack about them. Be brief and direct, don't be overly persistent or upset if you don't get a response. The shared background can be added as a brief half-sentence to one-sentence note. You ask:

Or am I just overthinking all of this and the main focus should be on the research anyway (where the common background is nothing but a nice triviality)?

Yes, I think that's the best way to phrase it - the background is a nice triviality. But sometimes social and professional relationships can build from trivialities, especially shared experience. Have a focused research/science goal for your message, not just "Hi I am also from Brazil!" Think more specifically about what your goals are, like @henning asked in a comment. Even "collaboration or postdoc" may be too broad/vague.

Second paragraph, especially, is excellent.


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I submitted a paper over a year ago and have not heard back. What should I do?
I submitted a pure mathematics paper (my first paper!) to a journal in September 2020. It is now December 2021 and I have received zero reports. A few months ago I sent an enquiry. I got a response saying that I should hear back soon and that there is a very large backlog due to administrative issues. My thesis adviser told me that this is extremely unusual (I'm not sending it to the Annals). What is the correct protocol for how one should proceed?

I continuously find it baffling and unprofessional that review times of a year are considered acceptable in pure math. :-(

Is it just you that wrote it?  If you have a well-known or influential co-author on the paper, they can chase it up a bit more effectively than you can (I am assuming you are a student).

@Tom Yes, it was just me

@WolfgangBangerth I'm a pure mathematician and it took a paper of mine 7 months to just get a referee. This is rather unusual, I admit. Depending on the journal and the paper, a two-year wait might be considered in the normal range (esp for a long paper at a very fancy journal)

It is, unfortunately, not that unusual.

Your advisor is right:  Over a year is unusual.  It happened to me only once in 35 years.  (I am in mathematics, too.)  As long as the preprint is available, you could list it in your vita as "submitted 2020" or something.

At least have them verify that they received it.  Occasionally, there is a transmission error, whether postal or over the internet.

@DavidRoberts I know that it is not unusual. I nevertheless find it callous and disrespectful, primarily to the younger members of our community who rely on getting their papers turned around in a timely manner.

@WolfgangBangerth I agree it is not good to keep people waiting. This paper that took 7 months to find a referee went from arXiv to pre-published in about the time I did an entire (long) postdoc. Having it published in a reasonable time would I'm sure have helped in any job/grant applications, were I pursuing them.

A few months ago I sent an enquiry. I got a response saying that I should hear back soon and that there is a very large backlog of administrative issues.

You did hear back. You just did not get a review report.
What to do is a difficult question (see e.g. this question), but in your case there's an easy answer. Ask your thesis advisor and do whatever they say - they are after all much more experienced than you, know the contents of your paper, know the review process of your field, and know what tier of journals to aim for. If they're an author on the manuscript, you'll also need their approval to submit elsewhere, per standard protocol.

They have responded, and there is not much you can do to force their hand, especially if they have "a backlog of papers" to choose from. You likely have expedited your process by messaging them already. It could have been lost in the shuffle, assigned to reviewers who are tardy, or the reviewers could be hard to find for your sub-area.
If this paper is particularly important, you may be able to inform them of why. Editors have ways of expediting processes for those who need it. You could potentially skip the queue or get assigned fast and trustworthy reviewers. For example: "I am up for (tenure review)/(dissertation defense) on XYZ. Is it possible to get an estimate of about how long it will take for a response?"
If you are particularly in a rush, you can even threaten to withdraw the paper. Only do this if you really would do so and really do need a response soon. Some sample text might be: "This timing is extremely important to me, and I may need to withdraw if I cannot have a response by then."
However, this is your first paper - don't rush it. You want a response now, but don't need it. If this journal was your top pick, the best end destination for this article - do not withdraw because you are impatient. You have plenty of time to rush articles later. Start your career off right with the best publication(s) you can. The months it takes to get a response will be worth it.

I am not sure I agree. I submitted a paper when I was a postdoc, heard nothing, and kept quiet about it. Eventually I asked after a year or so, and they had forgotten about it. Later still, I got a single-paragraph rejection. The editor did apologise that it was so late. Unfortunately, my career had ended by then, since postdocs only have a finite duration and you usually need a publication record to get a second one.

That's a horribly unfortunate circumstance! The most important distinction is that this individual is still in contact with the publisher.  I've clarified to not withdraw out of impatience.