text:
Trouble finding good letter writers for math grad school due to switching programs
I'm planning to apply to top US grad schools in the fall, and out of all the required documents, I would say that my weakest link would be in the quality of my recommendation letters.
I'm currently planning to ask the following people:

Professor X: I'm doing research with this person in the summer, and we already have a significant result that we are planning to turn into a joint paper. (Subject: discrete math)
Professor Y: I received an A+ in this person's undergraduate analysis course last year, and he offered to write a letter of recommendation to those who received an A+ in his course.

Then, the rest I'm not sure about, I have the following to choose from:

Professor Z: I did a research project with this professor in number theory, but it was more like a reading course. I don't think I left a significant impression on him, since the topic I was reading was fairly elementary in the field.
Manager A: I did an internship under this person at a Big 4 Tech company last summer, and he had high reviews of me, and gave me a returning offer at the end, which I declined.
Postdoc B: I did a research internship with this person in applied computer science (not math heavy) two summers ago, and it culminated in a joint conference publication.

The problem with Manager A and Postdoc B are that they are not professors, and I did not do any pure mathematics with them, which I heard should not be a part of my application package.
I was briefly in engineering. I switched into my current math and computer science program about 1.5 years into my undergraduate degree. I started becoming serious about going to math grad school last summer, after testing the waters with industry.
My GPA is probably among the top 1%, and I have taken most of the upper level undergraduate math courses. I will be taking some graduate level math courses at the same time as my applying to graduate schools in the fall.
I've also been learning more graduate number theory material with a mentor on the side, and will be writing some expository pieces. But again, a graduate mentor cannot write me letters of recommendations.
Of course, if I choose Professor X,Y,Z, then I will have 3 letters, but only one of them will be strong. Should I explain this in my statement of purpose? Can I still fix this situation by working on a more meaningful research project in the fall?

I think X, Y and Z with both X and Y strong will be just fine. Few undergraduates have had enough contact with faculty to generate three strong letters.
The work you did with A and B  will be on your CV and you can discuss it in a cover letter.
Good luck.


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Contacting recommender to submit the remaining letters
I am applying for graduate schools these days. One of my recommenders had submitted all but three letters before the deadline. I emailed him last week about the three letters. He then submitted one letter on Friday. However, there are still two left. The deadline for both schools is within a week. As far as I know, he often checks his email at weekend. I am afraid he might not be able to submit the letters on time because of Christmas.
I don't know other ways to contact him and the school is on holiday now. What should I do? Is it appropriate to ask other staff to help me contact him?
Thanks in advance.

I you recently emailed him about the issue, why do you think he isn't aware of the deadlines?

@Buffy Actually, the official deadline is already passed.  I contacted the schools to ask for a delay.

TL;DR
Learning to manage your own feelings of worry and anxiety is likely to be a more useful focus than the question "Do I, or don't I, hassle my recommender once again?"
Your own sense of uncertainty about what to do simply reflects the fact there there is no sure-fire answer to your question. I'm sure you've worked through some of the almost infinite possibilities in your own mind, but let's try and spell out just a couple of them, ... and use "Prof R." to refer to your recommender:

Despite your own reminders to Prof R., the remaining reminder emails have
simply slipped their mind. Prof R is having too
much Christmas fun. If you contact Prof. R again, they (might) find
enough time amid the fun to do as you asked (success) ... or not
(failure, but nothing lost from trying).

As for point 1, except that instead of having fun, Prof. R is
overwhelmed by pre-Christmas demands from you and everyone else. Your
further reminder to Prof. R. annoys them. To get away from the
annoyance of you hassling them, Prof R. writes the letter of
recommendation (success based on principle of "the squeaky wheel gets the grease") ... or decides that, despite their previous
intentions, they are now going to avoid you and to focus on something
other than you and your request (failure!)

What is clear is that (i) there is no reasonable way of predicting the response of Prof R., and (ii) there is no sure-fire way of getting what you want. A suggestion from someone on Stack Exchange to do one thing versus another will be made in the face of even less information than you have about the individual person, Prof R.
That said, however, there is a fair amount of evidence in the psychological literature, that doing something is more likely to reduce your own anxiety (at least temporarily) than doing nothing. Doing something is also more likely to reduce the possibility of your own later feelings of regret. If those things are important to you, then do whatever is necessary to get another reminder to Prof R. ... and then live with the outcome which will be well and truly settled by the New Year.

source: Stack Exchange

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

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Not utilizing PhD research skills in industry and feeling useless?
I completed my PhD in 2020 and have been working in a science policy analyst position since 2021.
I enjoy the work that I am doing but it doesn't feel the same kind of challenging and intellectually stimulating as my research experience during my PhD and postdoc. I read papers broadly associated with my field (materials science) but they are often unrelated to my past research experience.
I often feel that I could have done the same thing without a PhD (even though it was a requirement), and my masters degree would have sufficed.
When compared to compensation, the salary is less ($80K) than what an assistant professor gets in my country ($110K). But the working hours are strictly 35 hours a week, so I have a healthy work life balance.
However, I feel that I am underutilizing my potential and have wasted my PhD degree.
Any advice for me? How to overcome this feeling of being useless when not contributing anything to research? Does this ever go away?
My PhD advisor has offered me a part-time research associate position, that can be worked on during the weekends. This will bring in $10k extra. Will it be a good idea to accept it?

Maybe relevant? Thinking about leaving academia for good. I am feeling guilty and disappointed in myself. Any thoughts/advice?, Left academia for a job with a publishing company. Is it normal to feel guilty or "settled" about a decision? How to overcome the feeling?

https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/181681/ls-it-wrong-to-not-have-any-research-ambitions-after-phd-and-postdoc-experience/181682#181682 Also relevant

I do not get the core problem: are you unsatisfied because of the salary, or because of the intellectual stimulus of your work place?

@EarlGrey or both?

Apply for other jobs?

Salary in the private work can only go up if you change to a more managerial position.
You are unsatisfied because of salary and because of intellectual stimulus (or at least, it looks like that, although if I were in your shoes I would carefully consider what an assistant professor does with the extra pre-tax 30k ... with no time to enjoy them, what's the point? investing them for retirement? they die early because of chronic fatigue :D ).
Your advisor is sending you a very good life raft: a temporary research position, so you can get your foot back in the academia (if you really want to) while at the same time you keep your position in the private world (terms&conditions may apply, check them) and you can go "full in" after a search of a pay raise (even by changing employer).
Good luck!

Somewhere there is advice to change jobs after three years. Unless you are entirely satisfied and want to do that same job until you are dragged off to the old-age home. You are coming up to the three years.
If the company you work for has a research division, get into it. If not, or if they won't let you move, polish up that CV. Start looking for other companies that do have research divisions. Or possibly even companies that have different focus to the company you work for right now.
Consider whether the kind of research you would be fulfilled doing is happening in your home town or even home country.
Materials science is a huge topic. Maybe if you moved "sideways" a little there is something you could enjoy doing. Was your thesis on new ways to produce such-and-such? What about new ways to test such-and-such to detect degradation in use? You see the idea I am trying to get at. There are many aspects of a topic that can be useful to your employer and also interesting to work on.
String out a fantasy. Imagine you worked for ten years on some new product line. And each time your research made the company some more money, they gave you a raise, promotion, and a larger lab. Pretty soon you could be a senior researcher with several lab assistants, an office with a window, and a parking spot near the front door.
Now remember what it took to get you your PhD. How often was your work week as short as 35 hours? Pretty sure the typical prof in a university works more than 35 hours also. Part of that is that the work interests them, so they don't feel the urge to escape the office the first minute they can. So finding a niche in a company that interests you is important. But so is commitment and effort. You must choose what you want to invest your time in, and how much.

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Is it appropriate to refer to a department in pharmacy colleges as "Microbiology & Immunology" from a scientific standpoint?
In the region where I reside, it's common for pharmacy colleges to designate the department which teaches medical/pharmacy students human disease causing microorganisms and human immunity as "Microbiology & Immunology".
Isn't immunology part of microbiology, because human immune cells are very small in size (micro) and living (biology).
What about viruses, they are taught there too in this same department, however, they are nonliving.
I know it sounds like I'm stating an argument, but it's really a question, specifically because I think one should always leave the door open for something not obvious, when they have an opinion that diverges from the norm.

Academic departments nowadays like to choose names describing the research they do, which may not always match the teaching they do.

Why is it an issue for you? Why is your opinion the ‘norm’?

Obligatory xkcd. Why do you think it matters for public naming that by technical taxonomy one of the fields can be considered a specialisation of the other?

@GEdgar
Yeah, you could be right , that's the question is what do the names of departments refer to.
A good to my question answer would one that states what do these names ought to refer to, rather than down voting.

Microbiology is not merely the study of "small biology" but specifically of microorganisms, including viruses (including phages) and bacteria, as well as protozoa and fungi. See also e.g. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microbiology
Immunology is the study of immune systems. Sometimes immune systems interact with viruses and bacteria and other "invaders", but they also interact with native cells. An especially hot topic in immunology this century has been the involvement of the immune system in fighting cancer, but the immune system also has a role in overall "cleanup". And definitely not only humans possess immune systems.
As far as what to call a department or course, remember that language is for communication, not systematics, and it may not be possible or reasonable to fit all potential study and knowledge into discrete departments with discrete names. I don't think that's really the problem in understanding with the specific case you mention, but more broadly speaking a department can definitely educate about things that are not strictly mentioned in that department's name, and similarly other departments may cover things despite them potentially falling into the description of a different one.

Microbiology and Virology Vs. Microbiology and Immunology
Two words vs two words and both study the same concepts

@FreezingSoul I don't understand your comment. Microbiology and Virology sounds a bit redundant to me, but reasonable if someone wants to emphasize their study of virology. You might not expect to find Immunology in that department but if you did that wouldn't necessarily be "wrong".

I could understand that it maybe won't matter that you state the specialization and its subordinate specialization as in: Microbiology & Immunology
But why are you saying that Microbiology and Virology is redundant, it's atleast better than the first case, because viruses are non living microorganisms.

@FreezingSoul Microbiology includes viruses, like I said. It doesn't matter if they are "alive" or not or what it even means to be "alive", they're definitely biology.


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How can I convince my professor that I did not copy from another student?
I am a computer science major and I was given a zero grade for having identical code to another student. I did not copy or share the code with anyone. The professor warned us that copying code from online sources or having overly similar code to another student will be punished. However, I did not copy or share the code and the professor don't seem to trust me because the code was identical. What can I do to convince/prove that it is my own work?

How many lines of the code?

He did not specify but said "code identical to code submitted by another student".

How many lines you wrote?

I wrote about 17 lines excluding line spacing.

Did you use the teaching materials?

I fully wrote the code myself and used the textbook for reference.

Do you have any explanation how your code could be identical to another student's without you violating any rules? Same source (yours is cited)? Could they have had access to your code? Copied the files or photographed the screen? Is the code so absolutely obvious that only one way exists to write it (with 17 lines, this is difficult to believe)? Without a plausible route for incidental (from your perspective) match I think you will have a very difficult time to prove your innocence.

You wrote 17 lines of code. We don't know how many lines are supposedly the same. With 17 lines of simple code, it is quite possible to have 5 or 6 identical lines. I actually had a colleague once whose style was quite exactly the same as mine. The first time I noticed was looking at some code, it looked exactly as if I had written it, but couldn't remember it. With this guy, both of us writing 17 identical lines of code would be not unusual. Emacs: In this example, there were thousands of ways to write the code, but we two would tend to write it identical.

Did you check the code into Github or another source code repository before turning it in? Github repos are public by default.

@CaptainEmacs In your run-off-the-mill programming assignment, especially with a textbook reference, coincidental identity in 17 lines of code is not too wild, like gnasher729 says. Even more so in languages like C where some of these lines are just brackets. Think an assignment such as "given a list of strings, find a sum of all indices of words with the most a's in them" or something silly like that they love to give to students. Large part of the creativity causing potential differences will boil down to choosing variable names from i, k, x, n, acc or what have you...

@gnasher729 Quite possible. I also have a very dominant programming style that rubs off on people that I work with intensely. However, it is not clear that OP has such a relation with the other student. Sometimes, style is facilitated by the specific problem setting. As someone who has to detect plagiarism etc., however, some coincidences are too much to believe. Esp. if there are more than two cases. Let's put it this way - I believe an incidental similarity more strongly when the submissions are strong and have 'personality' (so to say) than when they are run-off-the-mill solutions.

@gnasher729 Mediocre or weak students do not usually have a strong sense of style; here, I expect a lot more variation if not confined by the problem setting. Anyway, it is rarely provable beyond reasonable doubt.

This sounds like exactly the sort of situation where university appeals processes, or "grievance" processes as they are sometimes called, can help. Whether they would help in your situation, or merely strain relationships, is something only you can judge. In deciding whether to initiate an appeal, I suggest you consider:

The likely university-wide effect (if any) of your professor believing that you cheated.
The value of the assignment for which you have received a 0 grade.

If you are at risk of being suspended from the degree course by the university administration because of your professor's belief, then that would weigh in favor of a rapid appeal. If your professor's beliefs have no carry-over effect, that might weigh against an appeal.
If the assignment forms a significant part of the course grade of an essential course, that again weighs in favor of an appeal. A small proportion of overall grade, or an irrelevant elective course, would weight against it.
Lastly, there are the consequences of an appeal itself, which might not be to your liking, even if you succeed! For example, it might sour your relationships with the professor, and that might be important to you.
In the end, only you can judge.
There is one last thing, which is actually a question: Is there any possibility that the other student saw your work and copied it? You might be able to judge that if you are in a position to know the emotional reaction of the other student to having likewise received a 0 grade.

There are basically three possibilities here assuming you are telling the truth:

This really is just a big coincidence
Your friend copied you due to your negligence or with malice
You both inadvertently copied off of someone else

For case 1, the likelihood of this depends on multiple factors. First and foremost, the programming language in question. For a more verbose language like C or Java, 17 lines of duplicate code is possible. For others, especially ones with in-line operators (e.g ternary operators), it becomes less feasible, although not impossible. This also depends on the question itself, is it a straightforward question like "Write quicksort" or is it more open ended like "How to rate limit HTTP requests" (although I'm more inclined to believe, given it is 17 lines, that it is probably the first case).
These are all factors that you can potentially use in your defence. Verbose languages (or languages with very strict syntax) makes your case more compelling. Verbosity naturally increases the amount of lines necessary to express a certain piece of logic. In other words, a 17 LOC (line of code) in Python can do much more than 17 LOC in C. If your question is closed ended, then naturally there would only be a couple possible solutions, meaning duplicate solutions are much more likely.
For case 2, which personally I think is much more likely, is that you accidentally left your laptop open (as an example) or your friend somehow hacked your laptop. I'm more inclined to believe its probably negligence, which isn't necessarily good news for you because most University will still punish plagiarism out of negligence, although you will likely get a much less severe punishment (usually warnings for first offenders). If its a malicious act, like hacking, then you probably need to contact your University's IT department to gather proof.
For case 3, which is a real possibility. I would advise you to really think about whether or not you may have accidentally formulated your answer around an already established piece of code. This happens all the time. In this case it really depends on if you were required to cite your sources (which some courses actually do mandate, especially for StackOverflow copying). This would probably fall under improper citations (if it is the case) and again you would probably be lightly punished.


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My supervisor uses my scientific jokes and metaphors in his talks. What's a healthy way to deal with this?
I'm a PhD student in the US. During my PhD I gave many conference talks, seminars, and presentations at our group meetings. In my talks, I often mention a creative way to phrase a problem, sometimes in a form of a scientific joke, sometimes as an interesting metaphor. These are always inventions of my creative insights that I had while preparing the talk/slides.
A couple of times I later caught my supervisor using the same creative ways of phrasing the problem in his talks. He applies this in places where he talks about the same or a slightly different problem. This happened in at least two of his keynote talks (where I was present in the room) and one lecture from a course he was teaching that I happened to hear a recording of later on.
I can understand his motivation as it might be the same as my motivation. When I do that, my main goal is to help the audience remember an important message from my talk, but it's also to entertain the audience (there's many boring talks already!), or challenge the audience to think differently about a problem. It's likely that his motivation is the same.
Nevertheless, this really bothers me. I can't make up my mind though if I'm right to be bothered by this. Does my supervisor do something that isn't "right" here? I never heard him mention that this way of phrasing the problem or this joke or metaphor comes from me. If he at least said something like: "one of my students says here that ______", I would feel okay with this.
Should I be open and tell my supervisor that this bothers me? I realize that (unless there is some form of misconduct, like IP breach, here) he might think it's a foolish thing to be bothered about. And I'm open to the possibility that he might be right thinking so. If I'm exaggerating, what is a more healthy way for me to look at this issue?

I think it's worth indulging in a brief mental game with yourself. Consider that the supervisor credits you as the creator of the joke or metaphor. An audience member, a supervisor at another university, remembers the metaphor/joke. How would you feel about them simply telling their colleagues that they heard a great metaphor used at the conference they went to. Or do you want the 2nd person to remember that it was you, who they never met, that was the author? Answering the question (for yourself, not here!) might clarify what it is you want. Perhaps to be more appreciated?

Calling somebody (not only your supervisor) re-using your jokes and metaphores an "IP breach" indeed seems like an overreach. I wonder how often you re-use the metaphores your teachers and supervisor used, directly or in a new variant? I do it all the time, and I suspect so does everybody else. Heck, it feels like half the examples used in science these days are basically communal property because they have been recycled so often.

Pragmatically, if you have a reasonable relationship with your supervisor, then let them know that you would appreciate some informal acknowledgement or call-out every once in a while. Other than that I would honestly try to let it go.

If you are not a stand up comedian who is supervised by a professor who is also regularly doing stand up gigs, I do not see how it is an issue.

People often remember a good joke without remembering from whom they heard it.

user166549, If an answer below is used to address the issue, will you pass on to the supervisor the name of the person who answered it?

Seems to me that your supervisor really shouldn't be using these regularly without at least some sort of (even informal) acknowledgement .  I would feel bothered and I'm sure most people would in your situation.  Personally, I would stop adding these extras and save your extra efforts for a future endeavor where it will be better acknowledged and/or appreciated.

How do such talks look like in your field? There are fields in which a professor presents a big chunk of the past work of their group, usually giving credit to everybody involved. There are also cases where professors mainly present the state of a subfield, etc.

Think about to make some kind of regular posting of the jokes on some written medium, as website, messenger or similar... For example xkcd.com can be cited, if one wants, and if not, others can see "oh this person uses this jokes without giving a source". Or much better: they hear this joke, then searching for some picture for it for the next conference to use it at their own, and find your "original" which has a timestamp older than the day your supervisor told it... Maybe this would satisfy your feelings in a constructive way.

Are you a first year PhD student?  Sounds like you a being a bit sensitive to these things in a way that is typical of people who have recently made the transition from undergraduate to PhD student.

Learn to deal with it. You’ll get nowhere in your career if try and fight battles every time you feel a perceived slight.

Is the supervisor aware that you are coming up with these jokes yourself, instead of just cribbing someone else's work?  And, are you absolutely 100% sure that you are definitely the first person to ever make that joke/metaphor, so that he could not possibly have even potentially been using it since before he so much as met you?

(i.e. if he credits the creation of a joke or metaphor to you during one of his talks, but afterwards everyone in the audience keeps telling him "But Feynman made that same joke/reference 60 years ago!", then it makes both him and you look bad, even if you did come to it entirely from first principles, instead of piecing something together half-remembered from a book)

Be watching this YouTube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmkwbqfdj20) sometime when he walks by you.

As the old saying goes, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.  Ideally, we all want presenters in academia to get as good at presenting topics as they can, so it is reasonable for your supervisor (or any other academic) to make use of the useful metaphors, jokes, etc. you have developed.  We sometimes expect that they will do this in a way that gives credit to the original source, but this is subject to the exigencies of conversation or presentation.  Good presentations are usually much more loose about sources than papers, so in this context a person might use a metaphor, joke, etc., without crediting the source.  If they are doing this repeatedly then you would expect at some stage that they would give some informal credit to the source (if it is not already well-known), but again, this is a fairly informal expectation.
As a general rule, academic supervisors are reasonable people and if there is something bothering you about the relationship then you should raise it with them for discussion.  Let your supervisor know that you are glad he likes your metaphors, jokes, etc., enough to use them in such important speeches, but you are concerned that (absent some credit to you) his greater visibility in the profession might make it look like you are copying metaphors, jokes, etc., developed by him rather than the other way around.  Ask him if he would be open to having you both brainstorm some ways that he could drop in credit to you so that audiences who see both of you present are aware that you are the developer of the relevant metaphors, ideas, etc.  You might find out that he is already doing this in contexts where you are not present (e.g., he is already giving you credit for the metaphors, jokes, etc., in conversations with other academics).  Alternatively, you will at least see if he is symapthetic to your problem and receptive to the idea of giving you more credit.
If you decide to have this conversation, I recommend you first rethink your idea that your supervisor is doing something inherently wrong in using your metaphors, jokes, etc., and instead focus on getting some credit (and certainly there is no IP issue here so don't raise that).  If it were me in your shoes, I would stress to my supervisor that I'm happy to see my ideas were useful enough to use in a keynote speech and that I appreciate that academics will naturally draw ideas and methods from others where they find merit in these ideas and methods.  Approach the conversation in a sympathetic way where you exhibit understanding of your supervisor's goal of giving high-quality presentations.  See if your supervsor is receptive to reaching an accommodation that pleases you both.

The copyright law would like a talk with your old saying :)

@WoJ There's a lot of criticism of copyright law, in many fields. Even academic norms, old as they may be (in certain fields), are often at odds with the requirements of copyright law: various legal actions are plagiarism, and various common practices are illegal.

You could make an IP issue of it. Similarly, you could jump from a second story balcony to see what happens. Neither seems remotely like a good idea.

Thank you. This answer helps me the most to look at this in a more relaxed way.

Indeed, if you come up with something original, it's going to be reused, and may even go viral. I once made an original remark on a forum that turning PDF into XML was like turning hamburgers into cows; I was in the audience when a presenter used exactly the same analogy at a conference talk ten years later. Nothing you can do about it. Just take it as an indicator that you're a successful communicator.

Asking to brainstorm ways to offer credit seems... very formal? For something that is very much a kind of throwaway flattery. It's worth remembering that when you are a professional in your own right, you'll still be making your jokes and observations in your talks, and he'll still be listening to them and reusing them in his!

@Tanaya: Perhaps too formal; I'd be open to alternative framing.  My goal of framing it as "brainstorming" is to raise the issue in a way that does not assert a required method and does not pre-empt the position of the other person, while still showing a desire to get a different outcome than is presently occurring.  This is just in case the supervisor reacts badly to the matter being raised, in which case it is easy to de-escalate.

Firstly, please remember that you are a PhD student, not a professional comedian.
Secondly, it might not be a good idea to use someone else's jokes while intentionally pretending as if they are your own. However, there are many exceptions*, and even if he had intentionally done it for his own gain, it would have not been possible for you to know whether it was his intention.
You should also know that we do use jokes invented by other people all the time with or without acknowledgement. Often, we just don't know or remember who invented the jokes, or we just use the jokes naturally without even thinking about it. Sometimes, it is not necessary at all to acknowledge the ones who invented the jokes because it is a norm (*).

Downvoted because scientists—just like comedians—can become known and appreciated for their funny, memorable, illuminating ways of looking at things. If the OP's jokes and metaphors are good enough to enrich an established researcher's keynote talks and lectures, they're good enough to burnish to the OP's reputation. By re-using them without credit, the advisor is passing up a chance to boost his student's career. He even risks tarnishing the OP's reputation by making the OP's creative work sound less original, as Ben describes.

agree with @Vectornaut -we desperately need good scientific communicators, and being funny can be a big part of that. Like, great that your supervisor likes your way of communicating enough to copy it, but it could be a problem if, say, you're just about to give a talk after them, and so it looks like you've just recycled what they've said

Assuming your witty remarks are not the core of your talks; i.e. you're not working in a marketing or writing related field, are not comedians, or anything like that, I would suggest to learn to live with this.
Things to ask yourself:

Does it hurt you or your image in the field if your superior is doing that?
Is your previous use of that joke diminished by your superior using it later?
Is there any risk that these jokes end up in print and someone thinks that you are the impostor?
Does your superior gain anything from them that he does not already gain from the core of his talks? I.e., is there a chance that he will get invited to future talks instead of you, so directly hurting your chances to talk?

If none of this is the case, and you can not think of any other (probably even more convoluted) ways this would harm you, then let it go. In this case, your superior is not hurting you. He may gain something for himself by being able to talk more enjoyable than without your contribution, but again - it does not hurt you. Guess what, you are gaining from his support as well; you are a team.
As he is using your jokes, he is obviously not able to come up with his own, at least not as easily; or he finds yours so hilarious that he can't help but use them. Or he takes inspiration from your more casual way of giving talks. All of that is an indirect praise. He can hardly put in a small reference for each joke he learned from you. Either he is not even aware that he heard the joke from you; or he is aware, and even though nobody else knows, he does, and his contact to you is thus slightly more valuable to him than if it weren't so - and this also makes it slightly more valuable to you, since you have an ever so slightly more tight bond to him in this way.
Is your superior doing something outright wrong? Speaking from a law point of view, words or sentences are very hard to protect against re-use. Copyright hardly applies here; it is only concerned about "works", i.e. literally making a copy of a physical thing. Ideas, concepts, facts and so on are not protectable by copyright. Repeating a joke will not pass as copyright infringement in any court, anywhere. Frankly, were I to witness you two using the same joke in two different talks, I would either not really notice or care; or I would feel your superior slightly diminished for having to re-use the joke from somewhere else.
I don't think you should be talking to your superior; but if you do feel that this issue is nagging at you, do contact someone about it. Maybe your uni has some kind of counsellor which you can book a 1:1 with to discuss the issue - not to clear up any misbehaviour of your superior, but to figure out how you can shift your own view to handle this well.

Write him a joke about how his sense of humor would have run dry long ago if it weren't for his PhD students.
Ask that he deliver that joke along with the others.

This is a great solution.

This can come off quite offensive though. It's a good self-deprecative joke, but those jokes rarely work out nicely used on others, for a good reason.

Yes, he is doing something that is not completely right. But it is not enough of a big deal to be worth complaining to him. If you complain, he is likely to think that you are being foolish or unreasonable.
You could say something in a friendly and light-hearted way, when there are just you and him present, like "I enjoyed your talk and I noticed that you used my joke about xxx again!" and then see what he says. But you have to say it in a nice way, like you don't mind him using your jokes at all.

I think there's a different issue underlying this to do with your desire to be seen as a peer not a student.
However there is also an old saying about knowing which battles are worth fighting over and which are not.
Fighting this battle might simply not be worth the cost.

Should I be open and tell my supervisor that this bothers me ?

Consider first your own reaction if someone came to you and said "Hey man, you used my joke without giving me credit for it."
If you already have a bad relationship then raising this issue won't make it much worse but it's unlikely your supervisor in that case would do anything positive for you or stop using your jokes.
If you have a good relationship it might work out, but it risks turning a good relationship into a bad one.
All in all I'd say it's a pointless risk with little chance of an upside for you.  And at this point you need to ask yourself exactly what an "upside" or "victory" would do for you ?

I realize that (unless there is some form of misconduct, like IP breach, here) he might think it's a foolish thing to be bothered about.

Yes that's possible.
I think the real issue is something else.  It may be about your desire to be recognized and acknowledged by the world or maybe just by your supervisor.  As a PhD student you naturally want to be seen as becoming a peer with your supervisors and teacher.  That is, after all, the goal.  But that does not mean that you have to chase every opportunity to get that acknowledgement.  It means you need to focus on the Big One : completing your PhD successfully.  When you've got your PhD you can argue about who uses your jokes without acknowledgement as much as you like, but I suspect when you've completed your PhD this won't seem as important to you.
Give this some thought.

Revel in it. Noting somebody else's comment about your being a student rather than a comedian, but if you are known to be both a competent worker and somebody who can coin a memorable and relevant bon mot it will almost certainly be to your advantage.

Make sure you have a blog where you write down these jokes, analogies and whatnot, making it clear they are your own invention.  If you prepare it for a lecture, make sure it's in the lecture notes. Include it in papers.
Someone reading your material who heard it used without attribution by someone close to you will instantly know.
It may even be the case that if the "perp" borrows exact wording from your version, then someone curious about the joke, wondering whether it's online somewhere, will be led to your page.
I think this is the best strategy. Don't reproach, don't pick any fights. Just passively assert your authorship through publication. The passage of time will do its thing.

Devil's advocate here.
You are living in a physical world very similar to your supervisor, in terms of life experiences (living in the same region, going to the same conferences, etcetc.). You also live in an intellectual world very close to your supervisor.
We are all unique individuals, but in terms of the outcome of our brain's processes we are way less unique than we think. Given that you are not a professional comedian (nor your advisor), a joke/funny rephrasing is something that is done by your brain as a "side product" of its skills.
It is quite likely that your advisor heard the sentence/joke from you, that their brain stored it somewhere (in the very short-term thinking "hey, user166549 really nailed it", in the short-term "hey, my student really nailed it" and afterwards "hey, that was a cool way to express that concept") and nowadays they do not recognize anymore as the product of someone else. If this is the case: congratulations, you are good at nicely exposing your ideas and you know how to make something stick in someone else brain, this skill will be of tremendous help when you have to do talks and especially when applying to a future position, you know how to leave a mark!
Let's play a mind experiment: let's assume that what you said is an easy creative phrasing that anybody with 5 years experience in your field and a bit of interest in outreach can produce. In this case: congratulations again, you are part of the expert on the topic and you speak the same language as the expert (and therefore if you think your ideas have been stolen: congratulations, do not worry a research project is 5% idea and 95% implementation)!
Final remark: exposing creatively an idea or a concept is a soft-skill. Do not worry about appropriation: the audience is capable of distinguishing when you say something creative but taken from someone else, and when you says something creative that you forged. In the first case the creative sentence stands out from the talk ("nice talk with almost out of context funny remarks..."), in the second case it blends into the talk setting the tone of the talk as a whole ("very interesting talk!").


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What would you do if the author of a published CS article does not respond to code requests?
Since reproducibility is a major principle or basic norm of scientific experiments, simulations, and computations, what would you do or what to do if the author of a published CS article does not respond to code requests?

It could be that they are busy, especially with putting teaching material on-line because of COVID.  It could also be that your emails are ending up in their spam filter.  I'd also suggest that reproducibility means you can reproduce their results from the information provided, which may not mean code.  Just running their code is not a good test of whether the method is right.

It is also possible if the paper is not recent that they don't actually have the source code, especially if it was the work of a PhD student, for example.  I don't have source code for all of the papers I have written (and research code seems more vulnerable to "bit-rot" than most, so it may not even run without substantial work).

I do not think anybody has an obligation to you to respond to code requests.

Executing the same code on the same or similar data can be expected to lead to the same result. It isn't reproducible science.
The proper way to think of it is to think about what scientific question is being asked and find a way to answer it, either positively or negatively. In other words, from the nature of the question, create a methodology sufficient to give appropriate evidence for the truth or falseness of the hypothesis. Then execute that methodology in an appropriate way and extract the results, whether they confirm the original study or not.
But simple repetition isn't reproducibility.
It would be a different question if you were exploring whether the code itself is flawed and leads to biased results. But the same is true for questions about methodology in general. Likewise if you suspected fraud in the presentation of results.
But for true reproducibility conduct an independent study of the question at hand.

Some journals, especially in the physical sciences, require code or data to be made available as a condition of publication, either upon publication or upon request.  For instance, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has this statement:

Authors must make Unique Materials (e.g., cloned DNAs;
antibodies; bacterial, animal, or plant cells; viruses; and algorithms and computer codes) promptly available on request
by qualified researchers for their own use. Failure to comply
will preclude future publication in the journal.

You could try contacting the editor of the journal if the article was published in such a journal, who would pressure the authors to make their code available.  However, I would first try contacting other co-authors (first rather than senior, or vice-versa) who might be more willing or able to respond to the request.

Hmmm, why would an editor "pressure" an author of an already reviewed and published article if it isn't required by the journal or norms of the field? I think the policies you name are intended to prevent fraud and misconduct. Especially in health related fields.

@Buffy Because the editor might care if the paper published is fake or not?

@Yakk, It's been through the editor's own review process. If you allege fraud, don't ask for the code, allege fraud.

@Buffy in the case of "Proceedings", the editor would pressure the authors because sharing code is a policy that all authors must agree to as a condition of publication.  If the journal in question doesn't have this policy, then there is no cause to contact the editor.


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If I have a PhD in computer science, could I contribute to philosophical outlets or would I need a philosophy PhD to do that?
In the future, I'm planning to pursue a PhD in computer science. Alongside making technical contributions to the field of computer science (artificial intelligence in particular), I'd like to give my philosophical take (or two) on where the field of artificial intelligence is headed.
My question is: If I get a PhD in computer science, would I need to get a PhD in philosophy in order to contribute to philosophical outlets that discuss computer science topics? More broadly, if I write a good enough paper, could I contribute to philosophical outlets in general or would me not having a PhD in philosophy be a barrier?
I was reading this answer and this part stuck out to me (a comment on the first answer):

I'm having a really hard time identifying a career path that requires
two formal PhD's, unless one discipline is in the humanities and the
other is in a STEM field, and one decided to start with the non-STEM
field.

I'm starting with the STEM field here, so I'm not sure if in my case it makes sense to pursue multiple PhDs.

How much training do you have in philosophy?  Have you studied the work of any 20th century philosopher?

Lookup Thomas Kuhn's career. He might be a role model for you https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Kuhn

I think this answers your real question: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17232/is-doing-two-phds-a-good-path

Does this answer your question? Does one need to be affiliated with a university to publish papers?

Note that the indicated duplicate addresses not having a PhD as well as not having an affiliation.

Besides Kuhn, there's Douglas Hofstadter, whose undergraduate degree was mathematics, after which he got a Ph.D. in physics, but who is better known for his work in theoretical computer science, philosophy of science, cognitive psychology, receiving the Pulitzer Prize (non-fiction literature), etc.

@DaveLRenfro Douglas Hofstadter also had "only one" PhD in physics, right? And yet he contributed to all of these other fields because he was naturally interested in those.

He had "only one" Ph.D. Also, for what it's worth, his 1975 Ph.D. thesis The Energy Levels of Bloch Electrons in a Magnetic Field (University of Oregon) wasn't on anything that is suggestive of his later interests.

If you can make a real contribution to philosophy and if you can write it up in a form that philosophers can understand, then you should be able to publish it in a philosophical outlet.

You don't need even one doctorate to contribute to any field. Publications accept or reject papers based on the papers not the "qualifications" of the authors.
Just write your papers and submit them. Of course you might also work to develop some collaborative relationships with philosophers who can also give you advice on things.
And at any large (and some small) universities, you can just wander over to the philosophy department, find their coffee lounge, and start up a conversation.
Doing actual research in philosophy, however, probably requires a somewhat different skill set than in CS, but you can develop that.
And don't confuse Opinion with Philosophy. In any field, you need a basis for what you write for it to be publishable.

I like Buffy's answer. (I don't get the -1). I would also add something to the answer about looking at the career of Thomas Kuhn who completed his PhD in physics, but switched research areas to be a philosopher of science.

Great answer. The first sentence says the most important thing.

@MorganRodgers, I certainly agree with your intent, and the same is true in every field. But these can be learned (and practiced) outside a formal educational setting.

@Buffy and Richard Erickson: so what you're saying is that if I'm good enough, I can publish wherever I want? I like that. I am heeding what Morgan Rodgers said, but I was always a person who liked to learn outside a formal educational setting.

Yes, but what you can publish is up to editors and reviewers. They are looking for quality and innovation. Knowledge is required to do quality stuff, but not any particular degree.

@Buffy just what I wanted to hear.

You don't need two PhDs. But you need to learn and build your research experience in the fields that you are interested in to be able to make good research contributions.
If your papers are good, people will not ask to see your diploma. However, if you want to become a professor and teach philosophy in a philosophy department, having a diploma would likely be required.
I think you would be interested by a field called "cognitive science" that is at the intersection of philosophy, AI, psychology, neurosciences and linguistics. In that field, researchers tend to have an interdisciplinary background combining at least two of the above disciplines. For example, I did my PhD in "Cognitive Computer Science" at UQAM in Canada, and although our main focus was Computer Science, I took courses in neuroscience as part of it, as well as we had some courses given by some philosophy professors, and I could have taken some linguistic course as well. In my project, I combined psychology theories with AI to build some system. If you choose such program or do some interdisciplinary projects, you can certainly learn and contribute in a few fields.
For your PhD that you are planning, you could choose an interdisciplinary topic such as something related to cognitive science, and find a supervisor in CS and a co-supervisor that is more involved in philosophy or other topics that you like. Then, you could build some expertise in both domains.


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How to prepare for Thesis defence presentation?
I am doing Master Thesis which is now in a final stage. My Thesis submission is in around 3 weeks and i am almost done with documenting my findings. This is my first ever Thesis writing in my whole academic career. So I am already thinking about Thesis defence presentation.
I want to know that how to prepare for the defence presentation? and how to overcome or reduce stress regarding this?.

Which country? Thesis defense varies quite a lot.

Take some of your friends and hold your presentation to them. Don't focus to much on the content at these trails. Instead use them get used to holding the presentation.
Your source of stress seems to be the fact that you have no experience. The only way to get it is to do dry runs in a low impact setting.

If you already know where you will present your results, get familiar with the equipment at your disposition.  Know ahead about the projector; what is the image resolution and format ratio? Know about the switches for light, blends, audio (where applicable).  If done on-line, get to know this techniques ahead of time, too.
Slightly different to the answer by @schaedelkeks I suggest you seek a test audience which includes colleagues of your present group who already passed a Master thesis.  Not only that they (should) know formal requirements of the talk (e.g., formatting of the slides in general, identification of typos, friendly nitpicking on citing references if necessary).  Because of their seniority to you, they may ask questions similar to the ones by a thesis jury after your presentation of the results.  Ideally, they should know at least a little about your field you worked in (a.k.a., context), but not too much about your work actually done; otherwise, their lines of thought may be too similar to yours and thus possibly miss errors.
Give at least two test talks. Often, after the first test presentation of a thesis, you work on multiple errors, adjust the argumentation by different sequences of thought, and weed out omissions. There may be this much work that it may be difficult for you to see all the good already brought together.  A second test talk thus is more than probing and rehearsing a revised version of your talk. It offers you additional ease when you eventually present your results to the jury.


text:
I have read research paper of the professor to whom i want to apply for internship but cannot understand it fully
I am currently an undergraduate student, in the 3rd year of my 4-year computer science degree and I want to email a professor to do a research internship with them. I went to some of their research papers, I liked the topics to which they are related as well as I enjoyed reading most part of it but there are some portions which I cannot understand fully.
While applying what is the best way to describe that I read their research paper and I am interested to work with them in this case?
Important note : I am from Theoretical Computer Science background

It’s not necessary to fully understand the paper to start working on research in the field. You’re still a student — you are there to learn, and you will learn as you go along. In my experience, it’s more important to communicate why you’re interested in the research than the fact that you’re completely familiar with the field, especially as an undergrad.

You have a better answer than mine now, probably.

If you could understand the papers completely, what you would learn from this person?

Professors are, or at least tend to be, busy people. So my primary advice is to keep it short and to the point. Tell them which year you are in, that you are looking for a research internship, add a very high level topic you are interested in (the more specialized a topic you insist on, the less likely a match can be found), and that you went through their papers (add names if it’s not too many), and that you enjoyed reading them. They will write back to get into any details if interested, or maybe even refer you after talking to you if they aren’t.
I do not agree with what was said here too that understanding every step of a paper is needed or even helpful. You are an undergrad seeking to learn from them by working with them, not a peer-level collaborator. Obsessing about getting every word when some will be standard tricks or conventions obvious to researchers in the field but not outside is both frustrating and wasting time you could have used more productively. What you ideally need is a good grasp of the paper’s intuition and internal logic. The professor should realize in a follow-up discussion if they feel you are prepared enough.

Just one remark: avoid including paper titles in emails without briefly explaining in your own words while they're interesting/relevant. This easily comes off as a generic spam mail and leads to the opposite of what's intended.

From the perspective of an academic, I expect a prof to look at the motivation of the student and their background: Why are they interested in this research? What are the tools and skills they  bring to the table?
If they do not understand the paper yet, that can be amended when they come to intern. After all, the academic is the world expert on the topic, the intern does not have to be topic-savvy.


text:
Transfer article to better Physical Review journal
I submitted a paper to PRA: Rapid Communications. I was asked to resubmit because my supplemental material was too long and contained material that should be in the main text.
In the meantime, however, I got positive community feedback on the preprint and was reminded of the existence of PRX: Quantum. So I wish to transfer my new submission to PRX: Quantum.
My expectation is that PRX: Quantum will be more selective than PRA: Rapid Communications. Would you expect that a direct transfer of my paper from PRA: Rapid Communications to PRX: Quantum will hurt my chances compared to a direct submission to PRX: Quantum?
Remember, the paper has not yet been reviewed and has not been rejected on any substantial ground.
UPDATE: I explained the situation and the paper was transferred to PRX Quantum and is under review.

I didn't know that anyone directly submits a Rapid Communication.

I'd guess that PRX and PRA have the same editorial standards.

They have different editorial standards but are part of the same institution.

@AnonymousPhysicist PRX and PRA don't have the same editorial standards.  (For one thing, PRX cares about "fancy-ness".)  However, this is "PRX Quantum", which is an entirely new journal - so I guess it is not clear where it will stand.

Write to the editor and ask for a transfer, explaining the situation. The editor will tell you what the preferred action is. Asking for a transfer, rather than withdrawing and resubmitting on your own will not hurt your chances, rather the opposite, as the editor then knows what is going on - and you don't risk to fall under some rule of the manuscript need to only be submitted to one journal at a time. Since both journals are under the same umbrella, they should have no problem at all with this.


text:
PhD without topic
I work in a computer science faculty (top ten here). I first worked with my advisor as a exchange student: got very good grades in his classes and did some projects (both academic and paid). This projects didn't go very far. I didn't have much help either. Some time after this, I did another exchange year in other computer science faculty (top fifty in same page). The work included some of the things I did with my advisor. Yet the focus was new, I got a lot of help and I published my results.
Don't ask me why I ended up in the top ten school enrolled in a PhD program with my former advisor. He didn't propose a PhD topic and only suggested that it should be related to a project for which he got money on. At the end, he assigned me some tasks which are not "research level" but merely consist in fixing his system.
The whole process was "educational". I got from the experience of "using" a system to the process of "building" a system. I also have a training in mathematics and have been willing to do something theoretical not directly related with a system. I studied a lot of topics on my own: categories, logic, complexity, computability, but without guidance is hard to find a feasible topic that can contribute to advance my career.
Also, not having a fixed topic for my PhD makes me fear I will finish my PhD days fixing bugs in my advisor system, unless I switch advisor (which seems to be hard given that I am already a PhD student in my professor lab) or (more feasible) change faculties (again without a clue of whether the grass will be greener elsewhere.
How could I turn my work into a more theoretical one? Without anyone advising me on interesting problems in theory? Do I need to look for a new advisor? Maybe enroll in a master degree? Should I be worried of not having a fixed topic?
Thanks for the advice.

Could you please reformat the post to have a clear and specific question which you would like answered?

I added a parragraph with questions @dubious

Generally, my advice would be to speak about this with your advisor and to directly address your concerns as transparent as humanly possible. Ideally, he/she should be able to help you in this situation and give you instructions on how your work can get more theoretical or how it might be directed towards a more specific goal.
Searching for a new advisor should (in my eyes) be the last resort, if he/she cannot help you or is not willing to do so.

seems like sound advice. thank you

You have to either sit down with your advisor -- or sit your advisor down.
It's their job to guide you to a suitable topic, but it often won't happen without some active pushing from the student. It's your job to push and to prepare for the meeting, at least with a list of possible options and some issues that you pursued.
The goal is to have a work plan that leads into a somewhat fixed and operational direction with clear milestones at which you drop options from the menue that haven't turned out interesting or feasible.
If this doesn't happen, look for a new advisor.

I see so I should propose the milestones. Thanks for the advice

Not necessarily. But you should "demand" help in defining the topic and the milestones.


text:
Whom to ask to write a reference?
I earned my Bs.C. in Computer Science five years ago. Two years ago I started taking courses of advanced level from Computer Science department. Now I am thinking about applying to M.Sc. studies abroad.
The usual requirement is to submit three references. The problem is I don't have someone to write a reference. I wasn't very successful in these advanced courses, therefore I don't think I could ask a lecturer to write a reference, nor his assistant who was checking homework assignments. As option, I could find a professor and start working with him for a while; I am not sure that the result of this work will be a paper, but at least he will be able to somehow evaluate my ability to do a research, the problem is I need three of them.
In addition, I am not sure I could ask someone from my B.Sc. studies to write a reference, just because I lost touch with them.
In your opinion, what is the best way to get three references?

There's something inconsistent about "I want to apply to graduate school" followed by "I didn't do very well in the advanced courses I took". Are you sure?

@JeffE, thank you for the answer, I see your point, I wasn't a best student, but still grades were OK, this school for excellent students, therefore I was like an average student. During this period I made an half of requirement in courses for M.Sc.

I would reach out to the instructors of the classes you enjoyed the most and put a good effort into, regardless of grade.
As an instructor myself, I have written recommendations for students who have and who haven't received straight A's - my main requirement for writing a recommendation is can I see this person succeeding in the position I am recommending them for? If not, I let the student know that I am not the right person to write the recommendation for them.
I say reach out to your instructors - the worst they are going to tell you is no.

No, the worst case is that they write a letter saying you are not qualified for graduate school.

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text:
How frequently can you ask for a personal reference without being disrespectful?
When applying for post-doctoral and faculty positions you are typically asked for three (sometimes more) reference letters to support your application.
Given that it is competitive out there, it also makes sense to apply for all positions that are good matches to your qualifications and career development goals (in the case of post-docs).
Sometimes this may mean asking for several reference letters (or pre-application "can you support me if required?" requests) in a short space of time.
Also, there may only be a small pool of people (i.e. 3 or 4) who know your work sufficiently well to give an excellent reference.
I have also been told that referees want to help you out, and that there is no reason to fear asking them.  And, that in many cases once a letter is written it can typically be quickly repurposed.  But there must be a breaking point.
How do I manage this without being disrespectful?  How many requests in a given unit of time is too many, or harms my credibility?   I am asking this question in this forum, as I am interested in the norms in the academic world, which are often somewhat different than the rest of the working world.

How do I manage this without being disrespectful?

Just ask.  Ask at least a month before your first deadline.  (Ideally, your writers should be people who know you well enough not to be surprised by your request.)  If possible, ask in person.  Give them as much information as you can about where you're applying, including your complete application package — CV, statements, sample papers, names of your other references, everything.  Ask for feedback.  Listen.  If they agree to write you a letter, keep them regularly updated as your CV and application targets change.
Most importantly: Given your references a way to tell you which letters they've sent.  This could be as simple as "Please send me email when...", or a private Google doc listing your application targets and deadlines.  (From personal experience: Having a common Google doc for all your letter writers is particularly effective, since each writer can see when the other writers have sent their letters.)  Check regularly that your references are actually sending their letters, and bug them mercilessly if they haven't yet.  This is not being disrespectful; this is helping them to do the job they agreed to.
Finally, keep your references updated whenever you get an interview, get a job offer, or accept a position.  Don't forget to say thanks.

How many requests in a given unit of time is too many, or harms my credibility?

That's entirely up the the individual writer.  But as Rex says, it's common for one applicant to apply for dozens of positions.  When I agree to be a reference for someone's faculty search, I generally expect to send letters to 30–50 different targets.  I can use (nearly-)identical letters for most targets, but inevitably there are major variations.  For example, tenure-track faculty positions, industrial research lab positions, and postdoc positions all require different letters, even when the applicant is applying to all three types of jobs.
Moreover, there is no standard mechanism for submitting letters.  Some places want letters submitted in parallel with the application; others ask automatically when the application is submitted; others ask only when the application passes an initial filtering stage.  Some places want letters by email; others use standard services like MathJobs; others use home-grown web pages; a rare few still require paper letters with wet signatures.
This is what agreeing to write a job letter means.  Most faculty already know this and won't agree to act as your reference unless they're willing to do this much work.  Still, just as it's important to ask "Can you write me a strong letter of recommendation?", it's important to be completely up-front about the scale of your request.

Will the same letter do for many of the jobs to which you're applying?
In math, many jobs are on MathJobs, the recommender can upload a single letter, and the applicant cannot read it but can have it sent anywhere. I also know that some departments maintain files of letters on behalf of their students, with a similar purpose. There are also commercial services that do this, such as Interfolio.
I recommend seeing if similar services are available to you, and are acceptable to the institutions to which you'll be applying.

Interfolio is a great recommendation.  There is potential, however, that some referees would like to reserve their right to recommend you for only jobs of their choosing.  This is a bit of a minefield, and may be seen as an affront (e.g. see answers to http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5115/would-it-be-okay-to-provide-a-template-when-asking-reference)

You should just ask.  I'm sure the professors have all dealt with this many times, and will not have a problem with it; it's understood that sending out letters of reference is part of the job of being a professor and that candidates will be applying dozens of places.  I'm sure your references will already have solutions they're comfortable with.  If you're in a field where many physical letters need to get sent out, it's quite normal for a professor to simply give a copy of the letter to a secretary and have him/her make copies and send them out.

I am not sure what would be called a norm since it is likely to vary from place to place, but more importantly person to person. I think a person is more liely to write many letters if you have worked more closely with that person, through for example thesis work etc. If you ask someone who has had little contact then the number is less. The basis for this i sof course that a person with whom you have worked much has more to say than someone you have barely talked to duing, say, a class.
The best approach would be to actually talk this over with the persons you wish to have writing letters. Explain what you will do and ask if they would be willing to write provide the letters for you. If you are open and frank about it they could provide you with a routine around the job that would work for both of you. What I personally feel frustrated about is if I am pressed into writing letters over-night, but if I have a say in when and with what head time I can expect then it is less of an issue. So, provide the basisi for a good working relationship.
A final point is that what is too much in this case highly depends on how you communicate your wishes or expectations and showing that you understand that writing these letters takes time and effort on behalf of your references.
So, sorry, no number can be given.

Okay--no number, but is it not fair to expect a certain performance from those with whom you have worked closely, published papers, have communicated respectfully and kindly your request, and have previously demonstrated willingness to support you?  By holding back on a request when I really need one, it turns these individuals into gatekeepers of my success.  Would these individuals really want to be thought of in this way?

@user6670 It is the level of fair that is difficult to assess. You could ask for tens of letters over some time but hundreds would be going over board. So in general, I think communicating is a good starting point rather than just expecting letters to be written (particularly on short notice). In the end what is too much will be determine by your mutual relationsship.

For faculty positions it is not uncommon to ask for letters to be sent to dozens of institutions; I know someone who applied for around 80 positions, for example (which was noticed to be rather a lot by the people who wrote him letters, but they still sent them).
For postdoctoral positions, you should plan on fewer; in most cases, the letter is not the first step.  You have a CV and presumably publications; you may have met your advisor-to-be at conferences; and so on.  If the person/people in charge of hiring you seem potentially interested and you are serious about the position, go ahead and ask for a letter.  If you are merely curious, try to do your part of the work first, especially if your former advisors etc. will have to tailor their letter each time.  Sending one letter to eighty institutions is easier in most ways that writing five letters with different details.  Still, that said, as long as you're pursuing reasonable opportunities and you're gracious, most people willing to write you letters will send as many as it takes.  (Keep in mind, though, that if you ask for dozens of letters for postdoc applications and are never offered a position, it is probably not the case that you just need to ask more!)

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How soon after the application deadline do search committees start looking at the applications?
I notice that a lot of academic faculty positions have deadlines that are on a weekend, or during a holiday. It seems reasonable that an application will not be read until the holiday is over.
How soon after the application deadline do search committees usually start looking at the application?

@Matinking I'm sorry, but what? I don't understand your comment.

Why do you want to know?

The actual timeline for filling a faculty position is often almost entirely decoupled from the stated deadline.  The stated deadline is often set through interaction with an HR department or other formal process, and may or may not reflect the hiring committee's actual expectations of when they will get the applications in which they are most interested.
In the case of applicants who are likely to be seriously considered, the committee will often have effectively begun considering their application before they ever submitted it, based on interactions at conferences and other forms of networking.  Other applicants are likely to be triaged as they come in, with likely prospects given serious consideration quickly and unlikely prospects.
In the end, however, every faculty has its own process and expectations, which may vary widely: in some cases, they may be closely tied to the deadline, and in other cases they may have little or nothing to do with.


text:
Can supplementary materials be used in different manuscripts?
Can the same supplementary materials be used in different manuscripts?
For example, hdy201491x2.docx in
this article
contains a table showing "Detailed hit frequencies (%) of the in silico analysis of the F479/R888 primer set for Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukaryota."
The same table appears as
mbt212162-sup-0002-tables1.docx in this other article.

Depends very much on the answer to Do journals have legal copyrights to the online supplemental information?... which currently has no answers.

From the point of view of originality, I would say that supplementary materials can be used in different manuscripts.
Indeed, supplementary materials is usually brought along the article/chapter to present a data set, as in your example, so it's like archival material, rather than its analysis/interpretation that is carried out in the article itself.
As a result, the same set of supplementary materials might be reproduced and used in different articles, but analysed in different and bringing to different conclusions.