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Postdoc recommendation letters: The European-American gap and how to overcome it
I heard from several sources that European recommendation letters for postdoc positions tend to be minimalist and understated, while the American ones are way more enthusiastic. I have two questions about this phenomenon:

Is this cultural difference taken into account by members of postdoctoral search committees in high-ranked American universities?

The second question is more personal:

I'm a European grad student aiming at a postdoc position in an American university. I'm currently gathering my recommendation letters, and I'm supposed to get one from one of the leading figures in my field. He knows my work well, and I believe he has a good opinion of me. On the other hand, being familiar with his style of expression, he will never write one of those "omg he is the best researcher ever" letters that top American universities expect to see (he won't write it even for someone who is actually the best researcher ever). So the question is: Should I use his letter in my application or am I risking that the search committee will translate the adjective "good" (which is a very significant compliment considering the letter writer) to "horrible"?

ps. For whatever it's worth, I work in pure mathematics.

You can bet that if you are aware of this difference, professors reading letters also are.

I'm supposed to get one from one of the leading figures in my field -- this sounds very strange.  (Note, normally I would not advise including a lukewarm letter from a big name.)

I've always wondered why US academics self-inflicted the pain of writing and reading such verbose recommendation letters...

Is this cultural difference taken into account by members of postdoctoral search committees in high-ranked American universities?

Yes, certainly.  If your letter writers are sufficiently well known, then there's no issue, since the letters they have written in the past will serve as calibration.  (If someone shows poor judgment in their letters, then committees will start discounting the letters, but committees can and do adapt to good judgment expressed in unconventional ways.)  If the committee members haven't seen many previous letters from someone, then there's more of an issue, but everyone will be aware of the phenomenon of European-style letters and will try to take that into account.
As a general rule, letters still need to offer concrete details and say something substantive.  A very short letter along the lines of "This young mathematician does solid work and would make a reasonable postdoc at University X" won't help, because it offers nothing but a vague sense of approval.  However, a substantive letter will be useful even if it's more understated than the U.S. norm.

I'm currently gathering my recommendation letters, and I'm supposed to get one from one of the leading figures in my field. He knows my work well, and I believe he has a good opinion of me. On the other hand, being familiar with his style of expression, he will never write one of those "omg he is the best researcher ever" letters that top American universities expect to see (he won't write it even for someone who is actually the best researcher ever).

This doesn't sound like a problematic situation to me.  If you're worried, you could look into whether he has ever had a student or postdoc who subsequently got a job in the U.S.  (Presumably the answer is yes, in which case his letter must not have ruined the application.)

The answer to (1) is certainly yes. Although a "European-style letter" could conceivably hurt you, I recommend getting the letter anyway. People reading your application will be aware (at least somewhat) of the cultural differences. Indeed, see RoboKaren's answer to a related question here.
Although I have never participated in a postdoc hire myself, my understanding is that what matters most is persuading one or two people that they really want you. If they already know you and your work, they might not read your application all that carefully, and if these people are extremely enthusiastic, the rest of the hiring committee might simply go along with it.
Another potential obstacle to keep in mind is that since you are further away, American researchers might know you less well than competing American candidates. For example, American candidates might have met these researchers at multiple conferences, and/or have close relationships with their advisors.
One way of mitigating it (which is not always possible, but it's worth investigating) is by travelling to appropriate conferences where you can meet American (or other) researchers with whom you might want to work. It is especially good if you travel with your advisor, because then he/she can introduce you and get you invited to lunch/dinner with the "bigwigs".
Good luck to you!

I think your interpretation of how postdoc committees run is a little more casual than the real situation.  If people are already interested in you, they will read your application more carefully, and they will read with a positive impression already in their heads.  Attention is a scare resource in hiring (since there are so many applications), so you want to increase, not decrease it.


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Accessing the arguments of lobby groups
How/where does one get hold of the arguments put forward by lobby groups?
I am currently researching the topic of advertising as it relates to junk food. There are many arguments in favour of regulation/ban in books, papers and websites; however, I am looking for responses to these arguments by the industry. I keep coming across articles claiming that lots of money has been spent lobbying against regulation, but these are almost never referenced. Where should I look for the arguments of lobby groups? This seems like the only place to find the other side of the debate.
This is an area that is quite alien to me so any guidance is appreciated. Also, I'm interested in lobbying in any English-speaking country.

I absolutely love your question. I think it's fantastic that you want to look beyond academic sources to see what people in industry are actually saying and doing. I think the best academic research is deeply grounded in real-world practice. Best wishes on your search.

A problem you will have is that some lobby groups say different things in public than in private. Much of lobbying goes on behind closed doors and will be impossible to find. What a lobbyist says to the public and what they say to a legislator might be diametrically opposed - and, in the latter case, expected to be kept secret. So, what you learn from public sources may be biased. Sometimes FOIA requests are needed to learn the truth of it.

Honestly, I don't know, but I can point you to who would know: an academic librarian who specializes in the academic discipline of marketing. At least, at my university, there are librarians who are assigned to be responsible to various academic departments, and the Marketing Librarian is the one I would go to for such a question. Even if your university doesn't have a librarian specialized on this, try a nearby university that might. They shouldn't have a problem with spending time with someone from the general public.
Based on my past experience consulting librarians, I recommend that you book an appointment and that you send an e-mail that describes what you are looking for in detail, and also what you have already tried that hasn't worked for you. Then the appointment would probably be much more fruitful, since you would give the librarian the time to look up various possibilities. Indeed, quite often librarians have access to special resources that are not public (e.g. not on the university website) that you would only learn about if you ask them directly. And a good librarian (like I have at my university) will ask other colleagues about more resources that might help you.
Librarians are probably the most under-utilized resource for literature searches, and yet they are professionals who specialize on helping people find exactly this kind of question. And in universities, they are deeply knowledgeable in not only academic sources of information, but also practice-oriented sources (they have to support non-scholarly undergraduate and master's student projects, too).

You know, I never thought of this because I'm from the Google generation. Definitely going to follow up. Thanks :)

Actually, modern librarians are not only super experts on Google, but they are experts on going beyond Google to find what Google doesn't index and what is hard to sift through Google because of the thousands of irrelevant results. In the information age, librarians are premium information specialists.

Lobby groups like having their arguments known. They publish them on their web sites, often as media releases. If you can't find what you want there, call them: lobby group representatives will be happy to explain their positions.
My husband works for a lobby goup/peak body and he quite enjoys talking to students who contact him with questions about his industry.

I'm learning quite quickly that people outside academia are actually pretty receptive to being contacted.

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Worth applying to PhD Programs with a very bad Math Subject GRE
I just took and received a very bad math subject gre score of 600, or 37th percentile.
Would it still be worth it to apply to any school that requires the subject test? I've been working at several tech startups for a few years so some of the material wasn't as fresh as it maybe would have been.
A bit of my background, I'm finishing up my masters in math at a top 10 university, I don't have any publications yet but I'm working on a thesis under a very well known professor. My grades are good and I'm a TA and grader at the university.
I guess the question is whether or not admissions committees would use the poor score as enough of a reason to reject a candidate. Or would it make more sense to wait until I can retake the exam in April and put academia/PhD aside for a year.
Thanks

You need to specify which country or even university you'd like to apply to.

would be looking at top 20 in the U.S. but at this point feels out of reach just based on score. At least this is where I was hoping for originally - Open to other countries given the situation

Score is not the only factor of selection for those schools, and even with scores it might still unlikely. the thesis means nothing, publications are most everything in the current recognition system. You need to think why do you want to make a PHD and in what, then see if there is other university who offers what you want, in other countries it would still be viable and probably at a lower cost. Remember that graduate from a top 10 university is called the same than a graduate from a top 200 university; Doctor.

@deags - If you want an research job (whether in academia or industry) after your PhD, your chances are much much better if you graduate from a top 10 university.  If you graduate from a 150-200-th ranked university, in fact, your chances are close to 0.  This is partly based on the reputation of your degree, but it's also true that your education at a better university will be better, not because the professors are much better but because your fellow students are better and the professors can teach at a more advanced level.

@ Alexander Woo A top 10 university does not gives you the better education but the brand/social network associated with it. Graduating from top 200 still means top around the world, more so in countries when doctors are less than 1% of the population. I've seen in developing countries that some industries look down on private schools (more so for mid-level and university) , meanwhile. There is also the topic that there are just very few jobs available in academia, and the conditions or recognition internationally still apply. Meaning a title and many papers.

This is very variable.  Some admissions committees think that the subject GRE score is important, and some do not.  Even at the same department, it may vary from year to year depending on who is on the committee.

Once you get past an automatic screening based on your score (aif there is one) I think what will matter most is the letter from your advisor, with whom you seem to have a good working relationship.
I haven't been involved in graduate admissions enough recently to know whether publication before entry into a doctoral program is normal or required.
Talk to your advisor about your plans.

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Why do engineering PhD programs require undergrad degrees in engineering or physics?
I notice that many top American engineering PhD programs ask for undergrad or master degrees in engineering or physics, but this discussion excludes math majors.  How come?  Are math majors not qualified because the training is vastly different from engineering?
I'm a math nerd interested in applications-oriented maths, but many of these research questions are worked on in engineering depts.

Roger, mechanical eng and electric

Why wouldn't engineering PhD programs ask for physics and engineering degrees? Take electrical engineering for example - do math majors learn about resistance and inductance?

If you can make a sufficiently strong case for your potential in engineering, then I suspect nearly all U.S. engineering Ph.D. programs would consider you. A former "roommate" of mine was able to do this, getting his Ph.D. from MIT in mechanical engineering. (I put "roommate" in quotes because we actually shared a house with a nearly invalid 87 year old, taking responsibility for him when his morning-to-afternoon nurse was not there.)

I have to guess that in the US, "require" means "strongly desire". Elsewhere students might be expected to be further along.

Both engineering and physics (should) have a good amount of lab hours, and the equipment used by physicist may not be very different from the lab equipment in engineering. Math majors rarely have any practice beyond theoretical work, and people in the engineering department may prefer to not have to train many people in using equipment that should be familiar to PhD students.

Yes generally the training in a math degree is quite different from that of an engineering degree, in particular when it comes to practical stuff.
In many circumstances the language describing the background required of a candidate is a little less limiting than “engineering or physics” and will encourage applicants from cognate fields.

Of course mathematics is rather diverse in itself, and one can argue that training in more applied mathematics - theoretical signal analysis, control theory etc - should be considered as training in a cognate field.   However, one can also appreciate that a student with a focus in number theory or algebraic topology might have to work harder to make a case.  (For that matter, not every graduate in physics would be suitable for a graduate degree in engineering either...)
It seems to me the question is: do you really want to apply to a department that prima facie is implicitly suggesting you do not have the requirements of the program?  Maybe the thing to do is to contact faculty members with research interests overlapping yours to ask if they would entertain supervising someone with your background?

I'd expect many math majors to have the skills needed to succeed in an engineering program, but they are likely to lack the vocabulary needed.  This is especially true if the engineering is theoretical or computational.
I would not be surprised if math majors are accepted from time to time.

Because physics and engineering are closely related, both deal with how things work, why they work and how to make something.
It is often said thus: « a physicist designs it, but you need an engineer to make it work »
Not absolutely true, some physicists are happy in roles of engineers and vice versa...
So as their training is similar, they both have a suitable background for those phd’s...
However, if you put your application in and the advisor considers you then you may be picked - depends who applies often.

That quote sounds inaccurate since the primary job of an engineer is to design things whether it's a pump, a chemical process, or a robotic system.

@Cell so claim the engineers.  Of course physicists will claim engineers only make things work...

@ZeroTheHero That makes no sense. Engineers literally take design courses in undergrad and licencing bodies like Professional Engineers Ontario in Canada will allow only those trained in engineering to legally provide design services to the public.

@Cell :D yeah sure: it makes no sense for engineers to claim they design things...  I agree with this :D  Of course the physicists will still claim engineers just rubber stamp designs done by non-engineers.  But I'm pulling your leg... maybe... ;)

@Cell there are competent engineers who can design things, and incompetent ones who should not.  There are competent physicists who can certainly design things, and incompetent ones who should not.  Competence is not in the name of the profession, and it's regrettable that certain tasks should be based on a degree name rather than proven competence (especially given that maintaining  status in an organization requires a fee).

I think this answer is missing a number of things. Somebody with background in experimental physics is quite possibly already on their way to becoming a good engineer. Somebody with background mainly in theoretical physics (depending on the applicant's experience) may find it much harder to get accepted in an engineering program.


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Is it possible for me to get into a PhD program with low GPA
PhD programs I’ve applied to: UTD, NYU, UMD, MIT, U of Florida, Stanford, PSU, UPenn, U of Chicago, MSU, USC, CMU, Purdue, Columbia, HKU,
Background:
Education: Bachelor: Hengyang Normal University( 2 years) with 3.09 GPA+
Hunan Vocational College for Nationalties ( 3 years) with 3.47 GPA
Master program: University of Maryland, College Park ( 3.03 GPA Supply Chain MGMT) ( In the winter of first semester, I was diagnosed with TMJ pain, I told my professor that fact where I had headache but he ignored my email and replied me until final exam came, then we argued with that and he gave me a D, then my GPA suddenly falls above 3.0, after that I have been trying to bring it up back to 3.0, by taking some independent study; However, after the news spread across other professor, they all graded me with a B-. Finally, I graduated with a 3.03 GPA. The director has indirectly refused to accept me as PHD student because of my GPA and limitation of funds.
GRE: V:165 Q:167 AW: 3 ; TOEFL: waivor
Credentials: Certified Supply Chain Professional(CSCP), Certified Transportation and Logistics; IBM Data Science Professional; Advanced Data Science with IBM( AI, ML..); Blockchain IoT for Supply Chain; Blockchain foundation developer.
Question: Do I still have chance to get offer from the universities that I have applied to? and what’s you suggestion for me ( the deadline for PHD Program still remains 1–2 months)

Possible duplicate of How does the admissions process work for Ph.D. programs in the US, particularly for weak or borderline students?

I notice you are aiming pretty high given your GPA. A more fruitful strategy would be to pick a small number of topics you are really interested in, and try to find departments/professors in less prestigious universities that do interesting research in those topics. Not all great research happens at the top universities. Applying to those would be easier because you already thought about why you and that department are a good match.


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Is it insulting to call a full professor Dr. Firstname Lastname in a non-academic event program?
I'm in charge of putting together an event program, for a non-academic (business) event. We have several academics presenting, from mainland Europe and the UK.
In the agenda is it appropriate to write, for example,

Topic Title - Dr. Firstname Lastname, Professor of xyz at XYZ
University
Topic Title - Prof. Firstname Lastname, Professor of xyz
at XYZ University
Topic Title - Prof. Dr. Firstname Lastname, Professor of xyz at XYZ University
Topic Title - Whatever is in their linkedin profile...

(as seems to be typical on the continent)
I ask because I would like to use appropriate titles without sounding too academic and without insulting anyone. All are full professors, one emeritus. I'd like to use the same for all if possible, for consistency.
And, I am assuming that I should use at minimum a Dr. before the name even though the job title will be listed after the name, even though speakers with MBAs etc. will not have their titles listed, and will just be Firstname Lastname... not Ms. Firstname Lastname, MBA.

It looks to me like here you are possibly using two slightly different meanings of professor together - the UK one and the US one.

note that in the UK academic titles may be the LEAST of your worries: http://www.debretts.com/forms-address/titles
just the widow of a marquess has 7 different styles!

I would stick to the conventions appropriate to the speakers in their home institutions. British speakers would be "Prof.", if they are full professors, Germans would be "Prof. Dr." (or "Prof. DDr.", or "Prof. Dr. Ir.", etc...whatever applies), Americans you could call just "Dr.", etc.

You could avoid honorifics and simply use 'Firstname Lastname', particularly if you have non-academics who may regard themselves as equals.

Registration forms often have 3 fields (title, firstname, lastname), or a single field where people are expected to include the title, so they can fill in whatever they like...

From my time in academia (PhD, Computer Science, UK) 'Dr' is a 'safe' term to use for academics - Professors tend not to mind their formal title being used, while non-PhDs take it as a compliment

Is it out of the question to send a timely, politely-worded email to the presenters asking them for their preferred titles?

For most people, insult and offense comes more from lack of care and respect than from mistakes.  I would thus recommend the following procedure:

Prepare a draft, making your best guess for each speaker based on their web presence.
Send out the draft agenda to all speakers, saying that this is the draft and you'd like corrections in case you have made mistakes in how anybody is listed.  (You probably want to run the schedule by them anyway for other purposes as well.)
Make any corrections requested by the speakers.

This way, if you get anything wrong, you're doing it in private, acknowledging possible errors, and giving them a chance to correct you in private as well.  It will be a rarely sensitive person or an unusually significant mistake that will cause offense in this way.

Note: take care to send the mails in such a way that an accidental reply-all doesn't bother the other people on the mailing list.

@Nzall If only I could bounty comments... seriously, BCC has so few legitimate and ethical uses in modern culture, but this is totally one of them!!

So are you suggesting to use different conventions for different speakers?  Not that I have been part of such an event, but I would think using the standard convention of the event's locale would make more sense.  I could imagine the end result of your suggestion ends up making those who care less about titles less distinguished.

@Kimball I would say, let the person have the title that they believe is most appropriate.  I have no need to strip a German of their extra prefix or to upgrade a British lecturer to "Prof." just because they're roughly equivalent to an Assistant Professor in the US.

I'll add that this strategy also protects you against the opposite mistake: as an accomplished researcher in an academic setting without a degree, I am frustrated by how often my name is listed with "Dr." or "PhD".  I think that 99% of the time, this is just laziness; the person writing has only seen researchers like me with degrees, so they assume I have one, too, instead of looking.  However, especially in situations where I'm trying to bring an applied or operational perspective to something that's suffered for being in the ivory tower too long, it begins to feel political.

@corsiKa I have created an answer to expand on this comment. It's not to hoard rep, I promise. It's so this popular remark has some more permanence, since comments may be deleted at any point.

This strikes me as more an English usage question than an academia question.
In American English, "Doctor" is a personal honorific, whereas "Professor" is merely the name of a job.  "Dr. Firstname Lastname" is the correct formal introduction in AmEng for anyone possessing a doctorate-level degree (PhD, MD, etc); the academic position they hold (if any) is irrelevant.  As a native speaker of this form of English, "Prof. Firstname Lastname" sounds stilted to me and "Prof. Firstname Lastname, Professor of ..." sounds redundant.
However, as pointed out in the comments, in British English, "Professor" is considered a personal honorific, so some of your speakers may prefer to be introduced as "Prof. Firstname Lastname".  The only way to be sure you don't irritate anyone is, as jakebeal suggests, to draft the program and then run it by everyone and ask for corrections.
In all forms of English (that I know of), honorifics are never stacked. "Prof. Dr." will read as a non-native speaker error.  (Multiple postnominals - "Dr. Snooty McSnootface, M.D., Ph.D." - are not unheard of, but they read as egotistical.  I would not put any postnominals on anyone's name in this context unless they themselves insisted on it.)

I concur with your second paragraph - at least in AmE. This is how I usually here it on American radio stations: "Dr. Firstname Lastname, Professor of Field at University". Sometimes it is just, "Firstname Lastname, Professor of Field at University" and then all future references are "Dr. Lastname" (assuming the person has a doctorate - if not, just "Mr. Lastname" or even just "Firstname").

The UK is rather different.  The title "Professor" (ie: Prof. First Last) is more prestigious than "Dr." since it indicates not only completion of a PhD, but that the individual holds a full professorship at a university.  This usually follows the career chain of postdoc -> Lecturer-> (Senior Lecturer) -> Reader -> Professor.  What you would call an "Associate Professor" in the US would be equivalent to "Senior Lecturer" in the UK; "Assistant Professor" would be a "Lecturer", etc.  The title "Professor" is reserved only for the highest tier of professorship in the UK.

@J... We have roughly the same hierarchy of faculty position prestige in the US, but none of the levels of professorship are used as  personal honorifics the way "Doctor" is. "Dr. (Firstname) Lastname" is correct regardless of what position he or she holds.  I guess this is another AmEng/BrEng difference.

@zwol Indeed it is such a difference.  Calling a UK Senior Lecturer a "professor" would be a mild embarassment - similar to prefixing their name with "Sir", as though they had been knighted when, in fact, they were not.  In a professional setting, introducing them as "Professor" would probably make them feel self-conscious - some would likely go so far as to correct the error: "Professor! Would that it were... but not entirely, as it should happen.  Moving on, then..." ;)

What you say makes sense, but, on the other hand, I have often seen the following convention beings used in North America: a speaker who holds a faculty position is listed as "Prof. First Last", while a speaker who has a doctorate but works, e.g., in a research lab, is listed as "Dr. First Last". Recent example: http://www.cs.columbia.edu/theory/s16.html

"In all forms of English (that I know of), honorifics are never stacked." But in German, they are stacked, and such things are considered important. Trying to abbreviate something "Herr Doktor Doktor X Y" in English may not be a good plan - and note that "Doktor Doktor" is not a typo.

In British English some honorifics are combined, whereas others are collapsed together on the basis that one improves on and replaces the other. So we don't say "Prof. Dr. Lastname", but we would say for example "Prof. Sir Roger Penrose" (https://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/people/roger.penrose). Getting British titles and styles completely correct requires a copy of Debrett's and/or significant expertise.

... easiest is just to ask their equerry.

@alephzero: same in Polish. One would not stack two "dr" but "prof. dr" -- yes.

Honorific are stacked in the UK, but it depends on the specific honorific. For example, you could be 'Professor Sir Big Shot' but never 'Professor Dr Big Shot', and 'The Reverend Dr Priesty McPriestface'.

The general rule in British English for stacking honorifics is that you add one honorific of each type. "Professor" and "Doctor (Dr.)" are both academic honorifics; only use one of them. If, on the other hand, you happen to be a priest with a knighthood and a doctorate, you sit in the Commons and have been awarded a CBE... "Rev. Professor Sir John Connor, M.P., CBE"

In my field (medicine) it is normal to "stack" MD and PhD, so we can see who are clinicians and who are not. And (at least in the Netherlands) you can become a medical doctor just by finishing a bachelor's and master's. One is then officially a MSc, but on papers one usually writes MD to distinguish oneself from a non-clinician. Also would be a pity to leave out the PhD entirely.

"In all forms of English (that I know of), honorifics are never stacked" I know of at least one case where this is not true: In America, a pastor who holds a Doctorate is properly addressed as "Reverend Doctor Smith" (or "Rev. Dr. Smith" written).  And IIRC, British English stacks titles quite often.

@Jasper Those are degrees (or credentials), not honorifics.  Someone with a MSc is not addressed as Master Jones, but someone with a PhD or MD is addressed as Doctor Smith.  But someone with both is never addressed as Doctor Doctor Brown.

I would personally omit titles in such a place at all, and just list the profession, which shows clearly that they are professors:

Topic Title - John Doe, professor of nothing at University of Neverland.

If you do the same with everybody, you're fine: you can't insult people this way. I would say that the only people who really need a proper salutation always are Her Majesty and people of similar kind. With the others, it's just a matter of consistency.
Note that this may be field-dependent. As usually, in math and related field, people are more relaxed, in other field, this may be different.

You won't be popular in academia if you do this and in Germany it would trigger a riot if academics were separated from their Doktor title.

@TheMathemagician actually, in my experience people outside of academia care a lot more about a doctorate they might have. In academia few care, because it's ubiquitous anyway. In some academic circles addressing a college as Dr. can even be a bit passive-agressive, it makes a point of them being not a professor.

@quid: This really depends on the country/culture you're in. I have to support TheMathemagician: from my experience also, German academics were very attached to their titles.

@fgysin It also depends on the field. In my experience in Computer Science in Germany, students were on a first name and "Du" base with everyone up to doctors. Only with professors the title was used and even then, if you worked as an assistant first name wasn't unusual.
In the humanities however... Don't dare to forget saying someone's Doktor.

Most of the conferences I attended (in the field of chemistry), this was the notation in use. Peers tend to know their peers. And in Germany I made the experience that scientists don't really care about their title, at least in a collegial environment.

In case it's necessary, I suppose in this format it would be "Elizabeth Windsor, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith". Although I can't actually remember whether her surname is Windsor or Mountbatten-Windsor: her sons are Mountbatten-Windsor but I don't think she is.

@SteveJessop isn't that her formal style? I thought in this case the equivalent would be Queen Elizabeth II (and desperately hoping nobody mistakes her for a cruise ship)

@fgysin incidentally there is a question about basically this now.

@Racheet: yo's listing a British professor as "John Doe, professor of nothing", that is to say "name, position" with no titles included, so I think the equivalent for the Queen is what I said, using her style to describe her position. Or it could be "EAM Windsor, Queen of the UK etc". Neither "Queen" nor "II" are parts of her name, they're respectively a title and a regnal number. However, I do agree with what yo' says, that you'd generally make an exception to the rule for monarchs even if you're listing doctors and professors without their proper titles. I would for a President too.

Obviously, what I wrote is not a "correct" way to list the Queen according to British protocol, but then what yo' wrote is not a "correct" way to list a doctor or a Professor by the same standard. There's more mileage in being a stickler for protocol around heads of state (of any nation), since if you offend a foreign academic it at least is not automatically a diplomatic incident.

@SteveJessop If I understand the position correctly, it would be just 'Elizabeth, by the Grace of God...': she doesn't have a surname, even though her family is named 'Mountbatten-Windsor'. That said, when they were in the forces, Charles's sons were deemed to have the surname 'Wales'.

@NormanGray: Yeah, well, under English common law you can go by whatever name you choose, unless for the purpose of fraud etc, even if you aren't royal. So just because a royal uses a particular surname in a particular context proves nothing about what surname they'd want to use (or a protocol officer would demand someone else uses) in any other context. Conference organisers will just have to ask them :-)

Specifically in the UK, "Prof. Dr. Firstname Lastname" is not used. Also, "Dr. Firstname Lastname" is only appropriate if you didn't know that person was a professor.
That being said, I think there are generally two ways to list names and affiliations:

(honorific) Firstname Lastname, Professor of xyz at XYZ University
Prof. Firstname Lastname, Professor of xyz at XYZ University

You could probably get away with just [Professor|Dr] XY, Z University. Don't think the subject is necessary unless you're wanting it to signify context.

I'm not aware of "Prof. Dr." being used anywhere outside the German-speaking countries.

@DavidRicherby I've seen it in Dutch, too (which is very close to German anyway)

Note: This answer was originally intended as a clarification to a comment I created on jakebeal's answer that was well-received, but I ended up expanding it significantly during the writing process to the point that it can mostly stand on its own.
As jakebeal mentioned in his answer, it is probably best to ask for feedback from the participants (hereafter referred to as authors) themselves so they can clarify how they want to be attributed. However, you need to ensure that communication between you and a certain author does not interfere with the other authors. In essence, this means there are several ways to go about this.
The first way is to send a mass mailing to all parties, with the addresses in BCC. This means that if one of the authors inadvertently presses "reply to all" on his mail client, his email does not reach the other authors. However, using BCC in this manner might mean that they don't reply. There are certain mail clients and mail servers that mark emails sent to a BCC mailing list as spam, and your authors might not notice it. Indeed, many companies send spam marketing mails in this way, but this isn't a marketing mail, but rather a transactional mail. You are asking for the person to take an action, not just inform them about the latest addition to your website.
In addition, such a mass mailing would have to be worded in very general terms and probably would appear obviously mass mailed. Some authors might not like that, which could have a negative effect on your relationship.
Because of this, a better alternative might be to send the emails individually. this allows you to make the email look slightly more personal and avoids most spam filters because you can put the party in the To field. It does take more time, though, so be prepared for that.
As jakebeal mentioned, a good starting point to help the authors save time clarifying their honorific and lecture is through their web presence: either their website, the website of their primary institute, or on the honor list of any award they might have won.
One final note: most academics are quite busy and some of them might not want to "waste" their time on clarifications like this. If the academic or their department has a secretary or a general administration, they might be able to help you with simple actions like their honorifics.

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


text:
Advice to manage a Facebook group for PhD students
In my institute, there was no online (or otherwise) platform exclusively available for the current and graduated PhD students. So I created a Facebook group with a vision that the group will allow sharing and dissemination of:

Useful information such as conference calls, seminars, webinars, colloquia, etc.

Inter/intra department equipment related information (such as availability of an instrument, technical advice, etc).

Queries or information related to drafting manuscripts, graphing tools, and software.

Information on post-doc and other career related opportunities.

Provide a platform for networking with students of other departments with a scope for inter-disciplinary collaborations, etc.

Any other information useful to the institute research community.

This is my first experience as a group admin and I'm quite anxious. Is there something I could add to the scope of the group? In general, I am seeking some advice on how can I make this group more valuable to the members.
Thanks!

Have you made sure that people find facebook the best platform for that? I try to keep my personal life separate from my job, and my facebook presence falls into the former domain.

@lighthousekeeper Yes, there is quite an active group for all students (undergrad, masters and doctoral). However, the group and has less scope for discussions pertinent to the research students.

Are you solely responsible for the context? Or could you ask, like, for suggestions among the students?

@user111388 There are two other admins and the ideas that came out of the discussion are presented as bulleted text in the question. Since the group was created very recently, I am looking for suggestions outside the group.

@user3024069: I think if the group doesn't need more at the moment, you don't need to add something. But you should give them a place where they can add suggestions, new functionalities they wish,..

As someone has before me, I would caution against using Facebook. At least in my environment, more and more people are avoiding it (for the reasons, see the news). You might say: but I will reach most / all but a few people, which is true, but to those trying to avoid a controversial platform (and company) it will be extremely unfair to lock them out of all group communication.

@user3024069 That does not necessarily imply that most people in your target gorup would like the idea of a facebook group (I surely wouldn't). Consider alternatives like an email list or slack.

A Facebook group is the most common and easy route to reach out to students. Bear in mind that whatever platform one chooses, there will always be someone who doesn't use it. Yes, there are ethical concerns over Facebook but it is still the most convenient and widely-used platform. People are less likely to sign up to a new service rather than use one they already belong to. Citing 'privacy concerns' will unfortunately not cut it for most. As a privacy-advocate, Linux user and Facebook/smartphone-hater I still use FB because its benefits outweigh its disadvantages. It's about how you use it.

A Telegram group would be better for several reasons. Privacy and secrets not covered by this comment.

The underlying issue is a mismatch between context and question. Your vision is laudable, but your question is not very useful if facebook is a poor tool for implementing your vision in the first place.

Do not use Facebook.  Academics view it as unprofessional.
Events should be managed using a calendar application.
Most other functions you want to achieve are traditionally achieved with email lists.
When setting up a platform, you do not want it to do as many things as possible.  You want your platform to do one thing and do it well.  That is the Unix Philosophy, and it works.

Things are developing beyond the outmoded restrictions of the 'Unix Philosophy'. Also I disagree that all academics view Facebook as unprofessional in their discipline - in the field I am in there is a FB group run by and visited regularly by academics. It is very useful. Maybe it is field-dependent. I should point out that though I understand the benefits of the Unix Philosophy, things are moving on from "do one thing and do it well" to "do multiple things maybe not quite as well". We may not like it, but that's how things are going. I have learned to embrace the change for the best.

things are moving on from "do one thing and do it well" to "do multiple things maybe not quite as well" Do you have an example? One that does multiple things at the beginning, rather than matures that way?

@user2768 systemd would be a good example.

@C26 I actually meant a mainstream product. Google started with search, Amazon books, Zoom video calls. I can't think of a single company that started out doing multiple things. There must surely be some...

@user2768 I don't understand why you're talking about mainstream online companies: Anonymous Physicist mentioned the Unix Philosophy, and my response was related to things that are Unix-like. When I said "things are moving on", I specifically meant with regard to Unix-like systems. Maybe I should have been more clear. One look at the work of companies like Red Hat/Canonical and their OSs e.g. Fedora, RHEL, Ubuntu and derivatives will show the way things are going and those OSs that utilise the 'Unix Philosophy' e.g. Slackware, are being increasingly left in the past.

@C26 I think I understand your point; but, I see the Unix Philosophy as being as described by Anonymous Physicist, do[ing] one thing and do[ing] it well, rather than doing multiple things. Things don't seem to be developing beyond the outmoded restrictions of the 'Unix Philosophy'.

@user2768 1/2 - depends what you mean by "things" then. I was keeping things Unix and Unix-like systems-related: I gave the example of systemd, a software suite utilised by all mainstream Linux distributions now in place of Unix's SysV init [et al], which is in direct contradiction of the Unix Philosophy since it starts processes in parallel, not in series, and which now has become the norm. It seems that AP has utilised the term 'Unix Philosophy'at best inappropriately - at worst, incorrectly. Unix Philosophy does not relate to Facebook, it relates to Unix and Unix-like systems.

2/2 - it would have been better to just say "do one thing and do it well" which can relate do anything one wants. If you tie it to Unix you introduce a very specific element to the topic.

I agree with the sentiment to not use Facebook, but please god I don't want to be on more mailing lists. However, I good calendar management is a good idea. It frustrates me to no end my dept won't invite us to events, but wants us to add the "departmental calendar" to our goo cals; which just clutters them more, when all I'm looking for is the weekly lunch.

I deleted Facebook several years ago, but that's not where I'm going with this answer, although you will get people who don't have or want a Facebook.
Facebook is a poor way to share persistent information. The newsfeed rapidly scrolls past, and comment threading is rather poor, and not built for information-dense sharing like you might get when working through a tricky problem. When you post "Abstract deadline next Friday!" it will disappear within days, potentially not being shown to people who log on a few days later.
Furthermore, if this page is for the entire institute (I assume you mean university), you are going to get many posts from every discipline. I don't need my page full of physics seminars and pharmacology retreats.
For this, I would suggest Slack (or, hesitantly, Discord). For one, Slack already has an air of professionalism, and many groups I know use it internally.
But with Slack/Discord, you can create channels for: e.g. announcements, deadlines, events, software help, writing help, and memes/off-topic. That way each topic is canalized, and if I don't want to help people write, I can just skip that channel, and I can totally ignore the ones not relevant to my field.
I hesitate to recommend Discord because it is very confusing for non-technical people; even more so than Slack, IMO. And, as of right now, it will be mostly gamers who have it installed. Many other types of people will have Slack, and it has decent integrations with cloud services like Google and Microsoft. I suspect you would have more difficulty setting up Slack in some fields compared to others. In that sense, Facebook is a good choice for ease of accessibility.
That said, Discord does have some powerful tools to, for example, tag someone as a physicist, which allows them to see the physics channels and nothing else. Discord is also seen as much more casual; but others on this site have posted they've had a lot of success with it (but when their field is on their profile, they're all in computer science!).
I said in a comment, calendar integration is also critical. I and many others live off their Google Calendar or similar. So if you have a nice calendar system, where I can sign up for an event (then you can see how many people are gonna come), and sync it to my calendar (but not the other, irrelevant events), I would use your system much more. Discord has some decent tools for this, not sure about Slack.

Slack is great, but it hides everything older than the last 10,000 messages unless you pay, so for an active group it may not be a good solution to preserve information.

@GoodDeeds I've never needed to go that far back (but obviously it would scale with the size of the group), but good point.

The question was not "which platform shall I use?" but "what advice can you give me for managing my Facebook group?". Also many users here underestimate how unwilling people are to move from one type of social media to another if they're not already using it. All that will happen is the group will lose users.

@C26 It's called a "frame challenge" and is pretty well-established on the SE network. Plus, someone else might come to this question having not yet picked a platform, to whom my answer could be useful. As for the "not already using it" point, that's why I suggested Slack, because many researchers already do use it! Thanks.

@AzorAhai--hehim this doesn't look like a frame challenge to me, it's answering an entirely different question. A frame challenge would be Q: "what can I add to the scope of the Facebook group to improve it?" - A: "as well as X & Y, you don't only add to the scope of the group yourself, you ask others and get in additional people. You may want to amass a small admin team". What has happened here is the OP has asked, "how can I improve my FB group" and the answers have been, "by not using FB". Not helpful.

Leaving aside the fact that FB is evil, from the outside looking in, it appears nondeterministic. Not everyone sees the same messages, and you can't guarantee that any member will see any given message. Finding old messages is hard.
The software that powers Stack Exchange, or at least a version of it, is available to universities very inexpensively as Discourse: https://www.discourse.org/  Someone else has already mentioned Telegram.  If I had a limited budget and a graduate student who spoke Unix, I'd look into CoSy: http://cosy.sourceforge.net/

I think the first thing would be to involve some staff in the group, if only one or two members. If one asks to be another admin [they may not do], it's worth considering, but it will be useful to have someone else on hand who can feed back with greater immediacy to the faculty.
You already have a handle on most things which will be useful to students in your department. It also might be a good idea to drop in information on journals and podcasts which may relate to your field, as well as information on publishing for other members of the department. You may well find as time goes on that the group will find its own natural identity and momentum, and you already have plenty of good ideas on how to make it useful to the other students. It sounds like you are involved in music, so some relevant events could be posted when appropriate [you mention "instruments", but this could relate to scientific purposes as well, I am aware].
It can be tempting to make a group like this private, but I think it would benefit the department to make it publicly viewable and postable. This way, if any future students or people outside the department wish to contribute useful information, they can do so. If this becomes open to abuse, you can just close the group and make posting for verified students.
Above all, as the admin, it's good to reach out and ask open questions of the student base as to what they need and what you can do to improve things in the department for them, if only relaying information to the staff base. It may also be a good idea to use the group as an occasional base to organise intra-department online socials.
Things like this can either take minimal time and effort or sometimes they can get very popular and overwhelming. In such cases another admin would certainly be a great asset and also, in such a case, I'm sure there would be one or two keen students who would be more than willing to assist.


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Justification statement for exceeding the maximum length of manuscript
I am submitting a manuscript to a journal that specifies "papers must not exceed 30 double-spaced manuscript pages, including all figures and tables." My manuscript has 37 pages. The journal asks to provide a justification statement if the manuscript exceeds the length limitations. Based on previous experience with the journal, one of my colleagues told that the journal is not too strict and generally considers papers that exceed the maximum specified length. Since I am submitting a manuscript to this journal for the first time, I am quite anxious. Please advise how I may justify the length of the manuscript.

@DanielHatton Thank you for the comment. I checked the journal's website and found no charges for manuscript publication and/or extra pages.

Since when writing the paper, what were your reasons to exceed the page size?

A good general principle to bear in mind: The main thing is not justifying why your paper exceeded their limit, it’s justifying why they should publish your paper despite it exceeding the limit.

Assuming it is true, I'd say that I'd made a good faith effort to keep it to the limits, considering whether any of the material was extraneous, but it is still at 37 pages.
But also add that you would welcome advice from reviewers including advice on reducing the length.
I doubt that a detailed technical statement will get the result you want, since the editor may not be able to evaluate what you say since that is more the job of reviewers.
Some papers can also be split into two, of course. Perhaps you have considered that already. Not all, of course, but it is worth a look.

Perhaps most important is to explain why this paper belongs in this journal, and not in another journal that allows longer papers.  I am not sure of the research area, but in mathematics there are journals that allow much longer papers than 30 pages.  What is so special about this journal?
If there is somehow not a more appropriate journal, have a look at other papers in the journal that are over in length.  Perhaps none are longer than 32 pages, and yours has no hope unless you trim further.  Perhaps there papers as long as 37 and you can deduce the reasons.  If there are lots of papers well above 30 pages, then your colleague is correct that this is a minor issue.  In that case, do as Buffy says, and explain why this cannot be sliced into two 25 page papers, all the effort you put into making as short as possible.

The journal is quite reputed. The research area is pavement engineering. The length limitation is on the submitted manuscript. I am not sure how I would compare the length of other published articles in the journal since the published versions (pdf) are quite different from the submitted manuscript.

@user3024069 There are scientific journals for pavement engineering? As in laying sidewalk?

@Nzall Why is that surprising..? It's a branch of civil engineering like any other.

@Nzall: in North American English, pavement generally refers to roads, not sidewalks.


text:
I peer reviewed a paper and found it to be sound - technically and language-wise. How should I write the review report?
I reviewed a research paper and found it to be well-written with no technical or language issues. How should I go about writing the review report for the paper?
If I write something on the lines of "the work is well-written and well-presented" and keep the review report succinct, I am worried that the editor might think I did not review it critically.

I have written some fairly short reviews in my time. Particularly for good papers they will not come as a surprise to the editor.

I've had papers rejected where one reviewer was negative and verbose and one reviewer was positive and succinct, even when the negative points raised were either incorrect or easily clarified/corrected. I presume, though I can't know for sure, that the difference in length influenced the editor.

Do you have review reports others have written about your work? Those can be a good starting point to figure out how a good review report is written.

Just being well-written and correct is not enough. Why should someone read the paper? What are the new things that we learn thanks to this work? Why is it exciting, interesting or useful? Why should we care about it so much that it should be published in a journal? How is it advancing science? What was the state of the art before this work, and how did this paper change the world?
In your review, you should explicitly recommend either acceptance or rejection. If you recommend acceptance, your review has to convince the editor that the paper is indeed worth accepting. (Similarly, if you recommend rejection, you will need to convince the editor that the paper should not be accepted.)

your answer sounds like the associate editor doesn't or isn't supposed to overtake or judge any of the points mentioned in your first paragraph. It's not like the associate editor has no background in a field, often he is a professor in my field with much more historic overview than the reviewers being topical experts. Also, good journals nowadays have a very extensive rating system parallel to the written comments of the reviewer. I'm wondering how often an associate editor is not starting peer review process and rejecting at a first glance due to not reaching journal standards formally.

Personally I think it is the decision of the editor if a paper is exciting, interesting enough for that journal and I'm not inclined to say it should be highlighted or not but stay neutral as a reviewer and foster to push my trendy topic or citation cartels. Reviewing for soundness, novelty is my job, everything else I don't care too much. In general I think your answer is too much black & white.

@user48953094: Most editors do not have enough time to read all the papers they are responsible for and decide if the paper is interesting enough for the journal.  They rely on reviewers to give them a summary of the paper and its merits to help them reach this conclusion.

@AlexanderWoo see my question here: https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/140484/41661 The question is why I as a reviewer or the (unpaid) associate editor should overtake this task concerning the prices for journal articles. "It was always like this" is no good answer anymore...

Reviewing for soundness, novelty is my job, everything else I don't care too much — Too bad.  The editor asked you for your professional judgment whether the paper should be accepted.  You agreed.  So you have a professional obligation to provide that judgment.

@user48953094 quite on the contrary, any editor can see whether it's well written and reasonable, but the decision on whether the research is novel and important for the subfield is something where specific expert reviewers opinion

If this concerns you, write something like:

This paper uses X to investigate Y. It is well-written and the conclusions are backed by the experiments performed. I have no concerns and recommend acceptance as-is.

If I write something on the lines of "the work is well-written and well-presented" and keep the review report succinct, I am worried that the editor might think I did not review it critically.

There is no such thing as a perfect paper. Even when a paper is technically sound and written in perfect English, there usually is something like an explanation that could have done better, a confusing notation, a missed connection to existing work, or a misleading emphasis in the abstract. You probably know this from your own writing that no matter how often you revised it in response to constructive critique, a reviewer can point out some obvious (minor) improvement.
As a consequence, when I am reviewing a paper (that I had not seen before) and had nothing to remark for a few paragraph, this is very likely because I became unfocused. When I receive a paper from internal review without any comments, I am suspecting that the reviewer did not put much effort into it.
And if I were an editor, an otherwise all positive review (as you are about to give) would carry more weight for me if accompanied by a list of minor issues. This demonstrates that the reviewer actually thoroughly and critically read the paper. It also somewhat makes it less likely that the reviewer is just blindly recommending acceptance of a crony’s paper. One of my own papers was clearly subjected to one more review than usual for the respective journal after receiving a short exclusively positive review.
Now, it is of course impossible to know the editor’s stance on this, unless you intimately know them. Also, things may be a bit different, if you have a reputation as a thorough reviewer and the paper in question is written by your known arch-enemy. However, I consider it unlikely that a paper’s chances are diminished by a list of minor issues clearly labelled as such. This should of course be accompanied by the things mentioned in the other answers:

A summary of the paper in your own words.
A short list of technical highlights of the paper.
A short evaluation of the paper’s importance (unless the journal in question explicitly does not care abut novelty/impact).

A short letter saying the paper is correct and well written is OK.
The editor may want your opinion about whether it's important or interesting enough to meet the standards for this particular journal. Check your instructions.

You should go with what @Jukka Suomela suggested: explain why the paper is interesting, why someone should read it, etc. But there is another thing -- in my field, reviews often start with a few paragraphs that quickly summarize the work being discussed (usually in a pretty neutral way). This allows the reviewer to recap what they understood about the work, gives authors and others a chance to see if they misunderstood something -- and yes it also makes the review more substantial.
So in addition to positive feedback about the work, you can consider also including your own quick neutral summary of what you understood from the work.

The answer of Jukka Suomela was very nice and comprehensive. However, I would like to add some remarks.
Remember that there was a reason that the editor has chosen you to be the reviewer of the paper. Because he/she found you an expert in this scientific field not in the language or the technique of writing. Therefore you should be very strict about reviewing the paper and give feedback on every aspects of the study, including the literature, the novelty of the work, the details of the experiment (or the method that they have used), the flow of the paper, the language, etc.
Even if you find the study sound in every manner, which is very rare, then it is strongly recommended to write a paragraph about the study at the beginning of your review. This clarifies everything and then everyone understands that you have reveiwed the paper in a correct manner.
Good luck


text:
Looking for advice to push PhD program application over the threshold of acceptability
I applied to PhD programs in mathematics last year and unfortunately wasn't accepted to any of the schools I applied to (miserable). I was looking for advice in what I can do before December to help push my application forward, and advice can hopefully help others in a similar situation.
Background: I graduated from Rutgers in 2014 with 2 degrees after 3 years, Mathematics and Computer Science. I did research in Graph theory while a student but ended with a GPA around 3.3. In the years between my masters and undergraduate I worked as a software engineer with work in machine learning, apps featured by apple, and some other successes. I finished my Masters at NYU in May 2020, with a thesis in computational algebraic geometry with new results under a very well known professor. One of my other recommenders is very famous too. I taught precalc / numerical analysis recitations while I was there. Ending around a 3.7 for my Masters. I was looking for a program in number theory but after the rejections I'm thinking of changing course to topology where I have several graduate courses and grades reflecting a good understanding (what is life other than failure + corrections :) ).
Now: Disheartened by the result, I've been working at the startup I was at before I went to my Masters. I feel incredibly lost as to what I can do now to help push my application further than I did last year... If anyone has advice that could lend itself to an improvement here in what can be accomplished in the next 6 months I would really appreciate it.
Cheers and good luck to everyone else who is applying for Fall 2022.
Thanks!

Have you tried publishing your thesis results from May 2020 in a peer-reviewed journal? Would this "well-known professor" who supervised your work be willing to help you with that publication? Instead of working back at a startup, is there any short-term research internships in a field you are interested in your level (that pay sufficiently to... live)?

This will get closed. Who has reviewed your statement of purpose? If you can get feedback on that from faculty, you will likely improve it.

@Dawn, yes I agree about SoP. It can be very important.

While your GPA is a bit low (if based on math courses), your overall profile, including letters (provided they are very supportive) seems fine. Having famous recommenders is helpful only if they honesty predict your future success. It is what they say, as much as their own reputation that matters. "Jane/John did well in my class" is never enough, no matter the recommender.
But, I think you should look at how widely you cast your net for a program. If you only applied to schools >= (Rutgers, NYU), then your net is too narrow. Widen it, just as undergraduate applicants do so that you more options and more possibilities. I don't suggest you apply to "bad" schools, but all of the R1 universities and even many of the R2s are very good, and better in some fields than their overall ranking might imply.
You might need to consider moving to a different region, but there are good schools pretty much everywhere in the US (and beyond).

Sorry, no. And I suggest you delete the above comment for security sake.


text:
Paper work came to halt - what can I do?
Some time ago, I enrolled in a PhD programme and at the same time I started a full-time job. The full-time job became so time-consuming that progress on PhD related duties became really slow. As a result, I decided to terminate my PhD studies, however I would like to finish a paper that I have worked on.
Currently, the paper containts the estimations with results and the approx. fifth version of text, that makes sense to me. Unfortunately, my supervisor tells me that the text needs to undergo some changes in order to bring it closer to the "academic English".
As I do not intend to continue an academic carreer, I have no use for learning academic English beyond the scope of my Bachelor and Master theses. Hence, forgoing one or two month's evenings/weekends just to learn academic English well enough to publish is something I am unwilling to do.
What would you do in my position? Get someone else on the paper and give them co-authorship for editing the text into publishable form? Or something entirely else?
Any input is much appreciated,
Daniel

It takes me a lot more than five versions to get a manuscript ready to submit to a journal.

There are journals that publish poorly written papers.

Could many people learn academic English in just "one or two month's evenings/weekends", to a standard sufficient to publish? I'm sceptical; but then I am a slow learner of writing style, so maybe it's just me.

"As I do not intend to continue an academic carreer, I have no use for learning academic English beyond the scope of my Bachelor and Master theses." Using the same argument, you do not need to publish the paper either. You probably have a basic misunderstanding. It is the written paper (presenting the work) that gets published and not the work behind the paper. So, if you want to get published you need to write the best paper you can. So, no will to improve the paper (nights, weekends like the rest of us) => no publishing.

Why not ask your supervisor to give you examples of what editing he wants done and see if its something you can do on your own? If you've worked on the paper up to the 5th draft, it seems a shame to then allow someone else to take the credit for your own hard work. You can also read some good books on academic style of writing. Depending on your field, I can recommend this book. I'm sure there are many others.
So in summary, if I were in your shoes I would do it on my own. I'm sure good writing skills is something that's valued even in most jobs.

Simply put, the supervisor's comments are something like "its not readable enough and the reader gets confused". The supervisor has lots of papers under his belt and says it is a normal situation that I find the paper absolutely clear while to somebody else its unreadable. Just during the last two weeks, I wrote two bachelor/master thesis reviews so I know what a badly written academic text looks like. And I feel that my paper is really easy to read. That's basically the main problem, I do not know how to rewrite the paper because I don't know the 'problem' and the 'desired solution'.

@DanielBencik, I see what you mean. In that case, why not get a second opinion from another academic who knows about your field? Do you have any other collaborators or is it just you and your supervisor? Alternatively, you can get other trusted PhD students to read through it and get their opinion.

Most faculty are not trained to teach writing.  So they may not give good instructions on improving writing style.

Judging by your grammar and spelling in this question your advisor might be being kind and telling you that you need to correct the grammar and spelling to a readable level.
"Get someone else on the paper and give them co-authorship for editing the text into publishable form?" No. Authorship should not be granted for editorial changes, only for significant work towards the research the paper presents. The "paper" is just an output, it is how the research is often measured but that is all.

Thanks. I am afraid that it is not spelling/grammar, as that gets sorted out when we hire people to proofread the papers before submittings.

Be careful about making assumptions about what constitutes authorship: this varies hugely between fields - see the many other questions here on that topic to get an idea. In many fields, if someone turns lay prose into academic English, they could end up as first author. In other fields, they might just get an acknowledgement, or not even that.


text:
Can I recreate/redesign a peer reviewed journal article findings (giving proper credits to author, journal)into powerpoint and sell it?
Can I recreate/redesign a peer reviewed journal article findings (giving proper credits to author, journal) into powerpoint slide and sell it for profit?

Who should buy it?

@henning--reinstateMonica I know who would buy it. Some people in some countries just want to have a bachelor, master, or even PhD degree (from degree I mean just that piece of paper that shows you have that degree) and don't care if their thesis project is done by somebody else. Even their advisers don't care at all. For these kind of theses, it's enough to just reproduce results of a paper and you would get your degree. Most of the time they give money to somebody else (e.g. ghost writer) to reproduce or fabricate the results of a given paper. It's a really serious business.

Probably not, but that depends on the copyright holder and on any license that is attached to the work. If there is no license at all, then the answer would be no. But even some permissive licenses have a no commercial use clause. If so, again, no.
And note that copyright law isn't universal. It varies from country to country.
And note, again, that it is the words (expression) that is normally covered by copyright, not the underlying ideas. Anyone can write about ideas.
But, another issue is how you would be looked upon if you do this. Some things that are, strictly speaking, legal, are still frowned upon.

And finally of course the miniscule possibility that this is something anyone would pay for.

@TobiasKildetoft, well, yes. That. ;-)

@TobiasKildetoft most of our students would. We have journal club and seminar course at my department, we need to present hot topic papers


text:
How much do graduate schools in Mathematics care about the Statement of Purpose?
Can a 'bad' SOP keep you out of a program? Can a 'good' SOP help you? Can the SOP only hurt you?

Too variable for a general answer. Every university is different. Every reader is different. I advise you to write a good one, in any case.

See https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/38237/how-does-the-admissions-process-work-for-ph-d-programs-in-the-us-particularly, the section on "statement of purpose".

Related:https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/81486/101

All of the above. Of course the Statement of Purpose is important, or the university would not ask you to write one. It costs time for an evaluation committee to read through every application, and if there were a better way to judge the quality of a candidate, we would use it.
So yes, a bad SOP can totally sink an application. A good SOP can definitely help; it can also explain other issues that a reader might find in your application, such as poor grades or gap years.

[I have been on the faculty committee for Mathematics Graduate Admissions at the University of Georgia for seven admissions cycles, three times as the head of the committee.]
I view the statement of purpose as one of the least important parts of the application.  It is certainly a part that has very little correlation with acceptance.  In other words, if we look only at, say, the GRE scores or GPA of an application and see that they are extremely high (respectively, extremely low), we can significantly raise (respectively, significantly lower) the chance that that application will be accepted compared to the mean acceptance rate, but a really excellent or really awful personal statement does not change the probability appreciably unless further conditions are met.
Why is this?  The main reason is that, for a PhD student of (most likely theoretical, in our department) mathematics, good or bad statements of purpose correlate too weakly with the qualities for which we are trying to select.  Good writing skills are important, but because a "statement of purpose" is a genre with which most applicants are completely unfamiliar, how they write in this genre doesn't tell us that much about their general writing skills.  (Imagine that we asked them to contribute a haiku or sonnet instead.  That sounds ridiculous...but actually does give some idea of the situation.)
The majority of statements of purpose we get mostly try to convey the student's ardor for mathematics, beginning with an anecdote about how it was kindled at an early age.  They go on to say something about what kind of mathematics they want to study...and in most cases they will show that they don't really know.  As far as our reactions to this: (1) well, we want students who love mathematics, but that is shown better through anything other than how eloquently they write an essay about this love and (2) it is actually okay that most students of (again, mostly theoretical) mathematics have quite vague ideas about what they want to study.  My thesis for instance was on abelian surfaces with quaternionic multiplication.  This is a topic in arithmetic geometry, which is a subfield of number theory.  I believe that in my statement of purpose I said I wanted to do number theory.  Good guess!
I will come back later and say more about (1) Why most departments require a statement of purpose anyway and (2) What are some situations in which a statement of purpose becomes more important.  I wanted to leave an answer before the question got closed.  (It is a good question.)
Added: As Mark Meckes points out in the comments, I have already answered a similar question on this site.

In addition to being the least important criterion, could you comment on whether its effect is asymmetric? I've heard that it is essentially impossible to get a big boost from a great SOP but it's certainly possible to have a bad SOP sink an entire application. The OP asked specially about this asymmetry.

I will write more later...but yes, I think it is easier to say "exactly the wrong thing" than "exactly the right thing" in a SOP (though we are happy to ignore a lot of things in SOPs that we are not that thrilled about, as I alluded to above).

Interesting.  The statement of purpose is one of the most important components of graduate application in computer science, including in subfields of theoretical computer science that are indistinguishable from, if not actually, mathematics.  We don't look for evidence of ardor; if they didn't like the field, they wouldn't apply!  We look for evidence of intellectual maturity, independence, creativity, and technical writing ability.


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Professor Lost Assignment Grade, But So Did I
I am a first year undergraduate student (direct entry engineering) and today something happened that I have dreaded for a long time.
I received an email from my professor saying that he lost all marks from his computer, the midterm exam marks could be recovered but the assignments could not. Normally this would not be an issue, I keep all assignments in a filing cabinet plus I input all grades into a spreadsheet. But in an effort to clean up for an upcoming move, I seem to have misplaced the folder of math assignments I had.
The assignments are worth 5 percent each and I misplaced two of them. This wouldn't be the biggest deal typically as I get fairly high marks, but I had done well on these assignments and my midterm mark wasn't as high as I wanted. With a 0 on both these assignments I would need close to a perfect score on my final to get an A. I would like to keep a 4.0 GPA as I want to get into electrical engineering which is quite competitive.
With all that being said, I have already emailed the professor briefly explaining the situation along with the third assignment I still had. Technically, I don't need to keep assignments and the professor's computer problems are completely out of my control. So if he concludes that I should get a 0 on both assignments, can I appeal? I know my assignment marks so under my university's honesty declaration I must be honest about my grades, so anything I report to the professor must be true.
What should my course of action be in the event of him giving me two 0's on the assignments?

Your university doesn’t use a centralised marking repository using a system like Blackboard?

@nick012000 I have no idea what interface they use, but all I know is the professor says the file with the marks is gone and we must send scanned assignments into him. Seems like a backup system needs to be created....

What you should do, in the unlikely event he does that is just go see him and work it out. There are easy ways to compensate, but your next step should not be an escalation or claim unfairness. Just go to the office and have a talk.
The easiest way to compensate is just to assume that those grades are about the same as the typical grades you get otherwise in the course and compute averages or totals or whatever on that basis. If that satisfies both of you, then there is no issue.
But if either expects something different, you just need to discuss it. Perhaps he asked a few questions about what you did on the assignment.
Or, in case that you have the recorded grades, but not the assignments, just take the printed spreadsheet to show how you record things. He will accept it or not. And if you remember anything from feedback written on the assignment, say what it was, to refresh his memory.
But if all the grades, not just yours, are lost, then he needs a general solution that isn't punitive.

You shouldn’t be penalised for mistakes the professor makes.
If I was in the professor’s shoes, and the marks were truly irrecoverable, I would either give everyone 5/5 on the assignments, or I would null the assignments’ marks and mark the course out of 90 instead of 100, effectively adjusting the weighting of everything else upward. Which one I would select would depend on the policies of the university.
What I definitely wouldn’t do is penalise the students for my mistake by marking them 0/5. If he does, I would recommend complaining to the university; most universities would have some sort of formal appeals process for situations like this.

This "answer" isn't very helpful to the student. You aren't the prof here, so,, what you would do is irrelevant.


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Publishing with a Pseudonym that uses my legal first name as last name
I will soon be published at a peer-reviewed journal and this is my first publication in my career. My concern is that I'm Asian descent and have an extremely common last name, and personally I do not wish to be identified with my legal last name at all.
On the other hand, my Asian first name is relatively unique. Also, I've been going by an English nickname since I moved to US, and all the people I know knows me as my nickname since I always introduce myself with it in person and in my resume.
So, I thought I would choose my publishing name that is unique and personal to be
not this:
[legal first name] [legal last name]
but this:
[daily-used nick name] [legal first name].
I thought about adding my nickname as middle name, but this still results in tons of same names due to my last name.
The question is, would this be considered a good idea if I will always use this for publishing from now on? Or would it cause any big troubles in future career, such as employers having a difficulty with identifying my work or other issues? Are there any potential issues with this style of pseudonym?
I read other similar posts about publishing in pseudonym, but the closest I could find to my question was this:
Pen name similar with real name: Zu Yangzu instead of Zu Yang for papers
Choosing my name as an author when publishing a scientific paper, can I use my "unofficial" first name?
What are reasonable alternatives to changing your name for academic publishing when you have a common surname?

What do you expect as an answer when the last question you link to gives plenty of recognized options.

I couldn't find one specific to using first name as last name. I was wondering if having a pseudonym with a part of my legal name would avoid any troubles with identification.

Make that your name and stick to it. Publication, email etc. Just consider possible troubles (if any) coming out, eg when you get certificate and so on. But I think is OK to have a kind of pseudonym, especially in your case.


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Professor ignoring emails and not attending office hours
I recently received back an exam, and noticed after reviewing it a few days later a serious grading discrepancy. I sent my professor an email to confirm that he would be available in his next office hour, but received no reply. I then stopped by his office at the beginning of office hours but found that he was not in his office and remained absent for the entirety of the office hour.
After several days of no reply, I sent another email, which has also received no reply after several more days. I am unsure how to proceed, as the semester is nearly over and grades will be finalized within about a week. I am wondering if I need to escalate this in order to have my score corrected as the error could seriously impact my final grade in the course. Is there someone that I should contact to discuss this? If so, who should I contact? Otherwise, what is the best course of action to take? Thank you for any advice.

I assume the professor is still teaching the class - can you try to speak with him some day before or after class?

@NateEldredge unfortunately my next meeting with the professor will be for the final exam, but trying to speak with him afterwards might be the best possibility

Are you sure there isn't something urgent happening in his personal life? Keep in mind that the end of the semester is not always hard deadline in fixing grading discrepancies.

Talk to the director of studies or whatever this is called in your place, they can direct you to the people that may be able to help. Note also that well-working departments have mechanisms to fix errors even after deadlines.

You seem to be doing the right thing.
I won't claim this is true everywhere, but most Universities have procedures to revise an error in grades including after the course is over, if indeed an error was made. So don't add to your stress by feeling all is lost if you can't sort it out right now; though of course it of course there is additional stress from uncertainty and feeling under the gun.
Based on what you say, it is bad form for your professor to not reply and not show up. What are other vehicles to "get help" in the course prior to the exam? TAs? Review sessions? If there are none and the prof is nonresponsive, that in my mind is actually a bigger issue than a single grade.
Practically, two suggestions:

Have you adequately (but briefly) described what is the issue -- and the urgency -- in your email? An email of "Dear Prof X. Will you be at office hours next ...., I have a question?" may well be ignored as "don't ask silly questions" (and when they unexpectedly can't make that office hour there being no recollection of it to follow up with you). A more effective email would be "Dear Prof X. I came to your office hours on ... but you seems you weren't able to make it. I've discovered a rather serious grading discrepancy that it would be very helpful to sort out before the exam and end of course. When could I come see you?"  It's more difficult to ignore -- and also lays a more compelling paper trail if you do need to appeal your grade after the course.
Have you tried other communication channels? Again, the prof should be responsive. But too often we double down on what should work but doesn't. Try phoning and leaving a voicemail. Leave a paper note under their door AND at their department office reception. Talk to the TA, if any.

Finally, as a former lecturer, it's worth noting: it's crazy how many students want last minute help, often are confrontational due to their own stress, and can't formulate a reasonable question without it being clear they were paying no attention during the course until the last minute. I see no reason to assume you're part of this crowd, but think through your communications how to ensure you're not coming across that way. You have an important, concrete issue to discuss. Make sure you communicate that even if your email arrives sandwiched between 3 other student emails saying "can I ask you some questions, not sure what yet, during office hour?", "can you tell us more what's on the final exam", and "can I hand in my assignment 2 months late?". Good luck!

If you are feeling desperate, go to the department office and tell them you need to contact the professor over a grading issue that you are afraid will slip through the cracks at end of term. Ask to have them have the professor contact you, leaving contact information. You could even write a note for the office to pass to the professor detailing your concerns. The office is likely to see the professor before you do.
The prof may still not respond, but you have left a marker that establishes your timely concern.
Don't be overly concerned about lack of response at end of term. There may be a lot on the professor's plate also. There are also ways to work things out that don't require immediate action, as long as you leave a trail of effort to contact and resolve the issue.
But don't increase the "noise" going directly to the professor. It probably won't help and might hurt.

Your advice is very helpful, thank you. I’ll keep in mind the professor’s own business during exam season.


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Retaking an undergraduate course due to poor grade before graduate school applications
Due to poor performance on a midterm for an advanced major class I am currently taking, I am expecting to earn a lower grade than I would like to (around a B/B-). I have earned A's in all my other major classes and I am concerned about how this will affect graduate admissions.
Alongside other options such as research for bolstering my future graduate school applications (I am currently a sophomore), I am wondering if retaking the class in the future would look better for graduate admissions. I believe that I would be able to earn a better grade if I retook the class, but I am wondering whether this would be a good use of my time and if it would (at least partially) make up for poor performance in this class, or if I would be better off focusing on other areas, such as getting in more research opportunities. I also have the opportunity to take the graduate version of this course, which I would also consider if this would help my chances for admission into a good graduate program.

Yes, it would look (a bit) better. Yes, focusing on other things is probably (not necessarily) a better use of your time. If the course is a foundation course in what you intend to pursue then it might be more important, but mostly because you have missed some necessary insights.
A single "bad" grade isn't likely to mean much of anything as the admission process looks at many things and isn't, fundamentally, driven by a few numbers. You might be far better off taking the next course in sequence if any and setting yourself up for still more advanced work than to "stall" for a bit while you make things up.
It feels like "grasping at straws" to me. If this would be an essential block, then you probably have far more important issues to deal with.
But do what you can to do better in future, possibly by asking more questions or doing more "exercises" in your courses.


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Question about adding co-first author
The subject of authorship is always a bit challenging, but here's a dilemma: Person A recently graduated from a PhD program in Molecular, Cell Biology. Prior to graduating, A submitted his manuscript for publication listing A as first author, one middle author and the PI as corresponding author. A had conceived of the project, spent 3+ years of full time work conducting the experiments, wrote the manuscript, did all the analysis and put together all figures. The reviewer comments came back as a revise and resubmit. At around the same time A was told by the PI that he needed to graduate and be off the grants for funding reasons, and that student B, a third year in the same lab, would be able to help with increasing replicates and the few experiments required by reviewers. A also continued to analyze data and offered to help with experiments in the lab on a volunteer basis, but the PI said that wouldn't be necessary as B could take care of it. B conducted some replicates at the rate of 1-2 experiments per month for 3 months (he was juggling several other projects) until the revisions were due. Two nights before the revised manuscript was due the PI said that B should be added as a co-first author, indicating that A and B have contributed equally to the work. My question is this: Is this normal in academia? Is it something that should happen and is no big deal, as indicated by the PI? Also, what can A do given that he has already graduated and will be starting a post-doc and will need recommendations from the PI in the future?

Sadly enough it is pretty common. Not universal, but more common in certain fields than others. You can fight it, but I recommend that you don't.
The reasons for letting it go is that you have finished and have a position (I assume). Over the course of your career, this sharing of first authorship on one paper will mean little, even if it is based on your dissertation. But the good will of your advisor, and possibly the other student can pay dividends in the future.
Your dissertation work is your first work, but, hopefully, not your best ever. And having the old professor being willing to work with you to advance your career and so breaking ties now is probably a sub-optimal move.
Yes, fairly normal. Questionable ethics. But optimize a path for yourself, and a single paper is only a small part of it. Yes, I know it is disheartening. But the long view is worth considering.
And, I've assumed you are A, here, hence the wording.

Thanks for the encouragement! I think you're right that this really stings now, but hopefully in a couple years it will be a moot point.


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Citing and referencing same technology website about what one is writing, is it acceptable?
I've to write about security issues with Microsoft Azure Cloud Services, and I find the most relevant information are on Azure website, not in any journals. Can I cite specific web-pages when I'm talking about those things? Also, if I will be doing that, I may end up citing Azure site more than 10 times at least. Is it acceptable to do that and that often?

Is this an assignment? Then it's best to ask your course instructor, who's also responsible for the grading.

yes, it is for assignment. My tutor is notoriously infamous for not responding to emails though and that's what made me ask this question here

Yes, it is acceptable, but a bit risky since MS can change those pages at any time. At a minimum, your citation needs to include the date at which you accessed the information. You can also archive the pages for your own sense of comfort or find the pages on the Internet Archive, which should be more stable.
But, for your paper to be valuable, it needs to say more than what can be found on the company's websites. If it is just restating what is there then it has no novelty and probably won't be published.


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Concerning PhD application, I have been asked for an pre-interview call. What and how should I prepare?
I have submitted an application for a PhD position recently. It required a few papers being published and two reference letters that can be sent directly to them, along with of course research proposal, CV and motivation letter.
It appears, one of the reference letters didn't reach them in time, and I have been asked to attend a pre-interview call. What kind of preparation should I be making? I could really use some advice, please help me out here!
Thank you!

It's okay to ask them what to expect if they haven't told you already: "who will be on the call?" and "is there anything I should prepare?" and "how much time should I set aside?" are all reasonable questions to ask.
I don't think a "pre-interview call" is something nearly standardized enough for anyone to guess otherwise.

Actually, it is possible that the call is to let the candidate know what to expect in the actual interview. Take notes if that is the case.

@Buffy Yep, certainly possible, but could also be what I know best as a "phone interview" which often comes before an invitation to an in-person interview for job applicants in many fields. We can all speculate and the only way to answer for sure is to ask. In the case you suggest then the response would be something: "It'll just be a 10-minute conversation to let you know what to expect in the actual interview, nothing you need to prepare."

@BryanKrause actually, PhD advisor/supervisor (main person under whom I would be doing it) will be on the call. Just him and I. I'm thinking question perhaps wouldn't delving deep into the "research proposal" but on the "behavorial" side like a few suggested on https://www.findaphd.com/advice/finding/phd-interview-questions.aspx  Please suggest!

@kern Everything is on the table that will help the advisor decide if you are a good candidate and good fit for a position. Remember that interviews are always two-directional in that you should be assessing your potential advisor/lab just as much as they assess you.

@BryanKrause work there is going to be so cool. I'm more like in "Can I just get in there, please" mode :) And, I'm sorry if I sound pestering way too much, but how can I assess him/lab?

@kern Start by reading some of the questions here that involve people in various stages of needing help with their advisor (of course these search terms are not perfect at narrowing down to that scenario, but you get the idea): https://academia.stackexchange.com/search?q=help+advisor Consider that most of these posts come from people who were just "trying to get in there" in one sense or another.

@kern Also here: https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/66928/63475

It's great @BryanKrause. I really appreciate it, thank you so much!