text:
How does ibid work in footnotes?
How does ibid work in footnotes?

Context

So I'm writing an essay, using footnotes for the first time. I was told that if I use the same source twice on the same page, then I should write "ibid", but this was not very clear. I was left with multiple questions (apologies if this ends up a duplicate, it seems like the type of question which might've already been asked but I can't find it):

Question

Where does the ibid go? In the superscript in text or on the footnote? In what combination?

How is it clear what the ibid is referring to? Say I have 4 footnotes, the fourth being an ibid, how is it clear whether the ibid refers to the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd footnote?

I've seen something about putting the page number of a journal - what about for websites, and videos? How does that work?

“Ibid” is short for the Latin “ibidem” meaning “in the same place.” It is used when referencing the same work as the immediately preceding reference and appears in the same place the reference usually would. For instance (assuming the below are a list of footnotes on the same page):

Isaac Newton, Principia Mathematica, p. 67. <— this should usually be a full reference, unless the full reference was already made in a previous footnote (which need not be in the same page)
ibid. <— same work, same page
ibid., p. 98 <— still refers to Principia
Gottfried Leibniz, Explication de l'Arithmétique Binaire, p. 4
ibid., p. 8 <— Now refers to the Leibniz text
Newton, op. cit., p. 83 <— another short hand; “op. cit.” is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase “opus citatum” meaning “the work cited” and like “ibid.” refers to the most recently referenced work, with the difference being it refers to the most recently mentioned work of the named author.

How this works with non-dead-tree media is highly dependent on the citation style you are using and probably not that well codified since “ibid” is fairly rare these days. But a decent approximation would be to replace the page number in the above examples with whatever you would use to locate the specific reference normally. For web pages, there might very well be nothing following the “ibid”. For video, you would generally include the time frame in the video referenced, e.g.:

Fight Club, 1:15:07-1:18:54
ibid. <— same film, same scene
ibid., 0:33:56-0:38:21 <— same film, different scene

And what if it is on a different page? Do I still use the same ibid or reference it again?

The first reference to a work on a page should be a normal reference. Footnote referencing styles usually have a long-form reference for the first time a work is cited and a short-form reference for subsequent references to the same work. The short form usually looks something like the examples I’ve given above.

I wonder if it would be helpful to list some of the common academic styles that do (or do not) use ibid., or at least mention that there are some, e.g. APA, that do not use it at all.

@shoover while that might be valuable, I think that would belong in the context of a different question as this one assumes you’re using footnotes and a style that encourages ibid.. Suffice to say, ibid. is increasingly discouraged except in certain disciplines.


text:
"Quarterly Franklin Membership" means?
Recently I received an email from London Journals Press.

Dear Dr. Po-Wei Huang,
...
Taking note of your research interest that matches with our journal scope, I would like to welcome you to associate with us. To follow this, our Editorial Board has agreed to recognise you under "Quarterly Franklin Membership" (Membership ID#XC11296).
...
Also I encourage you to have your upcoming research article/paper published in our international, peer-reviewed, refereed journal, London Journal of Engineering Research (LJER) and confirm your review slot before 15th of the coming month for the next issue. ...

At first, I ignored it. But after few days, he sent a follow up email like the following,

I’m writing this as a follow-up for my email which I sent few days ago. I think that you had a glimpse of our Franklin Membership email and our proposal for your membership ID #XC11296. I did not hear back from you since then. If you have any queries regarding the Quarterly Franklin Membership honored to you, I (or my support teammate) would be grateful to provide you with further information.
I hope you don't find this outreach uncomfortable. I was simply wondering if you are still interested in joining our member community. I truly feel that someone like you who is involved in many great research works is ideal for connecting.

I find that London Journals Press is not on the list of predatory journals. So, is there Any recommendation? or should I ask my advisor directly?

@Anyon, it looks like the site might have changed?

@Aruralreader Well, it's been four years. I suspect that particular site was discontinued, but archived versions of its list exist.

It's spam: They gave you a free membership to rope you in, in hopes that you will pay for more memberships and/or publish with their journals. Don't fall for it. Just because this particular publisher isn't listed in one particular list
does not mean that they are acting respectfully and ethically.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Would this be considered plagiarism?
I'm currently about to finish my BA thesis, and my topic is bullying. I have read several books, studies, and such that can be connected to my topic. I finished the literature review, but haven't touched it since. However, when I recently re-read it and looked at the sources, I have found that a lot of my sub-chapters in my lit. review are really similar to those in the literature. For instance, in the work I read, the author mentions the consequences of bullying and I also have a sub-chapter dedicated to this. Or for example, I have read about strain theory in another one of the studies that I have also included and wrote about in one of my sub-chapters. I did not include every single aspect of these particular studies, just specific parts that I found relevant in my study.
My question is the following: Is this considered plagiarism?

Plagiarism is taking the work or ideas of others and presenting it as your own. If you have a sub chapter on topic X and somebody else has a sub chapter on that too, that doesn't make it plagiarism. E.g every 2nd grade math text probably has one chapter on addition and one chapter on multiplication. That doesn't mean they are plagiarizing each other, it's just the natural way to split up the material. What would be plagiarism is if you got the idea to have a sub chapter on topic X from reference Y but you did not cite reference Y and you made it sound like you personally came up with the idea of a sub chapter on X on your own. As long as you've cited your sources properly you should be fine.

+1 I think anyone writing at length about bullying would have a section on the consequences of bullying. On the other hand, if someone organises information in a non-obvious and novel way, and you decide to make use of it, then you should cite it.

Perhaps it is, depending on how you present it. But you avoid plagiarism by citing the source of the information and making it clear to a reader that what you say is derived from some specific source.
It may be that all you need to do is to go through your document and add citations, say at the end of paragraphs. It seems like you have paraphrased things you found elsewhere. That can be fine, but you still need to be clear on the source.
If your thesis is more than just a summary of the existing knowledge, make sure that a reader can tell what is your own work and what is derived directly from others. And if it is a summary, make sure that that itself is clear.

You don't clean up paraphrases by pasting citations at the end of paragraphs. You need to make the BEGINNING and the END clear. "Smith says ..... [13, p. 42]. Smith continues to insist that ..... [13, p. 36]. On the other hand, Jones observes that .... [42, p. 13]" Just slapping some sort of reference on the end does not help. And please be kind to your reader and include the page number.

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


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Impact of PhD University Reputation on Professor Applications in India?
How important is the reputation of the university where I obtain my PhD when applying for postdoctoral positions and professorships in India? Specifically, how does the ranking and prestige of my PhD institution impact my chances of securing these roles?
I am aware of this question, but I am asking specifically about hiring for faculty positions in India. In particular, if I do my PhD abroad, it seems unlikely that Indian faculty will be familiar with the nuances of the foreign university rankings (outside of the top few departments). And the rankings generally may be more or less important than they are in the US.
My situation is that I might be doing my PhD at a lesser-known university. It seems like a wonderful environment and I am excited about it, but I do not want to doom my chances for a professorship.

Hi @ARa: I took a stab at rewriting your question. I understand the new version isn't exactly what you originally asked, but I think this version is an on-topic, interesting question. If you're OK with this version, let me know and I'll re-open the question. If you don't like this version, we can roll back my edit and let the re-opening process play out democratically (but I think it's unlikely to be reopened in that state).

@cag51 Thanks for the update! This version makes more sense, and is mainly what I want to know. Appreciate the help!

The reputation/ranking of the university where you do a PhD is quite important, especially for faculty/post-doc hirings in the IITs and NITs.
However this is not the only criteria. For eg - an application with PhD from a lesser-known university but a very good publication record would typically not be filtered out.
Initial filtering of applications is usually done by faculty in the same department, so they are expected to be somewhat familiar with top institutes/departments in your area of research.
In summary: If your PhD is from a world-famous institute, it will significantly improve the chances that your application isn't filtered out. If your PhD is from a lesser-known institute, you will need to have a strong publication record and good references.


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What can I do when some people stole my master thesis work and published it as their own work?
Google scholar suggested a paper for me to read, I opened it and boom it was my master thesis work. My work was based on  Arabic language but they claim their work is based on Telugu language. Even they did not bother to change the title. they just switched the Arabic to Telugu. Not only that, they even did not bother to change the experiment results numbers or the figures. They copy/pasted everything with small minor noticeable changes. I tried to contact the journal but I could not find any contact details for the editor. What should I do now?
Link to my master thesis:https://dspace.aus.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11073/7503/35.232-2014.09%20Soha%20Galalaldin%20Ahmed.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Link to the journal paper:http://www.j-asc.com/gallery/18-august-2018.pdf
Any guidance would be highly appreciated.
Update
I have contacted the journal's editor and as expected, no reply.
I have also contacted Google via the link provided by Stig Hemmer and they have thankfully removed the links to the papers from Google search results after asking me to identify the exact content that I claim infringe upon my copyright.
Update 2
When I contacted the journal editor, I have sent a carbon-copy to the papers' authors to let them know I am aware of their plagiarisms. Nobody replied until Google removed their papers from the search result and put the following statement instead.

In response to a complaint we received under the US Digital
  Millennium Copyright Act, we have removed 1 result(s) from this page.
  If you wish, you may read the DMCA complaint that caused the
  removal(s) at LumenDatabase.org.

Then, one author contacted me claiming that his student stole my work without his knowledge and that he would take the right measure to ensure pulling the two papers from the journal.
I hope this gives hope to anyone who has been a victim of plagiarism. You should not give up and you should stand up for your self and your work and God will assist you.
Thank you for all your comments, pieces of advice, and direction. I would not have been able to protect my right without the StackExchange community guidance.

I think in this case due to the journal that published their article, which fairly looks like predatory journals, it's better to contact authors and then if they did not give an answer for their actions, you could contact the office of research compliance of their university. Because your master thesis is online and if the journal was reputable their plagiarism checker tool should at least find a similarity between your master thesis and their article. If it is published without problem, it's the sign of predatory journal I believe.

Question: Was your thesis submitted, published, or available on the web before this paper?  IOW, do you have clear evidence that your work was done before their paper?

I would recommend taking out the links.  It's unlikely people reading will want to verify your story.  On the other hand the fact that you're linking to the "journal" in question may very well factor into some algorithm to augment its stature.

@AloneProgrammer Why contact the authors? They’ve already demonstrated that they act blatantly unethical. What possible interest would they have in resolving this issue?

@KonradRudolph Please take a look at the comment of this answer: https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/117844/98164

@DeanMacGregor If he doesn't want to give them page rank, he can link an archive.is or archive.org copy of the copy :)

@AloneProgrammer - Would you be able to post that comment as an answer? We tend to discourage posting full answers as comments, as comments can be ephemeral.

@DeanMacGregor - Most links are "nofollow", which makes your concern not too concerning.

You can at least set a Google alert on your keywords (sentiment mining of (Arabic) Twitter data) in whichever languages of your choice, and monitor it to make sure the plagiarized copies don't gain SEO, and issue takedown notices against any legit journals/sites that publish/cite it.

Is your goal to just get your master thesis taken down or do you wish to make sure reports reach the eyes of senior people at their institutions?
Looking at the publication list of the plagiarist and their other publications... ya that's a lot of very blatant plagiarism in there. There's also a head of department and a professor with their names on there. All 3 of them should have official complaints made against them.

Area of expertise of the senior author is "Doing on Authorship Attribution, Verification and Plagiarism on Indian Text." I think that is interesting

The question would benefit from mentioning the state of your master - have you finished it, and it is more or less a nuisance? Or have you not submitted your work yet and fear that you may be suspected of plagiarizing the other one?

I had a link to my master thesis which I have finished back in 2014 and the plagiarized papers as well but someone adviced me to remove the links stating that it could be used against me in this matter.

"A Peer Reviewed/ Referred Journal" ... "Acceptance Status: In 24 Hours, Publication Period: Within 24hrs after receiving the publication fee". Mouahahahahahah.

I suspect that @xLeitix is correct that fighting this is futile, but would like to suggest another strategy if you want to try:
Google Scholar
The reason you saw this article was that Google Scholar picked it up.  Other people will also get the same notification and some of them might be fooled. I am worried that somebody actually interested in Telugu might get misinformed.
My suggestion is telling Google about this.  They want Google Scholar to be as accurate as possible and might at least stop giving references to this journal.
Anybody can publish anything on the Web, but if Google doesn't link it, nobody will read it.
I was unable to find a contact address for Google Scholar directly, but Google has a general contact page for stopping copyright violations which should be close enough.
Here is a link to a page about that

Let us know how it goes. So far my experience with getting stuff changed in Scholar has been less than successful.

Yeah my experience with Google Scholar made me think of it as an abandoned script that was once promising but then was shelved by the corporate to run on its own for the lack of advertising revenue and legal nuisance from all the publishers' copyright claims. Still use it for the lack of a free alternative, but I wouldn't rely on it much. Like a malfunctioning great machine from ages past with no spare parts available anymore

I have contacted Google through the link Stig Hemmer provided but until now nothing happened

I have this one paper that has already gotten copied and submitted to some spam journals 5+ times. It literally happens multiple times per year (it has a catchy title that seems to appeal to a certain class of plagiarizers). I also usually learn about this through a Google Scholar alert.
The first two times it happened, I tried exactly the steps recommended by other answers. I contacted the authors (no reply ever), raised a stink with the journals (no reply ever), and contacted IEEE (the copyright holder of my original paper). IEEE indeed did react that they will look into it after quite some time, but nothing ever came out of it.
My lesson learned was that these things are basically impossible to fight. The authors or journals could not care less about ethical integrity, and for IEEE the measurable damage of one of their papers being "reprinted" in a different title and with slightly different words in an obscure scam journal that nobody ever reads is not large enough so that they would make an effort hunting down who is legally behind these shopfront journals.
The good news is that it is also completely irrelevant to you. I can assure you that your scientific contribution will not in any way be lessened by this paper existing, nobody will read the other paper (because nobody reads these "journals", period). For future promotions etc., the existence of this paper will not be in any way an issue for you. Science as a whole suffers (to a degree that we could argue about), but the fact that it happened to be your paper that they copied (as opposed to a paper by me, or somebody else) makes no difference at all.

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat. If you have “real-life” suggestions for xLeitix or wish to express your opinion about the situation, please take it to chat. Please read this FAQ before posting another comment.

This is the best (and only) answer.

This is more or less true now, but I don't see it implying that we should let it remain true in the future. If a sufficient proportion of academics make actual complaints to plagiarizers' institutions, instead of ignoring the chronic issue, it is highly likely that future plagiarism would be lessened. In short, these are impossible to fight now, but not necessarily impossible to fight ever, if enough people cooperate to actually push for ethical integrity. Then we won't have to feebly lament that science will always suffer from such fake stuff.

@user21820 Predatory / spam journals have every reason to ignore any such complains, so unless you have a plan on how to shut down such journals, you will be tilting at windmills.

@DmitryGrigoryev: I didn't say to complain to those journals, but rather "to plagiarizers' institutions", which another commenter also said.

Contact the journal editor with complete details. If at all possible, have your advisor do the same thing, making a complaint on your behalf. An official from your university could also make a complaint.
Sometimes very similar things can occur from parallel research, but that seems to not be the case here.
But having someone else in authority back you up can help.
If the affiliation of the other person is listed, perhaps a complaint from your institution to theirs would be appropriate also.

I don't think he/she could get anything out of contacting the editor of this journal: " Journal of Applied Science and Computations", which fairly looks like predatory journals. I would recommend to contact the authors first and then if nobody responded back, contact their institution.

@AloneProgrammer why would you contact the authors? It's not like they don't know ...

@DonQuiKong I'm not saying to contact authors to ask if they're aware of their plagiarism or not. I'm saying it worth to contact authors first to say if they don't retract and take down that piece of webpage + pdf file, I'll report it with the extent amount of details to the highest level authorities that are responsible for research misconduct in their institute. Hopefully, if they're really exists, cause I have even doubt about those authors that just put their gmail account! instead of their institutional email, they will react to keep their reputation (if they have reputation!) clean.

@DonQuiKong Otherwise, I would guess this webpage + its pdf file will be there for ever! and nobody really cares about some cranks that plagiarized this work and publish (if you could call uploading a piece of pdf to a website as publishing) somewhere, where nobody will even read it for one time. So this trick may work (may not work!) to at least take down that webpage.

@AloneProgrammer Still, the (empty?) threat will be a completely unnecessary waste of time: Just go directly to the relevant authorities (or don’t). Either way the authors won’t respond.

@KonradRudolph If the authors they don't respond so there is no point to contact even authorities because probably the authorities also will not respond as well. It's a big accusation but I would guess even these authors and even their institution are fabricated. It's just my guess and it's formed based on some evidence and similar situations. But that could be false. The main action which may be useful to take in these kind of situations is that to issue a DMCA take down and remove that piece of nonsense webpage + its pdf if it is possible.

@KonradRudolph More effectively I believe he/she should just let it go and move on as described here: https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/117848/98164

I don't have a lot of experience with them, but it seems to me that even a predatory journal would want to avoid publishing plagiarized work. They need some sort of positive reputation in order to attract authors. More than anything, though, I think they would want to avoid controversy.

@Buffy Your point could be true, but sadly and more scary is that some of these predatory journals work like a developed crime gangs and could fabricate everything from journals/conferences to fake universities even in the US (believe me I have an example!) to just take money from people. It's like you expect a powerful thief would take care of some minor cranks, whom plagiarize others' works randomly and in their own imagination publish it somewhere to take some advantages. Of course, it's quite clear that a senior thief (i.e. predatory journal) will not care about plagiarism at all!

First, find an established academic who can help you make the complaint.  Your masters thesis advisor would be the most obvious person to ask; but if there’s someone else you’ve worked with who you know better or trust more or who is better-known, they could also be a good choice. You want someone who (a) is an established academic in the field, and (b) can support your claim that you did this work in 2014.
Get as much proof of priority together as you can.  If the department where you did the thesis already publishes its masters theses online, then that is ideal.  If not, look for any public information corroborating the date and title and as much more information as possible — e.g. an announcement of the thesis defense/presentation, or similar — and perhaps also ask someone senior at the department (e.g. the head of department at the time) for a signed letter confirming that this is your thesis, given in 2014.
These people may also offer you further advice and assistance with making the complaint — if so, great, and take their direct knowledge over the rest of this suggestion!
With those prepared, make your complaint, and escalate it as necessary.  Each time you make the complaint: state the facts, and mention and cc the established academics who can back up your assertions.  The journal editors are the first people to write to: email addresses are given at http://www.j-asc.com/EDITORIAL-BOARD/.  However, the journal looks low-quality at best and probably outright predatory, so I would not be very hopeful of getting results there.  Next, I would try writing a formal complaint to senior figures in the department(s) of the authors of the plagiarising “authors”.  It may also be worth writing to the authorities that have certified/recognised the journal as legitimate — or at least telling the journal editor you intend to do this.
I would not suggest contacting the authors.  That would be the polite thing to do if there was any chance that they might have made an honest mistake somehow; but their paper is such egregious plagiarism that there’s no question they’re acting in good faith.  This is like finding video proof that someone has burgled your house: you don’t need to politely warn them, you take it straight to the authorities.
Overall: there is a large ecosystem of dishonest research and publication, parasitic on legitimate scientific institutions and funding structures.  While you are writing to people within that, they are unlikely to help you for your own sake.  But if you escalate far enough, you will reach a legitimate institution who should hear your concerns; and more practically, if you say that you intend to do this, then people in the sketchy part of the system may be willing to help you for the sake of protecting their own credibility (and you will help push them to be a little bit more honest in the process).
(In all this, I’m assuming that you’re not working anywhere closely connected to the plagiarising authors, and so that you’re not in danger of any kind of retaliation.  If you feel they have power/influence that might allow them to retaliate against you, then I don’t know what best to suggest, beyond getting advice from academics you do trust and who know the field themselves.)

On proof, at least have a wayback machine archived version so that they cannot delete it and pretend it never existed: https://web.archive.org/web/20181003165553/http://www.j-asc.com/gallery/18-august-2018.pdf ; 2) on the editorial board, it's probably most useful to contact only the individual members who look legit, as they may be unaware of what's going on.


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What can academia do with the flood of bad or subpar paper currently online?
I am currently researching some STEM-related topic on X, and I have been bombarded with a flood of bad papers on Google or academic databases.
Of course, bad is subjective. But I am talking about papers that don't even have proper font or typesetting, virtually no equations/equations that don't make any sense, poor examples, and papers that are literally less than three pages long (standard are 10 pages): introduction, some made-up equations, one experiment that those equations does well on, conclusion - we have solved the problem.
In addition, many of these papers are published in low-tier journals and conferences (with very legit sounding titles, mind you, such as "International Conference on Advances in Computing, Communications and Informatics") and it is taking a while for me to dig through them to find quality content.
On top of it, there seems to be a flood of student projects on these topics that are otherwise properly formatted in conference style templates. I am guessing a lot of undergraduate courses are making their students learn how to write a paper as their project, and the students, in turn, publish them somewhere. Unfortunately, almost all of these papers are poor quality and totally not peer-reviewed. They show up in search anyways.
Is there anything academia can do to solve this problem? I can only see it get worse and worse over time until it is totally impossible to properly cite previous work.

Improve your search habits. Use your university's library or Google Scholar. I've never had this issue.

So all the equations are good : "virtually no equations/equations that don't make any sense"

Using Google to do your academic literature search could be a problem. Discuss with your local reference librarian, including bringing examples of good and bad papers from your searches. They know what to do...

Cranks have always self-published.  Nowadays, it is easier to do than before.  Today, paying the fee for publication in a predatory journal is cheaper than, 50 years ago, paying a printer to produce 100 copies of your masterpiece.  As long as people keep paying, those journals will keep proliferating.

Find a few good papers. See which journals they were published in. See what other papers they refer to (favorably) and what journals these were published in.  With a little experience, you should get a pretty good idea where to find respectable papers about your subject X. And, as you've apparently already learned, don't be swayed by "very legit sounding titles"; just about anybody can invent (or copy) a legit-sounding title.

Is there anything academia can do to solve this problem? We have peer review. We teach students how to do a proper literature search and separate the wheat from the chaff. We also teach them not to judge a book by its cover but to critically evaluate publications on their merit.

I strongly suspect that along with the papers being poorly formatted, they also have minimal usefulness content-wise.  I think the way to solve your problem is just to use a filter of only looking at papers in peer-reviewed, properly formatted journals.  And the better ones, at that.
Yes, there is a possibility you miss something, but so what?  Euclidean perfection is not expected.  If you are doing original work, you only have limited time to spend on literature and you need to use that most efficiently.  Even if your sole task is to review the literature, you have limited time to do that.
If there is some work that was self published or poorly written but still important, than it should have been recognized (via citations) by papers in good journals.  (Then, recognizing the importance, you can spend the time to decipher the poor exposition...but again, this will be a tiny fraction.  Often zero.)
So, instead of worrying about academia (not a monolithic entity) somehow cleaning up the Augean stables for you (how would they even do that...take control of the Internet?), just change your own work habits to stay out of the muck or be very limited and targeted in your plunges into it.

Sure I can adapt my habits. But changes cannot come fast enough. Maybe one day I will post all these example paper on here and blow this thing wide open

(a) It's less of a problem for the world than you think because most people just use the easy filter that I recommended you use.  (b) What's funny is that you also asked "Why publish a research paper when a blog post or a lecture slide..."   https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/125615/why-publish-a-research-paper-when-a-blog-post-or-a-lecture-slide-can-have-more-c

Well I am also not happy with the flood of lecture slides online which are also not peer reviewed. I read some crazy lecture slides recently and almost led me to a wrong result

@The then don't use random lecture slides. Even better never use lecture slides for this purpose. They are meant to be accompanied by a lecture.

@The man of your dream there's nothing to "blow open". Everybody knows that there are huge amounts of pseudo-scientific publications and bad venues. The first thing a student should learn is to identify the trustworthy ones.


text:
Visa for old dependent parents
Recently, I have been offered a postdoc position in the USA and I have been entitled to a J1 visa. I have an old mother who is entirely dependent on me. My father has passed away two years ago and there is nobody in India to look after her.
Considering her situation, can she get entitled to a J2 visa on basis of any exception? If not, what could be the best way to keep my mother with me while I work as a postdoc? Or should I drop the idea of doing the postdoc job while keeping my mother with me in the USA?

Contact a US consulate office locally for such a question. Your current university probably has the ability to do so.

https://j1visa.state.gov/basics/j2-visa/ "The J-2 Visa is a non-immigrant visa issued by a consular official at a U.S. embassy or consulate for spouses and dependents (unmarried children under the age of 21)" - seems pretty clear.

@BryanKrause Unfortunately, "pretty clear" rules always don't solve human problems. I've heard stories of exceptions as well. But I don't have something evident to back that. Also, in my post, I asked for the best strategy that could be adopted for my situation.

@BryanKrause, that would imply "no", but I wonder if a web page tells the whole story or just the most common case(s). Worth an ask, I think.

Your best strategy is to get an official ruling and then decide.

@Buffy It's in code, too: https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/22/62.2 "Accompanying spouse and dependents. The alien spouse and/or minor unmarried child(ren), if any, of an exchange visitor who are accompanying or following to join the exchange visitor and who seek to enter or have entered the United States temporarily on non-immigrant J-2 visas or seek to acquire or have acquired such status after admission. For the purpose of these regulations, a minor is a person under the age of 21 years old."

https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/22/41.62 "J-2 Classification. The spouse or minor child of an alien classified J-1 is classifiable J-2."

This question seems more appropriate for expatriates.stackexchange.com than for academia.

Even if she got a visa, how do you afford to pay her health insurance? Health care cost is extremely high in US. One hospitalization could cost you several month salary. Your idea is extremely impractical.

A suggestion for you. Hire someone in India to take care of your mother. This would only cost a fraction of your postdoc salary.

@Nobody Then I may need to look for buying an International Health Plan from India as a tourist if I can't purchase one from the US. My mother requires mental and emotional support as well, so hiring someone may not be a great idea.

"International Health Plan from India as a tourist" is only for short term. I don't believe they sell the insurance for long term. If she stays longer than a month, you'll have to buy one in US.

@Nobody I have checked. 6 months of International Travel Insurance is feasible and it is pretty much affordable for an Indian (including vision and dental).

The possibility is extremely remote/near-impossible due to several reasons and complications abound at the different layers of scrutiny.
The J2 visa process begins with your university issuing a form DS-2019. It is extremely unlikely that a university can make an exception for your mother, without DHS (Department of Homeland Security) making a provision for such an exception. If there was such an exception, your university international student/exchange office would have let you known.
Universities do not and cannot risk making an exception when no such provision is offered from DHS. If they do, they run the risk of getting their SEVP approval cancelled.
On the extremely remote chance that your university does provide a DS-2019 to your mother, it is even more unlikely that a consular officer can get convinced to issue her a visa. Consular officers do understand the 'human' element but all human stories are evaluated in the light of what is already codified in their visa manuals.


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My professor has barely taught my class so I've only passed by a hair. Is there anything I can do? Someone higher up I could contact?
This quarter, I took my first General Chem course. I'm a pre-med Biology major, and I really enjoyed Chemistry in high school. I also really enjoyed the Chem lab this quarter (separate from the lecture). However, my Chem lecture did not go well. From the beginning, I knew it was a bust.
When I registered for the class, it was to be an all in-person class. First week, he sends an email to everyone saying the lecture will be online. There were two sections, 10am and 2pm. He said he would lecture live on Zoom to the 10am class, and the 2pm class could just watch the recorded video of that lecture (I was in the 2pm). Now, I must admit, I did miss watching lectures here and there because that teaching delivery does not work for me and I can not focus. Regardless, the lectures I did watch were awful. He literally laid on his stomach on his bed just reading the lecture slides, never actually explaining anything. There were 2 midterms and 1 final. Both midterms were all online. On the first one, I did well because I worked with others on it (as he permitted us to), but the second one I totally failed because I thought I could do it on my own.
Anyways, the final approaches and everybody fails. I'm talking 48% on the final. And you don't think you did anything wrong? Anything I learned in the class came from my TA. So, my end grade in the class was a 71%. But, I genuinely do not feel like this is my fault - at least not majority.
My ultimate question is, does anybody have any advice on someone I can contact about an unfair grade? I've read that this type of thing is not enough grounds for that, though. I'm sure a terrible professor failing a bunch of students must be a common problem, but I just don't know what to do or who to talk to. I've talked to a TA (prof's right hand man, was absolutely no help), and I emailed my advisor hoping they can help. Please, any advice!

does anybody have any advice on someone I can contact about an unfair grade?

You have not presented any evidence that your grade was unfair. An unfair grade would be if you answered questions correctly but they were marked incorrectly, or if the instructor had lost your assignments and given them zeros. As it is, you just have a vague sense of "I feel like this wasn't entirely my fault" -- this is not actionable.

He literally laid on his stomach on his bed just reading the lecture slides

This does sound terrible. You can certainly complain about your instructor; see the discussion here. If you convince the higher-ups that your instructor was incompetent, negligent, and ineffective, they may prevent him from teaching in the future. Certainly having a well-written note from a large group of students would be more convincing than a ranting note from a single disgruntled student. But this will not  help your GPA.

Please, any advice!

I think you need to shift your mindset away from "it's the instructor's job to teach me what I need to know." Certainly the instructor's lessons should be helpful at some level; this is what you are paying for. But sadly, this is not always the case, and even a good instructor will not cover all the material in a way that makes sense to every student.
In this case, you claim to have realized right at the beginning that this instructor "was a bust"; this would have been the time to take action. Ideally, this would entail switching to another instructor or rescheduling the course, but I realize this is not always possible. So, this might entail learning from the textbook, or from free online resources, or with other students. The great thing about courses like general chemistry is that millions of students study this subject every year, so there are tons of resources out there; you are not totally dependent on your instructor.

In the wise words of a colleague: “In university there is no teaching, only learning.”

Thank you for your feedback. This is completely the answer I was expecting, as I know I am responsible for my grade to a certain extent in a situation like this. At this point, I think I’ve just accepted the C, and I’m going to take your advice, and write a letter to the higher ups, signing it from myself as well as (many) other individuals I know who struggled because of the professor’s incompetency. Again, thank you for the help, I appreciate it!

Meant to say, my goal at this point is to prevent him from teaching in the future.


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References to author or authors in PhD thesis or published paper
In a chapter of my finished PhD thesis I have written "...to the best of the author's knowledge..." several times as a reference to me. Now my supervisor and I would like to publish this chapter in a journal with him and me as (co-)authors (me as first author). Consequently, the phrase in the publication would have to change to "...to the best of the authors' knowledge...".
Could this result in any problems afterwards for the authorship of my PhD thesis?
Could I be accused of making a false statement because I only named myself as the author of this chapter in my PhD thesis?
Or would it be the reasoning that I am the author of my PhD thesis and since this chapter was not published at the time of completion, I did not have to refer to my supervisor as co-author? At least, I have never seen that a supervisor was addressed as a co-author of a chapter in a PhD thesis (unless the chapter was published before the PhD thesis).

You are overthinking this. No one will notice that the apostrophe moved over the 's'. And if they did they would draw no conclusions.
Congratulations on the thesis and the paper.


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What to include in a motivational letter for research grant?
I was thinking of what would one include in a motivational letter for a Phd grant/scholarship at the cross-section between mathematics and economics?
I have no experience in processes of this kind, even though I'm getting a bit old for this. =D
Any help would be appreciated.

I am hoping the question A good motivation letter would be helpful to you.

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


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What is "technology in the classroom" that so many job applications ask for?
I am applying for academic mathematics positions, and I noticed that a few job applications ask for experience using technology in the classroom.
What use of "technology" in the classroom are these hiring committees looking for in an applicant?
The only things I can think of for mathematics is the use of computing programs, or videos and demonstrations shown on a projector.

Note that "in the classroom" here is meant figuratively, not literally; they are asking about your experience in using technology in your teaching, whether inside or outside the classroom.

Also, often you can be just as justified for not using it especially in the literal classroom. A classics class will probably have less need than, say, a geology class. Tech for tech's sake isn't necessarily a good thing. But you definitely need to be experienced with things like Blackboard/Canvas.

It's hard to guess exactly what the authors of the advertisement meant.  However, there are lots of technologies that the advertisement could be referring to, including

Graphing calculators.
Numerical and symbolic computation software (MATLAB, Maple, Mathematica, etc.)
"Clicker" audience response systems.
Lecture capture recordings.
Prepared video clips for students to view outside of class.
Learning Management Systems like Blackboard, Canvas, etc.
Systems for online discussion of the course such as Piazza.
Computer based homework systems like WebWork, Maple TA, etc.

In evaluating candidates, I want to know what experience they've had with these technologies and how they've decided to incorporate them into their teaching.
Most experienced instructors will have used at least some of these and have opinions about how best to use them.  A candidate who can't talk intelligently about these technologies is probably lacking teaching experience.  Someone who claims experience with these technologies and has the "wrong" opinions about how to use them will likely be seen as a poor fit for the position.
Before you go for an on-campus interview (or even for a telephone or skype screening interview), it would be a good idea to see what technologies have been adopted at the campus you're visiting so you can be prepared to discuss this during your interview.

Nice. However, I'd note that I'm not looking for a particular set of "right" answers because I don't think I have all the answers, but the candidate should have a justification for their opinions that shows that they have thought about these thing in the context of actual teaching experience. I know some very good teachers who swear by clickers and other equal good teachers who loathe them; it depends on personal style and what other choices they'd made.

Great answer from Brian, helpful comment from dmckee.  I have a couple of thoughts to add.
Here's what they don't want: someone who just works his way across the blackboard panel by panel, as might have been done 40 years ago.
Please make sure that you have a clear purpose and intended benefit from each technological tool you introduce.  Also remember to accommodate a variety of types of learners.  (Example: My ODEs professor would write a complicated equation on the board and then stand smack dab in front of it while talking about it.  I needed to see it while he was discussing the equation.)
Please don't forget about geogebra.

authors: Михаил Журов

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


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Do hiring committees actually give preference to underrepresented groups?
For reference, I am a woman of color in mathematics and I am applying for academic jobs.
I noticed that many of these applications say something like "Women (and other underrepresented groups) are encouraged to apply," or "We especially welcome applications from minority groups, women, persons with disabilities,..."
Yet there is also a non-discrimination clause saying " All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, etc. ..."
Is preference actually given to these underrepresented groups? What impact does knowledge of the underrepresented group the applicant is a part of have in the reviewing process?

Very closely related: How is the equal opportunity principle enforced in academic recruitment? (I think the answer there addresses the apparent contradiction you raise in your question)

I think (based on basically nothing) that these statements are themselves examples of affirmative action, rather than suggesting positive discrimination will take place. If you think people might be put off from applying simply because they have a certain characteristic, you can see these statements as an attempt to counterbalance that effect. I have no idea how well that reflects reality.

I agree with Jessica B.  You seem to be interpreting the encouragement to apply as indicating that preference may be given.  Instead, it means no more than it says (namely, that the department wishes it got more applications from women and underrepresented minorities and wants to make sure such applicants know that they have a strict policy of non-discrimination).

What country are you applying in?

@AE I am American, and I'm applying to mostly US and Canadian institutions, but I may also apply to foreign institutions.

In South Africa we still have affirmative action, so your application could be considered above others with equivalent qualifications in some sectors, but there's also no non-discriminatory clause, so it's pretty clear that the affirmative action does have effect.

In my experience with hiring committees, underrepresented status comes up after the first cut has been made.  Folks tend not to go out of there way to find the files for underrepresented candidates. But, once the "long" short list of serviceable candidates has been made (in the correct research field, strong letters from the "right" people, etc.), underrepresented status has been raised to pursue certain candidates.  The motivation is not entirely altruistic.  Things are said like "The dean will really like this."

Sometimes the dean may like it enough to give an extra hiring slot.  Administrations often have money earmarked for recruitment of qualified candidates from underrepresented groups.

While I am in a corporate position, our process has some similarity, and I also discuss these issues frequently with colleagues in more traditional academia.
What I have observed is that at the level of faculty or other primary investigator hiring, direct comparison of candidates is almost always impossible: it is always apples vs. oranges because every candidate is qualitatively different in what they bring to offer the department.  Thus there is no opportunity for a simple positive discrimination like "given two equally qualified candidates, pick the underprivileged one."
Instead, any strong candidate will have an advocating faction whose interests they would support, and opposition from another faction whose interests would be better supported by a different candidate. These pragmatic interests are likely to dominate over diversity considerations in the final decision in many cases.
Where diversity considerations are more likely to factor into the process is earlier on, when candidates for interview are being selected. Here, demographic information can be used so that a group can notice, "Hey, we're only planning to invite white males... maybe we are being biased in our evaluation and should look deeper into the candidate pool." It probably still isn't enough to make up for the implicit negatives, however.

(+1, for both answers) Where diversity considerations are more likely to factor into the process is earlier on, when candidates for interview are being selected. — Supposedly, when institutions collect "affirmative action" data from applicants early on in the process, they do not use the data in the screening process. One such email I received from a school states: "This information is for statistical and official affirmative action purposes and will not be used to determine eligibility for the position.  Failure to comply will in no way disqualify you from consideration for employment." 1/2

I suppose figuring out an applicant's gender based on their name is likely successful a majority of the time. However, other diversity considerations may not be as straightforward to obtain if in fact the institutions do not use the collected diversity data during screening. 2/2

@MadJack At a faculty hire level, many candidates have a professional website with information that makes many of these questions moot...

I think this depends on the policies at the individual institutions.
For instance, here in Germany, I believe that institutions are required to ensure that their search committees have, where possible, female faculty members on the committee, as well as representatives from the human resources department to ensure that qualified female candidates are not excluded on flimsy grounds. I have also heard of searches where the faculty especially recruited female candidates to apply. (The recruiters are not the same faculty as on the search committee, reducing conflict of interest issues.)
However, in the US, I think the issue is more to ensure that candidates of all backgrounds apply (through job fairs at conferences, targeted advertising, and so on), and ensuring that all candidates are treated equally during search committee deliberations, rather than biasing the choice toward members of underrepresented groups.


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Applying for NSF (Math Fellowship) before being accepted to a university. How to find a Sponsor?
I am in the process of applying to graduate schools this Fall 2017 (both in the US and in Europe). I do not yet know what institution I may go to nor do I know any researcher who would be willing to make such early plans. I am wondering whether or not my case matches the requirements of the NSF (Math Fellowship)? I have read the FAQs but found nothing that answers my concern.
From the description for Sponsoring Scientist, I read
The sponsoring scientist's statement is meant to
show how the host and host institution will provide a vibrant and
supportive environment for the Fellow's proposed research and
training activities and provide a basis for the Fellow's future
independent research career.

The above makes me think that this Fellowship is only appropriate for enrolled students. Is this right?
If not and it is indeed possible/appropriate for me to apply for NSF (Math Fellowship), then how should I go about finding a Sponsoring Scientist? Is it appropriate to approach/email some researchers in some schools that I will be applying to?

The PDF you linked to is for a postdoc fellowship, not a student fellowship.

You probably want the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program.

That explains a lot.

You're looking at the NSF Mathematical Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships, which is for funding postdocs, not graduate study.
You probably want the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, which is the main NSF fellowship program for PhD studies in math and science.  This program doesn't have a "sponsoring scientist" requirement.


text:
How are textbooks meant to be referenced?
I'm studying maths, and I've found it beneficial to write my notes as if I were writing a textbook for someone else's self study - forces me to understand the material to some extent.
It's of course incredibly unlikely these notes could actually be made into a textbook, but hypothetically, if I decided in some distant future to attempt to publish a textbook on maths, what are the rules for referencing?
Is it acceptable to source material almost solely from other textbooks, and simply place in the references at the back the names of those text books, or...?
Exercises. If I borrow exercises from other textbooks which look challenging (not every exercise) then how required am I to reference the book I found the exercise in? Even if I do reference, is there any issue that could stem from using those exercises? I've seen Wilson's theorem used as an exercise for almost every abstract algebra book I've read.

I strongly disagree with Dirk. You should not "always strive to keep the number of such references in a textbook as small as possible."
Also, I would say that this: "Also keep the number of different books to which you refer as small as possible." is very poor advice.  It is a disservice to your readers, and wholly unnecessary.
Instead, you should have extensive references in a textbook whenever you draw on other materials. This is a matter of intellectual honesty and to provide your readers (and their teachers/advisers) links to source material. If your content or results come from other sources, including from textbooks, you should make explicit references to them.
Exercises are only in "the public domain" if they are from sources whose copyrights have expired or are from authors who have explicitly made them public domain, or variant thereof.
It may be advisable to have a section of your textbook that minimizes references -- mainly to improve readability.  If so, then you'd be advised to have a parallel section titled "Sources and Further Reading" where you recapitulate the content in the main section and include all references.
Dirk says that textbooks are to be "as self-contained as possible. Hence, there are few references." This is poor advice since it confuses readability with completeness and usability.  To omit references when you have copied or otherwise drawn material from other sources is both incomplete and disreputable.  It harms usability because some students and many teachers will want access to the original books and papers.

Seems like a controversial topic. I am not sure if we are really talking about the same thing. As an example: Consider a calculus textbook stating rules for limits, differentiation and  integration. Do you mean that one should provide original references to first papers or references for other textbooks stating the same rules? I would think neither is necessary or appropriate but a proof would be.

@Dirk Some things don't need references any more, because they have become common knowledge.  If you're teaching integrals and limits, you might choose mention Riemann, Newton, and Liebniz for historical interest, but there is no need to cite them.

@jakebeal I totally agree. That's why I asked. Also I can't imagine a textbook for a calculus that has a citation for every result that can be found elsewhere.

@Dirk I'm assuming that OP is compiling his notes as a textbook for other college students, and probably graduate students.  If so, then it's fairly common to have references to the latest or most relevant source material, including other text books.

Textbooks seldomly state original results and it is generally assumed that the author of the textbook is not the inventor of the results. So your conception that there are different rules for references for textbooks is right. Since textbooks are for students who are usually not used to look up references one aims to make textbooks as self-contained as possible. Hence, there are few references. Mostly, references point to previous textbooks (references given in the introduction, appendix or "Further reading" sections). In fact, a lot of references go into sections like "Further reading" or "Historical remarks". Sometimes you may want to give a reference for a specific result which could be contained in the book but is not for some reason. I would always strive to keep the number of such references in a textbook as small as possible. Also keep the number of different books to which you refer as small as possible. Referencing to original results is mostly omitted but you should always state names with theorems, i.e. you could write "Theorem (Taylor): ...", "Theorem (Green/Tao): ...", of course use "Banach's Fixed Point Theorem" or write "Mean Value Theorem (Cauchy): ..."
Regarding exercises: If you know a true reference for an exercise you could give it like "Exercise (Erdős): ...". Otherwise, I think that exercises are considered to be "in the public domain" (not taken as a legal claim) and can be reused without reference (but correct me, if I'm wrong).

I agree that you're describing the way many math textbooks are.  I disagree that you're describing the way they should be.  The idea that students are not interested in references and source material dissolves immediately once you say it out loud: we very much want and need them to be interested in these things; the way they are handled in many undergraduate courses is completely antithetical to kindling and sustaining such an interest.


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In STEM fields, are ten-year, funded PhDs an exceptional case or more common than we think?
All of the below information is regarding U.S. universities.
From what I know, it seems that the standard length of time to be funded for a PhD in a STEM field is about 5 or 6 years.  (I've personally seen plenty of students get funded for a 6th and final year, for applied math topics.)
So I recently learned of a 10-year funded PhD (one student I know of and have spoken to, but not sure whether it was a program consisting of multiple students).  This would be at a Top 5 school in the STEM field.
FWIW, it was an electrical engineering topic.
Is this an exceptional case?  Perhaps the project was exceptionally important and the student was funded for 10 years without any issues?  Or, is it actually more common than we would think?
(Note that I am not talking about TA'ing for ten years.)
I don't have any data for lower-tier programs, but I'd like to ask the question, just in case there are some interesting / surprising answers.
I am assuming that the research ended up taking longer than anticipated instead of the possibility that the program was known to take ten years to complete.  After all, I have never heard of a PhD program that lasts longer than six years.

In the United States, long PhDs (taking more than 10 years) are a minority of STEM PhDs, but not exactly "exceptional" either. See image below, which shows percentage of 2006-10 doctorate recipients taking six years or less and more than ten years to complete their degree (via data collected in the Survey of Earned Doctorates):

(Image via MLA Office of Research blog)
In many US departments, if a student is making progress towards the degree (not just wasting resources), is a contributing member of the department, and funding is available, there is no general reason why the advisor can't continue funding if the degree takes longer than expected. Without funding, the student is much less likely to complete the PhD, which is an undesirable outcome for both the student, the advisor, and the department.
(In some parts of the world, there may be regulations that make it impossible to keep funding a PhD student for that long. Even in the US, some departments may set a time limit on PhDs, and/or on eligibility for some sources of funding.)

@ff524, why does it take so much time to complete a PhD in humanities, literature and history? The difference is enormous.

@user2738748: I can only speak for Germany: here many doctorates in the humanities are unfunded, so people do this besides working a full job. (Also in STEM the PhD research used to be considered your "private fun", but this changed in the last 10 - 15 years. Before that also the natural sciences PhD students were paid explicitly for TAing, or did research in addition to working - or were paid by a scholarship)


text:
What are some good ways to figure out one's interests in mathematics, before applying to PhD programs?
Are there mathematics seminars to attend in the summer, or do they typically only occur during the academic year?  I am referring to American universities.
An idea I had last night was to YouTube some math seminars to see what talks I can watch quickly - talks are about an hour long.  I found a good PDEs talk from a Princeton seminar.  I hope to find more talks that are available online.
Is this not advisable?  These are talks given by experts, and as a lowly master's student, I naturally do not understand about 90% of the mathematics being talked about and written on the chalkboard.  I am mainly just trying to get some sense of purpose of, say, studying PDEs, its difficulties, etc.
I am also making progress on a master's thesis, but my gut feeling is that this problem is too narrowly focused and in the end may not help me figure out better my research interests in a PhD program.
What else could I do?

If it’s feasible, consider going to MathFest. http://www.maa.org/meetings/mathfest

If you are mainly looking for video lectures, many places record master classes and similar, which will often be more understandable than seminars. QGM for example has a quite large collection of such by now, on various topics http://qgm.au.dk/ (pick Video Recordings on the left).

Are there mathematics seminars to attend in the summer, or do they typically only occur during the academic year?

I think none of the answers thus far actually addressed this.  At most US universities, seminars don't happen, at least not regularly, during the summer.  One reason is many faculty will be traveling.  However, sometimes some people, possibly grad students, will organize an informal seminar to read through some books or papers.  If other people aren't doing it, you can ask around to see if people are interested and organize it yourself.

What else could I do?

In place of seminars in the summer, there are usually lots of conferences and workshops as well as summer schools specifically geared towards young people.  Look around for what's available (you can try asking some professors if they have suggestions) and go to what you can.  Many of these have funding for students, but unfortunately most of the funding may have already been given away by now.
Edit: By the way, it's not expected that you know what you want to research when you enter PhD programs (in math in the US, say).  Many people who start aren't even sure if research is for them.  Most programs are designed so that you can use the first couple of years figuring out what you want to do.  (And even later, research interests may change---I may be doing something completely different in a year or two from what I'm doing now.)

Indeed... (I do have my seminar here, but it's sorta "invitation-only"... and not for external consumption. One imagines that quite a few in-house seminars would continue throught the summer, but not broadcast content, for a variety of reasons.)

I love the idea of organizing an informal seminar -- I'll work on this.  Thanks so much, Professor Martin :)

Try reading the Princeton Companion to Mathematics. The editor insisted that the articles were actually comprehensible!
The fundamental problem in selecting research areas is that how an area looks from the inside once you actually know it, is very different to how looks from the outside. This is particularly the case when people tell you about the applications or nice pictures -- these really tell you nothing about what doing research in the area is like.
What sort of problems do you like to solve? What sort of techniques do you like to choose? can you see yourself fiddling with an integral all day? do you like abstract nonsense or prefer things more concrete?

I think it's entirely reasonable for you to be at the point you are "but still wondering"... Indeed, of necessity, most master's theses in math are pretty narrow or specialized or not-entirely-"research", and that's fine, but that experience is different from the "more genuine" version that should happen in a PhD.
Not clear that you'll find YouTube videos of everything you'd want to see, but it can't hurt anything, unless you simply get discouraged.
Also, I'd bet that you'll find more instances of advanced graduate course notes by major contributors/experts than you'll find videos of their lectures. This would allow you to examine the stuff more calmly, and at your own pace. Maybe more coherent than lectures, too.
It is certainly difficult to make choices with insufficient information, but/and there's sorta the "meta" question of "which information to try to acquire?", which makes it worse. Thus, the perhaps-better coherence of advanced grad course lecture notes might be both grounded in more careful (less time-constrained) discussion, but still try be aiming forward and touching contemporary issues.

I could never get into to learning things from videos and much prefer reading something also, though there seems to be a large fraction of the younger generation that actually prefers learning by videos.

@Kimball, what? Wait, I thought you were the "younger generation"! :)

paul: Mathematicians have been known to reproduce in less than ten years, so the generations can be short. :)

@PeteL.Clark, :)

If you want to figure out if a PhD in a subject is right for you, get involved in research. PhDs are about doing research, not taking classes or attending lectures. A PhD program is an apprenticeship for becoming a researcher and the only way you'll know if you like it is by gaining experience with research.

It's not really feasible to be attempting to "do research" (in mathematics, anyway) without sufficient subject knowledge, and for many people that "sufficient subject knowledge" requires a year or two or three of graduate study (whether from courses, reading books independently, or reading papers independently). Trying to do things too directly can all too easily be a waste of time and energy disconnected from actual contemporary work.

Hi @Ric, sorry, I just edited my question to address the topic of reseach:  I am currently also writing a thesis, which I think may be too small / narrow of a math problem.  So, I am looking for other (better?) ways of finding my math interests.  Thanks,

I have a Ph. D. in electrical engineering.  Most people would think my dissertation was full of math -- applied mathematics (linear algebra).  Most math professors [at least my U.S. university] were mostly interested in infinite dimensional work and the like, so a distinction should be made between PhD mathematics and mathematics in general.


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Are non-citizen Muslim professors and students going to be removed from US universities and subsequently deported by Trump's ban?
Does anyone have any information on this?  Are academics somehow protected from Trump's ban on Muslims?
I know that some have the "alien of extraordinary ability" work visa, but what about for others that don't have such status?

Related: http://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/86995/how-would-president-trumps-travel-ban-affect-nationals-of-iran-iraq-libya-so. It's on travel, and the question asks about tourism/transit but the current top answer clarifies that it includes immigrant visas and even green card holders ("permanent" residents), with only a few exceptions (basically diplomats, definitely not academics).

(Deleted chatty comments.) In particular, note that while this question shows incomplete understanding of the recent executive order, it asks for clarification - which may be provided in answers. Misunderstanding the EO is evidence of misunderstanding, not of strawmanning.

I know that some have the "alien of extraordinary ability" work visa, but what about for others that don't have such status?

Even green card holders are impacted by the ban. As far as I know, only diplomatic visa holders are not impacted by the ban.

A message that I received from my university on 2017-01-29 at 6 PM UTC seems to indicate that in Massachusetts the ban is lifted for the next seven days:

Early this morning, the Massachusetts federal district court issued a temporary order that restrains the government from enforcing the Executive Order to detain or remove holders of a valid visa or green card who travel from the seven countries to the US through Logan Airport. This order is in effect for the next 7 days. The seven affected countries are: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. […] We encourage you to fly back to Boston--directly to Logan Airport--as as soon as possible, and before February 4.

An update from my university I received on  2017-02-02 at 9 PM UTC:

Suspension/Cancellation of Visa Appointments at US Consulates Abroad,
  Revocation of Visas, and Suspension of Adjudications at USCIS
Dear International Scholars,
This is to confirm that the US Department of State has issued guidance
  to consulates worldwide directing them to cancel visa appointments and
  suspend visa issuance to nationals of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia,
  Sudan, Syria and Yemen until further notice.
This means new scholars who were born in or who are citizens of these
  seven countries will be unable to get their initial visas to enter the
  US and current scholars traveling home or to conferences will not be
  able to renew their US entry visa stamps until further notice.
  Department of State is also cancelling green card interviews and
  suspending the issuance of immigrant visas at consular posts.
In addition, the US Department of State issued an order revoking all
  currently valid non-immigrant and immigrant visas issued to nationals
  of these countries.
You may read the announcements on the Department of State website at
  https://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/news.htmland at
  http://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000159-f6bd-d173-a959-ffff671a0001.
Links to articles describing the situation in more detail can be found
  at
  http://www.wbur.org/news/2017/02/01/visas-revoked-state-departmentand
https://www.pri.org/stories/2017-01-29/these-are-new-instructions-state-department-rushed-embassies-worldwide.
If you are currently in the US and are from one of the countries
  listed above, we continue to recommend that you DO NOT travel outside
  the country at this time. If you absolutely must travel, please be
  aware that you risk not being able to return as planned.
If you are outside of the US and have not yet contacted the ISchO,
  please e-mail us as soon as possible.
You may also be aware that in addition to visa issuance and entry into
  the US, the recent Executive Order refers in places to the
  “adjudication of other immigration benefits.” It is our understanding
  that in addition to suspending visa processing and entry into the US
  for citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen,
  USCIS has also halted adjudication of applications/petitions
  (including F-1 OPT, other applications to change or extend
  nonimmigrant status, and permanent residence applications) for
  citizens of these countries. However, at this time, it appears that
  USCIS is still accepting applications/petitions – just not making a
  final decision.
We will continue to provide updates as more information becomes
  available.
Sincerely,

It is not correct that green card holders are "targeted" by the executive order, although it is true that some green card holders were detained or delayed.  http://www.wsj.com/articles/green-card-holders-are-exempt-from-travel-restrictions-white-house-says-1485710137

@BobBrown It is true that green card holders are included by the language of the EO. However, the government later decided not to apply it to them, after a bit of equivocation. The language of Section 3(c) of the EO applies to all 'aliens' from those countries. Per the definition in 8 USC 1101, 'alien' for the purpose of the relevant U.S. laws includes anyone who isn't a national or citizen of the U.S.

I'm not sure that the advice in the message from the university is correct. AFAIK, the judicial orders only effectively applied to anyone who was already at a port of entry or in transit there. In theory, if you could get to Logan airport, it might cover you, but in practice I'd assume that airlines would deny you boarding per the EO unless you were already there or already in transit.

Also the DHS has said they're ignoring these judicial stays and enforcing the EO regardless of what the courts have done. Unfortunately they're the ones that ultimately control entry, so there's nothing the courts can really do about it.

@thanby: Theoretically, the courts could send in the U.S. Marshals (as officers of the court).

@DanielR.Collins Very true, I hadn't considered that, but that doesn't seem likely.

@thanby  "DHS has said they're ignoring these judicial stays..."  That is not the case.

@BobBrown Not now that the federal court suspended the ban. When I made that statement, it was accurate.

@thanby So, your position is that DHS ignored judicial stays until there was a judicial stay?

@BobBrown They ignored the local courts. As soon as the federal court got involved they complied. It's not really a position, it's what actually happened.

The current ban applies only to people who are outside the US.  Nobody knows what Trump might do in the future, though.
Edit: The situation keeps changing, and I will not be updating this answer.  Stack Exchange is not a news service.

I see - I would have expected our University president to address this ban but still no word yet.  What if non-American, Muslim professors need to travel outside the US for a conference, for instance.

@user68375 The ban is based on nationality, not religion.  (Though religion is obviously the motivation.)  People who are affected by the ban would be wise not to leave the US if they want to come back again.  Obviously this is unfair.

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

People currently outside the US.  Some of the people detained at airports over the weekend are currently living or studying here, and had left temporarily.  It is unclear how the order will be applied to them in the future---it could be that the "further screening" will only apply to new arrivals, or it could be that all arrivals from some countries will expect >24 hours of detainment upon arrival to the US regardless of their status here.

The much-up-voted comment about the ban being based on nationality, not religion, provides important information that might be added to the answer.  It might also be worth mentioning that a federal judge has put a temporary injunction on the order, and that her reasoning includes her belief that it's likely to be (at least partially) defeated in court, as this information would be important to academics having to deal with the implications of the executive order in question.

Academics are certainly being barred from entry at this time. Several examples are in the New York Daily News article linked below (date: Jan-29, 2017). For example:

An Iranian doctoral student at the City University of New York, Saira
  Rafiee, was stopped in Abu Dhabi and not allowed to board a U.S.-bound
  flight, political science Prof. Kenneth Paul Erickson wrote. Rafiee
  had traveled to Iran for the winter break.

Ironically, Saira wrote this morning (quoted in PSC-CUNY email): "As a student of sociology and political science, I have devoted a major part of my scholarly life to the study of authoritarianism..."
Edit: Some relevant news links:

USA Today counts 23,763 international students as being affected by the ban (using data from the Department of Homeland Security).
Yahoo Finance reports that the Association of American Universities released a statement saying, "The order is stranding students who have been approved to study here and are trying to get back to campus, and threatens to disrupt the education and research of many others."
CBS News reports on individual responses from the presidents of several top universities.
New York Daily News reports on experiences of several students caught in the ban at JFK (including Saira Rafiee, above).
PSC-CUNY released the full email statement that I referenced above.

Are academics somehow protected from Trump's ban on Muslims?

There is no ban on Muslims. I don't know who's been telling you there is a ban on Muslims. We do not have this phenomenon in the U.S.
The current ban prevents nationals of certain countries from entering, irrespective of their religious beliefs.
Academics are not protected from this ban. The ban is simply based on being from a certain country; it is not related to a person's achievements or merit in any way.
Needless to say, if you qualify for U.S. citizenship, get your citizenship paperwork in pronto!

@djechlin Well, Trump may have called for one thing or other while campaigning. But we're discussing the current and actual ban, not plans Trump had while he was campaigning.

While I disagree with the tone of this answer and its lack of reference to the context of what Trump said while campaigning, it is technically correct. The ban is on nationals of particular countries and there are no exceptions for academics.

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

-1 for "I don't know who's been telling you there is a ban on Muslims," esp. now that the order has been blocked by courts on exactly this basis. Vox: "The judiciary will all but certainly subject any [new] ban to some level of scrutiny — they are unlikely to be so skeptical of the first version of a ban and then roll over when another version is put forth just because the second version took more time. That means the question of anti-Muslim animus might well be constitutionally relevant." -- http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/2/10/14578292/trump-muslim-ban-redo

@DanielR.Collins Congratulations on quoting an opinion piece in a fringe news outlet which doesn't even link to the court decision so you can read it. Meanwhile those of us who have been reading the actual court decisions know that the courts have not yet ruled on the merits of the states' arguments against the travel ban but merely established that a preliminary injunction against the travel ban is in order pending a final decision on the merits.

I hope that Reuters qualifies as not a "fringe news outlet" -- "Washington state's lawyers argued Kennedy's opinion showed that courts must look at what motivated the government's decision beyond the words that appear in the order itself. They cited the previous comments by Trump and others expressing a desire to keep Muslims from entering the United States." http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-immigration-court-kennedy-idUSKBN15P24R

@DanielR.Collins That's the most laughable piece of disinformation I've read in a while. "The justices ruled 5-4 against her." and "Kennedy wrote in a concurring opinion that in some circumstances the U.S. government's motives in denying someone entry could be subject to legal review." So this "liberal" gave lip service to the concept of judicial review but ultimately sided with the government. You don't even need to read between the lines to see that the author's viewpoint is way off.

@djechlin Absolutely terrible; what a travesty of justice. I'm against a travel ban of any kind, but the fact is the POTUS has the power under the law to order such restrictions. Now this judge comes up and basically says, yeah, maybe some POTUS could do it but Trump can't because he has talked about a "Muslim ban" at some point in the past. There's no justice in the U.S. anymore - it's all about ruling things in whatever way will please the population today.

@djechlin Well I maintain that it is legal and isn't a Muslim ban. The ruling emphasized the need to look at the "context". But they grossly cherry-picked the context that would tend to show that it is a religious ban. The history of it is the ban always had a strong security focus even when it was called a Muslim ban. And Guliani said "we take out the Muslim parts and make it exclusively about security" and then they chose a list of countries that Obama had on terror watch or something. So when you look at the whole picture it looks kosher as security even with Trump's stains.

Currently as long as you are not a citizen of Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, you can still enter the US. You will not be forcibly deported on any basis. If however, you are a citizen of above countries and you leave the US, you may face difficulty in re-entry even if you are a green card holder.

There are reports that simply being born in one of those countries (irrespective of citizenship) is enough to be banned, e.g.: https://twitter.com/nadhimzahawi/status/825445925275500545

Yes, apparently there are issues with dual nationality, green card holders, that have yet to be worked out.
You are at least likely to be detained pending clarification.

Double-passport holders seem to be affected as well.


text:
Is It Possible to Reliably Find Editorial Board for the Conference Proceedings?
I am in the process of submitting thesis corrections and attempting to add sufficient reference information for our school's Thesis Office. They are requesting that I add in the editors for Conference Proceedings.
Occasionally, I can find the explicit listing of editors for a conference (I am looking at Control Systems conferences, such as HSCC, ACC, ICRA, etc). With institutional access, I can find the Proceedings on sites such as IEEE Xplore, ScienceDirect, etc., and some of the sites list the editorial boards directly on the site. Others, however, may not list this information, and I try to look at the electronic material available for the proceedings, but cannot find a reliable method to find the editors to add to my reference.
May I ask if anyone has suggestions for reliably finding the Editorial Board? Should I just contact the Program Committees?

The "editors" for a conference, such as they exist, would typically be the program chairs (if that position exists), or the general chairs (if it does not).  This should be listed on the conference web site or the front matter of its proceedings.

The editors should be the authors of the proceedings. For proceedings published by Springer, e.g., in LNCS they are called "volume editors". ACM lists General and Program chairs of the conference, without calling them "editors". On IEEE sometimes you could see sth like "title page" or "PC Credits" among the first documents in IEEExplore, but I could not find such for ICRA.
So, to summarize, there would be no official "editors" for IEEE conference proceedings like ICRA.

One possible way is to look for indexing engines( where the conference is indexed). Some databases givs you a direct bibtex or xml file to cite the conference proceedings. Such information should contain the editor/chairs information. Here is an example.


text:
Should I do a correction / corrigendum?
I published a paper two years ago, and recently I realized two sub-figures (Fig.3c and Fig.3d) in my publication are wrong. When drawing those two figures, I forgot to put one parameter in the equation so resulted in the wrong figures. Nobody has spotted this mistake yet. Now this publication has around 12 citations, but none of them really discussed anything about two wrong figures.
These two figures don't affect key conclusions at all, nor does it affect other figures at all. If I really need to publish a correction, I need to change the figure and change two sentences related to these figures. But I want to correct it anyway, for being a science guy with integrity.
So I wonder in my case, I should contact the editor and request a correction, right? I hope these mistakes wouldn't result in a retraction, and that would be really bad.

also, see this and this


text:
How to recognize a "Journal" paper and a "Conference " paper, easily by superficial reading? (EE, CS)
I can read the semantic meaning of conference and journal papers, even the details regarding their general structures: journal papers are longer than the conference ones, conference papers are easier to get accepted but the study is less deep, a journal paper is a gathering of several small discovers (brought by several conferences?).
But this is not always the case, right? Sometimes conference papers extend quite a bit to 14–16 pages, and I have read journal papers of 10 to 12 pages normally. Is there a way to systematically recognize by simple quick reading whether a paper is a journal or a conference one?
I'm new on research, I have been recommended IEEE Xplore, ScienceDirect, and ResearchGate, I know they have the option to search for journal or conference papers, but when a labmate delivers to you a bulk of papers to be analyzed I'd like to be able to differentiate between them.

If it says "Journal of Important Topics" it's a journal paper. If it says "Conference on Important Topics" it's a conference paper. If it says nothing, you'll have to look it up.

@Thomas Thank you but precisely, must of the papers don't have the "conference" or "journal" words stated. you know what I mean?

must of the papers don't have the "conference" or "journal" words stated --- Are these actual published papers (random example) or preprints (random example) or something else? I ask because, at least to me (and maybe this is field-dependent), I don't understand how you wouldn't know which categorization to use. Also, if anything, paper length seems a very unreliable way to make the distinction --- depending on the journal, papers can be 3 to 6 pages or average over 20 pages.

@DaveLRenfiro this is a very good example of what I'm saying! I don't have idea whether these papers are conferences or journals, let alone if they are preprints, I really don't get it. Some papers do say: 2018 IEEE International Conference on Smart Computing, that's a conference ok, but other don't say anything, or say things like this: IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON KNOWLEDGE AND DATA ENGINEERING,  so, is the last one a Journal??

For your second example you can google and see quickly that this is a journal. I don't know why you need to do this or your background, but usually people become familiar with various publishing outlets in their field (conference proceedings, journals, book monograph series, book lecture note series, etc.) as they transition from course work to research in graduate school.

conferences are easier to get accepted — Not in my experience.

Why do you care whether a given paper was published in a conference proceedings or in a journal?  (As opposed to caring about the specific publication venue?)

To make matters more complicated, there is not always such a meaningful distinction! For instance, papers sent to ACM EICS are technically sent and optionally presented at a conference, yet the paper itself gets published in PACM (Proceedings of the ACM) which is a journal. Some conferences have reorganized themselves to be journal style, but it changes little to nothing about the content. Honestly, I suggest if you work in this field you generally not worry about it - they are generally distinctions without a difference in technology/comp sci/information. Venue matters more than organization.

Thanks everyone, now I understand, here in my university have wrong misconception then about this.

If the paper is in computer science or some closely related area, you can search for the title and authors, or the name of the venue if you have it, at DBLP.  For example:

IEEE International Conference on Smart Computing is listed under "Conferences and Workshops"
IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering is listed under "Journals"

But remember that many papers appear in preliminary/abbreviated form at a conference, and in final/complete form in a journal, and as a preprint on arXiv (which is neither a conference nor a journal), and as a technical report, and as a master's/PhD thesis, and so on.  If you want to cite the specific paper you're reading, make sure you cite the precise version you're actually reading.

Thanks, it clarifies the question.


text:
What criteria should be used to shorten the list of references?
I want to submit a paper to a natural science journal, and there is a limit in the number of references.
All the current references are relevant since a reader can double-check what I claim.
But if I had to cut the references, what criteria should I use? I referenced some news articles that back my claims about current development. I certainly would cut those for other journal articles in a science journal. What is the recommended way to go here?

Is there a good review article to which you can refer the reader for an overview of the background subject material?

Will compressing (shortening) the references suffice?

Reference limits aren't typically literally there to limit the number of references, they are there to limit the length and breadth of the Introduction and Discussion.
Rather than targeting specific references, look whether there are intro/discussion (I'd start with the intro) sections that aren't really needed, or can be consolidated to a brief statement and citation of a review. Probably if you are going as far as citing news articles you have too wide a view in the introduction.

I'd add that some journals don't count references that are exclusively cited in the Methods section, which can be a useful way to "trim" the number of references in the main text.


text:
Can I put an IEEE accepted journal version on Arxiv without paying Open Access fee?
I am targeting an IEEE publication that allows Traditional manuscript submission or Open Access (OA) manuscript submission. The OA fee is $2,045.

If I decide not to pay the OA fee (ie, I go for Traditional manuscript submission), can I still put the accepted paper version on arXiv?

If 1. is positive, what are the benefits of choosing the OA submission? What can't you do with the Traditional submission that you can with the OA one?

That is up to IEEE, but I doubt they would permit it. Publishers generally have some rules about what the author can put on arXiv and still publish with them. But I don't know their specific rules

Yes, you can (and open access has nothing to do with this).
Source

Accepted article
Authors may share or post their accepted article in the following locations:

Author’s personal website
Author’s employer’s website
arXiv.org
TechRxiv.org
Funder’s repository*

Note you have to include the IEEE copyright notice (given in the next section of the source).

Non-legal answer:
The journals (theoretically) are there to provide editorial services as well as manage peer-review.
As such, the final product, or "accepted paper version" as you put it, is a result of work of the original authors, as well as the editor and IEEE organization. These people own the copyright and so regulate the licensing. You can't just "put it on arXiv".
Legally speaking:
Consult your agreement with IEEE and potentially a copyright lawyer.
Here is what IEEE has to say, and a quote:

Can an author post his manuscript on a preprint server such as TechRxiv or ArXiv?
  Yes. The IEEE recognizes that many authors share their unpublished manuscripts on public
  sites. Once manuscripts have been accepted for publication by IEEE, an author is required to
  post an IEEE copyright notice on his preprint. Upon publication, the author must replace the
  preprint with either 1) the full citation to the IEEE work with Digital Object Identifiers (DOI)
  or a link to the paper’s abstract in IEEE Xplore, or 2) the accepted version only (not the IEEEpublished version), including the IEEE copyright notice and full citation, with a link to the
  final, published paper in IEEE Xplore.

From what I read in your link, there is "accepted" and "published" version, the latter being the final product. It seems you can post the accepted version on Arxiv (as @allure points out), but not the published one. Also, it seems that IEEE provides you with the pdf of the accepted version that can be posted, indicating that the article has been accepted.  Sec D of this source

@dave i got confused by several different things they mention, but that sounds about right. The point is that contract with IEEE says when piece of your writing stops being just "yours"

About point 1: the author accepted manuscript (AAM) is something which is prepared independently from IEEE and before any copyright transfer paperwork is signed. So IEEE certainly cannot forbid you from posting the AAM on arXiv or elsewhere, if you do so before signing copyright transfer paperwork. What they can do (and often will do) is require you to sign copyright transfer agreements that are incompatible with what you have already done, with the risk that they won't publish the final version of the article if you don't comply.
Note that, in some cases, your employer or funding agency may in fact be requiring you to post the AAM online under a permissive license, notwithstanding any rules from the publisher. For instance, you may be covered by the rights retention strategy if funded by a cOAlition S funder, you may be covered by mandatory archiving policies from your employer, etc.
To elaborate a bit on this: the point of rights retention strategies is essentially to submit the article with boilerplace acknowledgements indicating that due to funder/institutional requirements the authors will be posting the AAM online under a permissive license (e.g., CC-BY); then post the AAM online (notwithstanding any publisher rules to the contrary); then require the publisher to accommodate this in subsequent copyright transfer agreement. The idea is that if researchers are required to do this by a critical mass of funding agencies and institutions, then publishers will have no choice to accommodate it.
About point 2: the "benefit" of IEEE gold open-access is that is allows you to make sure that the publisher version of the article, with the journal formatting and publisher changes, is available as open-access -- not just the AAM.

"About point 1: the author accepted manuscript (AAM) is something which is prepared independently from IEEE" - I think journals could easily dispute the truth of this statement. It's irrelevant what the timing of the copyright transfer paperwork is, at that point in the submission process the journal has likely contributed heavily to the current version of the manuscript.

@BryanKrause: maybe, but I do not see why this means the journal could prevent the authors from posting their work. As far as I understand, the justification for publisher restrictions to the sharing of AAMs is only the copyright transfer agreement that comes afterwards.

Those agreements only make clear the rights and responsibilities of the parties; they don't say anything about the legal status of the revised manuscript at that point. The publisher is also fully within their rights to deny publication of a final manuscript version if you post even an earlier version you own completely. The most common compromise I've seen is that journals allow authors to post preprints of their pre-review submission without impacting publication. IEEE goes further and explicitly states that authors can post the "accepted manuscript" version.

Yes, I agree that the publisher can deny publication of a final manuscript version (as I think I pointed out in my answer). As for what is the most common compromise, the funding agencies of cOAlition S go further and are now asking authors to post their AAMs under CC-BY, not just for IEEE but for any publisher.

Yeah, to be clear I think your answer is mostly correct and conveys IEEE's policy correctly, but I think the "certainly cannot forbid you" bit is misleading.

PS: while this may be dependent on IEEE's goodwill and on your affiliation, there is an answer here https://lancaster.libanswers.com/faq/260287 with a contact email address to ask for permission to license your accepted manuscript under CC BY if required.