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Engineering educators: To what extent is search engine access enough?
In light of the deep, systemic changes that are being proposed for traditional engineering curricula (especially proposed reductions in lecture hours devoted to hard technical material), what in your opinion is the best argument in favor of the notion that the existence of the Google search box can compensate for the concomitant loss of formal course material coverage? (I can easily formulate multiple arguments against it without assistance.)

"In engineering, assertions of the form "Well, they don't really need to know Newton's second law -- they can Google that if and when they need it" are becoming more and more common." [citation needed]

See, e.g., https://www.nap.edu/read/23645/chapter/5

As an engineering educator (with significant industry experience), I think I kind of understand the question, but not well enough to post an answer; however, I teach my courses the way I think they should be taught: lectures are not tailored to those with short attention spans; so long as I can find a good one, texts are required; problem sets are intensive; in-class exams are challenging even with a one-page "cheat sheet"; etc. In short, I do what I think is best in preparing my students to go out into the world and do engineering. If my institution doesn't like it, I'll go somewhere else.

@Mad Jack, it would be interesting to hear whether you could have succeeded in industry with negligible discipline-specific competency, a smattering of courses in "soft skills" (oral presentation, teamwork, leadership, writing business plans), some "design" courses where you made things from Lego blocks, cardboard, and popsicle sticks, and of course, your smartphone with the Google search box.

I think it depends on where you go and what the local culture is. The institution where I did my undergrad is in the top 5, and while they may have adapted their freshman courses to the "modern" way your question refers to, sophomore and beyond courses are still taught the same way now as they were then. Great engineering schools have engineers serving in administrative roles, so they know what is needed in the classroom and support faculty in those endeavors; not-so-great engineering schools are just happy to have an engineering program and just want to graduate as many students as they can.

@Mad Jack, I think you've put your finger on something quite important, which is the newer phenomenon of non-engineers playing fast and loose with engineering education.

Your assertion that students aren't getting fundamentals seems wrong to me. Can you cite a few engineering programs where students don't take math, physics?

@ff524, I cannot cite any at this time. However, by "discipline-specific fundamentals" I was not referring to the content of lower-level math and physics courses.

Your example of Newton's second law suggests otherwise, since that will be taught in the standard physics sequence. Perhaps you can edit your question to clarify what kind of fundamentals you were referring to? And then cite a few programs where those fundamentals are not taught. If you can't do that, then the premise of this question seems off...

As far as I can tell, this question comes down to a misunderstanding of what a "modernized" engineering program actually is.

@ff524, I will stick with Newton's second law as an example. Let us not forget that this law should receive different levels of treatment throughout the curriculum, and that the understanding of the law by a sophomore physics student may not suffice for a practicing engineer. As for the premise, I never stated that the fundamentals currently aren't being taught; rather, I indicated that current trends could easily lead to this (e.g., by crowding out subject matter from a finite-sized curriculum).

@ff524 By looking at my students and by reading many engineering questions on EE.SE and Physics.SE, I'd say that in modern engineering programs students don't take enough maths and physics ;-)

@ff524, why not post an answer that incorporates your understanding of what a "modernized engineering program actually is"?

Fully 1/2 of med school, years 3 and 4, is going out and clinically treating patients, plus a minimum of an extra year of internship, plus an optional 2-6 years of residency, plus a further optional 1-3 years of fellowship. In a college education today, you have 1 design class in the beginning, and 1 design class at the end: roughly 10% of total hours. So if you want to compare to physicians, year 2+ of an engineering degree should be solely design.

I will also answer the modified version of your question, which asks specifically about using Google.
Nobody is suggesting that because of Google, students no longer need to learn course material. However, thanks to Google and the abundance of high-quality information that student engineers can find through Google, there is an ongoing shift in

the role of the instructor in helping students learn the material, and
the way students demonstrate that they have mastered this material.

First, given the availability of high-quality information, explanations, textbooks, and lecture videos even on specialized topics, the role of the instructor has shifted away from "standing in front of a room and delivering information that students should ingest and then regurgitate on an exam". Instead, instructors can devote more time to answering students' questions about, and teaching student how to use, the material. (This kind of instruction is not as easily supplemented by textbooks, lecture videos from top universities, and similar materials.)
You can see why this is in questions like Professor only teaches what is already in textbook. Should I quit going to the lectures?. A lecture that just repeats information is not an efficient use of contact hours for many students.
Second, given that students have, and will continue to have, access to high-quality reference materials throughout their careers, there is a recognition that having committed the knowledge contained in this reference material to memory is not an indicator of an effective engineer. Rather, students (and professional engineers) need to be able to identify the right knowledge to use, find it, and use it properly. Thus, assessment of students has shifted toward demonstrating ability to use knowledge, and away from rote memorization and regurgitation. The shift in instructional strategy is partly to support this.
(Of course, students still end up memorizing some formulas and things that they use often. And they still need to "know" enough to be able to identify and find the information they need, and evaluate whether they've found "good" knowledge.)
In other words: Students still need to learn fundamental material, but:

Some contact time with instructors that was previously devoted to repeating the material, can now be spent engaging with the material more deeply.
Students show that they have mastered the material by showing that they can identify the right knowledge to apply to a problem, find that knowledge, and use it. Students don't need to show that they can memorize  lots of material.

Your question seems to come down to "Give me an argument in favor of this extreme hypothetical scenario (graduates of engineering programs not having studied Newton's second law)", on the grounds that current trends in engineering education are likely to lead to this eventuality.
I doubt the premise of your question. It is a classic example of a slippery slope fallacy; shifting the balance in engineering education towards more hands-on applications of engineering, will not necessarily lead to elimination of most of the fundamental basics.
There are some very good reasons in favor of incorporating more hands-on work into the engineering curriculum, for programs that currently don't have much. One reason is: students who learn material out of a textbook but do not have a chance to practice its application, are not necessarily able to apply it, and do not necessarily have as deep an understanding of the material. (I see this firsthand in my own students.)
Another relevant aspect is the depth vs breadth balance, and the duration of the degree. Given how broad most fields of engineering are (mine, electrical engineering, definitely is!), it is not possible for students to take in-depth coursework in all subfields in the course of a bachelors degree. Instead, students take some basics (math, science, a couple of fundamental EE courses) and then they tend to specialize and gain depth in one or two areas. This is unlike your example of a physician, who undergoes much more schooling and has time for more breadth and depth in a specialty. Engineering education is much more condensed, and companies that hire engineering undergraduates understand this - they will either expect to train new hires on the job, or they will only hire students with the right "specialty". For those in the latter category, it is especially important for graduate of our program to be able to show that they are "ready to work" in that specialty, which means they should have engaged in substantial project work in that specialty.
Personally, I wish students took more fundamental coursework. But I also wish they did more practical hands-on work. I recognize that in the scope of an undergraduate degree that's not really practical, and that students who want or need that will probably have to do some graduate school.
But again, none of these are arguments in favor of an engineering curriculum that doesn't teach  Newton's second law, or the Fourier transform, because that is an extreme hypothetical that is not the current practice, and that engineering educators are not generally advocating for. There is a balance, and that's what educators are going for.

"It is not possible for students to take in-depth coursework in all subfields in the course of a bachelors degree": This is true, but what has happened along the years, at least in most universities in my country, is that the courses both at the Bachelor's and Master's level have been softened in the content, because otherwise too many students would have failed them and too few students would graduate (university funding depends also on the number of graduates per year).

@Massimo that is unfortunate. But a different issue. The "rigorous to not-rigorous" axis is orthogonal to the "lecture-based vs hands-on" axis. (I am infamous around my department for assigning very challenging lab and project work ;) )

I suspect I've completely misunderstood the question...

This question reads a little bit like a polemic, but I'll answer from another perspective: someone who is in the position, at times, to educate physicians. I'm extremely skeptical that your engineering students don't know Newton's Second Law, given I was taught it in High School, just as medical students know what a brain is or does.
But when I teach them my area, what I want them to learn is how to approach a particular type of study, how to engage with a published paper critically, and be able to articulate - at least in broad strokes - the difference between an odds ratio, a relative risk, and a hazard ratio, and when those things might break.
I care about them knowing what a Kaplan-Meier curve is, not the formula for how you incorporate left-censored observations into that curve. I want them to know that p-values are a perilous thing that should not be taken as God's Own Word in a vacuum, but I do not care if they know how variance is calculated for a negative binomial regression model. I care about them knowing what an infection looks like, but when rubber hits the road and they need to treat one, I also care about them knowing they need to get an infectious disease consult.
Heck, probably 50% of what I work on is some form of survival analysis, and I don't know what the likelihood function for a Weibull distribution is. But I do know it's in Klein & Moeshberger, and roughly what page it's on. And more importantly, I know what to do with it once I have it.
Engineering (and I'd argue Medicine) are different from something like research chemistry because they are professions. The bulk of what they're doing is not research, its the application of well-understood principles and techniques to a common set of problems. Your physician doesn't need to know that beta-lactams interfere with cell wall synthesis by disrupting the last stage of peptidoglycan crosslinking - just that they work particularly well against gram-negative bacteria. In these cases, the practical, project-and-problem oriented learning you are railing against is precisely what their day-to-day job will look like, and they are the essential skills that they will need. For the alternative, just spend a few days on Hacker News reading all the rants about C.S. students coming out of top programs with lots of theoretical knowledge, but no practical idea how to do anything.
Someone doing research in that area needs to know that, but that also a specific skill set - and just as I would not treat patients, I would not want a physicist as an engineer.

The most sensical version of this argument that I've heard is merely an argument in favor of open-book examinations or take-home exams that more accurately resemble modern real-life conditions. It's not necessary to learn the formula by heart, because you can look up the exact formulation. (You're not likely to forget any important parts of Newton's second law, but for some of the more complicated laws of physics it's clearly more of a challenge. I remember being made to recite, word-exact, some law of diffraction - or was it dispersion? - because there were some easy to forget subtleties.) It's merely necessary to know how and when to apply it.

Would you be comfortable applying this reasoning ("know how and when to apply it") to your own physician? ("I don't care whether my doctor knows anything at all about the human body! As long as he can Google and manage to find the right prescription for me, I'm satisfied.")

@NorthSpike You asked for arguments in favor.  You got one.  With regard directly to your comment, I'd be worried if my physician did not refer to sources like PubMed in those cases where he was uncertain of his own knowledge.

@ Bob Brown, your scenario is based on your physician having significant background knowledge. The original question is based on the opposite assumption.

Is here where I bring up how often physicians use guidelines and reviews published by their professional organizations?

@NorthSpike You're strawmanning my argument, and what I said absolutely already applies to doctors. When they see something that doesn't show up in their waiting room every day, I expect them to look up the latest treatment guidelines! In fact, there are specific portals for exactly this usage.


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Invalidating a method because its "Dated"
I was recently arguing with a college about a concept in economics and was told that my approach is invalid because it based on theory/method developed from the 1980 and that current methods don't approach the problem the same way.
I cited my sources from a credible source which was published (NBER to be specific) however to him it was a good enough of a counter argument to invalidate my point. He did cite contemporary research which approaches the problem differently however he didn't address the sources I brought.
This isn't the first time I've heard the argument from my peers and I'm wondering if the "in with the new out with the old approach" is a general approach taken in academia.
Is the fact that a certain paper or theory is old or dated enough to invalidate it?

Lots of theories are old but still valid, others are old and definitely not valid such as the theory the world is flat and you can sail off the edge... So, there needs to be a lot more information in your question to help define the situation.

Was this presented as a reason why the paper was /wrong/ or /unpublishable/? Being dated could simply mean that no one wants to read it, and therefore it’s unpublishable.

@StellaBiderman It was an discussion regarding rational expectations, I quoted this book: https://books.google.ca/books/about/A_Rational_Expectations_Approach_to_Macr.html?id=Z9ac-j9nUuAC&source=kp_cover&redir_esc=y

@SolarMike better?

Older methods can be tied into older biases, mistakes, and bad assumptions.  In mathematics this is very rarely a problem, but in social psychology it can be a massive one. There may be bad mathematics involved, poor controls, cultural biases, confounding variables that weren't known of then, etc. I don't know where economics and rational expectations falls, but I'd hazard a guess that it's closer to the social psychology end of the spectrum than it is the mathematics end. There's a huge number of factors that impact economic behaviors, and any model is going to have to make simplifying assumptions to try to single out what the model's creators have deemed the most important and interesting things.
While research trends are not an objective evaluation of merit, it does tend to suggest that if something is no longer receiving attention then it is not suitable for addressing modern problems and concerns.  The exact reasons may be hard to pinpoint, but in this case may boil down to "today we're really interested in modeling how widgets and wodgets interact" versus "this older theory is meant to model how gadgets and gidgets interact".  It's not necessarily that the older theory fails to achieve meaningful insights on gadgets and gidgets (though it might, because some of its assumptions may no longer be considered good ones), but that nobody cares about that any more, and it is intrinsically unable to address what people do care about.

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Does making Youtube videos improve your CV?
Is the creation of youtube content/lectures in your field worth showing off on an Academic CV?
In the most extreme case: if someone who is considering hiring for a teaching position in a university/college is looking at two candidates who are identical in qualifications except for one candidate having a youtube channel which teaches topics in his/her field (with somewhat decent content) would that candidate be considered more "qualified" (in the broadest sense of the word).

I've seen it used as part of flipped class rooms (e.g., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjGWZZBWRzc) which might be worth showing on a CV. Do you have any more context for your example?

If all you’re aiming for is “somewhat decent” content, then I don’t see it improving your CV (unless perhaps your CV is even less than “somewhat decent”, but in that case you’re in pretty big trouble anyway). Why not strive to make excellent content? Certainly if the material is exceptionally good, that would be a point in the content creator’s favor.

@DanRomik  do you think it can help in the context of beefing up little teaching experience?

That depends on what you mean by “it”. As I and @user37208 said, if the content is just decent then I don’t see it helping you regardless of how much teaching experience you have, and potentially it can even hurt you.

Universities are usually interested in the degree to which their teachers can gain wide recognition for their teaching, and thereby spread the reputation of their institution.  If you are able to publicise your teaching work to a wide audience, this enhances the reputation of the institution you are in, and so the university has an interest in that outcome.  Universities like their academics to be in the public-eye, since this adds to brand-recognition of the university, and shows that their academics are influential in the public sphere.  Hence, any activity which gains you wider recognition for your teaching or intellectual work is going to be something worth putting on a CV.
A useful case-in-point for the potential career value of academic YouTube videos is the case of Prof Jordan Peterson at the University of Toronto.  Peterson was a successful academic in a Canadian university, but was not widely known outside his field until he began producing YouTube videos of his lectures and his general thoughts on social issues.  Coupled with him taking on some controversial topics, his use of direct communication to the public created a great deal of interest in his work, which has led to him being widely featured in conferences, interviews, etc.  Two years ago I hadn't heard of Peterson;   six months ago he was described in the New York Times (albeit second-hand, with agreement) as "the most influential public intellectual in the Western world right now".  This is an extreme case, and it is also influenced by the social topics that Peterson discusses, but I think it is fair to say that if he had not produced YouTube videos, his work would not have spread as widely.   So yes, YouTube videos of your teaching can make a difference.

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Is it possible for an international medical graduate to take their residency and fellowship training in Singapore?
I am graduating medicine in 2 years time.  I am from Indonesia. I tried inquiring what the requirements are, but I have not been getting any straight answers thus far.

I cannot find anything about fellowship yet. But, about the residency training,
The Singapore government agency says

Enrolment into Training Programmes

...
Graduands from overseas must secure an offer of employment as a doctor from MOHH or a local healthcare institution before they are eligible to apply. ...

For more details, please contact them directly.

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Does this manuscript status change mean it is a desk rejection?
I submitted my manuscript 2 weeks ago to a Wiley journal that uses ScholarOne to manage submissions.  It went from Submission received to Selecting/assigning Reviewers, then to Evaluating Recommendation.  Given the short amount of time this happened, is this most likely going to be a desk rejection?

Why don't you relax and wait til  you get something substantial from them?

Possible duplicate of Can I predict the fate of my manuscript (from information other than a decision letter)?

Such fast evaluation by reviewers is rare but does happen occasionally.

The only thing that a yes or no answer to your question will do is tell you someone else's opinion (not knowledge) based on even less information (precise dates, journal name, etc.) than you already have!  So instead of trying to second-guess the outcome of the editorial process, just wait.
If you plan on publishing more than one paper in your lifetime, waiting is something you need to get used to.
Editorial processes take time. If your paper impressed the reviewers, seemed like a good fit with the journal overall, or even with the contents of a particular issue, you might get a rapid acceptance. If your paper fits poorly with the journal, you might get a rejection even if the overall quality of your paper is good.


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Is it ok to post an abstract of a conference paper... which I will be presenting in a conference scheduled 3 months from now... on ResearchGate?
The conference is scheduled on February 2021.  So far, I am not aware of any proceeding in which the abstract to my conference paper will be published.  Would that land me in trouble if I posted my work as conference paper on ResearchGate but will only place the abstract?

I'd guess that you can probably do this, but ask the Conference Chair or the Conference Program Chair. And probably take their advice.

Ultimately, only the conference organisers can tell you whether posting the abstract is acceptable, but it is very unlikely that they would object. It's now fairly normal for academics to have their own websites on which they post the abstracts of all their papers, presentations etc, with links to the published versions. I have never heard of a publisher or conference organiser objecting to the posting of abstracts (rather than full papers) in this way, but academia is a diverse environment and it's always possible that there is an exception out there.
Some of the big conference organisers have published policies on this (the IEEE policy is an example), so if the conference is organised by a large organisation then it may be worth searching online. Otherwise, just email the conference organisers.
One other thing to find out is whether you can post the submitted version of the whole conference paper on a pre-print server or your own website. Doing this makes your work more accessible to a wider audience, and is allowed by many large conference organisers (see the IEEE policy linked above, for example). If you're not familiar with the benefits of pre-prints or the process for posting one, there is a useful guide in Nature Index.

They are very unlikely to object to abstracts being posted, but they may object to them being posted >3 months before the conference. It may partly depend on whether it's a true one-paragraph abstract or the "mini-paper" that some conference abstracts form.


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Choice between different PhD Positions
I would like to ask you about the correct behaviour when applying at different universities for different PhD positions.
Currently, I won two PhD positions and a second shortlist for a third one. The third one is the one I really want, but the interview will be held on campus and due to coronavirus pandemic it has been postponed after the mid of August. I have strong academic and personal reasons to go for the third one, but of course I am not sure that I will win it. Now I have to decide between the two I already have. I would feel guilty to tell yes to one of them and later on withdraw the offer.
What is the acceptable time to change your mind? Should someone follow his personal motivations or be ethical?
Thank you,
Joy.

This could also depend on your field of study. As a pure mathematician, I can do my research whether or not I have Ph.D. students. Indeed, my students' research is usually separate from my own. So if a prospective student (or postdoc) decides to go elsewhere, it's not a disaster for me. But if I were in an experimental science and relied on students or postdocs to keep my lab functioning properly, the sudden absence of an expected student could be a serious problem.

I suggest searching this site; this has been asked many times. See for example Deadline For PhD offer while waiting for other results and What to say to one PhD offer when still waiting to hear the result of a different and preferred PhD application?

Can't you push your third place to accept an online interview? I understand you aren't in the position of power, but "we'll just postopone the interview" sounds like a not very professional conduct to me. You applied there keeping in mind certain conditions of this proposal, and now they are changing them in a unilateral manner.

Hi Joys. I was just wondering what you ended up doing in the end. I was in a similar position, and am feeling somewhat miffed about y present situation

Is there a deadline by which you must accept the two offers you currently have? If so, send a polite email to those institutions explaining the situation and asking for an extension on the deadline until you hear back from the third. I expect they will be amenable to your request, given the circumstances.
If you accept one of the current offers without waiting for the outcome of the third, I don't think you will be very happy. You must pursue the position you want the most and feel is the best fit for you. Your PhD will be much more productive and enjoyable that way.

They told me they cannot wait until then. I understand because in one of the two country where the PhD is the only starting month is October and if they "miss" it they will have to wait one year. I have until the end of this week to decide and of course It will be not enough to wait the answer for the third one.  I told the third university about my other positions, but they kept saying they want me to be there. I really do not know how to be ethical and at the same time do the best for me. Such a hard decision to make.

with 'explaining the situation', I wouldn't say literally that you consider them your "second choice", nobody likes to hear that (and they might be tempted to give the PhD to someone with a stronger motivation to start there). It's rather that you need some more time to explore another option.

I think it is legitimate in your position to accept one of the currently offered positions even if you later reneg on it when you get the third position.
I would say you gave them fair warning if you already asked for a delay due to coronavirus issues upsetting the calendar, and they said no.
Make sure your contract is not binding though so that you don't get administrative issues over it, but I believe your ex-prospective PhD supervisor will live with your choice and not be bitter over it, which counts more long-term than the good will of the administration of a college you won't attend.

I'd prefer if the supervisor was forewarned of the situation though, it would make things eventually much smoother. But that might be apolitic if they decide to give to number two on the list instead who says he'll take it no matter what. So it depends on whether if you reneg in august they can reattribute the grant to another student, which depends on the school. If there is a reattribution procedure that exists (a second round in September ?) no moral issues over reneg.

Hi! Thank you for your answer.  I think they can redo the procedure, but as I understood for one of them It it hard to then start the PhD in a different month for
bureaucratic reasons. Moreover, for this latter I met the professor head of lab in person. I think he liked me and he helped me to win the position, because he is such a big name. He created a special situation and in this case I feel that I cannot say yes and then no. So the choice is tricky: or I choose this one or the other one together with the chance to win the third. So hard!

AI might say I am kind of in the same situation. What I think from this position is that universities and professors get several PhD people during the years. But for us, we do a PhD once in a life time! Plus you cannot turn your back to your opportunities because someone gets mad. If I am in their position I will understand and will try to find another good candidate.

This is a tough one. There is not a right answer here. What I would do is to start giving some numbers to evaluate the quality of the positions. Make a table with pros and cons of each position and if you end up having most of the pros in the third position I don't see why you should not accept a position now and eventually withdraw it at a later stage. Anybody in your situation would understand you. But first deeply analyse all positions and you will make a much better choice.


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How to ask for an extension on a manuscript review?
I accepted a request to peer review a manuscript from a journal, but was not able to view the attached files correctly and reached out to the journal three times about this problem. They finally responded and addressed the issue, but now I am less than 3 days away from their original deadline for submitting the review and I know I need at least 1-2 weeks to do an adequate job. How should I ask or state my request for more time? Is it necessary to provide the reason or justify my request for the extension in my email?
For added context, this is a journal that I'm likely to submit to in the future, so I would like to maintain an amicable relationship with the current editor.

I strongly suspect that a sizable fraction of peer reviews for journals are late. Editors know this, and somehow manage to work around it. Your editor will probably be delighted to know that you need only another two weeks.

Just tell the editor how much time you need to do a good job. You don't need to give reasons, and certainly not to apologize. They will accept it or not. I suspect they will, since sending it to another reviewer will take even more time.
There is no problem mentioning that there was a delay in getting necessary files, of course, but these delays happen to everyone eventually if you review a lot.

In this particular case, I'm assuming that the editor already knows why the delay has occurred. In the general case delay is common enough that it is planned for by editors and doesn't disrupt unless it is excessive.

You should give reasons. Are you encouraging slackness in peer review?

@RajeshD not slackness but let's keep in mind that with the exception of open access journals, when we peer review a manuscript, we are offering free labor to a publisher who then charges the authors to publish their work and the readers to read it. We do it because we believe in peer review and know that we are ultimately helping our colleagues, but we should remember that we owe the publishers nothing and we have no reason to explain ourselves to the people who are taking advantage of us.

@terdon Really? Are there reputable journals that have both article publication charges and a paid subscription? I have only ever published in traditional journals (paid article access, free to publish) and open access ones (fairly steep APC).

@TooTea Um. Most of them? Nature and Science for sure, and every other journal I am familiar with (my field is biology) with the exception of open access journals. I haven't been in academia for the past 6 years or so, maybe things have improved, but I can't remember ever having published without paying the journal. The "traditional journals" for me are those that charge for both publishing and reading.

@terdon Oh, OK, thanks a lot. I must admit I haven't considered publishing in Nature or Science yet. Publishers like ACS or AIP don't charge anything for their traditional journals while PLoS charges like $2k.

Many print journals charge "page charges" for published papers. People add this into grants when they can. Some universities will pay them on request. Some publishers will forgive the charges for those who would need to pay them individually. Journal subscribers (who pay) then get the papers and others can purchase them individually.

@terdon unless you are including paying for the Editorial Management System or (in all likelihood) fixing the author's source files to be viewable, where is the publisher involved in what has happened with this paper so far?

Simply write the editor telling that you need an extension of the deadline of two weeks. In general I would not write reasons for the request of extension, and especially here. Indeed, in this case you would have to tell the real reason of the delay, and it may sound "by your fault, I could not respect the deadline".
It happened to me several times to ask for an extension of the deadline as a referee. The only thing that would spoil an amicable relationship with the editor would be let him/her without news.

"I only received the attached files yesterday, so I will need another two weeks to review them". What's the problem?


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What can we do as faculty to make tuition more affordable for students? Do we have an obligation to make tuition more affordable?
The inflation rate of tuition in the US has been higher than the general economy's inflation rate for some time, sometimes it is twice as high   What can the faculty do to stop/slow this down?

Call your state senators / representatives / governor.

The cost of running a school or university comes down to two main factors: maintenance of facilities and wages for faculty. The increase of education costs relative to inflation-adjusted salaries is due, in large part, to education not being amenable to increased efficiency and productivity as is the case broadly across the overall economy. So, figure out how to teach lots more students with fewer professors...

@JeffE and vote.

From a former student perspective: Yes, there is a massive moral obligation to take student fees down. I studied both in Italy and US, in Italy (basically free university) students at top university are spread on all the income spectrum, in the US my experience was really different, richer families --> waaaay higher chance of going to top college

@JonCuster: The majority costs at colleges these days are not faculty wages, but administrator wages. This proportion flipped a few years ago.

Use OERs instead of a commercial textbook! This wouldn't affect tuition, but it means students have more money to eat, pay rent, etc.
If you have any say about which texts/materials are used in your classes, then you can be directly responsible for saving students a lot of money.

While as a student I would strongly support this idea, compared to the astronomical tuition fees in the US I can’t imagine it making a significant financial difference (compared to reducing tuition fees). Disclaimer: I have never attended any college in the US (nor have I ever lived there), but the numbers I have heard are much (much) higher than the tuition fees here, and even here I feel the cost for books are not in the same league as the tuition fee.

@11684 While what you say is true, the cost of textbooks is also astronomical in the US, a lot of the time at least.

In general, you might try bringing your concerns to the attention of higher administration.
For example, your university might have Faculty Senate meetings where all faculty members have the opportunity to speak (and where administrators are often present). You could show up, take the microphone, and say something like: "I know that tuition went up 7% this year, and my students have complained to me that they are having great difficulty meeting ends meet. Can I ask what the university is doing to make tuition as affordable as possible?"
You might not get a response, let alone a commitment, from anyone in charge -- but at least it's a way to let the right people know that you believe this is a priority. You might have still more influence if you sought out administrative roles yourself.
But, realistically, you probably can't do very much.
An alternative thing you might do instead is to bring textbook costs down for your students. Many faculty members assign expensive books ($200+) without thinking too much about the costs, when free or inexpensive options exist. One way in which you can directly save your students money is to avail yourself of such options. And even if you choose to use an expensive book, you can often arrange for a discount.

I think talking to university administrators is a dead end. They do know about the problem, but are hamstrung by (i) the fact that tuition rates are set by Boards of Regents that are usually political appointees, and (ii) the fact that states no longer adequately fund universities. Largely, tuition increases are the result of state politics, not local university administrative decisions.

There are a number of things you can do as an individual faculty member to limit the growth of tuition:

Limit your electricity usage. Don't turn on the lights in your office. Instead, purchase flashlights and batteries or candles at your own expense. Don't use a computer (or use a laptop, purchased at your own expense, that you charge at home).
Volunteer to share your office with as many of your like-minded colleagues as you can pack in. Space and facilities are a huge expense for universities.
Volunteer to teach more classes than you are required to do. Staffing is another  major expense.
Donate as much of your salary as you can (after your housing, flashlight, and laptop charging expenses) back to your employer. Note that in the US, this will generally be a tax-deductible donation, so take this into account and donate more.

I agree that this has an element of humor, but, still, ... many people might not realize that this "answer" sounds like it comes from the PR office of the central administration, etc.

Flagged as not an answer: instead, a joke.

Whether or not it's humorous, this answer does make sense logically.

@Dilworth the answer assumes that keeping costs down will keep tuition down. The growth of endowments suggests that this may not be the case.

+1 for an answer that is not only 1. funny but also 2. is a correct and logically consistent answer to OP's actual question, and 3. uses humor to subtly and intelligently illustrate an absurd premise about OP's question (namely, the premise that individual faculty have any power to battle macroeconomic forces that even governments aren't able to do very much about). And a symbolic downvote to those who suggest academia.se answers should not use humor to make arguments that are pertinent to the discussion.

@StrongBad basic economics tells us that costs and price are only very loosely related. Every private company charges as much as they can get away with to maximize profits. So finding a price where the number of students times the profit per student is maximized. Lowering the costs (in a single institution), by economic logic would not lead to lowered prices. The US rather has the problem that we have private companies being helped by what I would dub debt culture to keep the number of students high, even with high tuition.

I'm arguing this is a legitimate answer, not that it's a correct one.

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


text:
Teaching philosophy with a PhD in math
I am currently in a PhD program for math in the US studying mathematical logic, and I plan to pursue a teaching career at a university after I finish my degree. Philosophy has always been a side interest for me, and I am wondering how feasible it would be for me to teach some courses in it once I can land a position. Almost all my current knowledge comes from self-study. I took some undergrad courses, but no graduate work. Would I be considered qualified to teach an undergrad course in logic or philosophy of math if it is listed with a PHIL prefix? Personally, with my knowledge of mathematical logic, I feel that I am more qualified to teach these courses than many philosophers. However, I don't know that accreditation boards see it that way. Reaching further out, what about the philosophy of science, metaphysics, or epistemology?
I did think about taking some philosophy courses at my current institution, but it is a small department, and they seem to be interested in what I would call "soft" topics - nothing like what I normally read and am interested in.
If I must take some graduate level philosophy, should I consider online courses? Are there even any decent places that will allow you to take courses without working toward a specific degree? Probably not, I fear.
Edit: I am particularly interested in the accreditation aspect here. Not what I think I am qualified for, but what I would be considered to be qualified for.

Maybe you could find a philosophy faculty member who would agree to be your co-instructor for such a course? That would seem to be the easiest way to ensure an appropriate level of competence in both fields. Once you've co-taught a class for a while you could then point to your past experience as an argument for letting you teach such a class on your own.

"Should I humble myself and consider online classes" really rubs me the wrong way. Having to take classes in a subject is not 'humbling yourself'. Perhaps you should actually audit, if not take for credit, a PHIL class in mathematical logic before you declare yourself competent to teach one?

@Johanna : Sorry for not being clear. I would really like to take classes in philosophy and feel some need to do so. The "humble myself" part was just referring to specifically online classes. I'm not a fan of online classes and think that they lack a lot of the advantages that on campus courses have. I expect many here will agree with me on this. I will edit the question to remove that language since this post is not supposed to be about the relative merits of online vs on campus courses.

@Johanna : And, yes, I would love to take a PHIL class in logic but nothing close to that is offered at my university. Hence, the problem.

If you can't take classes in person, then online seems like the only possibility. Generally, you can teach at a university if the university thinks you're qualified. That usually means having studied that subject at a university level, or having published research in that area.

The basis for teaching university-level courses is publication, not so much the courses you may have taken. Therefore, in order to teach a PHY-xxx course, you should expect to be required to have published some research that is relevant for philosophy. That may be in the philosophy of logic, preferably in a philosophy journal.
How close your research has to be close to philosophy will be entirely dependent on the philosophy department and program as well as who their staff are. If they do not have a logic specialist they may be more open to consider you, but be assured that you have to give them reason to prefer you over one of their instructors (professor or lecturer). By allowing you to teach a PHI course the department clearly takes a risk (you are not "one of them"), a risk that is perceived to be higher than letting a philosophy professor teach a logic course, even if it is not that professor's main field.
Indeed, departments tend to take as granted that their professors are implicitly qualified to teach any of their courses (even though that may obviously not be the case), while being a priori suspicious of professors from other departments.
It may therefore be easier for you to give a course on a topic you hage to learn from scratch in mathematics than a course for which you think you are perfectly qualified in philosophy.
In any case, you should not go to the PHI department and argue that you have taken PHI courses which supposedly qualify you to compete with their professors who, after all, have a PhD in Philosophy. Write a couple of articles, a book, that is the way to do it. Or, offer to teach the course jointly with a PHI professor and see how it goes from there. Who knows, the other prof may take a sabbatical and hand you the course!

"The basis for teaching university-level courses is publication, not so much the courses you may have taken." Not necessarily.  E.g. there are many faculty members at American colleges and universities who have not published anything.  Also, although publishing a paper in subject area X is certainly positively correlated with competence to teach a university course in subject area X, it is far from perfect.  I think a more holistic perception that you are "one of them" -- in terms of coursework, degrees, conferences attended, publications, the company you keep... -- is what is needed.


text:
Unfair co-first authorship
I am a PhD student in chemistry and my funding is specific for a certain project. This funding also funds another PhD student, a biochemist, with a different advisor (both our advisors are very well-respected). We're both in the 3rd year of our PhDs.
The project is now in its sixth year. The distribution of work is as follows:

Some post-docs had done the first 4 years of this work
The other student provides the animal samples and some biochemical test
I do the "novel test". This test is labour-intensive and time consuming. I very often work on holidays, while the other student doesn't even answer mail after hours, despite having a technician to help her.

The problem is the papers. We are now going to start our third sub-project on this work:

Paper #1 [last year] was primarily the post-docs work, with authoring PostDoc*, OtherStudent* (where * denotes equal contribution)
Paper #2 [last year] was mostly my work, with authoring me*, OtherStudent*. I was extremely heart-broken and wanted to quit, but my advisor assured me that this would not happen again
Paper #3 [this year] is the problem. The other student sent a new batch of samples in for a new paper. My advisor said that it is very likely that the other group will ask a paper co-first authored as: OtherStudent*, Me*, since the other student had not been in the first position of the co-first-authorship yet.

I believe it is unfair that I have fewer papers than this other student despite doing much more work. Indeed, this other student has time to work on other things and get still more papers published, where I am working flat-out on this effort.
My advisor and I argued and I told him that I want to switch to a different project, but he said I can't because my funding is specific to this project. I'm thinking to quit and apply for a new PhD somewhere else but I have spent 2 years and 2 months in my PhD and I believe I will also have problems in the new place (hopefully not as bad).
Am I right to be angry? How should I approach this situation?
How do people in academia actually look at co-first authorship? Is the order important?

You seem to be objecting to a practice that appears to be very common in your lab just because it now affects you. If the practice is accepted in general, you should accept it in the specific case.

@Buffy This practice is not common at all. The project is an interdisciplinary project so both parties should have equal input (not the case) and equal output. This is the first interdisciplinary project that has been officially done in our group.

Can you explain what a shared first authorship means?

The author of the article will look like:
A*, B*, C, D, E.
*A and B contributed equally.

Shared first authorship means you contributed equally and the order does not matter. If it does matter, it is not shared first authorship.
Maybe you should clarify this first.
Regardig the working ethics of A: Maybe A has children or sick relatives to look for? Or A is just more effective? Or A does some batch processing? Just judging someones performance from the working hours is not appropriate.

My work produces most of the important data and the novelty of the experiment. A's work is of course much more efficient as they have technician in their lab and the nature of my work is time-consuming and labour intensive.

Well, my prof assured me that people will only look at the 1st name although it is shared. Maybe it is just the way he used to calm me down.

I don't think an interdisciplinary project necessarily means that both parties must have equal input and equal output.

From what I understood you share the first authorship of all papers where you did a major contribution. What is exactly the issue?

Welcome to Academia.SE. I tried to clean up your question a bit; feel free to edit if I botched anything. I see why paper #2 was frustrating, but I am confused on why paper #3 is the straw that broke the camel's back -- seems like it was the other student's initiative to submit the new samples and publish the new work, so seems logical she would be co-first-author (maybe I miss something). I'm also not clear why you're already concerned that you'll have problems if you transfer (!?), or why the other prof said that the other student hadn't been co-first author yet (what about papers 1 and 2?)

We already discussed before what sub-project 1, 2, and 3 is about but the design of sub-project 3 has not been discussed yet. One of our group's concern is that the other group often send us sample without prior discussion, while we want to keep the number of sample minimum. In sub-project 1, there was an experiment that generate a result, then they want us to repeat but the 2nd replication didn't have similar result. They want us to repeat again until 4 times then finally we took everything out of the paper. That's more than 6 months work and our side already argued that it won't work.

I'm really unmotivated to do sub-project 3 because what happened in the previous papers will repeat.

There is no such thing as "equal input" or "equal output".  The most you can hope for is comparable input and comparable output.

Maybe a workaround would be to explicitly assign credit in the paper. This seems to be used in some disciplines and I think it makes a lot of sense, especially in an interdisciplinary project where customs about authors order might differ.
It simply consists in a footnote at the beginning of the paper or a section at the end where all the authors are listed and their contribution is summarized, e.g.:

A conducted experiment X
B collected Z for experiments X and Y, prepared Z and conducted experiment Y
C proposed the approach and designed experiments X and Z
D proofread the paper
...

In my domain I'm not very familiar with this usage, but I've seen it in a couple of papers (in medicine as far as I remember).
This could be a way for you to avoid a serious conflict in the project, while making clear to any reader which author did what.

Yes, it matters. The sad fact is that some people are groomed for fast promotion from undergrad onwards and often assisted by unmerited co-authorships and suchlike.
Unfortunately, making a fuss will only serve to alert the organism to the "fact" that you are the problem.
Finish your PhD as best you can. Then leave. Suddenly your supervisor may turn around with a postdoc offer and promises that it will never happen again.
In that case, get out of there.
When people show you who they are, believe them the fist time.


text:
I have been shortlisted for a professor position in Germany (ranked 3 out of 4). What chances do I have to be offered the position?
I recently got to know that I am third in a shortlist of four candidates for a full professor position in a German university.
I am not that experienced about German academia, since I worked in other countries, so far.
Unofficially, I have been told that the first candidate, who is already a full professor, quite likely is not really interested in the position, but rather she/he is trying to negotiate better conditions in her/his current university.
I have no info about the second candidate. In case also this second candidate does not accept the job, I would be invited to the negotiation.
According to your experience, what are the chances that candidates, who are not in the top positions of the shortlist, can access the negotiation? In other words, what are the chances that top candidates leave the position to lower-ranked candidates, for any reason?
I have been told that anything could happen, even that none of the shortlisted candidates accepts the position (well, actually I would accept). But I have no clues about statistics. How likely is, according to your experience, that I will be invited to the negotiation? Having a hint would be very useful. Thanks a lot!

very very slim, but it happens many times that first two think they are Gods and can request anything

Thanks, this is also my impression. How would you rate your "many times": 5% of cases, 10% ... ?

Currently there is a pandemic and universities are experiencing financial difficulties.  Therefore people are very unlikely to turn down offers.  I'd rate your chances very low.

I am confused about why you would be told such a thing.

That renegotiation game is relatively common, but how it will end up is anybodies guess. If the old university of the first candidate doesn't want to make a good offer, he might still take the new one. And if they didn't tell you anything about the second candidate he's much more likely to not have a permanent position yet, so he'll likely take it.

@AnonymousPhysicist German universities are almost all publicly funded and a lot of that funding is long term and cannot be changed so easily. Some of it is even dependent on the number of students, which usually rises in recessions. So the only financial difficulties would be in fields like engineering which are more strongly dependent on third-party funds.

@mlk Number of students is not increasing now.  International enrollments have fallen a lot.  Students who do not like online learning are not enrolling.  It's not 2008.

@mlk I have the impression you are quite experienced with the German academia, thanks for commenting. Actually I have been told that the second candidate is not tenured (same as me). So I guess the chances s/he takes the job are quite high... Any previous experience when the 3rd or even 4th in the list got the job?

@AnonymousPhysicist not case for germany, in some weird way of financing, recession are good for German universities

@Joss21 Some discipline, dont know yours, professors have god complex and even ask for spouse hire. depend on the field

@Joss21 Being a part of German academia gives you that experience. Sadly though my experience with professorial appointments is only second hand. I've talked about it with people who applied and gotten the job (i.e. German professors) and I've talked with people who have been part of a committee, but I have had no direct experience myself yet. I also don't have any good statistics, so that is why I don't feel qualified to post a proper answer.


text:
Follow-up email after faculty position interview
I followed up and was told that "we are still navigating the university's recruitment process, so still need several weeks to provide update". Could anyone explain what does it mean? Does it imply any positive or negative results?

It almost certainly means that they are still navigating the university's recruitment process, so they still need several weeks to provide an update.

The email does not imply anything.
The hiring committee/chair really can't say much to applicants during the process other than "we are still working on it." I emailed a few while I was going through the process and they all sent back generic responses.
However, if you email them to let them know you have other offers, that is when you would expect a different response. Every school that I emailed in this situation was very forward with information (e.g., "We are making a decision on March 15th and will call you that day." or even "Here is an unofficial offer. The paperwork is processing for the real thing, give it a week."). Good luck!


text:
How long does it take for the first round review of physical review letters?
I am wondering how long it takes for the first round review for physical review letters (PRL) on average. I have three referees. One of the referees returned the report in 4 weeks. But the other two referees have not responded to the review requests for 5 weeks. Is it common for PRL?

It can be long; 4 weeks is not uncommon, but much past 6 usually triggers some editorial action.  Fortunately APS has a good manuscript system so it’s easy to see of the editor is trying to move things along: watch for reminders sent to referee(s) in the audit trail.

Thanks for your answer! What kind of editorial action will happen if it passes 6 weeks?

Beware the second round of reminders to the referees! For my last paper

... Sent there, we asked what was going on after 2 or 3 months. The editor gave up waiting and sent the only report he had received...

@NewKolege normally the system will start sending reminders much more regularly after 4 weeks.  After a few of those reminders (~10-14 days) the editor has the choice of either go forward with the reports already submitted or (if she/he cannot reach a decision) send to another referee.  My experience is that, unless the paper appears marginal to the handling editor, 1 referee report might be enough (especially if the recommendation is to reject).

@ZeroTheHero That sounds reasonable. I might get the conclusion of reviews in one or two weeks.

@Adam Was the only report good or bad? If you had the second round of review, did they add any referees since you only had one referee in the first round?

@NewKolege The report was somewhat ok (not accepted, but a winnable fight). On the second round, the report was positive, but advised for another referee to take a look (I can't remember if the editor sent the paper to the second referee before the first referee's reply, but it is quite probable). We also managed to convince the second referee to accept the paper in the end!


text:
If I saw a research result similar to mine from my PC/editing duties, should and how should I contact the authors?
It happened many times that I saw a paper submitted to a conference where I am on the PC, or a journal where I am editing, and such paper had something similar to what I am working on. The situation is worse when I already have something better.
Of course I should declare a conflict of interest and should let others handle the paper. But I always wonder whether I should contact the authors.

If I don't contact the authors, they might doubt the independence of my paper from theirs when I publish my paper (since my name is shown in the conference/journal they submitted their paper to). This will be worse if their paper was not published at that point (perhaps it got rejected several times).
If I do contact the them, they may feel that I push them to do something they don't want to, such as making their paper public or collaborating with me.

There are more pros and cons, but I will stop here to keep the question short.

If the result preempts yours and makes it unpublishable, then you won’t publish anything. If your paper is still publishable, then you can just cite them. I’m not sure what the dilemma is.

@StellaBiderman: The way I understood the question, the paper wouldn't be published yet. You can't cite something you only saw in a confidential situation. If the paper does get accepted, I agree that citing it will be enough, no need to talk to the authors.

@StellaBiderman: If I didn't contact the author, the concern is this situation: the publication of their paper got so delayed so I ended up publishing before them. Would they doubt that I scoop their result? See this question as an example: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/88219/how-do-i-address-my-research-publication-being-scooped

Whether you should declare conflict of interest seems to depend on the publication venue. I've seen some venues that would consider your scenario a conflict and others that would not.

If you have already read the paper, do not contact the authors. Here's why:

You would have to admit to them you read the paper. Since that is a conflict of interest (and you should have recused yourself), you would essentially be outing yourself and the journal for less than ethical reviewing.
You would be providing an incomplete opinion on their results. Your paper hasn't been published yet, so you don't know for a fact that your results/contribution are considered more valuable than theirs. Telling them of your research may sway them to continue or abandon their work unfairly.

Going forward, make sure to recuse yourself from editing before you read the paper. When the editor/assigner emails you about the assignment, make sure to read the abstract thoroughly. If one is not provided, email back and ask for one. If the abstract suggests a line of research that appears close to yours, recuse yourself at that point -- before reading the full submission. If you have any doubts about how close it is, I would recuse myself anyway. Most editors appreciate this.

This doesn't answer the question -- the OP seems to have already decided how to deal with reviewing.  The question is about whether to contact the authors.

@DavidKetcheson Fair point - I will revise.


text:
My professor is using questions from other colleges for an assignment. Is this plagiarism?
So I have noticed that there are exact solutions to the exact question I found on an assignment sheet for a unit/class that I am currently doing (the source is from another college's publication on their own assignment). My question is that: is my professor allowed to use this particular question (which is identical in every way, even the wording) in an assignment given to us? Does this not count as being academically dishonest on the professor's part? I know that if I use these solutions it is plagiarism, but isn't using this question in an assignment given to us without any citations or references to the original source, counted as plagiarism on the professor's part?

Did the professor claim that the assignments are his/hers? I do not see a problem if he did not. Also, it actually makes (some) sense since, otherwise, everyone would go and find the original source and simply copy the answer. In some cases, we do not need re-invent the wheel, especially if the questions are more less standard. What kind of course is that?

This is the same question as at least https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/67176/is-it-okay-for-professors-to-completely-copy-another-professors-notes-assignme and https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/66301/is-it-acceptable-for-paid-online-course-to-use-quizzes-and-materials-from-elsewh and https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/65470/how-widespread-is-sharing-of-slides-assignments-among-educators . Does that make your question dishonest? If so is it academic misconduct and should be discussed here or stackexchange misconduct and should be discussed on meta?

These questions may come from a common pool of question used by a publisher.  Textbook companies provide tests.  If they are using or have used them in the past, then they could just be using the standard product the publisher produces.

Copying homework or test questions, rather than answers, is not considered plagiarism, else we would have to replace most of the teaching community.

No. Unlike for students (who have to demonstrate their understanding) and for research (which has to demonstrate an improvement to the state of the art in the field) there is no expectation of originality in homework questions, and there is no ethical problem with having multiple classes work through the same problem set. There are even arguments to be made that it is a good thing for students to be judged on a uniform basis.
It would only be a problem if your prof represented these questions as his own work e.g. when highlighting his teaching contributions in his evaluation or in candidatures for a new position. As a student, you wouldn't be in a position to know about this.
There might also be a copyright issue if your professor did not ask for permission to use these questions. But there is no reason to assume that he didn't.

While I second every word of the above, I still see negligence on the professor's part: The OP is in a bind indeed, just not the one she asked about primarily. Searching the internet for references, (secondary) source material / information on a topic to answer a question is common practice. As the OP herself states, "I know that if I use these solutions it is plagiarism". By assigning a home work question the model answers for are easily found online, the professor put students accidentally coming across these in a moral dilemma they do not deserve to stumble into by an innocent google...

... search. How far does the student have to go to ensure her homework is original? Can she even do it? She cannot "unsee" the (assumably) perfect solution.

@JohannesPille: there are other questions covering this subject I think, but it's not really that much of a problem, at least in my field. A quick glance at an answer usually doesn't help enough to actually answer the problem thoroughly; if you just look at it long enough to ascertain that it's actually the same problem it will only make it vaguely easier to approach the problem, but you still have to work through all the steps yourself.

@JohannesPille out of context, but I'm a male!
But you have basically explained something I did not actually include in my question for obvious reasons (as I know the outcomes of copying things off the internet and using them as your own solution). Is it really a good assessment task if the question is identically searchable on google by literally copy and pasting the question into a search field? In my opinion, it is not.
And the solutions contain enough information that you will know exactly how the question is answered.

Wikipedia defines plagiarism as:

the "wrongful appropriation" and "stealing and publication" of another
  author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions" and the
  representation of them as one's own original work.

It is most likely not plagiarism:

You do not know if the professor "wrongfully appropriated" (stole) the work. Maybe the other professor gave him the questions or they worked together?
A question sheet may or may not be a "publication" (depending on local law).
The professor is not required to make his own questions, so he is not "representing them as his own work".

You should also consider the following:

Maybe they both got their questions from a third source, for example the teaching-version of a textbook (that allows questions to be copied)
Copying a question is not cheating. Copying an answer (as a student) is.

Yes if he claims that his/her work. If not, that is not plagiarism.


text:
Paper in somebody else's thesis
One of my papers is only published as part of a thesis by compilation by another student.
Can I claim citations of their thesis as citations of my paper?
Is there some way I can instruct google scholar that my paper is inside of that thesis?
Clarification: I am first author on the paper. The other student is a co-author. I allowed him to publish the paper in his thesis. The other student is from another university. For a number of year, his colleagues (who I do not know) would sometimes cite our paper. After he graduated, they choose to cite his thesis instead. I cannot fault them for this, but am a bit sad to not be receiving any more citations on this paper.

Is your name on the paper? Or are you saying they plagiarised your work?

I am the first author. The other student is one of my co-authors.

Why not just publish the paper in a standard venue?

By now I have decided to do this. However, I was wondering if there also is some way to 'recover' the 'misdirected' citations.

To rephrase it as an equivalent question: if a book consisting of a number of articles (chapters) by various authors receives a citation which does not specify any chapter, to whom does the citation go? The editors?

So if I understand right, you have a paper with someone else which you never published but you complain that people cite the published thesis instead of your unpublished paper. Does this sum it up?

(note: I write this answer from a perspective in the biological/medical sciences, and norms about how to 'count' thesis work varies by field; however, in the fields I work in this sort of thesis where separate published or publishable papers are 'stapled together' is the norm)
It's great that your collaborator's colleagues are going to lengths to credit their work by citing their thesis.
However, a thesis is in some ways not a full publication, isn't really peer reviewed, etc.
You should publish the paper in a more conventional way if you want it to be cited by (and read by) the broader community. Your best bet would have been to do this when the work was prepared originally (and then the thesis would have cited as well as reproduced your collaboration).
No, you can't claim citations of their thesis as your citations, you didn't author their thesis and there is a lot of other content in there that is not yours.


text:
Correct typo in paper title?
One of my published papers has a typo in the title. I have found errors of various kinds in my other papers (who hasn't) and never cared to make corrections, but I often refer people to this particular paper and the fact that there is a typo in the title feels somewhat akward to me. Should I ask the publisher to change it? I think they might update their database and the paper webpage on their site, but I doubt they would change the pdf and they will obviously not change the printed version. Hence there would be some discrepancy.
Update: my request was denied.

You can ask, of course. No issue about that.

I’ve seen a title that mixed up “deferential” with “differential”, which has still not been fixed. So I take that as evidence that it’s difficukt to fix titles.

If this happened to me, I'd ask the editor but not expect much help there. In addition, being in mathematics, I'd post a corrected version of the paper on the arXiv, and I'd use the arXiv's comment field to point out that a typo in the title had been corrected.

@Thomas The technology just isn't there yet.

Previously I've gotten publishers to fix errors in the online abstract (bad latex code) that they introduced themselves. This time the error is on me so I do not have much bargaining power.

Out of curiosity, what's the typo?

An innocuous extra letter in a long word. Like if you would write 'inifinitity' instead of 'infinity'. It's easy to miss. Also, I changed the title for the last submission, which is why happened.

You could ask, although it's likely the publisher will be reluctant to make changes, for the reasons you mentioned: it creates a discrepancy between the different versions of the paper.
I'd honestly not worry too much about it. Yes the typo in such a visible place is embarrassing, but hardly unique. It doesn't threaten the veracity of the paper's results, and readers learn to ignore typos (lots of papers have typos!). If there ever is a "second edition" of the paper then yeah, correct it, but otherwise it's just not worth the effort.


text:
Interested in research, not in coursework
I am in the last semester of my undergraduate degree in computer science. I plan to apply for masters and PhD positions thereafter. I did not have a good classroom experience in my bachelor's programme – I did not find my professors to be great (in terms of knowledge, research or teaching). As a result, I soon lost interest in my courses [1]. To be fair, many of my peers enjoyed the very same courses and excelled in them due to their interest.
Due to these experiences, I am not interested in doing courses further – I also realised that I learn much better on my own and while doing research. On my own, I don't have to stick to a curriculum decided by someone else and can move in and out of material, as required by my research, which would otherwise span a wide variety of courses. Thus, I am partial to programmes offering full-time research opportunities with little to no coursework.
A large part of my research has involved reading papers on new techniques and figuring out how these techniques worked, how they were implemented, reimplementing them myself, etc. This required a fair bit of figuring things out by myself, which I found to be very different from coursework – where you had a professor, TAs, tutors, office hours, etc which provided an extensive support system.
My question is, how closely are research and coursework linked in academia? Would it raise eyebrows if I were to say to someone in academia "I like doing research, but dislike doing coursework"?
Now as I understand, through my SOP I have an opportunity to convince the admissions committee about why I am a good fit for this programme and vice versa. In such a scenario, I am very tempted to include the following points in my argument, because they are absolutely true and form the crux of why I am interested in such programmes (primarily applying in the US):

I dislike doing coursework.
I have quite a bit of research experience where I have performed well without doing coursework.
I learn better on my own and while doing research, as my research experience shows.
This programme will allow me to pursue research uninhibited by distracting courses, which is exactly what I want.

But this is where I am confused. Will this unabashed honesty work in my favour? This is primarily because the vast majority of researchers I have interacted with happen to be professors – and as such have been very involved in teaching courses. Moreover, since they do spend a fair amount of their time teaching, they also invite students who do well in their courses to join their research. Now I understand there are also independent research organisations who are not directly involved in teaching, but the ones which I have had the experience of working with have invariably been associated with a partner university and involved in sharing of researchers, professors and students.
[1] Due to the vast number of questions on this site regarding grades, I wish to categorically state that this question is not about addressing bad grades. Indeed, I don't wish to address this issue at all because although I was not very excited with my coursework, I made average grades and directly dived into various research endeavours. This allowed me to accumulate substantial research experience and include impressive research positions on my resume, including a prestigious scholarship. This, I believe, already compensates my not-so-good grades (as I have received offers from reputed research institutes based on this profile). My question is only about the aspect of 'not liking coursework'.

You would certainly be an exceptional case. Some would interpret that as a difficult case. When you don't fit the expected mold it is harder to evaluate you. That doesn't mean that you are at a disadvantage, necessarily, but you would be at some places that aren't very flexible.
I think that a research focus at the MS level is more typical in Europe than in the US, however, so you might consider location as you look for a position. In some fields in the US research is also dominant, of course.
But even in the US, if you can make contact with a professor or two at the graduate level who might be willing to give you a close look, you might be fine. However, many programs have fairly strict rules about things. You might, be able to do independent study to cover many of them, but that can be intensive for the faculty, so don't expect too many concessions unless you are exceptional in the positive sense as well.
Your real problem, however, is that if you don't follow the "accepted" course of study you are liable to miss some things that it is valuable to know. The advantage of coursework is that someone has seen the bigger picture and has selected topics that are useful and given thought to how you can develop skill in those areas. Missing that can be a long term disadvantage, so tread carefully and seek advice on your personal academic journey.

Thank you for your answer, I can appreciate most of the points you made. However, I seem to have missed the point of the third paragraph of your answer completely. "... if you can make contact with a professor... be fine" do you mean someone who is interested to take me on as a student and could weigh in with their opinion to the admissions committee?

Also, by "many programs have fairly strict rules about things... cover many of them". Do you mean programmes have rules about students having done prior coursework? And if I were to do independent study to cover up, why would that be intensive for the faculty? I'm sorry if I'm misunderstanding your point completely.

No, actually. Many MS programs require coursework in specific areas. Especially in the US. You will need to deal with that issue somehow. And yes, to the first comment. Someone who will try to convince the admissions system that the normal rules don't apply. But it is an uphill road. Maybe bumpy.

While I can sympathise with this, having once had an (excellent) student in a course with a similar take on things, part of the coursework exercise is discipline, also in doing things that you do not like.
Unless you are absolutely brilliant (say, Terence Tao-level), you will likely come to a point where you pay a price for having holes in your education due your nonconformist syllabus, potential lack of contacts, and unconventional approach. You will very likely to strongly have to compensate for this, unless you are very lucky finding an understanding prof who will support you.
Now, you say, you have already something to show for it, such as scholarships and research projects; if you have publications, say, you might convince people to take you on as, say, a PhD student, even if your grades are mediocre.
Does the lack of your coursework experience affect your research capabilities? It is possible, because you will not be acquainted with the standard techniques that everyone in your field is expected to know. Where this is critical depends on whether your research - otherwise - is sufficiently strong. If it is, you might have the ability to compensate for your lack of standard education.
However, keep in mind that, in the end of the day, if you wish to survive in academia, you will have to take into account that there will be other things you have to do apart from coursework, that you will not be pleased to do and will be difficult to avoid.

"Will this unabashed honestly work in my favour?" Nope.
Stay away from the negatives and stick to emphasizing the positives. Course grades tells us both the skills you have accumulated as well as your potential for the future. Quite frankly, if you were a better candidate (defined as well-prepared in fundamentals, good study habits, seriousness about succeeding, etc.), you'd still have "held your nose" and aced the classes. Not succeeding in one aspect you were tested on is just going to be a negative. In the real word a job is not always just the fun stuff you enjoy doing either. Sounds like you will do fine despite it, however. There's a lot of competition to get into grad school, but also a lot of schools. Sounds like you're well above the supply vs. demand cutoff there.
Also as for grad school, standardized test scores scores are another thing we look at to identify potential, apart from grades.

I like your point about "holding my nose" – even though it makes me a little uncomfortable. I never thought about it from that perspective. I always looked at university from a very self-serving perspective – cherry picking what I wanted to learn and ignoring what I didn't (even when that included crucial evaluation components). I think where you're coming from is that this self-serving was not well-thought-out keeping in mind my long-term goals of research.

I would argue with your point about standardized test scores—it's very discipline-dependent and many schools are starting to deemphasize their importance. Some schools are now even starting to drop the requirement that students even submit such scores.

My CS department does not look at standardized test scores in grad admissions. Neither does MIT.

Regarding test scores, that was not the "royal we"; I literally meant to specify that my department does. Obviously one cannot speak for every admissions committee in every department.

Yes, honesty will work in your favor.
You will not be accepted by a program/professor who will later abandon you once they discover you were hiding these things about your work style and production.
However, this might mean you do not get accepted to any programs.
One concern after reading your question: You describe part of your research as "reading papers on new techniques and figuring out how these techniques worked, how they were implemented, reimplementing them myself".
That is not research, unless you are generating new knowledge in the "reimplementing them myself" part. That sounds more like you enjoy learning new things, but that you are not as interested in creating new things. Coursework is important because it helps you understand whether something you want to create is a "new" thing or whether it has already been done. Your lack of interest in coursework implies you might think you have many good "new" ideas that power brokers in academia with a better understanding of current topics/fads in the literature will think are stale or unpromising.
The first part of a PhD program is usually about learning new things--hence coursework and comp exams, etc--but there is a crucial transition from learning to producing new things in order to finish a PhD and have an academic career.
That might be your weak spot. Don't waste several years of your life in a PhD program if what you enjoy is learning new things, especially given all the things about PhD/academic life it appears you will really not enjoy.

Good points. But let me clarify: what I meant by "figuring things out, reimplementing them myself" holds only for when I am surveying literature. I like to implement the exact technique mentioned in the paper to get a better understanding. Later, I of course work on my own contributions.


text:
Response to project proposal feedback
I have recently submitted a project proposal for the final project of one of my graduate courses.
The unit lecturer who marked my proposal is in his 70s and he has once stated in class that he's an engineer for so long that he knows everything better than us and there is very little that we can outsmart him. (Maybe not exactly with these words but something very similar.) Although I am not very comfortable with the way he said it, he is not entirely wrong as he is a well-known professor with a lot of experience.
He marked me down in 2 sections and his comments are quite controversial.
The 1st section is the historical background of the product I have proposed. He is the history himself I give him that but my writing was based on a research and I didn't made up a random historical background. I even cited the books I have used while writing that section. The books that I have used are highly reputable in my field of study.
The 2nd section I got marked down is about the assumptions I made to simplify the design while running computer simulations. Mid/small scaled robot arms often use "servo" motors and these motors are capable of rotating 180 degrees and some can be modified to rotate 360 degrees. I have got several datasheets to verify this information. Yet, the lecturer commented "All servo motors rotate 360 degrees." which is clearly not the case.
I will email him to respond his comments but I sometimes have trouble with expressing my ideas without being annoying/impolite and hence I need your advice on how to structure my email. I don't want him to get annoyed and start picking up on me in the upcoming submissions.
I am a person who gets motivated by the marks I receive. At the beginning I was very excited about this project and the way my proposal was marked discouraged me. I don't think it received the mark I have deserved. Consequently,  I don't feel motivated anymore. Some of the proposal (from other students) are marked by the unit TA and he is a very fair guy. Although both the unit lecturer and the TA mark based on the same marking rubric, I bet I could get 10 more points if TA was marking me.

What do you mean with "He is the history himself", don't write to him yet...

I am 23 years old and I can only read about the history of this product but he has actually lived it through. That's what I meant.

Not the exact same question, but look at the answers to my question. https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/98047/answering-ambiguous-or-outright-preposterous-questions

If you believe you have been unfairly graded, stick to the facts in writing to your professor. Don't argue "I should get a higher grade." Instead, frame it as a question.

Dear Prof. X
I am confused about a couple of the comments you made in grading my paper.

On page A, you said "B," but I found (cite literature supporting your claim).
[Repeat for each comment you'd like a response to.]

Could you please explain the discrepancy?
[Closings.]

This usually works better as a way of requesting a regrade than saying "I deserve a higher grade because [reasons]."


text:
PhD failure aftermath
So, I've been part of an Erasmus+ PhD for nearly 3 years. I guess this can be seen as my review; but I'm really looking for input -- what went wrong?
So far, I've got 0 publications as first author; switched topics a few times. My now-main advisor says finishing within the next 2 years is too ambitious which results in failing my double degree. I've entered a very deep depression as I've been trying the hardest for the last years of my life to no avail.

I was specialized in an area (let's say, Machine Learning). Given that my advisor was not too fluent in that field he told me he wouldn't be able to help me. Either I would adapt or I would be on my own. Previous experts I worked with were not involved in the program and wouldn't want to waste their time with someone who was not their student.
Therefore, I decided to change fields and was up to collaborate with my advisor in whatever projects he had in his field of expertise (let's say, Computer Networks). Anyways, they weren't fully disjoint, so I could make use of my previous knowledge in new ways.
My assigned task was to develop a "system" for their special computer network. No other pointers given. Just that I should develop this system to learn more about their special network. Asking around, I found out that it was a generic task that he gave every single PhD student. There were already a dozen of these systems.
I confronted him saying asking for a motivation behind this task -- what was I going to learn; what was the path going forward? I got no real reply -- it was just a suggestion.
In the end, I didn't finish it. I had a good understanding of the others' and I saw zero extra information to be monitored. There were systems to learn about every single aspect of the network. Plus, I didn't know what was the next step -- I didn't see any real research coming up from this. I discussed with my advisor; got no real feedback.
When blockchain became a thing a couple years back he jumped the hype and told me "we should get a coin as well". There was some money involved in some aspects. I tried to make it a viable thing but didn't really manage to. I went back to my advisor with my uncertainties and told him I didn't know how to make aspects X Y Z work. He didn't really give any feedback -- he was not an expert in blockchains.
They got a grant from an EU project. I was assigned to be part of it. The grant clearly said "partner X (my university) will not be doing any research". The work was mostly adapting stuff to work with their special Network. I developed a small subsystem; but I was unable to collaborate with anyone and make a PhD project out of it.
This was all the help I got from my first advisor in two years.
I was lost in a field I didn't know looking for pointers where to start from an advisor that only gave exercise tasks and the only advice was something along the lines of "Well, you know. There are many places to start. You can try searching for a generic problem and check where it fits in the ecosystem; or you can search for existing problems in the network and try to see if you can solve them". I told him as directly as I could many times -- I'm lost. I need more input. -- and all I got was the same reply -- try a top-down approach, or a bottom-up approach.
As such, there was constantly less and less incentive for me to ask to meet him; and there was no real desire from his side either. I made my position clear -- I need some more input. I switched to his area; I need help to start.
I tried asking for money to cover registration in a conference so I could get out of this bubble and collaborate with someone else. I said I'd pay the travel and accomodation myself, but the 300$ conference fee was too much for me. He said no.
I presented some farfetched ideas that I couldn't execute myself, and didn't really see any input from him other than something like "sounds good. keep it up". Sometimes we'd discuss a bit deeper, but his level of involvement was always non-committing.

Later, I switched to my second hosting university (being an Erasmus+ PhD). I got a new advisor (and a bonus 3rd advisor that I met 3 times so far). They are nice; but initial topics were not good enough (based on feedback after presenting them) and by now I'm just told I should give up the idea of the dual degree, as it's not realistic.
I guess I am to blame for my failure. Maybe I'm expecting too much from an advisor? Is it fair to blame my first advisor for the majority of it?

What was the reason you chose your first advisor in the first place? (Your specialization is different from his)

I was assigned to this university -- one of the consortium. This advisor was the one whose interests were more aligned with mine (he was less restrictive about his interests; and there was a greater possibility for me to use my prior knowledge -- my previous specialisation was not entirely disjoint from his. I had Skype calls with 3 of the professors, and based my decision on the information I got. Fun fact: the EU project they got was actually very much about my previous specialisation and I ended up being some sort of consultant for the first year.


text:
Postdoc delayed decision! Possible reasons?
I have been interview 2 weeks ago for a postdoc. The panel said that they will reply early next week and its already two weeks passed since the interview. I am wondering if i should wait more or should send an email?
Interview was conducted two times because one of the committee member was busy in first day and was not able to join. The first interview was actually very good and the second interview with with this professor was not that good as the first was. Is he holding back the decision?
I have also noticed that one of my reference letter is not yet delivered, so I asked this professor and he said he will forward in 1-2 days. Could this be a reason of delay? Or 2 reference are enough to establish decision?
Thanks

If the delay could possibly cause you to miss another opportunity elsewhere, then it would be a good idea to follow up. However, if that is not the case, then patience is suggested. It hasn't been very long and people often miss deadlines even when they don't mean to. It is a busy time of year for most academics.
The question about the number of references is too local to comment on here. There may be a local rule, but certainly not a global one.