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Registering systematic review in Prospero
I have recently submitted a systematic review (SR) to a journal. One of the reviewers pointed out, that my SR was not registered in Prospero, an international prospective register of systematic reviews. While I agree it would have been of good practice to register my SR, my current understanding is that registration of SR is not yet mandatory¹.
How can I address this reviewer’s remark?

¹Booth A, Clarke M, Dooley G, et al. The nuts and bolts of PROSPERO: an international prospective register of systematic reviews. Systematic Reviews. 2012;1:2

If you don't think it's mandatory, and you don't want to do it, just say it's intentionnal ?

Thanks for your reply Gautier C. The thing is, even if I wanted to register now, it probably makes less sense as I should have done it before starting my SR... Well, lesson learned...

Hum I see. But if the reviewer is saying it, that means he thinks you may want to register in it ?

Thanks Gautier C. From my understanding, this database is used when you plan to undertake a SR, in order to avoid having duplicate SR and to reduce reporting bias. I am not sure if registration in this database makes sense once the SR is finished and submitted for publication. But I am going to double check this. Thanks Gautier C for your valuable input!

I will create an answer based of what you said, hoping maybe people will add some infos to my answer ;)

First of all, If you don't think it's mandatory, and you don't want to do it, just say it's intentionnal.
Since, as you said in comments, this database is apparently used when you plan to undertake a SR, it would have no value for you to register in it, since you are already in SR.
But you may ask the reviewer why he got the urge for saying that , and if he thinks it would be interesting for you to register on it anyway.

I do not work in a discipline that can use PROSPERO, but personally I do not find appropriate to ask the reviewer why "he got the urge for saying that". The fact that this research was not pre-registered automatically makes it less trustworthy than a pre-registered one, so to me it looks like a meaningful remark to make in a review. It's not something the author can address now, but it is a perfectly normal part of a thorough evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the paper.


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Removing outliers. Would it be called cherrypicking data?
Could removing outliers be called cherrypicking data? Because, to run some tests, outliers have to be removed. And they even turn up unexpectedly ruining good data.
I still haven't yet started acquiring data for my project. Still collecting samples. I've heard a senior say that he removes them and I really doubted if such a thing could be done. Also, I've read that ANOVAs work on the assumption that outliers shouldn't be there. (correct me if wrong)

Also note that if you expect a lot of outliers, you can use tests which are more robust towards outliers, for example use a rank based test rather than a t-test. Then you don't have to remove the points.

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because  this is a statistics question suitable for cross-validation, but does not offer enough context and detail to support a meaningful  answer

Removing outliers is literally "cherrypicking data". To justify/rationalize it requires some effort... and may be inappropriate, depending on the situation, e.g., "measurement error" rationalizations. All other things the same, one should not do it...

If you do remove outliers, be sure to very clearly indicate that you have done so and what precisely your criteria for what counted as an outlier were in any paper that uses the data. If you do so, you may be pinged for poor analytical technique, but I doubt you could be accused of being dishonest.

One major pitfall is going into analyzing the data without an a priori protocol to deal with outliers. Time to time, tension rises between analysts and investigators on whether a point should be removed or not. Investigator may wish to keep it because it drives the significant result; analyst may be anxious to keep it because, well, it drives the significant result. Much can be avoided if there is a agreed-upon standard.
Anyhow, here are some suggestions (slightly scrabbled):

Reconcile if it's an instrument or data entry error.
If it's a plausible value but behaving like an outlier, a few methods exist:

Do not bury plausible extreme values in favor of showing the after-trimming data only.
Consider reporting with and without it, discuss the differences.
Use statistics that are more tolerant to extreme values. For instance: Non-parametric statistics or robust estimation methods.

Keep all written record about related changes, make sure date, time, person, decision made, etc. are all recorded.
If correction needs to be made, do not change the raw data. Do so using script/syntax and save that syntax for reference.
Explain all outlier-related data change in the report/manuscript. Reasons and methods should be provided so that your analysis can be replicated.
If there isn't a protocol, set one up now before more instances like this came up.
Do not identify outlier after data analysis results are known. If possible, discuss with your colleagues about the outlier without telling them the hypothesis test results.

+1 for the introduction. Starting to perform mathematical operations without knowing what the data represents is just asking for trouble. For example, having a function about a person which returns one value if the person is the Pope, and another value if the person is not the Pope, guess what will happen if a naive approach is taken.

The questions in your title and body are different in a rather significant way.
In answer to "Could removing outliers be called cherrypicking data?": yes, of course it could.
In answer to "Would it be called cherrypicking data?", that depends on your justification (and apparent motivation).
To be honest I would generally be very suspicious of any paper which removed data points without a very clear and justifiable reason. It isn't possible to tell whether that's the case for your example, as you haven't given any information on it, and additionally for statistical advice it would be more appropriate to ask this over at Cross-Validated.
There are statistical methods for identifying how much of an outlier a point is (leverage, for example) but they are not in and of themselves sufficient justification for removing a point.
[edit] thanks for adding more information to your question. Firstly, it's great that you haven't started collecting data yet, and well done for thinking about this at this stage. As @penguin-knight suggests, formulate a protocol for data collection and identifying suspect data before you start (a priori). However, do remember that the only defensible reason for removing an outlying data point is because you believe it is inaccurate and reflects a problem with how that sample was generated or quantified.
Secondly, regarding the ANOVA part of your question: one of the assumptions when using an ANOVA is that your residuals are normally distributed. 'Outliers' may indicate that this assumption is incorrect. If this is the case, simply ignoring some points is not the correct way to deal with this. Your simplest options are:

apply a transform to your data, for example a log-transform. There is a lengthier discussion of transforms and ANOVAs here: https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/75005/non-normal-data-for-two-way-anova-which-transformation-to-choose
use a non-parametric test (which does not rely on the assumption of normally-distributed residuals) - such as the Mann-Whitney U test if you are comparing two groups.

You could simply include all data in a set of results, and then present a second "filtered" result set excluding the outliers. This seems like the most honest and comprehensive way to deal with this.

Display (somewhere) all the data. Explain why each deleted point is removed; one idea may be "known bad instrument setting," another is "exceeded xx.xx standard deviations" or the like. This allows a critic to decide if you are in error and where but does not allow said critic to claim you desk-drawered unwanted results.

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Student registration fee at conferences for ex-students for work done as a student
I did some work as part of my final year undergraduate project and wrote a paper which has now been accepted at a conference. Though I am now working in the industry, I have listed my affiliation as my University because that is where I did my work as a student. So, for registering in the conference, do I have to pay the full registration fee (because I am currently not a student) or can I pay the student fee (because I did the work during my undergraduate days)?

You should pay the full fee since you are not a student unless the conference organizers say differently.

You're not a student now
The fees are based on the status of the participants, not the status of the papers. Often, organizers will require some evidence of student status (such as a current student ID) in order to be eligible for the reduced price.
It may be reasonable to get the student fee if you're a student at the time of registration but graduate before the actual conference - as the process often takes multiple months, but if it's something earlier, then you're out of luck.

Conferences usually grant discounts to financially disadvantaged participants, such as students or attendees from developing countries, because they want to enable as many people as reasonably possible to attend the conference. From another point of view, discounts are a social redistribution of wealth, with the rich attendees supporting the poorer ones. In theory, the organisers could negotiate each of this discounts individually, as there usally are no constraints regarding this imposed by some higher authority¹. Of course, this would cost more time (and thus money) than it saves and thus you usually have discounts for certain groups, such as students.
So, it’s up to the organisers whether they regard you as a student or not and to be really sure, you have to ask them. Given that falsely registering as a student could be considered fraud, you certainly should clarify the situation before doing this. However, you might want to take the reason behind those fees into account and just pay the undiscounted fee, if you are doing well financially, which also saves the organisers some time. On the other hand, if you aren’t, this might be worth mentioning when applying for a student discount, though you technically aren’t a student anymore.

¹ apart from anti-discrimination laws and similar

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Getting secondary citations right
I have some questions regarding secondary citations (in an computer-science research paper that should be published in a journal). I know that they should be avoided when possible, but it is not always that easy. More specifically, my situation is this:
Article A says:

The average value of ... in ... is ... [B]. [C]’s study says that in ... the value is ...

This statement is exactly what i need for my paper.
If I read [B] and [C], I see that [A] cited them correctly and if I would have found these two other articles myself, I would have written the same.
Now how to cite this in a correct way?

[B] and [C] say (cited in [A]) ...

and do a “bad” secondary quote;

[B] and [C] say ...

and neglect the investigation done by [A] and peform citation plagiarism;

[A] says ...

and neglect that the data was the achievement of [B] and [C].

[A] says based on the findings of [B] and [C] ...

and do a secondary quote again.

"I know that they [secondary citations] should be avoided when possible" - where did you hear that? Giant [citation needed] on that statement :)

There is many material about it, e.g. here (see indirect citations): https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/03/ Or here: http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2010/05/secondary-sources-aka-how-to-cite-a-source-you-found-in-another-source.html

It doesn't say anything about avoiding secondary citations on that page. It just says that you should try to track down the original source so you can cite it also.

I added a second link where it says: "You’ve probably heard that you should avoid secondary sources when possible. It’s true—". Or here "guidline 4": http://www.psych.uncc.edu/pagoolka/plagiars.html If i trackdown the original source, i find the same thing. So i would write almost or exactly the same like the author that mentions the secondary sources.

None of those links advise against citing both the original and secondary sources (as in your option 1 and 4).

If you write about something originally stated in B and C, you should always read B and C to make sure that's actually what they said (which you say you've done) and cite them. (This rules out Option 3.)
Whether or not to cite A depends on how you use A.

You are using intellectual content from A (the interpretation/summary of B and C), so you should cite A also. (Another example of this is How to cite the original source of an algorithm and a secondary source that provides a clearer description of the algorithm?). Option 4 indicates clearly what content comes from A and what comes from B and C, so it's a good way to cite it.
If you weren't using any intellectual content (interpretation, summarization, curation of references) from A, but just happened to come by B and C via A, you may not need to cite A (see e.g. Is there a problem with citing the original source instead of the source where the information was first found?). However, based on your description, you are using A's interpretation, so that rules out Option 2.

The links (1,2) you have given to support your assertion that secondary citations are "bad" are being misinterpreted. Both of those advise against the practice of only citing the secondary source and not also tracking down the original. The third link you brought up (3) says not to use A's statements about B and C without citing A (Option 2).

Hi (I am here from the q you just commented on). My situation is that its a very general statement. A statement that is very common in biology now.  Its essentially a definition. However the paper (A) cites paper (B). I don't know if I should cite A or B for a general statement

Right, I agree that's why I am in this problem. But should I cite the person who summarized it from a paper I havnt read nor is it related to my research?

@masfenix If it's important that the statement is accurate, you need to read the original paper (at least enough to make sure that the person who summarized it, did so correctly). Then cite both.

It is important. However that statement is common in my field. Infact a lot of other papers i read have a very common statement (without citation). (Should we take this to chat if you have time)

@masfenix If it's common knowledge in your field, then don't cite it.  (Here's a useful reference.) If you're not 100% sure that it's common knowledge, cite it just to be on the safe side. Sure, go to chat if you have more questions.


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Costs of being an MS student in Germany
I am an open-minded Indian student and I will be going to Germany to join the University of Bonn for my masters in Computer Science. I have planned a monthly budget of € 830 including studentenwerk fees, which the university noted me will be no more than € 350. Old students say that it averages to € 250 or something leaving me with € 580. Will that be sufficient for me to eat for a month at a Mensa (I plan to cook in the evenings though) or say maybe watch one movie a month or maybe take a weekend trip to Köln?

Do those "Studentenwerk fees" include rent?

All that being said, I think a good question you might want to ask here is which institutions at German universities are best equipped for helping you to answer such questions or helping you along with such issues in general.

yup, they include rent @CodesInChaos

Mensa food should cost 2-5 EUR per meal, depending on which you choose and how many side dishes you buy. http://www.studentenwerk-bonn.de/gastronomie/speiseplaene/diese-woche/

I removed the second question entirely, as you asked it on Expatriates.

FWIW, here's information for University of Kaiserslautern. Maybe Uni Bonn has a similar site?

I've been living in Bonn for about two years now and have a monthly budget that is lower than yours (750€), but I find that this is more than enough for a relatively normal life. You should be fine as long as you live in a Studentenwerk dorm; I myself live in such a dorm and have to pay about 300€ monthly (a fee that includes both rent and utilities).
You also have to pay semester fees to your university, but that's just once a semester and it's not such a big deal (~250€ in general).
By the way, I am a scholarship holder, so I didn't mention health insurance as part of my costs; the DAAD is paying this for me. You should count on about 80€ for that as well.

I don't know your background, but have you verified that there are not additional semester fees for non-EU students?

@Raphael There is only one public university in Germany that takes higher fees for non-EU students (HMT Leipzig).

@Raphael I'm not from an EU country either (Macedonia), but I don't have to pay any additional fees.

Okay. I guess what I was remembering was extra fees for non-consecutive Master courses (650€ in RLP, iirc). While this does not discriminate foreigners per se, non-EU citizens (for us, mostly Chinese and Indians) usually enter non-consecutive courses (for lack of a Bachelor degree equivalent to ours).

So with 300 deducted, I will do fine in Bonn with EUR450???

Less than a decade ago, I lived in Bonn as a student for less than 500 € per month, doing pretty much what you describe. I do not know the exact numbers as I had more money available (I simply did not spend it). As inflation was not that bad, what you try to do should be possible.
However, here are some points to consider:

In the last years the German equivalent of high school has been reduced by one year in many states of Germany which lead to twice as many people finishing high-school in recent years. As a considerable number of these people study afterwards, this has lead to a temporal increase of the number of students and thus to a housing shortage specifically for students. After what I heard, Bonn is affected particularly strongly by this. This may increase the rent you have to expect.
The easiest way to obtain a cheap accomodation is from the Studentenwerk. It may help to apply as early as possible and look for out-of-schedule offers from them regularly. In particular, they may have a contingent of appartment that they only rent to foreign students and are thus not affected by the previous point. Another advantage is that you do not have to hassle with organising electricity, heating, Internet access yourself as you often have to with privately rent appartments.
I do not know how health insurance works for foreign students in Germany. As I am German, it was free for me. This may cause some additional costs for you.
The above assumes that you only consume what is necessary for life (and maybe not the cheapest food). E.g., if you consume relevant quantities of alcohol, coffee, cigarettes or other drugs, you have to take this into account.
Assuming that this is what you are referring to with Studentenwerk fees, there are fees of about 250 € that you have to pay once per semester. While you must pay them, they grant you free access to public transport in all of North Rhine-Westphalia (with the exception of high-speed trains) and reduced prices at the student canteen (mensa) amongst others. So, travelling to Köln is free. Something similar holds for most if not all German universities.

Are you confusing Studentenwerk and registration fees in your last point?

Yes and no. I took an educated guess as to what the asker meant by Studentenwerk fees going by their height and name. If I recall correctly the fee that you have to pay once per semester is partially a registration fee and partially goes to the Studentenwerk for the public-transport pass, cheaper canteen food and similar.

I understood it, either way :)

Studentenwerk fees are (probably) rent (+utilities) here. And your health insurance was free?

@TheAlmightyBob Health insurance is free (under some conditions) if your parents are insured in a public health fund (as most Germans are). Most others pay around 80€ per month.

I am an international master's student in Berlin. According to this, Bonn is a tiny bit cheaper than Berlin on average. I live pretty comfortably on  €900 per month all inclusive, and I am pretty sure I could get by with less. The big question is rent, which costs me something like €260 pm. So I would say you'll be fine.
I'll add that I have to pay compulsory membership fees for the student union every term. I have to pay mine in a lump at the beginning of the term, something like €360 for the semester. Check with your university as this was a little bit of an unpleasant surprise.
I originally answered the second, slightly off-topic part of the question. I agree it is not on-topic for academia.se. I have edited it out.

I read it before you edited it. Thanks it cleared a lot of my queries.  Just curious, did you learn German from Goethe?

No, I did research at HZDR  in Dresden and they provided a free "in-house" A1 course. I was not there long enough to complete it, but it was still really useful.

Also btw, Studentenwerk fees are they monthly or semester wise?

Membership fees are paid per semester. I don't rent from them so I don't know what happens if you are staying in their accommodation,  I would guess the rent is monthly based on common sense. Though not everything in Germany is based on common sense :)

@danke_und_bitte If you are on a tight budget, I'd say the Goethe institute is out of the question.

@FedericoPoloni How would be a Hoschulle??

You mean a Volkhochschule? It's the cheapest option, but it has its downsides. Some people there are forced to follow the courses, so they aren't very motivated and may drag down the class. I had the best experiences with courses organized directly by the universities.


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Resources to improve presentation skills
I will defend my thesis soon. It would be great if someone could suggest me any good course or resource to improve my skills.

I am a bit split on this question, as it stands I believe it's a bit off-topic but could be made more relevant to academia.SE.

I highly recommend book "Designing Science Presentations: A Visual Guide to Figures, Papers, Slides, Posters, and More" by Matt Carter. It is very comprehensive in covering various aspects of scientific presentations in different contexts. Another excellent book on the topic is "Presentation Secrets" by Alexei Kapterev. I hope to use advice from both books in my future academic career.
Unfortunately, I have bought both books after I've almost prepared my dissertation defense slides, so I haven't had a chance to improve my slides, based on solid advice in the books (that is not to say that my slides were bad without it, but pursuit of perfection is one of my core problems :-). Therefore, I have just browsed both books in search of advice for other presentation aspects (speaking, equipment, etc.). Having said that, I think that the single most important factor of success for a dissertation (thesis) defense is your confidence (in both yourself and your work).
Another very important factor is timing. You have to pay a lot of attention to timing, since in many, if not all, cases dissertation defense is quite limited time-wise (mine was very limited). After working for years on some subject domain, you have a lot to say and, thus, compressing what you want to say into what you must say represents a major challenge. The solution to that is to practice. I have literally recorded my voice presentation on my smartphone and trimmed it (and correspondingly, my slides) until the length of the presentation was approaching the target time frame. I also played my recordings before sleep for better memorization (for fluidity). Finally, I asked a friend, who was also finishing working on his Ph.D. dissertation, to do me a favor and listen to my presentation via Skype (sharing the screen for synchronized slide presentation). We did that twice. I have listened to his feedback and updated my slides and talk plan, correspondingly. Some stress is inevitable, but you can definitely minimize it to a tolerable level, especially considering that the fact of your defense being scheduled implies that your work has been accepted by your committee and, thus, they have enough confidence in you. I hope that my answer is helpful. Good luck with your defense!

I recommend Presentation Zen, especially the book. Even though it stays on a fairly high level (and is definitely tailored towards business & marketing), its main ideas are very useful for academic presentations.

There are occasional Coursera classes on public speaking. I've taken two of them, and found them incredibly helpful for presentation skills.

Matt Might has a nice article on tips for academic talks, with some very helpful tips.  He is in Computer Science, so some things may be more or less applicable to your field.  In that article he also recommends "Even a Geek can Speak" which I have read and highly recommend as well.  I believe if you click around his website you can find some other tips on academic talks, and on presenting academic work.


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Tutoring as a undergrad student
My school provides undergrad students with the opportunity to tutor the classes where they received an A as an extra-curricular program. I have received an A+ in some classes and think that if I have a chance to be a tutor of that class, it will help enhance  my understanding and teaching skills.  However, tutoring is so time-consuming that if I do it, I might give up one of the lectures next semester.
So, my question is: Is it worthwhile to be a tutor if I want to go to grad school?

What does "as extra-curricular program" mean? Does this imply you are not getting paid?

@PVAL Yes. It's just counted as a volunteering or if I want, I could get 1 credit.

Tutoring is definitely a great way to gain more confidence and knowledge in a certain area as well as help you to decide if you enjoy the subject/teaching it and want to go to grad school. However, it sounds like you know the class really well as you received an A+ and it isn't worth dropping a lecture just to tutor. Grad schools do not put nearly as much weight on tutoring to warrant sacrificing other things that would benefit you.


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How do judge the quality of your own PhD?
I'm close to finishing my PhD and I'd like to evaluate the quality of my PhD. I'm doing my PhD in the field of software engineering at a Central European university. My PhD thesis consists of published conference papers and a synopsis. I first-authored two papers in the top conference of my field and I also had a few other papers.
The problem now is that I'm unsure how good of a PhD this actually is. My PhD thesis gets graded, but I noticed that every PhD student gets something between the very best and the second best grade, independent of the quality of his/her work.
If I can't rely on the grade, and if I can't compare the number of publications to other PhDs, how can I best and honestly assess the quality of my own PhD?

In my field, we do not grade the thesis. The number and quality of publications implicitly reflects how good your thesis is. To your "how can I best and honestly assess the quality of my own PhD?", I would say time will tell.

"first-authored two papers in the top conference of my field + a few other papers" seems just about right for rightfully deserving a (good) PhD in CS. Now you have to follow through with equally good publications in the next year(s). There are CS people with better publication records than you during their PHD. There are also many people with worse. How does that information help you?

I have a feeling this question is really asking "How do I convey my excellence in a culture of everyone getting  a top mark. What other metrics are there?"

You can't.
Probably this is a bit strong, but I think that in general you can not grade or judge your own thesis or assess its quality in any way. You are hopefully very critical with yourself and this is good. Your advisor and others referees for your thesis can and will grade your thesis and should provide a report which you may be able to read (depending on the local regulations) . If you need a more detailed feedback, ask these people some time after your defense (not directly after your defense - after passing it's time to party...).

But as a first approximation: Ask your advisor. (Prerequisite: Have an honest and well-informed advisor.)

It is correct to a large extent that you cannot objectively judge the quality of your thesis. There are some soft indicators like, do you get invited to talk at other universities, do you get queries regarding your papers, etc. But these are often dependent on extraneous things like whether your adviser is "marketing" your work in his/her peer-group, whether you happen to be working on the "hot" problem in your area, etc.
When I was worried about a similar question during my PhD, a senior researcher told me that a good thesis not only solves a problem that a few people care about, but also levels the "neighbourhood" of the problem to make further progress possible. This requires making connections with other problems that are somewhat outside the scope of, but related to, your immediate results. It may also entail demonstrating "meta-properties" of your results. This helps interesting results gather traction, and is also independently a sign of research well conducted.
Finally, if you think that after your PhD you are unlikely to remain in a position to market your results (e.g. you don't plan a Postdoc, and no one else in your lab is going to carry your work forward, and your results are not already the talk of the town), then it's quite likely that your thesis and papers will not be cited a lot. Don't let that influence what you think about the quality of your work.


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Word choice for salutation in a formal email to your PhD adviser, Is *Dear Boss* appropriate?
I am a first year PhD student in France, born and raised in India. It is not customary in here where I am doing my PhD to call one's adviser boss but I do, partly due to my reluctance to call her by the first name, partly attributed to the culture in which I am brought up. As one comment suggested, "Dear professor" would have been an appropriate choice but she doesn't have any teaching duties and is a full time researcher. I would have used "Dear Madam" if I were in India but no one here use that. I think "Dear Dr. X" is too formal and no one here use that either. Many prefer "Hi X" but I think that is too informal.
Now that I am writing an email, Is Dear Boss an appropriate salutation? If not, what would be an appropriate salutation in a formal email?

due to my reluctant to call her by the first name Would you explain a little bit why?

@scaaahu Well, I am not comfortable in calling by her first name. I think it roots from the culture I am raised.

Unless your advisor is very strict about formalities, you might eventually reach a point where most emails sent to your supervisor will be informal in style. This does not mean that the content is however.

@PatW I'm not sure I ever started from formal communication with my supervisor. I would expect normal to be about the verbal equivalent of 'smart casual'.

Do you want to mock him?

I would just say "Dr. X," as the salutation and continue the email from there. I don't usually put "Hello" or "Dear" in formal contexts. You are addressing them by their title this way and it doesn't carry any of the connotations of other modifying words.

Learn to call them by their first name. You are no longer in the culture in which you were raised and you need to respect the norms of where you are.

How does she sign her emails?  Adopting the same form she uses to identify herself is generally best/safest.

If it's France, bonjour [name] (but you'd have to get comfy with using their first name) or Cher [first name] or Salut [with or without their first name], or for the maximum formality, Madame [surname].

Also want to add, people rarely use the professional distinctions here in France. I never see Dear Dr / Professor X. I'd go with Madame X.

Who the hell uses "dear" in professional mails anyway? Am I the only one who thinks this sounds way too intimate? That's how I'd address a very close family member, not a professional contact.

@Davor: That's certainly not a universal rule. Depending on the level of familiarity between business partners dealing with each other, it's used, and appropriate. To give just one example: if you're in sales, and your firm has a conference, you might invite the people in your sales account with "Dear Jim, ..." Similarly, an adviser requesting a favor from a student (say, to cover for them) might bring across a warm familiarity like this. That said, I agree with you in most cases; it's just not a rule never to deviate from (no to say, in France, even "Tres chere Madame X" isn't uncommon).

@Davor: I'm looking at the first page of my email client. Email from a conference: "Dear Dr. Argerami,  " ; email from another conference: "Dear Colleague,"; email from my department head: "Dear Colleagues,"; etc.

"Dear professor" would have been an appropriate choice but she doesn't have any teaching duties and is a full time researcher." Teaching doesn't have anything to do with it she is still a professor. Call her Dr X or Professor X, and let her make the first move to tell you "PLease, call me Boss" or whatever she wants the young'uns to call her.

@neuronet "she is still a professor" Why? In fact chances are she is a 'Directrice de recherche,' which is rather more prestigious.

@quid Exactly, she is designated as 'Directrice de recherche.'

OK then it's different where I am. I just know "Boss" is ... bad for all the reasons already given. Err on the side of formality, and then give them the chance to correct it. I have no problem when my students call me 'Doctor X' and then I say 'Call me Z'. It shows they respect me, and I appreciate that. If they aim too low, and take too much familiarity, and treat me like their frat brothers or whatever, I find that annoying. Especially females often have people show them a lack of respect in academia because of sexism, so err on opposite.

@gnometorule, martinargerami - this is probably very region dependent. I'm in Eastern Europe, and addressing someone as "dear" here would be, to say the least, very strange.

When in doubt, a little deferential formality shows professionalism.  "Dear/Hello/Hi Prof./Dr. ______".  When you get a response, depending on how they close out the message, it's safe to use whatever they use: "Prof. Smith", "John", etc.  If it's still ambiguous, stay formal until told otherwise.

Email is an informal medium. "Formal email" is a contradiction in terms. If you wish to communicate formally with your adviser, write her a letter.

@MikeScott - that is a complete and utter nonsense.

"Dear Boss" would come across a little weird. I've usually used something like "Hello Professor X", if it's a not-too-formal email, otherwise it's just "Professor X" or similar.

@JackAidley «Learn to call them by their first name» which is considered very impolite in many EU countries when referring to professors or academics which are higher than your level, unless they are your friends. Scandinavian countries being a notable exception (which surprised me when I was in Denmark).

@JackAidley I would agree if this were the opposite way around - but there is precisely zero harm in being "too" formal. I would argue one can't even be too formal; only perhaps unnecessarily formal. There's no reason or requirement to respect norms that would be a lowering of standards. That said, I would personally consider "boss" rather informal, at least colloquial. Nobody can fault OP for using correct title though: "Dr Smith" would be my choice.

"Dear boss" would surely make her chuckle! I would find it inappropriate but rather endearing.

@AndreaLazzarotto: I can speak to all countries, but certainly in the UK, Germany and Scandanavia it's the case that first names are normal, and from the question, I would assume France also. The point is to adapt to the local questions.

@OllieFord: I strongly disagree that there is zero harm. You mark yourself as an outsider who does not understand the local culture and you build unnecessary barriers between yourself and your supervisor by doing so.

@JackAidley I assume then that you're also in the UK. Personally I bat far more eyelids when I hear faculty referred to by first name, or surname sans title. It's rude. I hardly think I've ever been marked as an outsider not understanding local culture in my own country.

There are a lot of questions, especially on academia, that are only here because the poster has COMPLETELY OVERTHOUGHT the problem. I think people in academia tend to do that, rather than using 'gut feel' or 'common sense'. Simple - be OPEN and HONEST with your colleague. If you are not sure of the cultural way of addressing her in emails THEN TELL HER THAT, and ask her how she would like to be addressed. How do I say this...? Be open and honest. What if my boss thinks this...? Be open and honest. But what if...? Be open and honest. Don't walk on eggshells around everyone - get to the point.

Address your advisor like a boss, sir.

As others have noted, you should err on the side of formality. If your advisor has a doctorate, use "Dear Dr. X" (or the French equivalent).
If not, use "Dear Prof. X". While you said that she does not have teaching responsibilities, that does not preclude the title of professor. At least in the United States, there are research professors. Additionally, someone would be unlikely to be offended to be thought a professor.
As noted by @hoyland, women are often addressed as Ms. (or Miss or Mrs.) when a male colleague would be addressed as "Dr." or "Prof.", which understandably irks them.
As a professor, the way I signal to students that it's okay to use my first name is to sign emails from them with just my first name. If your advisor does that with you, you may safely address her by her first name. If she uses her initials or full name, stick with the formal form.
As noted by others, it would also be okay for you to ask how to address her. If I were you, I would remind her that I am from another culture. For example, you might say: "In India, I would address you 'Prof. X'. Is that correct in France too?" For someone not from a different culture, it can be awkward to answer their question by saying they should stick to the formal form. (Imagine the awkwardness if you asked someone if you could use their first name and they said no.)

My adviser always sign emails by her first name. Marking this as answer, I think this summed up main points in the answers with an additional read between the lines advise.

'"Dear Dr. X" (or the French equivalent)' There is no French equivalent as titles are usually just not used in this way (irrespective of gender), except for medical doctors. Moreover, it was explained in comments that this person just is no professor but something else, which is generally considered as somewhat better than the equivalent of a (full) professor. Would you propose to call a senior researcher working at, say, Microsoft research a professor?  But, yes, the person is unlikely to take offense if it happens, still it's just an incorrect way to address them.

@quid Thanks for providing the French perspective. My knowledge is limited to the United States, where there is such a thing as a research (non-teaching) professor, and PhDs use their titles professionally.

In my view, in academia, the word "Boss" carries a large amount of semantic baggage that you probably don't want to invoke. Although you mean it to be polite and respectful, it also has an ironic context which you may not have detected. By saying "Dear Boss" can also imply that in your opinion they are neither dear to you or deserve the respect as a superior. It is safest to avoid such salutations altogether in emails.
As others have indicated this is very culturally dependent and I think you are bringing too much of your south asian culture to a european environment. Do what the locals do and emulate other peers is the safest and wisest approach.

Dear Boss is awful. Dear Dr X, or Dear Professor X, or whatever. Reasons given for not using those make no sense (focusing on research rather than teaching: what's that have to do with it). Glad the OP asked!

@user37208 I disagree! "Dear Boss" sounds worse to me.

The only time I can imagine "Dear Boss" not being weird is if it's aa very friendly relationship and you regularly use "Boss" in person in that playful and slightly ironic way.

@user37208: Hey Chief sounds pretty playful to me; Dear Boss sounds almost passive-aggressive.

Your answer addressed the issue, but I think the answer by @JoErNanO clarified my doubts in full and I find it most helpful, therefore marking that as an accepted answer.

"Dear Professor X" is still probably still appropriate. Even if they are a full-time researcher and aren't teaching, their official position is probably some variant of "Professor." If their job title is not professor, then I would just go with "Dear Dr. X" and accept that it might be a little too formal.
At least in the US, I would pretty much never use "Dear Boss," even in an email sent to my actual boss in industry. It sounds awkward and weirdly removed. If you want something more formal than a first name, stick to "Ms./Mr./Dr. X."

'their official position is probably some variant of "Professor." ' No, in France there is a separate  system for pure researchers.

Avoid "Ms X". People have a tendency to write "Ms X" for a woman when they'd write "Dr X" for a man.

@hoyland If they have a doctorate then obviously you should use "Dr." (something that is true for both women and men). But I was making a more general statement; for someone without a doctorate "Ms." is generally the best option.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professor_X

The first thing to do is to ask your supervisor what she wants to be called. Does she want to keep things formal? Does she want to be called by name? Whatever she tells you is the appropriate salutation to use with her. There is no need to second-guess yourself, nor to go spend too much time over-thinking this.
Now, I know that cultural differences are hard to combine. For this reason I'll give you some pointers based on personal experience. In general, the French culture is one of extreme politeness when it comes to communication. The way people go about this is to use formal pronouns and conjugations when talking to each other. In other words, you'd address your interlocutor as second person plural vous. This is all true until one of the two, usually the one's that higher up in the hierarchy/respect scale (your manager/your spouse's parents), actually tells you "on peut se/tu peux me tutoyer" which means "we/you can use the informal pronoun tu", as opposed to vouvoyer which is what you were initially doing. Tu is the second person singular.
When it comes to titles, the French don't really seem to be fussy about them. Indeed, the main titles used are Monsieur and Madame, i.e. Mr and Mrs (there is also Mademoiselle (Ms) for nubile women, although it's kind of deprecated since it's virtually impossible to safely gauge if one is married or not after they reach adulthood). Medical Doctors here are referred to as Monsieur/Madame, the Prime Minister is Monsieur Valls, the President de la République is Monsieur Hollande.
Therefore, regardless of whether your supervisor is or is not a professor, has or doesn't have teaching assignments, the formal way of addressing her would be "Madame Xyz". Which, in your email would become "Chère Madame Xyz," or "Dear Mrs. Xyz". If however, Madame Xyz explicitly told you to use her first name Asd then a "Bonjour Asd," or "Hello Asd," will do.
The title "Boss" is in no way appropriate nor more polite than Madame. I would not use it in this context, nor anywhere else in general.

+1 This is one of only two answers that actually addresses the specific situation of the OP beyond the -- admittedly useful -- response that "Hey boss" is usually inappropriate in academia.

"Dear Mrs. Xyz": I would advice against that, as "Mrs" (contrary to the French "Madame") is exclusively reserved for married women (and "Miss" is for unmarried women). Use the neutral "Ms" instead!

"you'd address your interlocutor as second person plural" like in English, where it is so common the singular got even forgotten ;-)

@quid Verily, thou art most mistaken

+1. A few notes: if the mail is in French then "Madame" or "Bonjour" will be fine. "Bonjour" is less formal but good enough. I would not use "Chère Madame XYZ". "Boss" or any translation one may come with is never appropriate, except if someone is very, very familiar with his or her boss, and only on 1:1 emails.

Personally I cannot think of any context where 'Dear Boss' is appropriate. You also note that it is not customary to refer to ones advisor as 'boss' at all. There's a good reason for that: generally they are not your boss. They are your advisor, mentor, teacher, collaborator, colleague... but for most PhD students they are not in a position of being employed with their advisor as line manager.

As a PhD student in France, I think using word "boss" would be probably taken as an inappropriate expression. If you speak in English with your professor, it is appropriate to say "Dear professor" as it is mentionned in other comments and answers.
If you speak in French, you could use "bonjour madame/monsieur" (which is equivalent to "hello sir" in English)
As there exists a formal and informal way to say "you" in French, if your advisor uses "tu" (informal you in french), you could also say him/her "tu" because otherwise, it can be considered as you would like to put a distance.
If your advisor says "vous" (formal you in french) when she/he speaks with you, you are also asked to use "vous" as it is a social norm in France.

The formality is not important, more important is the content of the letter/e-mail. However, some people tend to consider themselves as respectable, so using formal language Dear Professor X or Dear Dr. X is advisable.

Ask her how she would like to be addressed.  Will not cause offence and shows a cultural sensitivity.

When in Rome, do as a Romans do
Find some trusted native French phd students. Study some of their mails. Write the salutation the way they do.
I am an Indian living in India and I find hi/hello too informal when talking to my seniors. Calling them by their first name cannot be even thought of according to my culture!
I write the mails as follows:

Greetings,
I wish to inform you about ...

Are you Indian in India or Indian elsewhere? Formality depends on where you are, not who you are.

@TheIndependentAquarius  don't agree with sentence "Calling them by their first name cannot be even thought of!". There are professors ask to their PhD students to call them by their first name.

@optimalcontrol I was talking about India. We do not call our seniors by name.

Welcome to doing a PhD in France! I think the main difficulty in your question comes from the fact that your boss is not actually your boss, she's firstly your colleague. (The closest thing you would get as a boss would be the university Dean.) She is an advisor, being senior means she has probably good advice to give and you should listen to it, but still this is really different from, say, a course where the professor is above his/her students.
This is the first point, the second is that in academia in France, all colleagues communicate informally among themselves (with one big exception in medicine). So you're expected to communicate informally with her. Not doing so is acceptable in the short term as you are foreign, and it is understandable that this type of communication is awkward to you, but in the long run it will sound bad. If you keep using formal tone, it will sound like "I agree to do what you tell me because you're the boss and I have no choice"
So definitely no "Dear Boss". Using  "Greetings" or "Good afternoon" are a good compromise until you feel comfortable enough to write "Hi Firstname,".

Both "Dear Madam" and "Dear Madam X" are appropriate, "Dear Boss" sounds bad to my ears. No need to use "Doctor" or "Professor", in France academic diplomas are usually not mentionned excepted in a resume.
Ho and by the way, I'm French ;)

"Dear Madam X" is wrong in English; whether or not one should address somebody as "Dr Foo" or "Prof. Foo" is very culture-dependent.

@DavidRicherby Sure, that's what he asks for so my answer is focused on french culture.

People who you meet frequently with won't like to be addressed in a formal way. Writing "Hi X, I am stuck with doing Y, I was going about it the way you told me to do in our last meeting yesterday, but this yields strange results", is preferable over "Dear Prof. Dr. X..... " because the way you need to communicate the issues you need to be talking about necessarily requires an informal way of communication and then starting with "Dear Prof. Dr. X" is rather unnatural.
To the advisor it is just like getting an email from a good friend who instead of saying "Hello, how are you doing?" as he or she would always do when speaking on the phone or meeting in person writes "Dear Prof X". So, this is totally unnatural after you know the person and have had some meetings with each other.
Now, all social guidelines will have exceptions e.g. this looks like an exceptional professor, but I think you're better off communicating in an informal way with your advisor.

May I suggest one of the following?

No salutation at all. That is, just get on with what you want to say. This is quite common in emails these days. Example:

Regarding my thesis, I have a couple of questions. (blah blah)
Regards, Sathyam

Just say "Hi,". Example:

Hi,
Regarding my thesis, I have a couple of questions. (blah blah)
Regards, Sathyam

Modify for the usual greeting in your language, eg. Bonjour
Use her surname. Example:

Hi Ms. Chevalier,
Regarding my thesis, I have a couple of questions. (blah blah)
Regards, Sathyam

I answer quite a few questions on forums, effectively being a similar thing to answering questions about academic issues. I find too much formality irritating. In particular:

Dear Nick  (would prefer just "Nick")
Dear Gammon (would prefer to be called "Nick")
Gammon (sounds like being told off by my teacher)
Sir Nick (sounds like I have just been knighted)
Mr. Nick (sounds wrong, it's Mr. Gammon, if we are going to use Mister at all)

-1. Emails with no salutation (except from one's closest friends or colleagues) are really annoying. To me they are a way of saying "I don't know how I should refer to you and don't have the courage to pick one out of the small number of available options, so I will signal my cluelessness by just not saying anything". Given that this is indeed precisely the situation here, and the OP is actively trying to NOT send such a signal of cluelessness, this is pretty much the worst advice you can offer him.

I've checked some recent unsolicited personal messages (emails). About 80% just launch into what they want. A couple use "Hi Nick", one "Hi Mr. Gammon", one uses "Hello there", a couple use just "Nick", a couple "Hey Nick". I think there is a difference in being clueless about how to address someone face-to-face, and just keeping an email brief and to the point. Sometimes when I write to customer-service departments I use "Hi there", or "Hello there" myself, not knowing exactly the name of the person who will read it.

My first reaction is that "Dear Boss" is not ok (especially since she is female and that there is this word "bossy" with all the negative connotations, especially when applied to women and girls). I also would suggest a simple "Dear Ms. Lastname" or "Dear Firstname Lastname".
However, since you'll be communicating via email frequently you may also use the same salutation as you use when you meet her in person. If you greet her personally with "Hi Boss", and that's ok with you both, you may well use it in an email and it or "Dear Boss" should also be ok. But the advice in this last paragraph has to be taken with a grain of salt since I do not really know many detail about your relationship.

As a PhD advisor will almost always have a doctorate herself, I do not believe that "Ms Lastname" is appropriate. Either one is formal, and uses Dr Lastname, or informal and uses Firstname.

@arno I don't agree. Unless you would call her Dr Lastname in person, writing this in an email would sound strange to me.

My comment is independent of the mode of communication: If a person has a doctorate, then Mr/Ms/Mrs should be replaced by Dr (unless they are a surgeon, afaik).

@Arno Different cultures have different levels of formality, both in range and number. At least in the German speaking sphere, there is definitely a distinct level of "Lieber Herr X" between "Sehr geehrter Herr Professor/Dr. X" (depending on the title) and "Hallo Y", which would be quite appropriate for (symmetric!) communication between advisor and advisee.

@Arno This approach is really uncommon in Germany. Only very few students in the first semester would call be "Dr Lorenz" (this basically never happens) and some more call me "Prof Lorenz" in person. In email, however, both is much more common, but "Herr Lorenz" is as common and also generally seen as polite. I do not think that I have any colleague who would view  "Herr Lastname" as impolite.

@Arno especially as it is about France, Ms Lastname  should be fine as it is just not common to use Dr Name.

I believe this is about language, not about country. In German, Herr/Frau is not dropped when a title is added, in English, it is. Thus, "Herr Lastname" works as being in between "Herr Doktor Lastname" and "Firstname". However, this is different in English, where Mr/Ms/Mrs is replaced by a title. Calling a non-surgeon with a doctorate "Mr Lastname" in a professional setting is not appropriate. Calling him "Herr Lastname" can be.

@Arno No, it is in fact about the country or rather culture (although the local language plays a role in shaping this). In particular, just because a French person communicates in English does not mean they automatically follow, e.g., US customs in communication; rather I'd expect them to try to map the customs in French to English as best they can without sounding awkward. (This is definitely the case in German, where dropping titles is seen as a sign of respect towards a colleague -- you are not "putting the title between you", if you will.)

Let alone that in Austria (which is somehow a German speaking country) the title replaces the lastname and not the "Herr", so you would say "Sehr geehrter Herr Doktor" and not "Sehr geehrter Doktor Lastname"…

This is a case specific question! Many would argue and say "NO", others will say it "depends" (on professor/country/institution). I'm with the latter. If she is "cool" with it, it should not be a problem. When I email my advisor (on stuff regarding my project, papers, courses), I use this "Dear Prof. N", N being the first letter of his last name. However, when I send emails to multiple recipients (including him), I use his full last name.

Just the first letter of the last name? Isn't it a bit strange?

I can see your point, but he is totally fine with it!

In North America – British professors to the contrary notwithstanding – an email between two people in the same institution (physically or otherwise) is considered to be of the same format as an interoffice memo. [Please note that like an interoffice memo one can see to whom it is being sent without a salutation and one can see who it is from without a complementary close.]
Of course it is the nature of the French to make sure that they do not do anything as it is done in other countries.  So, although the North American protocol seems logical to we Vulcans, the best I can say is viva la difference.
                                     Herr Professor Doctor Robert D. Jewell

I have no clue what you mean to say "Herr Professor Doctor Robert D. Jewell" as it would be very uncommon to use this construct  in French and even in German too, though maybe less so.

This doesn't seem to answer the question at all.The question asks about what salutation to use and you don't address that issue even slightly.


text:
I'm admitted to a PhD program in mathematics, but only achieved a pass (no distinction) in masters. Will this affect my reputation in the PhD program?
I'm a maths student who did his BSc at a top 10 university in England and got solid first.
After this, I decided to go to Cambridge to do Part III of the Mathematical tripos (a Masters). This was a HUGE step up for me and I felt like a fish out of water. It didn't help that I had personal problems going on in my life around the time of exams, and this ended up having an effect on my results: I got a pass grade.
The next step for me is a PhD and I have already been admitted to a program. My worry is that I don't feel I am good enough to do this. Yes, I got the place but it seems that everyone else I know who's doing a PhD ended up getting a distinction in their masters.
My question is this: how much does the Masters grade matter for fellow PhD students and supervisors? Are students with 'only' a pass looked down upon?

If you were accepted to the program you're good enough to be there. It's really as simple as that. Any credence you give to your insecurities is just going to slow you down.

It doesn't matter. They accepted you, so you're in.  Your instructors and peers aren't going to go digging around through your transcript or diploma, so they would never know about this anyway.  And even if you told them, I doubt they would care or remember this.

This is a common feeling in academia and it even has a name: "impostor syndrome". Knowing its name may help you look for resources to defeat it.

I am a former 'pass' Part III student. I am going to be blunt here, as I feel emotionally attached to your case and I know why you may feel frustrated (it may be due to the typical atmosphere that part III students are supplied). Part III is just a course that people want to show-off in their CVs (only one final exam at the end of the year, busy professors, for no particular reason unhealthily competitive students). Nobody has ever asked me what my grades were in Part III. Never. I am a Ph.D., did postdocs and am finalizing a good academic job.
All that matters is your hard work in your research. Forget about the scores in Part III. If research is what you want to do in the coming years, just do it without thinking about part III results. You may end up proving that the Part III degree doesn't make any difference in anyone's life for better or worse!

Thank you! Is there any way to PM you?

Sure. Can you go to the chatroom of academia: http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/26666/aj

Or, please create a chatroom yourself and I will join - I am new to this chat stuff.

Obligatory link.

+1 Agree 100%. I had the opposite experience; I did really well at Part III but turned out to be crap at research! Nobody cares about your Part III grades once you are doing a research degree.

I contest the idea that Part III is just to "show off". It is plausible that outside the most elitist situations nobody is ever going to care about your part III results, but that does not diminish the fact that I had a really great time doing it, and learned a f**k-ton of stuff.

@TomBachmann, Many students from top universities around the world, even after or during their first masters in their home universities, go for Part III. Just for the prestige of it. (hence other students have to 'compete' with those who had already learned the course previously!). Many other students could have learned the same courses at their local institutes but come to Cambridge again for the prestige. Sure, Cambridge is a unique experience, but takes away a lot of money! In short, there is not much that they would not have learned at any other institute. That's why I used 'show-off'.

I believe the majority of Part III students has completed just one degree before starting, although there clearly exists a significant group who has done a masters before. I would say that Part III offers a lot of choice of courses due to the number of students. Probably more than any other UK program. (To give an example, we had not only a course on category theory, but also one on Topos theory. There were further six courses to chose from in algebra).
Although I personally would have not done it already having a masters degree.

In short: no your master's grade won't matter much, but your love of the subject does. Since you got admitted to a PhD course it means you passed the evaluation criteria of the academic institution involved and you should be proud of it! Whether you think you have what it takes, you'll find that in the process. This wasn't just given to you, you earned it!
I had a pass in my BSc degree (Comp Sci) due to low marks at my final exams (my project scores were much better) and maybe due to other personal issues of my own back then, and had thought that was going to cause me trouble for the rest of my life! Thankfully I got into an MSc course and then onto a PhD. I became better over the years and graduated from my PhD.
Let me give you this advice: big name universities (or grades) don't necessarily mean a thing! The quality of the students and their research make the uni, not the name. If you think you are not up to standards you can only become better in time through your PhD research. Many people drop out cause they feel bored or lose interest or want to find a job and earn money. I got involved with things I thought I'd never touch (maths, statistics, user evaluations, etc) and a new world outside of programming opened up to me. You should feel excited and show this excitement so your professors and lecturers start to see potential in you. This will carry you farther in your career.
Congratulations! Carry on!


text:
Shrink the paper or pay for extra page charges?
A PhD student has started his research about two year ago by research scholarship from university. His supervisor won a huge grant on a topic very close to his research project couple of months earlier. He and his supervisor submitted a 6 page paper to a journal for publication. Editor's decision is that the paper should be published as a communication rather original research. This means that they have to reduce the manuscript to 4 pages or pay about 500$ for extra pages. The adviser asked the student to shrink the paper to the shortest possible version.
I have the following questions:

Can they pay the publications fees from the grant budget?
Can student ask the adviser to pay for the publication from the grant? What is the best polite approach for such request?
Should supervisor expect to put the grant number in the acknowledgement while he does not pay for the publication fees.

To answer the title question: Neither.  Publish elsewhere.

@JeffE Would you make the same suggestion if the journal is a highly reputable one?

@scaaahu: I just did.

@JeffE: but spending some money to publish in a high rank journal can open more funding opportunities in future, doesn't it??

If some of the authors are high-rank enough, publishing elsewhere contributes to liberation from the racketeering of ridiculously priced journals and to raise well-behaved (perhaps even open access journals) to highly reputable status.

@antmw1361: In my experience, publishing excellent work opens funding opportunities, no matter where it's published, and publishing mediocre work does not, no matter where it's published.  Your mileage may vary.

You already have the answer from your advisor. He is the one who knows the circumstances and can make the call if he want to.
You can ask, but be careful how you do it. Remember, if he wanted to do it, he would have done it already instead of asking you to cut the paper.
Yes, if its close enough, and he feels that grant has been supporting his activities...

Generally yes (depends on whether the grant is tied to any specific spending though, e.g. staff costs, equipment, etc.) - but if the advisor suggests to cut down the paper, it is probably best to follow that suggestion. An alternative would be to provide the longer version of the paper as an official technical report by the university, which should not clash with publication restrictions of the journal. I have seen a number of publications that have a technical report with the same title. (This is in computer science.)
See above - but this also depends on the relationship with the advisor. If they're generally friendly, suggesting it sounds reasonable ("would this be an option...?").
Yes.


text:
Leaving an Area of Specialization (AOS) off of my CV?
So with the job market being as it is, I'm considering the prospect of leaving academia after my PhD. The problem that I have is that the name of one of my Areas of Specialization has been co-opted by some new age mystics and if you search "X" after seeing that I specialized in "X", you're more likely to think I specialized in some arcane form of crystal healing than the work I actually did.
My other AOSs sound fine, even semi-impressive to the layman, and so don't really concern me. This one, however....
So, two quick and related questions:

Am I right to think that my AOSs at least would still remain when listing my PhD on a non-academic CV/resume? Or just "PhD in field X"? (The question on CV for leaving academia didn't provide too much specific guidance here.)
Is it ethical to leave one of my AOSs off of the CV, assuming I leave the others untouched? In a sense it is misrepresenting what I did during my PhD, since I really did a lot of work in all three of these areas. On the other hand, listing this troublesome AOS might misrepresent what I did even more--- crystal healing and such.

Can you expand AOS here please, what does it stand for?

@FionaTaylorGorringe I would guess it's area of study, but its not very clear

@FionaTaylorGorringe Sorry, AOS is Area of Specialization. Didn't realize it wasn't a standard abbreviation.

So, what's an "Area of Specialization" (with capital letters)?  Is that different from "Research Interests"?  Surely there's more than one phrase to describe what your research is about?

This seems like an obvious opportunity to briefly explain yourself on your CV by listing the formal names but then stating what that actually means in parentheses. As an example:

PhD, Some Named Institution (2007-Present)
Areas of Concentration:
 - Science thing 1
 - Science thing 2
 - Crystal healing sounding thing (Chemical Engineering)

If you are applying for jobs in industry or consulting, your Area of Specialization is much less important than the skills you have developed and your proven record of performance (producing results, completing projects, writing and publishing papers).  You could omit your Area of Specialization completely and just list your major and your skills, e.g.:

PhD in Biochemistry. Skills: Experiment design and analysis, statistical analysis, computational modeling of protean evolution.


text:
How will the academic boycott of Israel (BDS) influence my career if I get a PhD in Israel?
I'm considering doing a PhD in the social sciences at an Israeli university. My research will not be conflict-focused, and I'm not sure yet whether it will have a local component. I would likely do research that appeals to more left-wing academics (economically and socially), perhaps those who would be inclined to adopt a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) stance.
My question is: If I choose to obtain a PhD in Israel, will the boycott movement significantly affect my academic career? If so, how?
I've asked a few local scholars and have received mixed responses.

As far as I'm aware, BDS is mainly about withdrawing investments from Israel. I don't think it would affect the value of your degree (as straight-up antisemitism will), but it might make it harder to apply for some funding sources. I'm not in the humanities so I can't tell you how much your project will depend on external funding, but you should be able to gauge that during the application process...

As far as I’m aware, BDS is mainly about withdrawing investments from Israel. That is incorrect, @nengel. citation

@nengel I don't think it would affect the value of the degree, but I might well affect the willingness of people to help or collaborate with the student. And some funding sources, as you said.

It's worth noting that the answer to this question will change over time. Now, in 2024, anti-Israel sentiment is much stronger in many parts of the world than it was when the question was asked, and the current answers written, in 2018.

If there is going to be a problem, then it will occur when searching collaborating institutions outside Israel. I know there has been talk about stopping such collaborations. However, how much that has been implemented is another question. In my field (quantitative sociology) that has not been the case. The argument being that you are not going to help solve a conflict by closing down channels of communication. This is not the place to discuss the merits of that argument, but you can imagine that such an argument is popular in academia. So I suspect that it should be possible to find a collaborating institution if you needed one.
I don't think you have to worry about the value of your PhD. That should be recognised outside Israel without problems.

The answer below was relevant in 2018. By 2024, Israel has become more ostracized with the ongoing Gaza campaign, and readers should take this into account.

tl;dr: It probably won't affect your career.
You would be in clear violation the academic boycott
Please read the guidelines document of the Palestinian academic boycott, which is the (most/single) relevant aspect of the BDS movement to your question.
In the document, you will note the position that:

Academic institutions are a key part of the ideological and institutional scaffolding of Israel’s regime of occupation, colonialism and apartheid against the Palestinian people.

and consequently

Specifically, the following events, activities, or situations are in violation of the Palestinian academic boycott:
...

International students enrolling in or international faculty teaching or conducting research at degree or non-degree programs at an Israeli institution.

I'm assuming you are not Palestinian, nor an Israeli whose enrollment in Israeli institutions is obviously exempted and not considered a violation.
It does not matter:

What the contents of your research is
What your political position is
What the political position of your research supervisor/advisor is

You would be considered as benefiting at the Palestinians' expense and legitimizing their predicament
Millions of Palestinians are not able to travel to Palestine (especially the areas considered part of sovereign Israel), live there, study and work there, and particularly, undertake Ph.D. programs. You, however, will do so; and the symbolism is pretty powerful. This will be perceived by many as benefiting from the dispossession and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. Moreover, it is the Israeli state at whose will you may enter, and they - the Palestinians - may not; and your availing yourself of that possibility will be perceived as legitimizing this control, this power, Israel has.
Whoever becomes your advisor would be abetting your violation
An academic at an Israeli university who respects the boycott cannot be your Ph.D. supervisor/advisor.
"... but will this all affect my career?"
Only a minority of academics support the boycott - not because most academic oppose it (which they may or may not), but more because most academics have never given it much thought, and have at most heard about it in the media. I'm not basing this on statistics though, but rather on my impression and limited personal knowledge.
In addition, only a minority of those who support the boycott - again, in my belief and to my impression - would actively penalize, or distance themselves from, people who violate the boycott. And that is particularly true for a Ph.D. candidate, who can claim "I just went there, I don't accept Israel's policies nor the collaboration between the universities and the military etc."
However, if you are interested in academic activity in subfields or in institutions in which this minority is more common (e.g. in Arab countries; Middle-Eastern/Palestinian Studies; etc.) - then the chances are somewhat higher. Since I'm not in that situation (nor have I violated the boycott), I can't be more specific.
Even then, institutions in most countries will not condone discrimination against you based on your violation of the boycott, so the space for actions against you would be limited. In fact, in some places - it is people who endorse the boycott, or that are critical of Israel and US and European support for it, that are ostracized and penalized. The US almost passed a law making support for BDS illegal, and one of the states actually went ahead with it (although that state law was struck down as unconstitutional).
So your career will probably be unaffected. It will mostly be a matter of conscience you have to decide.
(Of course it will affect your career by your being immersed in the academic and social environment of an Israeli university, which will affect how you develop as a person and your perspective as a researcher. But that's not quite what you were asking.)

I think some statements may need citations (e.g., "Millions of Palestinians are not able to travel to Palestine", "Only a minority of academics support the boycott").

@Orion: The first point is common knowledge. About the second point - see edit. I don't think there are numbers about this.

This answer makes it seem like you think that the whole of Israel is “really Palestine.” That is, to put it lightly, a highly divisive claim. Is that what you mean to be implying?

@einpoklum What is the “common knowledge” you’re referring to? Do you mean the 2M refugees in Jordan? Or do you mean the people who live in the West Bank who can’t travel to Tel Aviv? That’s a really big difference, and your claim is quite unclear.

@StellaBiderman: That's a cummulative claim. Counting all Palestinians in the situation I've described, you get several Millions.

@einpoklum You haven’t actually answered my or Orion’s questions and request for clarification. Saying that something is common knowledge doesn’t actually provide support for a claim in the face of someone who disputes it. And you haven’t described any kind of “situation.”

OP knows that they “would be in clear violation of the academic boycott”, so I don’t see the point of that section of your answer (other than to insert your unsolicited political views into the discussion). I also doubt the accuracy of some of your claims. Why are Israeli students “obviously exempted”? What do you mean when you say you haven’t “violated the boycott”? What is your basis for claiming that most supporters of the boycott would not penalize OP? (That sounds self-contradictory - someone who supports the boycott by definition wants to boycott people associated with Israeli academia).

@DanRomik: 1. You are misinformed about the nature of the boycott; it is directed at institutions, not individuals; do read the document I linked to, or at least skim it. .2. OP's question is worded in a way which sounds like an explanation of mitigating circumstances - research not conflict focused, left-oriented etc. 3. The guidelines explains why Israeli students are obviously exempted. Basically, people are not expected to boycott all institutions (of a certain kind) where they live and to go abroad to get educated.

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Why does Springer need 85,000 words in a monograph?
I'm dealing with Springer about a monograph proposal. My draft was 80,000 words and they asked me to make it 85–100,000 words. I don't want to bother the editor with a question that is just out of curiosity. But, why do they need to expand it? What difference are 5,000 words going to make?

This is probably an economic decision based on the balancing of input effort/cost and likely return on investment. But you should ask the editor to see whether it is a "hard" rule or not and if you ask that, then you might as well ask why. I don't know if they make exceptions.
An exception might be "above the pay grade" of an individual editor, or not.

A lot of the economic issues come from the cost of binding.  At 85,000 words this will be about half cover, half pages, by thickness.  I think Springer monographs still have printed and bound editions.

@TerryLoring, if a volume is too thin it limits what can be put on the spine. That seems like a dumb reason but might figure in.

80k words is definitely not in the "too thin" regime.

It's also highly unlikely that this is a purely economic issue (in the sense of how much it takes to produce a book). The biggest factors that change the cost of that are 1) page size, do you use 9x6 pages for example and 2) total page count (longer books are more expensive).

@Allure, I don't have any examples on my shelf, but outfits like Springer may like their logo on the spine and they might like it nicely sized. This is a corporate choice. I've had issues with books of under 200 pages and don't have many constraints about what need to appear there. I like my name to appear, of course, but don't insist on the bulldog. ;-)

Hard to believe.  My experience (as an individual purchaser of Springer-published documents) is that Springer picks a random number north of $100 and uses that.  Then either subtracts $2 or adds (!!) $2 for the ebook - which is what really annoys me.

@davidbak: economic issue in the sense of "if the book is too thin, our margin is too small and our shareholders are unhappy" rather than "if the book is too thin, we lose money".

@Taladris - I get that in general, but for Springer in particular, their pricing is whatever the captive suckers - I mean, market - will bear.

Here's an educated guess based on my experience with other publishers. They ran an analysis to see which of their monographs are most profitable (or receive the most citations,* or whatever other metric they care about). It turns out that there is a correlation between length and profit. Therefore they ask for a certain number of words.
It's almost surely not a hard requirement, they'll probably accept an 80k-word monograph if you adamantly refuse to lengthen the manuscript.
*That longer articles get more citations is fairly well-established by the way: see e.g. 1 2 3

That would make sense. It’s said that there’s a “sweet spot” (word count) for every genre.

Goodhart's Law comes to mind: "If a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart%27s_law

Can you share more about "your experience with other publishers"? In which part of the process did you participate?

@Taladris I currently work in academic publishing, and I had an insider's view as to why there is a guideline for X number of words for journal articles.

If you mean "experience working for other publishers" please say that.  "experience with" is ambiguous as to the relationship that led to the experience.

it seems unlikely that a scientific organization would confuse correlation with causation like that, but I have no idea of the inner-workings of publishing houses.

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How to neutralize an Ivy League obsession?
Not disregarding that the Ivies are fine colleges in many aspects, how to deal with high-school students fixated on the idea that they need an Ivy league education, or otherwise their education would be second class. Or to deal with equally fixated people who think that academics in the Ivy league is the only golden rule (and the others are second class). Talking about this makes me sound a tad envious, but I like to make people see that many other colleges are fine too (although maybe not that famous).

Point out how many of the faculty at the Ivies (or peer institution) did not attend an Ivy themselves, at least not for undergrad.

What do you mean by how to deal with? Why not just ignore the narrow minded view and let them be?

I agree with StrongBad. But I will say I have taught at an SEC school and at an Ivy and find my average student in each school to be about the same. Also, I've had a senior at the Ivy with a 3.6 GPA who could not add 18+3 without a calculator (the student ran out of fingers and toes). Don't let what others get you frustrated. The people who matter know that Ivy is not the end-all be-all.

This might be one way Google Is Not Impressed by Your Fancy Ivy League Credentials.

make an analogy to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsxQxS0AdBY&feature=youtu.be

It's not hard to find Ivy League alumni who will readily admit - even adamantly defend - the statement that there are other colleges in the US which are just as good academically, and that you do not have to go to an Ivy League school to get a first-class education. Of course this is purely anecdotal, not any sort of logical argument, but then again people who feel like the Ivy League is the only way to get a top-quality education in the US are also not drawing their conclusions from logic, so perhaps an emotional appeal is just what they need.
If you're talking to someone who might be open to an evidence-based approach, try asking them to name what they consider to be the top universities in the US. Or better yet, look up a few college rankings and find out which names consistently appear near the top. For example, the US News and World Report rankings for universities are headed by

Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Stanford, University of Chicago, Duke, MIT, University of Pennsylvania, Caltech, Dartmouth

and for liberal arts colleges, by

Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Middlebury, Pomona, Carleton, Wellesley, Claremont McKenna, Davidson, Haverford

Forbes' top 10 are

Stanford, Pomona, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, Swarthmore, West Point, Harvard, Williams, MIT

Beyond those I'm not sure of other ranking systems' reputation, but the Parchment rankings give as their top 10

Stanford, MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Duke, Yale, Caltech, Pomona, Harvey Mudd, Brown

and the Academic Ranking of World Universities gives

Harvard, Stanford, UC Berkeley, MIT, Caltech, Princeton, Columbia, U Chicago, Yale, UCLA

and so on (you get the picture). Anyway, whether this person you're talking to comes up with their own idea of the top colleges or uses one or more of these lists, it's rather unlikely that their list will match the list of Ivy League universities: Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania, and Yale. Clearly, while a university's membership in the Ivy League is somewhat correlated with having a high ranking, it is not the only way to get one.
You could also mention that the Ivy League is actually just an athletic conference, like the Big 10. The member schools generally happen to be academically high-achieving, but membership in the Ivy League is in no way meant to be a certification of strong academics.

If it means a lot to you, you could start by sharing with skeptics specific examples of academics/researchers/graduates who attended non-Ivy League schools, and how they "made the world a better place," or some such.
If that fails, as an alternative, you could simply let the people who believe that Ivy League schools are the "be all, end all" go on believing that. For some people, image is everything, and there is no convincing them otherwise. I don't doubt that there are pros to attending Ivy League schools, but some people perceive the quality of an Ivy League education through an illogical/emotional lens that is very hard to change.

Just be careful that you don't use "and now she's a professor at Harvard!" as your benchmark of success.

In terms of getting a job that utilizes connections significantly :

Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, (maybe) Wharton; required for employability
MIT, Brown, Penn and the rest of the Ivies; you need to excel in order to get the job
Below that : summa cum laude is all but required.

The trend is similar for law schools : but LSAT is closely related to which school you go to(for whatever reason) so it doesn't hurt, although it is not taken into too much consideration in the admissions office.
In terms of getting into academia
(extrapolating from article "Sorry Cal State, No Princeton Grad School for You")
A little bit lenient on the rankings but conversely the lower you go on the school ranking the better your grades need to be. Of course on average graduate school bound students get better grades than those who aim for employment post bachelor's.

Top 5~10 : To get into top 5~10 in your field, you need at least magna cum laude
Top 30 : To get into top 5~10, you need summa
Top 50 : To get into top 5~10, you need to be one of the best students in your class
Top 100 : Very rare(a handful a year, per school)
Outside top 100 : Once a few years(with an extra master's)

This trend is mimicked for MBA programs : leniency in GPA, need better GMAT or GRE.
So while in terms of employability many prestigious fields require that you at least go to a top 20 institution to have any good chance, graduate school focuses a bit more on marks and recommendations. Still, your college name goes a long way.
So it's not that some students are obsessed with rankings per se, it's that companies and schools that matter to the world are obsessed with where their applicants went to college.

Thankfully, this is nonsense, at least in the fields I'm familiar with.

This will not get many upvotes until/unless you name the field and the companies. It doesn't square with my experience at all.