text:
Is it ethical to watch recreational videos or listen to music on a portable work computer bought from a research fund?
I am in my first year of a PhD in France. My adviser recently bought a laptop for me using the research funds on which the computational codes for my research work are installed. According to my adviser, I can take the laptop to my residence when I leave the lab.

Is it ethical to listen to music, watch videos or movies I love on the work computer?

I am well aware that discussing with my team would be the ideal thing to do but I am not sure how my supervisor would take it. I cannot reach a conclusion of whether listening to music and videos helps me constructively in my research. One favorable justification I found is that listening to music helps me concentrate better, but I am not sure it is always the case. The reason is that at times some movies feel very motivational, music feels soothing but on some other occasions I find myself investing hours in them when I am supposed to complete a task. This may be purely attributed to my personality but I am unable to reach an answer.

What do your colleagues do with work equipment like this? I am not sure whether it is the case in France, but at least from the legal perspective, some jurisdictions have a concept of "accepted use", where certain not directly work-related activities (e.g. checking private e-mails from work) are considered to be allowed simply on the grounds that everyone does it and it has not explicitly been forbidden by the employer.

I dont think the issue will be if watching movies is constructive or not, more than the result of something happening to the computer.  If it is designed to be bare bones for computation, with no changes in the system (like a browser cache changing storage size), you might need to be careful.  Similarly, if it gets a virus or anything of the kind, it could be a big problem.  Thats not to say it isnt a regular occurance... and you do need to ask your advisor

Isn't permitting you to take the laptop home tantamount to allowing personal use? If you want to keep personal and professional things separate, I'd suggest running a separate OS installation from an external drive (or a partition of the internal drive).

@Moriarty: Not necessarily. The permission to take work computers or similar to one's home can be particularly to prevent people from mixing work data with anything private (e.g. for keeping confidential work data and applications you'd install privately physically apart even when doing home-office).

@Thejus: certainly the psychological benefits to your work of listening to music and watching movies while you aren't working are rather tenuous. If that were the justification, then it would be wide open to using research money for other leisure pursuits, holidays, etc, which clearly are not OK. Fortunately, you don't need to make the justification in that way.

This is not an ethical issue, but a funding issue.  Ethical nitpicking: is it ethical for the team to expect OP to work in his/her residence after the workday.  Presumably OP could live in a capsule hotel (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsule_hotel) except it is too tiny to work at home.  The agency that funded the laptop may have restrictions on how their funds may be spent that restrict its use.

(Posting as a comment as I can't answer a protected question) I think that you should ask a more general question: whether you are allowed to do anything not-work-related on your computer(s)? Do you check personal email from you work computer while at work? Can you listen to music while at work? Can you, for example, order something for personal use from an internet shop while at work? I think that at big organizations there should be some policy about this, and this is that policy that you should ask about...

(contd.) ...If it allows listening music, then you can do it; if it says, for example, "no personal use at all", then no. It may even have different cases for work hours and off-work hours. So you should ask a general question "can I do personal work at the laptop", and I guess this should be OK.

@ThejusMahajan I don't see where you mention a policy in personal use. You say that "according to my guide, I can take the laptop to my residence when I leave the lab", but this says nothing about personal use. If the same guide says something about it, then whatever it says is the answer.

Let me put it simple for you. I know that asking my guide whether I can watch movies or not in the work station solves it, but I feel the question may seem silly to her and I don't know how my guide react to it.

@ThejusMahajan, ah, so "guide" is a person, not a document. Then my answer applies again. You should ask not about movies or music, but about personal use in general. This seems not silly at all; if asked for details, talk not music only, but other usages you might have (checking email?). And even better is to ask not about whether it is allowed, but whether there is a policy.

An empirical perspective: I made my PhD in France and everybody (students, professors, researchers) used their lab provided laptop as they would use a laptop they bought themselves. As a student, you will normally only get one laptop for the three (or four, or five) years your PhD lasts, and if you wear it off through overuse (for instance, the battery), it's usually your problem. I would add that many people see those little perks of working in a research lab (laptop, travels, etc.) as a compensation for a relatively low salary.

This started its life as a comment, but I think it actually makes a good answer:
I think discussions such as "listening to music help me concentrate better" are overanalyzing things here. To seriously justify anything with this effect, you'd have to dive into the psychology of different styles of music, working times, etc.
Seen more superficially, listening to music and watching movies are activities that are simply not directly a part of your work. The - implicit or explicit - agreement for using the laptop will likely be somewhere between "Use it like you would use your own computer, but eventually return it undamaged." and "Each and every keypress must be directly a part of your work, or else you must not perform it." You just have to find out where in this spectrum the agreement for using the laptop lies.
Therefore:

Look at what other (more senior) colleagues do with their work laptops.
Ask them directly.

Try to find out about intentional or implicit deviations between official rules and actual behaviour (and possibly decide for yourself then what you can live with).

Possibly ask the supervisor, if the above points are inconclusive.

Do you actually doubt there is an objective basis (waiting for research to substantiate it, or for web searching to locate such existing research) for listening to music materially facilitating concentration?

@ErikE: I doubt there is an objective basis that is as simplistic as "listening to any music while at work is inherently better than listening to no music while at work".

I can agree with that. I don't think all kinds of music are conducive to all kinds of work. I just know that in my own experience, certain kinds of music help me enter Flow state. I am objectively far more productive with the music than without, proven again and again.

@ErikE: Certainly - I just tried to express that if the OP really wants to justify their listening to music as work-related, it will be a lot more complicated than claiming "music helps me concentrate", as many variables (exact work task being executed, type of music, duration of work, frequency of music style change, environment with and without music, ...) will have to be considered for an empricially valid statement.

Unless explicitly stated in the rules that they should have told you when you got the computer, you can do whatever you want that doesn't damage the machine or compromises your work. Common sense applies:

Playing a CPU intensive game at the same time you are crunching some numbers you need soon will slow your computations, so it isn't good. Playing the same game while the CPU is doing nothing else, should be OK.
Storing music or films in the hard drive is fine, but if you are running out of space for your data, they should go away.
If the university is providing some backup service, make sure you are not bloating it with gigabytes of your personal stuff. A few megabytes of configuration files of your own programs and other small things shouldn't be an issue.

One can argue that just by using it you are wearing off the battery, and that is costing your university money; but on the other hand, a new battery costs around one salary day, and if that is what it takes to keep you happier and more productive (even a tiny bit) for years, I think it is well worth it.
If you were to need the help of IT support (in my university is as good as nonexistent anyway), they may delete your personal files and programs if they think they are related to the problem, as  Todd Wilcox pointed out in the comment. If they were less understanding, you may even be told off for installing software that they don't know (mind you, it may even be research related!).

In fact, probably much less than one salary day at many institutions, when overhead is included.

From the perspective of an IT person, I would add a caveat to this solid answer: if someone brings me a computer to fix and one of the problems is low hard drive space or poor performance, I will summarily delete and/or uninstall anything not work-related that seems like it will make a difference. I recently deleted several GB of personal music files from a computer that was almost out of hard drive space, and I routinely uninstall game apps and chat clients that run in the background if the computer is slow. Where I work, it's only a problem if it's causing a problem, otherwise we don't care.

Playing a CPU intensive game while crunching numbers might not be an issue if you don't need the numbers ASAP.

@ToddWilcox: To me, chat clients typically seem totally work-related. The other items sound like reasonable assumed candidates for removal, though.

@O.R.Mapper What is or is not work-related certainly varies from organization to organization. I might remove games with extreme prejudice, but IT at a game developer might not ("research"). We have an internal, secure chat client, so for us, all other chat clients are expendable.

@O.R.Mapper to clarify: if your organization uses Slack as its internal/work-related chat client, and a user has Skype and AIM installed, Skype and AIM will probably get nuked... the one exception being if the user is in customer support and the org uses instant messaging as a support channel (hey, I've seen it before)

@DoktorJ  Skype and AIM will probably get nuked — So, you don't want your researchers collaborating with anyone outside the university who doesn't use your internal chat client?  Really?

Adding to what @ToddWilcox said about it from an IT perspective - just be aware that anything you do on the laptop can/might/probably-is being logged or monitored in some fashion. IT rules vary from organization to organization, but it's always a possibility. So don't go doing anything on your work laptop that you wouldn't want your boss/co-workers to know about.

@JeffE It's entirely possible that DoktorJ doesn't even work at a university. I certainly don't and never have. And we have specific ways we want to empower collaboration outside the organization, and AIM is not one of them. For all we know, DoktorJ works somewhere that handles classified information and all collaboration with people outside the build/campus is forbbiden. Beyond that, it is possible to chat between different chat systems without installing all the different clients, so an org can have one approved client and still be enabling all kinds of chat.

@SnakeDoc that is a very uncommon practice at universities. If not for any other reason, because IT support is already understaffed for fixing stuff, they wouldn't take on the extra work of monitoring people.

@Davidmh IT rarely "actively" monitors... I meant simply your account on your computer is likely setup and maintained by them, and it may or may not leak things you don't want known. So, just do yourself a favor, and don't watch certain types of websites and what-not on your work provided laptop.

My answer might be slightly different than some... I'm in charge of managing several computers for an elementary school, including teacher computers, and man... the workload teachers and students cause for me by doing things they totally thought were "innocent" is huge.  Don't get me wrong, if it didn't happen I wouldn't have a job, so I don't mind much, but sometimes they wreck relatively well working machines fast.
The main issues come from going to unknown sites and getting viruses.  If you're using legit sites to find your videos and music, I'd say it isn't a big ethical issue.  Legit meaning stuff like watching videos on Youtube or Netflix, listening to your own music on iTunes, etc.  If you're using shady sites that might potentially bring on viruses, it becomes an ethical issue.  If you're in the grey zone in the middle somewhere... the ethics are in the grey zone too.
So really I think the ethics depend on not just the actions but how you are partaking in them and what risks you are bringing along with you.

Could you be more specific on unknown sites? I am not sure what you meant by   If you're using legit sites to find your videos and music, I'd say it isn't a big ethical issue . Is it like, if I don't get virus, everything I do is ethical?

I wouldn't say if you don't get a virus, because that's like saying if I shoot into a crowd and no one gets hit, was that ok?  Nah, there was still the risk.  Basically I'm saying that in my eyes the ethics depend on what risks you are taking.  An example of a really risky idea... using pirate sites to obtain pirated music and movies, many of which are loaded with viruses.  Middle ground would be searching on Google for music and movies and clicking on results that are from sites you never heard of (ie "unknown")... you do stuff like that, probably getting viruses eventually.

A lot of the problems that arise at my school are from that second one, Google searches.  "Where were you when the problems started?" "I don't know I was just searching on Google for a video and it brought me to some site." "What site?" "I don't know..."  I'm not saying never do Google searches, just make sure you know what you're doing, especially if you download stuff from sites.

I know what ethics are and of course they involve risk assessment.  Would you say that, for instance, a medical researcher can ethically design an experiment without calculating risk assessment for the subjects involved?  There are no human lives involved here but the idea is the same.  The harm you could potentially do to this machine that was not bought with your private funds is based on risk assessment of your actions.

Absolutely agree with @andrewwhatever. Check with the machine's owner to see if they have a policy on this -- my employer strictly restricts what can be installed on work machines because some code -- including freeware -- carries legal terms the company's lawyers consider intolerable or requires the higher-priced commercial license. Then make sure you have a legal copy of whatever it is; the one time I saw someone fired on the spot and marched out of the building was when a summer student was caught pirating a game on company time and hardware.

Yes, I consider it ethical if done in a responsible manner (more on that below). Reasons:

A laptop is a general purpose machine designed to be used for many things. Using it for recreational purposes in addition to research incurs no extra costs beyond those already invested in purchasing the machine (well, somebody mentioned battery and hard drive use, but come on - I've never had a laptop wear out either). An action that isn't harmful and is a net positive to the world usually should not be considered unethical.
A rule or ethical convention that prevents non-work-related use of laptops would have several very negative consequences. Specifically, a very large class of university, government and corporate workers would be forced to:

buy and maintain another laptop for personal use. This is expensive and wasteful. The world already has enough economic and environmental problems, do we really need to add more junk and waste?
carry two laptops with them whenever they travel. Again, this is wasteful, overly burdensome, and mostly just pointless.

Personal use of work computers is, as far as I know, widely accepted, at least in academia in the U.S. (This reason falls in the "supporting evidence" category, i.e., it is not proof that this behavior is ethical but suggests that it is at least widely considered ethical in the existing cultural context.)

Finally, as I said above, in order to be ethical, the non-work use must be responsible, in the following common sense meanings that were already mentioned in other answers:

It should not damage the computer beyond ordinary wear.
It should not consume computing resources that were needed for research.
It should not jeopardize the security of sensitive research information or of the workplace's technology infrastructure.
It should not violate any laws (e.g. downloading music and videos illegally would be absolutely not okay).

You won't wear out the battery if you keep the computer plugged in at home. Battery wear equals time used without charger.

@gnasher729: Actually, the exact opposite is true: http://www.wired.com/2013/09/laptop-battery/

You don't need to be specific when asking your supervisor or colleagues, just say that you are unsure of what you can and cannot do with the computer, and ask for some examples of things that are and are not allowed. Chances are that if watching movies or listening to music is not allowed, it will be one of the first things they will mention, since those are among the things most commonly done on a computer these days.
If they don't say that those things are forbidden, then go ahead and have fun. As a French person and former student in France (I have moved elsewhere for my PhD...) I can't see how this could be considered unethical (and, to be honest, your question made me chuckle a little).

Well, this is not specific of what not to do in France.

I don't know about France, but in the USA, some states have policies for publicly owned computers (which includes government agencies and state universities) and are subject to a de minimis personal use standard.  That is, you are allowed to use the publicly owned computer for personal use if it does not interfere with your work and is "minimal".  If the use is brief, infrequent, of little or no cost to the state, and is not disruptive, then a “de minimis” use of state resources would not be unethical.  Typically bandwidth is included in this concept.  So, if you are at home using your own bandwidth (e.g. to listen to the internet radio or watch an internet movie), you are not really using much in terms of state resources.  However, as soon as you start streaming these things from work, or storing those files long-term on your work computer, you have overstepped your ethical bounds.
Though, your employers should already have their own policy in place regarding personal use.

Good answer, but do you have a reference? I looked at my institution's policies and could not find explicit mention of the issue of personal use of work computers.

look here http://www.bu.edu/dos/policies/lifebook/computing-ethics/ and here http://www.wwu.edu/internalaudit/ethicsLAW.shtml and here http://www.ethics.wa.gov/RESOURCES/FAQ.htm or here http://www.washington.edu/news/2007/05/24/ethics-rules-now-allow-de-minimis-use-of-uw-resources-for-approved-outside-work/


text:
Why not offer credit by exam to students who have failed a course?
Summary: Students who have never taken a particular course often can get "credit by exam". However, it's extremely common for credit by exam to be disallowed to students who have previously taken and failed a course. For example, see the policy of the University of Mary Washington. Is there pedagogical reason for that different treatment of students who never took class vs failed the same class?

In my own experience, I have seen way too many undergraduate students that I thought could have passed if they had had two or three more weeks to study. They seem like an ideal use case for credit by exam:

Fail the course.
Get some extra tutoring over the break.
Sit credit by exam at the start of the next semester and earn passing marks.
???
Profit Graduate!

This argument applies especially for lower-division undergraduate courses (e.g. Chemistry I, Introduction to Psychology, Survey of US History, etc.) that are especially commonly offered in credit by exam format. These courses typically require a relatively shallow level of mastery of a wide body of knowledge, which can be easier to test for on exams rather than projects or term papers.
Question: Are there pedagogical reasons for not allowing students who have previously failed a course to sit a credit by exam examination while allowing students who have never taken the course to do so?
One obvious argument could be that credit by exam assessments may not be as rigorous as actually completing the full course (attending all lectures, completing all homework, participating in class discussions, etc.). If that is true, then I really wonder why credit by exam should even be offered at all - it doesn't make sense to single out some students who are allowed to follow an abbreviated path and others who are not.
To be clear, I'm not asking for a link to your institution's credit by exam policy nor am I looking for counterexamples (universities where students can get credit by exam for courses they have previously taken and failed). What I'm looking for is a pedagogical argument for having this policy. In other words, if I was in charge of setting credit by exam policy at my institution (I'm not), why would I want to go to the trouble of barring certain students from taking advantage of it rather than just saying that anyone who can pass the exams deserves the credit?
In response to comments, I am asking from the perspective of the USA.

The 2 camps: I've noticed a battle raging here in the US between camps over whether degrees ought to be about competence or completion. The competency camp claims that requiring formal study is unfair to those who can't afford to "go to college" but could learn on their own or at low-cost, unaccredited community learning centers. The completionist camp argues that without the "these hallowed halls" experience (being fed scraps of learning by social superiors, microwaving another bowl of ramen before rushing to another 7 AM lecture in an unheated lecture hall in the middle of a New England snowstorm, etc.), degrees are meaningless.

There are also curriculum control issues: In competency models, curricula are set by administrators, accreditors, or regulators and professors are expected to "teach to the test". On the other hand, competency supporters will respond that in the completion model, there is no guarantee that the professor will adhere to any standards at all.

We're getting a bit far from the original question, but a big reason for the competence model is the rampant credentialism we've seen here. With professions increasingly requiring a bachelor's degree or even a master's just to get in at the ground level, there are widespread calls to give these degrees to anyone who can demonstrate that they can do the job. Whether this is good or bad is beyond the scope of this question.

A non-pedagogical reason is so that students do not realize that credit by exam is harder than the course; excessively hard credit by exam is economically incentivised.

Are you talking about credit in the sense of getting academic credits toward the number required (e.g., 120) for a degree, or credit in the sense of satisfying some gen-ed/prereq requirement?  (I.e., the latter doesn't count toward the total number of classes you need to take, which is AFAIK the norm for what happens when you test out of a class without taking it)

Some rules are mandated by the accrediting bodies of universities and professional schools (law, medicine, etc). I suspect that the accrediting bodies require that a failed course be repeated in order to receive credit. I did once know that my university's accreditor required that all failed course appear on a transcript. They could not be removed if the same course was repeated and passed. This isn't an answer, but it does tell you how deeply such a rule can be embedded in academia.

@David I suspect that too, but I'm really asking whether there is an underlying pedagogical justification for accreditors having such a policy. That is, if I actually had authority to grant credit to anyone who dared to show up and pass my exams, why might I consider actually barring students that I previously flunked from doing so?

@Robert Columbia The authority comes from the institution. Formal procedures to do this will save you. Informal procedures will only get you in trouble. In today's world, formal approval of the Department head and the Dean are necessary to make this possible. Otherwise, I have never heard of any college or university that does this.

What is the cost to educators to make the exam? If you have some unlimited number of tries you can see what is going to be tested for and just learn those high points.

You know; you might be able to rig that up yourself; there's an I grade for a reason. The human judgment may well be better here than trying to write down the rule.

Short answer: A short exam cannot test mastery of all the skills taught during a course. When such exams are offered, they are normally offered only to students who have successfully completed an equivalent course; in these cases, the exam is used only to "spot-check" a rough equivalence rather than to rigorously probe all the course aims.
Longer answer...
The entire higher education system is largely based on completion instead of (or at least, in addition to) competence. Many people who have never been to college are more knowledgeable than degree holders, but this by itself does not entitle them to a degree. Maybe it should be otherwise, but that’s how it is.
Given this, it is self-consistent that test-passing in lieu of course-completion is largely restricted to lower-level courses that the student has completed elsewhere. The key fact in these cases is that the student has already successfully completed an equivalent course. It is not that passing the exam replaces completing the course; rather passing the exam is merely confirmation that the completed course was sufficiently similar to the equivalent college course. This is the theory at least; I realize that some colleges decide to save time and avoid arguments by just accepting exam scores without checking transcript/syllabi (the number of students who can pass such an exam without completing an equivalent course is probably very small in any case).
Now, you ask for a pedagogical reason why students shouldn’t be allowed to test out of courses. For some classes, it’s true that no short exam could possibly replicate the experience of taking a class. For example: laboratory sessions, research papers, and discussions are important and cannot be replicated in a short written exam. Similarly, in some upper-division science courses, the homework is much harder than the exams. Indeed, it's possible to pass the final exam but fail the course because of bad performance on homework, discussion, lab, etc. In “skills” classes like writing or algebra, however, I agree that disallowing credit by exam is difficult to justify from a pedagogical standpoint.
Finally, you raise an interesting point about final exams: why not allow students to take or retake final exams weeks after the course ends? Setting aside the concept of “placement exams,” it seems like courses that require a final exam do not need to schedule the exam within days of the course ending. I can think of no pedagogical reason against this, but it would be a headache from a scheduling point of view. Further, it would in practice encourage / require students to study during their break periods, which may have deleterious effects.

Interesting point about asking or not asking for a transcript. When I took advantage of credit by exam 20 years ago, I was not required to provide proof that I had completed similar coursework, but in fact I had (but couldn't do a direct transfer for credit since it wasn't accredited, hence the exam).

While my experience might not be the norm,  when I took courses like basic English & history by exam, prior coursework wasn't required.  It was more that they were at a level which a well-read person should be able to pass from common knowledge, yet were required - apparently because a lot of freshmen weren't well-read :-(

Agree, there are certain "basic skills" courses (writing and algebra come to mind) where passing an exam seems like a better metric than completing a course. One of the colleges I taught at required almost all students to take a writing course unless they passed a very difficult exam (which few students passed);  however, the students who completed the course did not have to retake the exam (and indeed, most still would not have passed). But this is perhaps not an exception to the rule, since virtually all students have past coursework in writing and algebra.

"First, I would point out that the entire higher education system is largely based on completion instead of (or at least, in addition to) competence." This may be location specific. In our country the long (for centuries) tradition is that the lectures are voluntary. You only have to attend the exercises/laabs/problem solving/discussions... Many courses are lecture only and you are not required to attend. You only have to pass the final exam.

"Similarly, in some upper-division science courses, the homework is much harder than the exams." Surely location specific. We didn't have any homework after the fifth semester (you can call it undegrad although it was a straight 5 year master study) and only very low amount before that.

On the contrary, "exercises/laabs/problem solving/discussions" are exactly what I meant by "completion." But yes, some countries are famous for an exam culture that differs from the US (which is where OP seems to be asking about)

I would point out that many US universities require competence in order to manage completion and that exams are not necessarily, nor even probably, a better measure of competence than homework, projects, and theses so long as your institution does not have a culture of academic misconduct (copying homework answers, etc...).  Exams are even sometimes conducted in the same manner as homework, some very high level math courses have take-home exams.  The exam difficulty is commensurate with the additional time.

"it would in practice encourage / require students to study during their break periods, which may have deleterious effects" Please someone tell that to the people in charge at ETHZ. :D

@Vladimir F: Just the opposite in typical US universities.  The final exam makes up only a fraction of the course grade, the rest is homework/projects & periodic quizzes.  Depending on how the instructor chooses to grade the course, it's sometimes possible to do well enough on those that taking the final exam is pointless.

@jamesqf The situation is exactly the same as Vladimir describes at some of the "ancient" UK universities. There are many 1st-class Oxbridge graduates in arts subjects who never attended any lectures whatever. The learning process is based on your weekly one-on-one no-holds-barred interactions with your supervisors (or tutors - the name depends on the institution), which are  way more challenging than listening to a lecture and doing a homework assignment.

... a real-world example of what no-holds-barred meant in practice: A law student had spent a week working on an essay for a tutorial scheduled for 9am. Arriving at 9am, the first question was "have you read this morning's law reports in The Times newspaper?" The answer "No, sir" produced the response, "OK, you have until 2pm today to rewrite your essay"  -and note the tutor had not even seen the essay at that point in the discussion!

@alephzero: Yes, I'm fairly well aware of how the Oxbridge system works, but I think it's an outlier.  Even there, I don't think the entire grade is based on passing a single final exam, is it?  With US-style systems, it seems that credit by exam is for people who already know the material (as I did), rather than those who took the course but couldn't keep up.

@jamesqf Yes, the entire grade is based on passing a final exam, which comes for each course at the end of the entire academic year.

There are various exam systems in the world. In our system it has traditionally been the case that you may repeat the exam within the designated exam period if you fail your first try, up to two times (if there are free spots exam terms scheduled. Only if you fail those, you have to retake the class. This should cover those cases that "students that I thought could have passed if they had had two or three more weeks to study.".
If your systems allows only a single try and you are doomed, then  credit by exam sounds like a good alternative as the student indeed may have just needed a more time. If you are honestly convinced about that, I see no pedagogical reasons in allowing such an exams and require all the coursework again.
Or the student may have needed a just quick lesson in how to study at a university. True story: I have never needed to systematically study at the high school and even my first uni exam (physics I) went easily. But then the calculus I came and what I thouth was being reasonably prepared was actually a disaster (O was also a bit ill). On Monday I got my quick leson and failed miserably my first attempt. I started to really study the proofs hard and to really do the exercises from the book. On Friday I passed with an A. I later gradueted with distinctions, later got a PhD, later got an academic job. In the single attempt only syatem I might have easily  been marked as a unperspective black sheep with a transcript with no chance of a grad school.

Did the exam on the Friday have the same question as on the Monday?

@Ian Is that even a serious question? What sane person would make it that way?

A school may give a student who has never taken a course the chance to get credit for it by passing a special exam because the school has no evidence that the student is not competent.
A school may refuse a student who has failed a course the chance to get credit for it by passing a special exam because the school has evidence that the student is not competent.

very simple/elegant/succinct and very good statistical view! but perhaps others may consider it a little too simple given the camp stuff i edited to emphasise. but for me personally i upvoted your answer

A test-out is similar to transfer credit. It's a way for new students who clearly know the material to skip to the next course. They may be missing a few things and need to work to catch up, but that's understood; and generally only the better students test-out anyway, so can handle it. In a sense, a test-out is saying this person is not our typical incoming fresh-person. If they took this course than our best guess is they'd be bored senseless 95% of the time.
But if a student has taken the class and failed we know that's not true. We have a pretty good idea they aren't ready to move on. Even if they somehow passed the test-out; we have much, much more evidence to the contrary. It seems I'm overly relying on the potential test-out class being a prereq for another, but we purposely make it that way. Our real test of whether you learned Calc-I on your own isn't the test-out, it's whether you pass our Calc-II. In fact, our most popular test-out was only gave you credit after you passed the next class in the sequence.
It works from the student's point of view, for the same reasons. A well-run class is easy to pass. Sure, it takes a semester and hours of homework and tests, but given that, it's not too tough to scrape out a C-. And with a low passing grade you should be a little scared of the next class. If you actually failed the class -- got a F -- you didn't learn it. And if you didn't learn it after hearing the lecture, talking about it, doing the homework, and taking the test directly based on what you just did; over and over; then you're not going to learn it on your own in 2 weeks. The only way not to horribly fail the next course is by retaking this one.
Terrible analogy incoming: it's like speed-dates, coffee-dates and the goal: a night-time date. You might have a speed-date go really well and agree on a night-time date. More likely you'll go on a coffee date. If that's not great, you might get another one. But there's no way you'll have a bad coffee date and argue "I messed that up, but let's have a speed-date that might lead to a proper night-time one".  They've already met you.
Then an administrative reason: test-outs and transfer credit are indicated on your transcript. It's a way for the school to tell employers "if this guy sucks, you can see they only took 3 classes from us and transferred in the rest" (true story). If someone "passed" a test-out after failing the class then how would we mark it? I suppose as test-out credit, but also keeping the F?

Could someone test out Calc-I then sit in on a few Calc-I classes whiel taking Calc-2?

@Ian I don't see how that would help. Calc-II's first week is going to use things from the last few weeks of Calc-I. Better to use the time rereading that chapter (it's probably the same book) and going to office hours. As I wrote, passing a test-out means "don't waste you time taking this class, you'd be bored. You know enough to pick up the few things you may be missing".

I don't think there are pedagogical reasons operating against your proposal, so much as there are accreditation reasons.  One major problem with the practice you propose is that it essentially gives students in courses a second opportunity (and possibly more) to attempt their "final exam" to get credit for the course.  This essentially means that all courses then involve two attempts at the final examination.  Moreover, if there is no limitation on repeated use of "credit by exam" then a student could ---in principle--- continue to attempt examinations until they pass and are credited for the course.  This has negative implications for the reputation of the university as an institution that assesses and accredits academic knowledge.
As others have pointed out, universities will generally impose quite strict requirements on giving credit for their courses.  In most cases, universities don't credit a student with completion of their own course at all; they just waive the corresponding degree requirement and allow the student to do an alternative set of courses for the degree (e.g., substitute a course that is usually compulsory with an elective).  This is usually reserved for cases where a student has already acquired the requisite knowledge from another university (through a course with similar coverage) or through demonstrable professional practice.

I do not any reason for the number of tries to be unlimited, this could be very well limited by the rules (or even laws).

Opinion: if someone studies and then tries to retake a test, and manages to pass after their 10th try, i might be willing to believe they actually learned the content by that point and probably deserve the credit. If the exams are so easy that repeatedly taking the exam guarantees passing without understanding, then the exams need to be made more difficult/comprehensive. do accreditation committees disagree with this?

@frogeyedpeas: Evidently we all do, or students would (already) be given unlimited attempts at university exams.

This is probably a good policy to implement.
There are very often cases of students, without any formally equivalent course, using credit by exam to move up (ex: scoring a 5 on an AP Exam without having taken the corresponding AP class (i did this personally at least a dozen times)), in principle we should expect a higher level of competency of someone who failed a course and then scored high on a test, than someone who never took the course and passed the test. The latter might have just gotten lucky, the former at least was DEFINITELY exposed to the entire curriculum (although they failed to display sufficient amounts of it the first time they got tested). In reality, of course most institutions like to categorize people prematurely and so assume the first person is still incompetent while giving benefit of the doubt that the latter might be a prodigy/wunderkind.

You took a dozen AP tests?

Yes, I can recall at least 14 that I took, the university I went to unfortunately did not allow me to transfer credit for all my exams so i don't have the list on hand. I essentially viewed this as an arbitrage opportunity that i would lose access to after high school.

Dang, I didn't even have that many near me.

Please rephrase the first sentence to replace "this" by what you believe is a good policy to implement. The question discusses opposing views so "this" is not sufficiently obvious.

A university degree is not simply a certification that the student has learned the content of some courses.  It should also indicate that the student is a responsible person and a good citizen.  A student who takes a course and chooses to wait until after they failed the course to learn the content appears to be an irresponsible person.  Therefore, students who have failed courses should not receive credit by exam for the same course.
One could reasonably argue that there should be some exceptions when the student has failed for a reason beyond their control.
Students who have failed a course often have some other procedure available to them besides credit by exam; for instance, they may opt to receive an incomplete grade which can be corrected later.  This might be better than credit by exam.

"A university degree is not simply a certification that the student has learned the content of some courses. It should also indicate that the student is a responsible person and a good citizen." I strongly disagree.

I disagree, but I think you are making a much stronger claim than you need to in order to support your position. I think it's uncontroversial to say that a university degree implies some general competence/skills such as ability to learn new things, take some responsibility for self-improvement, and so on, and that allowing (more) retries would weaken that implication, devaluing the degree for students who pass on the first attempt. I certainly cannot agree that failing on the first attempt implies the student is irresponsible or a bad citizen.

"I certainly cannot agree that failing on the first attempt implies"  @kaya3 This answer says nothing like that.

@nick012000 Are you claiming irresponsible people should receive university degrees?

Anonymous Physicist: In order to strongly disagree with your claim it is sufficient to observe that it's simply not a university's business to assess whether a peron is a "good citizen".

I think this answer deserves better. First, it is an answer about the broad expectations of universities in society. Second, some universities have denied degrees for reasons of character, eg, committing a felony between finishing final exams and awarding the degree at commencement. Third, as I noted above, the requirement to repeat a class might be a requirement of accrediting bodies, which shows there is broad social agreement on this standard.

@JochenGlueck I strongly disagree.  Being a good citizen and being well educated are almost identical.

@AnonymousPhysicist: Your reply is actually a good demonstration of my point: While you consider being a good citizen and being well educated as almost identical, I consider them to be almost independent. This is an excellent illustration of a major problem that arises from requiring that a university degree should indicate that its holder is a "good citizen": "good citizen" is a highly subjective notion, and different people will associate completely different types of character traits and behaviour with it. [...]

[...] So what gives us - who work as researchers and teachers - the competence or the right to certify in any formal way who is a "good citizen"?

@JochenGlueck Most universities have received degree granting authority from a government.  That means the government thinks the university can certify such things.  I am not aware of any individuals who have the right to grant degrees, nor should they.

@AnonymousPhysicist: Thanks for your reply! Well, a university will grant a degree if a list of formal requirements are satisfied, and whether a student satisfies these requirements depends mainly on the assessment of various individuals that were involved in teaching the student. But maybe I'm misunderstanding you. Is your argument that the requirement not to give students credits for exams alone is set by an institution (such as e.g. the governement) rather than by invididuals and thus reflects this institution's understanding of how a responsible person (or a "good citizen") should behave?

source: Stack Exchange

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

authors: Vladimir F Героям слава

sort: votes


text:
Citing StackExchange vs. Account Privacy?
In the answer to this and similar questions it is recommended that you cite an idea or useful answer for your research work on StackExchange.
Now, if you have asked a question requiring a walk-back mathematical process (lets assume its a contribution) using fundamental knowledge to walk-back, if you do cite in this case, how do you keep the privacy of your account name? Since, people would check the answer and could look into the account history of the questioner and the answerer. Also, these StackExchange websites are linked and it seems that not everyone would like that for privacy reasons. So how could this be managed appropriately?
Note: This is a modification of an existing question marked as duplicate.

Why do you want to keep the privacy of your account regarding a mathematical question? I believe that most people should better give their real name in their StackExchange account. I see no benefit in using pseudos or "anonymous accounts" on a mathematical forum.

@BasileStarynkevitch maybe i don't want to be judged for dumb questions? or i want to keep private my other dumb questions in other stackexchange sites? well i guess there is always asking moderators to delete them. but eh. privacy.

If you want to keep your privacy, don't post questions you might want to use in your papers on StackExchange.

The post you reference has the solution to your doubt. Just cite when you encounter an original contribution or thank for helpful critics.

Do you "have" to cite: Maybe, depends.
Should you ask the one you want to cite first: definitely.
Is there a way to protect your privacy: There are many, but I can't see a perfect one right now.
All in all, I think your question is hard to answer as it is, as it depends on too many things (field, kind of paper, kind of question/answer, persons involved,...).

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

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


text:
Should I do pure or applied postdoctoral research?
I finished my PhD in Algebraic Geometry/Number Theory in 2013, and made the decision not to apply for postdocs: very few of my fellow students had found academic positions I had the feeling the unless you're a superstar/potential-Fields-medalist (which I'm not) it's very hard to build a career as a pure mathematician. Also I don't think it's fair on my wife and her career to ask her to move cities every few years while I'm doing postdocs ... and it looks like this is a common requirement for early career researchers these days.
So I've been working as a Data Scientist for the past 3 years, and I'm really hating the feeling of working in the business/corporate world ... it all feels so short-term and meaningless, and I also miss the intellectual challenge of pure research.
This leads to my question. I'm thinking about applying for some postdocs with the aim of going back into academia. My dilemma is do I try and find something in a "pure" field that I feel excited about, like algebraic geometry, representation theory, string theory or quantum computing? Or should I apply for something I don't feel so passionate about but that's currently more well-funded, and that builds on my skills from my work in industry, like genomics, computer vision or speech recognition ... will my passion grow as I go deeper into the field?
I want to be realistic and responsible about my career/life choices, but I also don't want to get stuck doing something I don't care about.
I know it's a bit of a vague question, but I would love to hear if anyone's had a similar experience.

Sorry, but this really isn't something we can answer for you. Is there something specific you want to know about, that could help you make the decision?

If you spend some time searching, there are quite a few fields where inflow from mathematics is combined with applications to provide interesting combinations of possibilities. This is not the place for too many details, but if you look for persistent homologies used in statistical data analysis, use of algebraic varieties for data modelling, discrete Morse theory and much more. But you need to sift far and wide to find these pockets linking abstract and applied ideas in novel ways.

It's a great question, but the question seems to be which of several absolutely reasonable alternatives is better for you.  You are the world's leading expert on your own proclivities and preferences, so as stated at least, I think you are the only one who can answer your question.

There is a logistical approach to this which it sounds like you haven't considered yet.  I have most commonly seen this approach taken by trailing spouses, which, let's face it, are most often women.  A creative solution to the problem has been found, and you don't need to be a woman to give it a try! Here it is: You look for a host department in the town where your partner is situated, and ask for an unpaid affiliation, either part time or full time.  You ask for some shared office space there.  You attend seminars.  You get to know people there.  You work on projects, quasi-independently....

...in short, you function like an unpaid postdoc, only you don't have a supervisor.  That doesn't mean you can't set up one or more mentoring relationships, though.  For a potential mentor, you may take a look at the faculty in the host department, or other departments in that university; you may also look farther afield.  You could in principle do this while holding onto your current job, but it would work best if you went to part time rather than staying full time.  It can be very exciting to take a fresh start in research, casting your reading net...

... as wide as you like, and following your nose.  After some time doing this (we don't know how long, but you might want to give yourself a defined time limit), you will probably have an easier time figuring out the direction you want to go in.

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


text:
Conference Travel Grant
I am an undergraduate student from Bangladesh. Two of my posters have been accepted at Sigmod undergraduate research poster competition.
Now, I am looking forward to attend Sigmod. I will be receiving some travel grant from Sigmod to attend the event. However, the fund seems insufficient as the airfare from my country to US is very high.
Is there any external source where I can apply for travel grants or support of similar kind?
I am determined about attending Sigmod and I will be paying the rest of the costs by myself. So it would be really helpful for me if I get some support.
N.B. : I have already seen the post Travel grant for undergraduate researcher for attending conference. However, I believe I need some more concrete answers. Thank you for understanding.
I have already asked the chairs for student volunteering and others. In this case, SIG and conference funding is basically the same. So I do not have the option to apply for SIGs.

Your question still seems very close to the one that you cited, which also seems to contain rather concrete answers also applicable to you (such as: see if you can become a student volunteer, etc.). I will vote to close this as a duplicate. If you have added information that makes clear why you think your question is different, please edit your question.

Hi, unfortunately the given answers do not help me in general. It will be great if I can find a more concrete source of grants, where I can apply.

Are there any local organizations in Bangladesh that give funding for conferences?

OP, this may seem a bit silly to ask, but have you asked Sigmod for extra funding? I have known many a grad student that doesn't ask and then doesn't go because he/she does not have enough funding. Some conferences have leftover money they're willing to burn if there's demonstrated need. Talk to the organizers and they might be able to give you some extra money! :-)

Unfortunately, my country does not have any organization that funds computer science research.

I have asked the chairs of my track. I actually emphasized on my needs. Being an undergraduate, its really tough for me to bear such high costs. I am trying my best. Having a little support can ease my burden. Should I contact anyone else from the committee (e.g., sponsor chair)?


text:
How to approach a Book Review Editor
I would like to build up my publication profile, including the writing of book reviews. I am not well-known by any means having just completed my PhD, though I am now working full time (contract) as a level A academic in research and teaching in my field.
I wanted to know whether it would be beneficial to approach the book reviews editor of a journal to see if they have any books in my field/subject expertise that require reviewing, and the best way to go about this.
This question/response here advises not to approach editors; however, in a publications workshop I took in 2013, I was advised that I should approach editors who often have a stack of books that need reviewing.

Yes, it's entirely appropriate to volunteer to serve as a reviewer.  In doing so, you should be clear about your current background and current position (e.g. that you have a PhD and are working as a postdoc) and your specific areas of expertise.  The worst that might happen is that you'll get no response or be told that they want more experienced reviewers.
Book review columns vary tremendously in the number of books that get reviewed and the depth and quality of the reviews.  In some cases the reviews are brief (less than 200 words) and descriptive, while in other cases the reviews are longer and include more of an evaluation of the work. Some book review columns solicit in depth reviews from experts in the field, while other columns (particularly ones that review a wide variety of books including textbooks) may use reviewers who aren't necessarily experts on the topic.
In my opinion, it's best to try to limit yourself to reviewing books in areas where you really are an expert- I've been asked to stretch further than I'm comfortable with in a few cases, and I didn't like the results.

I've actually been the editor of MAA Reviews (https://www.maa.org/press/maa-reviews/) for the past 5 years.  What I wrote in 2015 still seems true based on that experience.

You should know that book reviews count for absolutely zero towards your "research" score at R1 universities. Instead, they only count as "service." That's fair as they are not the product of your research endeavors.
If you need more publications, then publish from your research more.
That being said, most book editors welcome volunteers. Just e-mail them. I would not suggest titles to review, but topics areas that you have expertise in.

I'm fully aware that book reviews don't count for R1 universities (though I'm assuming R1 is a American Term? I'm based in Australia, not heard R1 before). The point is to help boost up my overall publication profile/gaining recognition for expertise for future collaborations/peer review etc.


text:
Listing awarded grants not affiliated with a university research position on a CV
I've had a look around but couldn't find an answer to my question. I'm in the process of updating my CV and am wondering about how to list grants awarded, specifically grants awarded to a group of people at a not-for-profit institution in which I am/was involved with. This involvement is outside of my current role as a teaching/research academic and is entirely voluntary.
E.G. 1: For one not-for-profit, I completed the research component that enabled the organisation to seek funding to support their project. Would this count towards a grant awarding or no?
E.G. 2: I'm currently involved with a not-for-profit organisation that received government funding for a particular project that I currently manage/was involved in the initial set up in. We've just been informed that the funding will be renewed (which is very exciting). As an organisation (and not a single person) we sought the funding together (it's a very small org, there's about 6 people in total involved). Would I list this as perhaps a group project?
Any tips, feedback or suggestions would be helpful!
(this answer was close but not exactly what I was looking for...Conventions regarding listing grant applications/funded grants on a scientific CV)

Your CV is a list of all of your scientific credentials, not just all of the credentials that you happen to have gathered while in a university research position.  Whether you obtain your grant at a university, a non-profit, or a for-profit company, in all cases it shows evidence of your ability to engage with funders and obtain external support for research, education, outreach, technology transition, or other such activities that are important in academia.  Certainly, for my own part as a scientist working at a for-profit company, I quite comfortably and proudly list the funding that I have obtained for my work on my CV.

But what if the work is not just 'my' work but rather, part of a larger project/initiative? In the first case, I did the research and analysis, but I didn't write the funding application. In the second, I helped put together the application with others for the outreach program and currently manage this program, but its not under our individual names but rather, the name of the organisation of which I am a part of? Would it still count as credentials?

@awsoci When I list grants on my CV, I list a set of "authors", which is at least the set of PIs and any other major authors that I am aware of.  I don't know whether that's "conventional" but I think the meaning is clear.

But there are not direct authors or private investigators. So unlike perhaps research grants within an academic or scientific setting, these are grants awarded to social outreach programs in which research was used to help support the application. So the authors are listed as the organisation, as opposed to individual people? So would then I put the organisation or provide a description of my role?

@awsoci At the end of the day, the goal of a CV is communication of your professional accomplishments.  If you feel this grant reflects an accomplishment on your part, explain how in a manner that allows the reader to understand and judge for themselves, even if it doesn't fit a standard template.


text:
What to write in application letter to address poor grades in Greek and Latin for classical archeology masters application?
I am planning on applying to a Masters program in classical archaeology.
BUT I have a B average in Greek and Latin combined. However, I feel confident in my abilities and that because I had to work harder to firmly understand the languages that I will be a better teacher and be able to relate better to my future students.
What is a positive and effective way to address that in my letter?
Note: Unlike this question about overcoming a poor academic record in general, this question is about overcoming a specific deficiency in the introductory coursework that is considered essential for this area of study.
(The rest of my profile is as follows: I had one really bad semester when I transferred (all gen ed classes) and it totally screwed up my GPA. Since that bad semester I have built good professional relationships with faculty, done excellent work in classics, history and archaeology classes, presented several papers and did some independent studies (including one abroad on an archaeological field school). I have a clear vision of what I want to do for my MA thesis and beyond.)

possible duplicate of How do you get a bad transcript past Ph.D. admissions?

I disagree with the close votes; this question is about overcoming a specific, relevant deficiency, not a general poor record (like the linked question). I've edited the question to highlight the difference.

@ff524 The OP of the question http://academia.stackexchange.com/q/21800/546 had low major GPA and you mark it duplicate of the question linked by earthling's comment.

@scaaahu To me, that question reads more as asking for general advice in overcoming bad grades, while this reads more as overcoming a specific deficiency in a necessary prerequisite. If anything, I think it's closer in spirit to this question or this question. Of course, this is all very subjective.

To be clear: I think the general advice in How do you get a bad transcript past Ph.D. admissions? is great, and I don't want to see all that reiterated here. But most of that is about how to become a more attractive admissions candidate overall. I just think it's possible to give an answer to the much more focused question here, of what to write in an application to address a very specific deficiency in background.

Since I voted to close, I will not provide answer. Only some opinions. I think you can think about publishing papers in areas using those lanuages. This will show that you can do research in them even you have so-so grades in those languages.

As you stated a lot has changed since those unlucky days and you've achieved so many successes since then. IMO, write that you do not believe that the grade is a real indicator of your current status and as a proof of your claim you can reference your research and papers if it is available online.
Note: In case the professor of your archeology class would give you a recommendation letter it would be so valuable.


text:
How to handle swear words in quote / transcription?
In my research, I interview practitioners/real users. One of them, a native english speaker, used a lot a swear words (basically the f-word).
Question: how to deal with curse words in content you need to quote?
Since I use transcripts for a content (and not formal) analysis, I sometime 'smooth' interviewee wordings (like removing "hum", "well", "you know", and other recurring verbal tics). In some case, I could remove the f-word:

it's just super f*cking slow, and really f *cking annoying

However, in some cases it is less harmless, because it more deeply changes the perceived meaning:

if you don't want to do things, just don't f*cking do it
oh f *ck, we'll just go back to do, as we were doing

and in some other, I simply cannot change interviewee's words:

[...] he really tried and wanted to build up, but he completely f*cked up every single part of every single thing.

Since I am not a native speaker, I don't know how "bad" would using the f-word be perceived (which is why I tried to be careful here.)
In some cases, I could do a cut quote, e.g. "it's just super [...] slow, and really [...] annoying", but it looks like I'm not accurately depicting the wordings.
I've also seen on the internet people using 'f*ck' standing for the f-word. Could this be a solution? (I personally find this solution a bit prudish.)
Otherwise, could I simply quote them? Should I put a warning somewhere?

In a formal paper, should I censor “brainf**k”, the name of a programming language? is related, but I think different. (Even if this answer suggest quoting swearwords is allowed.)

What do other academics in your field do in this situation? (In the papers you read, how is this handled?)

An example of a formal paper which contains the word "bullshit" almost 200 times : http://journal.sjdm.org/15/15923a/jdm15923a.html

If you're quoting someone, quote them as they said it. We're all adults. In the literature world, we quote swear words and other potentially offensive things all the time and no one bats an eye. I've no doubt other fields are the same.
Personally, if I saw an asterisk or similar, I would presume you interviewed them via chat or email, and they actually self-censored. If it were a printed text, I'd think it a part of the edition you used.

@JDługosz it's possible in academia to be not yet be adults, but I think we can confidently say that 99.9% or more are.  I would imagine the same could be said of the average person reading a research paper.  If a non-adult were to be reading (or writing) such a paper, they're probably at the very least mature enough to handle it.

@JDługosz Anyone mature enough to read a paper in a journal is mature enough to read the word fuck, regardless of age.

In research, you should quote them verbatim. Editing, or censoring, swearing is wrongly representing your research subjects and is thus a form of scientific misconduct. If you need to edit the quote for specific audience you must make it clear that you have done so:

It's just so [obscenity] slow, it really [obscenities] me off.

With a note saying that you have edited the text to remove swear words. Partial censorship such as you used above (e.g. f*ck, c*nt) is both utterly pointless and misleading; either completely remove the word (indicating where you have done so) or quote properly:

It's just so fucking annoying; it really fucks me off.

And as it should already be absolutely clear what's a direct quote and what isn't, no-one should get the impression that your academic writing style involves liberal use of swearwords.

I was always wondering why the word "fstarck" was abbreviated as "f*ck". With this answer so many texts I read came under a new light... (on the serious side +1 in the name of sanity)

@WoJ: for those knowing a bit of German f*ck could stand for Frühstück (breakfast) :-)

@LorenzoDonati, I think the most similar abbreviation for Frühstück you could get to which still makes sense would be Frstk. (Stk. is an acceptable abbreviation for the word Stück) --- cf. a website for a bed and breakfast in Warnemünde: 2 P. Frstk. u. TG 325,00 € (lit. "two persons breakfast and meal du jour €325.00"); Sorry to rain on your parade.

@errantlinguist I should have added a disclaimer to that comment: "Not necessarily a linguistically-correct German abbreviation" :-D

I'm a history student currently working with oral history. You should not smooth anything on a transcript — when quoting you should do exactly as said or written. There are certain ways to indicate that something is a grammar mistake or a phonetic(?) transcription to clarity that there's no mistake on your part; usually those things are put in foot notes.
I'll edit this later to give you some resources for that, but for now if you put any notes make sure to do it as a footnote. You can use the brackets too, they indicate some comment of the author outside the context of the quote.

One very strong argument for not censoring is that what we consider obscene is very much time and place dependent.

Are the mentioned resources coming at some point, or should that part be edited away from the answer?

If this is for publication, check with the editor.
If this is for a working (non-published) paper that you, and perhaps som collaborators, will be working with, then you get to decide, based on subjective considerations, such as, will it be irritating for you to read the f-word 200 times a day?  If so, you are free to choose a euphemism.


text:
How to best ask CS professor to collaborate ? [at a good english university]
I have been accepted to a university (in England) to do a masters degree in Computer Science with a focus on machine learning. My background is mathematics.
During my time at the university, I plan to collaborate with computer science professors, which I think will be very important for my education. The problem is that I have never been in England and don't know local etiquette concerning student-professor communication.
How should I best formulate an email, where I am asking professors, with whom I had no prior contact, if I could work together with them on projects related to machine learning?

First, you need to prove yourself to any potential professors.  Attend their classes, do well, ask advance questions.  Show them you are an advanced student.  If they think you are good, then they will most likely recruit you.

@ProfSantaClaus Yes, this is the standard way, which I like to avoid, because it's too high risk: What if no interesting project/advisor turns up ? Then I have a lot of debt and essentially have wasted my time.

how do you expect to get anywhere without following protocols?  I for example will never take on a student I've never seen in action.  CV and words alone are not enough.  There are many wanabes.

@dan1111 high risk to make "significant debt - and just doing it for the courses and the diploma seems a waste of time and money", as I explained in my question, but it seems this passage was removed by other people.

I did graduate studies in Ireland, and am now a Professor in Asia. I would recommend the following:

Search for professors on the school website. Most likely they will have a profile page that lists their projects and publications.
When you find some professors with interesting projects, read some of their publications.
If you are still interested in their research, prepare a list of research / papers / projects that you have done, if any.
Create a short email for each Professor (3, 4 sentence paragraphs at most).

It should say that you will be joining the school in X semester
That you know they work in X area
That you would like to help with their research relating to machine learning
That you have X experience with ML and research
Express whether you are looking for a paid position or part-time research for free - they will probably assume you want a paid position

The response will either be:
 1. Nothing (they don't have a position / time)
 2. They will ask you for more information
 3. They will ask you for a meeting once you start
I would recommend against telling the professor that if they don't work with you, you won't go to the university.

Thanks. I already did 1-3 and of course would refrain from saying this to the professors. (This I am only saying here, to the world-wide general public, so I think I'm safe.) The part 4 is where I'm unsure, especially regarding funding: I would have thought it best to say nothing about this, because I imagine that they probably get enough emails by other people asking for funding - and, if the project is sufficiently interesting, I'd also be happy doing it for free.

@user10324 I would make your funding situation clear. When students come to me and need funding, that means that I need to find them a grant / scholarship, which I may or may not have at the time. If they don't need funding then you can start working together right away, and funding may (or may not) come later. That information will make it easier for the professor to judge how they can work with you.


text:
How to deal with ageism as a graduate student?
I have lurked on this site for some time and I have appreciated the intelligent, well-written answers to myriad questions.
My inquiry is the following: I have faced age discrimination in the program I am attending.  This has ranged from consistent age-related comments to rejection of research grants and programs based on age (statement that I am "over-qualified" and "too experienced").  I am in my 30s.  Most of the students are in their 20s.
Should I quit the program?  I am especially interested in the experiences and opinions of older students who have faced similar issues.
Please note that in order to improve the quality of my question I will update it with any and all needed points of clarification.

In your research proposals, did you mention your age?

If you are in the U.S.: your university should have a civil rights policy, and it should indicate whom to contact with any age discrimination concerns.  If you have trouble finding this information, try contacting the Title IX coordinator, and asking him or her whom you should contact about age discrimination.  (You could also try a department administrator, but that might or might not be helpful, and if it isn't, it might be a frustration experience.)

Hi Joel--they ask for birthdates on everything.  You kind of have to list age in that sense.

@ aparente01 -- In the US universities are notorious for hiding stuff like this while claiming to have policies of non-discrimination.  I might contact an outside attorney.

What's your field? I know many PhD students in late 20's-early 30's that did not have such issues (in Engineering, top 50 schools).

@ The Fire Guy -- My area is mathematics.

What kinds of age related comments do you receive? Certainly your age should not affect any academic evaluations, but socially the unfortunate truth is that if you're different you'll stand out. All you can really do is ignore/deflect the comment or address it head on.

@Rubik I'm sorry to hear that! It looks like you are in a toxic dept! Can you move to a different school? Can you talk to an academic advisor? I wish I can be of any help!

@lighthousekeeper There is no quantification in Rubik's question.  We can't tell how many age-related comments have been made, nor how many grant proposals were rejected, nor over what period of time.  Rubik is actually quite young, and is possibly being over-sensitive.


text:
Will my objection that our paper is more complete have any effect?
I recently did a research study and submitted it to a suitable journal which covers the field.  One of the referees said that the same analysis has been already done and referred to an article that was submitted to arXiv two months before our submission date. The mentioned article covers less than 50% of our work: the part of the work which is trivial and not challenging.  This referee did not take any scientific objections and judged only on the apparent similarity between two papers. The second referee said that the work is interesting and non-trivial and asked some questions for revising the paper. The third referee (adjudicator) has made a decision based on the 1st referee's judgement and also pointed to the mentioned article.
I have 3 questions:

Since we obtained the results almost simultaneously (I did not submit the paper to arXiv and directly sent it to a journal) and since our results are much more complete, and we cover topics that are not included in that article, can I send my objection to the editor and will it work? (Our paper is better in any respect, e.g., English writing, innovative conclusions, …)

Since the three reviewers reviewed the article, is it possible that the result (rejection) changes?

How can I write an objection that works?

Note: I am in a tight spot in terms of time and another peer review means another 1-3 months.

Reviewers are not always logical. I remember a research proposal that was rejected by the same reviewer for two reasons: (1) the work proposed had already been done and reported in the literature and (2) the work proposed was too ambitious compared with the state of the art, and the results were unlikely to justify funding it. Choose any one ...

@alephzero This kind of stuff might appear funny to the uninvolved but it might actually be the deciding factor between a non-tenured researcher having a job or becoming unemployed.

One thing to check is whether the venue has a citation policy regarding arxiv. In my field, most venues explicitly state that papers on arxiv are not considered publications, and hence need not be cited --- of course, within the obvious limits of plagarism. Also, put your own paper on arxiv asap? With a note as suggested in the answers regarding the result being parallel.

Only the editor can answer the question, but you can certainly raise your points with them. But my best guess is that you will need that revision since part of your work has appeared. The editor might, validly, ask that you take some things out of your paper and, instead, cite those parts of the arXiv paper that are essential to the rest of your work.
I doubt that the editor will be willing to publish your work "as is", but only they can say. Like they will be a bit conservative in their decision. While it doesn't seem that you have plagiarized (an intentional act), including everything might make it seem that you have.
But, you will need to be fast. The other team isn't standing still, most likely.

I would say the normal thing to do is add a citation to the arXiv paper, and mention the overlapping results were developed independently around the same time.  If you trust the other paper and want to shorten your paper, you can also shorten some of the overlapping work.

If the work is at all empirical, I don't know that the overlap would necessarily need to be removed; just acknowledged. In fact, one way to frame the revised paper would be as a replication and extension of that preprint.

The referee believes you did not pay enough attention to the arXiv article.  Modify your paper to cite this article, and clearly indicate why your work constitutes a substantial extension, then resubmit to a different journal.
Also, you have no real evidence that this omission was the sole basis for the outcome.  More likely, this was only one factor.
I think it's unlikely that the rejection will be reversed, and you'll lose more time in the process.


text:
PhD supervisor wants to assume my apartment lease and buy my improvements to the apartment when I move out
I am about to finish my PhD. I am moving cities when I'm finished to start a new job. I've told my supervisor and he asked whether my apartment becomes free then. He is currently looking for a second small apartment, because he lives in another city and commutes frequently.
I said yes and he asked whether I could forward his details to my landlord. I did so and my landlord decided that he can move in when I am moving out, which he is almost certainly doing now. I am probably also going to sell him my kitchen that I built into the apartment - via a contract of course.
My question now is: could all of this be considered problematic, since he is the one grading my thesis (plus a second reviewer)? I've asked two legal practitioners I know the same question. Both of them said that it is not a problem as long as I do not sell him the kitchen for an excessively low amount or anything that could be interpreted the wrong way. I might be overly cautious, but I really do not want to do anything wrong. I also asked my supervisor the same question and he said that he does not think it is an issue, as it is not affecting my PhD thesis/grading in any way and has nothing to do with our student/supervisor relationship. (Both of these conversations were done via Email, so I have proof that I was cautious about it.. just in case.)

Is this in Germany? (I'm guessing so because "selling a kitchen" is less common elsewhere.) That might be relevant to the answer because there are slight differences in the role of the supervisor depending on the country.

Your PhD supervisor is assumed to be an biased advocate on your side already. This is why others are involved in the process.

Wait, why would your supervisor grade your thesis? Almost everywhere in the world thesis and defense viva require an external examiner and another internal examiner. Your supervisor should not have direct inputs.

@MobiusPizza My PhD thesis in the US was graded by my supervisor + an internal + an external examiner. Same system as used in Germany. The supervisor should definitely not be the only person doing the grading but I think they are part of the group of people doing it in large parts of the world.

Okay, I can't be the only one wondering...what is "selling a kitchen"?

@Beska: in Germany for instance, it's quite common to rent a flat without a kitchen and put in your own kitchen - appliances, countertops, cabinets, the works. When you move out, you can either rip out the kitchen and take it with you, or sell it to your successor.

@StephanKolassa this is off topic but I got curious: when you rip it off you take all the parts with you (even the ones that were fitted to the kitchen), or just the electrical devices and the rest is dumped. Alternatively, can you leave leaving the kitchen as it, or are you expected to handle it a way or another?

@WoJ: to be honest, I don't have a handle on the finer points here (and knowing Germans, I am certain there have been lawsuits and civil cases over this). The few times I was in this situation, I was able to foist the kitchen off on the next tenant. But in general, you are supposed (and usually required by your rental agreement) to leave the flat in the state you got it in, which usually means you need to rip out everything, plaster holes over and apply a decent coat of paint. If you leave anything, your landlord will get rid of it and deduct the costs from your deposit.

Thanks @StephanKolassa for the details. Here in France you are expected to have a kitchen in an apartment (I have never heard of a case where there was not). It would be really weird to get into an apartment without a kitchen, except for the case where it is brand new (and you bought it brand new)

@WoJ Yeah unless you sell it you take all the parts of the kitchen. It is completely bizarre. The kitchen counters, appliances etc. do not belong to the landlord they belong to you, so naturally you must remove them or sell them to the next tenant.

Is there a better site to discuss this kitchen concept than academia?   I'm asking because I'm interested and would like to ask about it.   The reason it seems strange to me being from the US is that counters (and cabinets if they are included) are fitted to the kitchen and it would be really strange to find a new apartment where they would fit correctly.    And they would be considered 'fixtures', being attached to the building structure.   Moving them between apartments would be a lot of trouble, and they probably wouldn't fit.  Do kitchens in Germany have standard dimensions?

@JasonGoemaat maybe [expatriates.se] but read about what questions are acceptable first. Reddit. A Google search turned up this thread and others using these terms: germany expatriate selling a kitchen from an apartment

As long as the sale price is within the commonly paid price range, I see no reason why you shouldn't go through with it.
That said, sunlight disinfects! In other words, potential conflicts of interest are best handled by making them public, rather than hoping that nobody ever finds out. One way to deal with it would be for the two of you to write an email to the department head outlining the sales arrangement you have to come to, including price and perhaps comparable prices, with a note saying that there is nothing for the department head to do other than take note that the transaction happened and that all sides have made efforts to ensure that they do not affect anyone's judgment.
The point of such an email is that if later anyone questions the motives of those involved, you can say "no, you're wrong; we did consider the ethical implications, came up with a plan to mitigate any potential conflict of interest, we documented our actions, and deposited the plan with someone who is not involved in the issue and can be considered a trusted source to verify that all of this happened just like we're saying".

Comments have been moved to chat; please do not continue the discussion here. Before posting a comment below this one, please review the purposes of comments. Comments that do not request clarification or suggest improvements usually belong as an answer, on [meta], or in [chat]. Comments continuing discussion may be removed.

Academia does not have special rules governing the sale of a kitchen to one's advisor. However, the general class of situations in which a professor stands to profit financially from private business dealings with their student are common enough that they are covered by institutional policies. For example, at my own university, if a professor wants to privately employ their PhD student (e.g. at the professor's start-up company), this needs to be reported and judged to be kosher by our institutional conflict of interests committee. While it is understood that such private/non-academic business can be perfectly legitimate and beneficial to all parties, there is also a concern for abuse of the professor's authority, exploitation of the student, and distortion of the professor's incentives to conduct their academic supervision ethically. Therefore, depending on the details of the situation, in some cases oversight mechanisms will be set up to ensure that the PhD student is not being exploited and that academic standards are not compromised.
Your situation with the kitchen falls conceptually in the same class of situations. Whether there is a real concern for a material conflict of interest arising depends on the details of the situation: the monetary value of the transaction, and how easy it is to assess whether that value is fair, and possibly other details. Also, policies and norms vary a lot from place to place.
If you want to make sure everything you're doing is above board, I suggest that you ask the appropriate person at your department or institution - someone impartial other than your advisor. The department chair would be a good place to start, or, if your university has a conflict of interests committee (as mine does) with a listed contact, you can send them an email. Given the nature of the situation and the fact that there isn't an epidemic of corrupt kitchen-buying PhD advisors, I expect you would be allowed to proceed, possibly after being given some reasonable guidance on how to agree on a sale price. But if the idea is shot down, you will still have your answer, and it will be coming from an authoritative source.

"Academia does not have special rules governing the sale of a kitchen to one's advisor." [Citation needed] (I did laugh though.)

This is very interesting! At a PhD student, I don't remember any "institutional conflict of interests committee" at all, nor do we have one at my current institution. I wonder if it also applies to financial things between tenure track professors and more senior professors.

@DavidA.Craven if you find a counterexample I'll retract the claim.

@DavidWhite it’s very possible your current and/or former university have such a committee. It’s not something you would likely know about - I only found out about the one at my university when I was invited to serve on it. And yes, this type of committee oversees lots of different types of COIs, involving faculty, their grants, companies they found or consult for that commercialize their research, etc.

First of all, congrats on the PhD and the new job!
This is a very interesting question and one I probably would never have thought about. In math (and probably most fields) the purpose of a PhD is to train a new collaborator. The PhD thesis usually stands on its own two feet, and rarely is it a close decision at all whether it passes or not.
You could ask the same question for a postdoc (or tenure track professor) and a more senior professor in the department. You could even ask the same question for two senior professors since they might vote on each others' full professor cases. In practice, none of these potential conflicts of interest lead to actual issues, because everyone in sight is a professional and knows not to let their personal attachments affect their professional judgments.
The point is: you should start to think of yourself now more as a professional and less as a student. Your advisor is bound by professional ethics, and that prohibits them from taking things into consideration that they shouldn't when evaluating your thesis (or writing you letters of recommendation for that matter), like whether or not you gave them a nice bottle of wine once, or whether you declined their invitation to play tennis together, etc. I suppose, from the point of view of external optics, it's probably wise to sell the kitchen stuff at fair market value, so that 20 years from now some Congressional committee doesn't try to claim you bribed your way to a PhD. But, among academics, nothing seems problematic here at all.

Your advisor is bound by professional ethics. That's true but not very relevant. We don't allow advisors to do all sorts of things pertaining to their PhD students (or former students), e.g., referee their grant proposal, or accept valuable gifts from the student, or in some cases conduct certain types of private business with the student (see my answer), because of the understanding that sometimes even people who are bound by professional ethics can act inappropriately.

Side note: some countries have actual grades for PhD theses (beyond pass/fail)

I would raise it with your ethics committee so that's it's formally logged and they'll be able to give you accurate, independent advice. I would definitely make sure to err on the side of extra extra cautious, this is not the time to have something so stupid bite you in the arse

In the traditional system the supervisor only decides when the thesis is ready to submit for examination, it is not in the student's interest to have it submitted prematurely, then the independent examiners (one from the university, one external) determine if the thesis has passed or needs further revision.

Systems of examination for PhDs are much more variable than this answer suggests. Specifically if the asker is in Germany (which selling the kitchen perhaps suggests) the system doesn't work like this.

The German system has other peculiarities, for example it is not a good idea to use the prefix 'Dr' unless your foreign PhD documentation has been submitted for equivalence evaluation to the central office for foreign education

Echoing what others have said: your incentives are already aligned with your supervisor, s/he already wants you to be awarded a PhD. That is a career benefit to them as well. The other panel members (i.e., opponents) are the ones where a conflict might arise.
Secondly, since you've already got a post-doc, your must be doing something right! In my experience, getting an academic job is a better signal of success than passing a PhD defense, which is usually a forgone conclusion in cases where you've got a (academic) job lined up.
It might even be the case your the advisor is trying to help you out by making it easier to move and get started on your career. In any case, good luck!

I am not convinced. Bribes can be payed after the favor is done, i.e., after the PhD student left. A politician is ethically disregarded when he leaves office and starts a job by a company that might have benefited from his earlier position of power.

@usr1234567 Who's bribing whom here?  OP describes a mutually beneficial situation in the question.

Consider yourself lucky, you must be a very likeable person. And, congradulstions on your Ph.D.
However, concerns are self manufactured. A good sign, because this shows you do not have serious problems in your life, thus you are sweating the small stuff.
I cannot overstate how lucky you are. Refardless of what glorious modifications you did to the kitchen, legally and if you look at the small print, on your lease, the improvements could be viewed as damage to the property.
Smart as you are, you obviously got the okay to do the improvement from the nanagemdnt or property owner.
But all this could be problematic, relative to “leaving the premise” as you found it.
Hence your supervisor is not only happy with your progress, but he is taking a load of your plate.
Kiss him or her on your graduation day. Good luck!

Obviously renting an apartment with no kitchen furnishings whatsoever is common in some cultures/countries while not in others. If living in a culture where you rent out an apartment missing a kitchen -- so you just have bare pipes sticking out of the walls ready to plumb in a sink -- I am sure that the small and big print on the lease provisions for tenants furnishing their kitchens, without asking for special permission from nanagemdnt. However, kissing your advisor of your graduation day (or any other day) could be considered problematic in many cultures