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How to select an editor?
I am about to submit a paper, and in the submission portal, I am asked to request an editor among the pool of available ones. Unfortunately, none of the available ones have worked on the topic my paper contributes to. How should I choose one? Any help?
EDIT: there are suitable editors, but they‘re not available because they’re currently handling a large volume of submissions.

If you broaden the sense of your topic (say, from underwater basket weaving to basket weaving), do any of the editors fit? What if you broaden it even further (say, to weaving anything)? Further, to anything related to any sort of textile? Still no? Then why this journal?

Thank you for your comment. The journal is certainly a good fit—it just so happens that all the editors that would be most suitable to handle my paper cannot handle any more papers right now, and none of the ones that are left are a good fit.

@EoDmnFOr3q: If all the editors most suitable for your paper are not handling new submissions at the moment, that's a good sign that the editorial board thinks they are getting too many submissions in your area and will apply higher standards in your area at least for the time being.  Generally and cynically speaking, you want a journal that applies lower standards to your area than they apply to other areas, not the other way around.

Ah, thanks for adding the clarification that it's not that there are no editors that would be suitable but that the ones that would be are overbooked. Agree with AlexanderWoo; the other editors are probably sick of getting the spillover from those over-saturated areas outside their expertise.

If you are submitting a paper and none of the editors have worked on the topic the paper is about, then it's a signal to look at another journal.
Most academics have a list (mental or otherwise) of editors in their research area and journals where those editors can be found. When I pick a (journal, editor) pair, it's based on the following factors (in this order):

The editor has done work related to the topic, or knows my work and has been supportive in the past.

Other papers similar to the one I wrote have appeared in this journal.

2b. This editor has handled those papers (in math, sometimes journals say which editor a paper was handled by, and other times they don't).

The journal level seems appropriate for the paper based on my self-assessment of the strength of the results, comparison to other papers that have been published there, a sense of whether the ideas in the paper are currently "hot" or not, etc.

Getting the right editor is even more important than getting the right journal. Surely among all the people who have worked in the area of your paper, some are editors somewhere and you could find them.
Most journals nowadays receive far more submissions than they can publish. If there's no sympathetic editor, then your paper might not have much of a chance to be accepted, especially if quality is at all borderline. Note that a journal might have published work related to your topic in the past, and the editor who handled those papers might have moved on. In that case, previous "fit" of the journal and topic does not correlate to current "fit." Instead, it would be better to find the same editor, at a different journal.

One of the commenters states

If all the editors most suitable for your paper are not handling new
submissions at the moment, that's a good sign that the editorial board
thinks they are getting too many submissions in your area and will
apply higher standards in your area at least for the time being.
Generally and cynically speaking, you want a journal that applies
lower standards to your area than they apply to other areas, not the
other way around.

While the implicit suggestion is correct (i.e. find another journal), the reasoning seems to me a bit Ptolemaic, in the sense that it tries to find a convoluted explanation for a rather simple mechanism, overblowing the importance of the editors (the earth) in comparison with the apparent centre (the peer reviewers) and completely misses the global centre of the universe (your publication).
Since you did your best possible effort and you are submitting to journals that are on-topic with your research, you cannot do anything other than assume that the editor will accept and promptly send your paper to peer review.
Therefore, you simply want to have a decent editor that can forward your paper to decent peer reviewers. If the suitable editors of a certain journal are all booked, it means their peer reviewers pool is likely to be exhausted as well.
Find another journal, where a suitable (i.e. from the area of interest) editor has the time to skim through your paper and the peer reviewers have time to look at it.
All reasoning about higher/lower standards and acceptance rates are speculation and a bit out of place, the statistics will be simply biased by the fact that "foreign" editors will probably refuse to care for your paper, if it is out of their expertise, simply letting it rot in the "assigning reviewers" queue or rejecting it immediately.

"you simply want to have a decent editor that can forward your paper to decent peer reviewers" - but one issue is that if the paper ends up with an editor not in your area then they don't know appropriate peer reviewers. So, you can end up with a referee who is not predisposed to this kind of work (because, they chose to work in a different specialty area) and therefore in the part of their report where they explain the significance of the research, they will likely undervalue it relative to a referee in your subfield.

@DavidWhite"If the suitable editors of a certain journal are all booked, it means their peer reviewers pool is likely to eb exhausted as well." where suitable editor = editor from the area

No idea why someone downvoted your answer. I thought it was helpful, reminding the reader to think about the reviewers, which my answer didn't mention at all.


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How to find a co-author for a paper I can’t complete?
I am writing a mathematical paper, and I have been able to complete 2/3 of the paper’s main proof. However, I have been stuck with the last third for more weeks than I can count, and I am getting to the realisation that I won’t solve it by myself. Right now, I can either store the draft in the drawer of papers I will never complete, or I can try to find a co-author who can complete the missing third of the proof. I understand that depending on how the proof ends, the final result may be a bit different than it currently is, but I am quite confident it won’t be too different from its current version. Given the amount of time and effort I have put into this draft, I’d much rather find a co-author than archive the paper. The problem is that I seem unable to find anyone who wants to actively work on this with me. So,
What are the best ways to find a co-author who can help me finish the paper?
EDIT: I thought of contacting the researcher who wrote the main paper my work builds upon, but this person is now retired.

I would look for authors who have worked on a similar project, especially grad students.

Maybe pare the paper down so that 2/3 is done?

Thank you for your comments. Can you please elaborate on what you mean by “Maybe pare the paper down so that 2/3 is done?”?

Try to change the title and so forth so that you only are setting out to do what you've already accomplished.  You could even put in a paragraph about the remaining proof (1/3) as "for future investigation" etc....

I understand your comment now; but unfortunately, in math, either you have the proof or you don’t. And I don’t.

If you don't have the proof, then you also don't know that it is 2/3 done. It could be entirely the wrong approach, and lead nowhere for all you know.

True, but I strongly doubt it.

Why do you doubt it? You're stuck here, so presumably you've come to a difficult step that either takes far more effort to get around than what you've put in or may indicate you're on the wrong path. Why are those things unlikely and you've concluded that you just need to find another person?

I thought of contacting the researcher who wrote the main paper my work builds upon, but this person is now retired.

Absolutely reach out to that person. Lots of academics continue working in retirement, and actually have more time for research now they have to do less teaching and administrative jobs. And even if they are not interested in collaborating with you, they may have already thought about the problem you are struggling with and might be willing to share notes. Or they may be able to point you towards students of theirs, or other people they know are working in this area, and might be willing to introduce you - an introduction from an established researcher, even retired, might well be more successful than a cold email.
If that person is not responsive, or you can't reach them, look at other people whose work you are citing. And all of their grad students. These people are already adjacent to and probably interested in your area of work, and your common interest is a good hook for contacting them.
Depending on your time frame, you could attend conferences or similar and see who is working in your area and looks approachable. (Someone once attended a conference in my area and introduced themselves to me in exactly this kind of situation, with a half-finished book. We then worked together to finalize it.)
Cast your net wide, be succinct in your emails, and don't be disappointed if most people have other ongoing projects that do not leave them time to work on your project. Good luck!

Also include people who cited the same work(s) as you.

There's no other real way to answer this aside from building connections with other like-minded researchers with whom you've common interests. I'm a... 4th, year PHD student at Georgia State. I am not at all shy about reaching out to other PHD students (at my school, or otherwise) or professors researchers who I am in the field of.
In turn, this has resulted in me developing contacts in various departments. So, if there's a part of a paper I can't do myself, I can ask those I know to see if they're interested. But, that usually involves an email that begins something like
"Hi ____, I'm Jared. I'm a PHD student of public policy at Georgia State..." and then I get to talking with them about my work and how it relates to theirs. Forming relationships is a key skill in life, and academia is no exception to this.
So, you'll need to do your equivalent of this.

but this person is now retired.

This makes even more worthwhile to reach out to them (unless they retired 30 years ago...). They may be open to get you in touch with people that shared the research interest with them, or even they may be interested themselves.

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What to do when a math paper “under review” contains a true but not clear step in a proof?
A few weeks ago, I submitted a mathematical paper in which the main proof contains a sentence that says: “by X and by Y, then Z is true”. It turns out that, luckily, the sentence is true. However, it is not nearly as direct as I am claiming in my paper. I have now been able to develop the argument by which for X and Y, Z is true; and it turns out that it is a half-page long argument.
Beyond never revising already submitted papers, is there anything I can do about it? Should I perhaps notify the editor-in-charge?

This is a rather typical thing to happen in my experience. As reviewer I come across this kind of thing all the time, i.e., it is claimed that something holds which indeed holds or at least looks credible to me, but arguments why it holds are not given or not conclusive. Also occasionally it has happened to me that reviewers pointed out that what I claim at some point isn't quite as obvious as my writing makes it seem. No big deal, and in the revision it can be amended. Answer of Buffy is good, just to let you know that you're not alone with this.

You can ask the editor if you can submit an updated version. Say why you have made the change. But you can also wait to see what the reviewers say about the paper. If they raise the issue and suggest revisions, then you can do it then. And, you can add it to a revision even if reviewers don't notice, though you should then point it out.
If you let the editor know then they may take some action, or not, depending on where the review is. Asking the reviewers to start over might not be their best option. But they should have an idea of the status and the proper action.

Thank you very much for your answer. I suspect the review process is almost complete, for the journal aims to reply within 10 weeks for papers like mine, and we are in week 11 now… The change is really not substantial—it’s just the development of a not-obvious step in a proof.

@Buffy -- Needless to say, I like the dog in your profile picture, Buffy.

I have accepted your answer, although I didn’t even have time to apply it because the paper just got rejected. And I finally made the choice to change jobs ASAP.

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Can a bad relationship with PhD supervisor spoil one's future career?
I have completed my Ph.D. in cancer biology. I want to apply for a postdoc position in the USA, but my supervisor is not on good terms with me. She is a very quarrelsome and arrogant lady. I am suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. I was a victim of domestic violence, have faced bullying at school and college. My marriage failed, my husband had an affair with another woman. He cheated on me and mentally harassed me. I had to undergo a painful abortion which left a mark on my mind. My lab members (2 women) used to bully me. They would tamper with my samples and put out false accusations about me. They wanted to remove me from the lab so they would harass me. My guide is a credulous person who would believe them and always shout at me. My family didn't support my decision to get a divorce so they never supported me emotionally.
I used to take 5 anti-depressants per day. One day I tried to commit suicide and popped 15 -20 tabs of anti-depressants. Luckily, at that time my brother called me. I revealed to him that I took the pills and he informed my supervisor. I was rushed to the hospital immediately. After a few days, I got the information that the institute authorities removed me from the girl's hostel. One of my lab members, who used to trouble me, went along with her friends to the student committe and complained that they are scared of me since one night they heard me crying out loud in pain before my suicide attempt. Instead of helping me. They demanded to have me removed from the hostel. I was traumatised.
I fell from stairs 3-4 times. I was not able to walk properly. When I resumed working at the lab, nobody spoke with me. My supervisor shouted at me that I brought her shame. She used to bully me and misbehave with me. I apologised for my behaviour so many times. She even called every scientist in the institute and told them that I am a bad person who is not even on good terms with her family. There were so many rumors. A few scientists stood in my support and I was shifted back to the hostel after a few months.
Now this incident happened one year ago. But my supervisor hates me. Although I didn't say a single word about my lab members and my supervisor in front of the police at the time of my suicide attempt. She always complains that I was depressed because of my husband and I attempted suicide. This brought shame to her. I am a little worried. Can she spoil my career? What if she doesnt give me a nice recommendation letter? Also, she delayed the submission of my papers. But now finally those two papers got submitted.
The main problem is that when somebody instigates her, she immediately reacts and starts shouting without even thinking. She even gets angry if I dont click on photos with my lab members. I know it is a very long story but i am really depressed. I lost husband, a baby and have no family support. And now she is adding to my problems........

You should talk to a mental health professional about this.

First of all, sorry to hear that. Some environments are not particularly supportive, period. And your situation sounds terrible on many levels.
I would give a standard advice of trying to find a mental health professional, first and foremost - you seem to be taking prescription medicines, so presumably you have it partly covered. But there is more to it than just getting your prescriptions.
Concerning the recommendation letters, well, you do not have a lot of control over the actions of your supervisor. But it is not necessarily hamstringing your future career. After all, you would be applying somewhere, and there will be actual humans reading your application. Some of them would avoid dealing with mental health issues, but others would love to do some good and help you. You are still able to produce work despite an immense pressure - that also speaks volumes.
Try to focus on what is still working for you and the support you have gotten from some of your peers already. These are people who will advocate for you. Consider asking them for recommendation letters as well - they do not necessarily need to come from your supervisor. As long as you manage to stop plunging into the dark pits of depression, there will be options. Your quarrel with the advisor can be overcome.

This is a very thoughtful answer, which focuses on the bright side and on what can be done. Thank you for writing this answer!

I'll focus only on the practical here. I think you need to consider your options moving forward without a letter from your supervisor. The relationship seems poisonous and a letter would probably be worse than none.
You don't point to others on your faculty who might be more supportive and could write you a good letter, but see if that is possible.
You might have to take some non-standard actions to build up a career. I had to do this because of economic, not personal, conditions when I graduated, teaching at a very (very) low ranked college. But eventually I got to a good place (with supportive people).
You can probably think of more options, but teaching biology (or something) in a college might give you an economic base and some time to build a reputation along with time for working out personal/health issues with a therapist. Working in a (governmental?) research lab might be open. Both will give you contacts that can support you in future if you do well. Think about all options open to you.
A postdoc in US without a letter from your supervisor might be a difficult jump unless you can show other strong indications of success.

I have read your post and I see a good woman who is technically competent, honest, a woman who can describe her circumstances objectively without shame, a woman who sees and accepts the weakness of other people without condemning. I also see a woman who is so beaten by these events that she has forgotten how to respect herself in the way that she clearly deserves.
I can give no magic answer to your present difficulties and am not qualified to do so.
But from what I read here, I believe you are justified in respecting yourself, and that you should try regularly to tell yourself that you are good, that you can do good things, and that your place here on Earth is entirely justified.
Had you worked in my laboratory when I had a research group I would have tried hard to encourage you to see yourself as good, and always to respect yourself. For if people do not respect themselves, it is sometimes difficult for others to do so.
I wish you well and I wish you success.


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Presenting the idea of a PhD research project before publishing it
I have an idea for my PhD research project but my supervisor wants me to have that idea/model published or endorsed before I can start working on and she suggested that idea/model to be presented in a conference and have comments about that.
I know about normal papers being presented at conference but what is idea/model presented in the form of paper. Can anyone help me in understanding the format.

Not very clear situation or question

I mean to say that traditional papers come with results and discussion but at this stage the research is an idea and wanted to present to get comments about the idea that whether it is good to continue or not. Or if there are any suggestions to incorporate. So in this way, the question is what sections to include in idea pitching paper.

Then the question was clear but the situation is unclear or at least really unusual. Unless there are workshops at place, or a kind of "summer school". Else of course one can discuss and look for advice, but it should not be the presentation core.

You are misinterpreting. It is presentation of paper. Not just a presentation.

I think this is a good idea. There are many conferences in which they invite exclusively the Ph.D. students in different domains to a co-located workshop. There the students present their work (so far) and get comments and feedback. Further, there is a chance of getting collaboration by senior researchers.
Have a look at this: https://www.eurosla2019.se/programme/doctoral-student-workshop/

Good points. The biggest drawbacks are likely to be if it delays things significantly, or is too expensive for the student. If the work can be applied to the eventual research the first is less of a problem. If the prof agrees to help out with conference costs, the second is less of a problem.


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How to build a list of seminal papers in a field?
This question is similar to this one, but focused on papers rather than on authors. Does anybody know of a systematic way to build a list of the most cited and/or influential papers in a discipline?
I've tried to use Google Scholar, but I was not able to search papers by label, as you can do in the case of authors (see the accepted answer here).

I have undertaken to create such lists as an academic exercise myself, and quite a lot of effort is involved in doing this. There are a variety of approaches that I will suggest, and I would place more emphasis on the first approaches.
Literature review papers: Look for literature reviews on the subject of interest. Read the reviews' analysis and discussion of the state of research, there should usually be a discussion of how the state got where it is, and their citations should point you right at the seminal works.
Paper Cites: review known papers of interest for their citations. You'll want to recurse back to this strategy as more papers become known to you.
Textbook tables of citations: Review several respected textbooks that cover the subject, and inspect their citations for more works that you want to be aware of.
Reputation, reference: Ask professors and PhD students in the field what papers they think are important. Some professors may not be particularly helpful, but some may drop a comprehensive bibliographic database right in your lap.
Seminar Reading Lists: Ask for the reading list for PhD student seminars in the field.
Most Downloads/Read: This might not lead you to seminal works, per se, but seminal works will tend to be more read, and this provides another way of categorizing and prioritizing your review the literature. For example, if one paper has been downloaded at a rate 1000 times higher than another on the same topic, you might choose to examine the former first.
Also, you'll need to keep track of your efforts. Expecting to solely rely on your memory is not only wrong, but likely to mean you've wasted much of your research time. I use Zotero, a free bibliographic database with integration in Firefox, to track the papers I've read. If I get papers or books in electronic form, Zotero can also store the electronic copy for me. It can also quickly create a table of references for you, and has some other nice features. It also has competitors that I'm not as familiar with, of note are Mendeley, a freemium model platform, and Endnote, a rather popular and mature commercial platform.

In addition to the other suggestions, try searching for "your-field-name bibliography". You may find that someone has put a useful list of papers online, perhaps even in a format you can import into your reference manager. For example, I searched for "artificial life bibliography" and found many useful results, including this collection of Computer Science Bibliographies.

Some citation databases (such as Scopus and ISI Web of Science) give you the ability to see what are the references and citations for a specific paper. With this feature you may come with just one seminal paper and then see who cited this paper (forward) and who was referenced in the paper (backward) with the highest citations themselves. You can extend this chain in past and future or expand it by including lower citations or more papers in the initial set.
This method is probably working in a more narrowed scope than "field" but probably just one line of research in a field.

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What are the repercussions of a "vote of no confidence" made by faculty?
As an example of a vote of no confidence, recently, the academic world has been shocked by the Salaita case at the University of Illinois. I happen to be a UIUC alumnus, so I guess I'm more concerned about the current state of affairs in my Alma Mater. So I just read an article on the web about the case: More Votes of No Confidence, a Weird Ad, and a Declaration of a Non-Emergency. The article states that

Tonight, the major news out of the University of Illinois is that two more departments have taken votes of no confidence in the leadership of the UIUC: the department of history (nearly unanimous, I’m told) and the department of Latino and Latina Studies. The latter’s announcement reads:
The faculty of the Department of Latina/Latino Studies (LLS) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign met on Wednesday, September 3, 2014 to discuss the University’s revocation of an offer of employment to Dr. Steven Salaita. We concluded that this revocation and the subsequent public statements by Chancellor Phyllis Wise, President Robert Easter, and the Board of Trustees about Dr. Salaita’s appointment demonstrate a clear disregard for the principles of academic freedom, free speech, and shared governance, as well as for established protocols for hiring, tenure, and promotion. The faculty of LLS therefore declares that we have no confidence in the leadership of the current Chancellor, President, and Board of Trustees.
That means that six departments have now voted no confidence, two of them fairly large departments, representing a significant number of faculty in the humanities. Word is that we should be expecting at least four more votes of no confidence by the end of the week, for a total of ten.

I know the best thing that can happen in the current state of affairs is that UIUC's own faculty boycott the Board of Trustees and Chancellor Phyllis Wise.
So my general question is, what are the implications of such a vote? What does a "vote of no confidence" really mean?
EDIT
As suggested by @MadJack, here's the New York Times article on the case of Salaita.

For those of us who have not heard about "the Salaita case", could you add a link giving some background?

Sure @NateEldredge, the internet is plagued with news on this matter. Here you have an article in the New York Times.

@aaragon Keep in mind that this news is apparently quite US-centric and "plagued with news" is just in your part of the internet, I guess. So don't be surprised if non-US users (like myself) have never heard of this case before (like myself).

@dirkk I live in Switzerland, and I got a position in the Netherlands starting in December, and the Internet is still quite plagued with news on this matter. Just go to google and type Salaita.

Salaita wouldn't be allowed to post on StackExchange; I think we ban people who use language like him. I'm betting this academic group-think embarrasses the departments that publicized their position in support of him. Here's the Chicago Tribune's take on the administration's defense of their job-offer withdrawal: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-university-of-illinois-job-offer-tweet-israel-20140822-story.html

@AaronHall regardless of the way Salaita expresses himself, academic freedom of speech shouldn't be dictated by monetary interests. I believe the problem steams from the fact the US Universities are managed at the top level as big companies because they depend on the money they receive from alumni and lobbyists.

"plagued with news?"  I work in Illinois and this is the first I've heard of this.

Put Salaita Illinois on Google and get amazed by how many results this search gives you. Even the Daily Illini has published articles on this case.

You might be interested in a different vote of no confidence recently taken at the UIC campus of UofI: http://news.uic.edu/uic-senate-votes-no-confidence-in-chancellors-leadership

@NateEldredge, I'd rather not provide any media sources, specially because I trust just a few of them in the USA in sensitive topics such as the conflict alluded in the Salaita case.

A "vote of no confidence" is much like a "resolution" passed by a parliamentary body—it's a statement of approved opinion, with very little legal impact. The only exception to this would occur if the voting body is in some way responsible for the appointment of the official in question, in which case such a vote could lead to removal.
However, at the departmental level, such a vote has very little impact on the university as a whole.

thanks for answering. So then what would be your answer to the "what are the implications of this" part of the question? What's the point of casting a "vote of no confidence" if nothing will happen out of it?

When I was an undergrad at Case Western Reserve University, the faculty took a vote of no confidence in the President, Edward Hundert, and he subsequently resigned: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/03/17/case Although this was the faculty of the whole of the Arts and Sciences school, not just a single department, even non-binding opinions can influence what people decide. I guess that's the point.

@aaragon "The point" is to make a statement. In an organization that even resembles democracy, if large influential groups go on a record to state that they would rather see you go, you are in deep trouble. Even if they can't personally fire you.

I understand now. I guess then that the best stance that faculty can have is to make a "vote of no confidence". Maybe there's a better stance, but I don't think the issue is so outrageous to many of them to make efforts in boycotting the school.

@aaragon I think these votes are a sign that people are pretty outraged. Boycotting your own school seems like a bit of career suicide.

@aaragon: the more of these votes there are, though, the more confident people will be that (the equivalent of) industrial action will be effective. Boycotting your boss on your own is a completely different thing from boycotting your boss when 10 departments strongly agree with you. It's likely the school will consider that the more of these votes there are, the more likely it is that practical action will eventually be taken if the issue isn't addressed. Of course there are non-cooperative or obstructive actions that could be taken short of a full boycott of the school...

A vote of no confidence is an entirely political move. It has no force on its own, but it may influence the opinion or behavior of others.
When used effectively, votes of no confidence can influence the person in question to apologize or change their ways, or influence more powerful people (e.g. the board of governors/regents) to address the issue.
When used ineffectively, votes of no confidence have no effect at all. (Well, they can still allow the people who voted to express their opinion.)

The repercussions of a department's vote of no confidence hold no legal authority. They simply publicly voice the majority opinion of the faculty of the department.
To further analyze in the context of the example you gave: These votes of no confidence are likely to embarrass the departments who publicly supported hiring this man whose public discourse can most nicely only be described as unprofessorial and unacademic.
The Chicago Tribune's take on the administration's position said:

In June and July, Salaita posted prolifically about the situation in
  Gaza, particularly about the children killed in the conflict. On June
  20, soon after three Israelis were kidnapped and killed, he wrote:
  "You may be too refined to say it, but I'm not: I wish all the
  (expletive) West Bank settlers would go missing." On July 22 he wrote:
  "#Israel kills civilians faster than the speed of 4G."

Salaita's hateful words are not confined to Twitter. He has found it prudent to scrub some of his online works, but they are still available via the Wayback machine.
We grant that academic freedom means that one can take nearly any position so long as one is respectful of others who disagree. His manner of speech and disrespect would have been quite a distraction for the entire university. Would he be respectful to the students under his instruction? Given his public record, would you take responsibility for placing him in this position?
These comments are certainly against our principles for allowed commentary on Academia StackExchange.
Some may disagree with the way the decision was made. Perhaps the decision could have reached out to more stakeholders for consensus. The administration apparently didn't do that. Many university administrations have come under fire by stakeholder groups in the past for similar actions. It would have been better if the administration had more support. But they had made the decision and moved forward with it, and I don't see how they could have taken another path in a timely fashion.
These votes of no confidence reflect the indignation by these departments in not being included in the decision making process. However, most bystanders will also (correctly) interpret them as a disagreement with the conclusion of the decision. If the departments agreed with the conclusion, this issue would not be raised.
I personally think these votes are likely to lower the public's view of the departments just as much or more so than they lower the public's views on the administration. I also think the views of individuals will largely be colored by personal preferences in backing the interests of the parties that Salaita has been coarsely commenting on.

If only the administration had let his appointment actually go to the board, they could have voted it down, instead of rubber stamping it and none of this bruhaha would have taken off...

"these votes of no confidence are likely to lower the public's view of the departments just as much or more so than they lower the public's views on the administration" - may well be true, but possibly requires some justification since it makes quite a definitive statement what the public is likely to approve and disapprove. Ofc "the public" is a completely different animal according to whether it's MSNBC or Fox talking about them, so it's entirely possible that one of those two publics will lower their views of the departments, and the other public the opposite :-)

@SteveJessop Thanks, I addressed that in a bit more detail, and made it clear that that is my personal perspective. I have a BS in Political Science and an MBA, so I should be able to correctly analyze this without bias.

@Aaron: indeed, you don't have to hold a view in order to ascribe it to the public in general. It seems to be TV journalists especially though, who usually ascribe to the public in general whatever view they happen to hold ;-)

The other answers noted that a vote of no confidence is generally not binding, but may have other outcomes.
I would like to point out that even if an outcome that is desired by the faculty is achieved, it is generally impossible to show causality (i.e., that the outcome was a direct result of the vote).
As an example, the end of the 2012-2013 academic year saw a series of no confidence votes by faculty against New York University President John Sexton. The outcomes were as follows:

The College of Arts and Sciences; Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development; Gallatin School of Individualized Study; Tisch Asia; and Tisch School of the Arts passed votes of no confidence against the president.
At the Silver School of Social Work, a vote was held but not passed
The School of Law passed a vote of confidence in favor of the president

A few months later, in August 2013, the university's Board of Trustees announced that Sexton would not continue beyond the end of his current contract.
However, it's impossible to tell whether this is the result of the no-confidence votes, two lawsuits, negative media articles about the university and its president, or (almost certainly) a combination of these and other factors.

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


text:
Can I mention brand names and their products in my research/technical paper?
I want to write a paper on Mobile Screens in HCI, as phones are getting uncomfortably big for users, I want to provide some solution to the big screen phones or how logically state that how small screen phones are suitable for the user.
Coming back to question, for the above-mentioned reason, I was going to make a survey of big phone screen users, and I was going to mention it in my paper, is it okay to mention brand names of phones and their specific products with images?

Your question about whether this is a good topic can probably only be answered by an expert in your field; that's not the purpose of this site.

I've removed the question about "is this the right topic," because it is indeed off-topic. The question about brands is relevant.

It would be helpful to get to know why you want to mention brand names - what information does the brand name/phone name convey that a '5" 1024x768 pixel screen phone' description does not?

@DCTLib: I was going to mention the dimensions also, but I thought a more specific data such as phone model will connect relatively more to reader than not mentioning it. I think only dimensions shall suffice now.

Mentioning the phone model may connect better to the reader (this is actually debatable) but the article will age terribly quickly. You will also face the problem that some models exist in different versions, depending for example on the country they are released (although not sure this applies to screen size).

For cases of the type you mention I would probably recommend not naming the brands. The reason for this is that the manufacturer is unlikely to be happy if you say that their equipment is not very good (and they can't all be good or there is nothing to write about). This is particularly important if they have given you samples/equipment to use for research.
The lab I'm at has done several comparisons of various software and microscopes for surface metrology and in all cases the equipment/software is just referred to as A, B, C etc.
While from my point of view the reasons for doing this are purely maintaining good relations I expect there is a legal aspect too. I know we have received long loans/discounts on some instruments which presumably involves a contract saying we can't publish anything negative about the instrument.
If a company has provided some equipment used in this sort of thing you may wish to put them in the acknowledgements. Although be aware this may de-anomimise you data. If very few people make an instrument of a certain type saying thanks to company X makes it obvious what it is. On the other hand knowledgeable readers could probably make an educated guess anyway.

What is the use of a report that says "there is some program that is better than the others, but we cannot tell you"?

I don't know about hardware, but in case you feel like mentioning some software (and hardware often comes with software...), beware that the EULA can prohibit researchers and scientists from explicitly using the names of their systems in academic papers.
Oracle is notorious for that, they sued David DeWitt following some benchmarks he had published that mentioned Oracle, see the DeWitt Clause. Luckily the University of Wisconsin supported him, but Oracle banned all Wisconsin alumni for a while.

You can have a EULA for a piece of hardware?

I'm curious whether the DeWitt Clause has been successfully defended in court.

@Moriarty, basically all hardware contains some software (firmware, OS, etc), and those can contain EULAs. That being said, I can't see how a person who surveys others who are bound by EULAs can be bound by those EULAs. Also, if the OP takes photographs of phones, that's probably a fair use of their trademarks/tradedress, but I'm not a lawyer.

@BillBarth The hardware and software are not always produced by the same company. In the OP's example, you can wipe the manufacturer's installation of Android from a phone, and install (for instance) CyanogenMod - without initially booting the phone and explicitly agreeing to the manufacturer's EULA (the legality of post-purchase EULA agreements is disputed, anyway). I'm no lawyer, but if the hardware and software are separable then it may only be the software component that's covered by a EULA. If the OP's paper is software-agnostic, I'm not sure if there's a problem.

Although in some fields, this may be a problem, as Franck Dernoncourt has explained, in other fields, it is not only a good idea, but expected. For instance, in the laboratory sciences, you would normally list the vendors and suppliers who provided the "raw materials" being used, as well as, in many cases, the experimental apparatuses used to study them.

"in other fields, it is not only a good idea, but expected" - I think whether the information is expected from an academic point of view, whether it is legally unproblematic to include the information, and whether it is practically feasible (due to space restrictions) to actually do so are three independent questions.

@O.R.Mapper a company that sells big lab machines and doesn't let their name to be published is going to have a hard time selling them.

@Davidmh: "Lab machines" are not used in my field, so I didn't know that customers of those usually learn exclusively or primarily about them by mentions in papers. Such a willingness to disclose product names sounds beneficial for one of the three independent questions I listed, the one about publishing the product name being "legally unproblematic".

@O.R.Mapper the point is not publicity. Complex machines have perks and quirks, and the results may differ from one to another. The knowledgeable experimentalist knows how to interpret this information, and if, for example, the weaknesses of your machine are relevant in your results. Space is not an issue, as in a typical study you only use one or two: not even a line.

@Davidmh: The same can certainly be said about database engines, as well. They do have perks and quirks. And as a reader of a paper, I would love to know which engine was used to achieve a certain result. As for space, I'm used to "fighting" for single words in order to just prevent another linebreak that would create an additional page, but that may well be due to upper page count limits being comparably tight in my field.


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How effective is the website Kudos in terms of spreading the word about one's research?
The website Kudos offers a service whereby researchers can set up a profile, choose their publications from a database and add a short summary of their content (not the original abstract). How effective is

setting up a profile with Kudos
adding summaries to one's publications

in terms of making one's research better known? Is there any evidence to suggest that it's worth the time?

I have never heard of this and I have also never been led to a Kudos profile when online searching for information on people giving talks or authors of papers I found interesting. Usually, their lab websites come up first, then Twitter and/or LinkedIn and Researchgate, depending on their activity on those platforms. That's it for any type of "online profiles".

I also never heard of this website. After talking a short look, I do not want to use it either.

To the close voters: Could you please explain? Kudos is a website for researchers and ostensibly helps them spread the word about their research. How is this not in scope for Academia SE?

The explanation is already provided in the "put on hold" message. We do not accept shopping questions. You are seeking assessments of a web site. This is a typical shopping question.


text:
Will preparing for the mathematics GRE help me towards my goal of doing research in applied mathematics?
I did my graduation in electronics engineering from India, and an M.Sc. that concentrated on certain "sub-specializations" (communication, DSP and control engineering) from a UK university.
I was reading for a Ph.D. in the areas of machine learning and computer vision (also at a UK university), however due to a number of factors I was unable to complete it. These factors include health problems (addictions, hormonal imbalances, depression, etc.) and trying to work in a topic that was too mathematical for my background, in addition to having too much leeway (and consequently not enough support) in my research from my supervisors. (Evidently my supervisors thought me as sufficiently capable at the beginning of my research to let me do what I wanted, but eventually I proved them wrong! :P )
A few years have passed since I terminated my Ph.D. programme. I feel I have worked through most of my health problems now (not all the way there, but I feel better now than I remember being in a very long time).

I did develop an appreciation for "pure" mathematics during my time doing Ph.D. research (the lack of sufficient knowledge and skill notwithstanding). Nowadays I spend some time studying undergraduate-level mathematics textbooks on my own.
Basically I'm examining options that would prepare me to do research in mathematics applied to the area of machine learning, preferably in a professional or academic context (rather than just at a personal level).
Studying on one's own is all very well, but I feel I need to impose more structure and have better focus.
I recently found out about GRE subject tests. I was wondering if preparing for (and taking) the GRE mathematics test might be helpful? I'm looking at it from these angles: (a) having a study "syllabus" to help concentrate my effort, rather than jumping about subjects and topics haphazardly (b) getting an idea of where I stand compared to other students, and (c) strengthening my case in case there's a possibility of going back to university (at the postgraduate level, that is; while I might seriously consider doing an M.Sc. or M.Phil in applied mathematics in the US or the UK, I don't think it's practical to start afresh at the undergraduate level now.)
So, is preparing for the GRE mathematics test a good idea? Any other suggestions (alternatively, or alongside)? And - so as not to put the cart before the horse - how likely is it for someone from my background to be considered for admission to a postgraduate mathematics programme (at a decent university) in the first place?

The mathematics subject GRE covers roughly the first half of the content that one would learn in a good undergraduate math program.  Much of it (calculus, linear algebra, differential equations) is material that an engineering student would likely be familiar with already.
I think that the only good reason to study for the GRE is if you need to take the GRE, i.e. if you want to apply to a school that requires it.  In that case, it is probably best to spend a limited amount of time studying in the few months or weeks before you take it.  Otherwise, I think your time would be better spent on more advanced topics.

Having looked over a sample GRE maths test, I concur with what you say about its level of difficulty (or lack thereof). It remains for me to know, however, what importance universities in the US (with strong math departments) give to it.

@Aky: It depends on the department. Some do not require or consider it at all. For those that do, its importance varies. Often it is used as an initial screening pass, so that a low score is  a serious disadvantage, but a high score does not particularly help. (Of course, only the department knows what scores they consider "low".)

Would you have any idea if applicants with an engineering degree would be considered seriously by universities for postgraduate study in mathematics?

@Aky: Sorry, I don't know.

Thanks for the reply. I'm hoping someone will chime in about that aspect, which was really the crux of my enquiry (i.e. coming into graduate-level mathematics from an engineering background). My professed interest in GRE is something of a red herring here, and one of the mods changed my question title in a way that emphasised that angle (not that I blame them, as my question wasn't formulated accurately.) Perhaps I should modify my question somewhat...

@Aky: You might see this question.  Searching for "math engineering" on this site turns up some others that may help.

Thanks for the link. Interestingly, the accepted answer over there opines that taking (and acing) the GRE math exam might be a good step forward. While I think you and I would agree that acing GRE is not necessarily indicative of a good grasp of math at the upper undergraduate/graduate level, but given that my options might be limited, I guess I can't afford to dismiss it outright either. I think I'll look into some of the courses on offer and get in touch with the coordinators - they ought to be able to advise me.


text:
How should I interpret "English is poor" review when I used a language check service before submission?
Recently I submitted a manuscript to an international journal. It was accepted with a minor revision, but I am worried about the reviewers’ comments. The first reviewer commented that the paper is well written but it still needs some English improvements. The second reviewer also commented that English improvements are required.
I have gotten similar comments regarding English in my earlier publications, but in those times I used to submit manuscripts without making an English native check. (However, I always do an English native check after getting comments about English.)
This time, I submitted my manuscript after making an English native check by a reputed company (who had worked for my earlier publications). The only modifications I made after this check were those suggested by the language check service: for example, where they said to add a "the" in a sentence. I added a "the". I didn't make any modifications other than those I was directed to make by the language check service.
Still, I got a similar suggestion to improve the English.
So what should I think about the reviews? Is it a frequent feedback that all reviewers give?

Also note that the service may not be as good as you believe it is. See e.g. How should I handle poor English in reviewing an article that claims to be proofread by two native English speakers?, which asks about this situation from the reviewers' point of view.

Oh really. But I always get the same comment in the first revision. But in the second time it vanished, even I don't make english check.

It is hard to decide what happened. On one hand, I have seen such companies doing a very poor job. Also, it is hard to correct language when beyond the grammar/spelling level, so there might be a problem like that. On the other hand, many times people give this "poor English" comment on manuscripts, while the reviewers themselves are clearly not capable speakers of the language. So if they had some specific comments on grammar or spelling, correct those, make some minor changes, and tell the editor you done your best / got checked it with a native speaker.

Related: Is it normal that journals strongly suggest a professional English editing service?

Take the reviews to the language service and get your money back, or further work for the same fee.

Anecdotally, I believe that many language checking services are scams.  Their employees often have a very poor grasp of English.  They advertise a service that they are completely unable to provide.  I'd be more inclined to trust the reviewers who work for the journal.

Maybe it's a bit unclear in the question, but "well written but it still needs some English improvements"/"English improvements are required" sounds quite different from "English is poor".

There are several possibilities here, although generally they all have the same solution.
The English is poor or incorrect and the company did not check it well
It is possible that the company that checked your article did a bad job. This happens. Maybe the service did not have a native English speaker check your article. Maybe they had a bad day. Maybe they don't provide good service, and you just got lucky on previous times. It's hard to say.
The English is grammatical, but not idiomatic
It is possible that the company that checked your article fixed all the grammatical mistakes, but that there are still some phrasings which are not idiomatic or particularly natural. This is essentially a function of how detailed the corrections were. For example, here is the first paragraph of your post:

Recently I had submitted a Manuscript to an International Journal. Though it is accepted as a Minor revision, but I am worried about the reviewer's comment. First reviewer has commented that the Paper is well written, still needs some English improvements. Second reviewer has also commented that English improvements is required.

There are some small grammatical errors, and I can correct them as follows (in bold):

Recently I had submitted a manuscript to an international journal. Though it is was accepted as a minor revision, but I am worried about the reviewer's comment. The first reviewer has commented that the paper is well written, but still needs some English improvements. The second reviewer has also commented that English improvements is are required.

While this paragraph is now grammatically correct, it still does not feel like it was written by a native speaker, and the way some words are used is a little odd. (E.g. using though and but in the second sentence; you really only need one of them.) So, a more thorough checking would suggest edits like the following:

Recently I had submitted a manuscript to an international journal. Though it is was accepted as a Minor revision pending minor revisions, but I am worried about the reviewers's comments. The first reviewer has commented that the paper is well written, but still needs some English improvements. The second reviewer has also commented that English improvements is are required.

The checking service could have done the first step (making it grammatically correct) without following through on the second step (making it idiomatic). The second step is much harder, of course, as it requires knowledge of what style is appropriate for your field (and for the journal you are writing for), and, to some extent, it requires technical knowledge of whatever you're writing about.
The English is fine, the reviewer is just being picky
Academic articles are complex and often involve detailed theoretical or technical discussion. At times, they can be hard to follow. Sometimes this complexity is interpreted as poor language skills, and reviewers complain. I know more than one native English speaker who has received reviews asking them to check their article with a native speaker. In essence, this criticism relates to how the content is presented rather than linguistic concerns like grammaticality or phrasing.
The solution
It is not easily possible for you to determine right now which of the above scenarios has happened. However, a big help would be for you to show the manuscript to a trusted colleague who is a native speaker of English, and ask them how it reads. If the English is really atrocious, then you know you have a problem with the checking service; if there are some unusual phrases but it's otherwise fine, then you know the problem is that it's occasionally un-idiomatic; and if there are no obvious problems, then it's probably just an issue of reviewer interpretation.
The other step you should take is to re-read your manuscript and attempt to make complex exposition more clear. (This is a step I advise everyone to do at basically every stage of the writing process...) This will help your article in the case that the English was fine but the reviewer was just confused.
Finally, breathe and relax. Your article was accepted, congratulations! Clearly the reviewers and the editor thought that the scientific content was sufficient to merit publication.

"Native English speaker" as a competent language professional is often a false assumption. Most "native speakers" I know are pretty terrible at grammar, sentence structure, semantics, or appropriateness of context. Foreign speakers of English learn the mechanics of the language more rigourously than native speakers tend to. That said, a foreign speaker will usually fall over at idiom or colloquialisms, as well as industry-specific terminology. This is why professional editors and proofreaders exist - you need to make sure you're using somebody qualified, not just "native" to the language.

Though your point about correct vs. idiomatic usage may be valid, the example you gave doesn't really illustrate this.  Most if not all of the second set of modifications aren't stylistic choices but corrections. "I had submitted" is a use of past perfect without a past time correlative.  “has commented” and “has also commented” are uses of present perfect to refer to well-defined past times.   Neither of these are correct grammar.

Furthermore, while it technically parses grammatically “to accept as a minor revision” is obviously not the correct choice of phrase here. Again, this isn’t a question of style or unidiomatic language, but of a mistake. This should be flagged up in any decent English review process in the same way that, while it parses, “he took the cup through his mouth” would be (likely as a mistake for “he took the cup to his mouth”). While grammatical, “I told him that if he was feeling down, he should come out” would likely be changed to “go out”. Unless we were writing in the context of sexuality.

@filth That doesn't seem to be the assessment rturnbull is giving here - they're suggesting that the reviewer might not be a native speaker, and therefore would not correct idiomatic errors.  In fact, the example given shows the exact grammatical errors a professional non-native speaker would correct.  Which, given how complex the context of the OP's manuscript could be, is probably a better way to proof the document anyway - since even a native speaker wouldn't necessarily know the context and formality of the document without directly consulting the author at every step.

@Some_Guy You make a good point - while not all of the changes in the second set of edits are grammatical, many of them are the type of corrections I'd expect to see in a through "English" check - perhaps the company is hedging their bets and trying not to change the wording of the manuscript too much, so as to avoid changing the meaning and context the author is trying to convey?

@filth Whether ""Native English speaker" as a competent language professional is often a false assumption. " is true or not doesn't matter (I would contest that most native English speaking academics have fairly decent grammar skills, they just often don't apply them). What matters is the language people use, and  ""natives" to the language" in OPs field are going to be MUCH better at editing his paper for his field than a "Native English Professional".

@zibbobz - "expect to see in a through" probably should be "expect to see in a thorough"

One more possibility: Maybe field-specific phrases are wrong or used in the wrong place. A native speaker who’s not familiar with the field wouldn’t know the difference (e.g. “software beetle” instead of bug).

@Some_Guy The point being made, as I see it, is that possibly the reviewing service might have corrected grammatical errors, converting the manuscript into a series of well-formed English sentences, while neglecting to correct semantic errors, where a well-formed sentence conveys the wrong meaning. For example, the sentence with "has commented" is perfectly grammatical and correct in isolation, but in context has the wrong semantics because it uses the incorrect tense, as you say.

@amalloy Yes but by that metric a correction service wouldn't correct the sentence "tomorrow I was very tall, however yesterday I additionally won't be green"

@amalloy is the use of the wrong tense really not a grammatical error?  Is "tomorrow I went shopping" a gramatically correct sentence?

@qneill ...Indeed.  Looks like my own proof reading wasn't 'through' enough. ;)

@Michael I'm going to have to start using "software beetle" now.

+1 but I wouldn't call it "idiomatic language" but just "style". Compare: I checked the samples with XYZ, they were looking fine. vs The samples were verified in compliance with XYZ procedure. I wouldn't expect language checking service to deal with such things, they wouldn't know how to change it.

@Some_Guy: No, you didn't capitalize the first letter and there's no period. Other than that, yes, it is a grammatically correct sentence that I might expect to find in a story with time-travelers. The problem is the context of the sentence, which can be difficult to determine in complicated writing.

Is it a common comment that all reviewers do?

It's a comment I saw several times at the beginning of my career, but with a little attention it became rarer and rarer.
I think that there can be two issues.
First, as remarked by ff524, if you modify the text after the language check, you can introduce errors that go undetected. I'm a non-native English speaker too, but I can recognize many grammar errors in your question: don't take it as a judgement, but you really ought to consider that you might have introduced new errors.
Second, the English proofreader likely lacks the technical knowledge to understand the details of your manuscript, and they might involuntarily introduce other errors.
As a non-native speaker, I frequently use the correction service freely offered by my university; however, I work side by side with the proofreader to explain the technical usage of certain words. For instance, in my field, we use the word realization with an uncommon acceptation (you can find an explanation in this answer on Physics.SE) which typically makes the proofreader comment: "Are you sure that you want to use realization here?". A proofreader left alone would probably modify realization with a technically incorrect word.
Here are my 2 cents:

Work together with the proofreader.
Avoid modifying the text after the last check, until you have improved your mastery of English.

@Kayan This: "the English proofreader unlikely has the technical knowledge to understand the details of your manuscript" is the most important part I think. Technical writing has a lot of specialized word usage that is uncommon or weird, and missing some specialized idioms or vocabulary would certainly make me reply that writing needs improvement. Cont.

Cont. For example, word "graph" has many synonyms including "chart", "diagram", "plot", etc. While you can use "plot of a function" instead of "graph of a function" in some contexts (like calculus), "bipartite plot" rather than "bipartite graph" is just bad English if the context is graph theory. Note that both are just areas of mathematics, and with so many fields that science has, how can you blame them? Fin.

@dtldarek Can confirm. I used to work for such a service. I identified my areas of specialty when I signed up, but it quickly became clear that they didn't have editors to cover every field, and I was frequently sent jobs outside my specialties.

@GeoffreyBrent How far from your original field it usually was? E.g., if I would need to check a different branch of math at least I would be aware of some of the quirks and could check the cited papers; however, with something like economics or physics (which are not that far from math), I would need way too much time to do even a decent job.

@dtldarek I'm mostly a statistician, though I did my PhD in biomed eng (mostly mech eng) and I've moonlighted in economics. About two-thirds of what they sent me was maths/stats of some description (not always close to my experience) but they also sent me papers about optical equipment, electric battery design, and software development life cycle. And, yeah, the time required to do an adequate job meant it ended up being ~ minimum wage, which is one of several reasons why I ditched that job after a few months.

@dtldarek to clarify, my job was to edit the English, not to provide subject-matter review, so I never needed to check cites etc. But past a certain point, unfamiliarity with the subject matter makes it hard to fix the English. Anyway, I got the impression they were desperately short of editors.

Unfortunately, there is not much to interpret. If the reviewers found your English to be below the journal's standard, you really have no other choice than to accept this. Language standards seem to differ somewhat between different journals, with some being stricter than others, and in general the comment that you received is not simply a default (see this answer for details).
Since you were asked to make "minor revisions", there won't be another round of reviewing. You will most likely have to briefly explain those revisions in your cover letter, but ultimately it is up to you how much work you put into them.
Another question altogether is how to improve the language of the manuscript or whether you could get a refund from the editing service. There are various answer to questions like these on this site (1, 2, 3, 4).

Not only can language standards differ between journals, they can also differ between reviewers and between editors for the same journal. In fact, my own standards as a reviewer can vary. If a manuscript is in nearly perfect English but has a minor grammatical error, I'd point that out; if a manuscript has lots of major grammatical errors, I'd mention those but let a minor error go.

The reviewers don't know whether or not you hired a company to check your article. All they see is your article, and apparently they both saw too many errors in there.
The fact that your article was checked by a reputable company does not mean there are no errors: there are wildly different levels of service they can offer, ranging from a quick check by a student who is a native speaker, to a detailed check by a specialized team consisting of an official translator who is a native English speaker, an official translator who has the same mother tongue as you do, and someone who knows something about the discipline you are working in. The latter will probably get you a better result, but will cost a lot more. Your company can offer any level of service along this range and be reputable, as long as the company clearly communicates what is offering.

I don't think that a translator can really proofread a technical paper. When I have written the first paper, for proofreading I have given it to a peer who is working in a related topic, and also to an english teacher. After I have read the corrections, they both have done crucial mistakes related to the ideas presented in the manuscript and adapted the text in a wrong way. Although the style in the paper was improved, not all the changes were properly made, and I had to recheck all the sentences. In the end, don't thrust too much in someone else who have not worked on the paper and don't understand the paper to proofread the final version.

If your point is that you have to be careful when implementing suggestions from translators, then I fully agree. If your point is that translators cannot proofread technical papers at all, then I disagree.

I’m not sure why you’ve singled out translators here (there’s no mention of translation or translators in the question). Regardless of what the topic is—whether it’s even academic or technical or not—it is always your responsibility and duty as a writer to check every single correction/suggestion that anyone reading your writing makes. Doesn’t matter if they’re proofreaders, peers from your own field, or anything else. In the end, only you know exactly what you want to say.

You shouldn't take it so hard. You are probably a great scientist.
Anyway, it matters that your paper follows a logical progression of words to the main observations and conclusions. That comes with experience. However, the English language does not make a lot of sense. For example, a pineapple isn't any kind of apple. Similarly, "heads up" does not mean to lift your head up. It means to get down on the ground to dodge something. Of course, this isn't scientific lingo.
What I suggest that you do is that you ask one of your department colleagues, who has a general understanding of the subject matter, such as bioinformatics, to review your paper in a personal matter sharing some coffee. I'm sure a fellow researcher would be glad to help you because if your research publication gets high marks, then the institution gets higher marks.


text:
What is a Good Alternative to the Word "Novel" in Engineering Publications?
When writing papers for engineering conferences and journals, it is important to highlight how one's work is novel/new.
I often find myself repeating the word "novel" is sentences such as:

The novel control algorithm presented here....

but I feel this is quite tedious if repeated often. I sometimes use phrases such as

This work extends the state-of-the-art by...

but don't particularily like the sound of that either. I've looked in several thesauruses, and we often debate this question at the coffee table in our research lab, but we have not yet come up with many compelling alternatives.
Are there any other suggestions for phrasing ways in which my work is "new"?

Find a thesaurus, maybe online. You will find lots of synonyms. In the old days, writers kept a printed one at their elbow along with their dictionary.

Thanks for the advice, I have looked in thesauruses on many occasions but not found any satisfying alternatives. By askiung the question here, I was hoping to get input from people who have also had this issue and perhaps come up with nice expressions.

Hmmm, maybe read Apple or Microsoft product announcements. ;-)

Perhaps the answer is in your question. "important to highlight HOW one's work is novel"... maybe don't focus on calling out that it is novel but focus on why it is novel. "Previous control algorithms suffer from X, this problem is attenuated by our algorithm which includes Y"


text:
PI published my work after I graduated without informing me (and with a different first author)
When leaving with my PhD I left a sizable amount of unpublished work, most of which was 95% or better complete.  After several attempts over the past 2 years to find out his plans for publishing I all but gave up.  Then tonight a google notification told me they were adding a pub on google scholar.  It was my work (that I had written a manuscript in 2012) with someone else as a first author.  I'm on the paper but was never informed or reviewed a manuscript.  Im concerned because I still have presumably 3 more papers pending that could turn out the same way.
I would like to see 3 things happen.

Reordering of authorship or at least an unbiased remediation/explanation of the current.
Access to the submission process (including establishing agreed upon authorship requirements) or at least advanced notice should some other work be published in the future.
I would love (but most likely won’t get) acknowledgment/censure by the institution, as this is not the first time the PI has acted dishonestly in this regard, and likely not the last.

I am looking for advice on who to contact, and how to approach the situation such that my claim is heard.
To clarify a few points: In my field it is customary for the author who contributed most both experimentally and conceptually to be listed first, followed by other contributing authors in roughly descending order of involvement.  Lastly the PI  (the Principle Investigator who oversees the work, funds the lab, the major professor involved, ect) is listed.
This order is largely taken into account when assessing a researchers body of work, as it is not common for papers in the field to have a breakdown of contributions by author in the text like in some other related fields.
Also common in the field is the ownership of the scholarship by the institution.  This work was written up and published in my thesis.  Additionally I prepared and formatted, and made available to the PI a manuscript for journal publication. Unfortunately, I cannot publish without the PI's approval, and I thought he was unable to publish without my approval.

I don't know how it works in Academia (never really stayed to the paper-writing stage) but in the commercial world, most employment contracts say that any work done is the property of the employer.  If something similar applies, and given you say you "left a sizable amount of unpublished work" (with an emphasis on left) then it might be within their rights to publish what you left behind.  As to who is the primary author, how different is what you left behind to what was published?

The pink elephant in the room: why weren't you trying to publish your results yourself instead of waiting for someone else to do it?

@TripeHound: While intelectual property may transfer to the employer in academia, Academic authorship is not about this but about intellectual contributions. If you submit a paper to a journal you have to state that (roughly) the authors are exactly those people who intellectually contributed to the paper.

@Wrzlprmft Hence the last bit about how different (or not) the published work was to what was left behind.  The PI (primary investigator?) might indeed be pulling a fast one, but if they've made substantial alterations / updates etc., they may feel justified in putting their name first (and from what I do remember, it is/was reasonably common practice for supervisors / professors to put their name ahead of the research student who did the bulk of the work, either to bump their reputation or, more charitably, to "recognise their work in supporting and guiding the student" or some such!)

@TripeHound practices about authorship differ very widely by field. In some fields, the advisor goes last all the time. In some fields, the authors are listed alphabetically, in some fields, the authors are ordered by contribution. / as you note, you aren't in this business anymore...

Is there a reason you can't spell out what PI stands for?  Google is no help unless it you are talking about the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter.

PI: Primary Investigator. Fairly standard term on English-speaking academia, or even commercial research publication...

Were you not asked by the journal to confirm your authorship? That would have been a good opportunity to explain your situation to the journal editors.

Also note that I am aware of no journal that asks all authors to confirm their authorship. But this may be field-dependent.

I'm with @MadJack here - what have you been doing over the past two years to publish the work? If you haven't been actively working it, why shouldn't the professor (who probably needs to publish to satisfy the funding agency) get it out the door? And, without your direct help, why should you be first author if you have abandoned any effort? Further, "95% or better complete" is likely, in reality, to be 50% or less (the last 10% takes 90% of the effort far too often).

It is a difficult situation, and the course of action may depend on many things we do not know (e.g. the influence of the PI, your current situation and dependency from him – do you need letters of recommendation, or did you leave academia –, how much factual evidence you can provide for your part on the works, etc.).
Here are various approaches which seem possible, but any of them may be impractical or dangerous depending on the unknowns mentioned above.

Contact the PI to sort the situation out; it is better not to corner her, but to let her an honorable way out or probably nothing good will happen.
Contact the university or department to notify the misconduct. It might be better to only do that after contacting the PI, but it really depend on the history.
Contact an ethic committee if one exists in your field (e.g. an ethic committee for publications, including misattribution of authorship, has been set for maths by the EMS).
Contact the editor-in-chief of the journal the paper is published in, and notify her that you should be first author (providing evidence) and that you were not asked for permission to publish the work.

Be aware that any of the above move may turn out to be explosive; it is difficult to say more given the limited amount of information. So let me end with probably the most important advice:
Seek guidance by a senior researcher you know and can trust with your case. You will be able to discuss the specifics of your situation, and someone ready to back you up is of utmost importance in this kind of situation.

Why didn't you write it up? So you are not the first author, but which order do you come in, second?  I think the best thing to do is just to move on and do some other amazing work.  I have witnessed how some nasty people work, they never change and you can't change them. The best you can do is to run away. This is not being a coward, it's just time saving.
Here are some very general authorship rules - most health related journals including very good ones such as the BMJ use these as guidelines.  Your PI has obviously broken most, e.g. you weren't asked for approval in the final draft:
http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html

Is there a member (or several members) of your thesis committee that you feel you can trust? If so, I would contact them to get their confidential feedback. You need to prepare a document that explicitly demonstrates which portions of the manuscript were your work:

Find the draft that you originally wrote.
Highlight all of the text that is a direct quote from your draft or your thesis.
Highlight all of the figures that you personally made.

You should be able to definitively back up any assertions that you make. Document everything. Then get feedback from unbiased, knowledgeable 3rd parties.  Allow them to decide whether you should be listed as first author, co-first author, second author, or middle author.  A co-primary authorship--if warranted-- might prove to be an elegant solution that doesn't offend anyone.


text:
Can my advisor ask me to drop a project?
I am a 5th year neurobiology phd student at a US institution. The data I have collected for my main project is not very exciting. Although it looks like I will be able to cobble together a paper, it won't be as shiny as it first appeared. A side project (tangentially related) has actually yielded much more interesting data, though I have been told by my PI to focus on my main project and to not further pursue the other project. I have pushed back without success. Since I am using my PI's resources, I feel obliged to discontinue that work, though I am curious if I do have any rights in that regard.
Some background information: My PI is one of the leading researchers in the field. There are rumors that my PI is planning to retire soon, and I have mentioned that I am trying to graduate this year. I have a good relationship with my PI and we check in on a regular basis. The average time to graduate in my program is between 5 and 7 years.

What do you mean by can my advisor ask me to drop a project? He has already done so. Are you wondering whether that's fair, whether you should trust him/her, whether you should push back more?

Should your title be "should I drop a project that my advisor has asked me to?" That seems to be the question you're asking. In light of the fact that your advisor is insistent and given that you seem to want to continue, I recommend a further round of negotiating. In that negotiation, propose spending just a small amount of time on the side project and maybe offer to devote some of your "non-working" time to the project. (Do researchers have "non-working" time?)

There are three different hats your advisor might be wearing, and the question how strong you should drop that project can be depends on which one it is.
As your advisor: Your PhD advisor's responsibility is to, well, advise you on your PhD. So it is definitely appropriate for them to suggest that you focus on one project and drop another. However, the person ultimately responsible for your PhD research is you. If you disagree with the advice, you are free to pursue the research you want to focus on. [Obviously, you should not readily dismiss the advice of your advisor, and if you or your advisor feel they cannot advise you, the advising relationship might have to end.]
As your manager: In many settings, PhD students are also some sort of employee, and as such have a manager supervising their work. This person will typically be the same as the advisor. However, acting as manager, it is probably within their authority to direct what you work on. As such work contracts are almost universally for fewer hours than a PhD student is actually expected to work, you can use that extra time to pursue your side projects. Be wary of the risk for conflict though if you and your manager have different impressions on how much time you spent on what.
As your lab head: Some research requires resources besides the time of the researcher. If you are given access to such exclusive resources in order to work on some particular research, then using them for a side project would be unethical. In many cases, the resources might be paid for by a grant to do particular research, so it might not even be allowed for your advisor to give you permission to use them for your side project. If this applies to you, you might want to look for small grant schemes you can apply for to get the required resources for the side project.