text:
Weak Survey as Poster?
My question is related to the fact that at a specific conference, if a submission is rejected then the reviewers may instead recommend that it be presented as a poster session.
Specifically, consider a paper that has no technical contribution. Rather, assume that it is a superficial survey of the main topics included in a scientific domain, i.e. This new domain should take points A, B, C, etc. into consideration, and some of these points may use technologies D, E, F as solutions. Not much literature surveyed and no results by the author included.
Now, it is my understanding that poster sessions are normally works in progress. My questions therefore are:

Can weak surveys fit as poster sessions? Is this normal or unheard of?
Using the case described in paragraph 2 above, have you witnessed papers of the same quality presented as posters at conferences? Most importantly, is this acceptable behaviour?

Thanks in advance.
Edit: In response to the discussion between xLeitix and O.R. Mapper (thank you both, honestly), I believe my use of the word superficial is a little vague. Let's for example take the combination of two large domains: virtualization and the automotive industry. Instead of the author surveying specific works integrating these two techs, let's assume the author takes the following broad and hence superficial approach:

The author mentions and discusses a few of the major considerations involved in virtualization.
The author mentions and discusses a few of the major considerations involved in vehicular networks
The author mentions a few of the major considerations involved in integrating virtualization and vehicular networks together.
The author ends the paper by discussing how some technologies may address some of the aforementioned issues. The solutions are not in themselves surveyed extensively, but more so:

"This person did this, that one did that to address X, etc.", without any deep or insightful comparisons.
"To address this issue type 2 hypervisors may be more useful", no evidence backing this claim.
etc..

Very brief, the paper is useful in that it groups together eloquently quite a bit of information, albeit, not in an informative way for the expert, but more so for a person starting their research in a similar domain. Hence, my dilemma; the paper would make a great article in a technical magazine, but not as a conference paper. Perhaps as a poster it would be stimulating and beneficial to the authors and for non-experts interested in the domain (possibly stimulating inter-field synergies etc.).
I have not seen something like this before, but I am not seasoned; hence, why I ask if this is acceptable, or even normal.
Note: The example given is fictional.

Are you intending to (non-exclusively) tackle the domain? If so, such a poster sounds like it could be fully valid; I have seen quite some posters that essentially said "I'm new and this is what I'd like to start doing research about. I am here with this poster so you, experienced people, can tell me whether this is a good idea and give me additional hints on how and where to look."

Not my paper, so I'm not sure what the author intends. However, your answer here is exactly what I was seeking. Could you please modify your answer below so that I can mark it as accepted?

I have tried to edit those hints into my answer in a somewhat more systematic way than in the tiny comment.

Now, it is my understanding that poster sessions are normally works in progress.

Not quite. Poster sessions normally readily accept work in progress. However, I have yet to see a poster session that requires the presented work to be in progress, or unfinished.
The reason why you normally see much work in progress on poster sessions besides few finished results is that authors who have complete, final results will rather aim for something more reputable than "just" a poster, by trying to publish a regular conference paper.
However, it is completely acceptable to present final results on a poster, if you deem a poster to be the best way to draw benefit from your results (e.g. get in touch with other researchers).
EDIT: As explained by the updated question, the "final results" are actually just final for a very early step in a research endeavour. It seems that they are meant to show a direction into which future research could proceed.
This kind of statements, especially when it refers to the future research that the author would like to start, is rather common on posters. Like this, posters serve two purposes:

On the one hand, they show a small contribution. Even though they are comparably abstract and superficial, the early conclusions on how several aspects can be combined and thus lead to new research questions may provide a good overview of the new topic to other researchers. In this interpretation, the content of the poster is a newly discovered research question that is possibly interesting to other people beside the poster author.
On the other hand, they serve as a request for comments on the author's work. Poster sessions are perfectly suited for finding opportunities to let experienced researchers have a look at one's work and provide comments or enter into a discussion with them. In this interpretation, the content of the poster is a kind of a research proposal.

Can weak surveys fit as poster sessions? Is this normal or unheard of?

I feel a poster is a terrible format for a survey, good or bad. Surveys are almost by definition long texts with many, many tables, references, and cross-references. Posters are meant to present an approach or tool in a very, very cursory way (usually with one or two figures and some catchy statements). I see no way to compress a survey into a poster and still achieve any sort of value to the community.

Specifically, consider a paper that has no technical contribution. Rather, assume that it is a superficial survey of the main topics included in a scientific domain.

Just for my sanity - if you yourself think that the survey is very superficial and doesn't add help your community, then why do you want to publish it at all? Even in a "publish or perish" mentality, a poster contribution counts for so little that I wonder why you even bother?

Posters such as this, this, this, or these contain quite a bit more information than "one or two figures and some catchy statements". I am not sure all surveys necessarily involve "many, many tables", but that may depend on the definition of "survey".

@O.R.Mapper Why write a survey if not to integrate a bunch of existing information / literature? Essentially, if the info from your survey fits a poster, I am not seeing the point.

Well, that's the way the survey is described by the OP, "Not much literature surveyed and no results by the author included." If the survey is not that "wide", but rather focuses on a very narrow subtopic, I can imagine a schematic of the different detected approaches that can conveniently displayed on one poster to be a suitable and sufficient way of presentation. In a way, such a survey is even "work in progress", as it would serve as a kind of an "activation call", as if to say "these ten examined works have a certain synergy when categorized as shown here, I think we should work on this!"

And even with not so narrow surveys, I would argue that surveys of topics related to visual arts or information visualization can very well be presented on a poster in a meaningful way


text:
Asking potential PhD supervisors about research
Is it considered acceptable to ask potential PhD supervisors to recommend some of their recent publications for reading to get some idea what they are doing? Or is it considered the applicant's job to familiarize themselves with the supervisor's research? I could imagine that a busy professor might not want to spend much time writing about his/her research to a person who might not apply after all.

You could do that. However, do keep in mind that asking for something that you could very well do on your own isn't likely to win you any brownie points in their eyes.
A better option is to find and read several of his/her recent publications. Begin with a Google search, check out their webpage if they have one, search academic databases, etc. Don't email them for papers until you've found and read whatever is easily available. If you find one that is particularly interesting but you can't find the full text anywhere, then is the time to email asking if they'd be willing to share an author copy.
Familiarize yourself with what they have done. Know what aspects of the past research interests you most. THEN, you will be ready to ask what they are working on now, to have an idea whether you might fit in with their current/ongoing project(s). In this way, you are showing independence, initiative, and responsibilty, all good attributes for a PhD candidate to have.

Wow, I'm glad I found your answer. I'm also choosing a phD supervisor right now and thinking about emailing PIs about further readings. I've already read all of their recent publications, but for some that was still from a few years ago. Do you think they would be annoyed if I emailed about papers I could read to get familiarized with current research, or would that be something I should somehow find myself?

@ vidory, edited to answer your question.

source: Stack Exchange

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text:
Professor is planning on delaying our paper
I'm working on the project of a professor in my school, expecting its results to help with my graduate admissions. We're already on the process of writing the research paper, but my professor told me he's planning on delaying its publication so he can work on another project while getting funding for the work we're doing. So I have two questions about this:

Is this a common practice in a professional level?
What can I do to get this paper going? Even if it's not published. I was thinking about presenting a preprint as part of my applications, but I'm not sure if it'll work since it hasn't started a peer-review process or something of that matter.

Have you talked to your professor about your concerns? You should mention that you were hoping to use this paper in your graduate admissions.

@Ric I haven't talked with him about my concerns yet, He told me that on our last meeting, he was somewhat busy and I was astonished by it, so I didn't talked about that.

It sounds like "What can I do to get this paper going" is a question that can only be answered in consultation with your advisor.  We really don't know enough of the details to be useful here.

Can't you publish a preliminary article as a conference proceedings? In this way, you can publish the article later, and also have something for now.

@MikeyMike that seems like a viable option I should consider in case I don't get to convince him to publish the paper. Thanks for the suggestion.

Doing research means working on questions for which the answer
is unknown, and in fact may remain unknown for a long time.
Unfortunately, this simple fact is only moderately compatible
with project-based research funding, since funding agencies
would like to know right now what you're going to discover
in the next two years. Some funding agencies have a rather
relaxed attitude in this matter: My late doctoral advisor
used to begin every project progress report with the statement
"We had promised to investigate A, but in the meantime our
interests have changed, and so we've rather investigated B"
and he always got away with it, because the funding agency was
only interested in the number of publications. But if a
funding agency gets picky when comparing project proposals
and progress reports, things become more difficult. In such cases,
researchers are often tempted to simplify
writing the progress reports by
putting those problems into the project proposal for which they
already have a rather good idea how to solve them, but no publication yet.

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text:
Etiquette for declining a tenure track job offer
I have a good idea of what things to say in my correspondence regarding this matter; here I'm mainly asking how to deliver the news: by phone or by letter/email.
I have received conflicting advice about this. In many jobs (academic or not) the most common advice seems to be to make a phone call, followed up with a confirmatory email or letter. Specifically in an academic setting, I have heard at least two chairs/deans say something along the lines of "Call me with good news. Email me with bad news". Others have said "use the same medium the school used to contact you"-- in most cases I've heard of, the school often uses a mix of written and telephone correspondence.
In my particular case, declining the offer by phone would require scheduling a phone call through an intermediary, because all previous correspondences have gone through the Dean's secretary (sending contracts, scheduling previous phone calls). Based on the non-instantaneous scheduling of our other chats, I suspect this would delay things by a few days (so, it wouldn't be like I could just call his office number for a quick chat). Regardless, it seems rather awkward to go through this process of scheduling a phone call just to say "No Thanks".
Any advice on the general question and/or my specific situation is appreciated.

Your own experience will tell you that this depends greatly on the persons, professions, and cultures involved.  If they have told you specifically how to contact them about a rejection, abide by that.  If you know someone that might know the recipient of the bad news reasonably well, you could try asking them what would be best for that person.

Thanks @zibadawa. I do not know the people involved very well. Aside from the interview, and the correspondences afterwards, I have never met them. Only instructions on how to accept the offer were given (sign the contract and return it). Nothing specific was said about how to reject the offer. In this case, I assumed that defaulting to conventional practices in academia would suffice, which is why I asked the question.

by phone or by letter/email — False dichotomy.  Use both.

@JeffE, I guess I meant it as an inclusive "or", as reinforced by In many jobs (academic or not) the most common advice seems to be to make a phone call, followed up with a confirmatory email or letter --- the question is whether this standard etiquette, or is the standard etiquette that described by chairs/deans who prefer you only call with good news. I guess your comment indicates you're in the former camp. Thanks.

One practical issue that might matter to the institution:  when a candidate turns us down, we are not allowed by the human resources office to make an offer to someone else until we have this response in writing.  I'd call or email and then follow up with a letter.

[Caveat: Cultural differences may come into play here.  My answer is based on the US.]
Time is of the essence in tenure-track hiring.  If you are declining the offer, the chair/dean wants to know as soon as possible.  They need to move on to make an offer to another candidate, before that candidate in turn gets/accepts an offer from some other institution.
So if you care about the impression you leave with the institution, don't waste time on niceties, but contact them via whatever means will reach them the fastest.  If you have a direct phone number for someone, call it.  If you don't, or you don't reach them, send an email.  Be concise and to the point.  If you want, you can include a line like "I apologize for the informality of this email, but I thought you would want to know as quickly as possible."
aeismail's suggestion of emailing a scanned formal letter strikes me as overcomplicated.  I think the chair/dean would rather get the news in a quick line or two of text, instead of you taking the time to compose something elegant.  Note also that scanned PDFs can be difficult to read on smartphones, and this is the kind of news that a chair/dean would prefer to get immediately, even if they are out of the office.
I'd regard Nox's suggestion of using postal mail as unacceptable.  When the chair opens your letter three days from now, their immediate reaction is going to be extreme annoyance that you didn't get them this news three days ago.
You can follow up with a letter (by mail or email) in which you express your regret that you can't accept the offer, your appreciation for their time and consideration, etc.  (Indeed, they may even ask you to send such a letter, or dictate what you should include in it.) But that can wait.

If job acceptance requires a formal signature (and mine typically have), I would think you'd want to do the same with the rejection notice.

@aeismail: You can sign the followup letter, and it's possible that, like at Brian Borchers's institution, they can't actually make an offer to someone else until they get such a letter.  But with an email or call from you, they can at least start to  decide about what to do next, and maybe informally contact their next choice candidate.

I would say that the most appropriate medium would be to send a written communication, either as an email or as a letter. This carries much more weight than a phone call, as you actually have something resembling a paper trail that you can provide.
Although there is a certain wisdom in the advice "contact them as they contacted you," this is an exceptional enough situation that deviating from that rule seems more appropriate.
The route that I would use is to write a formal, signed letter, then scan it in and send a copy of the scanned letter as a PDF to the intended recipient. The scan will reach them more quickly, and you'll still have the formal communication sent by regular mail.

Thanks. To clarify: are you saying that, in general, a written letter is sufficient (or maybe even preferred)? Or, are you suggesting that for my particular situation? In my situation, I could get the SC chair or Dept Chair on the phone probably rather easily, but it was actually the dean who made the offer.

I think it's generally valid.

I agree, too. Formal communication, especially for a job application/offer, should be done using a written medium. Normal mail should be (imho) preferred though EMail might be acceptable.

@Nox: Starting with email gets the information across faster, as Nate mentions in his answer below.

I would write to the dean/provost formally over e-mail. If you wish to write it as a letter, then print or scan to PDF and send that. This can be a very short letter and you do not have to detail your reasons or your regrets.
If you've been in close contact with the department chair and/or search committee members, I think they would appreciate e-mail or phone calls after you've written the dean. These can be less formal, and if you don't want to burn bridges with people who you might still be maintaining relations with, you can go into further details about your rationale and your regrets in not being able to work with them.


text:
Question about postdoctoral salary in China
I have been offered a postdoc position in Shenzhen. The salary salary condition is 240,000/260,000 chinese yuan/year, but will be dispersed as 5000/6800 per month and "pass open project exam" 180,000 one time, the 180,000 normally will be given around 6-9 months after people join the group.
I don't understand what "pass open project" means. Also, is it possible to survive on 5000 per month salary in Shenzhen? Is the accommodation provided by University?

Have you asked anyone at the university yet? Maybe your future advisor?

I think there are probably better StackExchange sites for the question about livability-- Personal Finance, maybe? Or Travel? The "pass open project exam" question, however, seems at home here.

I don't think this is out of scope, although the expats stackexchange (if it survived?) might be better for part of the question. VOting to leave open.

It is the best, of course, to ask someone at the university who speaks both English and Chinese well, or a trusted colleague who knows Chinese. You could also check with an expat working at the university. If needed, you might want to talk to a Chinese lawyer focusing on foreign workers.
In the context of Shenzhen, it's likely (though you should confirm this in writing) that the 180k refers to the annual postdoctoral living allowance provided by the Shenzhen government. This allowance isn’t technically a salary (it is not paid by the employer); it’s a tax-free stipend for up to two years.
The "open project exam" is probably a poor translation of "开题考核," which literally means "assessment for opening a project." This is the approval process for starting your research project and is mostly a formality. The same term is also used for exams that approve thesis projects for doctoral or master's students (but there sometimes it is more than a formality).
You need to pass this internal assessment (i.e. get the official approval for your postdoc proposal) before you can apply for the living allowance from the government. There's also an annual or mid-term review that you need to pass to get the allowance for the second year.
Shenzhen Postdoctoral Funding Management Measures (it will be replaced soon but the principles are the same)：

Article 7
流动站在站博士后生活补贴标准在省财政给予每人每年资助15万元基础上，给予每人每年6万元配套资助；工作站、创新基地及其他单位，在站博士后生活补贴标准为每人每年18万元。
The living allowance standard for postdoctoral researchers in mobile stations is set at 150,000 RMB per person per year, provided by provincial finances, with an additional 60,000 RMB per person per year in matching funds. For those in workstations, innovation bases, and other units, the living allowance is set at 180,000 RMB per person per year.
在站博士后生活补贴的资助期限不超过2年。
The funding period for the in-station postdoctoral living allowance shall not exceed two years.
Article 8
在站博士后人员应当在开题考核及中期考核合格后6个月内，向市人力资源保障部门申请在站生活补贴。
Postdoctoral researchers must apply to the Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Department for the in-station living allowance within six months of passing the project proposal assessment and mid-term assessment.

As Allure pointed out in their answer, you need to ask someone from the department there what this means exactly. There is a massive difference between 6800 RNB/ month and 260.000 RNB per year and you need to understand which of the two you are getting under which conditions (and whether these conditions are mostly under your control or under someone else's).
For the standard of living, this sort of depends on what you compare it to. First the average local Chinese person in Shenzen lives on less than 5000 RNB per month, so this is definitely possible.
If you get a salary of 260.000 RNB per year this will get you a standard of living that is roughly comparable to a postdoc standard of living in Western Europe. Housing cost will be expensive, think Paris or London for a comparable quality and price. Everything else will be much cheaper, most commodities (food, clothing, etc) roughly half the price of Western Europe for a similar quality, everything mostly service (taxis, hair cuts, etc even cheaper).
This also menas that if the university provides accomodation for you that is very valuable. Definetely ask them about it, even if you have to pay for it there is a high probability this will be a much better deal that what you could get yourself on the regular housing market.
If you have a postdoc offer from Shenzen University I would expect a salary package that comes to roughly a Western standard, so I would assume you get the full 260.000 RNB, but make sure you understand the details before you sign it.

Sounds like the work of someone who's not fluent in English (very common in China).
Best to ask your contact there to clarify.

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text:
How many follow-up emails should I send to professors to inquire about working in their laboratory as a master's student?
I plan to pursue my master’s in Korea next semester, and it’s highly recommended to secure a professor before applying to the university. I reached out to a total of 7 Korean professors via email. Since I’m proficient in Korean (C1/TOPIK 5), I wrote the emails in Korean and had a native friend review them to ensure there were no errors, I included the English translation at the bottom of the email just to be sure. Each email was personalized after thoroughly reading the professors’ papers, where I expressed my genuine interest in their work and briefly introduced my research background. I also attached my CV, undergraduate thesis, and a brief summary of my research experience. However, only one professor has responded so far. I sent follow-up emails to the remaining six professors four days ago, but I have yet to receive any replies.
I also emailed the lab manager of one of the professors who did not respond, but I haven't received a reply from him either. The department I am considering applying to is Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.
How many follow-up emails can I send to professors to inquire about working in their laboratory as a master's student?

None is the correct number!

Do you understand the application system in South Korea? Does one normally apply to a professor or, as in the US, to the department? If the latter, few such letters get answered. If the former, people normally advertise positions.

There are many students who reach out to professors to study in Korea before applying to university. I also researched several international students who are pursuing their master's degrees, and they recommended the same approach, as they followed this exact strategy.

안녕하세요! Since you've mastered Korean (congratulations!), I'd recommend asking your question in a Korean-language forum (if you can find one). Academia differs greatly from place to place, and the best advice will come from people familiar with the local culture and application procedures. Good luck to you!

You CAN send as many emails as you like, the question here is rather how many emails SHOULD you send. I have edited your title accordingly.

https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/94395/waiting-to-hear-back-from-a-professor-how-long-should-i-wait also duplicate

@Sursula It seems my situation is quite different from theirs. Nonetheless, thank you for your reply

As a professor, I always find baffling when students write me such mails with their CV, thesis, etc., etc., but never mention their source of funding. Just like it is not mentioned here. However, very often this is the primary question I have to clarify before reading everything else.

@rg_software My funding is self-supported, and I am not requesting any financial assistance. In my previous email, I mentioned that I am applying to their department through the university. My only aim is to contribute to the research in their laboratory. Nothing in the e-mail sent was baffling.

Voting to leave open - I don't think it's a dupe as it is about Korea, and answers may be different from those applicable elsewhere. However, I don't know how likely you are to get a good answer here, as I don't know how many here are familiar with the Korean system. As somebody else said, it might be worth your while finding a community of Korean academics to ask.

One follow-up e-mail is the maximum. You only send the follow-up e-mail if you e-mailed one or at most two group leaders and that's exactly that group where you want to work. If your e-mail wasn't replied, in 90% of the cases that was deliberate and maybe just in 10% of cases your e-mail got lost in professor's spam folder. I am now talking about a situation when you are just writing an unsolicited e-mail to someone in hope they would have an open position and not when you apply to an announced vacancy that has been officially advertised, usually with a fixed deadline. In the latter case you should get a confirmation letter that your application has been received. If you didn't, sending a reminder is always appropriate.

I see, thank you for taking the time to answer. Some professors have stated on their lab websites that they have open positions for master's students and that they would like to be contacted directly via email. Since ı got no reply even though ı sent and follow-up email,  I guess ı should give up.

@beesarecute One possibility is that the professors are busy with something else at the moment, and plan to read all the emails from prospective applicants at the same time later.

Often this statement professors have on the web site was written years ago when they became professors. They want you to apply but  in case there are too many applications, they cannot reply to everyone. The absence of a reply means they don't have anything to offer you at the moment.

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text:
Recently accepted paper: haven't heard from publisher
My paper was accepted by a journal a week ago. The acceptance email told me to expect an email from the publisher asking me to provide the license for publication. So far I haven't received anything. In my experience, I always heard from journal publishers within hours after receiving the acceptance decision. Should I inquire and, if so, should I contact the academic editor or the publisher directly?

First check your junk mail.

Nothing in spam :)

Is your prior experience with the same journal and/or publisher?

I don't think I've published with the same publisher.

Yes, you can enquire and ask if there is any difficulty. But a week is no time at all. The person who handles such things might be away or busy or whatever.
An enquiry is important only if you have some deadlines, but that is unlikely in the case of an accepted paper and the schedule is theirs to make (or break).


text:
MSCA seal of excellence
I have applied for a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship and, despite receiving a grade of 90%, did not receive it. Although nothing is mentioned in the application, it turns out something called a "seal of excellence" (SoE) exists and is given to people with scores higher than 85%. They claim this seal could be used to acquire funding from other sources.
Unfortunately, except for some hand-wavy stuff about a medical school in the Netherlands and some universities in Germany, there is not a lot of information about what one could achieve with these seals. I have heard from friends that in Italy, more specifically Padova, the university itself can offer to cover your research if you are awarded a SoE.
My question is specifically about France, since I could not find much on the subject: Is it of any use here, and especially in the Île-de-France region?

Does this help? https://ec.europa.eu/info/research-and-innovation/funding/funding-opportunities/seal-excellence_en

@Sursula-they- I checked this link, but unfortunately there is essentially nothing said about France...

I don't think there's any official way to get a postdoc out of a seal of excellence in France. However, you can include it in your CV. Have you tried contacting the French NCP? https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/support/ncp There are four contacts listed for inquiries about MSCA.


text:
Does Turnitin match my paper against sources found after I submitted by paper?
I have to submit my dissertation through Turnitin. I am planning on publishing the dissertation on my website a few days after submitting it through Turnitin so future employers can see what kind of work I produce.
I was wondering if posting it online after submitting it through Turnitin would cause any problems? The Turnitin content scrapers would find the disseration online after I submitted it through Turnitin so would it appear on the Turnitin similarity report and affect the similarity score?
TL;DR: I post the dissertation on the internet AFTER submitting it through Turnitin. Would it show up on my similarity report?

Is there any reason you can't wait until the school finish checking your dissertation through Turnitin and then put it on your website?

The worst that could happen is that Turnitin finds your thesis, is too dumb to realize that these documents are the same, and flags that there is a 100% overlap. In which case a human will look at the situation, realize that the two are the same document, and everyone moves on with their lives.
In other words, nothing to worry about. A large number of people post their theses on their websites. So this is acceptable practice, and if Turnitin can't recognize this, then that's their problem, not yours.

The Turnitin settings allow for checking either when submitted or on the due date. It depends on which of these options were selected by whoever is administrating the submissions


text:
Non-confidential student support letter for a teaching award
My home faculty announced a call of nominations for a teaching award. I am confident that my teaching contributions have been substantial and wish to be recognized. So I contacted the selection committee and asked them if I, as a nominee, can contact my (staff and faculty) colleagues and students to solicit their letters of support.
And the answer is that I can do this to prepare the nomination package myself for submission, as long as nominators are given the option to send their letters to the committee directly if they wish to keep them confidential.
So far, many of my students who responded took the option of sending their letters directly to me. I wonder if their letters, compared with those sent confidentially, will be in any way treated with less weight/value (given that I did get a green light by the selection committee)?

I can't see into the minds of the judges responsible for the award, but such letters might well be discounted. The problem is the possibility that the students were actually writing to solicit favors from you in the future - trying to "get on your good side". Actually, it is the perception that they might be trying to get some future favor.
You might suggest to the writers that they send letters directly.
In any case, the direct answer to whether confidential letters might hold more weight is yes, they might.
But if there are a combination of letters sent confidentially and not and they are consistent, then I doubt it would be a problem.
But IANAMR (I am nor a mind reader).


text:
How important is the master thesis work while applying for a PhD abroad?
I did my Master's in chemistry (overall CGPA 8.5). My master thesis was not well written. I want to work on a different field during my PhD. Will my master thesis be an obstacle for my PhD application?

What country did you do the degree? What country do you want to study in?

i did my masters from india. i want to apply for phd in germany, japan and USA.

Was the writing the problem or the research itself? And a GPA of 8.5 is pretty high, what was the grade for the thesis?


text:
Should 'Equation' as a word start with a capital letter if it is not starting a sentence?
I am writing a mathematical seminar, in it, I reference equation numbers a lot. Should I write something like “see Equation 1” or “see equation 1”? It is now normal for me to write like “...see Table 1”, “...check Figure 6” etc. instead of “...see Table 1”, “...check Figure 6”.

In my area, we use Eq. (x).

Related: https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/171402/20058

Barring any specific guidelines from your field that would state otherwise, yes, you should capitalize the word "equation" when it is acting as a proper noun in your work.
If you give a name to an equation, table, or figure, (such as "Equation 1," Figure 1," etc.) then it should be referenced with a capital letter because it is acting as a proper noun. If you are simply writing about equations without referencing a particular one, then the letter should not be capitalized.
Examples:

Not capitalized: By looking at the equation above, we can see...
Capitalized: By looking at Equation 1 above, we can see... (assuming you have denoted a particular equation as Equation 1).


text:
Should I mail a professor after applying to a programme?
I have applied for a summer research program for 2022. The application involved listing a preference order of professors I would like to work under. Each professor had a one line summary of the work that they were offering for the summer listed (for example “Analysis of XX data”, “Study of model system“, etc.). There’s one professor who I really want to work with, so I put him first on my preference order and filled the rest with other professors who’s work wasn’t as interesting but definitely something I would love to do.
Due to the project listing being so uninformative, I really want to know more about it (details which I can’t simply guess from the labs' research profile or previous publications) and at the same time put myself on his radar showing my interest in his labs work with respect to the summer.
How should I mail him if all I’m asking for is details about the project he’s offering? Usually for summer applications I would come up with a research-idea based on the labs' previous works and discuss that with a prof., but if the project is already decided beforehand how do I show genuine interest and initiative about his work? Should I even mail him about something like this in the first place?

Please clarify your specific problem or provide additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it's hard to tell exactly what you're asking.

Yes, you can email them for more information. In particular, you could ask them if there are one or two readings that you could do to familiarize yourself with the project they are sponsoring.
Keep the mail short and don't lobby for a position with long explanations about yourself. You want your mail to be easy to read and easy to reply to.
If you send mail to more than one, make each one individual, mentioning their specific project.


text:
When submitting a paper to a journal, what is considered an original figure?
It is often the case that you want to make a similar point compared to what you made in previous papers, but in a different context. But you can't use the same figure that you used in a previous paper because that wouldn't be considered original work (it could be called "self-plagiarism", but I don't much like that term).
I'm not interested in the legal (copyright) perspective, which has been covered in this answer. I'm interested in it from a research conduct and ethics perspective.
If I adapt a figure for a new context, what makes it original? Changing the layout? Changing some labels? Changing axes ranges of plots? Adding some new data along with the old? Or must it be all new data?

Do you have an example of a situation where "original figure" requirements do not involve the legal/copyright aspect to which your question applies?

If the figure is a significant result of either work, you'll probably want to attribute it like the answer says, since it's actually important to be honest on what advances you're making in the field at each stage. But if it's not part of the contribution (say, it's a motivating counterexample for your problem), then I would say feel free to add them the same way you did previously if that's more convenient. Yeah, the "self-plagiarism" police on the internet here might take out their pitchforks, but the rest of the world doesn't exactly see it as a crime against humanity.

Self-plagiarism is reuse of material without appropriate attribution.
It is entirely ethical to reuse a figure from a prior paper as long as you attribute the content of the figure. I have found the phrase "reproduced from" (for exact copies) and "adapted from" (for redrawn or otherwise adjusted material) to be useful here.
For example, if you were publishing a follow-up paper on an experiment with a new analysis of its data, you might include a diagram of the setup taken from the first figure with a caption like:

"The self-operating napkin apparatus was set up in both the full specified configuration as a control condition and in reduced forms omitting either the parrot (E) or the rocket (K), as specified in (Goldberg, 1931). Figure reproduced from (Goldberg, 1931)"

Copyright, as you note, is an entirely independent question.

It's satisfying to see that you use an actual reference even in the dummy example.

You left out the "with permission" part of the "reproduced" page.  You need to get permission from the copyright holder.  It's easier to alter the figure and say "adapted from"

This is true even if you were the author.

@ScottSeidman As I said, copyright is an entirely different issue. You may or may not need permission, depending on the original. Case in point, the citation in my example requires no permission, as it is in the public domain, as generally are US Government products and a number of other sources one might wish to reproduce.

@jakebeal for public domain, there is no copyright holder.  Also, publishers can't take copyright from US government employees writing for the government.  That said, it's the "entirely ethical" without specific caveat I'm taking issue with.

In the end it is up to the journal whether your work is original enough for their purposes. However, to avoid self-plagiarism concerns all you need to do is to make clear the relation to prior work. If a figure is reproduced wholesale (which is often appropriate, especially in review articles), state from where it is reproduced (and secure permission to do so). If the layout is changed, state that the figure is adapted from the original. If some of the data in the figure was previously published, clearly state its origin and make clear what data is new.

In the context of publishing, editors want original figures because previously used ones are copy-righted.
As far as self-plagiarism is concerned: First, this is a concept that covers two different fields: (1) Student work submitted for evaluation and (2) academic articles. The prohibition of self-plagiarism for (1) is the impact on the evaluation of student work. For (2), it is about someone inflating their work (usually for self-promotion) by publishing the same idea multiple times. Using criteria from context (1) for context (2) is misleading (even though I will get down-voted for this opinion).
Therefore, witty formulations from the introduction copied from one work to another without marking them as such is self-plagiarism in context (1) and not in context (2). Using exactly the same idea to write to entirely different articles should be self-plagiarism in context (2) but is usually not in (1). Of course, there is a very large gray zone here.
In the context of your question: Figures can be very complicated and involve art work. I am thinking of a figure showing the different style of bronze age axes between two different sites. That figure should not be copied from one work to another without clearly marking it. Second, figures can be very utilitarian. Assume you have one data set that you use for both papers. You create a scatter graph using mathematica or matplotlip.pyplot. I do not think it is self-plagiarism if you end up using exactly the same figure. The creative novelty is in the data, not the depiction. Changing minor things such as colors or sizes does not change the original sufficiently, but it will make your editorial house happy because it is now harder to claim a copy-right violation.
Should you mark this clearly? The US patent law uses a fictitious "competent engineer" to test for the novelty of a potential invention. A similar standard should appear here, because otherwise terse academic writing will be filled with (adapted from) notes that are entirely superfluous. A figure is often just a way to describe data. If the same data is reused, that reuse needs to be flagged. But changing fonts on a simple scatter plot is silly.
To give a final example: You compare the population of Uruguay and Burundi over the last century from raw data. You cite the data source. The drawing of a graph is so simple that the drawing is not cite-worthy.


text:
Short references in bibliography
I found the following bibliography in a book:

Is there a website which generates this kind of references automatically, that is short references?
On google scholar there are only long references:

EDIT: I tried to do it with endnote, but there is not the style that I want. I used all Nature styles.
Thank you so much for your time.

The question is not clear to me. Do you want to extract the references from the PDF documents or finding the sources of these references?

Hello @Younes, I'd like to copy (from website; google scholar does not seem to do it) the references in the above (short) format.

Try this service: http://excite.west.uni-koblenz.de:8081/excite

Thank you for the link @Younes, but I have only a paper in my bibliography: https://scholar.google.it/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=a+multi-technique+reconfigurable+electrochemical+biosensor&btnG= How can I obtain the short reference to insert in my thesis?

Practically, no one copy & paste citations they way you try doing. There are programs like Endnote or Mendeley that are used for citation formatting. Each journal has its own citation formatting, so you do not want to reformat citations by hand each time.
So, after installing the program,  you first import the citations using for example google scholar (see below). Then, in program (at least in Endnote) you choose a style and it will format you citations in Word file accordingly. In case there is no corresponding style, you can edit the existing one.

Hello @student, can you post a figure with the above (my fig. 1) formatting in EndNote please? I would know if EndNote is able to do it.

@GennaroArguzzi it seems that you should try Endnote to find out if it can match your specific needs.

I added the image. Not sure that this is exactly the formatting you, but these things are pretty flexible in Endnote. I think there is a trial version that you can download.

@GennaroArguzzi - the format you provide is a very common one for technical journals. Yes, EndNote can do it.

Excellent @student. What is the name of the output style?

You can take one of the styles of Nature journals and edit bibliography settings. Probably you can find style that will do that out of the box.

@student why did you say "probably"? You posted a figure, thus you know what is the right style!

Example I sent you was using  style I edited myself. BTW, you always can edit the reference by hand. Take one of the Nature styles and delete the titles manually.


text:
Download automatically all articles from references in a pdf file or on a journal website
I'm wondering if it is possible to download all articles from references  in a pdf file or on a journal website. For example I'd like to download all articles in the following references (I'm using the internet connection of my university, thus I can download all articles if they were purchased; I suppose my university did it):
https://www.hindawi.com/journals/isrn/2012/170594/ref/
Thank you for your help.
Ps: I have also the pdf file of the article.

As far as I know, there is no automated service to do this. One of the reasons is that mass download of research papers is frowned upon by the publishers (look up the sad story of Aaron Swartz, for instance).
If you want to build an automated (or semi-automated) solution yourself, one of the trickiest steps is identifying correctly the cited papers from the citation strings. For this you can use a research paper database, such as Scopus, Web of Science, or Pubmed. For instance, Scopus displays the references of a given paper in its page, and for each paper you get a "view at publisher" link that redirects you to the article page on the publisher website. This web page usually has a "download pdf" link inside it (usually paywalled, too), and since most papers come from the same major publishers it is should be possible to scrape this link automatically at least for these publishers.
Unfortunately the paper that you link to does not seem to be indexed neither in Scopus nor in Web of Science --- maybe because Hindawi is not one of these most "mainstream" publishers. It is in Pubmed, though. I am less familiar with it, but if you click on the references you also get a page with a "full text" link in it.
Note that Google Scholar does not display "forward" citation information, instead; only the reverse (papers citing a certain paper).
As mentioned in the other answers, you may be violating some terms of service if you do so. Terms of service are not the law, though, and I think you can only get into a very limited amount of trouble for that.
A Google search returns a few tools to do similar things:

https://github.com/ppwwyyxx/SoPaper
https://github.com/zaytoun/scihub.py
https://github.com/olivettigroup/article-downloader
https://pypi.python.org/pypi/metapub

I do not have experience with any of them, though, and I don't know if they are mature/stable enough for casual use.

What you are thinking of is a web-scraper. The time it takes to develop one and debug it should be weighed against the cost of directly downloading the PDF's manually.
If you don't have experience with python (a popular language) or R (which I am familiar with) I would recommend the old fashioned way (manual download)
With the comment by AJK, read VERY CLOSELY your Terms of Service, to see if you can use a scraper.

Also, many journals have policies specifically prohibiting systematic scraping, and will block users who do it or put up barriers to prevent it. While downloading 30-100 references probably won't raise any flags, there are issues at larger scale. [This is not to say it's a bad idea or even unethical - I've often wanted to do something like this!]

As someone who manually downloaded 300+ articles.... sigh

A easy way to do this is with a Firefox add-on called Down Them All: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/downthemall/
Screenshots:

In this second screenshot, notice that you can specify where the downloaded files should go; and you can specify what types of files should be downloaded.  Please note that this tool works with pages that have a bunch of linked PDFs you want to download efficiently -- which is apparently not your situation right now.

Hi @aparente001, I have Down Them All, but it does not show the pdf articles on the above link because the webpage hasn't direct link to pdf articles. Maybe I was missing something?

Sorry, Gennaro, I hadn't understood there were no links provided.  You might be able to be more efficient by using a URLOpener Productivity Tool in an intermediate step.  Also Federico's idea looks promising.

Hello @aparente001, I'm dolt with this tool. If possible can you post a short video tutorial please?


text:
Why does achieving some success in research not feel satisfying?
Are our academia research minds just so trained to constantly climb our mental mountains that when achieving some success, one feels, "that was it?", even when the past leading up to the success was absolutely brutal in terms of work load and stress and creative thinking, so that one would think the feeling would be more joyous.
Does it always just kind of feel that way?  Does the rewarding feeling dissipate very quickly?

This phenomenon exists beyond academia, and there's an interesting chapter in the book The Happiness Hypothesis about it, written by the psychologist Jonathan Haidt. In a nutshell, we are all super-bad at predicting our emotional reactions to things.

Is that all there is?

As often, various aspects of the premise are (in my opinion) the largest part of the problem. E.g., if the process itself is unpleasant, with the only reward being "success", it is not a happy balance. Instead, I think enjoyment of the process itself (mostly including confusion and struggle...) is essential. For that matter, often we fail to achieve various objectives propounded at the outset, even if/when we do manage to understand things better.

Beside @lighthousekeeper's comment that it is not constrained to academia, there simply are times where the expected result is lesser than the projected gain.  Independent from the former observation, I sometimes have the impression situations like "that was it?" (with slight / moderate tune of exhaustion and depression) correlate with (in retrospect / from outer perspective) undue / excessive aiming for external validation / validation by others of what I did / was pursued.

@JeffE seems to be a common theme in songs...

In my family, my spouse is the one with a long publications list, and my impression in my spouse's case is that the feeling of satisfaction that comes with publishing does not dissipate quickly, especially for the biggies (e.g. cover article).

The reward is pretty temporary.
There are definitely dramatic high points in academics- publishing a paper, making tenure, graduating a student, etc. Those are cool, but those are relatively rare occurrences. You can't judge the experience of climbing a mountain just based on how it felt when you got to the top. If you hate the entire experience of climbing up and down then you're spending 99% of your time hating the experience and only enjoying the dramatic moment.
Academics as a profession has no ending point, there's simply a process of continual improvement. No one is ever going to publish the last paper that explains everything and your teaching material is never going to get to a place where it's finally perfect. You're never going to get to the top of academics and declare that you're finished, so the day to day work you do is what you need to enjoy in order to feel fulfilled. This is true in most careers.
You need to define success clearly for yourself. What does it mean for you to be successful? Is it publishing so many papers in a year? Is it solving some problem close to your heart? Is it getting tenure? Is it becoming an editor of a journal in your field? Is it making a lot of money? Is it having time with your family?
Success is something that feels good when you're doing it. Everyone has hiccups, doldrums, or other low points in their career. That's normal, and not every day will be a good day (or year, or project, or paper, etc.). But, your routine work should be something you feel is enjoyable and fulfilling. If not, you're going to burn out sooner or later. This is true for any career, not just academics.

The payoffs in academia can be just as drawn out as the process needed to achieve them. If you wanted immediate gratification, you'd be in finance....or other.
Watch your h-index. Watch your citation count. Send your papers (unsolicited) to relevant labs. Give talks at conferences. But more importantly, have patience. This stuff takes time. Even a landmark paper can take years to earn citations.
But immediately, take personal pride in your accomplishments. Few people get to be a part of science. Every hard-won victory will stay with you.

(I know opinions vary, but watching h-index and/or citation count and such stuff is, in my opinion, stressful and unproductive, since these things do not measure what we might wish they did...)


text:
Is doing a 1 year MBA after many years of experience in the IT industry worth it?
I have over 13 years of experience in IT industry, but no consistent domain / specialization. I have worked as UI developer, project manager, scrum master, business analyst, recruiter, etc. for few years each. Now my career seems stuck and I am not getting further on the career ladder.
I couldn't go to college due to financial constraint in my early years. I am 35 now, but the itch to attend a regular university is still there. I want to do a regular MBA (preferably 1 year) from a foreign university. (I am a native Indian).
Sometimes I think that doing an MBA might give a kick to my stalled career. But these are my fears / constraints.

I still do not have enough money. My entire life's saving is around 45K USD. Should I do MBA or not? If yes, should I go for an ed loan (saving my current money for unforseen events) or empty my bank accounts (to avoid paying interest)?
If I leave my job now, with current slow economy, what will be the ROI of doing a 1 year MBA?
As per my little research Germany is a country for students (less tuition fee)! If I go for non-US universities (like Germany, Spain, Australia, NZ) I will have to learn their native language to survive there, which needs another 6-8 months.

TL;DR
Please advise if doing a 1 year regular MBA after 13 years of experience worth it? Which universities with good rankings offer affordable MBA?

I couldn't go to college due to financial constraint in my early years Do you have Bachelors degree?

Yes, I have bachelors through an evening college (which is not welcomed in India). This is another reason I want to do full-time MBA.

While your question is not strictly off topic, I think people from IT industry could much better answer you how much an MBA worth with your experience.

It seems that you are unsure of what you want from a MBA, besides hoping it might kickstart your career. I think it's important that you first identify exactly what you want from a MBA - your goals. Do you want to gain connections with others in your field? Do you want a job that requires a MBA? After you have identify these goals, ask yourself if a MBA at a certain institution will help you achieve these goals. The degree itself is just as important as where you get the degree. Foreign universities might be cheap, but degrees that come with it might not be highly regarded in the States.
Studying abroad is not the optimal choice in your situation. As a native American, there are plenty of prestigious American institutions willing to diversify their graduation class and scholarships will be available to you - you just have to search or ask for it. Going abroad for only 1 year is definitely not worth the trouble of learning a new language - it will be a distraction to your studies.
I would also disagree with you that the economy in the US is slow. Are there particular reasons why you feel that way?

I believe the OP is from India, not a native American.


text:
Advisor drops MSci student suddenly in final semester
Today I had a fellow student (who is working on a master's degree) come to me and inform me that our mutual advisor (call her Professor WW) had just dropped her as a student for "personal reasons." I am a more advanced doctoral student and have some niche expertise that my advisor does not have, so I do not feel like I am in personal danger of being axed as well, but I want some advice on how to proceed with this situation.
My colleague (call her QQ) is entering her final semester of a master's degree, so naturally having her advisor drop her is rather troubling.  QQ is a high quality student and is an excellent worker. She is the type of person I am privileged to have as a colleague. I was very surprised to hear that WW had curtly told her to find a new advisor.
QQ was funded via an NSF grant that WW had. As such, QQ had turned down other funding offers. With the abrupt dropping, Prof. WW obviously also cut QQ's funding. This has left QQ scrambling for funding for next semester with about two weeks before school goes on holiday.
To make matters even weirder, Prof. WW told QQ to not mention this to anyone and that she (WW) would arrange a new advisor for QQ privately, a complete circumvention of the department administration. The advisor that WW has chosen to pursue for QQ is on sabbatical until April 2017. (So,...not a great option).
While QQ has done some of her thesis, she is still at a stage where having an advisor is critical. The only professors who have enough expertise in our area of research are either on sabbatical or are the brand new department chair (and hence is "too busy for grad students").
Professor WW is up for tenure soon, and I think she is fearful that this antic will reflect poorly on her (since, well, it does). As I mentioned, WW has a large NSF grant. She produces a lot of papers (mostly on the backs of her grad students honestly) and brings in lots of money. She probably will get tenure.
Should I do anything here? Professor WW does somewhat control my destiny, but I already have a strong dissertation topic I feel, and I am not so far along that I could not just switch advisors if it came to it due to politics.
Am I ethically obligated to mention behavior like this to the administration, especially with the tenure considerations?  I want to advocate for my colleague QQ, but I also do not want to be blacklisted in my department for stepping out of line.

Additional Information
Some of the comments or answers have suggested that QQ was caught cheating/plagiarizing in some way. I am going to take this into consideration. It is a reasonable thought, not so much because I feel that QQ might actually be a cheater, but just because there is a (albeit very tiny) probability that QQ plagiarized.
Still, the last we spoke, QQ has been in contact with someone at the university level to guide her through the process of switching advisors. Unless QQ is much less intelligent than I thought, she probably will not be going down on the official record of filing a grievance if she had been caught doing something nefarious that WW had any semblance of proof of.
As for the thoughts on some sort of romance that developed between WW and QQ.....even less likely than QQ being a cheater in school. Let's just leave it at that.

"To make matters even weirder, Prof. WW told QQ to not mention this to anyone and that she (WW) would arrange a new advisor for QQ privately, a complete circumvention of the department administration" - this is highly unethical and a much greater cause for concern than the rest of what you say.

If funding is involved, shouldn’t there be some kind of contractual relationship that would be affected (=breach of contract) by this?

This WW really needs to learn to set the (quite possibly entirely valid) "personal reasons" aside (temporarily) and go through a proper transition procedure, and not this abrupt, department-circumventing, keep-a-lid-on-it business.

This has red flags related to inappropriate relations and/or sexual harrassment written all over it to me (regardless of the genders involved).

Maybe QQ hit on WW.

@Bohemian maybe.....but we are talking about two women with a 15 year age gap. But who knows.

I think @Bohemian is bringing up a good point--there are two answers below that expand on the possibility of QQ contributing in some way to the need for secrecy.  I want to reemphasize that I hope your colleague is completely innocent and that your trust in her is vindicated, but you unfortunately have to keep a completely open mind about what might be going on or you could get caught up in a false accusation without realizing it.  Similar to defending your own children--sometimes they are in the wrong and you can have a natural blind spot to that. No ill will toward QQ; but protect yourself.

Don't get in the middle of QQ and WW, that is asking for trouble. Just be a good friend like you are, and finish your dissertation.

A demand for secrecy from a person in power usually means real trouble.  Some kind of shenanigans are afoot.  Sex? Drugs? Rock'n'roll? Research fraud? Plagiarism? Seriously, something is wrong.  And, it's not clear who is responsible for starting and continuing these shenanigans. It could be WW or QQ or other people.
So, be careful. If I were you, I'd refrain from personally intervening in this situation except to offer support and advice to your colleague.
If I were your colleague, I'd let the Professor WW know that the demand for secrecy is unreasonable, and even unconscionable. Your colleague is spending her time and energy, and the money she's getting either from a fellowship or her own funds, to get an education. She's a customer in that sense.
Your department and your institution owe QQ that education. The institution's plan A to educate her is to assign her to Professor WW.  If plan A isn't going to work, it is the institution's obligation to to come up with plan B, and see that it's carried out. Professor WW can help coming up with plan B. But the department owns the plan, not WW.
If QQ has violated an academic or personal standard, it is the department's and institution's responsibility to handle that violation. Professor WW cannot just sweep it under the rug, especially by offering secrecy.
WW doesn't have the right to conceal this situation from the department. Your colleague should refuse to let her do that.
Graduate students aren't handwringing supplicants begging for scraps that fall from the banquet table of academe. You are adult learners with life plans. This is especially true of MS students.  Graduate degree programs exist to serve these adult learners.  I hope QQ can claim her rightful place.
It's not clear who started and continued these shenanigans, but it is clear that ending them is going to be difficult unless everybody cooperates.  To cooperate, they have to stop keeping secrets.

Keep in mind that we only have QQ's assertion that WW demanded secrecy.  We don't know that WW demanded secrecy, only that QQ claimed that.

True. That's why I suggested the OP refrain from intervening except to support QQ, and perhaps say things to QQ that would stiffen her spine. Determining the truth of the stuff in this post is a job for a department head or dean, not for you and me.

I completely agree.  I was just reading through the answers again in light of all that we don't know.  It's probably worth highlighting that it's the alleged demand for secrecy that you're addressing here, since we don't know if the colleague is telling the truth (I just finished adding a separate answer dedicated to that possibility).  Your answer allows for it but doesn't explicitly spell out that the shenanigans could be on the part of the colleague.  I added the separate answer because that is precisely the blind spot that the asker may have due to emotional connection to the colleague.

And just to be clear, I recognized when reading your answer that you were thinking of this possibility.  I didn't mean to imply otherwise, if if came across that way.  I'm only saying that, if the asker was reading your answer and already had "this is WW's fault" in mind, the asker could interpret the whole answer as only expanding on the "what nefarious things might be underway in WW's world" question, without alerting asker to the minefield that it could be that QQ is the initiator of or a participant in the shenanigans.

I clarified my answer.

Excellent.  That perfectly addresses the issue, in my opinion.  This was already my favorite answer because it brought up the crucial fact that secrecy probably (or at least likely) indicates something deeper going on, and your edit to help a person in this situation avoid the potential pitfall of not considering the fact that the person they are considering acting in defense of might be involved is a great improvement.  This is the kind of question we wish people didn't ever have to have, but if it comes up, they need to be prepared for all eventualities.

Let's hope Dr. New-Department-Leader takes QQ on for the remaining semester.
What can QQ do?  Meet with the department head or the dean of graduate studies, and ask him/her to discreetly look into the problem.  Prof. WW has no right to ask QQ to keep these types of secrets, and QQ may safely speak openly to one department administrator about what happened.
What can you do?  You can offer to QQ your willingness to go along to that meeting for moral support.  If you do, you should explicitly request that your presence in the meeting not be revealed to your advisor.
I cannot imagine this resulting in your being blacklisted or harmed in any way, if this is in the U.S.
If I were in QQ's shoes, your presence in that meeting, and your taking the initiative to offer that support, would mean a lot to me.
It is not for me to say what you should do.  That is a very personal decision.
In addition, you can make yourself available to QQ as a supportive fellow student and friend.

Consider the fact that your colleague may be at fault and deceiving you about it to keep you on her side.
As I mentioned in my comments, I hate to even bring up this possibility. But even if it's not the reason for this particular situation, it needs to be said, in case someone else looking at this question in the future does face the situation I'm describing.
If the colleague was, say, caught plagiarizing by the advisor, the advisor might follow this course of action:

Bring up the plagiarism to the colleague.  Inform the colleague that
  advisor will no longer work with her, but does not want this incident
  to destroy colleague's career if colleague is willing to reform.
  Advisor will help colleague find a new advisor (perhaps someone with
  tenure that can more safely deal with a
  hopefully-but-how-can-we-be-sure reformed plagiarizer).  Advisor
  agrees to keep the reason for the switch private in order to not
  torpedo colleague's career.

Keep in mind that this (entirely hypothetical) version of events is completely consistent with everything described in your question.  It's an awful thing to have to consider the possibility that your colleague is being dishonest with you, but before you risk damaging your relationship with your advisor (and possibly the university and your career), you need to be realistic about the fact that the situation is not fully known to you.
Even if you think you know your colleague well enough to know that plagiarism is unlikely, there are other possible scenarios.  The colleague may have developed a romantic interest in the advisor and acted on that in such a way that the advisor considers this the best course of action.  Or the colleague may have initiated a relationship with the advisor's significant other.  Again--I realize that you may feel awful considering all of these negative possibilities about someone you respect and just want to help.  But you really should proceed with caution, and this is just one of the unfortunate aspects of what being cautious means in this specific situation.
dan1111's answer brings this possibility up, but I felt that it was important enough to get a separate, fully fleshed out hearing in case this is what is happening in either your case or, as I mentioned above, some other, future case.  It can be very tempting to come charging in as the white knight without actually knowing who is the dragon and who is in need of rescue.
Sadly, I speak from personal experience, having gone to great lengths to help people that I later found out were deceiving me.
My advice then, is as follows.  Even if you don't want to believe anything bad about your colleague, make sure that every action you take would be a safe action to take should the colleague turn out to be at fault.
I feel that you should do whatever is ethical but with a realistic view about what is practically within your power.  You are not in the practical position to launch an investigation, as you have no authority to do so.
There are many things that you can do, but most of them, due to practical considerations, end up being in the "advice and support" category.

advise your colleague to seek counsel from an on-campus student advocate if such thing exists

Subject to the advice of said counsel, consider these possibilities as well:

advise your colleague to communicate with the advisor about this via email so that there is a record of the conversation
advise your colleague to make an accusation-free, factual case about how this is negatively affecting the colleague, particularly with respect to the funding that the colleague turned down and the additional expense that could be incurred due to needing to extend for another semester, in an email, so that there is a record of this having been brought up

As a third party with some objectivity, you can help by offering to preview such communication and keep it from sounding accusatory or containing implied threats of retribution.  If your colleague is being dealt with unfairly by the advisor, it could turn out in the future to be very important to have a record of these dealings and for that record to make it clear that your colleague's actions were non-accusatory and non-threatening, simply addressing the facts of the situation as they were.
One more thing, not necessarily related to the question of your colleague's honesty, just a bit of advice pertaining to the current situation:

Your colleague has brought you into her confidence by telling you something that she has been told not to tell anyone.  Do not take it upon yourself to take any action that may indirectly reveal that fact without your colleague's express permission.


text:
Working as an Academic researcher difficulties
What do you do if you have to perform research in a field that you didn't like, as I'm currently passionate about computer vision stuff, but my research is about Android security. More than that the supervisor seems to lack enough knowledge related to the field and he pushes me to find something before the finishing date (we have just 2 months left since it is a funded project).
Thanks.

Your question needs the context of the reason that you are compelled (?!?) to work on something you don't want to work on.

Actually, the reason behind it is that I didn't know at the beginning that it will be heavily about security stuff, and assumed that it will be much focused on Natural language processing instead.

What do you do?  There is nothing you can do.  Motivation is everything.  The silver lining is that you can motivate yourself through several ways.  Funding running out, risk of getting expelled, etc  are all motivating factors.  The other big problem is that if you are not in the security area, you have little hope of finding something new.

If you are a student, then you have, I think, two options. Struggle through the project to help assure your degree. Or drop it, which might require getting a different advisor or even moving to a new institution. Both of those have a downside, and only you can determine which is worse. If you only have a short time to finish your degree, then the first might be preferable. But if it is a long way off, then  consider the second (with all of its implications).
The project is the responsibility of the PI, not yourself. So, think about how it meets your goals or fails to do so.
If you are a post doc then you may be stuck, depending on your contract and the need to have a good recommendation from the PI to be able to move on. But do move on as soon as possible.
If you are faculty already then I don't see much downside to just leaving, provided that it is financially feasible.
But, only you can balance the ups and downs of this. Think long term about your career, however, not just about the short term pain.

Actually, it is a full-time job and not a part of a degree, so I'm worried that I'm wasting my time right now, instead of focusing on my passions.

Probably you are wasting your time. I'd look around for options. Life is short. Make it sweet.

Two months? If the job is making you unhappy simply because you’re not following your passion, I’d say stick it out if you’re not financially secure, otherwise say adíos. There are advantages to perseverance.


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Academic dishonesty after acceptance of graduate school
I am being accused of academic dishonesty on a problem for a class this year. I have already accepted an offer to a Ph.D program and if I am convicted, there will be no mark on the final transcript I send them, and the effects are probably going to be nonexistent on my actual grade. Should I be concerned that this will turn up, and is it likely I will have to disclose this later?
Edit (some more information that may be relevant):
This has no way of connecting to the professors who wrote my recommendation. My concern in case of conviction is mainly the extent to which I may have to graduate schools, and whether or not my existing statement that I have not been convicted (submitted prior to all this) will be checked (in the case of a conviction, it may appear that I lied).
The alleged offense is itself minor (as far as these things go) and based on resemblance with something online. Not that I expect this to have an impact on how it is externally viewed.

Did the alleged dishonesty, if committed, have the potential to affect any of the grades that you reported on your grad school application and that were used by the program when they decided to admit you? (Not sure how much that matters for the answer, but it seems potentially relevant.)

No these are going to be new grades, if they are affected.

I think the answer depends on facts that you have not given us, and may not want to. You can [edit] the question to tell us more if you wish. Did you actually cheat? If not, does the circumstantial evidence that led to the accusation reasonably call for an investigation? Do the professors who wrote letters of recommendation for you know of the accusation? Has their opinion of you changed?

@EthanBolker the relevant question is not whether OP really cheated or not, since if they are convicted of cheating then for all intents and purposes the world will assume that they cheated. Let’s not ask intrusive questions that contribute nothing to the discussion, shall we?

@DanRomik I deliberately said facts "you may not want to provide". But my recommendation/answer to this question would depend on knowing more. If no more is provided I just won't hazard an opinion in an answer.

@EthanBolker sure, more facts would be good in general, I’m just saying this particular fact is irrelevant and should not affect any answer that you or anyone else should write. There is a reason (more than one actually) why criminal defense lawyers never ask their clients “did you do it?”

@EthanBolker with that said, it’s understandable if the answer to the question might affect your willingness to write an answer...

@DanRomik Fair point(s). But this isn't an adversarial legal forum. I'll wait to see what people have to say.

I have addressed in an edit many of these questions. A part of it boils down to whether I'll even be asked about this at any point, given that I am told to only submit a transcript at this point when I finish the year, or checking that may happen in the future.

@DanRomik Unlike in court, the threshold for upheld accusations of offenses can be quite low. There are quite a few example here on academia.SE which, in my private opinion, are a clear abuse of very weak circumstancial evidence (e.g. statistical flukes; "impossible questions" etc.). I therefore do not think that quite the same rules apply as in court. In case of an academic offense, I might, as head of the PhD programme, want to know more about the case. In short, I do not think the case is as clear-cut. Of course, if there was an offense, then OP probably should stay silent.

@CaptainEmacs my point is that both guilty people and innocent people tend to protest their innocence. Such protestations mean  nothing. If OP is convicted, they should expect people to assume that it is likely that they are guilty (while also making allowance for the possibility of a wrongful conviction as you say), regardless of whether innocence is claimed. So, for the question at hand I still maintain that actual guilt/innocence is irrelevant. In addition, our goal here is to offer advice to people, including people who actually did something wrong. ...

... So we don’t want to deter people from asking questions by asking intrusive “did you do it?” questions that force them to either admit their wrongdoing or to lie to us (which will likely lead to getting bad advice), just like the legal system doesn’t want to deter people from seeking legal advice by having lawyers ask these sorts of questions of their clients. That’s what I meant with that analogy.

@DanRomik Yeah, if chances are you won't like the answer, don't ask the question :-)

I don't understand your phrase "my existing statement that I have not been convicted". Did you admit the accusation to someone in the admissions process along with such a statement? Or are they unaware of the accusation at all? If aware, who made them aware?

By that I meant I had truthfully stated previously (and it remains true now) that I had not been convicted.

The graduate school, or whoever sets local regulation, can do whatever they want.  But most likely:

No information will be sought beyond a transcript.
The graduate school will not find out about misconduct not on the transcript.
If the graduate school finds out, and any information you provide agrees with information provided by your previous institution, the graduate school will consider the previous institution's actions to have settled the matter.

If you disagree with your previous institution's findings, instead of saying "Y happened", say " found that X happened, but I found that Y happened."  This way it is clear you are not misleading anyone.

At this stage it is merely an allegation, so I don't think you have any obligation to disclose that.  If you are found guilty of the alleged misconduct, such that there is an actual finding of misconduct against you, that may well be something you should disclose.  This is particularly so if the misconduct gave you any advantage that would have shown up positively in your application for your present degree program.  If you fail to disclose a finding of misconduct against you, that applies to a degree program that was one of the qualifications listed for your application to the program, then the university might take the view that you have failed to properly represent your academic record (or failed to properly update it with pertinent information).
If you are found guilty of the alleged misconduct: If the nature of the misconduct is minor, and you voluntarily disclose it without being prompted to do so, that will be to your credit.  In some cases students engage in minor forms of misconduct when they are undergraduates, and then learn from this and improve their subsequent practices.  (I do not understand that your assertion that it would be minor misconduct due to mere "resemblance" of your work with online material; resemblance is not misconduct, so presumably if you are found to have committed misconduct then it is going to be a finding saying that this was some kind of actual plagiarism.)  What would be important here is for you to be able to give a compelling account of why your university should keep you despite the misconduct --- e.g., Do you accept that your conduct was wrong?  Have you learned not to do that now?

I will venture an opinion.
Since

The alleged offense is itself minor (as far as these things go) and
based on resemblance with something online.

you should be able to mount a convincing defense. In my experience there's a big gap between "this might be plagiarism and we have to look at it, but can't know for sure" and "we are convinced beyond reasonable doubt that it's cheating".
In any case you did not lie on your application.
Even if the accusation should be deemed true, I think it very unlikely that your new school will ever hear about it. If they do, tell them your version of the facts. I very much doubt that you would be dismissed from the program.
Good luck.

If you’ve told other people that something is true and then some time later it stops being true, and its truth status is a material fact that leads to you getting access to valuable resources, then the most ethical course of action — the kind that requires a high level of personal maturity and moral courage — is to inform the people of the change in the truth status of your statement.
Now, I’m not saying that this is what you must do, or even that this is something an average person would do. But this is, at least, an ideal to keep in mind and to aspire to.
If you don’t do this, you still have the reasonable (in my opinion) defense, in case you are criticized later, that you did not lie, since the statement was true at the time you made it. There is no universally recognized ethical principle that we have a hard obligation to correct any instance of a past statement we made ceasing to be true. What will happen in practice if/when you try to use that defense, I cannot predict. Should you be concerned that someone will not find it as reasonable as I do? I cannot say.
The most important thing in my opinion is that you must not lie about your misconduct charge if asked about it in the future. Saying untruthful things to the grad program could get you into serious trouble. Even if you get lucky and don’t end up getting caught in the lie, just living with the fear that you will be found out at some indefinite point in the future will be a heavy mental burden to carry.


text:
Are there journals that prevent authors from contacting reviewers?
This question stems from a comment to a recent question - "instructions for authors at some journal(s) stating that authors should not contact (potential) reviewers".
I was wondering whether journals do punish authors who reach out to reviewers. Has there has been instances or has anyone heard of punishment or submission rejection when authors approach their reviewers, especially if the reviewers complain or report the interaction to the editor.
There was a 6 month study of 239 authors that found a 11% accuracy of authors guessing the reviewer of their submission.

I've not heard of "punishment" per se, but certainly if I were a referee and somehow the author(s) contacted me I'd be unhappy, and most likely tell the editor that this had happened, and that I'd then decline to referee... and, if the editor had actually dislosed to the authors my identity, I'd "propose" to the editor that they not ask me to do any refereeing in the future.

I don't want to write a long answer myself (someone else, feel free!), but here are two instances of cases from the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPS) where journals where very critical of author-reviewer communication or collaboration: https://publicationethics.org/case/suspected-contact-between-reviewer-and-author-led-coauthorship-reviewer, https://publicationethics.org/case/peer-reviewer-contacted-author (Not saying that it is forbidded per se, but it is sure to raise questions once it comes out.)

Thanks for the sites bers. Great discussion on COPE and deliberation plus discussion. There is a clear line when the reviewer becomes a co-author and a new independent reviewer is required or a submission to another journal is required.

How can a reviewer become a co-author without violating anonymity????? This is a dangerous road to start down...

@paulgarrett I have been a referee who became a coauthor. But the authors only learned my identity when they asked the editor to contact referee #2, the editor agreed, the editor contacted me, and then I agreed.

The journal is asking that those submitting papers do not contact potential reviewers.  That is very different from not asking you to contact the actual reviewers, although there are norms to be followed in that situation.
I can imagine new authors thinking they need permission from the potential reviewers if it is fine to put them on the list.  After all, that is recommended before you put a name down on a resume as a reference to a job application.  Authors should just put down names of possible referees, without checking if they are available for the assignment.  That is the editors job if they decide to use a name from the author's list.
The study you cite refers to the second situation.  If you have an idea who was the referee on the paper, you can still interact with that person as if they were not the referee.  If you aggressively ask that person if they were the referee, you may regret that action. Recall that revenge is a dish best served cold. That person you angered  might referee another one of your papers in the future.
There is little need for a formal punishment mechanism at a journal, although some journals must surely have one.  Your editor today might be tomorrow the person who is allocating travel funds at an upcoming conference.  The person at the conference asking you to not go overtime today might tomorrow be on the hiring committee where one of your students is trying to get a postdoc.  I doubt you will find many instances of a formal censure.


text:
Too late for accommodations?
Posted here as OP is not on SE:
Ok I have a dilemma. I am a university student. I was re-diagnosed late with ADHD due to a misdiagnosis of severe depression and anxiety, I have struggled at university often having submited assignments late with careless mistakes.
Now I know that the standard concessions given to someone with my condition are extensions plus additional support someone to help break down the assignments and help with structuring my arguments through providing strategies to organise my work.
My problem is the majority of my low marks and fails were caused by penalties for late submission 5% per work day. I failed multiple assignments being hit for the maximum penalty of 50% (10 working days).
Now that I have my late diagnosis, should I contest those results and ask the penalties be withdrawn or tempered? Or should I just go dig a hole and bury myself because without that degree that is about all I have left to do. ♂

Your question implies that you may have depression (though you claim you do not), and should be getting help from a medical professional, not the internet.

They are getting therapy and treatment. Getting misdiagnosis from a medical professional was part of the problem. The issue is about how accommodation can be retrospective. Something I have not heard before.

The wording of the question suggests the asker needs to concentrate on the mental health challenges they face, and take care of the academic challenges later.

I guess that is the angry phase and vindictive stage of ADHD diagnosis. ADHD diagnosis is very difficult and most medical and health professionals are not able to and not confident in diagnosing ADHD as well. Depression and anxiety is a common reaction to untreated ADHD. Like a missed cancer diagnosis, anger and threats of malpractice are common.

Go talk to someone at the university who has some responsibility in such matters. There is often a specialized office for it. Discuss the situation there and ask for advice. They have knowledge that few of us here have and can make suggestions few of us might think of.
But it isn't necessarily a question of contesting results. Find out your broader options before you choose any particular one. There may be some combination of things that can be made to work for you.
You aren't alone in such things, and universities short be adept at handling them.

(Possibly US-specific) This is a regrettably common situation, but universities generally still do not have a standard way to handle it that will give you the outcome you want. It is also unlikely that your instructors are under any legal obligation to retroactively provide accommodations. I personally agree with you that this is not fair to the student. Unfortunately, that is not how many universities and instructors see it, so don't get your hopes up.
Consult with your disabilities office first to see whether they can intercede on your behalf, but it is likely that they will tell you that your only option is to try to negotiate with your instructors yourself. If you do this, remember that you have essentially no grounds to contest anything and are appealing to their sympathy.
As a matter of long-term strategy, it might be preferable to withdraw from school before the end of the term and take a leave of absence until you get a handle on managing your disability. Taking a time-out and starting fresh might be a better option than trying to fix the situation you're currently in.