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In an English work, can a non-English source be cited even if there exists an English translation?
I'm not a native English speaker. I would like to cite a book originally written in German for a writing sample to be sent for admission purposes to a graduate school in the UK (MA programme).
There are at least two translations of said work: Romanian and English. I have read the Romanian translation, not the English one, because it was far more convenient to do so. Naturally I translated the Romanian passages to English and cited them appropriately, but the citations are based on the Romanian translation (e. g. I have cited a passage to be found on page 52 of the Romanian translation).
Is it a problem that instead of citing the English version of the book, I have cited and translated the Romanian version? I'm afraid so, because the reviewers probably don't speak Romanian, therefore they can't check whether the cited passage is REALLY there in the Romanian translation or I just made up the whole thing. Plus they might think I'm lazy.
If this is indeed a problem, I have to find all of these passages - which I have originally read in Romanian - in the English translation and rewrite all footnotes, bibliography etc. (e.g. the passage which is located on page 52 in the Romanian translation might be located in a different place, say page 63 in the English translation).

There are two things to address here. First, relax. The exact sources you are citing in a writing sample for an MA program are NOT what the admissions decision will be based on. It is unlikely anyone is going to check up on your citations and even if they do, they are not going to care.
The second thing is, it is generally best to use the original, untranslated source. When the original source is not in a language you are proficient in, using a translation is reasonable. If you are writing in English and need to use a translation, then using the English translation is best, unless there is a compelling reason not to. In the future, you may want to work with English translations, but again for a writing sample, no one is going to care.

+1 The "compelling reason" could be, for instance, that while B is a translation of A, the contents of A and B differ significantly.

I often see papers written in English citing some old papers written in German. I think it would much better if the author were to cite both the original paper and its tranlation that they used.

There are two issues here: what the ethical requirements are, and what will annoy readers.
Ethically, you have to make your citations clear and correct.  If your information and page numbers come from the Romanian translation, then you need to indicate this explicitly.  (The page numbers and even the details of the content could vary between translations.)  As long as you do that, using the Romanian translation would be eccentric but not unethical.
On the other hand, it will almost certainly annoy your readers, given that you aren't writing for an audience you expect to have a special interest in the Romanian translation.  You are making it much more painful for readers to learn anything from your citations, which can give a bad impression (like you don't care about your readers or don't expect anyone to ever want to look up these references).
Updating the references sounds like a pain, but it is worth doing if you can.  If you can't do this before submitting your writing sample, then I would append a brief explanation/excuse.  For example, you could explain that you wrote this paper for a Romanian audience and don't have the English translation available to update the references.  This wouldn't give a great impression, but at least it makes it clear that you realize this is unusual and would fix it if you could.

If I correctly understand your question, you are including, in your writing sample, your own English translations of the Romanian translation of the original German book. As far as I know, that's fine, provided you make it clear that this is what you've done.  For example, cite the original German book and its Romanian translation, and add that your translation is based on the latter.
Anonymous Mathematician said that this will make it much more painful for your readers to learn anything from your citations, and that's probably true, but I don't think the purpose of these citations is for the readers to learn anything. They will learn from your English translations.  The purpose of the citations is to give proper credit to the author and the translator, and also to insulate you from blame if the Romanian translation that you used turns out to be inaccurate.

There are two general answers that are quite good.
I want to add a more specialized answer. In philosophy done in English, there is often a standard academic translation that is used. For instance, the academic version of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit was up until very recently AV Miller.
If you are trying to publish a paper or publish with a legitimate press in philosophy in English, you would generally cite the most common translation and its pagination. For things with an academic edition in their original language (like Kant), you cite that pagination. In either case, you can amend the translation if you can do it better or to highlight something you argue for ...
That being said, this would not matter at the point of applying to an MA program and would probably not matter much in courses in MA programs or PhD programs even in philosophy in the US.

If you are basing your argument on having read a translation from langauge O into language X, which you then translated into language Y, you should cite the translation into language X (and the original publication into language O), notwithstanding the fact that a published translation into language Y exists. This is because there will be differences between your translation from O to Y via X and the published translation from O to Y. The point of citation is to show transparently your basis for arriving at a given argument/conclusion.

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How can I zip and share my files in my Mendeley favorite
My professor asked me to send the pdf files of my articles. However, I have about 80 articles in my Mendely favorites. The pdf files are on my PC but in different folders. I would like to know if there is any way to select them all, then zip all the physical files, or export or copy them to a folder, or any method so that I can have them together. The other option could be synching them with the Web; however, I don't know how then I can share the link of them to the prof. I prefer to have the pdf files in a folder.

do a command line copy that finds all pdfs and puts them into one folder, then zips them.

Meta discussion: Technical support: rational vs emotion

It's possible in new versions of Mendeley (Currently version 1.19.4). Then:

Select all documents in favorites (Right click and click select all)
Then right click and from context Menue (or click File) and select Export PDF(s) with Annotations
It will ask you to save them in a new folder.

If you choose to sync with the web, there will be a way to set up a "group collection" or similar and share it with your professor (I'm afraid I don't remember the exact names of things, as I stopped using Mendeley many years ago). This will require your professor to also have a Mendeley account.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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How to contact the professor again?
I have applied to a university for Research Masters. Following application, I contacted the Professor I had listed on my application and told him about my research and profile. He asked me to send him my Research paper and after going through it, he contacted me again to ask about if I have a valid TOEFL and References etc. After the initial conversation of 5 emails, he hasn't contacted me again and its been 20 days.
Should I contact him or wait? I am confused about what could be the best way of contacting him again.

Try to send a more concise email, a professor must be really busy and they receive a lot of emails. For me, sending 5 emails is really a lot.

Also you need to give more details about those 5 emails, are they thoughtful and concise? or just simple chat? do you feel the prof. is bothered by your email?

He is a human being, and may have gotten quite busy and is unable to answer your emails. Or, he might be arguing your admissions case. Or he might be waiting to see if research funding is granted to support your candidacy.  You might just write a polite email saying that you are touching base, and were curious if there was an update or "no news yet" on your application.  He probably can't answer acceptance questions until all the acceptances are decided.

@azer89 What I meant was that there were 5 emails in total. 3 mine 2 his. After my first email, he replied and requested my paper. Then he replied again after going through my paper (presumably) and asked if I had TOEFL and References, which I provided. I then didn't write again.

@magi182 That's what I was thinking that he may be busy. I just am not sure about how long should I wait before asking anything about my case.

I think you are OK, don't worry about that. My adviser even rarely replies my email. Good luck.

I am a graduate student, though I am not getting a research masters. However, what I would do is this:
In most cases, it is a board of admissions counselors made up of multiple professors and maybe some administrative positions that will be making the decision as to whether to accept you or not. So, in that case it means that the decision to admit you into the Research Masters program would likely not lie solely on the one professor that you have listed on the application. So what I would do is contact the main office of the department that heads the research masters program that you have applied to and tell them something like
"Hello, my name is _____. I would like to check on the status of my application. I have been in contact with professor _____ but I know that he is busy so I wanted to check with you all to make sure that you have everything that you need from me and to see when I can expect a decision to be made pertaining to my acceptance.
Sometimes calling and speaking to someone directly will get you a lot further than an e-mail, so you might need to try this method.
I hope this helps!

Yes, it's been more than enough time to reach out and start the conversation up again.  The trick is to be persistent, not pushy.

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Can committees see the list of all recipients when I send them my GRE score?
When I send out my GRE record to universities, can they see the list of all recipients? I generated a PDF version of my GRE record by clicking the print button, it actually shows the recipient list. Can all the recipients see that? I think that information is supposed to be private.

I have called GRE and they say the score recipient list is for my reference only.

In the past, at least, the default seemed to be that the list of all recipients showed up on the form of the records sent to graduate programs. I know this because I was/am on admissions committees and saw such information. On another hand, I do also know that it is possible to suppress it, since in recent years most GRE reports seem not to show this to admissions committees.
Unfortunately, I do not know how the examinee arranges to suppress that information. It certainly is not done automatically, despite the obvious point that it should be private.

You can suppress the recipient information by editing the HTML file that you use to print GRE reports.


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I feel burned out after finishing my master. Should I take year off before the PhD?
I'm in the second year of a master's program and I'm considering taking a year off before doing a PhD. I am excited to do a PhD and have some idea of what I want to research, but I am not sure if jumping right into it would be beneficial. The main reason is, simply, I've been in school my whole life and have felt pretty burnt out at times in the master's. I'm not sure I could start the coursework/proposal/thesis process all over again right after finishing my master's. The second reason is I'm switching to a new discipline (but still in the social sciences) and feel that a year of independent reading to acclimatize myself to the discipline would be beneficial, without the pressure of constant deadlines and assignments.
Are these justifiable reasons for taking the year off, or should I just jump into the PhD? I'd hopefully be working full time, working on applications for universities and scholarships, and reading lots. I'm also a bit concerned with funding - would scholarship committees be more skeptical of applicants who take a year off before the PhD?

I personally took 2 years off before starting PhD. Got married and travelled extensively during the period. Didn't regret my decision!

These are completely valid and justifiable reasons - and if you're here posing this question, then yes it is completely applicable and I think you should take a year off. Get some rest, but not for too long, remember to keep up motivation for self-guided learning, have fun. Whatever you do make sure you make the most of it.

Yeah this sounds completely reasonable. Also, a well-posed question. Nice one!

Am finishing my masters this December but following your reasons, i personally have to take a year off . I am behind you. Its reasonable am sure

I would definitely advise taking a year off if you indeed feel as you've described. Burnouts are common and costly, and you might want to prevent one at all costs. There is nothing wrong with taking a break. Even though in academia it's sort of subliminally assumed that you're going to sacrifice your life, sanity and your unborn children to research, there really is nothing bad to say "hey, I need some time to myself." And no one is going to care, least of all admissions committees. You can even turn this break to your advantage by doing some volunteer work, or part-time research work. Seriously.
Personally, I spent 5 years doing undergrad in psych, then 2 years doing a Master's and by the time I finished my first year of PhD in clinical psychology I was so burned out after 8 years of post-secondary education and 5 years of constant academic research that I crashed & burned and dropped out of the PhD. Periods of rest are conducive to general sanity. Best of luck.


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My first article got major revision
It is my first article ever in this field. I submited it to a high impact journal last year and just got the decision today -- acceptance with major revision. I have no idea whether this bad or not. One of reviewers sounds unreasonable while the other was asking relatively good questions. Can someone explain to me what to do, my co authors honestly did not believe in the idea of the paper and called it bullshit on multiple occassion .

Does this answer your question? How to review a major revision of a paper?

Just to the coauthor thing, which sounds concerning: be certain that all your coauthors made sufficient intellectual contributions to the paper, that they all consented to the original submission, and that they all consent to the revised version that you resubmit.  And you may want to rethink whether to continue working with these people on future projects.

As I said comment below they agree to submit didnot force them but one of them who is really very toxic. It is out of question they agreed for both. For the record they never contributed intellectually in the study and considered risky however they for sure reviewed before submission which they are credited for. Mainly in their perspective it is a risky idea and other find BS idea. I read reviewer comment I think both said the study is interesting as it is one of the reviewer has no much experience the other was way more interesting.

Congratulations. If they give you major revision, you have to revise the paper thoroughly. While they are in their rights to reject the revision, this is now somewhat unlikely, unless, of course, you do not do the work on the revision. Pay attention to all the reviewers comments and suggestions. You usually have to provide an additional paper on how you addressed them.

There is a strange double message here.
First: acceptance with a major revision is a good thing. It's an acceptance.
In response to

One of reviewers sounds unreasonable while the other was asking
relatively good questions.

you pay attention to both reveiwers. Read the "unreasonable" one's comments carefully. Put your prejudice aside and think about whether what they say is sometimes reasonable.
When you send your revision to the editor, explain which suggested changes you accepted, and which you rejected (and why).
But

my co authors honestly did not believe in the idea of the paper and
called it bullshit on multiple occassion

is weird and raises several questions.  Why did they think so? Why did they agree to submit that work? Might the unreasonable reviewer be right? Are they willing to work on the major revision?
Answers to those questions might affect your decision about what to do next.

I can answer the last question they agreed to submit and I didnot force them one of them  never understood and doubt what I am doing and the other one is kind of jealousy and belittling me since both of them considered it is a risky idea, so I understand their motivation one of them is quite fine and told me work on the comments.

For the unreasonable reviewer one there is no really so much interesting arguments like reviewer one which was really intriguing and they seem working in the field. In fact, I said that since they refered to certain animals names I mentioned in the paper, if they were authors and make agreement which is ridiculous and funny and for sure this is unacceptable. Plus I recognize they never worked in this area based on their questions

First, it's concerning your co-authors didn't support the idea of the paper. It makes it sound like you wrote the paper alone.
As for your major revisions question, most papers require revisions after you submit it to a journal. Some papers require minor revisions (e.g. like graphs, tables, or grammatical fixes)
Major revisions refer to the claims you made in the paper. Meaning, your paper looks promising, but your claims are so big that you must support them more thoroughly.
For example, perhaps you made very big claims, but you didn't provide sufficient information/data/stats/equations to support your claims.

Yes I wrote the paper as idea online and they review generic stuff but they always didnot like me and my ideas also the response I got discouraging as they were expect rejection. Anyway, I am working on comments I am afraid I need this to be accepted. Should I only quote their comments or change the whole paper?

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My university is listed on Anabin as H+ but my degree is not listed
I already submitted my application to a MSc in Germany. Today I received an e-mail from the university telling me that they can not find my degree in the database in Anabin, so they cannot know if my degree applies to de MSc. They sent a request to the KMK (Kultusministerkonferenz), but I do not know if I should make a request, too or if there is anything else I should or can do?


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How to get projects under professors as a undergraduate?
I am about to enter into the 3rd year of college. I am pursuing a physics major, and I want to do some kind of project work under some professor. The problem is, we have been taught only about basics of quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics so I really don't know what professor to approach. I also want to read research papers so to understand some field but the problem is I don't know where to start.

It's okay to pick a professor at random.  Just make sure you know what they work on before you contact them.

I am a professor of physics in the United States, and often get asked this question.  If you are looking for research experience in your department, you should write up a short document that includes

Your contact information!
A list of your skills - programming, soldering, 3D-printing, whatever you bring to the table.
A statement of what sort of research you are looking for: theory or experiment,  how many hours a week, and whether or not you need to be paid for the work.
A list your classes (you don't have to list grades or GPA).

As an instructor, if a student gave me such a document I would then shop them around to faculty who I knew worked well with undergraduates.  If you don't have a faculty contact you can send individual emails, or put paper (!) copies in mailboxes of faculty members.  Talk to seniors and graduate students to find out leads on who is a good mentor, and make an appointment to talk that professor about research.
Second, in the US, look for opportunities for Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) programs across the country.   These summer programs take in students who have finished their Sophomore or Junior year and pay them to do research on-site. The National Science Foundation runs a bunch of them; as do other agencies.
Finally, in my experience professors understand that most undergraduates are not ready to step into state-of-the-art research, but still can contribute substantively to the research effort.  We often view working with undergraduates as part of our broader effort of teaching. Some granting agencies view including undergraduates in research an important broader impact of the projects they choose to fund.   In addition, many undergraduates can do publishable research and I've published with some.
Good luck!

I do my doctoral degree and I work a lot with undergraduate students. I think the best way is to get in touch with the PhD students and ask them if they need help.
I teach my undergraduate students the stuff my dissertation is about and they take measurements and little projects for my. For sure, in agreement with the professor. But I leand the PhD candidate is a good address to get in to touch with the working area you are interested in.

@Lacek Well, this is what I meant with teaching them. For sure, undergraduates have not much knowledge about it. But if you explain the basics in maybe a week or two, you take also the benefit when the student can help you during your thesis.

I hope there is some professor of Physics that recognizes and respects you. Even better if you have spoken with them in the past. But it doesn't really matter what their specialty is at this stage. Talk to them about what you'd like to do and ask if they, or a colleague they can recommend, would guide you in some project.
If they don't feel able to do it themself, then it would be good if they would interface for you with another faculty member, giving some informal recommendation.
But, since you are just getting started, your research/reading need not be at an exceptionally high level. You need the basics, as you recognize, to get going. Deep study can come later.


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Does the theme and field of activity in the process of working on PhD give freedom or impose more restrictions?
I was thinking about what kind of future a person can build who has gone through the defense of a dissertation and received a PhD.
On this part of the path, the young scientist managed to work in some narrowly focused industry, deeply studied a special problem, delved into the peculiarities of the scientific community in the specialty in which they are defending their dissertation.
And I had a question: is the PhD degree, which is associated with a narrow topic, with a narrow field of activity, with a narrow specialization, a "stigma for your entire professional life" or, most importantly, "you received a PhD and, hopefully, managed to see the bridges between your work and other areas where your knowledge and results can be useful?"
Suppose a person has a master's degree in robotics, actively uses this knowledge in writing a dissertation, but the final result solves a narrow problem in the field of energy. Accordingly, the applicant defends their dissertation in the community of power engineers, and not robotics.
It turns out that a person is now always connected with energy (for example, with solar power plants) and will not be able to work in the field of robotics? Or, after the defense, can they switch their interests from solar power plants to robotic spacecraft systems?
I really lack clarity on this issue, because it is sometimes very difficult to predict events over an interval of 2-3 years, as well as a change in scientific interests, and I am afraid that PhD can put an end to the choice of a further professional path.

Is this community wiki question helpful? https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/187461/how-can-i-switch-from-field-x-to-field-y-after-getting-my-phd

@Lodinn Yes, the link contains useful information and brings some clarity.

No, there is nothing necessarily limiting to doing a dissertation in a narrow topic. That is, no external limits, though a person has, for the moment, taught themself to focus on a small part of a broad canvas.
It is common, nearly universal, for people to migrate their interests over their career. Even a new faculty member facing a tenure review in a few years can move to another area, though it is easiest to move to a related one, or possibly one where the current faculty has a lot of interest and expertise.
I personally wandered through a lot of the computing landscape from language implementation to databases to human factors, etc.
Moreover, in some fields you are almost forced to move as the landscape changes. Some specialties become very mature and the opportunities for innovative research become fewer. Fewer people work in some specialties in favor of others with better opportunities.
A doctorate teaches you to do research and to think in a certain way about extending knowledge. It isn't limiting unless you make it so. It gives you skills to explore new worlds, not boundaries to force you into old ones.

https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/197202/continue-or-turn-the-page-and-move-on


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Getting a job in Germany as a fresh university graduate (Bachelor of Arts - Anglistics)
everyone!
My wife and I just recently moved to Germany (November last year) from Serbia and ever since then, we've been on the hunt for new opportunities!
My wife pretty easily got through the Annerkennung process for her field (Health Industry) after having completed a couple of courses and done a couple of translations of her degree.
I'm a fresh graduate, have completed a BA in English Language and literature and I'm due to have my degree recognized here. After contacting the relevant office for my region, I've been told that I need the following:

C2 level of German language
Translation of all of my degrees, verified by the competent authority
Description and grades from all the courses taken.

(This may or may not be 100% true, since the site I've been referred to from the office for this information didn't work at the time of posting this question, so I just typed everything as I remember seeing it)
My questions are, to anyone that's gone through this process or has any experience in the same field:

What comes next after obtaining C2 in German language? This is an extremely high bar to reach, so I've asked, emailed and contacted numerous institutions and people, and I've been getting totally different information about this for months now. Are there any additional exams, schooling?

Is it worth it? This is a controversial question, but since getting vague answers from so many people and not seeing many ads for a position of a teacher/professor at schools or private institutions, one asks himself if his degree holds any value at all. Reaching C2 in any language can be extremely challenging and time consuming. By this, I mean, is the W-scale reserved for the PhD holders only? If so, what can a fresh graduate hope for, in terms of pay and job availability?

Which job can one hope for? Usually, bachelor degree holders can work as a freelance contractors, but I'm specifically referring to the full-time (Vollzeit) job availability. Elementary schools, high schools, translators?

Another thing that I should mention is that I've taken a course a while back (as a plan B) in web development (unfortunately, haven't finished it due to the lack of funds) and I'm asking if I should switch careers if it proves that this whole process is just simply not worth it.
I apologize for the lengthy first post, I wish you all a wonderful weekend and thank you for all the helpful answers!
Best regards,
Nemanja

Can you please clarify a bit? Are you asking about getting into a PhD programme? If you are asking more generally about getting a non academic job in Germany, this is not the right place to ask since we're focused on academia here.

What exactly do you need the C2 for? To get your degree recognized? That doesn't seem right. To get a job? That would depend on the job, wouldn't it? Not all jobs require C2. It this for a specific job? If so, which kind?

@NemanjaRitan A job in academia? If not, this is not the right place to ask.

@GrotesqueSI, Not a problem, I'll clarify a bit. I'm interested in landing a job here (Germany) Since I'm unable to work in schools and my application receives an auto deny (since my bachelors degree is from the third world countries (Serbia)), I have to "equalize" it or have it go through Annerkenung process to be equal to a German one.

@Sursula-they- I'll include a short transcript here from the email from the Annerkenung office:
"Ich weise darauf hin, dass eine Antragstellung bei mir ohne Nachweis über C 2-Deutschkenntnisse nicht möglich ist." That is ONLY for my degree to be recognized in DE.
I'm specifically asking about job opportunities (does an English professor in Germany have any) and similar experiences with people that completed the studies outside of the EU, gone through the Annerkenung process, that had success finding a job in their field in Germany.

@NemanjaRitan From the website is seems that you are trying to get Anerkennung for Lehramt, not for your degree in general. The difference is, recognizing a degree from another country and recognizing this degree qualifies you to be a teacher. In Germany, just because you studied math, you cannot be a math teacher, the same goes for any other subject. You have to study to become a teacher. And to be a teacher (at a German school), you need to speak German (C2).

@Sursula-they- Thank you for the clarification! Makes sense, since this degree qualifies me for a teaching position in schools or private institutions in my home country without additional training and/or qualifications.

I don't think this is the right place to ask; it would be the right place to ask only if you were asking about qualifying for a job (or graduate admissions) at a university (or other institution of higher education)

I agree with the others, unfortunately. Our role is to answer questions about "academia," which we define as post-graduate degrees and academic careers (research, teaching college, etc.). Jobs as a schoolteacher, web developer, or translator are outside of our purview; we simply don't have expertise to share with you. Your questions about getting Germany to recognize your degree (and whether C2 is needed for this) may be something we can help with; if we haven't already addressed that question, feel free to repost that one separately.

I can answer some aspects of your question:

Having a degree in a subject that is also taught in schools does not (automatically) qualify you to teach in Germany. Here, you normally study those subjects in a special teacher path ("auf Lehramt") that will include some teaching skills in the curriculum.
a BA degree alone is normally not enough in Germany to become a teacher, you will need a MA as well (and a learning period at a school afterward called "Referendariat")
if you plan on working as a teacher, you should consider a MA together with a German course to reach C2 level
teaching at schools and teaching at universities are two completely different things. W stage is only for university professors, and you will need at least a PhD (and a MA before the PhD) and in most cases also another qualification called "Habilitation"
teachers are payed according to TvöD, at elementary schools typically at E11 and at secondary schools E13. In some Bundesländer, you will get "verbeamted" when becoming a teacher.
If you don't want to work as an official teacher at a school, I highly, highly doubt that you will need a C2 level of German just to get your degree officially recognized. But you will need to go somewhere else to to that than the place that only focuses on teachers (the link you provided). See here for more info.
in some places (like Berlin), you might be able to become a teacher (C2 will still apply!!) without going the official BA-MA-Referendariat route as a so called "Quereinsteiger", but as far as I know that only works if you have a masters (and they will only take you if they don't have any regular teachers to employ, most Quereinsteiger are from STEM subjects)

Aren't teachers typically "Beamte", rather than being paid according to TVöD? Also, it might be worth mentioning that even with a full teacher's education from abroad, you might still have to go through the Referendariat (in fact, this might even be the case if you move between different German states.)


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Submitting a trivial correction to a CS assignment/coursework (i.e. source code)
I am a University student.
I had some course work which I had to submit. This work is a computer program, a very large codebase. Due to technical reasons, which are entirely my fault, I submitted the work but there were some very minor mistakes: I forgot to upload a small and very trivial code piece which the program cannot compile without. Because the program cannot compile, I suppose that it can be considered a more serious mistake or a grey area. The professor can definitely arrive to making this minor corrections from his end, but I do not think that it is fair for me to expect that out of him.
I was thinking to contact the professor via email about this. Or to wait some days to contact him in person (and later email him) to inform him of my mistake and also to submit the missing file.
I was wondering how acceptible this approach is, or if there are some general University regulations or procedures which I have to look into before even approaching my professor?

Contact your professor.  First, stop trying to trivialize your error - it's big enough that your code won't compile, so it's a serious error and that's that.  If the assignment marking requires them to run your code, then you are assured to get a 0 for code that doesn't compile, so you've honestly got nothing to lose here.  If, on the other hand, it's marked by hand without running it, then you need to address the error and how it happened.  This is especially an issue if you showed output from a previous version of the code - you submitted code that clearly didn't produce that output, and that can sometimes be construed as academic dishonesty.
Your professor has probably been around long enough (read: a few days) to understand that undergrads sometimes submit code with errors accidentally.  Perhaps they submitted the previous version by mistake, or fixed "just one little thing" and forgot to test it.  You would not be the first such student, and usually the professor will not get angry about it.
However, all of this being said, this doesn't mean that the prof needs to actually do anything about it.  Depending on their particular style, you might get ignored.  For instance, if everyone had the same deadline and it has long since passed, then submitting a correction is probably not something that the prof will allow - what evidence does this professor have that you didn't spend extra days perfecting bad code and now are ready to submit it?
But to answer the original question - these sorts of requests are made all the time, and it is unlikely to affect you negatively.  The longer you wait, the worse this gets.

It's not required that they run my code, but for completeness I believe it is always better to submit a compilable program as you also seem to indicate. There is evidence that I didn't try to perfect my code after submission; it is very trivial. Yes, I tried to fix "just one little thing" without testing. I didn't show output from a previous version and there is proof of this. How shall I go about my interaction? How do I indicate to my professor that I don't want to have an unfair advantage over others? Is it better to contact in person or in email?

Be honest about what happened, but don't grovel.  You made an error, say so.  "Hi, after reviewing my code I realized that I omitted XYZ.cpp.  This would cause it to not compile.  I want to make sure that you receive a working version, and I also want to make it clear that I know the error was mine.  I've attached XYZ.cpp to my email.  In the future I'll be sure to more thoroughly examine my submission.  Please let me know if it is acceptable to you that I've submitted this file, and if you'd like to discuss it further.  Thank you."

Also, in the future (and putting on my "programming instructor" hat here), there is no such thing as "one little thing".  Any change in your code requires testing. at a minimum this means recompiling it, but you also need to run thorough tests of all code affected.  Imagine what happens if you changed "one little thing" in an autopilot in a function that only ever triggers in an emergency, but you did it backwards - you converted from meters to cm by dividing by 100, say.  Didn't notice the error, but now it's a serious safety concern.

Thanks for the suggestion. I guess it sounds simple but I am under some panic, so I appreciate the advice.

Indeed.  Also, seriously don't panic.  Mistakes happen.  Admitting your mistakes is a sign of a mature student.  Your professor is unlikely to even think this is odd, and most likely will just roll his eyes and move on as a worst case scenario.

You are obviously correct. It is my mistake under pressure, I wish I was able to say something more than this.

Most of the time it is more important to recognize that a mistake happened and fix it and any root causes than it is to assign blame.  This is true outside of academia as well as inside of it.  As long as you learned how to try to avoid this in the future, you will not gain anything by beating yourself up about it :-)


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Should I choose my former supervisor as a referee, even though my personal issues unfairly put him under a lot of pressure?
This question is potentially UK-specific.
A couple of weeks ago I received a conditional offer of appointment to become a temporary Coronavirus Response worker in a Welsh NHS hospital, and now I am being asked for further references, covering January 2019-March 2020 (I've already provided three for June-December 2018).
I would ask my former supervisor (Fred), who is a senior academic and senior academic administrator. I hope the following will illustrate why I am uncomfortable with this:
Early in my degree I failed to attend resit exams due to an attitude problem. (My mother had just been admitted to a psychiatric hospital, and also I was angry at the university for having put my friend, who had just committed suicide, under too much stress.) My studies were terminated, but after an intervention by my housemate, Fred and his colleague invited me back in for an appointment. They re-admitted me (onto a Leave of Absence) after I explained about my mother and blamed the university for my friend’s suicide.
I ended up on some of Fred's courses (including field courses). He is a lovely man and always wants the best for people, but I let him down a lot. For example, I failed to attend to give a graded presentation at his compulsory seminar, a mini-session for those like me who couldn't make it, and an appointment arranged personally with Fred to give my presentation to him by myself. But he still gave me a good grade for the presentation after I sent a video of myself giving the presentation in the empty lecture hall. Anybody else would have refused to accept it.
More seriously, I was probably the most burdensome student who Fred has ever supervised during my final year project. (Fred just so happened to be the administrator responsible for finding a replacement supervisor after my first one fell ill. When this proved impractical, he took me under his wing himself.) After being granted several lengthy extensions due to another close friend committing suicide (this time within our department, so Fred was at the funeral too), each achieved milestone made a mockery of the planned timescales. In the end Student Services, Fred and I had a collapse in confidence in the usefulness of deadlines to structure my work.
Student Services advocated to Fred very energetically for me, partly because of my dyslexia/ADHD and partly because I was becoming increasingly depressed/suicidal as every new deadline approached. (Having two friends who’d committed suicide I didn't think it would be such a big deal anymore, and in any case I felt there wasn’t much point continuing if I couldn't achieve my goal of supporting my mother financially due to lack of a degree). They were probably scared as well, since 4 months after my second friend’s suicide I casually admitted to having been  in possession for the past 3 months of the same substance she’d used, in case I ever needed it. (Student Services sent somebody around to confiscate it.) Fred probably read between the lines that I was suicidal. In any case Fred was meant to supervise me for 3 months after my first supervisor fell ill, but this gradually extended to 10 months. This included periods up to 2 weeks long where I avoided reading emails from Fred (or anybody else outwith Student Services), because I couldn't see how communication or excuses would help. I feel that he was unfairly under immense pressure to grant me accommodations, sometimes even pre-emptively in consultation with Student Services.
I have now finished my studies and am graduating with a 2:2.
According to an NHS template for for how to contact references (see https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.wsh.nhs.uk/CMS-Documents/Trust-policies/151-200/PP18190References.pdf&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwixooPA397pAhWREMAKHRnLB_AQFjAAegQICBAB&usg=AOvVaw3h_4i6ZHSNfxhbzW0KkHuu)
"we have to... request previous employers to advise us of time taken off on the grounds of sickness over the last two years. Therefore, I should be grateful if you could give details of any sickness absence, including any long absences, together with the reasons given... it will be important for us to have such details before we can make an unconditional offer of employment."
I am not sure what Fred could answer in this regard which would reflect well on me.
Should I still ask Fred if he would referee for me? I feel I've already put him through enough difficulties, and I wonder whether it would be better to go for character references (from friends or my former driving instructor, who is quite elequent) plus my study support tutor.

A reference letter is not a big ask, and writing such letters is a standard part of his job.  You have probably already spent twice as much time writing this question as it would take him to write the letter.  I'd say you should stop worrying and just ask him.

@Nate Eldredge I presume this will be a phone reference when dealing with NHS HR, not a reference letter. I would be concerned that he might give a negative impression in the phone reference, and I am unsure whether this would be better than phone references from my study support tutor+ a phone character reference from one of my friends.

References are part of his job, whether by phone or letter or whatever.  When you contact him to ask about the reference, you can ask him what he'd expect to say, and how he'd address your past issues if at all.  I don't know much about the UK, but it seems to me unlikely that references from a driving instructor or personal friends would be of any help whatever in a job application.

After some quick research I doubt the NHS would accept a letter he passes to me first: "important to distinguish between references and testimonials. The latter are usually documents given to the candidate by a referee (often worded 'to whom it may
concern'). The Trust does not accept these in place of references." - https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.wsh.nhs.uk/CMS-Documents/Trust-policies/151-200/PP18190References.pdf&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwixooPA397pAhWREMAKHRnLB_AQFjAAegQICBAB&usg=AOvVaw3h_4i6ZHSNfxhbzW0KkHuu

@Nate Eldredge I also have reason to believe they would ask about my sickness history, and I am not sure whether whatever Fred could say would reflect well on me. From an NHS template at the same link: "we have to... request
previous employers to advise us of time taken off on the grounds of sickness over the last
two years. Therefore, I should be grateful if you could give details of any sickness absence,
including any long absences, together with the reasons given... it will be important for us to have such details before we can make an
unconditional offer of employment."

Okay.  You may need to get advice on that from someone who is more familiar with the NHS employment process, which is outside the scope of this site.

@Nate Eldredge Are character references of no help whatsoever?

That is just my guess, but again, I am not the right person to be asking.

I think academic references for the NHS are within the scope of this site, because I'm sure that refs for the NHS would be a matter of interest especially to British academics. The NHS employs 1.5 million people and I wouldn't be surprised if it the largest graduate employer in the UK by number of graduates employed.

All right.  I will leave this question for those who are better qualified to answer it.

The trick with job applications is to present problems/foibles in a positive light. Despite health/personal difficulties, you got the degree in the end -- well done! You just need to reframe the narrative as "a triumph against the odds". Overcoming such adversity could even be treated as "strength of character", and might be just the sort of experience that would be valued for work that requires sensitivity and compassion (as patient-facing NHS work does, surely...).
As for the referee, if you are that worried about it, how about asking Fred before making a final decision? Good luck


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Asking Editor to remind reviewer about my paper
I have a paper in submission and only managed to revise it after more than 8 months when I emailed the editor a reminder about my paper. I have re-submitted my paper about a month ago but from the website status regarding my paper, an invitation on my revised manuscript had been sent to the reviewer and is waiting for him/her to accept it. Is it reasonable to ask the editor to send a reminder email to the reviewer again and if so, how should I phrase it?

I suggest that it won't lead to any change. It will be a bit of noise for the editor. Probably not especially irritating, but it adds to their load and someone will need (perhaps) to take time to respond to you. When everyone does this, and many want to, the system slows down.
If the editor is at all competent, they haven't forgotten you and have some process already in place for finding, prodding, reminding reviewers as they think warranted.
Unless you have some real need, beyond anxiety, to know something, I suggest patience. Work on the next thing, perhaps.

You can, but it might not be very helpful. The reason is that Editorial Management Systems (i.e. whatever software is used to tell you what the status is) will typically send automated reminders. Your reviewer simply isn't accepting the invitation in spite of being reminded.
For the editor the alternative is to invite a fresh reviewer, which is not ideal for a revised paper.
If you do decide to ask the journal to send a reminder, write to the journal office. It's something they should be able to handle. I personally wouldn't say "please send a reminder", but rather ask them for a generic status update. The status you're seeing is somewhat more detailed than is common, so you write something like "is the reviewer not accepting the invitation?".

@Roland The EMS I'm most familiar with doesn't cancel the invitation, but it does stop sending reminders after a while. If the invitation is cancelled, it's the editor manually cancelling the invite.


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Is there advantage an for a student to know out of the course question in Ph.D. interview?
I am an undergrad student with Physics Major, currently in my last year. I'm from India, and recently I have given my first interview for an integrated Ph.D. in Physics. And there are several interviews that are ahead of me.

What I need to know is this: suppose the interviewer asks a student a question, which is off-topic that is to say, rarely thought of at the undergraduate level in any of the universities. The  student might simply say, "I don't have a knowledge of the topic as we haven't learned this in our undergrad course." Or there are some students who go beyond their course and learn the topic by themselves. So suppose another student gives the answer to the same question because they learned it by themself. Can the interviewer judge the students based on this question? Is there any advantage for student B to read stuff that is out of the course?

Saying you don't know the answer to a question is poor interview technique regardless of the situation.
Of course, you can't be expected to know or study every possible topic you might be asked questions about, but that's generally not the aim of these more difficult or esoteric questions. Instead, the interviewer wants to find out how you think and whether you are able to understand the question and reason your way to an answer even if you're unfamiliar with the subject matter.
After all, that's what research is all about: finding answers to questions that no one's studied before. The ability to apply previous reasoning to a new question is particularly important in physics, as we believe the same physical laws should hold anywhere in the Universe. Therefore, a good answer to a such a question would be "I'm not sure, but I would expect from my knowledge of X that Y might happen." And then go into detail as to why. It's also ok to ask for a moment to think before answering.
For what it's worth, PhD interviews are not typically like an exam, and you probably won't be aggressively grilled on your knowledge of a specific topic. More likely, the interviewers will get you to explain any previous research projects you might have done, and discuss your ideas for the future. That's not to say you shouldn't study topics outside your course, if you're interested in them and they're relevant to your intended PhD topic.

Yes! I understand. Can you just consider this example? Suppose the interviewer asks, " What would happen if you put a ground state Hydrogen atom in a uniform magnetic field?" Then the student might or might not have read about the Zeeman effect. So if a first student A answered to his current knowledge (as he hasn't read and get into details), and student B answered with an explanation (as he had read the topic). So on which side the interviewer would be biased? Considering that most undergrad doesn't know about this topic.

@YoungKindaichi In my own field and country, no one would ask a question like that in a PhD interview. PhD interviews are to find fits for research labs, not to test acquisition of specific nuggets of knowledge like a course exam.

"Saying you don't know the answer to a question is poor interview technique regardless of the situation." - I think this is a rather sweeping claim. If you mean PhD interviews specifically, it may be good to make that explicit.

@AppliedAcademic I don't see why this shouldn't apply for non-PhD interviews. Saying "I don't know" and not giving any elaboration or attempt at an answer is simply not a good thing to do in an interview if you want a good outcome. Relatedly, answering a plain "yes" or "no" to a question is also not a great idea. You should try to sustain the conversation and make the interviewer's job as easy as possible.

@astronat- Attempting to answer when you're sure you don't have a clue can come across as guessing, bluffing and generally being somewhat deceitful. In such a situation,  you'd rather be straightforward and accept a small penalty instead of taking a gamble and possibly annoying the interviewer.


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Possible ways to do experiment classes during covid situation
Due to covid-19, most of my classmates and I haven't seen a lab (Physics) for more than two years. Now, I'm in the second semester of the master's program, and soon it will be PhD. Right now, we are just watching videos and writing reports in the name of the lab course. Although I understand that the situation is like this due to Covid, it cannot go on like this forever.
I'm asking for possible ways to recommend to the university how to tackle this problem without avoiding lab classes. It might be possible that there are better ways that we don't know.

It's absolutely a tragedy that you and your peers haven't gotten a decent lab education. I fully blame the university for this. If they are going to offer you the ability to get a degree in a given program, the onus is entirely on them to provide you a sufficient education to be worthy of that degree. I said the same thing to our curriculum committee. If you can't respect the quality of education they get from a certain course, you shouldn't run that course. I'll not have people look down on my students, "Oh, they got their degree in the pandemic. Let's not hire them".

@Jim who's hiring based solely on a degree these days?

@alexw True dat

I teach experimental classes about measurements, and indeed there are solutions to allow students to do experiments in pandemic times. The applicability depends on the willingness of the university and the professors to invest money, time, imagination and effort in these solutions. Even though these solutions might not give the real experience they are much better than watching videos.
A few examples (the first three and the last were actually tested at my university):

Nowadays many instruments can be controlled remotely. So an instructor can setup the lab benches in the university for the experiments and the students can run them remotely. This can be used if the experiment is complex and requires specialized instrumentation (e.g. an optical or quantum experiment). It's worth noting that also much of the experimental research that I performed in the last two years was performed remotely in this way.
On the market it's possible to find portable data acquisition boards and generators for educational purposes which are reasonably cheap and that could be lent to the students, together with other material to implement at home various experiments (this is an example from Digilent). It's also possible to find software that turns your PC into a measuring instrument (a free example is this one).
It's also possible to find various smartphone apps that can turn your phone in a measuring instrument with which to make physics experiments (Phyphox is a good one developed by a university).
There are also books that suggest how to use Arduino and smartphones to make physics experiments (an example; disclaimer: I haven't read it).
Another possibility is to allow the students to perform the experiments in person but making shifts to reduce the number of students simultaneously in the lab.

Imperial College in the UK shipped out small sets of equipment for most of their students: Here's an article about the chemistry department, but other departments did as well https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/209193/lab-in-a-box-remote-experiments-education-news-from/

The issue that comes up with point 1 is that so much of the experimental skill students need to learn is precisely the bits that can't be automated - the fine optical or mechanical adjustments, the fault-finding, that kind of thing. Here it was more like your idea 5, with some remote experiments, and some sessions where one of a pair was in the lab and the other online, swapping the next week

@ChrisH Yes, I agree, that's the main limitation of the solution at point 1.

I'm a recently retired physics professor at a community college in Southern California. Our lab courses are lower-division undergrad classes, so our situation does differ from yours. But in case it's helpful to someone, here is some information about what we did to adapt from fall 2020 to fall 2021. With persistent administrative advocacy from our wonderful dean, we got funding of $200 per student to give out lab kits to our students. Here is the LaTeX source code for the manuals, which is under a CC-BY-SA license: https://github.com/bcrowell/lab_manuals . The relevant source code is in the subdirectories share, covid, and figs. I no longer maintain these lab manuals, and AFAIK the PDF files are no longer online.
I would say that our success with this was mixed. About half the faculty of our small department (including one adjunct!) worked hard over the summer of 2020 to create and test the kits. It was relatively easy to come up with lab activities for the first-semester freshman mechanics course. The second-semester electricity and magnetism class was harder, but we were able to do it through various expedients, such as using cheap automotive digital oscilloscopes. For the third-semester class it was not as practical.
Student success in all of these classes was extremely poor in my experience. Partly this was simply because student success in STEM classes was extremely poor during online instruction -- classes with decent success rates were those where instructors just gave everyone an A because of covid. Students found it very difficult to do the labs at home. I sat in zoom with them and had them point their cameras at what they were doing, but it was just incredibly awkward. I'm proud that at least some of us in my department worked hard to at least provide the best-motivated and strongest students with a pretty decent educational opportunity. The weaker students just couldn't do it.

Although I understand that the situation is like this due to Covid, it cannot go on like this forever.

From your username and the India tag, I'm guessing that you are a Korean student who is in grad school in India. I don't have enough familiarity with the conditions there to say what is appropriate. Here in the US, most schools have already been back in person for 6-12 months, but this is a rich country with universal access to vaccines. Given your own sitution, it might make sense to take a leave of absence for a couple of years, or try to transfer to a school in a country where the epidemic is already transitioning to an endemic phase, and schools have in-person labs. It's absurd to imagine completing a physics PhD without doing any real labs.

Informative answer, but FYI the username doesn't look Korean to me.  I think it's an anime-related choice, so the student may not be a foreign student.

@Kimball plus OP's BS was also in India.

It is not at all absurd to do a Physics PhD with zero labs - theoretical physics exists! The OP definitely has the option to leave their integrated PhD programme with a Master's degree and take up a different programme somewhere else, but I think it is a moot point - once they enter their PhD, they will become associated with a particular professor and lab, and that will hardly be affected by coursework labs. The missing training from their coursework labs only means that the OP has to play a bit of catch-up.

@TamoghnaChowdhury I'm not enrolled in a theoretical physics program. Ph.D. is by no means a good time for 'Catch-up.' Labs provide an experience that amounts lots of time. Even then, it does not matter whether one does a Ph.D. or not. If there is a lab course, then one expects a lab. As @ Jim said, A lab course without a lab is not a lab course. :)

@user152635 That's right, I'm not a foreign student and it's not my real name. Parden me, If you find it confusing.

OP, I wasn't addressing your situtation specifically, I was reacting to the statement "It's absurd to imagine completing a physics PhD without doing any real labs." at the end of the answer. Theoretical physics is still physics. And I beg to differ, doing a Ph.D., especially a 5-year Ph.D., is where you get most of your lab training anyway. There are plenty of people who change disciplines entirely trying to do their Ph.D., where do you think they get their relevant lab experience?

However, I agree regarding the lab courses matter. A lab course without actual labs is not a lab course. But I do not feel that in your case, as someone who is going to start a PhD anyway, that not having lab courses is a problem. In fact, it is easy to pick up bad habits from lab courses which do not translate well to a professional research environment. This may be different in Physics, I have a background in Biology so that's where most of my perspective comes from.

I teach physics labs at a university. I can tell you exactly how to get a good lab education within pandemic restrictions because we have been doing it to great success.

Option 1 (moderate risk, low instructor effort):

Set up the labs for a small group of students to be allowed in with safe distancing practices.
Find out from the students which ones are able to come to campus.
Set up groups of students so that there is at least one student in each group that can be on campus.
Only one student from each group comes in. The rest in the group connect virtually to that student at the time of the lab.
The students at home are responsible for the majority of data collection as well as deciding the course of action to take in the lab
The student in the lab is only responsible for operating the equipment and reporting results. They should not be deciding next steps or thinking about what to do.
Adjustable webcams are necessary for the students at home to get a good sense of what is happening.

This method is what I use in most cases. It is important that the student in the lab not be the one to decide their course of action. We find those in the lab learn the best regardless because they get to handle the equipment personally. To keep them engaged and thinking about the lab (and thus, maximize their learning potential), the students at home should be responsible for most of the thinking about what to do. This also helps the lab go faster. Thinking takes longer than not thinking, so if the student in the lab has to operate the equipment AND do the thinking, it will take forever. The students at home aren't doing much anyway, let them do the mental stuff.
When I used this method, the student who came in always learned as much as or more than pre-pandemic times (understandable given it is no different to them). The students at home report nearly as much learning as pre-pandemic times and scored well on lab tests about comprehension of concepts and equipment. This is the ideal method for me, if you can have at least a few students in the lab.

Option 2 (low risk, high instructor effort):
Okay, the instructors will hate me for this, but I've done it and it works.

Very similar to option 1 except no students come into the lab. All students in each group connect virtually with instructor/lab staff on site.
Instructor, TA, or lab technician (whatever is appropriate for your situation) operates equipment for each lab group individually.
They may guide students if necessary, but should only do exactly what students tell them to (collect wrong data if so instructed).
Students must decide how to proceed and what to collect. Lab staff are only there as "virtual-presence device"
Each lab group needs to be scheduled at individual lab time. This takes a large amount of work and time from instructor/lab staff.

When I used this method, the students noted that it felt a lot like they were actually in the lab doing it themselves. They had to be just as engaged and learned almost as much. It lacks an actual hands-on component, but is suitable if an in-person presence is impossible.

What if you can't get anyone on campus to operate the equipment?
I cannot stress enough that you cannot offer any reasonable laboratory education without any party having at least some access to the laboratory and its equipment. A lab course minus the lab is a nothing course.

Note, I did not include "take home" experiments because I despise them. I have never encountered a take-home lab that was both a) sufficiently high calibre to be used in university courses and b) cheap enough to be scaled up to every student in a course without requiring more money than a standard university would be willing to afford. They are generally awful and I do everything I can to avoid contact with them. Also, those lab simulation things aren't labs, they are arbitrary video games that have little to no educational value in a university lab course

Second note: two years of using these methods and no recorded COVID-19 cases in my labs to date. I'd say it's possible to do this safely

That's a good way! I suppose. I will suggest this.

Half-answer short of time and equipment to write a proper one. If someone would expand on this more I'd be glad to give all credit and remove my answer.
Depending on the focus of the lab, you could move the lessons onto a simulated platform. There are multiple solutions, varying in ease of use, coding difficulties, and being free or not; but this is often doable.
As an example, I'm a member of the team that develops VINYIL (Virtual Neutron and x-raY Laboratory) which basically consists of two fully open-source Python modules: SimEx for optical/x-ray, and McStasScript for neutron beamlines. Using these, you can simulate complex experiments from start to end, including all parameters, noise, artifacts and limitations of a real-life instrument, all this in an easy to follow Jupyter notebook.
All I mean with saying this is that there are certainly very advanced yet easy-to-use tools to simulate an experiment with all the associated quirks, at a level more than sufficient for a student lab. I know of such tools in my own field, but there must be similar ones for many of your experiments.
Moving to simulations and developing the corresponding codes needs a substantial effort, probably involving TAs and colleagues, for sure; but once it's done, you get a zero-equipment lab class that can be online without an issue.

Faced with the same challenge for chemistry labs, a colleague and I developed "Quarantine Chem Labs" a set of experiments that can be carried out with stuff commonly found around a home or apartment. You can see videos of the experiments on our YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAtdv_YQrTu6shv3QHo7URA
and full write-ups suitable for distributing to students on the companion web site:
https://quarantinechemlabs.wixsite.com/mysite/labs
Most of the labs have a distinct physical-chemistry flavor and could be suitable for physics classes as well.
I know of a materials science Prof. who has done something similar. He has students produce stress-strain curves by placing strips cut from a plastic bag under load. He also has them grow crystals, etc.
The concept translates well to mechanics. Lots of "measurement devices" are readily available. Most everyone has access to a ruler, and a protractor, and has a stopwatch on their cell phone, and a camera... It's easy to make a pendulum with a length of string and a keychain. E&M labs are little more challenging to devise, but with some of the Quarantine Chem Labs address this challenge as well.

This is a long term solution only and is only applicable to such things as coursework and where the science is well known with predictable results. It won't work, most likely for doctoral level research experimentation.
But, it is possible, though costly and time consuming, to build realistic simulators that let a student learn both lab technique (perhaps imperfectly) and how the science works. A truly realistic one would introduce random effects as occur in real experiments, of course. And, such things will only take you so far.
But, at the moment, the need for such things has only been obvious for a relatively short time; too short to expect that such simulations are readily available. Some do exist, I'd expect, but not with the necessary sophistication to foster insight in students. There are probably some adequate simulations available in physics and chemistry, for example. Biology and pharmacology are harder. But these are, again, helpful for coursework, but likely not for serious research.
And, the people who know best how such things work aren't the same people capable of creating such simulations themselves. It is, itself a team process with a number of different skills contributing.
I suspect that the need for this will continue into the future, whether we finally find a cure for COVID or not since the disruption has caused people to rethink how courses are delivered. We might not ever go back to the pre-covid world.
Some inducements are probably necessary to get people to build and refine such simulations. And some inducements to get professors to consider using what is currently available in the short term.

Other solutions are possible at the fringe, though also difficult to use. Labs where only a single person works are probably too expensive in most cases. Housing a group of experimenters together so that they become something like a "family" is also probably too radical to adopt, though some sports leagues do this so that the game can go on.
At the moment, we need to "think outside the box" but also plan for a possibly disrupted future. Personally, I doubt that Omicron is the last of the variants and there is no guarantee that the next one will be of less concern.
It might require some push from university administration to get some collaboration between various professors in the experimental sciences and those in computer science. Some of the simulations would be good upper level student projects in CS.

A simulation to learn lab techniques in chemistry? I might be old-fashioned, but I cannot imagine how that is supposed to work. So I really hope that it will not be the new standard.

@Snijderfrey, I hope so too, actually. But desperate times ...  Think about the sophistication that is possible in video games these days.

Simulators for all sort of things do exist already, even fairly advanced ones, but there are many aspects of experiments that cannot be simulated and suggesting to substitute experiments with simulations is bad  advice (and I typically hear this only from people who have never performed real experiments). I used simulators two years ago, right at the beginning of the pandemic, as an emergency backup because the pandemic started just one week before the start of the class and the university was shut down, but now we are no longer in unknown situation and there are better solutions.

@MassimoOrtolano, actually, I don't suggest substitution of one for the other. But if it is impossible to do what you want, then you may be forced to do what you must. I don't suggest this as an ideal. And I also realize that this is imperfect. But at the moment the perfect is the enemy of the good. Look at the Omicron case maps and note that deaths are still rising.

In terms of advanced simulations, why not focus on the ones that already exist? Geant4 comes to mind. Designing simulations in Geant4 more like computational physics, but it's the closest part of computational physics to experimental physics. Furthermore, it's got real use cases, in both experimental physics and medicine.

Simulators are antithetical to the purpose of lab instruction. In the lectures you teach the students "this is right because trust me". In the labs, they see that it is right because reality backs you up. A simulator will perform the way a person programs it to. That's the same as "this is right because trust the programmer". It doesn't represent reality, just someone's version of it. At the start of the pandemic, I chose to cancel labs rather than use a simulator because I see no difference.

Move to another university for your PhD
If your university has been closed for two years in a row, there is little chance that you will get a good PhD education there. Use the chance to find a better place.
Contact the student union
For the remaining part of your Master studies, you can try to contact the student union (assuming you have one). If enough students share your view, they may be able to push for on-campus lab courses. If that does not work, then you can suggest the options in the other answer.

I don’t this one can make such sweeping statements your first suggestions.

And the second one compromises safety.

The university was hardly closed for the last two years - it is primarily a postgraduate research institution and while they decided to send back all undergraduates and master's students from March to November 2020, it has been completely functional since then. Not to mention that the majority of lab experience in a Master's is earned by doing a research project in a particular research group, which is not affected by what coursework labs are. This is definitely a problem for undergrads, but for Master's, in the OP's university, it is a moot point.

(Disclaimer: I am an alumnus of the OP's current university, having graduated in 2021 - so I know what I am talking about)

@TamoghnaChowdhury well, I answered the question as asked, saying that if a university was closed to students for two years, then it is not a good place for a PhD. If your university was not closed for two years, then this answer does not apply to your university.

@Buffy what is the student union for, if talking to them compromises safety? I am not suggesting to go on strike or demonstrations, I am just suggesting to talk to the student union because they probably have regular meetings with the university governance, which is the one that makes these closure decisions. If you ask the instructor, they will just say "these are orders from above, there is nothing I can do".

As a further note regarding the specific institute, the student council has often been notoriously ineffective in mediating concerns of students with the administration.


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What are the chances of acceptance after being asked to submit a revised version?
I received the following response from a journal editor: "The reviewer(s) would like to see some revisions made to your manuscript before publication. Therefore, I invite you to respond to the reviewer(s)' comments and revise your manuscript. If you decide to revise the work, please submit a list of changes or a rebuttal against each point which is being raised when you submit the revised manuscript."
I have since submitted a revised manuscript along with detailed responses to the reviewers. I am waiting. How am I to view the chances of the manuscript being accepted?

Being asked to hand in a revised manuscript points towards acceptance. Most rejections do not happen after several rounds of review, but after the very first one when the editor will inform you that your paper is rejected.

Nobody wants to waste time. If they wanted to reject it, they would do it right away. Asking for revisions means that they have a reasonable expectation that those revisions can help make the paper publishable.

As phrased, there is an implication that the manuscript is accepted (albeit with minor revisions).


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Same objectives and hypotheses but different data sets in writing PhD thesis
Can one use the same objectives and hypotheses in their PhD thesis taken from another PhD thesis but different data sets? (Even the state is different.)

What do you mean, the state is different?

This seems unlikely. But your advisor can answer this. Is the methodology different or just the data?

At least in applied science it might be possible. But objectives can be tweaked to state what additional differentiation the new data set brings. Different populations, bigger region covered or exploring if the results from previous research are transferable to new data set

It doesn't seem like it is adequate for a doctoral thesis. Maybe for a masters.

Here is an example: whether a new kind of drug works for a disease. Previous study had a dataset of 100 patients from Texas. Now I am looking for impact on efficacy of drug in a closer climate and have 100 patients from Alaska. The primary objective is still efficacy of drug. This definitely can be expanded to a dissertation

You have a different hypothesis, I think. Something around the lack of relationship to climate (or something, maybe not climate). Still skeptical. Especially at the doctoral level. What is new? What is the contribution? I would certainly ask for more from a student. It seems to lack any evidence of experimental design. I'd be fine with it as undergraduate thesis since execution of an experiment teaches something.

The devil is in the details --- talk to your supervisor and panel
There is nothing inherently wrong with research that explores an existing question and hypotheses using new data; that is potentially valuable research because it gives us new evidence bearing on a research question.  However, in a PhD candidature the standard requirements for successful completion are that the research must be significant, original, and extend knowledge in the field.  Depending on the scope of the new data you collect for your project, what you are proposing might be considered insufficient or borderline in terms of "significance" and "originality".  This really depends on the details --- if you collect a substantial amount of new data that really adds to the research area then this might by sufficiently significant and original to justify some good publications and the award of the degree.
I recommend you talk you your PhD supervisor and panel about your proposal to get their view on the significance of your proposed research.  You should also bear in mind that PhD referees might see things differently to your supervisors, so you should remain cognisant of the danger that a referee might see your research as being insufficiently significant or original to warrant the doctoral degree.  Personally, I think that a project that collects a significant amount of new data for re-analysis of an existing research question could be a significant contribution warranting a PhD degree, but others may have a different view.
Another thing to bear in mind here is that it would be unusual for you to go through a research project spanning several years and not come up with any ideas for even minor tweaks of existing methods for your research.  Even using a different data set might involve some new available variables or other differences that immediately lead to some new ideas for methodological tweaking.  You might find that as you progress through your new analysis you have some ideas for how to refine methods/models in ways that are different to previous research, and this would potentially add to the originality of your research.  If you decide to go with this proposal, be on the lookout for these things as you progress your project.


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How to send an email to a senior editor?
We have sent a comment paper to Physical Review B, but the editor told us to extend this comment paper and convert it to a regular paper. But we have already written a regular paper and wanted to send it to Physical Review B after this comment paper. It's not possible to send this comment paper to another journal due to the laws. My supervisor isdisappointed and said nothing else about our regular paper.
I don't know who our editor was, for this reason I want to send an email to the senior editor of PRB and describe the situation and convince him to give us a chance again to resubmit our comment. How can do this? And who is the best choice to email to?

I don't understand, if you have already an extented paper that you want to publish, why not send this to the journal? Why do you feel you need to publish this comment separately from the paper, just to increase publication count? And why not simply reply to the email which you received from the journal to ask about the possibility to publish the comment?

No first we were writing our regular paper, and at that time we found another group have published a paper in PRB including mistake which was explainable using our model, so wrote a comment paper and described the mistake by a brief refer to our model.

But you could just include that comment in the extended paper?

No because our main paper is about 30 pages dedicated to explain the model, so we couldn't add correction for the mistake to it. However, I think it's a common way to correct another paper in the form of comment.

Then I suggest to respond to the email you received with exactly the information that you provided here and see how it goes

The problem is that my supervisor responded to the email, but said nothing about our main paper. Now he is disappointed and thinks that they don't care about this. So I want to try my chance and email senior editor of PRB myself.  But I have no idea who is the best choice to email to? Can you help me please?


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Do any colleges/universities require professors to provide the library with a free copy of a book they have written while employed by the school?
Let's say Professor X, who is currently a tenured professor at Y University, writes a book on genetic mutation. Is it likely Y University has a policy that requires Professor X to supply the university's library with a free copy of their new book on genetic mutation? Does anyone know of any colleges/universities with such a policy? If so, could you cite the source so I can read the policy?

You seem to misunderstand the nature of tenure. Would it be professional misconduct subjecting the professor to dismissal? That would be a profoundly foolish policy. Libraries might ask, of course, and most professors would be happy to supply one if possible, but it is a minuscule cost to the library to purchase a copy if it is needed - and not all are actually needed. And, of course, the policy would need to be included in employment contracts.

I was happy to give one copy of my book to each of our two libraries.  If they need more, they can buy more at the standard discount for libraries, and that would make me happy, too.

I have never heard of such a policy at a university.
The UK has what are called 'legal deposit' libraries where, by law, essentially every work published in the country has to be sent to them for free. Other libraries can then request to borrow a copy using an interlibrary loan system. This could easily be confused with a University requirement since three of the six UK legal deposit libraries are the University of Oxford Bodleian libraries, the University of Cambridge Library, and the Library of Trinity College Dublin.
A similar system exists in many other countries.
The libraries can turn down copies, so they must be offered and are not necessarily accepted.

But are they offered by the authors or by the publishers?

@Buffy generally its the publishers that must provide the copy. But this may vary by country.

But certainly not a university rule in any case.

Not a university rule that I'm aware of. But could be confusing in the UK since three of the six legal deposit libraries are the University of Oxford Bodleian libraries, the University of Cambridge Library, and the Library of Trinity College Dublin.

The version I have heard of ...
Any professor may provide copies of his papers (and books, and exhibitions, and performances, and videos, and movies, and compositions, ...) to the university.  These will then be considered in connection with salary increases and promotions for the professor.
So, in this version, professors are not required to provide them.  But professors usually do provide them, since it is to their advantage.


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How to deal with an abusive advisor?
I am a graduate student in mathematics. I've been having a difficult relationship with my advisor, and I need some help on the matter.
Some background
When I just started my graduate studies, my advisor warned me that he tends to be strict, and that sometimes he can have anger outbursts. I thought (and still think) that a strict advisor would be good for me, and didn't think the mentioned anger issue would be as bad as it turned out to be.
In the beginning, our relationship was good and (professionally) friendly, and I looked forward to every meeting with him. Our discussions gave me motivation in my studies and research.
About half a year later, I was going through depression unrelated to academic issues (and started being treated by medications), and was completely unproductive and not concentrated on my work for a few of months, which my advisor was unhappy about. He said that he didn't care about my personal problems, didn't want to hear excuses, and that he expected me to work regardless.
From that point on, our relationship completely changed. He stopped being nice and supportive, and started accusing me of not being serious and not working hard enough. This seems to have been the main trigger for his behaviour which I am to describe next.
The problem
If I don't get results, and try explaining that I've been working hard and just couldn't come up with a solution, my advisor starts yelling (yes, really yelling) that my progress is too slow, that he's sure he could have solved it in a month/week/hour himself if he tried, etc.
He also tends to interpret everything I say as a personal accusation, even though I always try to formulate my questions carefully and politely. For example, if I ask whether I should stick with a certain approach even after being unsuccessful for a while, he responds by yelling that he's an experienced researcher and that if he suggested it there must be a reason, and how dare I, a student, question anything he says.
A similar situation happened when I pointed out a mistake made by another researcher (and which was checked, per my request, by a third party after the incident). My advisor didn't check my claim thoroughly, and yelled that how dare I "accuse" a well-regarded researcher of making a mistake, and that it makes him angry that I "don't check my facts" before making such a claim, and compared me to mathematical cranks.
[To clarify: I pointed out the mistake in an email to my advisor, not in any arrogant way, and without involving anyone else at that point.]
It is difficult for me to work, because every time I'm stuck on something, I panic thinking about our next meeting and how he would yell at me again for lack of results. It also makes me look for "shortcuts" instead of really understanding what I'm studying for my research (even when those are basic things that he would agree I should understand) to save time.
When I explained to my advisor that this slows down my progress, he said that he's not a psychologist, and it's not his job to deal with my psychological problems.
Another problem is that almost all of our conversations revolve around my lack of progress and him yelling repeatedly the same things, while I'm trying to pull the conversation back to the math, as I need his help, and as there is no-one else working in this area at my university (and perhaps in the country). He had another graduate student who just graduated and switched to a different field, telling me that he would not continue for a PhD with this advisor because "he can't survive this psychological pressure for several more years".
I don't see a feasible option of switching advisors for the reason stated above, and also because based on his past PhD students and on what he told me, he could significantly help me in finding positions after I graduate. Also, I regard him as a good advisor in other aspects (much better than other advisors I know at our department), and I do believe that after all he cares and would help me if I made progress.
As much as possible, I would like to have a good relationship with him, and I definitely don't want to harm him in any way (such as reporting it - which would have been counter-productive anyway).
Our relationship quite reminds me of the movie "Whiplash" (without the physical abuse)...
Since the situation seems to have been worsening recently, I would very much appreciate some input on how to deal with this situation.

Hi, Pandora. Questions of the "here's my situation, what do I do now?" variety are general not good fits for SE sites. Do you think you could boil things down to something more specific and actionable?

Naive and possibly stupid question: have you considered asking your advisor not to yell at you and to try to restrain his abusive behavior? For all his flaws he may understand at least at an intellectual level that his behavior is very counterproductive, and may be receptive to a request to restrain himself.

I don't see a feasible option of switching advisors for the reason stated above What reason are you talking about?  I don't see why that is not your first option.

You need to stop having this advisor.

There's really no path to a good outcome with this advisor. I'd suggest cutting your losses and finding a new advisor, in a new field.

Step 1: Walk away.  Step 2: Figure out step 3.

@DanRomik that's what he replied to with "I'm not here to deal with your psychological problems", that is, he doesn't think he should change his behaviour, and that I just need to do my job.

@Zarrax If I switch fields, I would waste 2.5 years, start in a field where I have no background, without scholarship (as I've already used the allocated amount), and probably with an advisor who is less likely to help me regarding my future in academia (from what I hear from fellow MSc/PhD students, their advisors are very passive when it comes to applying to studies or positions abroad, conferences, publishing etc., while my advisor is very active and supportive when it comes to those things).

You should be able to walk away on good terms, if you phrase the truth right.  Remind him about the conversation you had at the very beginning when he warned you about his anger issues, admit to not understanding the effect they would have on you and having overstated your ability to work through it anyway.  Recognize that the incompetence he perceives in you, is actually what you have demonstrated recently, but that you believe that you are capable of much more if the circumstances were different, and that you intend to move to an environment without these complications.

And thank him for his time and effort and trying to make it work, even though it turned out that you cannot function in this environment.

You could ask if you two could correspond over email. Its a long shot though

@Pandora There's a similar professor in my department. Maybe your department is smaller, but here, students last about a year with that guy and then leave to go to one of the neighboring labs (same field). That's not a possibility? In one case a student lasted 3 years with him and then did the final year in a different lab.

"he's sure he could have solved it in a month/week/hour himself if he tried"
That's probably true at least to some extent, and it's perfectly normal that PhD students take more time. As a postdoc, I am doing things many times faster than when I was a PhD student. That comes with experience.

It sounds like he’s trying to run you off honestly and is choosing the passive-aggressive mental abuse route (not saying it’s warranted btw).

Or possibly he seriously thinks he’s a drill sergeant and this is boot camp which is terrible but possible. Either way this is clearly not good for your mental health and you need to get out of that situation. That kind of emotional abuse can cause deep and long lasting emotional scars.

You've taken an important first step here.
A PhD student is in a dependent position with regard to the advisor; there are many parallels between the abuse that has occurred her, and the more commonly known type, family abuse.
In abusive relationships, there is often something very insidious: gradually, the abuse increases, but at each tiny incremental step, the victim rationalizes staying in the relationship, because there is so much at stake (e.g. keeping the family together, financial pressures, etc.; holding onto funding for continuing studies, intellectual satisfaction, successful thesis, letters of recommendation for future jobs, etc.).  Often, the longer the abuse goes on, and the worse it gets, the harder it is to escape from it!
That is why I say that you have taken an important first step.
There are many possible next steps out of this abusive relationship.  Perhaps one of the simplist is to make an appointment to see a doctor.  Nowadays, many doctors ask a key question at each visit: Do you feel safe at home and at work?  Even if the doctor doesn't ask you this, you can simply inform him or her that you don't feel safe at work.
Often, when one makes an appointment, the receptionist asks what the problem is.  It will probably be easier for you to make something up, like an earache, than to spit out your problem over the phone to the receptionist.
The advice from @fmlin is excellent.  I would add a couple more things:

Find a domestic violence advocacy center in your campus or your town.  They are trained in assisting victims of emotional abuse.
Take a trusted person with you to each and every meeting you have on campus related to the problems with your advisor.

There are many possible eventual solutions to the current situation.  I will describe one.  My crystal ball doesn't tell me whether this will come to pass for you, but I will describe it because I imagine that right now, the paths out from your current situation probably feel extremely limited.
Student (you) enters mental health treatment, paid for by the university (which, after all, is responsible for the professor's treatment of his students)....  Student takes a month or more off from studies and responsibilities, but university continues financial and moral support during this medical leave of absence....  Professor enters treatment, paid for by his health insurance....  Professor is required to send all emails to student through an intermediary....  The university arranges for another professor, in a related field, and with a talent for being emotionally supportive, to be present for ALL face to face or phone conversations between the abusive professor and the student.

Unfortunately your described eventual solution where the university assumes responsibility and mediates the relationship between advisor and advisee seems out of reality in my experience in 3rd-world academia. Hopefully the OP was in such a place where sensible actions take place!..

@Scientist - It's very true that some countries are farther along in protecting workers' rights than others.  My experience advocating for my special needs son in the education realm in the US (he has Tourette Syndrome) is that (a) when the person's rights are well defined by legislation, things are rarely handed out on a silver platter, and one often has to work pretty hard to get those rights respected in practice; and (b) when the person's rights aren't well defined, it is still a good idea to proceed according to common sense.  This can help administrators...

... do the right thing (morally, ethically); and it can help push toward legislative change.

I have never heard of any place where this described setting would happen (the university takes responsibility and pays for the treatment). This place must be paradise.

I have this problem right now with a senior collaborator. He refuses to read or understand any of my contributions, he yells during meetings about how dumb my questions are, he constantly talks over me. He doesn't have time to read emails or notes, and refuses to listen. One time he mocked my own voice back to me. It really took a toll on my mental health.
I hung on to get a paper out of all the work and stress I sunk into that awful project, and in the end all the results we got were based on a bad premise (in part, because my dumb questions about the premise maybe being flawed were never addressed. He's a defensive ass.)
Recently we brought in another senior collaborator, and having another adult in the room is making a world of difference. We're actually making better progress and might get a paper out, plus he doesn't yell in front of other men. When I talk, the other collaborator has to repeat my questions back to the abuser before he'll understand them, but whatever. The communication gets done at least.
So I would say try to get other people involved in your work. Give a seminar or journal club, or some informal talk about what you're doing. Ask other professors about what you're struggling with (even at other institutes. Go to conferences!) If you can loop in another person to the collaboration, you will shine light on the abuse and I bet he'll back off.
But if I could go back in time and undo all the work I wasted on this time sink, I would. When you work with people like this, you actually often just do bad work. There are better collaborators out there, and your career will be more successful if you work with functional people. Plus you need better mentorship than this. I've seen PhD students who come out of these situations, and they are often very bad researchers because they are so afraid to think independently and have horrible habits. This is doing damage to you, and it's hard for the pros to outweigh the cons, so keep that in mind.