text:
How to avoid arxiv converting http URLs into "this http URL" link in the abstract meta data
I have an abstract that contains URLs which I would like them to appear "as-is" as they are part of the content. However, arxiv automatically modify the URLs (in the meta data) that I included in the abstract to a link with the title: this http url.
Is there any way I can prevent this and make the URLs to appear as they are? Because they are part of the story and asking the user to click on the link is not what I want.
I looked at arxiv and found this here:

We automatically convert these into an active link reading "this ftp
  URL" and an http URL into a link reading "this http URL" (try for a
  grammatically sensible substitution). The location of related files or
  information should be given here. Also, you should add a space to
  separate any periods or text following a URL from the URL itself, so
  that it is not interpreted as part of the URL. For example, the
  comment

Is there anyway to avoid automatically converting the URLs in the abstract?

It seems they don't make this replacement in the preview, so I can't test it out, but I wonder what happens if you put the link in text in math mode, e.g. $\text{www.google.com}$.

@Anyon If I write the abstract in Latex it appears as Latex. So I have to write it as text. Yes, unfortunately, this does not appear in the preview. Similarly, writing it in latex appears fine in preview but when it is published, it appears as Latext code.

They're working on it: https://github.com/arXiv/arxiv-base/pull/132

Assuming you have a domain name in the URL, try formatting one or more dots in TeX (MathJax), as in foo$.$com.
I ran into the same issue, as my abstract mentioned "coverage.py" (and ".py" happens to also be the top level domain for Paraguay).
A few things that don't work:

formatting the whole domain in LaTeX/MathJax;
using backticks around the whole domain (``);
encoding the dot as HTML identity (.);

If you are a Python programmer and would like to experiment, look at the function named "urlize".
After cloning and installing the arxiv-base repository, you can try out strings with:
from flask import Flask
from arxiv.base.urls import urlize

app = Flask('test')
with app.app_context():
   print(urlize("foo bar xyzzy.com baz"))


text:
precision vs. usefulness
I presented a testing (specifically, symbolic execution) approach for special language. I have a problem in evaluating my approach. I am going to evaluate correctness and usefulness of the approach. My own perception is computing precision for the correctness. I created 100 mutations of one case study by injecting one error in each of them and calculating the fraction of (number of real errors/number of detecting errors). For calculating usefulness of the approach, I studied in the papers that the mutation also used for this purpose. By the way, I have no idea about computing the usefulness of the approach and the differences between those. Could you please help me in this regard?

Uhhhhhhh, what?

@Eppicurt how can I compute the usefulness of my tool?

@Eppicurt: My feelings exactly. Are we talking about something in biology, linguistics, computer science, or what? Probably only 2 or 3 extra words somewhere near the beginning would be all that's necessary to provide the present missing context for those readers of this general academic site who are not steeped in the OP's specific technical area. (moments later) I noticed the tag "software" just now, which I guess somewhat blunts my criticism, but I still think 2 or 3 extra words of context would have been nice.

This post is cross-posted on CS.SE

@DaveLRenfro All the information should be in the question itself -- people tend not to read the tags and really they're just there for indexing. This question looks like a "content of my research" question, to me, but I don't understand it, either.

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sort: votes


text:
Is there something I could do considering I'm not really happy with my master's thesis?
On the begining of this year I've started a graduate course in Physics to obtain a master's degree. I have a major in mathematical physics and mathematics and wanted to work with General Relativity, Quantum Field Theory on Curved Spacetimes or related topics, but with focus on fundamental physics. In particular I'm quite interested in the infrared structure of gravity and gauge theories and the application to soft hairs on black holes.
There was a professor that was going to advise me on a very nice project about black hole radiation, but unfortunately he passed away. I started then searching for another one, but the ones I found were from the math department and was quite hard to get a permission to have them as advisors on the physics department.
I was talking to two of them, one of which was my advisor in a undergraduate research project. He didn't work with what I wanted but proposed one work on extended bodies in GR, but he didn't tell much details. It didn't interest me but said it was interesting just to be nice.
The physics department ended up allowing some students to have advisors from the math department. The one that could advise in what I wanted needed to advise someone else. This other professor and the coordinator ended up "assigning me" to work with the extended bodies work professor.
I wasn't feeling good about it, but I was being pressed by the deadline to find one advisor and, because it was already one exception, I felt bad to refuse and accepted in august.
I'm working on this for three months now and I can say I'm not fully happy about it. I have quite a few complaints:

It is not fundamental Physics and it is not what I would call GR. It is dynamics on GR. Up to now I've studied two papers and no deep thing about GR was needed. Some students say they discussed with their advisors for quite a long time what would be done. In my case I was handed what should I do.
The advisor requires that the work be devoted to computing examples, like solving a really hard toy model. He find this extremely important but I can't see it like that.
I didn't want that, and I know it is not a requirement. I've seem master's thesis from there and other universities focusing on the fundamental physics aspects and the structure of the theory.
My advisor doesn't know the theme. I have to study the papers alone and present seminars twice a week so he and another student of his can learn the subject. This is making me feel extremely pressed because the papers are very hard and I have not much interest.
Although studying the papers for learning more about how extended bodies can be dealt with in GR is something I would happily do in my free time, dedicating that much is preventing me from studying what I really want to do afterwards. I believe this combined with how much I'm being pressed is the big deal.

The issue is: I'm on this for four months now and I feel it is too late to do something. I think that if I go search for another advisor they'll say there is too little time left (one year). I don't even know if I'll find one. If my advisor finds out I'm searching for another one it could also create a difficult situation I think.
Plus, I don't want to offend my advisor or start a fight, after all, he is a good person. It is just that for all this time I felt embarrassed to say I wasn't really interested in this, and I feel even more embarrassed to say that after all this time. I've tried implying a few times I'm not interested, but he didn't understand I think.
What can I do in this situation? I mean, is there some option other than continuing with this even being unhappy? Is there some way to change things, without offending anyone, starting a fight or creating an embarrassing situation? I need some piece of advice.

What is your specific question? Do you want to find a means to leave? Do you want to find another adviser? Without setting a clear goal that we can address, it is difficult to give advice. Your situation although unfortunate, doesn't tell what you want to do: stay and change, stay and not change (and learn to cope), leave and find another adviser, etc.

I don't want to give up on the master's degree. It is important for me. The point of the question is exactly that I don't know what I can/should do. Of course, if I were to say what I would prefer, would be to change the advisor in order to have one research topic which makes me happier. But there are tons of points related to this: one year will be enough to do a whole new work? Would some advisor agree with this? Isn't it unethical/impolite/offensive with my advisor to do this? Wouldn't this damage my reputation on the department?

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text:
What is the best way to propose one remote collaboration of this kind?
This question is a followup to this previous question of mine. Let me quickly summarize. I'm a Physics PhD student interested in one particular subfield which appears to be very active and promising. I have studied some key papers about the subject and I do understand them, but I really don't know how to start doing research on the topic. I asked if I could remotely propose some kind of remote collaboration with some postdoc working in the subject to learn and gain experience and by the answer I get that it is indeed OK to do it.
This question is about how to do it so to maximize the chance of success. I know about one postdoc that has several important papers published in the subject. I watched one talk he gave online and he seems very approachable. Moreover in his talk he showed very clearly that there are lots of things to be done in the field.
That said, I would like to send him a message and ask if I could collaborate with him remotely. What I want is to get involved in the research in this fied, help and gain experience.
A first point is that he doesn't know me, nor do I know anyone who knows him. To be honest I don't know anyone who knows people working in the field.
In that scenario, what is the best way to propose such collaboration and how much information should I send with my message?

May I ask what does your advisor said? I think his advice might be more field-specific, comparing to the advices you are going to get here.

Decide on what this field means to you and act accordingly.  From your post, you are a PhD student and therefore presumably already have a field of study.  If this is your first semester it will be a simpler conversation than if this is your sixth.  I'm going to assume that you don't want to change your current field of research, but would instead like to work in both fields to some capacity.
Whether your current field and this new one are related, and the extent to which they are related, is also important to consider.  If they are basically unrelated, or only tangentially so, then you'd be asking this post-doc to train you to be a collaborator.  If they are related well enough, then you'd be a useful collaborator to start with.
I personally would not begin a conversation around collaboration.  You appear to be too new to the field to do that.  Instead, I would begin by contacting the post-doc about his research, or potentially his talk, and discussing those open problems.  Are there any open problems that interest you and the post-doc, and in which you feel you could meaningfully make a contribution?  Start talking about your ideas, discuss it as though you are curious in a deeper way than someone who just watched a talk, but still not ready to jump ship and switch fields.
Through those conversations, you'll gain the insights you need to start proposing relevant questions for further research, and from there be able to ask this post-doc about collaboration opportunities.  Remember, this person also has their own projects.  They probably won't just bring you on to their own because you sent an email.  If you can both work on a truly new contribution though that would further your mutual careers, and if this doesn't negatively impact either of your abilities to get done what you need to do already, then it's a better conversation.
So, TL;DR: don't ask to collaborate, just start talking about a mutual interest, and see where it goes.

Hi, thanks for the advice ! I'm in the third semester and this field is the one I really want to work with since my masters, but back then there was no advisor available. For my PhD there was one advisor from a related field interested in the subject who said we could discuss and come up with a project. I dedicated one semestre and a month or two studying the subject, understood quite well, but then he asked what I would do and how I would do it. I had some ideas but he wanted something already concrete.

My expectation was that we would spend a few meetings discussing these ideas, but it didn't happen. In the end the project became much more closer to his field than to what I wanted, although it is still related. This hasn't been a good thing at all, because I feel I have much more hability with the subject I started with than that of his interest. Finally, although I understand quite well what I studied about the field (in particular I'm able to rederive their results nicely), I still don't know how to propose relevant questions for further research (something I'm quite ashamed of TBH).

So if I understand it, your advisor's field is not the one you really want, but it's close enough so you'll stick with the PhD?  That's reasonable at this point, but it may be relevant to move advisors if that's possible and focus on what you love.  Posing good research questions in general is very hard, so I wouldn't worry yet.  Personal advice that I didn't take: read more literature first.  Even if you think you understand whatthe open problems are.  That will help you to refine your questions

Yes, I'm sticking with it because he seems the closest to the field. BTW, he'd allow me to change the project if I could come up with a well-posed research problem. TBH, while I understand the current results I don't fully understand the open problems, so probably I definitely need to read more. There are quite a few ones that the postdoc told about in his talk and basically said he's working in all of it. Saying that I'm getting started and interested in understanding better the open problems and requesting a few more references to do so would be a good idea to start discussing the subject?

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text:
Is it possible to remotely engage in a side project with a postdoc in order to gain experience?
I'm a PhD student in theoretical Physics. Recently I was watching a lecture and the professor told a story that as a PhD student he used to engage in side projects with postdocs in order to get more experience, learn something and try to publish as well, all of which worked very nicely for him. This would work for both sides because he would help and at the same time learn and gain experience.
Now, there is one particular topic I'm very interested for a long time. This topic is being activelly investigated by some of the most renowed researchers around the world and they say that there is a lot to be done, what makes me consider it very worthwhile to be able to work in this field. To be honest, that is the topic I want to work with after I finish my PhD! I have studied some of the main papers on the subject but still didn't have any idea of something to do that could end up in a publication. My guess is that this happens because I lack experience.
In that case the story my professor told inspired me in doing the same. The issue is that in my department (and as far as I know in my country, unfortunatelly) I can't find people working on the subject. In particular there is no postdoc working on it in my department.
That said, I know about one postdoc from another country which actively works on the field and already published very relevant papers on the subject. I've watched some of his recorded seminars on YouTube and he seems quite engaged in really getting people to understand the subject.
In that case would it be possible to do what my professor did remotely? Could I send a message to this guy and ask if I could participate and help with something in his work in order for me to get started in the field? Or would this be frowned upon and considered unacceptable? If the answer is yes, how should I approach this?

May I ask what does your advisor said?

You end your post with multiple questions. It is usually better to try to write one focussed post per question on these sites. However, I will focus on two questions that I feel are key here:

Would it be possible to do this project remotely?
How should you contact the postdoc?

Would it be possible to do this project remotely?

You can always ask to do a side project, research is about collaboration. Remote collaboration should be fine, given that that is how a lot of companies and universities are functioning now due to the pandemic. Zoom/Teams/Slack or something similar should work fine, use whatever the postdoc is using. Do go to your advisor first and see if they agree that this fits in your PhD or if you should do this on your own time.

How should you contact the postdoc?

An unprompted message might go unnoticed. Ask your professor if they by any chance know the postdoc you want to collaborate with. If they do, ask if they can introduce you and already vouch for your work. If they don't, look for another possible connection to do this. This will give you the highest probability of success. If you end up not being able to find somebody to help you, send them a message directly. Keep your message brief, direct and describe your background and how you'd like to help (depending on the topic you could help with for example data cleaning, analysis or visualization, literature reviews, etc.) and ask them if they have something for you, now or in the future.

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text:
What's the reasoning behind GRE scoring scale?
Is there a reason for it being 130 - 170, rather then 0 - 40? Is it to make it easier to use the value in some other calculation?

The general tests used to have the same 200-800 range of the SAT, while the subject tests went up to 990.

Yes, there are several reasons for the change. Some of them are:

Since the new scale does not superposes with the old one, you are able to differentiate them.
The old scale increases by 10, which could overestimate the difference between two scores. The new scale increase by 1, which helps to decrease the bias when comparing scores.
Another feature that helps to decrease the bias when interpreting results is the not obvious extremes, but still with a comfortable number at the middle of the scale.

Source

So the reasoning for the seemingly arbitrary 130 added is to make the test scores not immediately obvious? Because 0 - 40 whouldn't have overlapped the original either, and the increment would be the same

What The Doctor said, and it might also have something to do with LSAT scoring being on a scale 120-180. The LSAT is generally a more difficult test than the GRE, so perhaps these are supposed to be comparable.


text:
How to leave a postdoc prematurely without burning bridges?
I am in the middle of a postdoc that I want to quit to move to another postdoc. I don’t have experience with changing jobs in academia so I am looking for an advice how to accomplish this in the least painful way.
There are many threads on SE about quitting a job, mostly on the workplace. In industry it’s simple: upon finding a new job, one gives notice without prior announcement and completes the notice period. And in most cases it’s understandable and it doesn’t burn bridges.
Academia might be different: relations are more sensitive, and circles are smaller as one needs recommendation letters, get papers and grants reviewed, and so on.
So the question is how to leave a postdoc prematurely without burning bridges?
Is it better to just quit without much explanation or to gradually announce to my professor that I would like to start looking for a new postdoc because I am not happy with the current one?
The main reason for quitting is that I don’t find the department to be a nice environment and I am doing menial work from which I don’t benefit. Explaining these reasons won’t be received well by the professor and the department because they think that the project is great. People are nice to me but discussing this won’t help nor much can change my mind. On the other hand, I’m not sure if suddenly quitting will be received well too and might jeopardize my future career.

Probably worth mentioning if you have a contract that runs for a fixed amount of time. (e.g. in the US postdocs are often on one-year contracts, which have to be renewed)

Speaking as someone who has seen how disruptive unexpected departures can be to a project, earlier notice is almost always better for your advisor, and I think you are less likely to burn bridges if you 1) let them know as soon as possible, and 2) try to finish things up / leave them in a state where someone else can take over.  All this is probably similar to industry, except that the lead time is probably much longer (since it takes longer to be hired, usually).
The caveat here is that you have to make a call about your advisor's temper. If you think your advisor is a bitter or petty person who will dislike you for leaving under any circumstances, waiting until later might be your only option, because you will burn bridges either way, and you do not want to be abused for several months. This is a rare circumstance, and it doesn't sound like your case.
Here's the other big point: unless you think there is something you can do to improve the environment which would make you stay (doesn't sound like there is), being too detailed about why you are leaving is only going to make people angrier. Saying "I don’t find the department to be a nice environment and I am doing menial work from which I don’t benefit" - whether or not it is true that your tasks are menial - will aggravate people, as you guessed. Saying, "I haven't found this line of research as exciting as I hoped" is probably enough, and (if you know) saying "I want to move more in the direction X" might be good.


text:
Unpublished data exchange
While doing anthropological fieldwork I shared some films on a hard disk with an international research scholar in the same field it also had my unpublished data and chapters in progress. While her research objectives are different there are overlapping areas of interest. She borrowed films but we did not get a chance to have any mutual exchange. I did not mind this but later I realised she was having fun at my expense. Now I am scared I compromised my data and chapters. Since they are very personal and open to interpretation I am still hoping it is safe.

There isn't a question here.

Question is can she use my unpublished data/ chapters in her work which is focussed in the same domain but addressing different research questions.

You don't say if you have legal copies of those films, but since you effectively gave her the contents of your drive you gave her your data...

"I am still hoping it is safe"?

Safe from what? could she use the material - not sure, this may be a legal issue - how would she reference it? Would this be plagiarism as you effectively gave her your data.

I did not mind this but later I realised she was having fun at my expense

Perhaps you should contact her and ask her to delete that material...
Good luck.

Unlikely for her as a scholar to have transferred my data files especially as she herself pointed out that she uses a macbook pro and I am on windows. Can she substantiate claims with reading the unpublished work I doubt, but yes I feel I compromised on the ethics of data use.

I use my macbook pro to repair / read drives from pc and mac... In fact the mac seems to get to pc drives and sort them better (in my experience) than a pc. So, any data was available to her imho...


text:
How does one choose the panel to present at a conference?
I am looking to present my work at a conference. The goal being to get comments and get a paper publication. I have a choice to go on the last day with the chair being an authority in the field. Or on the first day with upcoming chair. Which would be better to help me both get good comments and still scout for post doc positions.

I think each choice has its pros and cons. But having said that, depending on how long your conference is, it's possible you will get the most attention, energy, and enthusiasm if you present on the first day of the conference. From my experience, often people leave early (esp. for long conferences, like those that last a week). On the other hand, it's also possible that people arrive late and stay for the rest of the conference. But from my experience it's usually the former. So I think you may be better off presenting on the first day.
In terms of scouting for post doc positions, you can approach the professors/researchers you are interested at other times during the conference, esp. if they are also giving presentations. In that case, attend their presentations, raise your hand and ask good questions, and/or approach them after the session.

Always go earlier at a conference if feedback is the goal. On the last day, anybody who’s still there is starting to “check out” mentally.


text:
What are the considerations when using an advertising slogan, song lyric, etc. in the title of my paper?
I've noticed that in economics and business, people often use catchy or interesting titles for their papers. I was wondering specifically about the use of references to song lyrics, slogans, TV shows, movies, literature, etc. in paper titles. For example,

"Dancing with the Stars: Innovation Through Interactions" references the TV show
"Hazed and Confused: The Effect of Air Pollution on Dementia" is a pun on a movie name
"Too Much Ado about Morgan’s Men: The U.S. Securities Markets, 1908-1914" is I believe a Shakespeare reference

My question is, are there specific legal or ethical considerations when appropriating text from (or making references to) someone else's cultural content? For example, could I be sued for copyright violation, or for misrepresenting the original work? Or is this just poor practice generally?
Specifically, in my case I want to use a tag line from a popular ad campaign. A comparable example would be: "Got Milk? The impact of Heifer International’s livestock donation programs in Rwanda on nutritional outcomes". The one key difference is that the ad campaign was produced by one of the companies discussed in my paper.


text:
Should TA work be listed in a CV for an internship in the industry?
Personally, I didn't teach but helped the professor conduct a laboratory course throughout the semester.
It was also not a paid work but I volunteered.
Should something like this be omitted from an industry CV?
Having little to zero working experience, could it be of any interest to a company?

"I...helped the professor conduct a laboratory course throughout the semester...It was also not a paid work but I volunteered." Presumably you were paid by the University (perhaps as a PhD student), hence, this was a paid position and should be listed on your CV (under your duties as a PhD student).

Yes, if you had some actual duties, this counts as experience and should be listed, especially given that you say you don't have very much additional experience.  You should also ask this instructor if he could be a reference.


text:
How should I list an unfinished bachelor thesis in my application for a Master's programme?
I am currently a final year undergraduate but I haven't finished working on my thesis yet. (I'm currently working on it nonetheless)
However a professor of mine told me to put it in the CV since it is also very related to the Master's programme.
How could I mention that it is not finished in the CV?
Writing "thesis: < title >" in the CV
 without further information looks like I have at least submitted it.

A less specific alternative to the answer below would be to just list "My bachelor' thesis title. In preparation." This is quite common in my area of mathematics, and is particularly suitable for projects which will almost definitely be completed, but haven't reached a final draft stage.

I would list the title of the thesis along with an expected completion date.
Depending on the format of your CV, this may just be the year, or, if you know the exact deadline, the date in Month, Year or DD/MM/YY format (the specifics of your long date formatting is country-dependent of course).
The listing on the CV might look something like

Bachelors' Thesis: "My Awesome Thesis Title Goes Here." May 2017

Or

"My Awesome Thesis Title Goes Here." (Bachelors' Thesis, expected
  completion date 30/05/17)

If you are submitting some form of covering letter as part of your application, it would also be a good idea to talk about your thesis there and also note that it is not yet complete. However, I think the admissions committee would be aware that if you are a current undergraduate student that your thesis is likely to be unfinished at this point. Good luck with your application!


text:
Write a paper based on forthcoming chapter in a book
I have a forthcoming book on a given topic. I would like to extend a section that deals with a significant topic per se into a full (though not very long) paper. Would the paper be desk-rejected?
The chapter includes the following on that subject:
- background
- methodology
- applications
The paper would provide a background and methodology (similar, obviously), but I underline that this paper brings new relative to the forthcoming chapter:
- further applications
- a more detailed presentation of the methodology.
Is it a long shot? It is worth expanding into a paper?
In the worst case scenario, I can just leave it as a working paper and present it as part of the book at some conferences, I guess.

Can you explain why you do not just place the more detailed presentation into the book -- is it because the book is already accepted and in press?  Another question that I think others will ask: why didn't you describe the methodology in full detail in the book?  In general "expanding" a book into a paper sounds a bit strange.

There is no place to present a detailed exposition of that method (the book is already quite lengthy). This is not about expanding a book into a paper but a section from a given chapter into a more detailed paper.

The main issues here are that you can't self-plagiarize, and you most likely need to convince the referees and editors that there is sufficient "novel" content to justify publication. If there is enough new material in the paper, you should be able to prove this. If you feel yourself "stretching" the arguments too much, then it's probably not such a good idea.
An alternative would be to write the paper as a "successor," rather than as an "expansion."

It probably would not have been a problem if the paper would have been first, right?


text:
Changing demographics data that was responded incorrectly in a survey to be published
We have a research paper that we want to get published in a journal. The paper is some simple statistical analysis of a survey we made. One of the questions in the demographics section is "What is your profession?" and you are given 4 options plus "Other" where you can write whatever you want.
In some cases, people wrote things in "Other" that qualified as one of the other 4 predetermined possible answers. Is it bad practice to change the results to refelct this? Can we do it and simply add a disclaimer that this was done and document what changes were made? Is it better if we just leave it as is?

I'd think you'd want to have an absolutely pristine version of your survey responses (so, without any "adjustments"), and, then, another one that was "rationalized" by you, and certainly explain what you did... But, I am not at all expert in standards for any such area of research.

At the risk of making the question overly specific, can  you share the four options (it's not obvious to me what four options for "what is your profession" would be) and an example of something that you would conform?

These are specific to healthcare. The options are medic, nurse, technician, administrativion, other

I think that something like the below table and note would be a reasonable way of approaching the issue. If  you share  your raw data, this would be easy to indicate.

Profession
n

Job 1
17*

Job 2
10**

Job 3
8

Job 4
5

Other
10

* Includes two "Other" responses that aligned with "Job 1". ** Includes one "Other" response that aligned with "Job 2".

That said, if you have only four options, you should apply your domain knowledge to understand why someone might not have selected the presupplied option but wrote something that looks to you like the same answer. (For example, a "nurse practitioner" isn't a subset of "nurse.")

I'll come up with a better example, maybe.


text:
Should I look for research internships or stay at my university for the summer?
I am in my last semester of Physics and Mathematics and, at the same time, my first semester in a MS in Applied Math (which I will finish in two more semesters) in one of the top universities for physics grad programs. I plan on pursuing a PhD in Physics by Fall 2020 and was wondering what was the best option to do this summer to increase my chances of being accepted in a program at a top university. I plan on applying somewhere else.
One option is looking for a research internship at another university or a national lab. On the other hand, I have been working in several projects at my home university and I am in a collaboration with another university. I have a publication done with a small group and a renowned professor in mathematics, and if I stay this summer I might be able to finish one or two more since I have been working in said projects for a year or more. The important thing is that I want to publish them before I send in my applications for PhD programs this fall. I think there is a considerably smaller chance of publishing if I go to an internship, and I might be able to apply to short programs like two week summer schools while I work here at my university. Furthermore, I already have participated in two summer internships at a Fermilab and Princeton, so I don't know if it makes any difference participating in a third internship, or if it would be better to potentially publish 1 or 2 publications more before I apply to a PhD program.
Summarizing, what do you think is more important: another internship or another (one or two) publication(s)?
Thank you for your opinions!

Stay where you are.
Normally, I would say, sure, do the summer trip.  But you've got a lot of balls in the air, considering the masters.
Plus, you've already checked the summer trip box twice.  Checking it a third time won't change the application.

I think the relavant question is which PhD (sub)field you want to persue. If you are able to publish in exactly this sub-field go for the publications but if you can do an internship in exactly the same sub-field as you plan to do your PhD go for this one.
As I read from your post you tick the boxes for publications as well as internships (and having just more is not giving you a significant boost anymore for a PhD application).
The more important thing is that you already know a lot about the potential PhD topic (and have developed own ideas what to do in detail) when you go for the PhD interview. The best applicants are those where I get the impression that they know what they want and they know what they are talking about.

For your Ph.D. application you want to demonstrate a number of things. First, that you are excited about a research area within your field and that you have begun some good work there. Second, that you know a bit about what it takes to be a successful researcher in general, including the importance of high quality publications describing your results; if you've already generated and submitted important results for publication, that is obviously even better. And third, that you have strong aptitude in your field.
I think it might be best for you to stay where you are and continue to produce research and publications. I assume that this will lead to a very strong letter of reference from your research advisor there. If you have another strong letter of reference from a prior research internship, plus one from a course in your department where you excelled, your application for Ph.D. study is likely to be quite strong.

Thank you for your answer. I was planning on using recommendation letters of the professors I am currently working with. Do you think using only recommendation letters from only research advisors would be worse than the recommendation letters you mentioned? I have been working with my letter writers for 2 years, 1 year and 7 months. I also have other letter writers (research advisors as well) if it is possible to send more than 3. Mainly because my two internships were 3 and 2 years ago, so that's why I did not plan on asking my internship supervisors for recommendation letters.

The goal is to get strong letters that attest to your prospects as a Ph.D. student and researcher. You mention "advisors". If they are all advising you on the same project, then they may be somewhat duplicative. I don't think you can go too wrong here, but having at least one letter that describes a different perspective on you (different project, course, etc) can be helpful. It sounds like you are in very good shape for a strong application.

They are all from different projects. Again thank you for your answer!


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Dropped out of Grad school after withdrawal period
It's basically the end of the semester. I was going through the motions the whole time. Withdrawal period has clearly gone. I sent an email that I'm withdrawing from the whole program.. what exactly happens now? Are my grades all F's? Do I even have a transcript? I paid all of my fall semester tuition. I'm not expecting my money back. Knowing it's too late.. just want to know about the transcript or is it not even on record?

Have you tried asking your university?

I sent them an email today after hours though.. so I won't know until the morning.. just hoping someone has had a similar situation.

I'm sorry about your situation. In all likelihood a search of your university website will provide exactly the answers you're looking for specific to your institution.

Yes, I have experience negotiating a graceful withdrawal for a young man in my town who landed in jail three-quarters through his semester.  In his case, he was an undergrad, but anyone can make a mistake, at any level of study.  I spoke with the dean, who outlined a letter.  I visited the young man in jail and helped him write the letter.  His transcript just showed a series of Ws instead of Fs.  This way, he can go back to school someday and make a fresh start, if he wants to.

At least in the US, the usual rules are that after the withdrawal period dropping out simply results in Fs unless some special agreement is made. It's possible you could ask the school to grant an administrative withdrawal (or some equivalent) as you are dropping out entirely and do not want any grades or credit, which they could conceivably grant (but aren't required to). School policy on refunds might be that you aren't entitled to any after the withdraw date, or that you could actually be owed some percentage (though if you are withdrawing in the very last week or so then probably not).
I've known people who did this with undergrad and had to deal with the result to their GPA years later when their situations had changed, so I would strongly advise you - if it is remotely possible at all - to deal with the added difficulty and meet with a proper administrator and follow procedure to withdraw from the program entirely.
Anyone in a similar situation - including you - might also consider, if they are at the very end of the semester, if they could just finish going through the motions and end the semester if early withdrawal is not possible. In short: leave yourself in the best position not to burn bridges, because life can change drastically over a few years. The few minutes you saved in not following through can result in some incredibly annoying results later on.
Take a deep breath, tidy up the lose ends (holding your nose where necessary), and then go on to the next chapter of your life with as much closure and minimized baggage as you can.


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What is the difference between Ph.D, D.Sc, D.Litt, etc.?
Is there any difference between Ph.D, D.Sc, D.Litt and the similar degrees?

If I remember correctly, MIT gave me a choice of getting a PhD or ScD for the same work when I completed my doctoral requirements in EECS in 1998.

The meaning of these degrees vary by country. In some countries (especially in Europe), PhD is the "basic" degree. It's the one you get out of graduate school. D. Litt (aka. Doctor of Letters) and D.Sc (Doctor of Science) are the highest conferred degrees. You need sustained achievement at the top before these are awarded. Here's a quote from the Wikipedia article on D. Litt:

The Litt.D. degree is awarded to candidates whose record of published work and research shows conspicuous ability and originality and constitutes a distinguished and sustained achievement. University committee and board approval is required, and candidates must provide documented mastery of a particular area or field. The degree may also be awarded honoris causa to such individuals as the university or the learned body in question deems worthy of this highest academic award.

D.Sc is similar, except it's for the sciences as opposed to social sciences. Again, see the Wikipedia article, except there're many non-European countries who take D.Sc to be effectively equivalent to PhD.

Speaking literally, nothing at all except an indication of the field. However, life isn't quite that simple. Doctorates in general are intended to be research degrees. Research in Literature, or Mathematics, or whatever. The actual choice of designation is up to a granting institution and/or some governmental authority.
A person with a doctorate is expected to have the skills to extend the known state of a field in meaningful ways. Moreover, he or she is expected to have demonstrated that skill via an accepted dissertation and some period of study. The study includes both the breadth of the field and particular depth in some (usually small) aspect of it. A Master's degree doesn't have the same expectations and normally, philosophically, a person with this degree should be able to carry on the normal work of the field and to move with the field as it changes. It normally stresses breadth more than depth in a subfield (though there are exceptions).
However, not all doctorates are created equal and not all are, in fact, accepted as Research Degrees. This may be especially important to a candidate for a degree, especially one contemplating an academic career.
The UK and other countries that follow UK traditions also have the concept of a "Higher Doctorate." for a discussion of that concept, see the answer of Allure here.
The NSF in the US keeps a list of "Research Doctorates" that it considers "equivalent" to the PhD. This has an impact on getting grants, especially from the NSF and may have an effect on tenure decisions.
Wikipedia gives some of the distinctions and local variations.
I also discussed the US position of the NSF as an answer to another question here: https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/112004/75368
Normally you would also name the field if you earn a more "general sounding" degree such as PhD, than a more specific one such as D. Litt.


text:
Too many advisors
I hope that you can give me a good advice on my situation.
I'm a PhD student with 3 advisors: one main advisor and 2 co-supervisors. I'm very happy with them all and we are working on a paper together. They are very good at providing feedback and criticism (mostly because they don't have other PhD students). Unfortunately, they don't always agree on the content/style of the paper. Now I have worked on this paper for a very long time and every  time I have been close to submitting it (2 out of 3 think it's ready) - one of them wants (me) to improve it or push it in another direction. This has been very stressful for me. Now we are again close to submitting it (I hope) and I'm now thinking about what to do differently for the next paper/in the future. The solutions that I've come up with are:

Take more charge in my PhD i.e. don't let one opinion control what is going to happen if there is no other complains.
Only work with max. 2 at the same time.

Choice 1. seems rude to me. Because I feel like it's my job to listen to all of my advisors. But on the other hand, how do I tell my advisors that I think we should work on our communication and that my research is suffering from working with 3 people at the same time that 1) always think they know best, 2) don't like to compromise and 3) don't always agree.

Are they all coauthors?  If yes, then all four coauthors need to have a meeting, together in the same room, to discuss your joint paper and agree on what steps each of you will take to ready it for submission.  You should not be the sole communication hub, nor should you be the only person working on the paper.  If not, thank the non-coauthors for their feedback, but you don't need their permission to submit.

Yes. I have tried to organize meetings with them all where my agenda has been to decide what needs to be done. Usually what happens is that they never agree on any steps or strategy. They "just" tell me what they think should be done from their own perspective and when I try to push them to agree on something they kind of ignore me.

Sounds like you need to fire one of your coauthors.

It sounds like a significant part of your problem is coming from treating your three advisors equally when, in fact, they are not equal: one of them is your main advisor, and that distinction matters.
You can use the distinction between main advisor and co-supervisors to break the symmetry that is giving your difficulties.  You don't say whether it's your main advisor or one of the others who is currently holding up paper submission, so let me treat both scenarios:

Your main advisor thinks your paper needs more work: Then your paper probably needs more work, because your main advisor is the one probably closest and most responsible for your work. Discuss the opinions of the others with your main advisor, and if they aren't convinced that it's good enough, then you need to do the work.
One of the others thinks your paper needs more work: If your main advisor thinks the paper is ready to submit, then have a discussion with your main advisor about the objection. If your main advisor agrees with the objection, then you probably really do need to do the additional work.  If your main advisor still thinks the paper is ready to submit then you can enlist your advisor to help explain to the co-supervisor why the work isn't going to be done.

In either case, if you focus on the relationship with the main advisor, and make that the locus for decisions, you can still keep the benefits of the inputs from the co-supervisors without becoming paralyzed by their differences of opinions. Your co-supervisors may disagree with the main advisor, but if you make it clear that you need to follow the opinions of the main advisor in case of disagreement, then they are likely to view it in those terms rather than feeling upset with you because you aren't taking their advice.

Thanks for the advice! I think this is the solution for my situation.

It's hard to answer without knowing more about what your field is, and what the nature of the collaboration is. Is it you, primarily, doing the work, and the advisors give feedback on what you've done? Do you all together design experiments, and then you conduct them?
In any case, generically, I'd say that your option (1), to take more ownership yourself, is fine. In addition, I'd recommend getting all the advisors in a room together when you all discuss your work. It's much easier to reach consensus this way than by endless virtual discussions.


text:
Funding opportunities for small project collaboration between EU and US?
I'm a early career researcher in Italy (University of Bolzano) and I have a colleague who is Senior Research Scientist at the National Institute for Aerospace (private contractor of NASA at the Langley Research Center).
We are collaborating and we would like to find funding to do it. Is there any channel for funding "small" bilateral projects between EU and US institutions like ours?
From the US side, from what I understood, it is very difficult to fund anything outside the US. From the EU side it might be easier to fund a project with a US partner, but EU-funded projects are usually large and demanding.
Any hint?


text:
Questions about the process of collaboration in Mathematics
How does the process of collaboration in math work ? Do mathematicians like to share their problems ? Can I do this by e-mail ? How to ask mathematicians if they want to collaborate in a math project ? I'm still learning more advanced math but these are questions I had in mind and didn't know where to ask.

Possibly useful google search: finding coauthors mathematics paper Among the hits I got, see especially the mathoverflow question How do mathematicians find coauthors? See also this Academia search.

it might be useful to know what level you're at (undergrad, master's?), maybe what sub-fields you're interested in.

Do mathematicians like to share their problems ?

Usually yes. Published papers will often have open questions or conjectures to which authors worked on / or think worthwhile but does not have a solution. These conjectures sometimes even have corollaries provided by the authors.
Mathematicians also sometimes just "hand out" open problems that arise in their research, write them on their webpage or public chat rooms.

Comments
It is still true that a majority of mathematics papers have only one author.
It could be that your first chance to collaborate in mathematics will be the collaboration between you and your Ph.D. advisor.
After others get to know your publications, they may be willing to collaborate with you.
Two (or more) mathematics students at the same university, who see each other frequently, will likely talk about mathematics; that may occasionally develop into a result worthy of publication.

addition on : "a majority of mathematics papers have only one author."
user3482749 doubts it.  I still think it is true.
Searching for evidence.  MathSciNet has 57,667 journal papers for the year 2000. There is a "Sort by number of authors", but I did not get it to show me beyond the first 2,000 ... that was still in the one-author portion of the list.
Trying a smaller sample.
I arbitrarily choose MSC classification 20, journal papers published in year 2000.
Total number: 1307.
Number with zero authors: 2.  {one erratum, one corrigenda}
Number with one author: 783.  About 60 percent.

Your first line seemed unlikely to me, so I checked, and it is in fact false. At the time of writing, there are 559 papers on the ArXiV's "new" feed, of which 153 have exactly one author (including one with an appendix by a separate author).

Concerning the data in the edit - here are some data points for the year 2020 rather than 2000: (number of journal publications with <= 1 authors/total number of publications): MSC 20: 577/1629; MSC 35: 1485/6930; MSC 46: 403/1277; MSC 47: 527/2218. This data supports @user3482749's claim: it's probably save to say that, today, the majority of math papers have at least two authors. (Admittedly, the MathSciNet database might not be complete yet for the year 2000 - but I don't see any reason why the number of papers that are not in the database, yet, should depend on their number of authors.)


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Do referees and search committee generally value a fully self-written proof over a short proof citing many other theorems?
Suppose that a researcher is trying to solve an important hypothesis within an economic model. He has two options to put his efforts:

He can start with the assumptions that he is most comfortable with, trying to prove the hypothesis all by himself, and finally come-up with a twenty pages proof after three months.

He can start surveying literature in Math and mathematically social science, in which he will be able to find similar mathematically structures (but different economic meanings). After two months, he will find some theorems that can be applied into the original hypothesis, and therefore write down a one-page proof for the hypothesis, with some tweaks of the assumptions.

In general, is a lengthy yet self-written mathematical proof an important contribution in economic theory research and valued by the referees and the search committee?

I think this is impossible to answer definitively. "It depends" is about all you can say. There is no "bright line" division between these two alternatives. Moreover it depends on the individual reader and their familiarity with the specific content.  Even "lengthly" is relative, though twenty pages is a lot to slog through if much of it is already known.

They probably value good logical reasoning and actual contributions to the field that are both original and useful. Comparisons to existing theories and "mathematical structures" is always necessary: good research explains why it is useful, how it relates to what has been done before, how the new method is different, and why it is better (or interesting for other reasons).

finally come-up with a twenty pages proof after three months vs. After two months, he will find some theorems that can be applied into the original hypothesis, and therefore write down a one-page proof for the hypothesis: Neither route is guaranteed to work. A hybrid is perhaps better, especially when the researcher knows the literature well and knows which results may help.

@user2768 I do agree with you. Of course everything has its risks. The two options are just two idealized examples to confine the scope of this question, making this question clearly defined and thus not opinion-based.

I think the main issue here is whether the long, self-written proof is largely a re-discovery of the results that were already in the literature or whether it is a new approach to the problem.

@AndreasBlass Of course it is not a rediscovery as the two proofs are based on different (albeit slightly) assumptions.

it is not a rediscovery as the two proofs are based on different --- I think what @Andreas Blass means by results includes method(s) of proof. In mathematics it is common to have existence proofs that either don't allow one to obtain an explicit construction (and this can have many different meanings) or only with difficulty allow one to obtain an explicit construction (and even then, the explicit construction might be especially unnatural in certain respects). Also, some proofs might allow a lot of adaptability in other ways while other proofs are essentially one-trick ponies.


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Computer Science - final year project being too focused on the engineering
Recently, I had 3 proposals for my final year project rejected as they were too focused on the engineering aspect of my course and less on terms of being academic?
What could possibly they (the final year project supervisors) mean? Do they mean by academic that I have to do a more research related work? And if it is so, how in the world am I supposed to come up with such a project(as that could be absolutely anything)?
I am so lost about this...

What were your 3 proposals so far?

Sounds like a great question for your project supervisors! It's also outside the scope of this site, which is for discussion of careers in academics.

It took them over a month to reply to me with useless statements, similar to the aforementioned "Your proposal suggests that your project is more focused on the engineering side, which would give you lower grades. Think of something better.", what would better mean.

If your proposals are along the lines of building X (which is engineering) then perhaps you could reframe it as a study of the best ways to build X or investigating the theory behind X or a study of the performance characteristics of X. I think what they are after is more science.

My first proposal was to create rc car with cameras attached to it which was to be controlled by micro controller, also the car would have a night vision camera (designed and built by me). (branded as too engineering focused)
2nd projects was too similar to what a colleague of mine was doing. It was about using a microcontroller with photosensitive peripheral attached.(branded as unintentional plagiarism)
3rd project was to create  a tutorial/slash walkthrough of creating an operating system based on Linux. (branded as too engineering focused again)

@MarkWassell This is exactly what I am doing, however whatever I propose seems to be too technical and not academic enough (whatever that really means really)....

What kinds of guidelines have you been given about selecting a project?  Do you have any examples of projects other students have done?

What's your department? EE or CS or something else?

This is one of the things that bug me. We have been given complete "freedom" of choice when it comes to our project and for examples had such great variety it was mind boggling - from someone creating a varitaion of lisp written entirely in Hangul(Korean alphabet) characters to someone creating a microcontroller controlled fuel consumption device for lawn mowers.  When you see what other people are doing you would think that the final year project are more likely testing what you have learned so far and demonstrating it with your skills, but apparently this is not the case....

@schaaahu Computer Science

From the description of your project proposals, I really thought you're in EE. That's why I asked what department you're in. I must say that you really should have proposed more theoretical oriented project because you're in a science department, not an engineering one.

Computer Science is an Engineering discipline. Albeit some schools may focus more on the science than the (software) engineering.

Precisely my point. So far, I have lived with the notion that a final year project should be something of a proof of what you have learned throughout the years for you bachelors. Doing academical research seems to me is more of a masters or a PHD type of a project.

I have heard this kind of comment before as well, and then it meant that the proposed work was too much about (solving) implementation aspects, too little about novel 'research' or 'scientific' work.
It helps to ask the question: 'could this work potentially be published in a scientific venue (workshop, conference, journal, etc)?
If the answer is 'no', then it might be considered to be too much about engineering.
For the record: it is not my opinion that 'engineering' work is less valuable or educational than 'scientific' work. Or that there is even a clear distinction. I just want to shed some light on what people mean when they say these kind of things.

A really good answer indeed. Now I will only have to struggle with finding something "academical" to do as a project.


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Can PhD students patent their work
I'm not aware of any PhD candidates patenting their novel work/product. Is it not ok to patent something you worked on?

Your contract should include regulations for these matters. In Germany (or at least Bavaria), for example, everything you do as a researcher in public office is intellectual property of the state.

Aha, perhaps that's why I don't see PhDs here seeking patents. Ok, I will check with legal/regulations dep. thanks

My contract doesn't state anything regarding patents. They do state that IP which is funded should not be a student's own only. But nothing about non funded research. I will need to ask the university

In my case (Canada in the 1990s) my supervisor and I offered our university the opportunity to patent the work (with our names on it), they decided not to, and we proceeded on our own.

@ian_itor: The PhD student is typically either an employee, so the usual rules for employees apply (=> employer = university decides about invention, if they file it for patenting, there are rules about the compensation for the employee. Same applies for public officers, btw.) or holds a scholarship (=> no employer, student holds the rights [in their part of the invention]).

A colleague of mine invented something during his PhD and a patent was filed. He isn't the sole inventor listed, though.
Whether the university/research institute decides to go for a patent or not may also be a political decision: for certain types of institute/in certain situations it may be better for the institute to have a patent (even without direct economic advantage) than a publication.

I know someone who did this. But it caused great friction between them and those who had collaborated with them on various aspects of the project - to the project's detriment. So, just be careful.

My university has an office of commercialization to help researchers deal with these sorts of things, maybe see if yours does too?

There is no generic rule that PhD students can't patent their work. When they do, usually, the university or research institution has rules about who owns the IP of what's being done in their labs. My alma mater had a 3-thirds rule where the student, the supervisor and the institution all held a third of the IP.
I don't find it particularly surprising that only few students end up patenting their work. Patents are much less useful than good scientific publications when applying for academic positions or grants. It seems normal that the focus is set on the later.
Also relevant: patenting costs money to file and money to maintain. It only makes sense to secure future sales. Students rarely have the funds for this and institutions usually prefer to spend on other things more closely related to their mission. Most of the time the decision not to patent is motivated by the low potential gain vs. costs ratio.
Universities are usually a bit generous in what they accept to file, but then eventually drop the payments later on if it's evident that the work does not bring any profit.

+1, in out institution the patenting rules are written in our contracts, that are actually short, ~4 pages.

Could I see an example of such a contract?  I was looking for a contract for Max Planck Institute before I applied to this Ph.D program; I have a particular commercial interest in their research.  It doesn't have to be yours

This will likely vary from university to university. At Carnegie Mellon University it is very common for students (and professors) to patent their work. I suggest you talk to your department chair about how the university handles intellectual property. For what it's worth, you may be able to find information online (e.g., CMU's IP guidelines are online).

No advice on 'yes go patent it' or 'don't patent it' will suit your case.
Couple of points to think about:

Location: Country, and then university and department you are in.
Funding: Are you fully funded by the university, is there any clause in your contract about this?
Supervision: What your supervisor(s) wants/recommends. Maybe he/she is more like to publish journals instead of dealing with patents. Maybe he/she likes the idea and supports you on this. You need to discuss this with him/her.
Publications: Your previous publications, are they part of your patents? When did you submit them; and so on.
IP Department: The group/department that deals with intellectual property. If your university does not have it, then can you afford a lawyer/firm to do that?
Waiting time: How many years you have to spend to see if the patent goes through.
Ph.D Defense: How do you defend your thesis if no publication and the best case scenario 'patent pending' situation.

So best advice would be to think about those points and talk to someone at your university that deals with IP submissions.

1b and 3b: did anyone talk/write about the invention in public already? Depending on your legislation, patenting may not be possible any longer as the invention is then state of the art.

Yes, Ph.D. students can usually patent their work  -- meaning that they can be one of the Inventors, or even the sole Inventor, on a patent application (if that's appropriate, and the student is the only person with intellectual contribution).  That's not the issue.  The issue is who is entitled to the licensing fees. That will vary from institution to institution by policy, and may also involve agreements on Sponsored Projects (which might actually preclude a patent application if the University screwed up and signed a bad document).
In many cases, the University is the assignee of the intellectual property, and doles money out to those involved.  Often this is a pretty fair deal.  Patents can be expensive, and if the school is willing to do the heavy lifting, that's not bad.  Corporate inventors on a patent might get a hearty thank you and a small token bonus or gift.
In and of itself, publications have nothing to do with the ability to file a patent application, but are often considered to be DISCLOSURE, which starts a clock ticking -- so if a patent is a consideration, don't publish without speaking to the university intellectual property people to guide you.
Just because you CAN apply for a patent, that doesn't mean that you should, or that the patent will be granted.  Talk to someone with expertise, who will work with you on a prior art search, and discuss the business case.

If you are working with industry during your Ph.D., it can be maybe of interest to do some patenting in collaboration between industry and university, but this is depending on legal matters. It can or not be possible.
Usually universities are more interested by writing papers rather than patenting.
Impact factors... and so on. Reaching Nature Journal... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_factor


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How to cite uproot and awkward arrays (by Jim Pivarski)?
Normally a python library has a paper or user manual by the same name.
Jim Pivarski's uproot doesn't appear to, the closest thing I can find is https://arxiv.org/abs/2001.06307
Should I cite that paper or cite the github repo? (https://github.com/scikit-hep/uproot)

Just cite both.

@user2768 So far that seems like the most sensible way forward. I know Jim uses this site, so I was hoping he would have an opinion on what he'd like cited and then it would be in the public domain.

Uproot and Awkward Array both have Zenodo badges, which link to a page that has a lot of ways to cite the software (copy-paste to BiBTeX, etc.)

awkward-array
uproot

The papers are conference proceedings that emphasize different things, not all of which are the software itself. (One of them covered user feedback in a series of interviews, very different from a design document.)
New versions (including Awkward 1 and Uproot 4, after the name swap is done) will be added to the same sequence, so if someone follows one of these DOIs to its Zenodo page, they'll find cross-references to newer versions. So all in all, I think this is a better way to cite them. :)

Knowing about the badge thing is good :)

You can cite the paper using the arxiv number and add a link to the github repo in a footnote. As a basic example:

Methodology
In this work, we make use of the uproot package* for array
calculations [1].
* www.github.com/scikit-hep/uproot
Bibliography
[1] Pivarski et al., "Awkward Arrays in Python, C++, and Numba",
arxiv: 2001.06307

Not sure why this got downvoted. It seems reasonable to me and it does answer the question.

I would citate it like this:
J. Pivarski et al. *Awkward Arrays in Python, C++, and Numba. CHEP 2019 proceedings, Jul. 2020.
However, this is the publication place where it is supposed to be published but not very sure about it. However, it should work for other academics to find the paper.

So, I'm actually wondering about if the citation should reference the paper or the github repo, given the paper is only tangentially related to the library I want to cite. I am clear on how to cite the paper (it's an arxiv preprint, so arxiv is the publisher). :)

Oh okay! I would rather citate the paper instead of the library but it also depends on the journal. I generally prefer references to papers for two reasons: you give the citation to the author, that is important for statistics, and second, because it is generally safer to citate the paper since it has passed a peer-review process. That's my opinion but nothing else.


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What can be done when a professor from reputable institute asks me to publish in a predatory journal?
So, I've received what was in many respects a perfectly normal spam message of the form;

Due to your recent publication [title of my paper] you are invited
to contribute a chapter to a book on [topic of book] called [book
title]. This will be published by [name of predatory publisher].
This book is being edited by Dr. Joe Smith.

Normally emails like that are immediately put in spam, but I happened to know that Dr. Joe Smith (not their real name) is actually an honorary professor. They are honorary professor at a university with generally high academic standards, so my first thought was that the predatory published was using their name without their consent. If I was being used in that way, I'd want to put a stop to it, so I forwarded the invitation to them, and asked if they were really editing a book on this topic. My email was not accusatory, I mentioned it looked a bit like spam and asked if they were editing this book. Unfortunately they actually are involved with this.
There is nothing above board about this request;

The publisher is on Beall's list.
The publisher charges authors disproportionate fees.
The topic of the proposed book is a completely different field to my field. This would be clear to anyone who read the paper mentioned in the email. So I can only assume that Professor Joe Smith does not actually know anything about me, the invitation to collaborate was as random as any other spam request.

Having real professors send out spam requests is not good. It's bad for the reputation of their university, and to a lesser extent, the subject as a whole. For good reasons, publications of low quality and dubious academic merit cause damage.
What actions could be taken that would firstly encourage the professor to stop, and secondly protect the reputation of the university?

What is an "honorary" professor?

@Buffy I'm not particularly sure, I copied it from their department profile.  I would guess it's a variation on being awarded an honorary degree?

please define "disproportionate fees." Nature asks something on the order of 7'000 USD, and you are still having low editorial work and poor added valuer from them, see for example:
https://www.nature.com/articles/444123b

@Buffy: Honorarprofessor exist in Germany. They have a full-time job outside a university. They receive some payment (Honorar) to give some lectures (2h, 4h, not much more), usually related to their application of the field. To be allowed to grade their students, they are nominated a professor title, which they use to impress outside of academia. These guys might like to get a book as a editor, but they don't have a academic network or big name.

Is that the same as what we call "adjunct professor" in the US?

I only just noticed, the title says "predatory journal" but the body refers to a book.

Have you considered that the email might have been sent by the publisher, and not by the Professor? (Could even be without his/her consent). I get spam like this all the time, not specifically claiming to be someone.

@Dr.Snoopy The question specifies that the professor has confirmed they are involved.

Decline politely and move on.

Predatory publishers are predatory by nature, that is why they are called this way. They will send out invitations to become an editor for a book and occasionally, people with high personal values will fall prey to them. It speaks for you that you want to help Professor Joe Smith to escape this trap. The problem is that he might not want to be helped and that in the process, you might make statements that can be considered libelous by the publisher. There is a reason that Beale's list is no longer maintained by Beale, and I assume it is the result of litigation or pressure of litigation.
There is no really good way to tell someone that they have been a mark. If you tell me that I acted stupidly, I will not at first feel thankfulness for you. Indeed, if I were Professor Joe Smith, I might be angry because you, apparently not of great standing in the field, are questioning my judgment. I might get defensive and lash out at you. In retrospect, I would feel bad about it, but by then I might have done some damage.  It is also possible that Joe Smith knows what he is doing, but maybe he thinks that his reputation is worth the bad publisher. After all, he could argue, the authors are paying to publish with him as an editor. Possibly, you were wrong about the publisher and the offer is reasonable. Neither you nor I know what Professor Smith knows and intends, of course, but I would refrain from telling someone that they are a dummy directly or indirectly.
Since you already communicated with him, you should reject his offer directly. That the project does not fall in your field gives you a perfect excuse, but you were enticed by working with him.
If you want to bring up the question of Beale's list and the nature of the publishing house, do so very carefully, such as saying that you are also reluctant because someone else has warned you because of bad experience with the publisher, (as long as you stay in the confines of the truth) and that as someone with little reputation as opposed to Professor Smith's reputation you need to be very careful. Make these additional reasons for decline about you and not about Professor Smith and about the publisher.
If you make strong statements about the publisher, be ready to prove it, because it easily constitutes libel. The laws of your country and of the country were the publisher is located might apply. At the very least be sure of your facts.
In summary: Decline politely. There is a sufficient reason that would apply even if the publisher would be Springer or ACM. If you think that Professor Smith has made a mistake, and you think that it befalls to you to correct him, (two different and strong assumptions), express yourself indirectly and carefully. Use "I" statements such as "I am afraid of the publisher being black-listed or (Beale-listed) and what this would do to me if I publish there" or just "I am afraid of the publisher."

I thought he had already written to Professor Joe Smith.

In the UK, and probably in most jurisdictions, it is a defence to a defamation claim that you were stating a fact. Stating "journal X is on Beall's list" is a fact. I don't think there's a need to tiptoe around the issue, so long as you stay within the realm of provable facts. So you wouldn't want to say "Journal X is predatory", but it's also not necessary to go to the extremes this answer suggests (inventing a fake friend who had a fake bad experience). If anything, that is more likely to be defamatory since it is untrue.

@Roland That isn't clear. The title of the question refers to "a professor from reputable institute asks me to publish", and the body of the question states that OP contacted the professor and had a response. The implication is that either the journal sent the invitation on the professor's request or with their consent, or the professor repeated the offer in their response.

I feel like your reasoning for concluding the publisher is disrespectable is weak:

The publisher is on Beall's list.

Beall's word is not gospel, and what Beall calls predatory might not be predatory. This is especially the case since Beall's list is discontinued and no longer updated.

The publisher charges authors disproportionate fees.

This one annoys me in general because I doubt most authors have any idea how much journal publishing actually costs. I've written a lot more about this in other answers; for this question I will only point out that many of the most expensive publishers are commonly regarded as reputable (e.g. Physical Review Letters charges a publication fee even for non-OA articles, of all things). Also, the invitation is for a book, which presumably is not going to be published OA and so publication fees do not apply.

The topic of the proposed book is a completely different field to my field. This would be clear to anyone who read the paper mentioned in the email. So I can only assume that Professor Joe Smith does not actually know anything about me, the invitation to collaborate was as random as any other spam request.

I don't know how large the discrepancy is, e.g. did they invite you, as a biologist, to contribute to a mathematics book? Or did they invite you, as a number theorist, to contribute to a book on topology? Especially if it's the latter, then I would guess that the marketing executive is simply emailing everyone in the subject database. If you've worked with this kind of data where you have lots of people but don't know which field each are in, then separating the number theorists from the topologists becomes very time-consuming, especially when research fields change over time. It's difficult to justify when the book is not likely to make much profit.
If you're still convinced the publisher is predatory, then the best thing to do is to convince the professor not to work with them. The publisher continuing to send emails against the explicit wishes of the editor is a much bigger red flag. You could ask them about what level of control they have (or expect to have) over the submissions. If they are unaware the publisher is predatory, then it'll be a fruitful conversation; if they are aware but choosing to work with them anyway, you'll learn their reasons.

Even if I'd never looked it up, I'd assume it was predatory. Reputable publishers aren't going to email me with requests for contributions, I'm too junior. the only reason I looked further was my surprise at Joe Smith, and everything else I've seen contributes to my belief this publisher is no good.

I like almost all of this answer, but I would be careful about trying to convince the professor not to work with them. As tschwarz pointed out in another answer, while that might be an appropriate thing to do, it should be done very carefully both out of respect for the professor and because of potential legal concerns if not approached in the right way.

"Especially if it's the latter, then I would guess that the marketing executive is simply emailing everyone in the subject database." Note that by doing this they are skirting the bounds of legality (if not outright breaking them) in various jurisdictions. Note also that essentially this marketing executive is trading their time for that of the recipients of the unsolicited e-mail, which is rather rude.

Honorary professors are usually part of a proper professor's chair. Reach out to this professor that his honorary professor is damaging the professor's chair's reputation with this predatory journal. Just point it out, don't ask the professor what he should do. For sure, he will know how to handle this.

You're suggesting to report the Honorary Professor to their own superior and accuse them of associating with a predatory journal? That's a particularly aggressive move against the honorary professor, in response to receiving a random automated email from a publisher. This also seems like a pretty efficient way to make an enemy.


text:
Why do publishing scams use "lҽttҽr ѕubstitυtҽs"?
I get plenty of scam mail, but the scam mail from predatory journals has a unique habit of using odd substitutes for normal roman letters. For example;

You Are Inᴠіtҽd to Pυbliѕհ Your Original Ɍҽsҽαrch with Us

Other scams don't do this. They just make their appeal in normal characters. For example;

URGENTBUSINESSPROPOSAL

Bad grammar, but no funky letter substitutes.
So what are the funky letter substitutes meant to achieve? Is it supposed to evade a spam filter? It seems like it would be really easy to filter for, because no normal person does that. Is it supposed to look more credible? How could that look more credible?
I am fascinated and mystified.

Seeing this in small type on the HNQ sidebar, I spent way more time than I should have trying to wipe away the dust speck next to the e in "substitutes".

@RussellBorogove me too

Probably a good follow-up question for a stack like [security.se] would be, "It's been 25 years since the founding of the Mail Abuse Prevention System... why are we still suffering from trivial unicode character substitutions?"

@JBH As it happens, I find that spam filters make too many false positives. I get lots of important emails with very bad English (not always due to second language challenges; some professors are just too cool to care about their spelling, I admire that confidence), and spam filters tend to trip up on them. So the spam filter might have caught either of my examples, had it been turned on.

A mostly technical challenge with tolerable and easy solutions to some, an unsolved problem with only impractical or disrespectful solutions to others. Just imagine the person with the canonically non-latin-script name when told by the spam filter to write their name like a "normal person does".

@JHB if you look at the papers linked in the answers, the problem is surprisingly difficult, actually.

"Unicode-obfuscation" (link to pdf) is a common spam-filter evasion technique that is not unique to publishing scams. Your sample is not representative, so it only appears as if other scams don't use the technique as well. (Anecdotally, I also receive publishing spam that does not use unicode obfuscation, almost every day.)

But why would they use visible substitutes? Inᴠіtҽd can just as easily be Inᴠіtеd(Cyrillic е). Incompetent scammers?

Nope, competent scammers selecting for incompetent targets. Someone who doesn't notice "ҽ" is statistically more likely to fall for the scam.

@Eugene See also survivorship bias: you don't see the ones that are successfully caught by the spam filter.

@RussellBorogove Not to mention targets who are stupid enough to think "hey, these guys really need somebody to help them with their English, and I could be the person to do that."

@RussellBorogove I didn't notice the ҽ, but that's because of poor eyesight when I'm tired.

@RonJohn so you work when you're tired and/or have poor eyesight which means you are less likely to read any nasty fine print. Not a HUGE bonus for scammers, but its helpful to get someone with the same issues whos maybe that tad less sceptical

How stupid are they to think that someone who has a spam filter would reward them for sending spam?

Spammers don't care if you think they're stupid, they don't care how many people they don't fool. As long as even a tiny percentage of recipients act on their messages they are making a profit. Spammers use stolen resources and stolen money to fund their operations, they really don't care at all. That's why it's impossible to stop them.

This paper (Arxiv PDF Link) argues that it is indeed done to prevent spam filters.
From their conclusion:

Moreover, we tested this method with a Microsoft Business email.
We first sent an email containing a lot of keywords frequently encountered in spam emails, and this email was flagged as spam. Then
we sent the same email, with some of the characters replaced by
their “visually equivalent” characters from Cyrillic alphabet, and
this email was delivered to the Inbox. This suggests that this method
can currently bypass existing spam filters.

Actually I guessed this was the answer but didn't have the evidence. Good on both of you. I think it is (or was) used in some scams that obfuscate URLs also. Very dangerous. But maybe the system weeds it out now.

@Buffy you're right: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IDN_homograph_attack

I had some really nifty examples from a couple years ago, when it was common to receive threatening emails from someone claiming to have my password, and videos of me watching  on my computer while .   (I don't have a camera on my computer.)  There was large scale use of visually similar characters in these blackmail messages to avoid my email's spam filters (and it worked).  Unfortunately I've deleted the emails...

You already describe the goal: Evade the spam filter.
The question is why this letters, and as brought up in the comments, why not homoglyphs that cannot be distinguished.
There are two answers, which are related to each other.

A spam filter may already be trained to detect a homoglyph unicode e in a word that uses ascii letters and may not be trained for the substitutes you're seeing.
You are only seeing the successful spam mails, due to the survivorship bias. Spammers are trying all kinds of tricks and the trick in this e-mail is a trick that is not filtered effectively, yet.


text:
If my friend sent a recording of his lecture; Is it against the law?
I don't attend university, but I would love to learn to further my IT skills, is my friend allowed to record his lecture and send it to me? Is there any law against this... Or is he free to do what he wants for example post it on YouTube?
Any feedback is appreciated.

if it is his lecture, then i think he can do whatever he likes

Who owns the copyright?

PsySp: I believe he meant his friend is a student in the course.

There are many different websites and universities that offer free courses. MIT, Stanford, etc. all offer courses online that are free. These are probably much better quality than what your friend records.

@PeytonB That's why I said if because it's not clear to me if his friend is a prof. or a student.

Did he record himself or someone else?

In the United States, the person who delivered the lecture owns the copyright if the lecture is "fixed" in tangible form.  That recording fixes the lecture in tangible form, even if the person who delivered the lecture didn't make the recording.  So, in the U.S., it's (probably) covered by copyright.  (I'm not a lawyer.)
The person who made the recording, if not the person who delivered the lecture and thus owns the copyright, absolutely shouldn't post it any place, e.g. on YouTube without the permission, preferably in writing, of the person who delivered the lecture.  That person should ask before sharing it with a friend; probably most professors would allow that.

+1 Aside from copyright (which this response addresses), I'd add that generally, I permit recording of my lecture for the use of the students of a course with the specific request not to distribute the lecture further. The reason is that the lecture serves specifically that particular audience. I would prepare lecture to be visible world-wide in a different way and with a different slant (and probably more meticulously, but with less flexibility in treatment). I would be very displeased to see my request ignored and would probably withdraw my permission to be filmed henceforth.

I record my own lectures, mostly to make them available to students who miss class, but doing so has the added benefit of securing copyright.  I tell my students that they may share the links to my recordings with individuals, such as the "friend" in the question, but may republish neither the links nor the recordings.  So far, no one has betrayed my trust.


text:
Alternative to overpriced IEEE articles
I'm a typical student in a 3rd world country working to pay for college. My monthly tuition is about 300 USD. Internships average pay is 450 USD for 30h/week of work...
As I get to end of my bachelor, i'm required to write a dissertation, and when i start looking for articles and references if found this amazing paper: "QODM: A query-oriented data modeling approach for NoSQL databases" which lines 100% with my thesis. But it costs whooping 33 bucks! for a single source that might turn out to be not useful at all...
Are there alternative sources? (besides piracy, which i'm strongly against but is becoming really tempting right now...)

I skimmed the paper, and suggest not paying 33 USD for it. You may be disappointed after all.

Does your university have a library? That's the place to ask.

Here are some possibilities: http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/85623/what-to-do-if-cited-papers-are-not-freely-available-while-reviewing-a-manuscript/85628#85628

I've never seen a Brazilian refer to Brazil as "3rd world"? Is that really a thing...

@CapeCode That question actually has much better answers. VTC.

Since the authors don't get payed, I wouldn't feel bad about getting papers from sci-hub.

Most universities have deals with a few publisher to let student accesses their resources freely... you should contact the library of your university to check for that.

@CodesInChaos what do you mean the authors don't get paid?

here is it : http://sci-hub.cc/10.1109/wartia.2014.6976265

Contact the authors of the paper you are interested in; most often, authors will gladly send you a copy.

Would this not violate the copyright transfer agreement that they probably signed with their publisher...?

@Mehrdad Sometimes the publishers don't send paper copies to the authors upon publication, but allow the authors to circulate a PDF to a limited number (like 50) of colleagues. So, in this case, even jumping through all the hoops, they might not have reached that quota and are actually allowed to send you a PDF copy of the published version.

I see that you're Brazilian like me.
So, you can access "Portal Periódicos Capes", which grant you access to more than 21,000 journal and conferences publications. Btw, all IEEE articles are available there. Just select the "Base" and it will grant you access.
Besides that, most Brazilian universities and educational institutes provide access to even more journal and conference papers for free. If you aren't enrolled to any of those institutions you can go to their library and ask for the paper for free.

Also many schools all over the world have campus-wide subscriptions to various journals. May be worth just talking to the school admins/professors to see if that is the case.

In addition to Mad Jack's answer, here is a bit more extensively what you can do if you are lacking a subscription for a paper that you suspect you will need, roughly in order:

Google the title. Seriously. Many (most?) good papers nowadays are available as a preprint, also in Computer Science. Nowadays I  strongly suspect if I can't find a preprint for a paper that the authors are in fact not very proud of it.
Check if the paper is available on Researchgate. I am not a fan of the service, and strongly dislike getting "full text requests" there, but undoubtly many papers are freely available there that you can't get without subscription elsewhere.
Mail the authors. If they don't answer, mail again.
Ask a professor, advisor, or friend with institutional access to download the paper for you. I am not 100% sure about the legality of this, but personally I would not get sleepless nights about sending a paper to a friend via personal e-mail.

Adding to @xLeitix's list (under the admittedly big assumption that you are travelling to a different university).

If your university partakes in the eduroam project, you have access to the local network of universities across the globe if you are physically there. Sometimes access to papers is behind a wall (ATHENS, Shibboleth, etc.), but sometimes access to papers is granted simply by having an IP from this university. This way you may also be able to access papers just like staff/students from that university, even though your home university doesn't pay for access of these journals. (I guess one could say you are a "visiting scholar" in a very loose sense.)

This answer is fine on it's own. Edits are intended to clarify existing points, not add entirely new material.


text:
Where to use MLA in-text citations for Computer Science paper
I am currently working on a paper on the subject of Probabilistic Turing Machines. To do so, I will be using several print sources, as well as online resources. I have never written a computer science/mathematical paper before, and I am unsure where to place in-text citations (MLA). For example, I am giving a formal definition of a PTM using information from a specific section of a textbook; included in the definition are a couple of equations. This is about one paragraph in my paper. Would I place an in-text citation citing the book at the end of the paragraph?
In general, does every fact need to be cited? For example, if I were to say a PTM is a type of NTM, would this alone need to be cited with an in-text citation?

Would I place an in-text citation citing the book at the end of the paragraph?

Right after the paraphase. If it took a whole paragraph, so at the end of it.

... does every fact need to be cited?

Generally, you do not need to cite information that is considered common knowledge. For instance, facts found in many sources or facts easily observed.

if I were to say a PTM is a type of NTM, would this alone need to be cited with an in-text citation?

I would say no. Even Wikipedia is already aware of such. But be aware that it is an arbitrary choice. Expert audience will have different expectations of what constitutes common knowledge. If you have an adviser ask for his help.
Further, your argument might be stronger by using supporting evidence from other sources. Additional information related to the topic you're discussing would help to verify your claims. Hence, cite others work if such statement is crucial to your argumentation.


text:
Can a private college disallow a club based on politics?
I am asking this question in light of recent events, as well as from personal experience. Is a college, particularly a private college, allowed to not accredit or allow a club on campus that is political in nature. For example, College Democrats or College Republicans. Both have well established chapters throughout the country, but is there any law protecting colleges who do not want these organizations on campus? I am asking this question in regards to U.S. colleges only.

Of course!  For instance I'm pretty sure Bob Jones University does not have a LGBT club of any kind.  It might affect their ability to receive certain federal grants and other monies but other than that...

A not particular definitive but still relevant FoxNews article mentions some examples of religious schools banning (democratic) clubs due to their views on certain topics conflicting with the religious values the school is based on.  It contains the completely unsupported line of "no one questions that a private university has the legal right to ban political speech on campus".

@zibadawatimmy It may be "completely unsupported," but it's right,  The United States Constitution protects citizens from the Federal government, and by extension through the Fourteenth Amendment, from the state governments.  It does not protect citizens from each other.  A private institution can do anything that's not illegal according to statutory law.

"Importantly, some states have statutes (or state constitutional provisions) that provide students at private schools with some measure of free speech rights. For example, California's so-called 'Leonard Law' (more technically, Section 94367 of California's Education Code) states that 'no private postsecondary educational institution shall make or enforce any rule subjecting any student to disciplinary sanctions solely on the basis of conduct that is speech or other communication that . . .

... is protected from governmental restriction by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution or Section 2 of Article 1 of the California Constitution'". -- http://www.knowmyrights.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=44:free-speech-rights-on-private-college-campuses&catid=18&Itemid=123&showall=&limitstart=1

@daniel If I understand correctly this law, prevents diacrimination against students not clubs

@Llopis: That was in response to the zibadawa/Bob Brown comments arguing specifically about the status of speech.


text:
A professor offered to write me a letter of recommendation, but he's now retired and unresponsive. Should I still contact him?
I took a class with a professor who was very impressed with my assignments, to the point where he asked for me to stop by his office and discuss my potential career in writing. During this appointment, he offered to write me any recommendation letters I might need. Overall, I thought this appointment and my overall experience in this class went well.
That was the only class I took with this professor, and it's been roughly a year since we've been in contact. Several months ago, I wrote him asking for a recommendation letter, and briefly referenced our past meeting. I got no response, even after a reminder email I sent him several weeks later.
Once again, I find myself needing a letter of recommendation, and, if this professor is actually willing, he would be a perfect reference. However, considering his lack of response in the past, I'm not sure if I should email him again.
Additionally, my class with him was actually the last class he taught; he's now a professor emeritus, so I'm not sure if it's appropriate to contact him at all. There's a second professor emeritus in my department who regularly writes me letters of recommendation, but I don't know if this is par for the course or if that particular professor is just more amenable than most.
Should I try contacting this professor, even though he's retired and had no response to my emails several months ago? If so, how should I contact him?

Ask a department administrator for advice.  Chances are someone in the department has had news and will know if the professor is in good health, is in town, etc.