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How to convince a supervisor to accept me as PhD student although my master's is not in the same exact field?
I have a M.Sc. in optics and I want to acquire a Ph.D. in quantum photonics. Every time I apply for some position, the supervisor refuses because "I don't have a suitable scientific background", or something like this.
How I can convince him to accept me, and this knowledge gap can be overcome by reading before joining the lab?
P.S. 1: I'm talking about being accepted at European universities.
P.S. 2: I have published two papers in my field of study.

Could you explain a little more about the context of your question? In which country are you? Are you part of a PhD program already? What is the timeline to gain acceptance into a PhD lab?

I'm from Egypt and I'm asking several professors from different countries who are working on quantum photonics.

Can you determine specific skills needed in the new field that are not generally present in yours, or in your background? You may need to do some study.

Some positions required some experimental skills such as Raman spectroscopy, AFM or TEM.

I can not comment on the specific field in question, but I do know that in biology there is generally a big hurdle to consider foreign applicants. Graduate programs generally have mechanisms in place that help in the evaluation of foreign candidates, but if you are applying to individual labs this support is not given. If you are convinced the scientific background is the issue and time is available, I would try to acquire the background at your current university in additional courses and projects.

Thank you @MarioNiepel for your help.
I'd like to ask you if some skill out of my reach, can I read about it and take some online courses about it and state this fact to the professors?
in other words, this knowledge gap can it be filled by some reading?

Is your MSc from a European university? Was it experiment-based or course based? Do you have any publications?

Again, I can not help with the specifics. This is quite far from my field of expertise. So I can only suggest that generally--if you are certain a skill gap is the issue--there must be ways available to close this gap. I would consider university classes, online courses, books, etc Ideal would be, again if time allows, to rotate in an appropriate lab or take any other intern-level position. But to hedge my bets, I would consider a plan B (in case you will be unable to close the skill gap or the skill gap is not the primary issue).

@JonCuster my MSc is from an Egyptian University, it was an experiment and course-based study. I have two published papers and two submitted.

Thank you @MarioNiepel

What's your quantum photonics-relevant background from optics? Unless you have that, I doubt that a prof will take the risk of a crossover student. If Quantum Photonics is critical for your PhD interests, you might consider taking another MSc abroad specifically on QP to close the perceived gap. There might be 1-year courses available.

Thank you @CaptainEmacs. Can I close this gap by some readings?

@MuhamedSewidan I cannot say what you know or do not know and so cannot comment on how reading would help close the gap of what you know. The critical point is that you have to demonstrate to your potential supervisors that you are PhD material. I am not sure how to prove it unless you have some type of evidence. Reading is a personal component of your skillset, but hard to demonstrate.

+1 to @CaptainEmacs. One way of demonstrating expertise acquired by reading is to write a strong cover letter with an in-depth explanation of your ideas for a PhD topic. That might motivate the PI to at least invite you for an interview, in which you can further demonstrate your expertise through a conversation.

Thank you all for your helpful replies @CaptainEmacs lighthousekeeper.
So, Should I stick to my own research field and search for a Ph.D. related somehow to my expertise?

@MuhamedSewidan In my opinion, you should pick a topic you are interested in. I do not generally recommend picking a topic merely because it is what's the most feasible. However, if you wish to make a lateral move, you have to find a suitable "bridge". You need to prepare for the new topic, both in terms of your skills, but probably as well as your presentable study/work history.

@CaptainEmacs Thank you for your help.


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Take an exam unprepared vs Skipping it
Which one is better? Taking an Exam with no preparation done beforehand or Skipping it altogether?
I have done the former (i.e take tests unprepared) a lot many times than the latter - so much that I have gotten sort of used to to it. I have observed that if I have insufficient time for preparing for an exam, I don't study as hard for it as I would have before adopting this practice.
My mentors are of the view that one shouldn't ever skip a test. That I'll learn more than just something at the cost of sitting through those hours of the exam.
Is this worth my current subconscious habit?Is it good to continue this if I find that the frequency of me taking half-prepared exams is increasing ?
PPS: I am talking about a Multiple Choice based exam with Negative marking present in it.These are sort of Practice tests for the main exam.
PS: This is NOT a debate or discussion. I Genuinely want to know which is better for improvement in academics.

The answer would of course partly depend on how the exam is to be graded.  For instance, if there is no "penalty" for guessing, then if you take the exam unprepared you are likely to get at least some positive number of points, whereas if you skip it you certainly get zero.  So it is to your advantage to take it, in terms of your grade.

"This is NOT a debate or discussion. I Genuinely want to know which is better for improvement in academics." The point is that there may not be (indeed, I don't think there is) a single answer to this question; neither may be objectively better. So there is an inescapable discussion-y aspect to this question. Whether that's significant enough to make this question off-topic is another issue, but your PS isn't fair.

It's not clear what you are asking at all.

This seems a little like asking "I genuinely want to know which is better - cats or dogs." Both have their pros and cons, which you seem to know. More detail might help clarify the question. Are you asking about midterm / final exams for undergraduate courses, or something else? You say you are skipping "a lot" of tests and taking others unprepared -- are you still in good standing academically?

@NateEldredge Its an MCQ based exam with negative marking - penalty for just guessing type .

@cag51 I didn't say that I skipped tests a lot. Rather I take tests more often unprepared or not completely prepared than taking it with complete preparation.Only because I didn't want to miss it. I find that the frequency of me taking such tests with half-assed preparation is increasing for me..I am merely asking is it good to continue it?

I believe that this question is within scope, but I voted to close because it depends on the content of the exam (individual factors) and if we do not know that then it's primarily opinion based.

Students usually decide this based on the consequences of each option. At some universities, you can retake failed exams but you cannot retake passed exams to improve your grade. In this case, it might be worth skipping the exam instead of taking it and "risking" obtaining a low passing grade that you cannot get rid of.
It might also be that you the rules give you only a couple of chances to pass this exam, so you do not want to miss this chance. Or that you do not care about the grade as long as you pass, so you might as well have a try. Or that past exams are not made available to students, so it might be worth for you to go and learn how exams in this subject look like.
If none of the above applies (i.e., if you know you will fail anyway and are only asking whether the time spent at the exam will be worth it in terms of how much you learn), I would say that those hours would be much better spent learning the subject or doing practice exercises on your own. Surely you will learn more by doing exercises in a comfortable environment (at home or at the library) than by doing the same exercises in exam conditions.

You may learn more about thinking and answering questions under stress, a useful life skill, by taking the exam.

Some instructors discuss the exam questions at the next class meeting after the exam. That discussion might benefit you more if you've already tried to answer the questions during the exam.

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sort: votes


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What if the author I am seeking his permission to use part of his work has passed away?
What should I do if I need to use part of a previous researcher's work (e.g. an instrument or a questionnaire) who passed away?

The title and body ask two different questions. Copyright is a property right that can be inherited. For the title question you would need to find out who inherited the copyright, and seek permission from them. If you can't reach the copyright owner you have a harder problem.

I edited it. My question is about taking permission from an author who passed away.

How do you plan to "use part of his work"? For some uses you might not need permission at all.

Find out who inherited his copyright, and ask them for permission.
If he's long dead, his copyright may have expired and the work entered the public domain, but this period depends on governing law, jurisdiction, and numerous other variables. A century since the death of the author is probably a safe buffer but not infallible (and gets riskier the more well-known the author or work is).
Better to find the copyright notice for the work and follow the thread from there to the current holder.

+1 I think the question is too broad for there to possibly be a good comprehensive answer, but your final point about starting at the copyright notice and taking it from there is sensible advice.

Another approach is to contact the publisher. If they don't own the copyright they need to know who does, and  how to contact them.

If you wish to use published results, contact the publisher.
If you wish to use unpublished results, contact the relatives.
After 60-70 years after the author's death, depending on the country, you can use his/her stuff freely. For patents, it's less.

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How to ace the final home take exam?
I am an international grad student studying at a Canadian university.
I have a home-take exam. It is the first time that I am taking this type of exam.
How should I prepare for this exam? Will it be a hard exam, since we are taking it home?
What are the policies for this exam? In other words, what are the do's and don't's?

These seem like questions you need to ask your professor or other students

Your lecturer should've given you details about the policy for the exam. My understanding is that there're two possibilities:
The first is a simple take-home exam. You're free to take the exam whenever you want, wherever you want, but you must still conform to rules such as time to finish, no outside assistance, and so on. This kind of take-home exam operates by honor code. If you're unsure you'll be able to stop yourself from cheating, you can take it with other students and monitor each other.
The other is an open book exam. In this case no holds are barred (aside from outside assistance). You can use Google, look it up in textbooks, etc. Open book exams tend to be harder because simple questions will have easily Google-able answers and therefore mean nothing.
tl; dr: ask your professor for details.

English is my second language, I did not get what you mean here."This kind of take-home exam operates by honor code." what is honor code? could you pls explain this part as well" If you're unsure you'll be able to stop yourself from cheating, you can take it with other students and monitor each other."

@nikki2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_honor_code - it's basically a belief that you will not cheat even though you can do it easily without fear of getting caught because you're an honest, trustworthy person. If you're afraid you will cheat anyway, then you can take the take-home exam with other students and stop each other from cheating.

If a student takes the take-home exam with other students. how he/she can prevent cheating? you mean by noticing each other that we should not talk to each  other?

@nikki2 cheating in a take-home exam could be, exam's supposed to last 2 hours but you work for 2.5 hours. Or you're not supposed to look at your textbook, but you do. If you take the exam alone, then succumbing to either temptation is very possible, but if you're with other students then you can stop each other from cheating.

In conclusion, so we need to abide by the honor code. since our professor trust us?

@nikki2 in conclusion, you need to ask your professor for details about the test. It could be your professor trusts you, or it could be an open book exam, or many other possibilities.

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On the possibility and legality of bulk downloading papers from IEEE Xplore
Is it possible to download all available literature from IEEE Xplore? Is it allowed?
I was thinking that now, while I still have access due to being in academia, I might download everything I could possibly need.
Bonus question: If it is allowed, how do I do it?

No, it's not allowed.
IEEE Xplore terms of use (emphasis mine):

Authorized users are not permitted to:

Allow anyone other than an authorized user to use or access IEEE Xplore;
Display or otherwise make any information from IEEE Xplore available to anyone other than an authorized user;
Transmit electronically, via email or any other file transfer protocols, any portion of IEEE Xplore;
Download or attempt to download an entire issue or issues of a publication contained in IEEE Xplore;
Create a searchable archive of any portion of IEEE Xplore;
Use robots or intelligent agents to access, search, and/or systematically download any portion of IEEE Xplore;
Use any portion of IEEE Xplore for document delivery, fee-for-service use, or bulk reproduction or commercial distribution of materials in any form;
Alter or modify any portion of IEEE Xplore;
Delete or remove in any form or format, including on a printed article, any copyright information or notice contained in IEEE Xplore;
Reproduce or redistribute any portion of IEEE Xplore.


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Why do instructors not pursue academic integrity violations?
As a Ph.D. student, I have TA'd many classes, and it seems every semester, we have caught at least one person for directly copying homework answers from a previous year's solutions. In most cases (probably 8/10), the instructor does not want to begin any formal academic integrity hearings, so all that happens is the student gets a 0 on the question with no other punishment.
It doesn't seem fair to me that there is no formal reprimand for cheating other than getting a 0 on the question. When I have asked instructors about this, their reasoning is that creating a formal hearing/meeting is too much work, and they often add that the students (who are overwhelmingly international students) may not understand that directly copying solutions is not acceptable.
The question is, if giving a 0 on a homework question an adequate and fair punishment for cheating? Why don't the instructors want to take any additional steps?
Somewhat related: Professor does not care about cheating, what should TA do?

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What level are you teaching? It seems clear that it's undergrad, but first year? final year? I ask because in early courses, the goal may be to train the students rather than start a process of punishment that can be career-limiting in some cases.

I have TA'd several different engineering courses (I'm fifth year), but the primary course this has been a persistent issue is a course for M.Eng students.

Many years ago, I was taking a certificate course (from an accredited institution), and the teacher knew that 4 of the students (who worked together) had submitted the same homework, differently formatted.  He said the school wouldn't accept his reason for suspecting them (identical times for database tuning, when there should've been some jitter each time you do it) ... which we suspect was because the company paid if they got an A or B in the class ... if they failed, the school would have to get the students to pay individually, so was willing to turn a blind eye to cheating

I suspect this is entirely dependent on the instructor and department.  At Michigan, where an Honor Code (and no proctoring of exams) is part of the culture, we took it pretty seriously.  We used the MOSS (Measure of Software Similarity) system at Stanford to detect possible plagiarism in our students' project submissions in our computer science courses, carefully reviewed each case by hand and if the evidence was there, standard practice followed every time was to report it to the Honor Council and let them sort it out.
It's helpful to remember that when people copy, they copy a lot and the obfuscations they add, like changes to variable names and the order of if/then/else clauses, are generally really lame; they don't fool MOSS and they wouldn't fool you, either.  At Michigan, when we reported a case, the evidence was compelling. There was always lots of copying and there were often damning artifacts like the same odd misspellings in the comments. We'd often find hundreds of lines of completely identical code.  With two submissions side-by-side, it's easier than you might think to tell if they were copied.
Our largest intro CS courses typically had enrollments around 1000 to 1100 and we usually reported 5% or 6% of the class for possible academic violation.  About 90% of the cases we submitted typically resulted in a finding of responsibility by the Honor Council.  Usual penalty was a zero on the assignment and a 1/3 letter grade deduction on their final course grade.  If they were from a previous semester and beyond the reach of a grade penalty, they got community service.  The most frequent reason why someone might be found not responsible was that their partner did it and they didn't know about it.

At that scale it becomes necessary to use such a system, as it is much harder to treat people as individual. I assume you made some sort of honors code clear at the start of the program, and maybe in each course.

@Buffy.  You bet.  The Honor Code (and lack of proctoring on exams) is part of the Umich culture, on every syllabus and discussed in the first lecture in every course.

+1 for the first sentence: a key point is that different universities have different mechanisms for reporting and dealing with cheating, and some require much less efffort than others.  Also different instructors come from different places with different norms and experiences.

...just don't do it with trivial assignments. For < 50 LoC it's not that hard to get coincidentally identical submissions. Especially in assembler. Happened to me as an undergraduate.

@JaredSmith  Agreed.  We only cheat-checked the projects, each typically about 1000 LOC.  Our reports were done in two-column format that lined up the matching (or nearly-matching) sections between the two submissions for comparison.  Generally speaking, when we reported someone, it was pretty obvious we really had the goods on them, e.g., not just very similar code but the same odd misspellings and other damning artifacts.  Often, it'd be hundreds of lines of identical code.

WRT your recent edit. It seems to me that the more obfuscated the work is, the more severe the penalty should probably be. Something to think about, at least.

@Buffy At Umich, it was decided by the Honor Council and virtually always the same penalty.  But fwiw, the obfuscation was almost always about the same level of general lameness.  I suspect that most students who might have been good enough to hide their copying really well were good enough to write it on their own without needing to copy. In my experience, students rarely copy because they're hoping to go from an A- to an A.  They copy because they can't do it on their own and they're afraid of failing and killing their career dreams.

What does it mean to not proctor exams? Like you literally just left them in the room by themselves?

@AzorAhai-him-  Yup.  We pass out the exams, walk out of the room and come back in only for necessary announcements (e.g., a correction to a problem or a 2-minute warning) and to collect the exams at the end.  Same basic system as at Stanford.

@AzorAhai-him- MIght add that even if you're at non-honor code school, there's nothing to stop you, as the instructor from declaring that yours is an honor code class.  I did this when I was Univ of Washington, asking students to copy a promise not to give or receive unauthorized aid in their own handwriting, then sign it on an exam, then walking out the door. Students were surprised but it works.  Reminding people of their need to be honest and personally responsible tends to make them more honest and responsible.

@NicoleHamilton How did you know if you needed to correct a problem? How did someone ask you a question?

@AzorAhai-him- I sat outside the room with my staff, surfed the web or whatever to pass the time, and waited for students to come out to ask for help if they needed it.

@NicoleHamilton And that gets better outcomes than just surfing the web in the room? Haha

@AzorAhai-him-  Yes, it does.  For more on the phenomenon, I recommend the documentary, (Dis)Honesty – The Truth About Lies.  It's not free but it's definitely worth paying for.

It's in the same vein as open book exams and a great system overall. Had it in my uni, best exams I've had in my life were of that kind. And I'd be damned if it helped a single person in the room to get unfairly evaluated above their level of skill/knowledge...

@NicoleHamilton I think I will ask a follow-up question about this mode of examination. My experience in home exams (which followed similar principles at my school) was mixed - I was surprised how few students seemed to cheat even though they had every opportunity in the world, but it also certainly wasn't 0%.

@NicoleHamilton I had never heard of such an honor code system. That's fascinating, and restores my faith in humanity that it works. It makes a lot of sense to me that most people will do the right thing if they are reminded of their responsibility... sometimes I wonder if trying too hard to catch people cheating is a self-defeating strategy.

My own experience with this is that places I've worked had very cumbersome and time-consuming processes to deal with cheating "officially" --- meaning that there would be penalties more than just grade reduction.
I followed those processes on a couple of egregious cheating cases, however the students involved retained lawyers to ensure the university complied with its own policies and procedures.   The level of effort required meant that my department had a full-time staff member dedicated to ensuring the process was followed to the letter.
Sometimes, formal processes that extend outside the class are just a waste of everyone's time.

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Also the cases can take a long time to go through, which I understand is a big deterrent for some profs.

In my discipline, cheating is rampant. I would say that the majority of students have some form of unauthorized assistance for their coursework. I wondered why academic integrity wasn't taken very seriously until I realized that academics aren't taken very seriously. The product that universities sell is a diploma, not an education (i.e., human capital). The diploma's value is based on the reputation of the school which almost exclusively comes from research and publications (as well as football team performance and how fancy the buildings are). The quality of instruction and pedagogical factors are largely irrelevant.
This all serves as background for the three main reasons:

Punishing cheaters hurts the reputation of the school, it embarrasses the school and undermines the charade of instruction being important, it's better to pretend cheating doesn't happen.

Punishing cheaters means lost revenue, not just for the cheater that is expelled but also for prospective students that will be scared off from a school that might take $100,000 of their money and then expel them.

Punishing cheaters is difficult to prove and a pain to resolve, administrators have little desire to get involved.

Most people visiting this SE channel are unlikely to agree with my cynicism but this has been my experience which has been almost universally shared by associates in academia.

Human capital is a lot more than education.

ah! the new adage: “The business of educating people is a business”.

Do you figure this will change on the day a bridge that has just collapsed is found to have been designed by an engineer whom cheated his/her way to a degree?

@ZeroTheHero That reminds me of a story.  A friend went to college to study civil engineering.  On the first day, the (calculus) teacher told an audience of over 100 students that only 2 or 3 of them would ever design bridges. For many, an engineering degree is merely a ticket to, say, management consulting, where they never use anything they learned in their degrees — perhaps a tiny bit of calculus, though very seldom.

I actaully think this is completely backwards. If your business is to sell diploma's to people that will help them get a job, then it is vitally important that you maintain the percieved value of that diploma. Any suggestion that someone could obtain the diploma via cheating would fatally undermine the value of the product. However, if your aim is to educate each indevidual to the maximum extend possible for that indevidual, rather than to certify them, then the grade on the paper at the end of the course is immaterial.

@IanSudbery What if the diploma itself is more akin to a certificate of membership at an exclusive country club?

@RodrigodeAzevedo being a member of that club will soon be less of an advantage if it is made less exclusive. Or if members of the club start to see distinctions between "types" of members. And to be honest if they are just doing engineering to get a job in management consulting, who cares if they cheated their way to that diploma?

@IanSudbery Exactly.  Who cares?  How many people can obtain a degree in psychology from Harvard?  More than the people who are admitted to Harvard, I assume.  How many people can obtain a degree in physics from Caltech?  When the bottleneck is admission rather than graduation, the diploma itself is less valuable.

@IanSudbery (1/2) this inflation is a massive problem in my country where all kinds of professional education organizations got converted into universities eventually and all the lines got blurred. Before you could reason about the kind of education and a set of skills obtained in a technical college vs university, now they're all universities producing people with high ed diplomas (this is largely due to industry creating a perverse incentive of requiring those diplomas for hardly related jobs like data entry).

(2/2) So it all boils down to which university is this - top ones are interested in maintaining prestige and "selling" those high-value diplomas and prestigious education/increasing human capital. But there are outright predatory universities - I suppose one would call them that - which have no integrity whatsoever and are just a "pay money, get certified" kind of a deal. Some are bit more sneaky and get money from the government per enrolled student instead while not really providing education. Industry really brought this upon themselves (a shame though academia had to suffer...).

There could be a variety of reasons, of course, so I'll only speak for myself.
I consider that I'm in the classroom (or was - retired now) to teach students, not just the subject at hand, but how to learn, and, to a lesser extent how to behave properly in an academic setting.
Giving a zero on an assignment, might be a huge deal if it represents a fairly large percentage of the overall course grade. It may well be punishment enough. But if I do that, I'll also require a conversation with the student, pointing out that they are there to learn something, not just accumulate points. I'll get through to some of them, but not all, I assume.
If I get better behavior in the future and a change in attitude, then I see no need for a permanent notation in the student's record. Repeated infractions after warnings is a different matter and should result in more severe penalties, up to expulsion. For that, the professor needs to bring the case to larger authority.
If you remember that teaching is the main job, not grading or policing, then it becomes easier to accept.
I once had a group of students all from the same culture. In their home country they were greatly discriminated against so they learned to support one another, despite any rules. It took a long time to convince the better students that they weren't actually helping the weaker ones by providing answers (without learning). But the weaker students were the ones that needed to do the work the most.
I can't say that it was completely successful, but we (the faculty) made some progress. Punishing them would probably have been counterproductive since the system would now seem to be "against them", just like in their original country.

And, of course, giving the same graded assignments in consecutive (or recent) years is pretty foolish. Some student groups keep files of old questions with answers for just this purpose.

If it's a large class with complex assignments you need to autograde, you're pretty much forced to keep the same assignments from one term to the next and rely on MOSS to spot copying because the cost to create a new project, debug the instructions and create all the autograder tests is simply prohibitive.  What you don't reuse are exam questions.

@NicoleHamilton, yes, as you note in your own answer. My scale was always more personal.

+1 for " teaching is the main job, not grading or policing". Our job as educators is to educate students, not to judge or rank them. We have assesements to help students focus on the correct things to learn, and to judge for themselves how well they are doing that. Cheating allows them to short circuit that. We should stop cheating for that reason, but I couldn't really care less about other reasons.

So what I'm hearing is you gave one group of students more lenient treatment when it concerns cheating because of their race/nationality... That can't possibly be justified no matter which way you spin it

@Persistence, actually no. I wasn't lenient with them. Somewhat hard on them actually. Being lenient would give them no incentive to change their behavior. I understood what their motivation was, but focused on the behavior.

@Buffy - that's good to hear, sorry I got the wrong end of the stick

I've led a few workshops at my institution informing other faculty about our school's academic integrity policy and best practices for interfacing with it. It's pretty interesting to hear the wildly different reactions to our advice.
Some of the issues I've heard (intersecting with other answers here) include:

Students don't know the policy, so we shouldn't punish them too much. (With common reference to foreign-born students, which comprise about half of our school's population.)

Instructor prefers to deal with it "on a personal level", and have a talk with student that's not officially recorded anywhere.

Department has a custom policy that differs from institution's official policy, and keeps the issue in-department.

The official process is too time-consuming, and simultaneously has a low likelihood of any other penalty being applied by the school. (Notes: At our school it's largely the instructor's responsibility to investigate, interrogate the student, gather evidence, etc. For me, this process seems to average about 3-4 hours of work, not counting the mental burden of just thinking about for a week or more. And that's not counting a disputing student taking it to a committee hearing, possibly with a lawyer.)

The process is too punishing (most often heard from liberal arts and social science faculty).

The process isn't punishing enough (most often heard from STEM and healthcare faculty).

The cheating student will probably fail the tests and final exam anyway.

Academic freedom means the instructor should have freedom to make their own policy and deal with it however they like.

We must remember that the normal state for a faculty member is that they're incited and rewarded essentially to publish new research, and the teaching gig is a secondary issue. So, they almost surely don't have any budgeted extra hours to deal with the cheating cases when they do arise.
I'll say that in my case I frequently do give zero on an assignment as a first penalty, and only ask for higher institutional penalties on a second infraction or a more severe case. Lately I've started filing a report even for the first type of case, without requesting further sanctions.
I agree with the OP's intuition that it's likely cheating students are running the same scam in multiple classes in parallel. Even so, it's broadly unlikely that the institution is going to take action and hand out punishments just based on the fact that multiple reports were filed. On the other hand, I think where I am, our (excellent) academic integrity officer will look at the history of cases to decide severity of punishment for new cases that are found in violation. This will vary greatly by institution, of course.

Dealing with this kind of academic dishonesty is complicated.
For small infractions early in the semester in beginning courses I preferred to try to turn the incident into a learning experience for the student, who may be from a culture (foreign, or just high school) where the borderline between helping and cheating is not as clear as I might like.
At the beginning of my teaching career I tried to handle most cheating cases myself. At one point I failed two third year students for turning in a solution to a programming exercise that I recognized because I had written it myself as a model answer several years earlier. (Sometimes it's better to reuse a good programming exercise that teaches the subject best for honest learners rather than change it to foil the few students who might cheat.)
Later I followed the prescribed university reporting policy for any significant incident. That happened twice.
See https://www.cs.umb.edu/~eb/honesty/
Edit in response to a comment from @PeterMortensen
One case led to expulsion from the university - it was a serial offender. Finding them is one good reason for following university rules. I think the other led to failure in my course.
I like to hope that my work with beginning students who misunderstood the plagiarism/cheating rules learned the right lesson, but don't know. Some thanked me at the time.

So what was the difference in reasoning for why reporting later cases but not earlier ones?  (Or are you saying your earlier cases were not "significant"?)

@Kimball I changed my mind about the way I wanted to deal with these issues. At the start I thought I could manage them alone, but found myself easily swayed by crocodile tears. I still dealt with minor problems like the ones in the first paragraph of my answer, but followed faculty rules and invoked the established reasonable policies in the few serious cases I encountered.

That is a cliffhanger! What happened to the students then and now? Did the students fundamentally change their attitude towards plagiarism? Did you speak to them years later and they brought this up unprompted? Perhaps elaborate a little bit in your answer?

Academic dishonesty is technically hard to prove.
Sure, a student copies from the assignment from last year but… is it illegal?  Is it stated as such in the course outline?  How does this differ from finding a book in the library where the same problem has been worked out in details?  What if the copies overlap by “only” by 90%?  What if they overlap by 70%?  And of course, the obvious point (which does not in any way excuse copying) is: if the instructor knows people are copying, why did this instructor assign the same problems as last year?
When dealing with assignments, the easy solution is to give 0: it avoids the paperwork (considerable), the timelines (long) and the sterile discussions of the items mentioned above.
Presumably individual assignments are worth a tiny fraction of the overall term mark (each question an even smaller fraction), and more importantly the instructor controls this fraction, so assigning 0 solves the local problem with minimum fuss.
As an instructor, I make it clear to students that if they cheat on assignments - which are not worth much - I’ll get them on the midterm and the final, which are taken in a much more controlled environment and in which collaboration, the use of electronic resources or other means of copying/cheating are not so readily available.  I place heavy weight on exams rather than assignments.  I very rarely use the same assignment (or exam) questions two years in a row; I am merciless in pursuing academic violations in exams and the students know it.  This does not stop students from copying on assignments, but experience has shown that this is rarely a good path to success in my classes.

Actually, most academic misconduct, not just by students, is rarely a matter of law.

@Buffy sure... but nevertheless unless you have a strong case it's usually easy (at least where I work) for students to weasel out of the allegations.

In my experience, plagiarism is usually really obvious and easily established in most cases.

@NicoleHamilton Hmmm… obvious cases of plagiarism are easily established, but even during a final exam catching a student “in the act” is not so easy, and establishing plagiarism “after the fact” is not always so easy…

@ZeroTheHero Ymmv but that's not my experience.  When we reported someone to the Honor Council, the outcome was usually a finding of responsibility.  Of course, it helps that we didn't report students unless we really had the goods on them.

In my experience, and from talking to colleagues over the years, there are a bunch of different reasons for this. The ones emphasized by the previous answers are all real (reports are time-consuming, instructors have bleeding-heart attitudes). However, there is a whole additional suite of reasons, some of which are of a less benign character.

In some fields, especially physics, cheating using Chegg has become extremely widespread in recent years. This has been exacerbated by the use of online homework systems (so that instructors don't read much student work, and students don't fear getting caught) and also more recently by COVID, which has made Chegg cheating possible on exams. Because the cheating has gotten so pervasive, it has been ethically corrosive, and the attitude toward it has become like the attitude toward police corruption in many African countries -- it's part of the landscape, and you can't fix it.

Punishment requires a high standard of proof, and the ability to convince deans without subject-matter knowledge that the proof is valid. Chegg cheating is a pain to prove, because Chegg is paywalled. The practical way to do it is for the instructor to pay for a Chegg membership, which then allows them to view the Chegg answers to their exam questions, but many instructors are understandably reluctant to give Chegg their money.

Administrators fear lawsuits, and therefore they create policies that make punishment difficult, as well as not always supporting instructors in individual cases. It's common to have policies that guarantee only a warning for a first offense, and this makes reporting cases feel pointless. One might report a case in the hope that it will lead to apprehension of students who cheat multiple times, but this requires some faith that other instructors are reporting cases, which is probably not happening.

Student evaluations of teaching are seen as very important to junior faculty. In addition, the advent of systems like ratemyprofessor has greatly shifted the balance of power away from instructors and toward students. There is intense pressure to lower standards, make students happy, and ignore cheating. There can be a "race to the bottom" dynamic, in which students desperately seek to enroll in the classes taught by the most permissive instructors. Low-enrollment classes can be canceled, or administrators can put pressure on instructors whom they perceive to be doing a bad job at ensuring student success.

The OP more specifically describes a situation in which homework is graded, and students are copying answers from previous semesters' solutions. I'll assume for the sake of argument that this is a math class, although a lot of the same considerations would apply to a class like physics or phonetics. In my experience, there was an arms-race phenomenon in these classes, where instructors felt that they had to make homework worth a lot of points in order to get their students to do the homework. If instructor A counts homework for 5% of the grade, and instructor B counts it for 20%, then students will spend more time on B's homework than on A's. This rewards B for having a high percentage and penalizes A for making it low. But when homework counts for as much as 20% of the grade, students have an intense incentive to cheat. For instructors who are being berated and bullied about giving too many low grades, an easy way to raise their grades is to decrease the weight of the exams relative to other things like homework. Then if there is widespread cheating on the homework ... yay, student success has increased.

Actually I doubt that ratemyprofessor has had any impact at all. Disgruntled students can disgrunt there, of course, but it is pretty meaningless. I've got at least one very bad report there, among several positive ones. I've had other students actually put down the disgrunters.

@Buffy: Thanks for your comment. I've edited to explain more clearly what the dynamic is. It's very real.

Chegg will work with universities and colleges to identify cases of academic misconduct.  Of course the underlying assumption is that the email address or other account information of a perpetrator is enough to correctly identify the said perpetrator.

There are generally two types of tasks. One group is for student evaluation and includes exams and serious assignments. This group is for answering the question if the student is performing well enough to continue the studies. Cheating there is usually taken much more seriously.
Another group of the tasks are the "homework" tasks that are more to help a student with understanding. They are part of the learning process and are enforced only because too many students are not self-organized enough to complete them otherwise. Any cheating when doing these homework tasks harms the cheater more than anybody else. They will pay during the exam.

It doesn't seem fair to me that there is no formal reprimand for
cheating other than getting a 0 on the question. When I have asked
instructors about this, their reasoning is that creating a formal
hearing/meeting is too much work, and they often add that the students
(who are overwhelmingly international students) may not understand
that directly copying solutions is not acceptable.

Without going into a full cultural background, Asian students do not look at copying in the same manner as Westerners do.  Westerners label it "plagiarism" or "cheating," but Asians see it as necessary for their survival to identify the most gifted and to imitate their correct responses.  It is common practice in Asia for instructors to ignore or even to assist a student's copying.  Asian learners place a high value on principles of uniformity in which the best and most commendable are to be imitated by others.
My first teaching experience in Asia, freshly graduated and certified to teach, gave me some exposure to the "cheating."  Having been taught to deter cheaters by creating multiple forms of a test, I had a form A and a form B which I passed out to the students in their adjacent rows.  When a student would copy from the one beside him or her, he or she, apart from getting the wrong answer, would be giving me evidence of cheating.  Upon grading the exams, I discovered that fully a third of the class had been consistently cheating (those who cheated on just a question here or a question there may have slipped through the cracks).  Having been taught traditional Western values, I gave each of those students a zero on the exam.  One student questioned me, and showed me that her answers had been the same as those of the student beside her!  Her entire countenance was the picture of a question mark, obviously not understanding what had happened.  I pointed to the "Form A" and the "Form B" on each of the tests she was comparing and, being intelligent enough, she instantly grasped what had happened.  "Teacher," she said in her broken English, "me bad."  And she made no further complaint.  In her culture, cheating was not wrong unless, and until, you were caught.  For the next exam I created four forms so that not even the student in front or behind could have provided the correct answers--but none of them cheated this time.  They had learned their lesson--don't cheat with the foreign teacher!
In my case, giving zeros was education enough.  They needed no formal proceedings, nor even did I lecture them about it.
Asians realize that not all have the same gifts.  The very students who may be at the top of the class in mathematics, and from whom all copy their answers in that class, may be mediocre in history, and be copying from their classmates.  The sharing of answers comes naturally to them in their cooperative society.  Westerners, on the other hand, have a much more individualistic worldview and expect each person to solve problems alone, with little or no help.
Instructors who have enough experience to realize and understand these differences in thinking will be far more likely to show greater tolerance for the foreign "cheaters" in class.  It is more important that these students be taught how to learn and to find answers for themselves than to merely punish them for something that they would not grasp as worthy of such severe treatment.

Interestingly enough, some form of "cheating" in industry is actually a sought-after skill. The ethics of the question quickly becomes complicated, and Asian vs Western cultural differences highlight that as nothing else.

-1 for overgeneralizations about Asia and the West

I must have been born Asian and never realized.

Good instructors care about the students mastering the study material. Homework problems do help with this effort, but grading of homework and exams to test students comes at the expense of this effort. So, you don't want to invest a lot in perfecting the grading system w.r.t. some notion of fairness as that has very little to do with the objective of the teaching effort.
Students may have seen a homework problem and its solution somewhere before, they can't be faulted for being able to score a lot higher than they would otherwise have done because of that. A good instructor should tell the students that they should practice with difficult problems, that the homework problems they get are just to check that they are not falling behind too much, but that only doing the homework problems will not yield a good result at the exam.
The students should also be told that passing the exam is not proof that the study material has been mastered perfectly. Students who aim at just passing the exam will be unlikely to qualify for a Ph.D. position. When I was a student, a passing grade was 60%, but most professors considered 80% to be the minimum standard. A student who passed more than a few subjects below the 80% mark would not be accepted for a Ph.D. position. We didn't have graded homework at the time, we instead studied using only challenging practice problems that were too hard to be suitable problems for grading.

Okay, but... I don't see how most of your answer is directly related to students cheating or the reporting thereof.

@Kimball I focused mostly on the second question of the OP "Why don't the instructors want to take any additional steps?". So, if we take the perspective that at university we're doing research and we're teaching to transferring knowledge to make students master various topics, then cheating isn't going to be much of a concern. It's not something worth wasting time on.

Enforcing academic integrity violations through the university system is very costly to the professor in terms of time and effort. The system is burdensome, complex, and sometimes capricious. Professors, therefore, have little incentive to use that method. That's the answer to your question.
I would use the university's honor system if the violation was of sufficient magnitude that I thought the appropriate punishment for the student is greater than what I, as their professor, could easily enforce. For example, if I thought the student should be kicked out of school. I would also use the system if I wanted to fail a student from my class, most likely.
I have encountered academic integrity violations on two occasions, neither of which were what I would call very severe. After meeting with the students, privately, I reduced the semester grade of one by a letter grade and the other by half a letter. Those enforcements required zero effort on my part and left a lasting impression on the students. In each case, I also offered to go through the university system if the students preferred, but they also did not want that.

I recall from when I was a student one student wished to do some programming over the summer and hence implemented the compiler from last year's assignment without before having been to the lectures.    Another student copy an assignment from a student in the next year and got found out as the assignment had changed a little.
How can the difference between the two be proved to a strong enough edvidance level to remove one of these students from university?

Copying is usually a lot more obvious than I think you imagine.  Side-by-side, it's not usually a hard call whether they're copied.

I had a colleague whose work you could hold side-by-side with mine, and it would be the same. Close enough that I couldn't decide who wrote it. The first time I saw any of his work I just thought "strange, I can't remember writing this".

I suppose that students should study old exams, for example, and learn the techniques used, for example. And some students have good memories. There are a few proofs that I could write down, that would be very, very similar to a textbook. And there is no copying involved.
But there is a simple way to check. Just take the student, and ask them the same exam question, and check if they can answer it on the spot. And better yet, try to modify the question slightly so it requires a different answer, and check if they can reply. If yes, they actually know the material.
Apart from that, why are you copying previous exam questions, if giving the same answer gives a student zero points? That seems incredibly unfair.

Works the same with homework.

When I have asked instructors about this, their reasoning is that creating a formal hearing/meeting is too much work. Not to mention the endless cycle of additional hearings and paperwork that may follow, and the horrible embarrassments and humiliations that result as soon as mid-level idiots get involved.
Should you ever become an instructor yourself, by all means go ahead and learn the hard way.


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PhD student as corresponding author: author list and logistics
I'm a PhD student in the physical sciences and am looking for input regarding an authorship situation. My advisor recommends I be the corresponding author on an upcoming paper because I came up with the entire project, oversaw everything, secured the funding for it, and so on. I mentored an undergraduate who did a good chunk of work and made essential contributions, although I wrote up the manuscript and still ended up doing quite a lot, if not most, of the analysis. How would you approach the author listing in this situation?
In my field, corresponding authors (denoted with *) are typically the final authors, such that this would be: Undergraduate, Advisor, Me*. However, I have a few reservations about this. This is perhaps superficial, but I am concerned that not being listed as the first author will make my direct contributions subconsciously weighed less when applying for awards or academic careers. This is especially important because this is the paper that I want to represent my PhD, in the sense that when I apply for future careers, this is the research trajectory I want to make my own. I'm not sure if being listed last would help or hurt this. Of course, another option is to have it be: Me*, Undergraduate, Advisor. I suppose that resolves the prior issues and is more what I'm leaning towards, but perhaps I am being biased somehow in my approach.
Regardless, there's the separate issue that as "corresponding author", my contact information will presumably not be permanent. In this sense, it seems silly for me to be the author to which correspondence should be addressed, even if I do know the most about the details of this work. Perhaps then it might make more sense to be joint corresponding authors with my advisor?
What would you do? Note: I will certainly be discussing this with my advisor and co-authors to get their input.
For context, the CRediT roles are as follows:
Me: Conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, funding acquisition, investigation, methodology, project administration, resources, software, supervision, validation, visualization, writing - original draft, writing - review & editing
Undergraduate: formal analysis, investigation, software, validation, writing - review & editing
Advisor: supervision, writing - review & editing

I think this is completely field specific. I think people in other fields will have a different interpretation and give answers that apply to their own fields, but not yours. But I'll guess the advisor just wants you to have the experience. It might be possible to make (email) contact information permanent. Some universities will set up an auto-forwarding link to your university email.

You're probably right about the field-specific nature of this question. And I just checked it out -- you're correct. There's a way to ensure the email doesn't get deactivated and can be auto-forwarded after graduation.

And if you join a professional society they may give you an associated email address.

The authorship order and corresponding author issues are separate, and I think considering them separately will make it much easier to address each of them. There is no need for the corresponding author to be in any particular position in the authorship order.
Yes, it can be common for the corresponding author to be last in fields with a "final author is senior author" convention, but that's by correlation, not causation: senior authors are both last and are often corresponding authors.
These days, I don't think the corresponding author role is important for much beyond submission and handling things with the editor. There are much better ways to find contact information for authors, such as their personal or institutional website. If you expect to still be at the same institution (or at a minimum still have access to your email) when the paper has gotten through the publishing process, I think it's not much of a problem for you to be the corresponding author.
In my field which has similar authorship conventions, "You*, Student, Advisor" seems appropriate to me.

...which raises a related point: if you do not already have a personal website, you should make one (unless you are absolutely sure that you will never move institution). This need not be a big task -- there are some very reasonably priced hosts. The important pages to have are a biography suitable for being introduced at a conference (panel chairs really appreciate being able to find a biography quickly), publication list (really helpful to other scholars trying to follow-up a reference), and a "contact me" page (that way, people can still contact you if you move institution).


text:
What can I do if the terms of my adjunct contract are not what I was led to believe they would be?
The situation is as follows:
Once upon a time, the university where I have served as an adjunct decided to bring me on in a fixed-term role spanning a single academic year. This was to get them out of a low-manpower bind due to medical and retirement cases with some of our tenured faculty. The idea was a reasonable salary with benefits. So, classes start, and I have no contract. One pay period goes by, then two. Finally my contract comes through after much back-and-forth between the administration--which I'm to understand is heavily associated with our business school--and our department head. Result? Reduced from a single year to a single semester to avoid the benefits package, and reduced pay because they say they cannot retroactively pay someone who didn't have a contract during the intervening time. Given my history with this institution, I'm not at all surprised by this, but this is something of a new low. Yes, it makes good business sense to acquire labor for as cheaply as possible, but it also sends a bad long-term message that I am not valued as an employee. What, if anything, can I do about this?

Would you be willing to quit in the middle of the current semester (since you  had originally agreed to something different and the contract that was finally offered to you doesn't match what was discussed)?  This threat might be enough to get them to honor their commitment to you.

@BrianBorchers, I'm afraid that would do more harm than good. That would put my department in a hard bind, and it would also disrupt the courses I'm teaching a great deal.

This would seem to be more a question of contract law than of academia, and the answer is probably unique to the local legislature and the individual institution.

It does not make good business sense to treat employees like shit (or as you euphemistically describe it, to acquire labor as cheaply as possible). That is a fallacy much too commonly believed in the U.S., and it is disturbing that even you as the employee being so treated have fallen into the trap of uttering such a statement. You are much more correct in saying that it sends a bad message. I concur that threatening to quit, and acting on the threat if it comes to that, sounds like a good idea.

On the one hand, this is very similar to many questions at Workplace.SE... which, on the other hand, get closed quickly as "asking for legal advice".

We won't be able to help you here. This will depend heavily on the payment you can expect from the rest of the contract, on how much you value continuing goodwill from this institution, on whether you have already signed the contract, on your local employment law etc. Possibilities range from sucking it up, over just walking away to actively suing your employer. I'd assume you'd have a pretty good case if you decide to sue...

... since you presumably saved all the emails in which you were offered this gig and have already worked for them. In many jurisdictions, this is quite sufficient to at least get compensation for the time you have already spent there. Finally, it might be better to ask such a question anonymously - it may be embarrassing if this post appeared in a web search for your name.

Depending on whether this is in a US state, and this is a state or private school, you might have a strong state Department of Labor that will help you put pressure on your employer to live up to the contract you negotiated. Oral contracts are a thing that can be enforced (or email, or whatever).

@JoelDeWitt if they don't recognise what you have done as work worth paying for, you have no obligation to keep working there. Precisely the major disruptions that would bring is a good leverage, and may get you what you want.

@Davidmh, if this is in the US and there's no agreed contract, then there's probably no obligation to work there, period. I don't think there are any non-at-will states in the US. This means you can be fired or quit at any time for any or no reason as long as it doesn't involve membership in a protected class (race, religion, gender, etc).

@BillBarth: It appears that Montana isn't an at-will state, but in ways that don't limit the employee's right to leave their job. I just got curious and checked.

@gnometorule, I wrote a more hedged version of my comment that included the Montana exception, but given that you can't be made to work there, I rewrote it. It's a valid point, nevertheless.

One pay period goes by, then two. So, you've already received wages? Under what terms?

Finally my contract comes through after much back-and-forth between the administration ... and our department head. Are you somehow obligated to do the work  according to what your department head chooses?

@DanRomik, I guess I have capitalism so drilled into my head, I didn't know how else to put it.

@BenCrowell, that's interesting since HR says that they can't pay me retroactively because I was working illegally without a contract at the time.

@user2338816, to clarify, what I meant is that I did not have a contract, and so was not paid for two pay periods.

@user2338816, I entered into this situation with the understanding that the university would be treating me in a civilized way.  That was naive of me since I now know that when something goes wrong they hide behind rules and regulations, and then blame it on me for being 'illegal'.  Please note that my department has been very supportive, and the department head has behaved like a champ in trying to get this sorted out.

@JoelDeWitt yes I understand, sorry if my comment came across as harsh. I sympathize with your situation of course. A related comment to my earlier one is that you had originally titled your question "my university is run too much like a business". A more appropriate description IMO would be "my university is run too much like a badly-run business". Good businesses do not behave this way, and capitalism founded on good ethical practices is a great thing. Sorry for ranting, none of this is your fault but it irks me how businesslike thinking has become synonymous with greed and selfishness ...

... and shortsighted thinking, when those things are actually worlds apart.

First of all, consult a lawyer before doing anything.
If you were to leave in the middle of the course, that will cause havoc, that they won't probably want. Since they are not paying you for the work, you are under no contractual obligation to fulfil anything (but consult the lawyer), and can leave without giving them notice.
Now, you may find unethical to leave your students hanging like this, but the mere threat that you are willing to do it, may get some wheels spinning to give you a decent offer.
Another option to consider is whatever anti-slavery laws apply in your jurisdiction, since you are working for free; and anti fraud, because you are working without a contract. Furthermore, since you don't have a contract, you are not covered by the insurance, and if anything were to happen during your lecture, there is trouble. Think who would have to pay for in case, for example, a projector caught fire and ruined the classroom.
If your oral agreement is considered a contract, you can't do this; but then they would be acknowledging they have to abide by these rules.

I actually think that it would be hard to argue that it is unethical to leave the students hanging in this situation.  Any hanging that might take place would be entirely the blame of the administration.  Maybe the OP is "too kind" to countenance the disruption to the students, but that's really not the same thing.  In the long run an organization that does not pay its employees or honor its promises will fold: think of what will happen to the poor students then.

I think this answer is written with a bit of a Swedish hat on and does not necessarily apply in full to the OP's situation - for instance, in principle, working for free is as far as I know quite possible in the US. Similarly, not having insurance is per se not illegal afaik. That being said, the general tone is entirely correct - the OP is being ripped off, so the OP should fight back, hard.

@xLeitix not having insurance may be perfectly legal, but someone may have a problem with that; for example, whomever would have to pay for if anything were to happen. I have no idea about working for free, though, but that is one of the first things unions try to abolish, when they can.

The fact that they did not pay you for two pay periods means that they have committed wage theft in most states in the US. You should go to an employment attorney immediately. You almost certainly have an oral or implied contract, and whatever they are saying about you not having one or "rules" requiring one is malarkey. You worked, under terms that they agreed to, and they owe you back pay and future pay if you continue to work. I'm not a lawyer nor am I your lawyer, so go get one. You are under no obligation to continue to work, but I'd guess that if you do, you will help them dig their hole deeper, since they will, at the very least, continue to not pay you until they've heard from your attorney, your state's Department of Labor (or equivalent), both, or you've won your lawsuit.

If I understand this correctly, you're saying that you were offered $4000 per 4-month semester (for instance), and since a month has gone by with no contract, they can't pay you for that month, so are saying that this semester is going to be $3000 instead.
I suggest that you go back to them and say, then pay me $4800 per semester, $800 of which we waive because it was during the time I was not under contract.
Then, suggest that they pay you $6000 per semester, to cover the unanticipated personal costs to cover your own benefits, which you had anticipated coming under the contract.
Then, suggest that THEY are the ones in a bind here...they might have to find a new lecturer tomorrow, if not sooner...or cancel classes and refund the tuition money, AND throw some students under a bus for their now-unfulfilled graduation requirements.
Messy.
They were, if I recall, hiring you because they were short on available professors.
EDIT:  this is not an organization that you want to consider your career.

The current approach is to ask them to increase my current salary to compensate for the loss of being 'illegal'. However, I don't have much hope this will do any good since the administration will just present another rule that says we can't do that. And honestly I don't see a future here, so when this blows over I'll just move on to something more sane.

@JoelDeWitt If they bring that up, you should emphasized that you do 4 months of work, so they should pay you for for months starting now.

+1 for suggesting that they pay extra to cover legal costs. While the semester is underway OP has the leverage to make such a demand.

When two parties are stuck, as you and the university are, a letter from a lawyer often gets things unstuck.  If you hire a lawyer to write them a stern letter, that ups the ante.  It may do the trick.
Expect to spend between $100 and $500.  Unless you can get some reduced-fee or pro-bono work from perhaps a local or regional workers' center.

Given that OP is a physicist, it's remarkable the ways Newton's Laws of Motion are all represented.  The situation asked about is certainly brought on by the tendency of money to remain at rest, you're suggesting application of an external force, and dwoz's instructions go for equal and opposite to the trick HR is pulling.

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


text:
In a research paper, is it acceptable to include expletives in the results of a text analysis?
Currently, I am doing a research paper and as a result from my text analysis, I found a record which contains a (*UCK) word. Is it ethical if I submit it as it is to a conference? Hereby in the image (in the third record)

What's the alternative - just omit it?  Surely that would be unethical data manipulation?

What does this possibly have to do with ethics?

Yes, it is ethical.  When you play Scrabble with other enthusiasts, bad words are perfectly acceptable and no one bats an eyelash.


text:
I hold a PhD in political economy, and am outside academia; what route might I take towards researching for a PhD in canine psychology and behaviour?
I hold a BA in a language and area studies (history, politics, social science) and a PhD in political economy (touching on social science), both from British universities belonging to the (research-strong) Russell Group, and I have been outside of academia for many years.
What route might I take towards the goal of researching for a PhD, preferably again at a Russell Group institution in Britain, in canine psychology and behaviour?
(I have read the help file, and felt that giving details of the fields was necessary in order to make clear what I am asking. Advice that is not specific to these fields is very welcome, especially if the size of the gap between them is similar to the size in my case.)

See this question about doing 2 PhDs: https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/17232/49043

Are those fields related in any way?  Do you see some of your skills transferring?  It seems like a longshot to me that you could even start over in graduate school in such dissimilar fields, but maybe it hinges on these two questions.

There's only a small overlap, but my work outside of academia since I left overlaps a little more with one or two sub-areas within the target field. My question is about route. I think this is possible without doing another bachelor's degree. For example my qualifications easily exceed the requirements to start on the MSc in psychology at the Open University, which I think would open doors to doctoral studentships at some Russell Group institutions.

Would it be sufficient to get a PhD in Psychology in which you study canines, or do you want a PhD specifically in "Canine Psychology and Behavior"?

Huh, apparently there's a "PhD in Psychology (Animal Behavior)".

Given that you already have a Ph.D., can you network with anyone to meet a mentor in this subfield? Their personal advice could help you figure out which formalities you can skip and what skills are essential. Do they see your work as providing transferable skills to their field? Would they recommend that you need more background in lab work, psychological theory, or something else?
While it's not normally a good idea for people to try to contact unknown professors merely to ask for help preparing for a later application, you've been socialized into the norms of academia (especially within the Russell Group) and may be able to do so in a targeted and effective manner.

One route would be to take a conversion (from scratch) master's degree in Psychology, such as the MSc in Psychological Sciences at University College London.


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What do the middle digits of course codes represent?
Take the course code PHYS 3054 or PHYS 354. The physics department doesn't offer 54 courses at the 300 or 3000 level.
I imagine some universities subscribe to a set of common best practices for course numbering. So I suspect that there might be an answer that applies to the numbering systems of a number of institutions.

At times middle digits may correspond to difficult, eg PHYS 3054 is followed by PHYS 3151, but both are "3000 level" courses.
They may also be thematic, for example PHYS 47xx courses may all be about magnetism, while PHYS 48xx courses may all be about optics.

In practice, they most likely represent which numbers were available when the course was proposed.

"I imagine some universities subscribe to a set of common best practices for course numbering." I've never seen any evidence of that.

I suspect it really depends on the university. But in my university, it represents the subfield in the department within which the course is offered.
For example (I'm in electrical engineering), EE X1X might be courses on power systems engineering, EE X2X on communication networks, EE X3X on  signal processing, EE X4X on electronics...
But in my department at least, there are enough misnumbered courses (for "historical reasons") to confound anyone who doesn't know it and is looking for a pattern.

ff524 mentions two of the major factors---subfield identification and historical reasons.  Even without a rigorous system of subfield identification, there's typically a lot of spacing in course numbers so that unrelated courses don't typically have adjacent numbers (and indeed, there's plenty of space between unrelated courses).
This goes along with numbering sequences sequentially---520 and 521 might form a two course sequence, in which case you don't use 522 or 523 because someone might get confused and think they're part of the sequence.  And then later, when you retire 520 and 521 and combine them into a single one semester course, you might call it 522, to remind people it's similar, but you don't use the same number so people can easily tell which course someone took.  This leaves a lot of historical detritus (you want to wait a long time before ever using 520 for something new), which leads to lots of widely spaced numbers.


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Is it legal and is it appropriate to display religious items in faculty offices in the United States?
This question is specifically in the context of an American public institution and a generic faculty member, specifically not someone working in religious studies or a similar department. I have noticed over the years that many faculty members have religious items on display in their office or on their office doors, and I was wondering on the one hand whether they are legally allowed, and on the other hand how wise it is to display them while being sensitive to a diverse student population. Here are a few examples from my own experience (all in mathematics).

Several years ago I had a colleague post the ten commandments outside his office  door.
I have another colleague who has Bible study books prominently
displayed on his bookshelf.
I myself have a poster of the Buddha and a Buddha statue in my
office, both given to me by a student.
Somewhat less on topic: a now-retired faculty member used to put ads
for a Bible study that he held in his home in graduate student mailboxes. (I know many foreign graduate students found this off-putting.)

Long time ago, the Director of Bands at UNH had a prominently displayed plaque in his office which read "Non Illegitemi Carborundum."   It ain't religious but one wonders if he'd get away with it now.

I think this question and aesmail's answer are appropriate for most secular nations.

What if a professor has a Dollar bill on his desk with IN GOD WE TRUST written on it?

If it was illegal then how could there be professors of religion?????

@AustinHenley: there are professors of political science, and yet, as I found out below, promoting of political parties is apparently illegal on public university campuses.

@JimConant I was responding to "Bible study books prominently displayed on his bookshelf" and "Buddha and a Buddha statue in my office." I guess the question boils down to what counts as promoting? The fourth bullet point definitely would.

What's the issue?  The bible is one of the greatest works of literature ever written!  A banner reading "Jesus loves you." on the other hand...

@AustinHenley: Why does teaching religion imply a need for displayed symbols? [I would personally even go so far to say that to teach religion (never mind which), you do not even have to be religious at all, provided you have an interest in it.]

@phresnel OP's second bullet point. Someone who studies religion will probably have a lot of material on different religions in his office. So if we allow them to have many books then we have to allow anyone to have at least one book, right?

@AustinHenley: But there is a big difference between having material for studying, and having material just for display.

@phresnel Is there? I don't see how anyone could ever prove one or the other. As far as books go and other reading materials, it seems the same to me.

@AustinHenley: Yes there is, but you are right, none that is provable by objective facts, at least for books. For posters or crucifixes, or even money with religious symbols, simple rules could be established. (Surely, rules could be established for books, too, but then the distinction between religious or not would be arbitrary)

Here is a document explaining some of the legal issues involved. Since I have no legal education, I will refrain from commenting too much, it is probably better to consult the document and the references within. With that disclaimer, my understanding is that the main legal tension is between First Amendment rights of the employee and the anti-discrimination clause of the Civil Rights Act, on one hand, and, in the case of a public university, the Establishment Clause on the other. If an unequivocally religious display is placed in a way which may induce others to think that the government (including state government) is endorsing a religion, then the display may be unconstitutional. So, for example, placing the ten commandments in a reception area, like the student accounting office, would likely be a problem. On the other hand, displays inside a faculty office are most likely legitimate exercises of free speech. Another consideration is how much disruption the display causes.
To me the ten commandments on the outside of an office door and placing religious ads in mailboxes seem borderline. I have seen posters (for conferences or publications) and comic strip cutouts on office doors, and I always interpreted them as communication from the person who sits in the office, and not university-endorsed communication. So in that sense, I am not sure the endorsement test I mentioned above applies. On the other hand, putting ads in the mail could be reasonably interpreted as something okay-ed by the university, and may be illegal.
One should consult the code of conduct of the institution, which hopefully has more specific guidelines.

I wonder if historical preservation ever comes into this, because for example the face of Moses presides over Congress.

I think Nikolov's answer is good. As a broader thought regarding the freedom of personal religious expression in America, I like this saying: > It's freedom of religion, not freedom from religion.

@ioSamurai the link you shared suggests that Moses is portrayed as a historical rather than religious figure. If you look at the list of the 23 people with portraits in Congress, it seems clear they were selected as famous lawmakers.

There's a big difference between inconspicuously displaying religiously-themed materials in one's office and effectively proselytizing, as the retired faculty in your example apparently did. The former is I think entirely reasonable, as it's a personal display that does not put any burden on a visitor or guest to the office. Putting religious materials in their inboxes is unwanted, and is inappropriate for a faculty member to do (particularly given the power imbalance involved).
I don't think I've ever received (or heard of) a legal notice that one is not allowed to display religious imagery in a personal office. Is it a good idea? Again, I think it's a question of degree. There's nothing wrong with displaying a small cross or Star of David or moon and crescent in one's office. Having a large and ostentatious display, though, would probably put students ill at ease. Similarly, having those materials where you actually meet with students (say, at a conference table in the office) is more "aggressive" than just having it on a bookshelf.

+1 I agree completely, and maybe I should have left off the last example, since I think we can all more-or-less agree that it is impolite, although I'm still curious about the legal issues. But what about the less extreme examples? Are they less severe breaches of etiquette (or perhaps even against some regulation?), or are they perfectly fine?

@JimConant On the contrary, they would be considered protected free speech under the First Amendment so long as it's obvious that it's the particular faculty member (or staff member or whatever) and not the University itself doing the promotion. Whether someone may find them off-putting is another matter, but they're certainly not illegal. On the contrary, a policy preventing them would probably be illegal in the case of a public institution.

@reirab: it's not so clear that this is protected speech. The university owns the offices. I imagine they are legally allowed to control what is posted on the walls, provided it doesn't discriminate against any group. So if all religious items are banned, not just say Christian ones, then that seems like a constitutional policy. Indeed, at my home institution, during a presidential election several years ago, we were instructed that we were not allowed to post political material on our doors or in our offices.

(We were also instructed that we could only have one political bumper sticker per car parked on university grounds, which seems far less clear legally.)

It most definitely is not protected speech so long as it's taking place on property owned by your employer.  I know of corporations which have banned all flags in the workplace (basically to avoid near-civil-war conditions).

@CarlWitthoft I'm not so sure that's correct if it's a public institution. If your employer is a government organization in the US, you do have some free speech rights beyond what you might have working for a private organization, though I'm not sure the exact boundaries or if they have any impact on this situation.

@CarlWitthoft A public employer is not the same as a private employer. What you say is correct for private employers, but not for public employers.

@JimConant In the case of the public university, the state actually owns the offices. To quote the document in Sasho's answer, They [the public employer] may only limit  that right  if  the employee’s speech or display causes a disruption or has the potential to cause disruption, sufficient to outweigh the value of the speech. Furthermore, as that article also points out, taking any employment action against the faculty or staff member would likely violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

@reirab: that is quite to the point I agree. So I suppose that when a blanket prohibition on political displays was instituted, the legal rationale was probably that it would cause significant disruption. This also supports aeismail's basic premise that it depends on how aggressive the speech or display is.

@JimConant Yes. It's also possible, of course, that the political speech rules were simply illegal and went unchallenged. It happens. However, while the first amendment rules should apply equally to the political and religious speech, the Title VII part would not, as far as I know, apply to political speech. I might be wrong on that, but I don't think your political views put you in a protected class with respect to the Civil Rights Act.

At my college we had one faculty who was a very devout christian. The only visible sign was a small bible in the far corner of his obsessively-tidy desk, and topics of religion never came up. Not once. He was also, per christian teachings, rather homophobic. As a significant percentage (like, half) of the students in that program were gay men he rather pointedly never approached the subject.
End result: zero problems. And he got along fine with the 2 gay guys in our section.
Moral: keep your personal beliefs to yourself and everything will be fine.

It's really questionable to say that Christian "teachings" are themselves homophobic, unless you mean some very specific denomination. And, apriori, I find it unlikely that half of the male student population in any school is gay, given less than 10% of American men are gay (and this is a generous estimate afaik).

@SashoNikolov many christians consider homosexuality to be bad - Leviticus 20:13 is the appropriate reference. And it was an arts program, where you will find a very disproportionate percentage of gay guys, most of whom are Fabulous.

@SashoNikolov  you've just posted the One True Scotsman fallacy there.

@SashoNikolov The doctrines of many Churches do (or did) profess that homosexuality is immoral. If I take it from peter's answer that there were only four students in a program, then two being gay is uncommon but by no means hard to believe. IMO, the professor in the answer handled his faith in a professional setting in an exemplary manner.

Probably it's not a good idea to start dissecting people's faith. This site is really not the place for that type of discussion.

Part of this is objective. Part of this is subjective. The objective part is fine, the subjective part is not. I'd recommend rewording it to be less pointy.

Homophobic implies 'fear of', however thinking something is morally wrong doesn't mean you are afraid of it. For example people aren't 'Harpaxophobic' just because they think robbery is immoral.

Phobias are not specifically fears, but irrational repulsions.

The relationship between the Old Testament and Christianity has been complicated since at least Paul. Let's not get into theological arguments: I am unqualified for that.

@ioSamurai: Re: "Homophobic implies 'fear of'": Fortunately, in this modern Internet-connected world, you don't need to make up facts on the spot. You can actually look up words in freely-available online dictionaries, and find out what they really do (and don't) imply.

@ruakh The suffix -phobia has been re-define in modern times to also mean 'dislike' in certain cases like you say (usually when social/political in nature), but it's still inaccurate as someone can be considered to have immoral behavior regardless of being liked or disliked. It kind of reminds me of Newspeak.

Seeing as many universities are actually private schools, there is no legality behind it unless the university is a publicly funded school. Even in the case of a public institution, it is only illegal if its being taught as dogma. Displaying religious text outside an office is toeing that line.
Over-all, I would refer to your institutions policies on this. On a personal note, what you want to display in your office is fine, just don't get upset when people judge you for it. School is for academia, not religious expression.

Could you please clean up your prose a bit?  There are a number of grammar problems in this post...

I'll agree that my English is irregular at best, but it is grammatically correct for non-disciplinary discussion. (I did correct spelling errors, sorry for those.)

My question is in the context of a public[ly funded] institution.

As long as there's no proselytizing during class hours, there's nothing directly illegal. However, I do think its generally inappropriate in an academic setting. If enough students/faculty had issue with the display of religious items, a petition could do something about it. For the most part, I find it distasteful, but not inherently wrong.


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on a CV do you list both a paper and an associated oral presentation?
I attended a conference that accepts short papers as well as accepts the papers for oral or poster presentations.  I had four papers, for two of which I gave the oral presentations.  My conundrum is that on my CV do I list both the papers as well as the associated presentations or just the papers as that is in some sense the higher priority?

I generally see people break their CV into peer-reviewed and non-peer reviewed contributions. Then within those categories they indicate whether or not they were the presenting author.
The presentation is really presenting the work in your paper, so they are one and the same. Plus consider the fact that the proceedings of the conference are what people will be able to find your work in, and therefore you want to give them the information for your paper. For example:

Peer Reviewed Contributions
Your Name, Co-Author, Co-Author, "A breakthrough in a big question", The International Journal of Great Answers, vol. 42, no. 0, pp. 3141-5926.
etc...
Non-Peer Reviewed Contributions
'*' Co-Author, Your Name Co-Author, "A very novel and important answer to a very big question", The 9th World Conference of Very Big Questions, Conference paper and presentation.
Your Name, Co-Author, Co-Author, "The smallest possible answer to the biggest possible question", The 42nd World Conference of Very Small Answers, Conference paper and poster presentation.
Note: Contributions with an asterisk '*' indicate that Your Name was the presenting author.


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Handling Multiple Interviews
Recently, I applied for two positions at one university. I received a quick reply for a video interview and immediately thereafter the campus visit. Right after my campus visit, I got a call back on the second application. After much deliberation, I recinded the application for the second position interview. Is this appropriate? Is there etiquette for applying to one or two positions at the same institution?

Nobody would fault you for pursuing any promising job offer, even if two are at the same place. (If they're petty enough to be upset with you for this then you wouldn't want to work there anyway.) If you've already rescinded the application they're not going to be upset with you for that either. These are regular problems faced by departments doing job searches.
Some institutions might have an internal arbitration process that would have to happen if both departments want to make an offer. This is to avoid a situation where you try to use offers from both departments as leverage for better compensation or a startup package.

Thank you, David. This makes sense. It just seemed awkward.

In academia, it is common for candidates - especially for faculty positions (which you don't mention if these positions are faculty or administrative ones) - to apply for multiple jobs. During a single job market season, some candidates may apply for dozens of positions. Often, they are at different institutions, but there are cases where people apply to multiple positions at the same institution. You already rescinded the other position, so there is not much you can do at this point. However, it is often wise to make sure that you have an offer of employment "in hand" before fully rescinding other applications. If you were a strong candidate for both positions, you could always let the search chair or administrator know that you are being considered for another position. When I was a faculty search chair, candidates were often frank about having other interviews or even offers. It is expected - at least in my field (social and health sciences). Good luck!

Thank you, Nicole.I just wasn't sure about how to communicate the issue with the first committee. Your reply has helped.