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Can I write the diversity statement around my ADHD?
I am applying for PhD in physics, and realized that a lot of schools have the option to provide "diversity statements" or "personal statements". As a foreigner, I can't seem to grasp what I should write about...
Can I write about my ADHD and how it influenced my study, along with how it made it hard for me to make friends because of a cultural thing called "nunchi" (reading the atmosphere of the room)? Or will mentioning something like ADHD at all put me in a negative light? I know that in Korea, if I mention this, it wouldn't go well... But I heard that diversity is kind of taken very seriously in America so was wondering if it would help me or not... or is ADHD even considered "diversity"?

In your personal statement, unless a separate "statement of purpose" is also asked for, you should describe things like: your background, why you want to do a PhD in physics, what part of physics you most enjoy, your research experience (if any), your advanced coursework experience (especially if no research experience), what you hope to accomplish during the PhD program, your career goals afterwards.

A couple of things:

have the option to provide "diversity statements" or "personal statements"

Usually, a personal statement is required along with a "research statement." Often, a diversity statement can be supplied if you want room to talk about your unique experiences. Increasingly, it is required. You don't have to provide one, if you don't want.

As a foreigner, I can't seem to grasp what I should write about...

I'm not sure if this is sarcasm, but the point of a diversity statement is to explain how your experiences are different from the majority of people in the field. For physics in the US, this is white men, equally distributed between US nationals and visa holders (warning: PDFs). Often, these statements contextualize your experience to people who lived a different life from you. But they can also explain how you'll bring a different perspective to your field of study. I don't know exactly what that might look like in physics, but different perspectives are needed in fields like psychology, or image processing.
But diversity doesn't need to be race or gender. Parents of people with PhDs are way more educated (PDF) than the average American. So one could write about how growing up with a less educated family affected your approach to education.
To your specific question, writing about your ADHD (especially in Korean culture) would be totally appropriate. It doesn't have to be woe-is-me, but it serves to contextualize to your experience. Presented with two equally qualified candidates, one having worked through ADHD might be a stronger candidate for graduate school (data).
Also consider the university environment. If classes, the program, etc, have all been designed around people without attention deficits, having more people with ADHD join the program/university will force them to improve their practices. (You don't have to be the guinea pig for this, either.)
Tl;dr: You don't have to write about your ADHD (or anything), but if you think you can answer the prompt appropriately with it (you didn't share the prompt, so I can't say), then it would be a good choice IMO. But I also agree that it's unlikely to make or break your application.

oh i see! So I guess I wont have to worry too much about being stigmatized for having the disease during the application process!

Look around, but I think @Anonymous Physicist is right that this isn't about you but about how you will handle diversity in your interactions with the university community you are likely to encounter if you are hired as a PhD student at this school (and maybe as a Teaching Assistant (TA)). See, for example, Vanderbilt's Center for Teaching's definition of what their Diversity Statement expectations are.
In that case, I would say that you should weigh your own personal experiences as a person with ADHD against others who are different races or from other countries or ... against what you have experienced before bringing it up. It's unlikely to be considered relevant, in my opinion.

Just like the rest of your PhD application, the diversity statement is not about you.  It is about why you will be a good PhD student.
You certainly could write about your ADHD, or any other disability, or membership in any other represented group.  When doing so, you need to explain why you will be a good PhD student.  For example "My experience with (identity) will help me (collaborate with/teach) people who (have some need)."

Thank you for the response! But to be honest, I can't think of any benefit my ADHD could bring to the table, especially in terms of being a good PhD student (i.e. doing research). Wouldn't ADHD be just a hinderance to research? Or should I say something along the lines of "I worked really hard to overcome..."

I think you should bring a positive spin and explain how it would help you to become a better student and how you will be beneficial to the university.
Something like "Due to my ADHD, I had to work extra hours and develop new teaching aids. Further, I have worked with other students with similar disabilities and it has helped me collaborate with a wide variety of researchers. ..."


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How serious of a mistake it is to accidentally addressed a grad school admissions director as Miss instead of Ms?
I am applying to a grad school in the US and I am asking application questions through emails. In one of the emails, I accidentally addressed the admissions director as Miss, even though the title of her choice is Ms., as shown in her signature. We've had a few email exchanges before where I had addressed her correctly as Ms., but I wrote this email under stress and in a hurry (it was a difficult subject and time sensitive) and made this title mistake.
Also English is not my first language. She looks young and I am not that familiar with US titles. I had a vague impression Miss is associated with relatively young people and only upon further checking did I realize Miss is used to address unmarried women.
How serious this mistake is? Is it sexist or rude?
I will pay attention and address her correctly in the future. Any other suggestions?

This question might be more suitable for English Language Learners.

It's unlikely to be significant.  However, you should know for the future that Miss is now considered completely obsolete in the US (and likely elsewhere), and generally should not be used for anyone unless they specifically request it.

Hey Nate, I didn't know that. Thanks for the tip! Is Mrs also obsolete then?

@Lucy Yes, Mrs is also obsolete, particularly in professional contexts.

I doubt it makes a big difference.
In general, the honorifics "Miss" and "Mrs." are considered obsolete in professional and academic settings, as marital status is not considered relevant (besides the sexist aspect that there has never been such a distinction in honorifics for men).  They should not be used unless someone specifically requests them.  "Mr." and "Ms." have been the standard gendered honorifics for some time, and "Mx." is coming into wider use as a gender-neutral alternative.
However, I think people realize that these distinctions may be missed by speakers unfamiliar with the language and culture, so I don't think serious offense is likely to be taken.  If you like, you could write a very brief followup email saying something like "I'm sorry, in my previous email I meant to write 'Ms. X'".
(In general, also note that people who hold a faculty position or a doctoral degree are likely to prefer to be addressed as "Prof." or "Dr." respectively.  When someone has both, there may be local customs preferring one or the other, but either should be acceptable.  English does not use both titles together.)

That's very kind of your to explain and give suggestions, thank you. Also it's great to know about "Mx." It sounds pretty respectful for people we don't know their preference yet. That's really cool.

Assuming her title was not "Dr." (you said you checked, but just for future readers), Ms. vs Miss is not really offensive. I don't think anyone really knows what the difference is anymore. I bet you most Americans would say Ms. is short for Miss.
Mrs. technically means married but is also therefore associated with being old. So a young woman might be slightly peeved at being addressed as Mrs.
There is no difference here between academia and the rest of American culture.

Thank you so much. That's a great relief to know. I used to think Ms is short for Miss too. And many strangers addressed me as Miss, so I thought it's a pretty general term to address relatively young women.

@Lucy I pronounce "Ms." and "Miss" the same, usually

@ Azor  Oh I thought Ms is pronounced as "miz," and Miss as "mis." Hmmm so that's also interchangeable sometimes? Or are they both pronounced as "mis"?

@Lucy I pronounce them both both ways depending on context haha.

Regarding "Dr.": would it be a huge issue ("offensive") to forego it in an American setting? In France the only people you would ever call "docteur" (doctor) are medical doctors. Calling a (non-medical) PhD "doctor" would be extremely formal (think invitation to the president's garden party, not college admission email).

@UJM If you are using a title to address someone (which is polite to do the first time you contact someone), it would be incorrect to call a PhD "Mr." or "Ms." In a non-academic situation, most people would not take offense. In an academic setting, it would be mildly rude (for men, see below) but more importantly, it would make you look like you didn't understand norms in US academia, or just can't read a webpage.

However, women are much more likely to be called "Ms./Mrs." when "Dr." is appropriate. So in general, I would say it's rude to offensive to address a woman who holds a PhD as "Ms./Mrs."

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Is it normal to feel dread before starting a faculty position?
I need some advice. After several months of interviews and work, I secured a faculty position at a good business school, which was a relief since jobs are so hard to get around here. Everyone tells me I'm lucky to get such a good job since I'm coming right out of grad school.
It's been about two months since I took the job, and I've started to receive teaching allocations etc for the coming semester. I should be really excited and happy about all of this, but instead, every time I think about starting this new job, instead of excitement I just feel awful: afraid, nervous, like I'm making a huge mistake and I want to cry. I can't figure out why. I feel like I'm supposed to want this and I just don't feel positive about it. I worked so so hard to earn it but now it doesn't feel like a prize. I just have this overwhelming sense that I'm going to be absolutely miserable. I don't know if it's just about the B-school thing, or academia in general, or just because I'm nervous about being a real adult for the first time, or because I know people who have had a hard time with teaching etc, but I'm confused that I can't tell these apart.
Am I naive for thinking that I should be excited and overjoyed about this job? Does it mean I'm a normal academic that I feel dread, or a terrible academic that I don't see it as an opportunity (besides the great salary)? Does it just make me a privileged a-hole that I'm expecting to feel joy but I don't? I would appreciate any words of advice, your experience with before job jitters/dread and whether it gets better or whether I may be making a huge mistake? So confused!

I have no experience to reassure you with, but don't be scared. Its okay to be worried and have jitters when making changes to your life! The first few weeks will be adjustments but then you will start to figure things out and have more confidence! Don't worry, go out there and do your best! Its not the end of the world if you don't end up liking it, but you should still give it a fair try! I've personally felt very worried about big decisions in my life... but it wasn't the end of the world when I made the wrong decision, I wouldn't have known if I didn't make it. Cheer up and best of luck!

I, too, wished I could have done more grad school and postdoc, but... that's not how it works. In any case, how you feel doesn't make you an a-hole, it would only be if you didn't work hard in your new position that you would be an a-hole. Good luck to you!

"feel awful: afraid, nervous, like making a huge mistake and want to cry" - +1 for finding the exact words to describe the situation many of us find ourselves in during the time between making a big decision and finding out for sure if it was a good or a not-so-good one. - Just wait and see. From what you said,I cannot see why it shouldn't work out great for you.

Imposter syndrome?

Imposter syndrome on Academia SE

It's only a job, why would you be overjoyed about it? Just conduct yourself at a high professional standard and collect the paycheck.

Expecting to feel "overjoyed" may in itself be creating stress. I usually felt slight anxiety when approaching a new job.

It's perfectly normal to feel the way you do. Part of it is likely fear of the unknown; part is fear of a new job with "adult" responsibilities; part of it might even be fear about whether you can do the job (the infamous Imposter Syndrome). Transitions are always a stressful time, and I don't think we give ourselves enough time to adjust.
This also reminds me of a survey that discovered that people who just got tenure are the unhappiest of all faculty. The similarity is in the striving for a prize that's difficult to get, and then getting it ! In both cases, there's an element of letdown, and "I did all this work for THIS ?"
One technique that I've found useful when dealing with these kinds of feelings is to try and focus on the concrete rather than the bigger picture: in your case, maybe focusing on logistics issues related to the transition rather than the bigger picture.
I've also found as a rule of thumb (both personally and with others) that it can take upto 6 months to feel some level of comfort in a new position. That's a long time.

"it can take upto 6 months to feel some level of comfort in a new position" - And I'd like to add that, of course, every employer is well aware of this; no one will expect you to perform at the same level as the more experienced employees right from the start.

For some people, it can take quite a bit longer than 6 months.

nice answer for a nice question. I've lived that two years ago and I would emphatize for "adult" responsibilities. you wanna cry because you know your freedom will change (in worse) a lot

When I was in grad school, I worked as a resident advisor in the grad student dorms, and a big chunk of my job was to be there for other graduate students when they needed help or someone to talk to. My supervisor taught me to ask "What are your concerns?" when people came to me to express that they were afraid or nervous about something. I was quite amazed to see how often that calmed them down, because it turned out that they rarely actually had any specific concerns. It's not that they actually believed that certain specific bad things would happen to them, they were just nervous about being in situations they were not familiar or comfortable with.
I'm saying this because I note that you don't mention any specific concern in your post. Instead I read the familiar vague feeling of being "afraid, nervous, like I'm making a huge mistake and I want to cry". So I want you to think about this question: "What are your concerns?"

Ok...
It may help you to know that

Women are much more prone to this sort of feeling than men for no competence related reason at all. It's just that society had conditioned you more to doubt yourself, to try to be perfect, and generally to introvert more - which is often a good thing, but not in this particular case.
Competent people are much more likely to worry about their competence than incompetent ones: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

Both these things are irrational! Accept that you feel this way and then say: "So what? Frak it, I'm going to get up there and teach. I may not be perfect, but I'm going to make a solid plan and follow it, so rationally, nothing can go too far wrong. The students aren't idiots: if I miss something important, one of them will ask, and that will cue me to tell the others. This isn't landing a 747 or performing neurosurgery - there are plenty of opportunities to recover from my mistakes. Voices in my head, shut up already!"

Why does this question have anything to do with women? The OP never mentions his/her gender.

@scaaahu Presumably it's because the OP's profile pic shows two women.

This answer might have been useful if it limited itself  to the second bullet. The first bullet is mostly irrelevant to the question

@xLeitix If I put a woman's photo in my profile, then it can be assumed I am a woman?

@scaaahu Not defending the answer per se (don't find it all that valuable myself), but assuming that the OP is female when her/his avatar pic is a photograph of two females does seem like a reasonable educated guess.

While I agree that it's not fair to assume, to clear it up, I am a female (sounds weird) - a woman. I have now changed my pic to a hermit crab though :) I think the commenter was just trying to be helpful. I know of these findings and I do think they contribute to some extent, but my worries are more existential. It's true I don't feel like I'm the best at my job, but I also worry that I'm not in love with it, or obsessively passionate about it like some people are. I'm worried that I'm just taking the 'momentum' route of going into academia, where really my skills/happiness lie elsewhere.

@Skunkness Do you think you would be happier if you work in industry?

I don't know. I'm sort of addicted to the academic lifestyle, and I'm also really motivated by social questions. If anything I would like to work for non-profits or industry with a cause, but because my forte is not data, it's hard to think of jobs that would welcome me. I'm very socially adept, and great at question design/experimentation. It's also hard to think about leaving the freedom of doing my own research and coming up with my own questions. Though who knows? I've never experienced industry so I just don't know. There's your fear of change I guess.

@Skunkness Hermit crabs are also prone to it. Every time they plan to change shells, they get major panic attacks.

RE: It's true I don't feel like I'm the best at my job, but I also worry that I'm not in love with it, or obsessively passionate about it like some people are. Let those problems take care of themselves down the road. As for being the "best at your job," you must have been the best amongst the qualified applicants, or they would have hired someone else. As for the passion that may or may not ignite, if it doesn't, you'll have time to find something else later in your career. Concentrate on doing a good job now, so you'll get stronger recommendations if you decide to go somewhere else.

Re. This answer might have been useful if it limited itself to the second bullet. The first bullet is mostly irrelevant to the question No, it's not. Half of the human race is female, and a very likely cause of unreasonably anxiety that stands a 50% chance of applying to the OP is relevant!

@Skunkness How do you define "Social Questions"?

Is this step on the critical path towards your long-term goals? It's good to think 20 years ahead. If you stay on this track, in 20 years' time you will be senior faculty, have N students, M publications, P dollars, H ideas for publications, non-quantifiable collaborations and disagreements with most international colleagues working in your sub-sub-field. Is this enough? Imagine this is now. Is this the best possible outcome for you? Most likely yes, because it is so for the majority. Then focus on the fact that you are on the right track.
If your dream is different or more specific, but it's necessary to have a faculty position for it, then keep working hard! Working hard is the only way to enjoy living to 100%!
Otherwise, revise your plan. Do you want two incompatible things? Then one has to give way. Don't let the path of least resistance dictate where you go. You are in control of your life, and this aspect was hard-earned by many generations of people who weren't, so don't throw it away too easily. Also, nobody really deeply cares about what steps you take to reach your goals, except you, so don't let the perceived 'opinion of others' dictate what path you take. However, the bigger the decision, the longer the cooling-off period before committing to it!
My best guess is that it is the reluctance people get when they are just about to spend a lot of energy on something. That should wear off over a few weeks after you dive in.

"...non-quantifiable collaborations and disagreements with most international colleagues working in your sub-sub-field." What?

@PeteL.Clark I was going to put a count on it, but that didn't make sense, so I wrote "non-quantifiable".

Skunkness, I hope you found the other answers helpful.
Do be honest, I do not find it normal that you feel like this at this point of time. And I think that one reason that you ask the question here is that you do not find it normal yourself.
In change management theory, I have learned that the first phase of a new challenge is normally excitement, even euphoria. The down phase comes some time after you started the new job, the moment when you find that - even if it was a really good  choice you made -  there are drawbacks, there's routine that you don't like and that there's a lot of work you still need to do before you really become excellent at the new job.
And it happens like this most of the time - I speak from personal experience, as well as watching other people on new assignments.
But that doesn't mean it must be like this. Still people are different.
I don't know if maybe women are different from men here, but I must admit that I immediately thought that you were female. And again sorry to say for all those who claimed gender has nothing to do with this problem: men and women are quite different in job behavior. I have supervised a lot of males and females, and there is a clear pattern: while men tend to overestimate their achievements, women underestimate them - cliche yes, but statistically true.
So maybe user15677 is quite correct with comment 1, and (s)he has made quite a point that it has nothing to do with your achievements and qualifications.
If user15677 is right, then you should not worry too much. This phase will pass. Look to cheer you up with something, pamper yourself a bit. Develop some routine you like - simple things like seeing where to get the best coffee at your new job, or maybe there's a nice place to take a stroll after lunch.
However, your current state could point to the fact that you are unhappy for some reason with your decision. I think you should ask yourself the following: are your feelings mostly connected with yourself? Then see this as a passing phase. You've done well, you have the job you wanted, and you are just a little exhausted.
If you find that these feelings are connected to certain details of the new job, then find out how you can improve these things.
Most important: you have a hard time behind you. You need some rest. Take your time now. Even if you find out that you made a bad choice - now is the time to collect energy. If you need to change your decision, give yourself some time first,

I felt the same way when I was offered a full-time lecturer position. Get this -- it was even at an institution where I'd already been teaching for a decade, knew everyone involved, already taught all the same classes, was roundly supported by everyone in the department, and where I consistently said to everyone that I loved teaching there. I knew it was crazy, but I was totally morose for a few weeks in the summer before starting the new job title.
Here's the best I can process that: You're making a big life change, and one opportunity is being pursued, and some other possibilities are being left behind. It's probably natural (for some of us) to have a period of grieving. We're not kids anymore and one part of our life is behind us, with other parts now in better focus ahead.
So at least in my case, after the "wake" period, I've been finding my new position spectacularly better than before. The new things and added responsibilities and contacts are some things I've been missing out on for years, and the more I do the better it gets all the time. Of course, none of us are completely locked into any job permanently; if it turns sour for any of us we can look elsewhere and make a change. Judging on overall emotional trajectory, I would hope and bet that you'll have a great experience ahead of you; if you care enough to feel any emotion over it at all, then likely that's a sign you'll be a caring, sensitive, and successful teacher.

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Why are the registration fees for academic conferences so high?
I was actually thinking about submitting one of my papers in a conference which is to be held in Spain (LATA 2014) but alas I might not be able to do so since the registration fees for this conference is 400 Euros (discounted since I'm a student) which is virtually impossible to afford (since in addition to the registration fees I will have to travel to Spain as well). In fact just to get a sense of how much money this is, this 400 Euros is almost equivalent to half the salary (in terms of basic pay) a senior professor earns in my country (India) and I see that this conference is not the only one when it comes to such high fees. What are the real reasons behind such high fees? Isn't this in some away discouraging genuine contributions in academia?

However, 400 Euros is far less than the average Open Access Journal's publishing fees!

@VahidShirbisheh not with the Canadian Mathematical Society meetings, it isn't...

Typically the fees are to cover the facilities of the meeting including services attached to the venue. In addition there may be administrative costs for the conveners to be added to that. My experience says that every time you let a professional conference center and staff organize a meeting it becomes very expensive. This may seem like a bad idea, but what is often not seen is the work volunteers would have to put in if you tried to organize a large conference without such help. Free help is usually not easy to muster these days.
So while I agree that conference fees may seem ridiculously high at times the reason is that it would be hard to organize them otherwise. It may be easier for recurring conferences since they can build a knowledge base and tools to help but for a one-off the ask can be too large without professional help.
By keeping a discussion open about these costs we can perhaps put the spotlight on the problems and realize that we cannot both have the cake and eat it. In order to reduce costs meetings may have to be organized in simpler venues and by more volunteers from the community.

Well, during the Covid19 pandemic, conferences were conducted virtually, and even then they didn't reduce the fee. Even when a conference is held offline, certain conferences charge exorbitantly high fees that does not really match what it might actually cost to host the conference. Something is wrong. Moreover, it's crazy that researchers who put in so much time and effort to advance civilization's knowledge, should pay, when civilization uses that knowledge without paying the creator of the knowledge. It's like a scam.

Unfortunately, it is expensive to run a conference. You have to rent the venue, provide food, possibly pay for a keynote speaker, and pay for other incidental costs.
Furthermore, as you note there is a disparity in salaries between developed and developing countries, and this can price out participants from developing nations.
I don't believe there is an institutional discrimination against academic contributions from developing nations, but your inference that it is harder to make these contributions because of a wage/price discrepancy and the need to attend a conference to be published in it is valid.
One option that might be helpful is to try to publish in journals, which do not incur travel fees. Not the best answer, I admit, but something to consider.
Finally, this is a discussion that you should have with your university -- it is in their interest to help faculty and students get published, and there may be money for travel and conference fees that the university can help out with. Furthermore, research grants (often also harder to obtain in developing nations, unfortunately) should be set up to pay for conference fees and travel, and faculty members should do everything they can to compete for grant money.

Well, you do not need to rent the venue; the local university can let you use their lecture halls for free or for a nominal fee (for example, the university can "sponsor" the conference by letting them use their facilities). However, I agree that it is expensive to run a conference, no matter how many students you have as volunteers. Food costs a lot. For example, seemingly simple things such as coffee breaks are surprisingly expensive, and it adds up to a non-trivial amount of money if you have a 5-day conference with 2 coffee breaks per day.

@JukkaSuomela: Meetings with more than a few hundred participants can't be run at universities; they typically don't have the facilities to support it logistically.

@aeismail and, even when universities can support the logistics, increasingly difficult funding situation prevents them to do it for free

@JukkaSuomela: the universities I know even the normal labs and offices are rented internally by the group who use them (a calculation used to prove the support from university e.g. for certain types of grants). From there it is not far to charge proper rent to outside events such as conferences.

Not renting whole multi-star hotels in major cities may be a first step. But alas, it seems as if established players (i.e. professors) a) can lose sensitivity of these issues as their expenses are often paid for and b) demand a certain standard. Furthermore, I once read that things like printed proceedings and association with a large organisation like ACM or SIAM can make costs explode; can't verify that myself, though.

First, some practical side notes.

I'm in a field with high conference fees as well. However, my professor once complained with conference organizers when student fees were 250 € saying that no student (and no institute paying for the student) could afford that. I got in at a much reduced price.
However, I once attended a conference in Africa where many "speakers" didn't show up after they had tried to make the organizers completely waive the fees and pay their travel a week or so before the conference. The organizers felt blackmailed and refused (I believe they had a developing countries discount from the beginning, but I'm not entirely sure. Europeans paid about what you'd pay for a conference in Europe)
You may be able to negotiate a discount for not attending the conference dinner, tourist program, etc. (though I recommend attending if possible: this is where you can talk and get to know people)
Some conferences and/or professional societies have travel grants for students. Some universities have travel grants as well. They would usually help towards both conference fee, flight ticket and housing at the conference location. Ask around.
In my field (analytical chemistry/spectroscopy) in terms of conference fees for students I found that conferences in the US had much lower student fees compared to Europe.

Some more points on the costs:

you mention that the 400€ is half a months salary for a prof in your country. But the costs of living and the wages are not the same all over the world. You don't get as far in Spain with 400€ as you'd get in India. Unfortunately I guess from India most good conferences will be in crazy expensive countries.
However, I've seen conference announcements in southeast Asia and northern Africa, and the fees were not that much lower compared to european and north american locations.

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Should the editor share the names / institution information of authors with the reviewers
For most journals, the reviewer is aware of the names and the institution that the paper is coming from. IMO, if the paper is from a top institution, the reviewer might judge it differently than the same quality of paper coming from a low tier institute (not always the case, but there is a chance). Also, a reviewer might not be fully non biased if the paper is from one of the groups that he / she thinks is a competing group.
The simple way to get around this bias is to anonymize the source of the paper before its sent for peer review.
Why don't editors do that. Why isn't this model widely used?

This is called double-blind review. It is common in some fields, though I seem to see it more in conferences than journals.
There are a bunch of issues with double-blind review, next to the obvious overhead:

It prevents uploading preprints, since authors risk revealing their identity. This can be a problem in fields with long review times like maths since results would be kept silent longer.
If a paper is accompanied by software, how can it be licensed?
It doesn't always work, particularly when working in niches with few active researchers. Sometimes you can guess the author with reasonable accuracy based on the content and style of a paper. Some people even manage to guess the reviewer based on feedback.

Some take it even one step further to go for triple-blind review, in which:

The authors do not know the reviewers' identities.
The reviewers do not know the authors' identities.
The person that selects reviewers does not know the identities of the authors.

I would like to take this opportunity to suggest quadruple-blind review, which is triple-blind review in which the reviewers do not get to see the manuscript. To ensure anonymity, of course. You heard it here first!

I'm curious about triple-blind, it's the first time I hear that. If the person that selects reviewers does not know the identities of the authors, isn't it possible that they send a paper to review to its own authors?

@FedericoPoloni I think triple-blind may have been Marc's attempt at comedy, along with quadruple-blind, which is even more absurd. +1 to Marc for his comedy efforts!

@FaheemMitha unfortunately, triple-blind is for real (example 1, example 2).

One word: tradition. Both ways have both advantages and disadvantages. anonymity carries with it the possibility to pass social barriers for what is objective scrutiny of a paper. This has become obvious in some journals that allow open anonymous discussion of submitted papers. Being known (both as author and reviewer) adds social control. On the other hand, anonymity allows a reviewer to express criticism that he/she would not dare to do openly because of, for example, hierarchical reasons. In some (smaller) fields anonymity is easily seen through. The lists can e made much longer.
In your question, the role of the editor as a mediator and evaluator is not touched upon. An editor knows both names of authors and reviewers and should make sure that the review process is fair from both sides. Anonymity does not contribute in this sense.
As a reviewer, one also has the possibility to decline a review if one has qualms about the job. If you feel you need to withhold criticism because of the name of the author, then maybe you are not well suited for the review. In the traditional system you have the possibility of remaining anonymous although my personal opinion is that openness is better. I always feel I can take comments better if I know who they come from. I can evaluate if they are due to issues with language or a resear group with conflicting views etc.


text:
Undergraduate seeking advice about future career and working relationship with PI
I am currently a second year undergraduate student at a public university in the US working in a lab run by a successful new PI who is on tenure track and is currently in their 3rd year at this university. I started working in this lab my first month of undergraduate, and have continued working ever since.
I am uncertain of whether or not I am cut out for research and feel like my time and skills are being taken advantage of. I was also wondering if I should continue to work here.
I'll briefly outline some examples below to make the situation clearer:

As a freshman, I was uncertain about course selection and I asked my PI for advice where I was told to take Class B over Class A. In hindsight, by taking Class A, I could have saved a year but now have to stay one more to get my degree.
I have been working a lot during the semester, between 40-80 hours/week. I spend the time on my own volition because I enjoy the work I do and learn a lot while keeping up with my coursework. However, my PI expresses disappointment when I don't keep up the same time commitment during weeks with midterms for instance, and I feel guilty that I can't do as much.
One stipulation that my PI gave me was that if I work for the lab for 2 summers, I would be given a recommendation and be able to do research with my PI's old advisor during the summer instead of a traditional REU or internship. My PI's postdoc advisor is very well known in the field and is also at a prestigious institution. I am unsure about the best way to ask for compensation during breaks such as summer for instance, and I am not being fully compensated compared to traditional REU students due to "lack of funding" or "investments already being made" in my research.
I have expressed doing REU's or internships instead of staying at my institution doing research with my PI, but when I ask for a recommendation letter the topic quickly changes, or my PI asks me to write it myself. To my surprise, my PI writes recommendation letters for other undergraduates in the lab applying to graduate school.
For the past year I was working on a project in which I was able to give a talk and two poster presentations at 2 large international society meetings. Ultimately, I was placed on another project and my old one was left to be determined and I'm left wondering where these projects would go. My PI has 2 PhD students, but they are also in their 3rd year and have not published at all yet. I am also wondering if I have to wait for them first before I can send my material off for publication.

I am conflicted at this point since I enjoy my research and it is in the field I would like to do my graduate studies in. I would like to have some compensation to cover at least housing or otherwise do an REU instead, however, most REU deadlines have passed. For clarification, I want a strong recommendation for wherever I apply, but it seems like it has to be on my PI's terms, in that I am being strongly pushed into working here instead of somewhere else.

Talk to your shrink.

You get paid for undergrad research?!

@canadianer It's probably country and field specific, but in Canada, science undergrad students are usually paid as long as it's not part of their undergrad thesis or a course project. From my experience the majority of undergrad students who do full-time research during summers are paid, and often part-time during the school year as well.

This experience should not be taken as a measure of whether you are cut out for grad school or research.  I got as far as the second bullet point and concluded that you have allowed your PI to treat you like a rag someone might wipe his muddy boots on.  (It's not your fault -- you didn't know that things shouldn't be this way.)

Your question could be edited to be more concise (it reads a little bit like a rant at the moment), but here are some responses to your points:

"I asked my PI for advice where I was told to take Class B over Class A" - You asked your PI for advice, and he gave you his/her advice. It is your fault for not making sure that the course doesn't cause problems for your schedule. Your institution likely has some sort of "academic advising" service for these types of degree scheduling things, and your PI likely does not know all of the intricacies of your undergraduate program. This is a learning experience for you, but it's important to remember that it's up to you to take charge of your education.
"I have been working a lot during the semester, between 40-80 hours/week." - I'm not sure how you're working 40-80 hours a week while still completing all of your undergraduate courses. Can you maybe clarify this? But that much time seems fairly high for an undergraduate student with a full course load.
"I am not being fully compensated due to "lack of funding" or "investments already being made" in my research" - This is up to your judgement. There are some professors who will take advantage of undergraduate students (many are not paid at all), but there is also very likely limited money budgeted for undergraduate students. It's impossible for us to tell what's going on, but it's up to you to decide if it's worth it, and if you should maybe try to become involved in a different lab at your institution.
"when I ask for a recommendation letter the topic quickly changes, or my PI asks me to write it myself. To my surprise, my PI writes recommendation letters for other undergraduates in the lab applying to graduate school." - Many professors will have the student write a letter of reference, even for students applying for grad school, so this is not unusual. That being said, reference letters for grad school are arguably more important than letters for summer positions, so it would make sense that he/she would put more effort into a grad school letter. But even if you write the letter, your PI should still be editing it and making it their own.
"Ultimately, I was placed on another project and my old one was left to be determined." - It's not uncommon for projects to be put aside while there are other more important projects on the go, and it's possible the PI's current funding does not cover those projects. Again, we don't know the situation, so maybe you should try discussing this more with your PI, and ask more specific questions about what kind of data he wants and what it would take to finish them.
"Ultimately, I want a strong recommendation for wherever I apply, but it seems like it has to be on my PI's terms, and I feel stuck." - I don't really understand why you feel stuck and why it's on your PI's terms. It sounds like you've already gained a lot of experience presenting your work, and that will help make a recommendation letter strong, especially for a second year undergraduate student. Now if he is refusing to write you a letter because he wants you to work in his lab, that's a different story. And by writing you a reference letter, that includes you writing it, and him/her editing it.

Hi Steve, thanks for all the input. In terms of hours, I work between and after classes into the night, as well as days I don't have class and on the weekend. I think what you said about more important projects makes sense,  but I feel like it's a shame to not complete that work. In terms of the recommendation letter, I've read a lot here on stackexchange but the community seems to be divided on writing the letter yourself or having the PI write it. What would be your advice in this case?

@undergradNeedingAdvice IMO that seems like too many hours and I don't understand how you can complete all your course work (which should be at least 40 hours/wk) at the same time. If you can work that much then go for it, but don't let your marks drop too much because of it.

@undergradNeedingAdvice The community may be divided on whether a student should write the letter or not, but that doesn't mean it's not commonplace. I personally wrote one of my own grad school reference letters, and my supervisor from that lab edited it. This is entirely up to your PI about which approach they want to take. You can definitely explain your thoughts about it, but be prepared for him/her to not agree.

@undergradNeedingAdvice One last comment, I'll echo aparente001's comment and say that nothing in your post leads me to believe that you won't do well in research, so don't worry about that. The experience you have already puts you ahead of many other students. Whether or not you should join a different lab or scale back your hours is up to you, maybe talk to some students in other labs to learn how it compares to yours.


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How many self-cites to other works are too many in my paper?
Currently I am writing a paper which is related to my previous work. However, there are several publications that I would like to cite from it. I do not want the new manuscript to feel like a easy-self-citing paper, so I wonder which is the limit of self-citation.
Of course, the self-cites correspond to different works, some of them poorly correlated with the others.

Do you mean self-citations? A good rule of thumb is, "Would I cite this paper if I wasn't its author?"

@ff524 yes! self-citations is what I meant. I would cite them, but a reviewer can see something fishy in it...

If it's relevant and you're building on work you did before, I don't see why not. As long as you're diversifying yourself and acknowledging the work of other people this shouldn't be an issue.

See Will self-citation be viewed as self-promotion in academia?

Something you might (unfortunately) want to consider is that your paper will probably compete against prolifically self-cited papers. This can be a problem since self-citations make the work more prominent, which leads to more real-citations. Of course, if all researchers self-cite prolifically then "actual" citations reduce and that's a tragedy, a tragedy of the commons. Ethically, however, others are correct (cite as you would if it weren't your own).

The answer, of course, is to cite the relevant papers and only those.
This is not very actionable advice. Rather, here is what I would suggest. My discipline is mathematics, for context.

If you use, expand, contradict, give a new perspective to, etc,  a previous result, then you should cite it.
You can usually decide how much space and writing to devote to historical overview and establishing context for the paper. Cite relevant literature; everything if there is only little, or representative sample if there is much. Cover different perspectives at least briefly.
At this point, ask yourself: Given the references here, is there something that is missing, or something that seems to be excessive? These questions should weed out excessive self-citations or add citations to other relevant literature.

If you afraid that some citation is not relevant, then consider writing at least a sentence to describe it in the context of your present paper, rather than writing for example

similar questions have also been considered in [1, 2, 3, 4, ..., 13].

A few sentences of context will also serve your readers, who might find your paper when looking for something related. The sentence can guide them towards more relevant papers and away from less relevant ones.


text:
How to pick the brain of a professor with whom you have no connection
I want to learn more about a specific part of a narrow, fledgling field. I want to have a 30 minute conversation with a the burgeoning experts in this area of study -- they are all researchers at universities.
I have completed my undergrad in a related field, but at a different institution, and without formal training in the specialized area I'm investigating. But I have read up enough to be able to ask informed questions.
How can I get these busy people to give me a half an hour (or more) of their life when I don't know anyone in their network and am an outsider? What can I offer them in exchange for their time? What is a good way to make contact and avoid a totally "cold call"?

If you are very serious, pay the registration fees for a conference in that field and you can meet there people that work on your topic of interest.

@Niko: You can meet them, but you can't be sure of much more than a handshake.  Certainly not a 30-minute discussion.

Have you tried emailing with some of your questions? Many academics love to talk about their field, indeed with some, this is more of a shortcoming than an advantage. Once you have established a rapport by email you can proceed to meeting in person.

The traditional method is to read one of their papers.

You are right that it is difficult to make contact with a busy expert when you have no network contacts to draw upon. One of the best ways to make contact is to attend a conference that covers your area of interest; this can be pricey, but in my field the major conference even has "Meet the Experts" lunches for student attendees. At the conference, register for pre-meeting, student, and/or special interest group events that may have a either a career development focus or are likely to have a more specialized attendance and thus more opportunities to approach individuals with whom you'd like to talk.
While some experts may, in fact, respond to a "cold call" (or cold email, as the case may be), the fact is that most are probably putting out fires and dealing with higher-level responsibilities, and may simply be too busy. In that case you may want to try moving down the ladder a bit...a graduate student or postdoc in their lab may be a bit more available to chat, and may actually have good advice for you about the next step in your career, as well as information about the nitty-gritty of the specialized area their lab works on.
My best advice is just go out there and make your best effort to get in touch, provided you convey respect for their time and withdraw gracefully if they aren't able to make time for you. Some investigators may respond very favorably--you might be surprised! Nothing ventured, nothing gained...

"may be more available to chat" should probably be "hasn't learned how to say 'no' yet" :)

@Moriarty or "has less ways to procrastinate, so you can become more easily one".

Your starting point for how to think about this should be the same as with any social interaction: empathize.  Put yourself in their shoes.  Start by trying to imagine what their motivations might be and what they might get out of spending 30 minutes with you answering your questions.  Many social interactions involve some kind of exchange; what is exchanged might vary (it might be information, or emotional support, or entertainment, or a sense of connection, or any of a number of other motivations), but try to understand what the professor might get out of it, and then tailor your approach accordingly.  What value can you offer?  What's the benefit to them?
Realistically, in many cases, there might be nothing you have to offer that would make it worthwhile for the professor to spend 30 minutes of their limited time answering your questions.  Professors are often busy and have many responsibilities and obligations of their own, and so they simply might not be available to be a free resource for you, as much as you wish it were so.  In this sense, professors are much like any other domain expert.  For instance, if you needed advice from a legal expert (a lawyer), what could you offer them to make it worth their while to spend 30 minutes of their time answering your legal questions for free?  Usually, you can't.  Instead, you have to hire their services.
Now in some cases you might get lucky and be able to find an expert who knows the subject area and is willing to give you free advice.  The motivation might vary, but here are some samples of why someone might be willing to help you out like this:

Maybe the professor/expert gets some satisfaction out of seeing their ideas used in practice, as well as some boost to their professional reputation.  (This might be applicable if you're going to build a widely deployed product, and the professor's research provides specialized knowledge that will improve the product, but it probably won't be if you're an amateur who is tooling about with this stuff for curiosity's sake.)
Maybe the professor/expert gets some satisfaction out of serving the public.  (This might be more applicable if you work for a non-profit that is working to serve the public, or if answering your question will help not only you but others -- such as if the answer is documented on a public site like StackExchange.)
Maybe the professor/expert is doing a favor for someone else they know, who they owe a favor or want to oblige.  (This might be applicable if you know someone who has a strong relationship with the expert and who is willing to ask a favor and whom the expert might want to oblige.)

So, if you're asking for free advice from the professor, start by knowing which of those motivations you might fit into, and tailor your approach closely.
But realize that most professors/experts will likely be too busy to give you this much of their time for free, if they're not getting anything out of it.  You're not entitled to any of their time; if they give you any time, you should be grateful for it and consider yourself fortunate.  So your traditional options are:

Hire the professor/expert as a consultant.
Read the professor's published papers.  Read the research literature in the area.  Study the field as much as possible.  If you've spent weeks or months doing so, then typically you'll get a good idea of the answers to many of your questions -- and if there are one or two that remain unanswered, you might be able to frame an email that asks a well-crafted, focused, non-trivial question about their research.  When you've put in a ton of effort on your own and are able to ask a narrowly-focused intelligent question about the professor's research, and you're not wasting their time, it's more likely you'll get an answer.  But in this model, you're not asking for 30 minutes of their time.  You're sending an email with a single, well-crafted question.

"If you've spent weeks or months doing so"... I would imagine the goal of spending 30 minutes to get the information directly is to avoid spending months to obtain it indirectly.

@Mehrdad, if that's the goal, then I refer you to literally everything else I wrote in my answer.  (Imagine writing to a professor and saying "I know I could probably answer this on my own by studying published papers, but I don't want to do that, so can you volunteer 30 minutes of your time, to save me the effort?"  How do you think that's going to work out?)

Let's be honest though, even for senior researchers that's often precisely what we get out of going to a conference, or inviting someone to come give a seminar, etc.

Well sure, it might not work out, but is it really that unreasonable? It doesn't make sense to have to spend months of effort to understand or reinvent a wheel when someone could just explain it to you in 30 minutes. At that point you might as well recommend him to go get an extra degree in the subject instead of bothering the professor!

@TomChurch, I'd refer you back to the sample motivations I gave.  Giving a seminar is often covered, at least partly, by "some boost to their professional reputation" or "some satisfaction out of seeing their ideas used" or "some satisfaction out of serving the public" (of course those aren't  the only motivations, but I didn't try to provide an exhaustive list of motivations, only those that are most likely to be relevant to the OP's question).

@Mehrdad, is it really that unreasonable?  Yes, it really is.  Try walking into a lawyer's office and saying "can you give 30 minutes for free to give me a legal advice? it doesn't make sense for me to spend years studying the law when you could spend 30 minutes explaining me the answer to my question".  See how well that works out for you.  As I wrote, "You're not entitled to any of their time; if they give you any time, you should be grateful for it and consider yourself fortunate."

@Mehrdad, more generally, when you write "it doesn't make sense for me to study this for months", you are thinking only about yourself and your own concerns, without considering what the professor stands to gain or what the professor's considerations might be.  I encourage you to re-read the first paragraph of my answer.  "Empathize. Put yourself in their shoes. Start by trying to imagine what their motivations might be and what they might get out of spending 30 minutes with you answering your questions."

@D.W.: This is quite different from the lawyer situation actually. The lawyer's job is to represent his/her client, which the rest of the world couldn't care less about. But a professor's job is to do research, teach, and otherwise advance his/her field; the world does care whether humanity's knowledge advances. So when I said it doesn't make sense, I wasn't thinking selfishly; in fact, to the contrary, I was thinking about it altruistically: saving somebody several months' worth of work can help humanity's state of knowledge advance much farther.

@D.W.: Basically--to look at it from a game theory standpoint--I'm not claiming that the professor spending 30 minutes with the OP is a Nash equilibrium, but that it's the optimal solution regardless.

@Mehrdad, you're saying "I shouldn't have to offer the professor anything".  While you might be right that this is how the world ought to work, it's not necessarily how the world does work, and in any case, it's not what the question asks.  The question isn't asking how the world ought to work.  Instead, the question asks for pragmatic advice.  It asks "What can I offer [the professor] in exchange for their time?" -- and my answer attempts to articulate some specific things you can offer the professor... along with a cautionary note about why often you might not be able to offer anything.

If it still isn't clear, consider that most professors have several hundred students who would also benefit immensely from a half hour of one on one time, who have done the background work, and who are at least in a sense paying for the time.

@Mehrdad: You seem to assume that speaking to an expert saves you months of work. There are cases where this actually is the case, for example, if you are missing a pointer to the literature or when you intend to use something from outside your field as a black box. However, if you are really aiming at working in this area, you need to build up intuition and experience which you gain only by many months of reading, experimenting and thinking on your own.

Start with just sending a friendly "hey, I'd love to meet with you for just a few minutes" email. You'd be surprised that a few people will actually respond and respond well to that sort of initiative. Anecdotally, I got quite a few interesting meetings with people just with that.
If they don't reply to your email, you can decide how you want to go. I'd recommend the following, but really, any of these can be done in any order.

Send a follow-up email. I'd do this a maximum of two times. At that point, if he's ignoring you, he's ignoring you.
Try to talk to an administrative assistant, see if there's a better way to get in touch/get on his schedule.
Drop by his office sometime, see if he's willing to talk to you unannounced. I would recommend asking his graduate students before you do this, as he may not appreciate it.
Find someone else to talk to. Some people just don't like talking.

+1 for "some people just don't like talking". A common response to an "I'd love to meet with you" e-mail is "Sorry, I can't, but you should talk to [grad student/more junior professor/someone in your area interested in this research area]"

@Gaurav - Excellent point. If he sends you to a grad student/postdoc/whoever, it's then up to you as to whether you want to follow up. Pro tip: you probably should, no matter how junior they are they probably know more than you (they're in the field, you're not) and will be able to give useful advice.

Just this week, I got a call set up with a professor. I have no connection with him or the university he teaches at. As a disclaimer, I have no idea how busy he is or whether he is an expert in my field. Here's how I did it:
For background, I am interested in learning about student engagement, more specifically using popular media in the classroom. One of the presentations on the professor's department website discussed this topic in some form, and it really captured my interest.
First off, I created an email subject that would probably capture his interest. Since he is a professor, he is probably interested in education. And since he has a presentation on popular media, he is probably interested in that as well. So combining the two, my subject line was: "Using Popular Culture to Educate Students." Note that I didn't use the word "media" because he does not use that specific terminology in his presentation.
I started out the body of my email by linking to the presentation and thanking him for creating such a valuable resource. I expressed genuine appreciation for the presentation that he (or someone else in his department) created. I then mentioned that I am exploring the topic of the presentation and "would love to learn more about [his] work." Finally, I ended the email by asking to chat briefly on the phone. I then went further and suggested a specific day and time to chat. The bolded part is what most people don't include in their emails. This significantly reduces the work for the person you are trying to "sell" to and makes them more likely to respond. And sure enough, I got a response.
To recap, here's how I approached the situation:

Create a subject line that will be likely to capture their interest.
Link to a specific work of theirs that you found interesting and/or valuable. People appreciate it when you acknowledge their work.
Show that you are working within the scope of their work, and indicate that you are trying to learn more about that subject.
Ask for a quick chat on the phone, and indicate why you want to speak with them.
Suggest a specific date/time to chat.

I believe the above steps made me successful in gaining the attention of the professor. There's also a little luck involved, so it's possible that I could have just gotten lucky.
I hope this helps!

Update: Yes, we actually had a call a few hours ago. And it went very well!


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Style guide for statement of purpose?
I am worried that errors in the style of my Statement of Purpose (SOP) will count negatively toward me.  By "errors" I mean choosing the wrong font, font size etc. My question: are there general styling guides and possibly word templates for SOP?

I think you overestimate how important this is, relative to the actual content of the SoP (though obviously you should not pick some really unreadable or silly font).

See Wrong font used for statement of purpose and résumé

Style guides are mostly about, well..., style and much less prescriptive about formatting. I think that the most important aspects of formatting of almost any academic document are consistency (for readability) and conservatism (for main focus on content).

See What is the standard/recommended font to use in papers? and Is there a recommended font and size for a job application?

Statements of Purpose (SOP) are short -- a few hundred words, or 1,000 words at most.  Nearly all style guides for simple documents feature serif fonts for the body -- Times Roman, 11pt or 12pt, or equivalent -- and larger sans-serif fonts for headers -- Helvetica 14pt bold, or similar.  Single space between lines in a paragraph, and double space between paragraphs.
That is all you need.
Beyond this, please spend all your available time on writing and editing.  Aim for the very highest quality writing in English. Aim for an SOP that was written by a native English speaker.  For example, you could read your SOP aloud to three native English speakers and have them give you corrections to any word or sentence that did not sound right.

You seem to overvalue "style" and undervalue "content". That's a rookie mistake because it's easy to see for a reader if you've spent too much time on the style and not enough on the content.
My recommendation would be to use some standard style that is neither exciting nor boring and use your time to focus on the content. Certainly expressions like "can easily devataste a good SOP" are entirely unwarranted.

In mathematics, it is common for postdocs and graduating Ph.D. students who are applying for jobs to post their job materials on their websites: research statements, teaching statements, and the like. I am guessing this is also typical of other fields, and it gives a sense of what a community thinks an attractively formatted document looks like.
You might want to poke around the Internet and find and imitate some of these. That said, as long as you keep the formatting simple, easy to read, and not distracting, I think that is sufficient.

My friend, do not worry.  As long as your SOP's styling makes it easy to read, without distracting the reader from the content of your essay, it will be fine.
It is natural for a person's anxiety level to increase at such a juncture as where you find yourself now.  Don't worry about your anxiety... but do try to find some ways to deal with it.  Get some exercise every day, and make sure you are eating in a healthy way.


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What is my graduation date?
I submitted my Master's thesis last December (2020), and it just been accepted (so in 2021), and the university will probably take many (maybe even 6) months before they actually give me the diploma (bureaucracy).
On CVs and scholarship applications, what date should I be writing? I am somewhat wary of writing 2018-2021 as it makes it look like I took 3 years, yet I want to be rigourous. What is the accepted norm for what constitutes the "end" of the degree. This is especially true if I need to write months, as putting the final diploma date would add many months.
Also, in the meanwhile until the university formally gives me the diploma, can I still say I finished the Master's as all my courses are complete and thesis accepted?

Do you literally mean get the paper in the mail when you say "give me the diploma"?

My question is : should the date I put on my CV for the end of my Master's be 1. the date of the paper in the mail 2. the date i submitted my thesis or 3. the date the thesis was accepted.

Probably none of those. When your thesis is accepted (congrats) by the dept, it probably will be a few more days until the university confers you your degree. That's not the same as getting the paper in the mail

Ask the responsible office at the university for your official date. In the US it might be called the Registrar.

In our university, degrees where conferred only at the end of the term.

For most institutions, the degree date is the day that the university actually hands out the degrees, not the date that you fulfill the requirements for the degree.
At all the universities that I am familiar with, this happens only at fixed times of year, and your degree will be on the first such date after you fulfill the requirements and submit the necessary paperwork. For example, my alma mater has three degree dates per year: people on the standard schedule graduate in June, and off-cycle graduation is offered in September and February.
I'm sure there are institutions that do not work this way, but in the US at least it seems to be fairly standard to have fixed degree dates.
In either case, you should be able to readily find this information on the webpage of your university's registrar's office or equivalent, like the pages I linked above.

I wrote in my answer some schools might award them whenever because at least for the master's I can get during my PhD, it is awarded in the next calendar month after you submit the paperwork (I just checked). But otherwise, the rigidity makes sense, because classes are only ever finished on a schedule.

My (unofficial) transcript shows this (redacted and emphasis added):

-------------- DEGREE EARNED MM/DD/YY --------------
BACHELOR OF ARTS (DEGREE)
CUM LAUDE
WITH COLLEGE HONORS IN DEGREE
UNIV:150.0 TRANSFER: 37.0 EXTENSION: 15.0 GPA: 3.83

Check your transcript (I've heard some universities don't do unofficial transcripts, so you may have to pay) for the date you should use.
As I mentioned in the comment, this is probably a few days to a week after your thesis was accepted by your department. However, some universities only confer degrees on regular dates (i.e. the first of the month) or even once a semester.
You should write whatever date your transcript says, which will be in 2021. The date the paper arrives doesn't matter at all (mine took three months).
That said, if your university is one that won't actually give you the degree until June (since your thesis was accepted in February), it would be fine to note on  your resume (if you feel it matters):

MA, Basket Weaving
Feb., 2021 (requirements met; conferred June 2021)


text:
Can I join two different research labs as a Ph.D. student?
I'm a PhD student and there are two labs that work in very similar fields, but different departments. Both look great, but I'm not sure which will benefit my research more (resources, collaboration, job opportunities, etc.).
Would you recommend I join both labs at first and then decide 1-2 years later? And, if both are really great down the road, is it okay to stick with both at the same time?
Note: I'm in social sciences. One lab in CS department and the other in Arts/Humanities department.

Does your program allow you to join two different labs? For the PhD program I was in, it was normal, expected, and supported for students to rotate among 2-4 labs during their first year and then choose one, but not every program supports this trajectory.

Good question, and I don't know ATM. One thing that I should note is that in social sciences, it isn't expected that every student should even join a lab. Finding a lab, and joining, are up to the initiative of the student. Like no professor has told me that I should find a lab as a first year student yet.

Eh, I'd suggest you look into that: "joining a lab being up to the students' initiative" and "it isn't expected that every student should even join a lab" don't necessarily go together: the first can be true even if the second is not. Ultimately, you need need need a research advisor. "Joining a lab" and choosing an advisor are ultimately the same step.

@BryanKrause: In some of the social sciences (and almost all of the humanities), research isn't organized into labs.  Many students work only with their advisor, and work in a library, an archive, or in the field, without being in a lab.

@AlexanderWoo OP still needs to choose an advisor to work with. Probably the one in CS considers their group a "lab", even if employees work in libraries, archives, and the field, rather than a proper laboratory. Maybe the one in an arts/humanities department does not consider themselves a lab, but OP's use of "lab" to describe them suggests that they do.

If your faculty advisor agrees, and your department chair agrees, and if the person or persons in each lab that you would be reporting to all agree, maybe. Do all those people agree?

@BryanKrause It is true that most social science professors don't even have a lab. They have their graduate students that they advise, but not organized in such way that other departments have their labs (with their own funding, research space, etc.). But yes, they could be the same depending on how you view it. Anyway, that is besides the point. In my case, it's a choice between two "real" labs, not a choice between 2 advisors.

@puppetsock Would you suggest talking about this to the professors heading the labs? That could be touchy... maybe something that should be avoided? But yes, talking to faculty advisor and department chair is safe.

It does require a country tag. In many this can be possible only if the two leading the labs already collaborate or start a collaboration, perhaps prompt by your ideas. Formally you might have a single supervisor, or perhaps two.

What do you mean exactly by "join a lab"? In my department, "joining a lab" is trivial; I have joined a lab and all I do is go to weekly lab meetings. There is no standard for what "joining a lab" means, which makes the answer to this question easy. However, I'm not in CS or SS; so I would like some more clarity from what's expected from you when you "join a lab" in your field(s)/department(s).

@AzorAhai--hehim As I understand it, joining a lab means that you actively participate in research activities with the PI and other graduate students. Of course, that could only mean weekly meetings. But to get the most out of it, I would become the PI's RA, and eventually him becoming my (primary) advisor). In my case, I also get an assigned office along with other members.

@juansalsa Then your question is "Can I work with two professors for a couple years before deciding who will be my primary advisor?" But your primary advisor has to be in the dept you were admitted to, no?

@AzorAhai--hehim Not necessarly. I would have to verify this, but my primary advisor may officially be in my dept, but I would be working more closely with prof. outside my dept. This could happen

@juan I mean, sure, but generally, people don't really want PhD students to only be on the dept on paper, and the other dept doesn't really want one of their professors to take on a student outside of the dept, since that takes their time away from students actually enrolled in that dept.

You did not write your country (as far as I can see) which is bad.

Generally speaking, these sorts of relationships are encouraged. People like to see collaboration, not only from a scientific perspective, but from a networking and professional development standpoint.
Usually, nothing is needed to join a lab, other than a willingness on your part to participate. If you want a mentor-mentee relationship with an advisor who is not in your department (i.e. the department you were admitted to), that is something you will have to negotiate with them. As I mentioned in the comments, students in the advisor's own department are their first priority for mentorship and time.
You say in the comments:

I would have to verify this, but my primary advisor may officially be in my dept, but I would be working more closely with prof. outside my dept.

While possible, I just want to warn you that this is probably not the most likely outcome, although it's possible standards in your fields may be more permissible.
You should also keep in mind obligations to your home department. If you are funded on an RAship (or an internal fellowship, likely), then you are expected to devote 20 hours/week to your funder's lab, not leaving you much time to work for the other advisor. Of course, the other advisor may fund you, but again, it is probably hard to devote a line of funding to a student outside of the department. Your primary advisor may make your duties including working for the other professor, but I can't tell you how likely that is.
If you are on an external fellowship, your time is much more flexible.
Tl;dr: Having a primary mentor outside of your home department is probably not likely, but a good mentor would help you arrange something to the best of their ability, as long as you are a good communicator with all three parties.


text:
Reviewers had questions about why my supervisor wasn't on manuscript
I completed my MS by research under a supervisor. There was considerable delay in completing because my supervisor suddenly lost interest in research midway through my program. I had sent him a research paper for his comments but even after several reminders, he did not show interest in looking at the paper. After graduating from the program, I decided to send it to a journal myself. I sought permission from my supervisor and he was ok with it. Since he had not reviewed it, he said he could send it without including his name as one of the authors. So, I had acknowledged his guidance in the paper in the acknowledgement section. I had sent the paper and now, in the reviewer comments, one of the reviewers has asked about not adding the supervisor's name in the author list (it was listed under minor comments). I'm not sure how to respond to this question. Right now, I'm not exactly on speaking terms with my supervisor. Can anyone please help me?

I think the reviewer has been unprofessional.  The rank of the authors is not something that should be reviewed.

Just reply with the facts: Explain that your supervisor was offered coauthorship, but has chosen not to be a coauthor of the paper.  (If you feel you want to elabore why - e.g. since he felt he did not contribute sufficiently to the paper, or the like - feel free to do so.)
Especially if this is listed under minor comments, take it as such.
In any case, it is generally not up to the referee to judge who should be a coauthor of a paper. What can be demanded is that you offer coauthorships to anyone who made a significant enough contribution to the paper. As long as you did that, you are fine.

I doubt that it even needs a reply, actually. If the author and advisor are happy, the reviewer is just making a comment, perhaps from the perspective of a slightly different field. But the reply is fine. Adding the advisor to make a reviewer happy is (much) less fine.

Indeed, there is no reason to reply this to the referee, it is completely fine to write this to the editor.

If I was the reviewer I would like to be reassured that the absence of the supervisor as coauthor is not due to some kind of bad academic practice, causing him/her not wanting to be associated with the paper. So yes, reply with the facts.

I would not elaborate why or any details. Just an "While Prof X was, as acknowledged involved in the project an later alignment with him about the contributions to this specific paper resulted in the current list of authors."

I would just write that the advisor was not interested in this work and maybe attach a screenshot of the email where he said that he is not interested in being included and that he is OK to submit on your own. That is only if the email does not have any other confidential info.

Could the wording of your 'acknowledgement' be misunderstood as implying your supervisor's contribution to be commensurate with that of a co-author?
You should take a 2nd look at your acknowledgements section, where you have "acknowledged his guidance". It is possible that the reviewer got the impression, from reading this 'acknowledgement', that your supervisor may have made an author-level contribution.
Without seeing the actual text of your 'acknowledgement', I cannot comment on whether it is clear enough. However, if you have not already done so, you may wish to clarify the 'acknowledgement', for example by saying something like:

"Although Prof. X was not involved in writing this paper, his/her general guidance helped inspire my research into ..."
"Whilst Prof. X was not involved directly in the research presented in this paper, he/she played an important role in my development as a researcher in this field."
"Unfortunately, we could not find the time to collaborate on this research, but I am very grateful to Prof. X for his/her guidance during my Master's studies, which enabled me to pursue this research independently."
"This paper is inspired by, but separate from, research I had conducted under Prof. X, whose guidance at that time gave great impetus to my development as a researcher. Regrettably, Prof. X was unavailable to collaborate on the research presented in this paper."

[sections in bold denote the sections that clarify Prof. X is not an author; these are illustrative examples, designed to demonstrate that Prof. X's involvement was limited, but presenting his/her guidance in a positive light; before using/adapting any of these examples, please consider carefully whether they describe your situation accurately]

Those suggestions are rude.

Indeed.  @anon: Do you have an example of any paper with such or similar acknowlegements?

@AnonymousPhysicist We obviously have very different concepts of 'rude' (possibly because we are in different parts of the world? I am writing from a UK perspective); the examples I give are specifically pitched to be clear and factual, whilst not implying lack of interest on the part of Prof. X.

"pitched to be clear and factual" You didn't succeed there.

@AnonymousPhysicist Hi AnonymousPhysicist, if you have time, would you mind give some further comment on why "pitched to be clear and factual" is bad? Many thanks in advance.


text:
ArXiv submission on hold for 11 days. Should I inquire via moderation support or wait longer?
I submitted my paper to arXiv on June 28th. The status changed from “processing” to “submitted” that same day, and then to “on hold” the next day.
While on hold, the primary category changed to “None” and what I had originally selected for the primary category is now in the cross listed categories. I realize now that the category I selected may not be the best choice, but I am unable to update the category while on hold.
This is a time-sensitive paper. Should I contact support or continue waiting? I am considering sending an inquiry message to moderation user support, but I've read inquiring about 'on hold' status can trigger a rejection.

This question is similar to: Submission on hold on arxiv. If you believe it’s different, please edit the question, make it clear how it’s different and/or how the answers on that question are not helpful for your problem.

I know of a paper that had been on hold for several weeks before the process became slower in mid-2022. An author contacted arXiv moderation, arXiv moderation reminded the responsible moderators, and the problem got resolved shortly after that. I don't know whether the author's message triggered the reminder and the reminder triggered the resolution.

Update: it got posted 17 days after submission!

@dlnB did you contact arXiv? or just waited?

I played it safe and just waited

Searching this site: https://academia.stackexchange.com/search?q=arxiv+on+hold
suggests to me that it's not unusual to be in the "on hold" state for several weeks. It's not really arXiv's business what your deadline is or the time sensitivity. You can make the paper available through whatever other means are available to you in the meantime for most purposes.
If you're wanting it to be on arXiv because you perceive something on arXiv has having more legitimacy than something posted on, say, your personal website, well, their review process is really the only thing to justify that with, so you might as well be patient and let the review run its course.

Valid point. Really appreciate your answer!

Several weeks seems to be the reality in some cases, but the arXiv website says "several days" here, so contacting them after more than several days seems okay.


text:
How does semantic scholar extract topics?
I am looking for detailed information about how S2 extracts topics from documents. The only information I have found is this, from the FAQ page:
"We use machine language techniques to analyze publications and extract topic keywords that balance diversity, relevance and coverage relative to our corpus."
This sounds similar to TF-IDF, but I would like to know the specifics of their extraction procedure.
Another question I have is how S2 relates the topics. When you click on a topic there is a sidebar showing related topics and also narrower and broader topics. Is there any information on how these relations were discovered, and is it possible to retrieve them?
Thank you in advance.
Kind regards,
Carlos

I imagine the methods used are a proprietary blend of standard statistical learning and machine learning algorithms. As a small taste, if you haven't seen it already, have a look at probabilistic latent semantic indexing and its partner latent Dirichlet allocation. Both attempt to discover topics. As far as how topics are related to each other, probably a mixture of manual and mining. Maybe not what you're asking for, but maybe of some help anyway.


text:
Is it appropriate to write the summary of an online course on my website?
I am doing a few courses on Coursera and youtube, while watching the lectures I usually take some notes, adding extra explanations and examples on things that I found difficult to understand. Now, I am thinking that I can clean them up a little and post them on my website, but I don't know if that would be considered plagiarism or otherwise inappropriate.
If I do post anything I will properly cite the course I am referring to and not post any quiz/assignment questions or answers, but also I won't really be adding any original work of my own, just a condensed summary and maybe some additional examples that I found useful from other sources.
Would something like that be a good idea?

Is your question more about "aiding" the plagiarism of others rather than plagiarism on your part?

I think the question would be more about potential copyright issues rather than plagiarism. If you are transcribing complete lectures, for instance.

As long as you have appropriately cited the original sources, it is not plagiarism. You are allowed to write about topics that others have already written about.
This seems like a fine idea to me.

Reposting something very similar to the original content (e.g. summary notes they provide you) is probably where you want to draw the line. If you are adding your own notes/content/work, including effort to further clarify or distill information, I don't see an ethical problem. Worst case, your blog is so popular they request you remove the content.


text:
Including photo and social links in academic cv
I am applying for MS programs in the US, and I'm wondering if I should include my photograph in the CV.
According to this post one should never include photos because of anti-discrimination laws. But my CV would also include links to my linkedin, github and my website, all of which have my photo. Should I not include these links as well?

It’s fine to include professional links - linkedin, github and your website are certainly examples of those kinds of things that are more than okay to include. I wouldn’t refer to these as social links though. And I wouldn’t include actual social links (Facebook etc).

Personally, I would leave out any link that has photos of you, or take down the photos temporarily.

Don't include the photo.
Yes, it's possible to figure out on the internet what you look like. But one would still have to figure it out. By including a photo, you make it impossible not to know how you look.
If in doubt, always follow the customs of the place where you apply.
As per the question, this answer applies mainly to the US.

I would omit a photo even in countries where adding a photo the CV is a common practice.

@Jake for "international" applications this might be safe, as customs in some countries are converging on the US. But that would be a separate question.

In the US, none of those things should be considered in an application. It is your academic record, perhaps a statement of purpose, and letters of recommendation that will be determinative.
I suggest leaving out everything that is irrelevant. Even a link to your linkedIn profile is noise. The other things (personal website...) are fine if they contain relevant things, such as papers and projects you have worked on.
But if someone needs to go to the web for needed information, you are doing yourself no favors.

If you get an invitation for an interview soon, it's likely to be virtual due to COVID, so they will likely find out what you look like soon enough. It also seems to me that there are some European countries that do this, so their applicants also do. I say "seems" due having virtually no US-based applicants who have ever included a head-shot. Thus, I agree with those who say to leave it out of your application. Lots of people in the US will find in strange and maybe off-putting. It gives a further chance for implicit bias, and perhaps even explicit bias that will never be detected. They will get their chance to see you when you give your job talk/virtual interview.

Perhaps the bias could even be rejecting the application because it has links to sites that could be sources of bias, and the institution wants to avoid even the appearance of bias.

@jamesqf that seems hypothetically possible but would be considered extreme (even ridiculous) at any institution where I've been involved in application screening/hiring processes. "Off-putting" seems like enough reason not to do it.


text:
Is Harvard style used in business?
Most websites mention that APA is preferred for the business and management disciplines, and resources regarding Harvard as not as widespread as APA.

Speaking as a researcher working in industry, I have seen no particular pattern in the citation style used by people working in corporations.  It tends to default into whatever they are used to, whatever comes most easily to them, whatever their citation manager happens to be set on, whatever arbitrary thing corporate policy has settled upon, or whatever arbitrary thing is being required by the external organization they are interacting with (just like inside of academia).

Alright. There seems to also be an issue with the usage of 'ibid.'. In APA and as far as I know, it is not used. However, it is still used in the more general 'author-date' citation style (i.e. Harvard?), what do you think? I want to be able to combine Harvard style (not APA) + ibid. usage (since I tend to overcite).

@R.AS. Who are you writing the document for?  If it's just for yourself, you can do whatever you want. If you want truly compact citation, though, I recommend a style like IEEE.

University assignments between essays and the upcoming master's thesis. Frankly, I don't have much time to learn a new style now (at least before my master's thesis writing) so I want to finish whatever essays due now using the style I mastered and memorized well (i.e. Harvard), it's just that most online sites recommend APA for business instead of Harvard (and the usage of ibid. is acceptable in the latter) so I don't want to be in a position in the future where someone says: 'oh you used Harvard in your business studies, it isn't acceptable, you should have used APA'.

@R.AS. If your school doesn't care what format you use, I would recommend simply using what you are most comfortable and happy with.  It would be an unusually detail-oriented and picky person who would even notice that in your record when you are applying for positions, let alone care.

@R.AS., why are you doing your references by hand? This is a place where a citation manager (EndNote, BibTeX, etc) comes in handy. They handle the formatting both of the citation in the text and at the end or as a footnote through formulas that understand and can format to the proper style for each set of formatting guidelines (like Harvard or APA). They even let you switch at will.

@Jakebeal but technically speaking, can Harvard be used for business studies? I mean, it's the 'general' form of author-date referencing style and since APA is a variant of it and used in business, therefore Harvard can be used, is my logic in place?

@BillBarth I am not sure, I just like to handle my stuff manually since I am too picky about details, is that a poor (or inefficient) practice?

@R.AS., I think so, but I've never seen BibTeX, my personal choice, and LaTeX get a citation really, really, horribly wrong, nor have I had a paper returned by a journal for my citations not matching their in-house style.


text:
How to cite a course overview note?
I am summarizing a course overview note which includes some useful information about digital marketing. The thing is, there's a endnote that clearly says that the course was prepared by professor X and professor Y. However, another endnote says that this 'course overview note' (the note itself) was prepared by professor Z. There are no citations in the note except for further suggested readings and a few explicit ones.
So when I am summarizing the ideas, should I cite them as: (Professor Z 2013) or always refer to (Professor X & Professor Y 2013)? Note that I, obviously, don't have access to the original course material itself.
Edit: Author of the note says: 'while maintaining many concepts and cases, this note provides an alternative structure and view of the set of frameworks to their original course'. However, it isn't clear where his ideas start and end, and where their original ideas do so.

Anyone to help?

Since the course overview note is credited to Professor Z, that's who I'd cite. But you could include all the authors in the citation itself if you liked, for example:

Professor Z (2013) Title of the Course Notes. Distributed as part of the course materials for DEPT304 Course Title in Fall 2013, a course developed by Professors X and Y at the University of Hishouse. Available online at http://example.org/.

Of course, it would be ideal if you could find a more widely available source for this information; it might be hard for your readers to track down this one course overview note, but if you could find the same information in a textbook or a review article and cite that instead, I think that would make their job a lot easier!

Thanks for the comment. I already stated in the intro. that the course was prepared by X & Y and the course note itself was developed by Z. The note is a Harvard Business Paper so I think it's widely available, yet for a paid access. Anyway, its availability doesn't really matter since the instructor gave the paper for me only to prepare it for his class discussion.