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What can I do if my coauthor takes a long-time/unreliable to finalize/submit a paper?
I asked the same question 3 months ago. I am a Ph.D. student in mathematics and am suffering from a problem. My coauthor has not responded for 2 months, and as a result, I am unable to submit the paper without his consent. It has been almost seven months since I completed the paper and sent it to him. I am requesting that he proofread and make any possible language changes before submitting it to the journal.
When I asked the same question three months ago, I got some of his reply, and he promised to finalize the paper (i.e., proofreading and language) in 15 days. But again, two months passed with no reply, even after four emails were sent to him.  A total of seven months passed in this way.
He is a professor. We live in different countries, so no physical meeting is possible. We just met once at a conference. Despite our verbal agreement to work together on the project, let me tell you that I did all of the writing and editing for the paper, and he only assisted with proofreading, which revealed some errors that I then fixed on my own. I still offered him the authorship, and he accepted it eagerly.
Since it has been seven months and I have already mentioned it in my profile about the title of the paper, I have even cited that paper in my other new paper and have used some concepts from that paper, so I told him that even you have less time then at least submit the paper in some database like arXiv, etc. But he is telling, people can steal the work from arXiv, and that is why he doesn't prefer arXiv. I don't find it a very reasonable comment, though. In my opinion, he is very good in terms of ethics. He has good publications in reputed journals in mathematics. But very irregular in cooperation.
What choices do I have? Without his approval, I am unable to submit the manuscript to arXiv or a journal. However, I can't just leave the work undocumented for a very long time. To claim our work, it should at the very least be stored in ArXiv. Besides that, I am a Ph.D. student and I need publications.
Any suggestions would be helpful.
Edit: I live in Asia and he lives in Europe. So it not economically suitable for me to set up an in-person visit. This situation occurred before as well, he will not reply one or two months and then suddenly replied. He even proposed a post doctoral position to me if possible. But the question is even if he busy, he can just tell me that I will do it later so that I can be assured that he is in collaboration. About 6 months ago, i said him that my supervisor has read my paper and proofread on the language part, should I offer my supervisor an authorship, but he said not but we will acknowledge your supervisor. I agreed with him. This shows he doesn't want others to involve in the paper, but he is not doing the final action, completely keeping me immovable.

What means are you communicating: emails? Any other?

Do you actually need this person to proofread? Or just approve the paper? If you had someone else proofread, would they just approve?

@semmyk-research, yes through email. After getting no reply, I have also sent a message through researchgate profile because both of following each other.

@Dawn, I don't need much the professor for proofread, if he is busy i can submit the paper after proofread. I have mentioned him that I have grammar software to check grammar. But he is not going in any direction? I am completely unmoved by his ignorance

I would take the proofreading out of the request. Proofreading is not a job for a senior scholar. If you need proofreading, you should work with your main supervisors to find a proofreading service. Personally, if I have to proofread for someone who is not a native English speaker, that can take a lot of work. Then you can assure the co-author that all you need him to do is a quick read to make sure the changes you made are technically correct and approve the submission.

@Dawn, i have not asked him to proofread the paper. He himself said that he wants to proofread before submission. This is pending since 7 months. I emailed every possible option you said. But he is not replying, that creates the problem.

I am putting this as an answer - he probably said that he wants to proofread because he doesn't think the writing is strong enough. Its not because he likes proofreading.

@Dawn, I agree that might be the case. But he should have done it in time. 7 months is excessive just for proofreading. I have checked the calculation by another retired professor who said it is ok

I mean no offence with this, but judging from the question you asked it seems that the way you write in English is somewhat imperfect and that he needs to set time aside to go through and proofread it carefully.  This is generally very time-consuming.  Collaborations can be variable in how slow they are, but I advise patience, I had a similar situation and although it took a long time, in the end it was a good article and it was worth waiting.

Does this answer your question? Former advisor/coauthor not answering emails

@HermanToothrot, the title migh be same but my question is based on different contexts inside. It should remain as different question in my opinion

Have you called him ? If not, why not ?

@Nobody, no I didn't call him ever but I have found his office number through his university profile, but I am hesitating. Maybe calling him might disturb him because it might be possible that he is not answering my emails intentionally due to busy schedule.   But I should think about calling him

Suggestion for you. Send him e-mail to tell him the time you'll call him. If he is busy at that time, he'll tell you a better time assuming he indeed wants to talk to you. If he is avoiding you, he will not answer your e-mail nor your phone call. Don't forget the time zone difference between you and him.

@Nobody, thank you for the suggestion, i will try

You want the simplest possible request.
I would take the proofreading out of the request. Proofreading is not a job for a senior scholar. If you need proofreading, you should work with your main supervisors to find a proofreading service. Personally, if I have to proofread for someone who is not a native English speaker, that can take a lot of work. You said in a previous comment that the co-author mentioned wanting to proofread. This is probably because he is not happy with the current state of the writing. If you can improve the writing, you can make his task easier.
Then you can assure the co-author that all you need him to do is a quick read to make sure the changes you made based on your previous technical discussions are correct. This is the fastest way to get him to approve the submission.

Yes, that is what I will do. I will write it more appropriately, i can use grammer software as well. Then I will send it to him. Even in that case, I get no reply, I will proceed to take a decision. But I hope for better right now

I had to proof-read an article which was written by a non-native English speaker and it can be much more arduous than you think as you have to understand what they meant to say and then think of a way to re-word it so that it sounds better without changing the intended meaning.

Very much this! In a previous book I edited, one 40-page article, written by an Italian, took at least three months to proofread – and I’m not just talking about occasional work when I could find the time here. I was working as the editor for the publisher, and I probably spent at least 200 hours of actual, effective proofreading time on that one article alone. Even if the writer’s English isn’t terrible (as @learner’s doesn’t seem to be), it can still be enough that trying to correct it reveals hundreds of passages that actually aren’t fully understandable when you look closer.

@Tom, i am not disagree that I might have badly written that paper. Though I have checked several times and my supervisor as well checked. It is not that as you perhaps guessed. But the problem is that he is not responding since 2 months and this same situation happened quite few times in the last 1 years. What I want is that he should reply me that I need time. This is completely unjustified

''This is completely unjustified'' Stuff like this is quite common in academia.  I had to wait a year or longer before I could finally publish a paper which I worked on with three busy colleagues (two of them not especially good at writing in English).

@Tom, How would you justify if the coauthor is not respondigng for two months? He could simply reply and say that he needs more time. I am completely out of way whether he will do it or not or whether he is interested in authorship anymore or not. At least he should respond

Practically, to ensure you’re getting through

Check your coauthor hasn’t changed jobs (google & look at recent papers) and thus primary email address.
Email them at every email address you have for them
Email them from a different account - sometimes email from some domains can be silently blocked by university mail filters

Assuming you are

Presumably your colleague is busy so write a short message that’s quickly actionable
Ask directly whether they still wish to participate in the project

He is a established mathematician in Europe, so I think he didn't change the job 2 months because we had conversation two months ago. I have emailed through other email ID which I did before as well because the same situation occurred over the last year. He will reply after keeping off him for a certain time. At the least I can send an email to his colleague who works at the same University. But I am thinking where it would be good or bad approach?

I am sorry you're in this situation.  It happens, for various reasons, that one collaborator holds up a project for a very long time (maybe they're a perfectionist and always take a long time/very busy right now/depressed or having health issues/etc).  Unfortunately, there's no ethical way to proceed without some sort of consent from them.  The most one can do is minimize their responsibilities and encourage them to speed things up, and in the future try to be more careful about selecting coauthors.
Some concrete ideas in your case are:

Talk to your advisor for advice.  If your advisor (or some other mentor) has a good relationship with this person, they may be able to encourage this person to speed things up and/or have specific advice on how to deal with them.

Set up an online/phone conversation with your coauthor.  Then you can try to (i) convince them why it's important for you to get this out soon and (ii) come up with a plan together to complete a draft expeditiously.  Maybe you can get them to agree to a deadline where you will submit in say 2 months as is if there's no more feedback.

Set up an in-person visit to/from this person for a few days so you can hammer out the paper then.

If it really seems impossible to complete this in a timely manner, can you move some things from this paper to your new paper (or just repeat them)?  It's also possible to cite a result and say this will be proven in a separate paper.

An extreme option is ask your coauthor to publish part or all of the paper without them if they won't agree to any of the above.  I don't know how reasonable that is in your situation (if they pointed out mathematical errors that you couldn't have found without them, that might be worth co-authorship, and in any case you did agree to co-authorship, so that should not be revoked unless all parties agree), but it will be harder for you to maintain a good relationship with them.

Work on other things and try not to stress out about this project so much.

I built up the collaboration on my own effort. My supervisor don't know much him than me. Initially, it was supposed that I will include the paper in my thesis. But later I chosen to write my thesis on other published papers because he is delaying the issue. I have no phone contact, we discussed online zoom meeting twice so far and once through Skype. I have emailed from different email ID. Also through researchgate profile I send message which I did earlier also and he replied before.I know his colleague in his university. But would it be good to seek information about him from his colleague?

I know it is difficult to submit a paper in a journal without his consent. But I can i atleast submit it to arxiv database to secure the work ? In that case, if in future, have he doesn't want to be in authorship, can I remove the co-author from the paper? I'm not sure whether arxiv allows it or not.

No, you shouldn't submit it to the arXiv without his permission either.

But would it be good to seek information about him from his colleague? - If you think there might be a health issue etc, and want to verify he's okay, that seems reasonable.  But I don't think you should tell his colleague to tell him to finish the project.

Thank you.  I will wait more 2 weeks and send him emails to him again. He might have health issues which he had before as well (according to his previous message). He is a young professor though.  But even after 2 weeks I do not get his reply I would contact his colleague to get some information about him.

It's one of those tough luck in collaboration.
I'm in the same situation currently. I presented a paper in Dec 2020. Around May 2021, I received an invite to submit an extended paper to a A* in my field. I reached out to my MSc advisor (of well over a decade, more closer to 2 decades).
Long and short, after submitting for first round, we need to submit for 2nd round. It's been close to one and half years now. Fortunately, I got him engaging this week! Hopefully, he should read the revised manuscript this week and revert to me.

What choices do I have? Without his approval, I am unable to submit the manuscript...
Any suggestions would be helpful.

So in my case, though still rocky, the following have been of assistance

engage proactively and professionally on email, ensuring you keep all emotions out
leverage on alternate channel. I've had Zoom/Teams session. At times, I initiate this. It doesn't matter how long it last: 10, 20, 30 mins, 1 hrs.
PS: we haven't had one for a while now
leverage on alternate space to communicate and keep it short, direct, focus.
In my case, I initiate Signal and do the gentle nudging

Do check that you still have current contact. At times, people move on.
In my case, I was fortunate to know when my coauthor change university last year.

[Edit]
I'm in agreement with @innisfree. He suggest ... short message that’s quickly actionable.
That has worked for so far on this long arduous journey. Still worked last week which resulted in my coauthor promising to read through today. I'm keeping fingers crossed.

I had the exact same experience with my PhD advisor. Once per week I will write an ask if she had the time to check my manuscript. The authors were 4, 3 supervisors and me (PhD student that continued as a postdoc at her lab). It was the main publication of my PhD. Very few meetings, not answering on my emails. At some point she corrected it and then I realized that she just moved text (deacription of compound a placed for compound b, mix and match of time points). Clearly she did not read it (November 2022). I managed for her to submit it when I started calling after my contract has been completed (5 months after). It was extreme and very hurtful. I do not understand why she did it but this is it. I find it unprofessional. Anyways, call and call and call again. Good luck

Sorry that you have gone through the same situation. You know what makes difficult to bear, my co-author can respond me and can say that he needs more time so that I can be assured that he is in active mode, but he is not responding

In addition to the other advice, it's worth reminding him why it's important to get the paper out the door sooner rather than later. You've mentioned it appearing in other parts of your work, which is a valid reason. Will you be applying for jobs this fall? Are you applying for a grant where this paper is an key part of your narrative? Concrete reasons why faster publication is important can be a good way to encourage (not guilt!) your coauthor to move a little quicker.

Yes I mentioned some of it mentioned but I will wait next 15 days and then will email again and let him know my decision

It is saddening to hear this. However, you should try contacting your co-author and have a lengthy discussion with him regarding this.
Try:

emailing the individual constantly (Every few days)
contacting his institution and doing a welfare check
find his other contact information
e-mail them from a different account
setting up a physical meeting with him
discuss if he wishes to participate in this project anymore

Good luck to you.

Emailing constantly? Absolutely not appropriate.

I meant, not that kind of constantly, but after every few days

@Overwatch321, thank you. I understand literally what you mean. Thank you for your answer.

Still not appropriate. I would genuinely find it disturbing, and depending on other circumstances possibly a form of harassment

Use ChatGPT to improve the English style "Improve the grammar ...."

Thank you for your suggestion. This will solve the problem at my end. But how do I solve the issue that my co-author is not responding since 2 months?

I would give them an ultimatum. That they respond within say, 2 weeks and if they don't you will assume that they are happy for you to take whatever action you feel necessary to progress the publication. This is reasonable on your part, and would only antagonise the thinnest of skinned individuals who you probably don't want to deal with any more anyway.

Thank you for your suggestion. Yes I will write my paper with perfect way in terms of phrases. Then ask him to respond within 15 days. Otherwise I will proceed, infact I worked every thing in the paper, he just pointed out few error and i myself corrected those. By the way, i have been very polite every time I email him. I never used something that might offend him


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Innovative and free publication platform
I would like to create an open access journal / a platform that is free of charge for authors and readers. Ideally, I would like it to get away from the current norms: offer the possibility to publish peer-reviewed articles, but also drafts, offer the possibility for reviewers to comment on drafts, offer spaces for videos and audios, and to share parts of our data in order to facilitate the replications of studies. Finally, one part would be devoted to a space where researchers can build knowledge together, like some kind of wiki.
My question is: do you know anything existing that sounds similar to this?

@NajibIdrissi: Thanks for your honest answer :-) I would be interested in some examples of academic journals offering those separate services, if you have them in mind ? (especially journals offering the possibility to publish drafts and data).

@Alice some journals have their own pre-print servers and encourage post-publication peer-review, which is the closest thing to "offering the possibility to publish drafts". Examples of such journals include PeerJ and F1000.
Several services also offer archival of datasets and assignment of a DOI, like figshare, dryad or zenodo.

@Guillaume Thank you! I will check it out. :-)

As others have said, there is probably no single platform now that does everything you're thinking of, but there are many that offer a subset of them.  One that comes close is F1000Research.
There are widely-accepted terms for most of what you're describing; you can use those (and Google) to find platforms that offer them.

an open access journal / a platform that is free of charge for authors and readers

This is widely referred to as diamond open access.  Of course, the funding (to run the servers, if nothing else) has to come from somewhere, so you'll need a plan for that.

offer the possibility to publish peer-reviewed articles, but also drafts, offer the possibility for reviewers to comment on drafts

What you're talking about here is (if I understand you correctly) widely referred to as open peer review (although that term is also used to mean more limited things).

offer spaces for videos and audios, and to share parts of our data in order to facilitate the replications of studies

This is often referred to as supplementary material, and very many journals allow this (for instance, the SIAM journals in my field).  In most cases I know, this service is not yet widely used by authors or readers.  There are also platforms designed specifically for this, like Figshare.

Finally, one part would be devoted to a space where researchers can build knowledge together, like some kind of wiki.

This is vague enough that I'm confident there are dozens, if not hundreds of similar efforts out there -- starting with Wikipedia itself.  Perhaps one of the oldest efforts in this vein that is focused specifically on scientific research is the nLab.

Thank you for this detailed answer :-) Very helpful! It is going to be way easier to find what I am looking for with the right terminology. Thanks for the examples, I will look into it.

The currently most complete solution is probably the Open Science Framework, which doesn't yet support peer review but is planning to - and it can be somewhat simulated by using Hypothes.is. Then there are quite a few projects working towards this goal to some extent. Thus, a relevant follow-up question would be: with what reason are you looking for existing projects? To compare, to contribute, or to build upon? That would be relevant to what platforms we could suggest.
(That said, if you want to do some research on your own, I wrote an overview of alternative platforms a while ago.)

Thank you very much for this very helpful answer. I will look into it.
My goal is to develop such a platform for research in Education in the French speaking parts of Europe (there is nothing like that to my knowledge). To do so, I want to check out what's already existing around the world. For some inspiration. That's the reason why I am looking for existing project.

Then my best guess would be that the OSF is indeed most relevant to you - they've also set up similar things for e.g. Africa and Indonesia. See "You build the community. We've built the infrastructure." at https://cos.io/our-products/osf-preprints/

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What to do when bosses want me to publish for a legit journal of a predatory publisher?
Since a year ago my lab group is invested in producing a special issue for a journal of a controversial publisher that is listed as a predatory one in its open access branch. But my compliances about the doubtful ethics of the publisher were not heard on the bases that the Journal is not in the open-access actually publishes some reputable journals, one of them the journal where the special issue is going to be published.
Now they inform me that as all the laboratory is into the publication, I have to participate of it. As I am strongly against doing so, I'm also not in the best situation with them, as I posed as a problem in several ethical and organizational aspects before. So now I don't know how to proceed in a manner that won't suppose bringing more troubles into our already deteriorated relationship.
I'm afraid that keeping my position against participating in such endeavor will put me as the only one who doesn't want to work, as well as the only one always complaining and therefor damaging my already difficult track in trying to finish my PhD.
I have no idea of how to proceed, or if I should do it at all, as the actual journal in question is not one of the listed as predatory. Should I follow the reputation of the publisher and keep opposing? or should I follow the reputation of the journal and avoid more troubles to our already tense relationship?

How do you know the publisher is predatory but the journal isn't?

Sorry, but, I can't think of a publisher being predatory and journal isn't. How are the editors and reviewers holding on to this journal even though they know the flag is black.

"listed as a predatory one" - by whom?  People used to treat Beall's List as the standard source, but it no longer exists AFAIK.

Beall's list also listed publishers, not journals. The implication is that if the publisher is listed, all the journals are also predatory. That's why I asked how OP knows the publisher is predatory but the journal isn't.

I don't think a PhD student can reasonably participate in such things as boycotts of publishers. Too much risk to harm your career without good reason or outcome.

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Do the referees see the profile of authors?
I am a mathematics PhD scholar (particularly in number theory). I have a question in mind.
In general, a PhD scholar doesn't have much publications (or no publication) upto a certain stage. Suppose I don't have a good CV or personal webpage to track me, except some information in research-gate/arxiv.
Suppose I think one of my research papers is good enough to communicate in some top most journals (e.g., Q_1 quartile in web of science).  I also suppose most of the math journals follow single-blind peer review process.
Should I worry about my previous publication record when I try to communicate my research paper in a top journal?
Do the referees give think it is less important or become skeptical of the work of an unestablished researcher?
If this really happens, how to avoid such situations? Should I post my whole  CV (academic record) in researchgate?

Is peer review single blind or double blind in your field, and specifically, in your target journal?

@henning, I suppose most math journals follow single-blind method

Do the referees see the profile of authors?

No. Referees only get the manuscript. That's not to say referees cannot Google for the authors, but I don't know how many referees actually do that.

Do the referees give think it is less important or become skeptical of the work of an unestablished researcher?

It's possible, but I have never seen a report go "The author is an inexperienced researcher, so ..." - not even in confidential comments. There can still be subconscious bias, however, so it doesn't prove that it doesn't happen.

If you think you have results good enough for a top journal you should  submit them. They will get a fair evaluation independent of your history. I think that is generally true for any journal.
That said, you might consult with your advisor about whether they think your results are that good.
I have never reviewed for a top journal. When I do review (single blind, for less prestigious journals) I sometimes look up the author  after reading the paper  if I am inclined to reject. If the author is new to the profession I try to make a rejection seem less discouraging.

When I referee, I note who the authors are for one reason only:  to check for self-plagiarism.

Should I worry about my previous publication record when I try to communicate my research paper in a top journal?

No.

Do the referees give think it is less important or become skeptical of the work of an unestablished researcher?

Good referees do not care.  In certain elitist journals, editors may be incentivized to increase the impact factor.  The editor might try to estimate how many citations your paper will get by looking at your past publications.  But they should not.

If this really happens, how to avoid such situations?

Write more good papers.

Should I post my whole CV (academic record) in researchgate?

ResearchGate: an asset or a waste of time?

Thanks. I agree almost except the answer of "how to avoid such situations ?".   "Write more good papers" is an answer by default and trivial. I want to know if there are other ways too

I'd disagree with the comment about "elitist journals". The very top journals don't need to engage in shabby behaviour to raise their profile; they get enough great submissions that they don't need to. This sort of behaviour -- favouring papers by famous names in order that their fame rubs off on the journal -- is something I'd associate with lower-ranking "wannabe" journals (and perhaps even more so with conference proceedings).

@DavidLoeffler I am not suggesting that editors engage in shabby behavior to raise their journal's profile.  I am suggesting they do it because it is easier than reading and understanding every submission.

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How long should it take for minor revision, in pure mathematics?
I received a minor revision from a good (in my opinion) mathematics journal. I submitted the revised version. Since then, it has been more than 2 months, but we have yet to get a decision. Maybe the referee is taking his time. Let me tell you that the first round of review was 16 months long, and my article is in pure mathematics.
I am a Ph.D. student and am expecting a quick decision. The report of the first round of review was positive, so I can expect a positive decision, though anything can happen. I am worried about the long review process. Maybe Refree is a very busy mathematician.
How long does it take to give a decision for a minor revision in mathematics?
Should I give a reminder to the editor?

Some academics take the summer off (in the northern hemisphere).  Perhaps they will get around to their referee assignments in the fall.

@GEdgar, i understand but it might take long time then

One thing that is important is to ensure the reviewer/referee(s) comments are addressed sufficiently in the submitted revised copy. I've seen manuscripts going from minor back to major revision or being rejected.

How long does it take to give a decision for a minor revision in mathematics?
Should I give a reminder to the editor?

Regarding your concerns, a reminder to the editor after 2 months might be reasonable. However, this is subjective as the review process varies from journal to journal, from field to field and circumstances (administrative and others).
As you've indicated, it could even be that the reviewer is busy.
PS: For me, I try to review minor revisions as quickly as I can, but at times I don't manage to and they pile up.
One more thing. Some journals share metrics of

date manuscript was submitted
indication of how long the review took: some even split info for 1st, 2nd, (3rd) reviews dateline/review period
when the last revision was received, and
how fast the publishing took (typically for online first (articles-in-press)

Some only share summary of when received, accepted and published like in this one.
If the (review) timeline are published, you can get a sense of how well yours is doing: too long, normal or pointer to abnormal!

I know you said it's a mathematics journal and from the time of your question, it's a reviewer (referee) and not two reviewers, it might still be worthwhile, for others sake, to refer to the typical workflow of a journal: What does the typical workflow of a journal look like? How should I interpret a particular submission status?
This might be worth noting: How to check how fast the review and publication process in a journal

I have been in a similar situation. I think it is not worth sending a reminder email until at least three months have passed, and perhaps more than that. The reasons for this are as follows:

If you email the editor, they won't do anything unless the review is already late. In fact, they probably won't remind the reviewer unless it is significantly late - if an automated reminder has recently gone out, then they need to wait a bit before deciding that it hasn't worked.
Editorial management systems automatically give a deadline for review, which is often (IMO) unreasonably long for minor revisions. (I have often felt this when receiving review requests, not just as an author!) Typical deadlines in pure math are 2 months for revisions (3 months for the initial review, although less for a "note").
The reviewer may take a while to accept the invitation - perhaps they are on holiday or just very busy. Editors are usually willing to wait longer for an acceptance in the case of revisions, because it is so much better to get the same reviewer(s) if at all possible. On the flip side, the original reviewer may decline, in which case it takes time to find someone else.

However, if you send an email after waiting long enough for the review to be clearly overdue, it can work well. In my case the system status showed a reviewer took a few weeks to accept the invitation, and then I waited for three months after that. I emailed, the editor sent a reminder, and the review then came back very quickly.

Thank you for sharing your experience. It has been now 3 months since I sent for revision. Still no news. The 1s rund review was also long 16 months. And now the revision is already 3 months. I have given reminder to editor, let me see what happens at the end.

There is no guarantee on the time for a (first, second or any numbered) referee report even for a particular mathematical journal, let alone for a mathematics paper in general.  Qualified academics tend to be very busy, sometimes in erratic ways.
[Perhaps I shouldn't admit this, but after reading this question I remembered that I got a reminder for a late referee report.  This is a paper that I agreed to referee at the beginning of the summer, and apparently I agreed to turn in the report less than three months later.  Now it is a little more than three months later, and I am shaking my head at the optimism of my summer self.  I will get it done within the next month or so...and still be reasonably confident that I am not doing such a bad job.]
Let me ask you this: are you on the job market?  If so, it would be immensely helpful for you to get a result as soon as possible.  I think it would be quite reasonable to write -- or have someone write on your behalf -- to the editor explaining the situation and how beneficial it would be to have a prompt result.  I would expect them to be sympathetic to this.  If not, the matter seems much less time-sensitive to me, and I would give them a couple more months at least before inquiring about it.
Every year I think the refereeing system is a bit more broken.  It runs on mutual good will, which exists...but is far from uniformly distributed.  That is not very fair.

Thank you very much for all your beautiful words. Yes, I will search for job/Post-doctoral as soon as I submit my thesis. So a article is very important. I have prepared my thesis,  and now  I am waiting for the final report of the paper eagerly. I have written to the editor a week ago and the editor promised to check with the referees soon.  Lets us be hopeful.

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Should I sent another follow-up email to editor if there is no response after submitting the revision?
I am a Ph.D. student in pure mathematics. Recently, I received a very positive review of one of my articles from a good (or at least average) journal. After a minor revision, I sent back the revised paper to the editor. After getting no confirmation after 6 days, I sent him another follow-up email saying "Please confirm upon receipt of the revised paper". But still, four days passed, and I got no reply. So I am confused about whether he really received the revised paper or not.
Let me tell you that the journal only follows email communications; there is no online submission portal. We (me and the editor) have used the same email message from submission to status inquiry to revision; that is, I submitted the paper and he received it by replying to my message, then I queried the status of the paper by replying to the same email message, and he answered the status, and so on. So far, we've communicated about 15–20 times over the same email follow-up. Is there any limit to replies in Gmail? Or, simply, he is very busy, so he received it but forgot to reply both times? It has been 10 days since I sent the revised paper, and 4 days ago I sent a follow-up message to know if he received it.
Would it be annoying to inquire in a separate message (of the same email address) if he received the revised paper?  Or, should I wait for the final decision, assuming that he has received my revised paper?
I appreciate your guidance

Normally the email telling you that minor revisions are requested should tell you how to submit the revision. Did you follow the description there? If it links to an editorial system, that may automatically confirm receipt. Both as author and editor I'm not used to this amount of direct communication (15-20 times is A LOT; very often there is no such communication whatsoever; submission is through a system and then the author lets reviewers and editor just do their job). I can understand that you want a confirmation of receipt, but as editor I'd really want you to follow the standard route.

@ChristianHennig, yes I followed every step. The respective journal follows only email communication, there is no online submission-portal. The editor told me to submit back the revised paper, he will be waiting. 15-20 times because the paper was under review for  1 and half years, I enquired review status 4 times in that time span giving a total of 42=8 communication, as well as during submission we had 4 (=22) communications, finally after the review report we have had 4 (=2*2) communications. So a total of 16 communications.

He could be on a conference or other travelling/holidays, maybe even ill. I'd probably give him a some time more (at least a week more) before trying to contact him again using an alternative path. In my experience/view, requesting review status several times is pretty useless (once can be good though), but requesting a confirmation of receipt is rather elementary, nothing wrong with that.

Thank you for your advice. Yes I will wait some time more, at least this June. After I might email him in July. I enquired review status because it took 16 months and I am a Ph.D. student, so need to finish in time. By separate message, I meant to email him at the same email ID but in a new message.


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How is cumulative GPA calculated?
This might be a dumb question, but since I couldn't find what I am looking for, I decided to ask here. I think that cumulative GPA is the average of all each semesters' GPA, however the part that I don't understand is if I have the below points for three semesters,
1st semester = 3.1
2nd semester = 3.4
3rd semester = 2.9

would the cumulative GPA for the three semesters be calculated as:

((1st + 2nd)/2 +3rd)/2, or
(1st + 2nd + 3rd)/3 ?

The cumulative GPA can't in general be known from just the GPAs of the individual semesters.  The cumulative GPA is your total grade points divided by your total possible grade points, over all semesters completed so far.  If you took the same number of classes each semester, and all had equal numbers of units, and all were included in GPA (i.e., no pass/fail or the like), then it would be (1st+2nd+3rd)/3.
The reason it can't be known just from the GPA of the individual semesters is that it depends on how many units you took each semester.  If you took more classes/units in one semester than in another, then that semester will have greater weight in the cumulative GPA.
This applies to averages in general.  If I tell you I have one bag of stones with an average weight of 1kg, and another bag of stones with an average weight of 2kg, you don't know what the average weight would be if you combined all the stones into one group.  To know that, you have to know how many stones are in each bag.

Thanks. However even if you multiply the each grade by the corresponding units and added each separately then divided by the total number of units taken the answer would be the same. I did that and got same thing unless my calculations are wrong.

@Magna: Your question didn't mention any individual grades or units, so I don't know what calculation you did.  Averaging the actual grade points in the way you describe will always work.  What I said in my answer is that if you have the same number of units in each semester, then averaging the individual GPAs will also work.


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Is teaching for a biology program without "specialized accreditation" bad for your career?
I plan on graduating with my PhD in May and am currently job searching for academic positions for next fall.
I am looking into applying to be a full-time biology faculty member at a school which is accredited, but where the biology program does not have "specialized accreditation" for the field.
The question is: is it worth it?
I understand that attending a non-accredited school as a student can be detrimental to long-term success, but is the same true for TEACHING in a non-accredited biology program? Maybe more specifically, what are the pros and cons to working for a non-accredited program?
As a related follow-up: which would be better (or perhaps less worse) for my career as a university professor: full-time position at a poorly ranked non-accredited program or an adjunct position for a accredited program at a better-rated school?

I should preface all this by saying that I'm getting my degree from a top 15 school nationally, I'm very ambitious, and could likely get a better job at a better university (to which I am applying). But like all prudent folks before me, I am casting a wide and diverse job-searching net.

Are we talking about a program that is too new to be accredited, but likely will be shortly? Or a program that will not be accredited, possibly because it does not meet basic standards of quality?

Good question. This is a very old school with an old program. It's a liberal arts HBCU. From what I can tell, they just never strived to be a better program -- so, likely because it does not meet basic standards of quality

To clarify - the institution as a whole is accredited, but the program is not?  Is program accreditation is common or almost universal for reputable programs in your field?  (It's not universal for all fields.)

With further inspection, the university as a whole is accredited. However, their biology program is not listed as having "specialized accreditation" as a few of their other programs do. The University's website advertises these other programs front and center on their website as simply being "accredited". So University as a whole = YES, program = NO.

Decades ago, I got an engineering degree at a well known school. The department was going through re-accreditation at the time, and was getting negative feedback on some of the curriculum changes they had made. The university response was basically that they knew better than the accreditation folks, having worked closely with companies and grad schools on what needed to change,  and would be happy to move forward into the 21st century without them. (These days, engineering accreditation has changed dramatically, probably because of several such interactions).

Is accreditation even standard in biology? This blog post and this article I came across with a quick Google search suggests it isn't, but it's not my field.

I think that you need to provide some more information. What area of biology are you getting your PhD in? Are you looking to be a researcher that has teaching responsibilities or are you looking for a fully teaching faculty position? Does your area of biology have post-doctoral fellowships? If so, and you want to be in research and be a PI some day they you should be looking for a Post-Doc, preferably one where you will publish, often, before you look for a faculty position. Biology is very broad so what may be the case for certain areas of study may not be the case for others.

In my experience, very few biology programs are accredited, for example at liberal arts undergraduate colleges. But they're still important, since liberal arts students still ought to be exposed to biology. So I don't think that association with a good quality teaching program will hurt your prospects as a teacher, but unaccredited programs tend not to engage in research very intensively, if at all. So as others have mentioned, you should probably consider a post-doc at a research school if that's your goal.


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How to tailor a CV for travel grant applications
Can anyone advise on how to tailor a CV for travel grant applications?
I've seen a number of computer science conferences and workshops where the application for travel grants consists of simply sending your CV.
Is there anything that one can do specifically for this type of application?

I'd suggest sending an academic version of your CV (that has all your publications and pedagogical activities listed)...

In my experience, your CV is your CV, and it should list basically everything of scientific significance about you (unless you're so far along in your career that you can do an impressive "highlight" CV).  The main decision available to you is how you order and cluster these things.
Thus, if your CV is already ordered and grouped to put your best foot forward, scientifically, I don't think you need to do anything else in particular to tailor it for a travel grant application.  I certainly know that when I have been in the position of looking at student/early-career applications to decide on travel grants, the full package is generally small enough that it's easy to see the significant bits no matter how things are formatted.

You should always try to tailor your CV to the opportunity you are applying for. You might want to consider a personal statement of two sentences that encapsulate who you are and why this travel grant is relevant for you. People tend to read the beginning of CVs and then skim. You want to make sure that the narrative makes sense, so don't include too much information and make sure that the information included is phrased so as to be relevant to the opportunity. Definitely include a page with all your publications and previous conference papers. In terms of conference travel grants, however, it's going to mainly depend on the paper proposal - how relevant the proposal is to the conference's main aims will determine how much the organizers want to help make sure you can attend.

don't include too much information — I strongly disagree.  An academic CV (at least in the US) is always a complete formal list of academic accomplishments, including all publications, talks, awards, grants, teaching experience, and so on.

@JeffE: my academic CV does not include all my talks (though it did when I had given fewer talks). For people more senior than I am, I think it is extremely common that one's CV would include only a selection of talks (e.g. colloquiua, plenary lectures, etc.). Still, I agree with your overall point: it would be very strange if a CV included only some of the author's publications, for example.

A personal statement in your CV is a great idea: it could set you apart from other applicants by making it clear why you would benefit from being able to attend this conference, and why the conference would benefit from your presence.

I think is the same as for job application - show the accomplished things but in a more direct way, not descriptive way e.g.
"I participated in the project X that was dealing with Y, we proposed Z that is modified algorithm ZZ." can be converted to
"We/I developed new algorithm Z showed better performance compared to state-of-art. The algo applicable in this and that areas".


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Show accepted (but not published) paper to potential advisor
It is time for me to apply for graduate studies.
I am wondering, if I have a paper accepted at a journal or conference, is it OK for me to show this accepted paper to others (such as potential advisor for my graduate study) even if the journal or conference has not yet formally published (or made public) this paper?

Related: Do I need to attach the letter of acceptance of an accepted paper along with the paper itself to my CV for applications to phd programs?

In general, I would think so, but I suppose this depends somewhat upon the culture of the field that you are in. To be on the safe side, simply check with your co-authors and get their permission beforehand.

In CS, I think this is pretty normal - in fact I think this can be considered normal in any field.
I mean an accepted paper is going to be published at some point of time in the respective conference or journal. So the effect of sharing such a paper should theoretically have the same impact as sharing a paper that has been published.

Sadly, in the biosciences sharing without permission of coauthors could actually be a breach of trust even when the paper is accepted but not yet published. Without knowing what field the OP is in, we have to recommend playing it safe.

Yes. Definitely. Permission of coauthors I assumed was a condition that was implicitly met. I don't think I'm misunderstanding this if I say that the coauthors should normally be delighted to help one out in such a scenario and grant permission.


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What do you do to keep your mind sharp?
When I started at university I could perform with a fresh mind all of the time -- doing a problem set all weekend without reduced performance.
A couple of other students and myself seemed to be several times faster and have larger working memories than others. I made quick work of my studies.
Now that I have gotten to the ripe old age of 22, I seem to be in perpetual brain fog, and even coffee does not bring me back to my original abilities.
 This disturbs me because I want to go to graduate school.
What do you professors do (especially those who do mostly research) to keep your brain able to function near peak for 40+ hours a week? Are you simply stupider than you were at 18 but abuse coffee and persist in your research anyway?

What scares me is that some of the older students who have been in the "real world" for a while complain of the same symptoms, which includes somewhat slowed thinking and reduced retention of studied materials. It seems to be related to stress?

I suspect a lot of this is perception bias, I know the stuff I worked on when I was 18 (looking back from the ripe age of 25) was simply easier and i had more time, and I had often seen it before. So looking back I may have seems more productive.
Alternitively, being a in a perpetual brain fog could actually be serious medical issue. It is the symptom of several illnesses (both psycological and physiological)
As a joking answer: What do professors do? Have young smart PhD students and postdocs. :-P

@Oxinabox Yeah I wasn't really productive at 18, I was just always ready and felt rested, so the few hours I put into studying and thinking in class went a long way (both in terms of grades and titillation). I probably should look into increasing my health.

There seem to be some downvotes, but I think the question is just asked in the wrong way. (Then again, this is probably what downvotes are for). Instead of asking "What to do to keep your mind sharp" to which you probably know the answer already (do some puzzles, e.g. brilliant.org has many of them); You actually want to know if it is normal that you feel like you are underperforming. @jakebal gave an excellent answer below, and I know of some friends and colleagues that have been in the same place as you. I also had to learn this the hard way.

@HdM Yeah I mean I am pretty certain my brain is actually performing less right now including on other tasks. I really am interested in how professors "keep on the top of their game" besides obviously engaging their brains with their research. I hear about people who spend a lot of time on research and I know they are older than me and yet I don't have the oomph to work like that anymore! One summer I drank a pot of coffee a day and studied/ did math for 8+ hours a day and it took me until the next semester to see that I had worked (or drugged) myself stupid!

I think it really depends from person to person. You will have to examine yourself really well to find out what suits you and what not. And you will need a lot of trial and error. For many people it is different, e.g. when they work best (morning, afternoon, evening or at night), what they need (e.g. I found out that drinking coffee is actually making me dizzy and it's harder to focus), how much actual work (not counting "brainless" work like filling out forms) you can expect from yourself per day, etc. It's really very dependent on the person.

I've had the same experience and come to the conclusion that while what jakebeal says is part of it there's also an element of loss of control. As an undergrad I'd just nap in the lab whenever I got tired, I'd normally work really late in the evening, I had no other commitments. A few years later it's unseemly to sleep at my desk and I have to maintain reasonable working hours rather than doing most of my work at night. Though I would advise reserving caffeine for emergencies.  It's not a help long-term.

I'm a grad student at the really ripe age of 51. The biggest helps I've found have been making getting enough sleep a priority and getting lots of exercise as a way to deal with the stress. I had cut out almost all my exercise because I thought I didn't have time for it, but I've found I'm getting as much quality school work done when I spend about 6 hours a week exercising as I did when exercise approached 0.

The answers so far are quite good, though I would add that hydration is extremely important. Dehydration leads to a brain fog quite rapidly, at least for me.

@bigmoney, Why is your username called "bigmoney"?

Just to add to the self-perception thing: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B6bVTtMCcAAEcx9.jpg - The point is that the more you really know the more you realize what you actually do not know. - But that's proably not really the same as the "brain fog".

Because I needed an anonymous username. Noone uses their real name on academia.stackexchange. admitting to fatigue would be a career killer.

@Pacerier because my username IS bigmoney. It is not merely called bigmoney. It is a name, it does not HAVE a name, it is not CALLED anything.

I find that my lack of concentration is mostly due to the introduction of facebook and other internet-related things. Remove your TV and internet, and there will be a positive change

@Kathy Have you found a way to make grad school itself not very stressful? I got into this to have fun, not a heart attack :( When I started as an undergrad it was all easy/fun and I was faster than I am now.

@bigmoney I sure wish I had that secret. My mantra right now is "one more year, one more year, one more year". Luckily I'm down to just my project and electives, so that helps a lot.

@Kathy, How do you become grad student at 51? Wouldn't there be an age limit?

@Pacerier Given the number of grad schools that wanted me to enroll, apparently very few schools have an upper age limit, at least in my field.

A very important thing that took me most of graduate school to understand is that my self-perception of "getting dumber" was not caused by actually degrading abilities, but by a qualitative change in the type of work that I was trying to do.  I discovered this through a passage of despair, when I felt so brain-fogged and useless that I decided that I was going to simply ignore my thesis for a few days and work on a meaningless side project instead---which I blazed right through at the rate I remembered from undergraduate days, because it was all much simpler and more well-defined than doing research.
In undergraduate education, one may be working very hard indeed, but the type of work is also extremely specialized in an unusual way.  In particular, almost all of the work that you are called on to do in your courses (undergraduate or graduate) is:

Designed to be accomplishable within a fixed number of hours
Tightly dependent on the most recent things that you have learned

This puts a huge (and hidden) amount of constraint on the search space for answers: in essence, if you have learned good "student meta-skills," you are likely to be very good at picking the right place to go searching for your answers.  When you stop taking undergraduate classes, this skill becomes largely irrelevant, and you can start feeling like you are much "dumber" simply because you're thinking that progress on poorly defined and unbounded problems should come at the same rate as progress on pre-digested course work.
I would thus say that the first and most important thing to do is to come to this understanding, that the types of skills you now need are qualitatively different than the ones you most exercised as an undergraduate.  Digesting that may cure your concern right there.
Beyond that, my basic recommendations are simple:

Do things that you are interested in.
Let yourself read, but also make sure you write and do technical work.
Keep a record of all of your accomplishments, so that you can look at external evidence of non-failure when you're having an imposter syndrome day.

Hmmm. How is it that you felt brain fog without having brain fog?!? Its not that I don't think I'm competent (with enough coffee) its that I feel like I am losing the raw conceptual force that I used (and relied upon) when I started doing math, and energy. My philosophy professor even said "Its not the same" when I took another class with him! At any rate rest and involvement are important, as well as realizing that its okay if I just turn out as mildly impressive.

+1 for ' my self-perception of "getting dumber" was not caused by actually degrading abilities, but by a qualitative change in the type of work that I was trying to do'. The more you learn, the more you realise how little you know, and the dumber you feel!

This is spot on, not just in academia but in pretty much everything post-education.

I think this answer is relevant well beyond academia but any transition from school to the "real world".

For some of us, spending a bit of time answering questions on various SE sites is a constant source of "meaningless side projects" for when the real work seems overwhelming...

@jakebeal, Why's it imposter syndrome? Doesn't the description "imposter syndrome" requires the person to be first great?

tldr; "Research and advanced studies are hard. Of course they hurt your brain."

Further, this helps explain why the quite common "Gah, that's so obvious, why did it take me so long to think of it!" reaction in the course of research effort almost never occurs when doing undergraduate homework.

@Floris, precisely -- it's a great place to go for a quick hit of "Hey, I'm NOT actually completely dumb after all!"

I think there's a pattern in every discipline where your skill level and your ability to see your weaknesses improve out of sync - so you go through unhappy troughs where your standards rise faster than your skill, and overconfident spikes where your standards rise slower than your skill. A painter made a great chart and blog post about this, and over on the graphic design site I've got an answer expanding on it which in some ways might apply here

@Pacerier Imposter syndrome just means you are undervaluing yourself relative to your actual abilities.  Greatness (whatever that might mean) is not a pre-requisite.

@user568458, Wow, that's the smartest thing I've heard this month.

@Brian - I would also add  "Undergraduate math is easy" to your tl,dr.

@Brian One fun way to make undergraduate homework more challenging is to not read the textbook, and solve as many problems as you can from first principles (and without induction, etc.) before referring to the material of the course.

As an IT professional at age 32, I have struggled with similar issues. I disagree with other commenters that it is simply perception bias. I have found myself unable to complete tasks that I was previously able to complete with ease, unable to remember or retain information, and exercising incredibly poor judgment (on par with being intoxicated).
For me, at least, it was a combination of issues.

Fatigue. I was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea that had been causing me to near-awaken several times per minute all night long due to a involuntary choking reaction that flooded my system with adrenaline and raised my heart rate. This left be drained and exhausted in the morning, and definitely interfered with my brain function. Fatigue is a major cause of human error and can definitely produce "brain fog". Even sleep debt caused by missing a few hours of sleep each night over a period of time can cause severe fatigue.
Information Overload. As we get older, our scope of responsibilities increase. When we're young and in school, usually school itself is the single biggest (or only) major responsibility. Our decision-making power is finite, and when it runs out, our judgment will start to lapse (see decision fatigue). For me, at least, an overload of information and decisions can swirl around in my head, making it difficult to focus, and shortening my attention span.
Relationships. As we get older the number and depth of our relationships increases. Managing social interactions has been shown to stimulate more of the brain than almost anything else -- in short, it's mentally exhausting.

For me, here is what helped the most.

Sleep. Get 7-9 hours of sleep every night no matter what. One thing that helps is to wake up at the same time every day (even the weekends) and then go to bed as soon as you feel tired. If you feel the quality of your sleep is lower than it should be, or if you're tired and feel un-refreshed when you wake up, consult a doctor and/or sleep specialist. If you are male, overweight, or your collar size is equal to or greater than 17 inches (43 cm) you are at risk for sleep apnea and should be checked.
Recreate, especially outdoors. Make sure you are getting adequate downtime/decompression time. Playing video games is not adequate recreation as it requires constant decision-making. Try an outdoor activity with limited stimulus such as hiking, biking, or even just walking.
Meditate. Even 15 minutes of meditation every day has shown to physically change the structure of your brain, increasing folding. It may also help stave off age-related brain degeneration, even Alzheimers disease. It is simple to learn basic meditation techniques, and it certainly helps me control the "swirly thoughts" problem from information overload.
Get some alone time. Don't isolate yourself, but make sure you get 30-60 minutes of time alone every day. This can help you clear your mind, and also depressurize from relationship-induced stress.

Thanks. Your answer seems perfect for my issues... I try to be active in terms of sleep, recreation, meditation and alone time. For me the hard part is the ones you said first: fatigue, information overload, relationships. I am having a hard time handling them ...

This is great advice. I've always intended to follow it, but have never managed more than miniscule parts of it. :(

+1, "Playing video games is not adequate recreation..."

I have to disagree with the  outdoors comment. I make more important decisions, some that can literally cost me my life, when biking compared to smushing thousand demons per second in Diablo.

@Lonboder, Your "fatigue" link is down. Btw, what do you mean by "IT Professional"?

+1, very good advice. Remark on #2 in advice section: I have always been a casual gamer, playing video games to pass the time when I've been stressed and needed some 'downtime'. I almost always play player-vs-player games, not versus AI players. What I've found recently (in the last 2 years) is that this is incredibly exhausting! I cannot stress this more - my 'downtime' recreational activity for the past few years has actually contributed to a great deal of my mental exhaustion. Working 2 jobs programming all day, my combination is down-right a brain-killer. My advice: go outside!

@Davor In my comment above, I mention that I play PvP over PvE. I've played Diablo and I have to say that you are correct in what you say - however, some games are tailored to the "gear and smash" methodology like Diablo, whereas others like PvP games and those like Dark Souls require you to have high levels of concentration. Outdoor activities can have the same effect but I find that, especially if you work a job like programming which requires long stretches of mental activity, going outside and becoming physically exhausted is greatly beneficial to the body and mind.

@ChrisCirefice - oh gods, yes, no PvP to rest. I usually end up wanting to actually murder someone after a game of DotA.

I won't have the relationships problem. I have decided that breeding conflicts with a life of the mind.

Don't neglect or minimize the basics:

Good sleep, esp. regular hours (avoid alcohol in evenings, no caffeine after noon)
Exercise
Steady, healthy diet
Time for fun and social engagement
Stimulating/challenging conversations and debates with people you respect

Bonus:

Meditation
Yoga
Brain games

P.S. I am a 57 year old PhD student.  "22" is neither ripe nor old. :-)

Thanks for the support. Yeah even though I'm not a big partier I think I've accidentally fallen into some of the same pitfalls of a party lifestyle... I think most of the damage can be undone though as the optimism here shows.

Thanks for the support. Yeah even though I'm not a big partier I think I've accidentally fallen into some of the same pitfalls of a party lifestyle... I think most of the damage can be undone though as the optimism here shows. Do you have any advice for keeping things light during work hours? I do better if I keep a playful spirit but this seems increasingly to be in bad-faith... PS: 22 could be ripe but only for someone who studied hard as a baby.

Have you noticed any phenomonological changes in your mind since your teenage years?

The most obvious is that I now have a poor memory for people's names.  I can forget a name 2 minutes after someone tells me. I'm more patient and methodical now. I'm much better at writing, especially involving complex lines of reasoning. But I'm not as fast at some things, e.g. solving puzzles.

Let's not make any bones about it. There's plenty of scientific evidence to show that your intellectual skills will diminish as you age. The question is when this becomes noticeable. Again, I think it's pretty common for people to notice this by their 30s (only anecdotal advice for this).
I think 22 is far too young to notice any degradation; I would get a brain examination if you are truly concerned.  Probably you are just imagining this. If you can't do specific tasks you could do before, eg solve endgame problems 1-50 in such and such book, then you know for sure. Unfortunately that's how I and friends have noticed (much slower at doing very specifically defined intellectual tasks that we could do effortlessly before).
Enjoy your 20s. You ain't old yet.

Right. In your 20's you're not old - you are likely getting too much alcohol, too much visual stimulus (video games, "screens" everywhere) and not getting enough sleep.

Not too much alcohol. Everyone knows that's poison for the brain.

It's usually a matter of stress and interest. In courses that I had no interest in it was harder for me to learn anything. Even if I had read a paragraph and was asked a simple question about that 1 paragraph I couldn't answer it.
Stress can also slow your learning curve. While you do lose memory capacity and learning ability as you grow older, the effects don't really set in until about 45(ish)

Could you cite that last statement about learning ability?

I also find that stress is one of the main causes of any "brain fog" that I experience. That and lack of sleep. As for learning ability decreasing with age, my anecdotal experience is that it improves with age and experience. I suspect that it's a "use it or lose it" effect; I've never stopped learning, so my learning skills never got rusty.

@mhwombat That is encouraging. What do you think of your creativity? One issue is when I get tired/stressed my brain will just try to recycle old thinking patterns instead of really engaging the material (of course i do not know to what extent tired is isomorphic to old)

@bigmoney yes, stress affects my creativity as well. Normally, when I am stumped by a problem, I'll have a few ideas of how to approach it within an hour or two (perhaps after a short break). But last month I went through a stressful period, and when I encountered a tough problem, I couldn't think of any ideas for a week. That made me realise just how stressed I was. So from now on, when the flow of ideas starts to slow down, I'll look for ways to de-stress.

You can compare your brain to your computer. Your computer must be hooked on a power supply for it to work properly, you brain is connected to the rest of your body which provides it with energy. But if your body isn't physically fit, your brain will have less energy available.
To optimize your energy levels, make sure you get plenty of exercise: at least half an hour of running about 4 to 5 times per week for someone your age. If you are not fit enough to run, you should gradually build up your fitness so that you can exercise at this level in the future. This will improve sleep, you'll be eating a lot more without gaining weight, so you'll take in a lot more vitamins and minerals. This will all help you to have a lot more energy, which will benefit your brain a lot.

do you think that you get a marginal benefit from running as opposed to walking? I am healthy enough to run (when I was 300 pounds I was stubborn enough to run when I had a reason). But running is not a "sacred cow" of mine.

@bigmoney Running burns a lot more energy than walking, you need to make sure you metabolism is increased. E.g., I weight less than half of what you used to weight (yesterday's measurement: 56 kg) , yet I eat 4000 kcal a day. So, the amount of nutrients I get from eating all the food that I do per unit body weight is this a lot more than average. This means that the amount of nutrients each cell in my body can get per day is a lot more. E.g. there is more magnesium available which is important.

#CountIblis I see. Yeah when I was that big I was only consuming 4000 Calories a day, or a little less even though I was also powerlifting. I guess you could say my metabolism was/is on the slow side considering.


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Is there an independent oversight body of Journal Impact Factors?
I have read many questions on this site that relate to Journal impact factors, for example, in relation to how that may affect where to publish etc.
I am wondering is there an independent oversight body that regulates the area of impact factors?
I was thinking along the lines of something like the International Organization for Standardization that regulates the ISO standards across the world.
Specifically is there an independent body (either commercial or not for profit) that sets the standards for impact factors and audits them so as that one impact factor can be compared with another with the knowledge that they are calculated in the same way?

No.
Academic publishing is not regulated by any oversight body.  There is not even a universal standard for what constitutes a publication.

...or a universal standard for how to calculate an impact factor.

Such metrics are not unlike rating agencies for economy, aren't they?

@JeffE While you're answer raised a valid point about what is a publication in my question I was interested in the independence/standardisation and the ability to audit of Impact factors rather than oversight of all Academic publishing. I've tried to edit my question to better clarify this.

Sure, but the definition of impact factor relies in turn on the definition of "publication", since only "publications" can include citations that actually count.

@JeffE Thanks, didn't know that. Who (if anyone) has the power to define was is a publication is for the purpose of calculating impact factors? Can some journals have an impact factors and others not?

@Raphael I would say that you are quite right. It's basically private companies (Thomson Reuters, Elsevier, ...) and "semi-public bodies" (e.g. American Mathematical Society) that compute citations and related bibliometrics. How comes that the publicly owned scientific foundations (such as NSF or the Czech GAČR) base their decisions on bibliometrical data by private (and easily corrupted) organizations, who knows.

There's multiple questions contained within your question that have different answers.

Is there independent oversight of Journal Impact Factors?
  ...
  Now I am wondering is there a oversight body that regulates the area?

This depends on what you mean by "independent".
If you mean an official unbiased centralised not-for-profit professional organisation, then the best answer is probably no.
But ...

Specifically is there a body that sets the standards for impact factors and audits them so as that one impact factor can be compared with another with the knowledge that they are calculated in the same way?

The answer to this part is definitively yes. The notion of an impact factor (<- a recognised term of art) was invented by the founder of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), Eugene Garfield. The impact factor of journals has been computed by ISI since 1975 using a prescribed methodology.
In terms of comparability, the impact factor is specifically the average number of citations per publication in the journal, over a fixed time span (the two years previous, or five years for 5 year impact). Citations are collected from the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) index.
And so if you are a journal editor and you wish to have an impact factor, you need to apply to ISI (now owned by Thompson Reuters). They oversee the computation of the official Impact Factor metrics in common use today, as publicised on various journal websites.
In fact, Thompson Reuters (through ISI) own the concept of Impact Factor for journals and copyright said metrics.
So for sure there is a body "that sets the standards for impact factors and audits them so as that one impact factor can be compared with another with the knowledge that they are calculated in the same way". But I would hesitate to call Thompson ISI an independent body.

This answer is not intended to promote the idea of an Impact Factor, but merely to indicate its oversight, regulation and history as per the question.

To the downvoter: how can I improve my answer?

ISI/Thompson Reuters is NOT independent. They get regularly slammed for playing with what they consider an "article" http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1475651/ and I think there are issues of reproducibility.

There is not a body that audits impact factor calculations.  You claim there is but give no citation.  Obviously, Thompson cannot be said to audit itself.

I state in my answer: "This depends on what you mean by "independent". If you mean an official unbiased centralised not-for-profit professional organisation, then the best answer is probably no." But there very clearly is a body "that sets the standards for impact factors and audits them so as that one impact factor can be compared with another with the knowledge that they are calculated in the same way" ... that body is the ISI. I don't understand the downvotes in that I still feel I answered the question as given.

@badroit: your answer seems to imply that the computation of impact factors is purely algorithmic and reproducible. Several know cases of journals bargaining their denominators (which "articles" are really counted, does it include editorials, letters, etc.) and a general opacity for which citations are taken into account in the numerator make IF in fact far from transparent and reproducible.


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What is the perception of doing a conference presentation at your own institution as opposed to another one?
This is a hypothetical question so no hard facts about conferences etc.
Say for example there is a conference at your own university that you get to present a paper at but you also get accepted at another university's conference to present a paper at as well.
For this example we will say that both conferences/universities are of the same standing and there is no disadvantage to attend the other one such as cost etc.
Would both look equally good on a CV or would there be a view that the presentation at your own institution would not carry as much weight when viewed by, for example, by a hiring committee?

Are the conferences international, national, or local to the university?

@DaveClarke I was thinking either the national or international context.

Then the prestige of the conference should be the measure.

Rtisan is probably right about a local conference carrying somewhat less weight and prestige on a CV.
However, there are some other benefits of presenting at a local conference:

It's usually free.  With the travel money you save, you can attend another conference far away later on.  Now you have two conference talks on your CV instead of just one.  (In other words, "present locally" versus "present far away" is probably a false dichotomy.  Even if the local conference conflicts with a faraway conference, there is very likely another faraway conference in the near future that's just as good.  And if the conflicting faraway conference is, like, the one and only awesomest conference in your field, then the organizers of your local conference probably shouldn't have scheduled theirs to conflict with it.)
Less travel: you get to save a day or two of travel time, sleep in your own bed, see your family, etc.  This may make the conference much more relaxing.
Being the attraction: People may be saying to themselves: "Hey, there's a conference at Podunk University.  I think that's where gman works, so I'm sure he'll be there.  I was just reading his paper and it will be great to hear his talk and ask him questions."
Networking: as a local at a conference, people are more likely to want to talk to you.  For instance, "Hey gman, you live here, can you recommend a good restaurant in town?  Would you like to join us for dinner?" The opportunity to talk to other researchers informally can be very valuable to a career.  Even fielding mundane questions like "How do I connect to the wifi?  Where is Room NNN?  Can you help me turn on the projector?" can start good conversations.  (Make sure you know the answers to these questions!)  It can be harder to initiate interactions like this when you are a stranger in a strange city.
Help organize: Try to join the organizing committee, or at least offer to help them out.  Organizing a local conference is a lot of work, and by contributing to this you will gain the appreciation of your colleagues.  It's also valuable experience, and "conference co-organizer" is a nice line to have on a CV.  Finally, conference organizers tend to have more contact with the visiting participants, contributing to Networking as above.

I agree with the networking point. Last year there was an international conference at my university, just downstairs from my office. A professor approached me after my talk and I could take him upstairs to our department, show him a couple of posters, etc. This lead to further interaction in the following months/year in the form of joint proposals etc.

First of all, think about your career in a long run. The outstanding CV shows high number of publications with high factors.
If you have an opportunity to formally present your work at another university, do it; simply because you can discuss your work with new people at your field, and get their feedback about your work. You need these feedbacks to direct you, to an outstanding results, and ultimately great publications. You can talk to your colleagues, about your work/results at your university, at any occasion.

A conference held at your university would presumably have lots of new people visiting from outside, to whom you could talk.

In general, I think there is usually the perception that having papers accepted to conferences at your home institution is easier and, thus, carries less reputational weight. This "home institution penalty" is probably less severe:

the higher your home institution ranks in the discipline, and
the greater the perceived importance of the conference in the field.


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Listing article updates on cv
What does the crowd think about how to list an article update on a cv?
For example, I have a peer-reviewed encyclopedia article that the publishers have asked me to update after 2 years. This updated article still has the same title (after all, it's the encyclopedia entry name) but content is approx. 25% different, and will be peer-reviewed.
What is the best way to indicate this new contribution on my cv?
BTW: I am, perhaps obviously by the question, early career.

Let me assume that you already have listed in your CV the earlier article (the version 1) in the following way.

Author Name, Title, Encyclopedia, Version 1, Dated online: xx-xx-xxxx; WWW: website

Now, you could just replace the above with the following:

Author Name, Title, Encyclopedia, Version 2, Dated online: xx-xx-xxxx; WWW: website (Web version 1: website)

Though there is 25% difference, I would not go with redundant information in a CV.


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Reference letters after some time away from full time study
I have been away from full time study for more than a year now and I was trying to see if I could get into postgraduate studies at a masters level for a non-vocational subject.
Prior to graduating, I had some reference letters written and sealed hermetically by two teaching staff as I had some intention in studying in Japan. In the end, that did not bear any fruit and although it is not easy to get admitted to full-time studies after a blank period, I am hoping to make a few applications even if it is quite a long shot.
My questions are these:
-Would it be appropriate to use these reference letters if I want to make an application for postgraduate studies in a different country? My undergraduate studies was in the UK and I am hoping to make applications there.
-Would it be appropriate to send reference letters which is more than a year old for an application for postgraduate studies?
Admittedly, I can make a request to see if they can write a new reference letter but I would rather not, as I feel it would be too demanding if I ask them to write a reference letter for someone that had already graduated.
Thank you for sharing your insights, opinions and thoughts on this.

Would it be appropriate to use these reference letters if I want to make an application for postgraduate studies in a different country? My undergraduate studies was in the UK and I am hoping to make applications there.

It depends on what type of Master's degree you are applying for. If your referees wrote their original letters under the impression that you were applying for a taught course but you are now applying to research Master's (or vice versa) the letters will probably not be suitable.

Would it be appropriate to send reference letters which is more than a year old for an application for postgraduate studies?

It's best if your references are up to date. I see no reason why someone would refuse to write you a new reference letter and there is certainly no harm in asking. Explain the details of the course you are applying to, and if necessary, remind them of things they may want to mention in the letter (e.g. you got the highest mark in their course that year, or you conpleted a successful summer project under them). However, one year after the fact, I expect they will remember you.
In summary, ask for new references, make your applications and stop worrying. Plenty of people take time off between undergrad and higher degrees (often tens of years, not just one) and your chances of success are higher than you think.

In complete agreement.  Would just like to add: Include an informal transcript when emailing your new reference request.  Also, if you want to save the recommender a small amount of work, then after you receive a "yes" by email, respond quickly with the information that you still have the old, sealed, unused recommendation letter and ask if you should use that one.  However, if I were the recommender I would say no, it's no big deal to update the date on the old one and print it out again.  Also, the stale date on the old one might not look very good.


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2nd-Year PhD student. PI is taking a new job. Will I be able to transfer?
I'm a second-year PhD student and my PI is accepting a new job. My PI has yet to confirm whether or not I can transfer with her, but I am anxious about the whole situation. Are there any circumstances where they wouldn't let me transfer?
I'm her only student, and the other two technicians cannot come with. I am hoping that this will somehow give leverage to letting me transfer, rather than her having to move and start the lab all on her own.
Much thanks in advance for all of your assurance...

anthony

It really depends on what is in her recruitment package from the other university — is what she negotiated. I didn’t have any junior doctors students when I last switched, and my senior doctoral students were all within a year of graduating, so I left them with colleagues and sat on their committees as an external member.

If I did have younger students, I would’ve asked them what they wanted to do. But i was a senior hire and the new school really wanted me, so I had negotiating power. But someone who is transferring early or mid career may have less negotiating power and may have to leave their students behind. It sucks but it’s academic life.

This is really not possible for us to answer.  Everything will depend on the particualr rules of the department that your advisor is transferring to as well as your funding source.

You should edit your question to explain: in what country, what institutions are involved, how is your work funded...

As others have said, it is difficult to predict. The factors include:

Where your professor's funding is coming from. Presumably, your salary and tuition (after the first 1-2 years) will be paid by her Government grant. Those may be to her directly (and therefore be likely to move with her) or they may be to the university (in which case she will be reliant on startup funds until she wins new grants).
Your professor's startup funds at the new university. These may be sufficient to pay you while she waits for new grants to come in, or not.
The other university's process for admitting transfer applicants. They may give faculty in this situation permission to circumvent the normal PhD application process; or, they may require you to apply and be accepted. (I imagine this would be more difficult if she is moving from a less competitive to a more competitive school).
How far along you are. If you are ABD, it probably makes more sense for you to be advised remotely while you finish; if you are brand new, it probably makes more sense to find a new advisor at your current school. Depending on your field, second-year seems like you would be just finishing coursework.
Your professor's preference (and your preference).

Good luck!


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Writing a recommendation letter for PhD advisor
I said yes to writing a letter for my advisor who is getting nominated for a mentorship award. Now I am stuck and not sure what to put into the letter or how to organize it. Might anyone have advice for me on what such a letter might contain? A search for samples to get me started has not yielded much since this letter goes in a direction opposite of the usual.

Because you're being asked for a letter of recommendation for an award given to a faculty member for good mentoring, this letter is going to look very different from the kinds of letters of recommendation written for students applying to graduate programs, faculty applicants, etc.
For your letter, the goal should be to show that this faculty member has been a good mentor to you and other students.  You can best make the case for this by describing in detail how the faculty member has mentored you.  How does he or she interact with you?  What do they say when you're struggling with something in your research?   Do they ask you to discuss your long term goals as well as your short term plans?

Here, I would share my personal experience. It's hard for students to write a really good letter supporting an advisor because they have not been in the shoes of a supervisor and are also inexperienced in writing such letters.
I was requested to write a similar letter for one of my supervisors and I agreed. To make it easy, my supervisor drafted a letter that met the purpose of the letter for them and sent that to me in a Word file. I was free to modify the letter to reflect my views. I made some changes and I added some more information and my perspective on why my advisor should be promoted/nominated. Their letter helped me to articulate my thoughts as well as remind me how they have supported my overall career. In the end, letters become higher quality as well as easier for me to write. So, if you are comfortable, I suggest requesting the advisor to draft a letter that he wants you to write and make necessary changes so you are comfortable to sign the letter.
FYI, even though I found asking for a draft letter is common in academia, I am not sure if this is standard and acceptable practice.


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Is alphabetical orders of authors' name in research article in mathematics mandatory?
Is alphabetical orders of authors' name in research article in mathematics mandatory ?
I mean for good journals of Mathematics, with Q_2 or Q1 category.
If the authors' name  are not followed alphabetically, does it create bad impression to Editor and Reviewer ?

This kind of thing is 100% journal-specific, if whatever you submit does not meet their standards they'll request you to fix it. And if it was stated somewhere in submission requirements explicitly, yes, that's bad impression - you're wasting their (and your own) time by not reading these requirements or choosing to ignore them for whatever reasons you have.

Even if the "rule" is informal, nothing good will come from breaking it. Look at some of the arguments that arise in other fields that try to "measure" contribution. A two minute offhand comment in the coffee lounge could form the crux of a proof in mathematics. Changing the convention would just be a recipe for disorder and discord. People who should/could become collaborators become blood enemies in some cases.

@Buffy, thanks. I Just want  to add  with your comment A two minute offhand comment in the coffee lounge could form the crux of a proof in mathematics  is that these two minutes necessarily has a months long or even years long hard work

In the context of pure mathematics, not ordering the authors alphabetically is certainly unusual enough that it will create a strong impression on the readers (and this includes the reviewers and the editors). If I happened on a paper with this peculiarity I would be under the impression there's a story behind it (one author is being rude to the others? Weird funding agency requirements? Complete cluelessness on the authors' part?) and this can only distract me from the actual content of the paper.

What does "Q_2 or Q1category" mean? (It might just be due to my ignorance, but I've never heard of these before.)

@JochenGlueck, it is the Scimago ranking and there are 4 categories Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4. You can see here-https://www.scimagojr.com/journalrank.php?category=2601

@MAS Dunno, it never came up in my experience. Asking the editor cannot hurt, I guess.

It's a standard convention which might be required depending on the journal.  The conventions are very different in other fields.

@MAS: Thanks for the explanation!

In Pure Mathematics, alphabetical ordering of authors' names is a community standard to such an extent that deviating from this ordering is unusual, and often accidental (e.g., see Should a math paper use non-alphabetical ordering of authors' names for unequal contributions? or Uncommon order of authors names?).
Edited (Jan 2022): However, alphabetical ordering is not required in almost all journals that I am aware of.  The only exceptions I know of (mentioned in now-deleted comments) are the Korean Math Society journals.

This is the correct answer. Once one coauthor whose name starts with W clearly did almost all the work. We convinced him to allow us to submit with his name first. At other times I've argued with two Z coauthors that they should be first and they would have none of it. My name starts with B. Once I was third among three.

This is an interesting answer.  In physics the culture is certainly different: if you can’t sort out the ordering of authors on a submission, you have deeper issues with these collaborators.

When out-of-order names happens, it is rare enough that it is notable.  One exampe: there was an undergraduate text in abstract algebra by Birhkoff & MacLane.  Decades later the two of them did another undergraduate textbook in abstract algebra, now with authors MacLane & Birkhoff.  They switched order to distinguish the two books from each other.


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Should I take consent before listing referee names?
I am about to submit my research article in a Mathematics journal and the online system is asking to mention three Referee/Reviewer names.
Should I take the consent of a few experts in my topic before I enlist three expert names as referees, by individually mailing them?
I think, I should take.
Any suggestions and advice regarding the question, please?

Any reason for downvote. At least leave some comment please so that I can correct the question

It's not just unnecessary to ask them, it's inappropriate - it would be a violation of the blind review process. Journals ask for referee suggestions to make life easier for the associate editors to find referees. They figure you might know the people in your sub-field better than they do. There's an ethical obligation on you to suggest people you think will give your paper a good and fair review, not your close friends/collaborators (that would also be inappropriate).

@StuartGolodetz, It is inappropriate, I agree. But how is it violation ? Even if I take consent of experts and list them in referee list, it doesn't mean Editor will choose them just like Editor may not choose the list of referee which I put randomly without taking consent from experts. The outcome of both way is same.

I think you can remove the question in the edit---it is not unfair.  Also, in mathematics I have never known a journal to require suggesting referees, so unless it is stated otherwise, you can safely ignore this question.  (I always do.)

@M.A.SARKAR It's a potential violation of blind review in the sense that if the reviews are supposed to be double-blind (as they are in some cases), then the reviewers shouldn't know the identities of the authors, and if you contact potential reviewers in advance and they're later chosen by the editor, they will. Suggesting potential reviewers to the editor without contacting them doesn't violate blind review - my original point was merely that contacting them individually could.

@StuartGolodetz, ok,  but the journal,  I am talking,  has single-blind review policy. The referee will always know the identity of authors'. In that, I don't think it is violation

Possible duplicate of: Before proposing reviewers, should I notify them?

@M.A.SARKAR I did not downvote, but keep in mind that it is perfectly acceptable to downvote without comments on SE. You may politely invite downvoters to leave a comment to improve your question, but your comment "at least leave a comment" sounds like you are expecting it, and I find this request quite rude. Please try to use kinder words in future.

@FedericoPoloni, yes. But I said, give some reason if someone downvote so that the OP can correct the question.

@Wrzlprmft,  Thanks for noticing this. However I didn't find before

I have submitted to Elsevier journals many times (though not J Alg) and never suggested referees.  You can skip this unless it explicitly says this is mandatory.  What is sometimes required (and sometimes optional, and sometimes not even asked for) is recommending an editor to handle your submission.

@Kimball, No it wasn't mandatory. Thanks for suggestion

No. You do not need consent from them. There is no convention to do that.
Usually, the whole peer review process is an anonymous one, with the selection of reviewers occuring at the editors' full discretion. The editors have various channels to find suitable reviewers, and they usually do not tell the reviewers (nor the authors) how they came across them.

As an author, you should never ask someone's permission before suggesting them as a reviewer.  This prevents a situation where a reviewer thinks you are offering a bribe.  While this is unlikely, you should not leave any room for confusion.
There might be rare exceptions where you are required to ask for permission; I encountered this once and it was a waste of time.

The advice is correct, but I don't see how it could be seen as a bribe. Can you explain why?

@Buffy The reviewer recommends acceptance of your paper, then asks you to review (and expects you to recommend) his/her paper in return. In some cultures, nobody does anything "for free" - you always expect to get something in return.

@Buffy I didn't say it could be seen as a bribe, because it is not.  I said it could be mistaken for an offer of a bribe.  Any direct author/reviewer interaction could lead to this mistake.

It's not necessary. Firstly the editor might not use your suggested referees; secondly, if they do invite them then they will be writing to them themselves, so you writing to them first does nothing. After all, if they agree to referee your paper in response to your email, they would still have to agree to referee your paper when the editor invites them.

As others wrote, you don't have an obligation to ask the potential referees for permission to suggest them to the journal. However, I don't think asking for permission is problematic. I asked some people for permission. Some of them agreed, some of them refused, saying my work is beyond their area of expertise or interest or that they did not agree with my work. I just don't see any problem with that. For example, I don't think referees' permission prevents them from refusing to referee the article if the editor asks them to.