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How do I 'read the room' and adjust my pace while lecturing?
I am a PhD student. I've never taught a lecture-style course before. I just filled in for my advisor at the last minute, giving a lecture in an undergrad course.
I taught from the lecture slides that my advisor had prepared, drawing diagrams and examples on the whiteboard where I thought it was warranted. I stopped often and asked if anyone had questions, and if nobody did I posed questions to them, e.g., "What do you think is the benefit of this system over that?" "What did you learn about X?"
My impression was that approximately 30% of the class was pretty engaged, asking and answering questions, etc., 50% were taking notes and paying attention but not really speaking up, and the rest were zoned out. I think this is normal (from what I remember from being an undergrad), so I thought I was doing OK.
However, towards the end of the lecture, a few students said that I was going much faster than normal. And, I did get through more slides than my advisor said I should expect to, so they're probably right.
My question is:

What clues do you look for to "read a room" to tell that you're going too fast, even though people seem to still be "getting it"?
What can you do to slow down, beyond asking if anybody has questions and bringing up more examples (I can only think of so many examples)?

I am asking specifically about teaching undergrads, because I think they are more difficult to read than postgrads, or senior academics in the audience of a conference talk.  But I would appreciate answers that apply to the latter scenario as well.
Also, I understand that things like clickers and discussion groups can make a difference, but I am asking specifically how to improve my lecturing, not how to restructure classes so I spend less time lecturing.
A related question is How to improve myself as a lecturer, where one answer says "Never assume that students follow you" and suggests you "see if they get the idea, sort of get the idea, or don't get it at all." I tried to do this, and it seemed like the students that were willing to engage were "getting it." Apparently they were getting it, but I was still going at a speed that made their heads hurt :)

Practice.  Or, if you want to get really technical about it, you can read up on all the literature and tips for avoiding teaching/tutoring illusions and biases (illusions of common ground, illusions of goal alignment, etc.).  Technically, if it's your own class, flipped classrooms are probably empirically better anyway (i.e., record lectures and assign them as homework, facilitate exercises in class).  Lectures are inherently inefficient for maintaining the right Zone of Proximal development, so even if you optimize, it will be so-so.

@Namey I do intend to practice and find out what works well with my teaching style. Starting with the specific  strategies suggested by the more experienced lecturers here will hopefully make my learning curve less painful for my students. And, I wouldn't feel comfortable with "advanced" techniques like flipped classroom when I haven't even gotten the basic lecture down yet.

In my experience it's easy to be misled by a few good students who are able to engage with you and answer your questions. This doesn't mean the majority of students feel the same way of course. I always try and bear in mind the weakest (and often the quietest) students in the class and try and not be lured into accelerating due to a few bright sparks at the front.
Asking if there are any questions or bring up examples is a good way to try and gauge the classes response. But if the class is shy or unresponsive (as is often the case initially) I find it very hard to know whether I'm boring the pants of them or they're completely lost.
A simple trick is to give a short relatively straightforward exercise and ask everyone to do it there and then. It should only take a minute or two. You can then briefly walk through the students and ask them how they are getting on. It should become obvious if many of them are struggling. Walking among the students and directly interacting with them isn't going to suit everyone though and if the class is large (or the seating is inaccessible) it will be more difficult. But it's crucial to get some feedback and if that means taking a more proactive approach then why not? I make sure to smile and encourage them since some students will be nervous if the lecturer asks how they're doing.

clickers or simply polling the class via asking a simple true or false question is another way of getting feedback from the whole class. Give me a 1 on your fingers if you think the following is true, 2 for false, 3 for unsure. There hands will be low so they won't be drawing attention to themselves if they get it wrong.

There are probably many different solutions to your problem. I will focus on what you could consider with your presentation. I think it is very easy to be too fast: you know the material, you feel awkward if there is a silent moment, nervousness/adrenalin kick etc. So there is a basic property of lecturing that prompts one to go faster than we may think.
When using slides you present ready written material for the students to copy. This means they write things while you speak, and what they write may not be what you are talking about. As a result they may split their focus and get confused. In the old days, the lecturer usually wrote on the board while talking. Hence students saw, heard and wrote the same material in the pace it took the lecturer to write it. I do not think the lecturer managed to talk about one thing while writing another, so the whole lecture hall was in sync and at a pace most could follow. This automatic adaption mechanism is partly lacking today, and it is possible to overload slides. It is of course possible to provide slide sheets of the slides to the students, but that will not promote a slow-down per se, and I do not think it helps understanding either, because students tend to not take notes as a result (I have no proof of this, but it is my experience when using such sheets).
So if possible, I think breaking up your presentation to lecture more interactively on a white board may help, apart from breaking the monotony of a slide show. To do breaks with questions is a very good way to keep students focussed to continue with that. You also need to think about what students need to take notes, so that they actually have a chance. Finally, I would recommend you to take a course in university pedagogics. In many countries in Europe, such courses are mandatory for teaching and also a requirement when applying for positions. I do not know how this applies in your neighbourhood, but having a course in pedagogics is never wrong; hopefully you can find one.
Finally, reflecting on these matters is good, and you gain experience as you teach. There are also scientific sources such as the Journal of Higher Education and Higher Education Quarterly. There are many other sources, and a search on Google scholar on relevant keywords should give additional useful hits. Hopefully your university allows access to some of these journals.

Re. "pedagogic": I've taken classes on teaching adult learners. One instructor made a point of using the term "androgogic" -- as opposed to "pedagogic" -- to emphasize that we were teaching adults, not children.

Agree that teaching from slides definitely makes things worse, but it does help keep the lecture organized - I've taken classes with instructors who totally lost the flow of things when they went off their slides However, I could probably get the organization of slides and also the benefits of whiteboard teaching by preparing a thorough lecture outline that covers both the content in the slides and "interactive" portions on the whiteboard.

It sounds like you've done many of the things that one should do in lecture to feel the "needs of the room". Well done ! It is indeed true that undergrads are harder to read for the reasons you mention.
How long is the lecture ? When I teach 80 minute lectures, one piece of advice I was given that I continue to use is to force a 5 minute break in the middle regardless of how I think the room is doing (I have an alarm on my phone set for that time so that I don't forget). The five minute breaks allows students to get some water or take a bathroom break (things that can impair concentration), and it also gives people time to reflect on what they've been hearing and ask questions more "privately". You can also recap the first half of the lecture when you restart.
In a 50 minute lecture, you might find this less useful. However the typical attention span of a person is around 15 minutes (based on numerous studies that I don't currently have citations for - sorry JeffE), and so even in this shorter setting, forcing a break at around 25 minutes might provide the same kind of reset mechanism.
While this doesn't solve your problem entirely, it's a low-cost solution that can be used without extra work/prep.

It was an 80-minute lecture. I didn't give a "real" break. I am used to grad classes that run for 3 hours with a break at 80 minutes, so it seemed weird to me to break in middle.
I did stop lecturing for 5 minutes in a natural break between topics to talk about other things (e.g., schedule of upcoming lab assignments), to give them a chance to rest from note-taking. But this wouldn't give the very important benefits you point out. I'll definitely plan a 5-minute break in middle next time, thanks for the advice.

One of my favorite teachers during my undergrad program was my honors mathematics professor. I originally started taking honors classes in high school precisely because I hated slow-paced classes, and was sick of the boredom. Overall, this move didn't spare me entirely, of course...but in that particular math class, the pacing was wonderful. It might not have been if it wasn't an honors course, but that wouldn't have been my professor's fault: it would've been a matter of the rest of the class preferring a different pace than me.
This professor always kept in tune with the class' preferences across a variety of differently challenging topics in a very straightforward manner: he polled the classroom at the end of (nearly) each lecture. It only took a fraction of a minute. It might've gotten just a little bit irksome, but I'm sure it paid off. There were times when the majority was less than happy, and the method often revealed some difference of opinion. After a few weeks, we got quite used to his polling system, but it could've been introduced quite plainly in one day with a PowerPoint or scale of voting options drawn on the blackboard. Simply, his options were: too fast, just right, too slow, and if he felt it necessary, he would sometimes add way too fast or much too slow as a fourth option or follow-up question. The class would vote by show of raised hands. For the most part, people weren't too shy to vote, even if it was to express uncertainty.
This might not be the case outside of an honors course, where I would expect academic self-confidence and participation in general to be weaker...but I tried this a bit myself when teaching an upper-division (non-honors) psychology course at a separate university halfway across the country (USA). I varied the structure of the questions a bit too much, and was occasionally confusing as a result, but would usually make an effort to introduce the options I had in mind before taking votes. I got a lot of good feedback about a variety of concerns this way without even realizing that the classroom was clicker-equipped, much less with any effort to set them up or read their results.
Other functions of in-class polling:
In one particular class, I asked late in the quarter, "How many of you aren't getting the grades you want, but feel you are keeping up with the lectures and reading material and don't know what else to do?" Then, "How many simply can't keep up with the lectures and reading material?" More people answered affirmatively to each than I was comfortable to see. This was probably the most useful feedback I received in the entire course, including course evaluations afterward (the only institutionally mandated form of feedback, sadly) and my own open-ended, short written response question administered halfway through about each student's primary concern with the class. For the people who didn't know what else they could do, I reviewed the variety of resources I'd made available to them, and suggested a few ways in which they could help each other study by using the normally available systems the university provides online, including a Q&A forum and wikispaces for student-coauthored study guides. For those who simply couldn't keep up, I slowed the pace overall, held a review session outside the normal class hours, and made the final test somewhat more forgiving. I wish I could say it was enough for those students, but at least I can say I tried everything I could think of, and as a result, it could've been worse.

Glad I was helpful! I agree my last point was less about adjusting on the fly, and more about adjusting your pace halfway through, and alternate functions of the polling strategy in general. Glad you found it useful too. I'll edit a little subheader in to clarify my reason for mentioning it.

I'm late, but what is an honors lecture?

One thing I've done in the past but no longer have need of – because I have restructured my courses to do less lecturing and more in-class activities (which you said you did not want to do) – is to simply help the students communicate non-verbally.
At the start of class, I used to tell them: "OK, I know that I know the material well, and I know you are unfamiliar with it, but I don't know how unfamiliar, so there will be an issue of how fast I am going. I can't stop all the time and ask, so here is how you can tell me to speed up or slow down: If I see everyone nodding their heads up and down I assuming that you are saying, 'Yes, I understand that.' This will make me speed up. If I see you stop nodding, then I will assume you are saying, 'I think I might understand that, but I'm not sure,' and I will start to slow down and start repeating myself in various ways to make sure you get it."
After this introduction, I would start. I started with the simplest material, and everyone was nodding. I started going faster. 75% still nodding; the others were asking questions of those 75%. No worries. I started going faster. Well, eventually, I was covering material so fast, everyone stopped nodding and stared at me with their eyes glazed over. We took a 5-minute break and continued.
All-in-all, actually, it worked quite well, other than the fact that I ended up going as fast as I did. As Peter wrote, we naturally speak about our subjects far faster than students can absorb the information, so having some signs from the students is exactly what we need. My suggestion is that you don't guess the signs, but rather you help them to understand how they can control the speed of the session.

Explicitly telling the students how to communicate is a good idea. I don't think the nodding thing would work with my class, though - too many students are not willing to engage in the first place. Nick Stauner's answer, which is the same general idea, might be more suited to my audience of jaded NYC undergrads.

Haha, indeed.  Class composition matters a lot.  And the hour of the class.  It's much easier to be a rock-star lecturer around 3 PM than it is around 8 AM.  I still know of no good solution for teaching early morning classes to hungover/studied-all-night undergrads.


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How to reuse complete paper for my thesis?
I am currently writing my PhD thesis, and I have published an article together with my supervisor. The third chapter of my PhD thesis (1/3 of my whole thesis) is basically the paper. I plan to include the 30 pages of the article of the content that I have produced almost unchanged, except that it fits to my thesis layout, and I will remake the images, remove the introduction and some other minor changes. I also will add some new content, but this is mostly 3-4 pages.
My first question is, how do you actually cite 30 pages? Do you add a sentence at the beginning of the chapter like that?

The content of this chapter has been published before in ...

My second question is, should I ask the "author service" of the journal where my original article has been published if it is okay if I reuse most of the content from the article in my PhD thesis?
There is nothing regarding this issue in my PhD regulations.
[Edit]Some additional information: I am from Germany, I am doing my PhD in math, and I published the article in the journal Numerical Linear Algebra with Applications.

It might help to add which country you are in. For instance, in the UK I think you'd need to edit your article quite heavily to the point where it's different enough not to need any extra notes, but this might not be the case globally.

I recommend reading this question about sandwich theses as well.

@Phil I think even if you rewrite it completely, you still need to note that it has been published before to avoid self-plagarism, see http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/55964/how-to-mention-a-completly-rewritten-article-in-phd-thesis

For the first question: When the chapter is really just your paper (reformatted), I would go with what you already suggested; begin the chapter with a small text saying "The content of this chapter has been published in ...".
If it is an extended version, then "The content of this chapter is an extended version of ...".
Regarding the second question: first read the copyright transfer that you signed. Often, it already gives permission for reusing the text and figures in your own thesis. If it does not explicitly state this, or is ambiguous, then it is best to contact the journal.

I did this and it was no problem. You may want to ask around for the right style, or consult other theses written in your lab or department.

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Undergraduate resume for PhD application: Include publication in preparation?
I am an undergraduate student currently applying for PhD programs. I am trying to decide whether I should include the citation of a work that will be submitted for publication in the near future with me as a coauthor. I've confirmed with the PhD candidate and my PI that the work will definitely be submitted for publication, but I am not sure how to mention it.
Some answers on this site have said not to include any work that hasn't been published yet, and one answer said that it might be good for an undergraduate student to show that level of involvement. What would be the proper way to indicate my contribution to an upcoming submission?

I would definitely include the (future) publication in your applications. Add a section for publications to your CV. In this section, simply write

[Title of your Paper], Author A, Author B and Author C, in prep.

This is a common shortening for "in preparation" that is used in academic CVs, talks and even published papers to refer to a work which is nearly ready for submission to a journal. You can talk about the work and your contribution to it in more detail in your personal statement.

I would add that I got a similar advice when applying for my first positions after my PhD as well. Also, in addition to in prep., some of the most common "notes" for unpublished papers in CVs I saw were also submitted (or submitted to) and under review, as well as accepted or in print, depending on the stage in the pipeline your unpublished paper currently is. There might be some value to add these different options to the answer for completeness (they could even be pertinent to the OPs case if his search for PhD programmes is still not finished by the time they submit)

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Changing affiliation after getting a position in another university
I am PhD student and I started working with my advisor a year ago. We wrote a paper and submitted it a couple of months ago to a good journal. In the meantime, my advisor told me that he got a better position in an other university and he will be leaving without having the intention to take me with him. So I found a new advisor and started my research from scratch. After a couple of months the reviewers' results came back and it was very satisfactory.however, my first advisor changed his affiliation to the new university and removed the acknowledgement part (he payed me from the seed grant)What is bothering me is that He has't left yet and will be here for another semester. The paper is published now so  I didn't want to do anything about it. But recently he asked me to write another paper for him and he also offered to pay me for that. I have a feeling that he is taking advantage of me to get tenured faster in the new university. I was thinking to bring up this issue to the Dean or whoever that is in charge of dealing with unethical practices. What do you think?

Can you clarify whether you are a coauthor on the first paper and whether you would be one on the second?

@user39586 Please follow the procedure described here to merge your accounts so that you will be able to edit and comment on your question.

Could you please indicate which action of your supervisor you consider to be unethical?

Alex, you may not realize this, but if your advisor indeed got a position at another university, it is quite likely that he is technically already considered a member of the faculty at the new university, even if he is still physically present at your old institution for another semester. If that is indeed the case, he has every right to represent himself as having an affiliation with the new university.
This situation is very common in the academic world: Professor X has a job at University Y, then is offered a new position at University Z. He accepts the offer but on the condition of being allowed to remain at University Y for another year (to finish up some projects, or for family reasons, or because he has a student he does not want to abandon). This type of request is almost always granted by the hiring institution. Professor X is then officially appointed to the faculty at University Z but put on unpaid leave status for a year. During that year, he is temporarily a member of two departments at two universities. It may sound strange but there is nothing untoward or improper about this.
So, based on the information you've provided so far, the scenario I described above seems to me like a perfectly innocent explanation for your advisor's behavior that does not involve any unethical behavior. If I'm off the mark here, please add more details about the situation and what you find wrong with the affiliation change.

It sounds like a win-win situation.  He expands his publication list, and you add a big feather to your cap (as first author!).
But there may be something I'm not appreciating about the situation.  How about if you talk with your new advisor about this?

I'm looking towards how the new advisor would deal with the situation.

@Alireza - Are you by any chance the OP, having merged the two accounts?  If so, could you rephrase that, please?  I'm not sure, are you saying that you are planning to talk with your new advisor about the situation?

Sorry, I'm not the OP. However, as stated by Alex since he now has a new advisor I wonder how the current advisor would react to his/her student working with a previous professor...

@Alireza - Ah, agreed.


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How to penalize students who copy each other but don't realize they have plagiarized?
I gave my students an opportunity to rewrite one of their papers for extra points. As I was grading, I realized that two papers were almost identical. They had a similar structure, organization, and presented ideas in a similar manner. I asked the students about plagiarism but they denied it. Since it was a rewrite, I told them that I wouldn't add any points to their grades and they should never do this again.
One of the students, however, emailed me stating that she is worried their final assignments might look similar as well. She was trying to convince me that her paper is her original work and the second student "worked really hard to make sure their papers don't look alike!".
She included screen shots of their fb conversation as evidence. In FB conversation the one with the original work is telling her friend to use her paper as a basis but change the sentences and examples so it won't look like plagiarism.
This is a clear case of plagiarism. Correct? I am not sure how to handle it. I know they are not realizing that's plagiarism, otherwise they wouldn't have shared those fb conversations. So I don't want to report to the school (yet!). But I am also not sure how to penalize them? Give a zero for the assignment? What do you recommend? Should I give zeros to both of them?

The student with the original work has not completed plagiarism. She may have committed academic misconduct if the policy explicitly says do not share your work. The second student has committed plagiarism.

Maybe you should give them an extra assignment – one where they have to write a 1-2 page paper on this topic: What Is Plagiarism?

Make them write the exactly same paper 10 times. Longhand. And they will be enlightened. ;-)

I went to public schools - plagiarism is redundantly covered, repeatedly, over and over. For emphasis. They're being lazy and playing dumb, but they know exactly what they're doing. They're testing you and think you're too lazy to throw the book at them. Don't let them get away with it.

+1 for the question and all the answers. This is a teachable moment for the students as well as for you. They may or may not learn, and you may or may not need to penalize them - but you can learn strategies for working with this problem in its many incarnations.

It sounds like the students don't completely understand what constitutes plagiarism.  You'll at least need to help them understand what constitutes plagiarism, whatever you choose to do in relation to the assignment.

Screenshots are not prooves.

@Joshua has the right of it -- the student who contacted you wants to do the right thing and not get in trouble, but sometimes there's a culture/expectation of sharing with your friends that's hard to overcome. (Ever known someone who can't seem to save money because they always spend a windfall on good times with friends?) Congratulate the student on wanting to help a friend, but in this case, this sort of help is not acceptable on an assignment.

@Blazemonger Very true. At the same time ignorantia juris non excusat. I mean seriously, that's an inexcusable amount of ignorance that could've been resolved by a two minute google search. They did plagiarize (and cheat) and should be punished for it. But clearly there's a large scale of punishment available and I agree it should fall on the lower side here.

This isn't just plagarism - it's out and out cheating - and both students are guilty and one of them has kindly produced proof of their guilt. I would escalate to whatever process is usually undertaken for cheating students.
That they apparently have failed to grasp the concept doesn't make them any less guilty of the infringement and it simply doesn't matter whether they "meant to cheat" - they did.
The appropriate way to deal with cheating students is to escalate it to the system for dealing with cheating students. You should trust that this process will take their ignorance into account while (a) being fair to other students and (b) expressing the appropriate level of opprobrium for their actions.

That they apparently have failed to grasp the concept doesn't make them any less guilty of the infringement. Actually it precisely does make them less guilty. That is a well-established principle of the law, known as mens rea. See my answer.

I don't believe that has any applicability to this kind of case.

I thought the same thing at first, but as I read the whole answer, it's obvious that they did not intend to cheat. One of the students just wanted to help the other student understand what should be included in the paper, and provide an example.

@DanRomik Mens rea applies to the offense - not to the knowledge of the law. Mens rea applies when your actions accidentally cause an offense - these are typically cases of neglect. However those students knew they are copying their works, they just didn't know that it's an offense. Different concept applies there, called Ignorantia juris non excusat.

It simply doesn't matter whether they "meant to cheat" - they did. The appropriate way to deal with cheating students is to escalate it to the system for dealing with cheating students - that process should take their ignorance into account while (a) being fair to other students and (b) expressing the appropriate level of opprobrium for their actions.

@JackAidley you should post that comment as an answer, I think it is the most sensible thing anyone has said about this question. Indeed "the system" should know best how to respond to the situation, and if my uninformed opinion that the students probably do not deserve punishment is correct, I trust that the system will reach the same conclusion (and if it is incorrect then it will determine that fact as well).

@DanRomik: I have included the contents of my comment into the answer.

Thanks! Administration recommended the same thing. I was worried because I knew it would show up in their records but apparently they would just get a warning for the first time. After meeting with one of them, the story got more complicated. Therefore, I think asking for the professional advice of more experienced people would be the best option.

@TomášZato - fun fact: that principal was developed in the beginnings of the ancient Roman Empire when the plebeians demanded to know the laws so that the learned people could not make up laws. After some demonstrations, the government put up the Twelve Tables. This made it so that all citizens will be held liable for any unlawful actions, and ignorance of the law is no longer an excuse because the laws are publicly available.

@DanRomik At the same time ignorantia juris non excusat - ignorance of law excuses no one. And mens rea really only applies to criminal law as far as I'm aware, civil law has different rules (obviously, otherwise not reading a contract, then doing whatever I want and then arguing that I didn't know any better would be an awesome defense). Even if we applied mens rea, I find it hard to believe that two university students were incapable of figuring out that copying homework was forbidden. My nephew in primary school has already learned that rule!

This is a matter of education.  Some students think plagiarism is only copy and pasting from one another.  They also think placing a citation is a license to copy.  Some also define it as ok if software, eg turnitin, cannot detect it.
In my case I make it clear. If they steal one sentence it is an automatic zero.  It is also a zero if they steal the structure of a paragraph or section.   These need to be emphasized multiple times until they eject their old ways out of their system.

+1 This is the real problem. If these students don't think they've committed plagiarism, you need to make sure they learn and understand that they did. It's not about giving them the correct grade or penalty, but about making damn sure that they understand the principle, and never forget it. The grade is secondary.

Honestly, I have been a bit irritated by the two of them throughout the quarter, especially the one who copied the work. They kept challenging me on their grades constantly. The one who copied the work emailed me saying "if it will make you feel better, I will write the essay again!". I don't know if it's because I am a new teacher or I am being oversensitive, but that sounds rude. It also shows she knows what she did was wrong!

@Karin These kids are trying to walk all over you.  They seem the type that will scheme and whine and cry to get their way.  Schools are full of these kids - they'll do anything but the work they're supposed to do to try to scratch together a higher grade for themselves.  It's a manipulation game and every time you let them win, give them some slack or leeway, extra chances, you are encouraging this awful behaviour.  For the sake of those who will have to deal with these creatures as adults in the workplace, please dispense the discipline now.

@Peter I guess branding irons are out of question...

"This is a matter of education. Some students think ..." If they "think" anything other than what our educational system has consistently drilled into their heads, they are thinking only what they want to think because they find it convenient at the time. If you think your predecessors in their lives have failed to clearly explain plagiarism, think again.

@Mindwin If the school allows corporal punishment, I guess branding irons could be a way to make sure others learn about what plagiarism is too.

Oh I agree! They are trying to push boundaries. I gave extensive comments on second student's assignment. It was a 3 page paper, and I had 2-3 long comments per paragraph. She could have fixed her own paper but instead chose to use someone else's work. There is a section on academic misconduct in my syllabus, the paper was only 3 pages double spaced, it was from the material we discussed in the class, and I told her how to fix her paper.There was also the option of sending me outlines to look over before submitting the papers. Btw, Administration told me to file a report.

This is a clear case of plagiarism. Correct? I am not sure how to
  handle it. I know they are not realizing that's plagiarism, otherwise
  they wouldn't have shared those fb conversations. So I don't want to
  report to the school (yet!). But I am also not sure how to penalize
  them? Give a zero for the assignment? What do you recommend? Should I
  give zeros to both of them?

I'm going to disagree with Ben Crowell's answer, despite it being well-written and mostly sensible except for one crucial detail. The students have perhaps committed what we technically define as plagiarism (or more precisely, as StrongBad commented, one of them committed plagiarism and the other allowed her work to be used), but the element of mens rea, the "guilty mind" that we consider morally necessary to inflict punishment, is clearly lacking. So my verdict is not guilty.
The bottom line is, it doesn't matter how much we educators wring our hands about "kids these days". If someone clearly doesn't know that a behavior is wrong then it is foolish and harmful to penalize them for it. It is our job to educate students about what constitutes plagiarism and what are the standards we expect of them for independent work and citation of sources. All the things that Ben Crowell's answer lists are basically irrelevant, since if a student is showing you a facebook conversation proving that they did not realize what they were doing is plagiarism, that means your institution has failed to properly educate the students about this subject, whether it's written in the catalog or not.
I should add that in my opinion part of the problem with this common misunderstanding of plagiarism by students is that plagiarism is in fact quite a subtle concept, and that our expectations of how fast and easily students can understand and adapt to it are simply unrealistic. To criminalize a behavior that can result from a misunderstanding or lack of sophistication that is very common among students entering university is very problematic, and can backfire in all sorts of unexpected ways. (On the other hand, of course plagiarism is a real problem that needs to be dealt with; I don't have all the answers about what is the correct approach or balance to strike, and a detailed discussion of this topic is in any case beyond the scope of this question.)
To summarize, in my opinion it would be wrong to penalize the students in this case. You can and should use this as a teaching opportunity, and it would be reasonable to require the plagiarizing student to submit a revised paper that satisfies your standards for academic writing, after very clearly and carefully explaining to her what those standards are. This is also an opportunity for all of us to reflect on what we are trying to achieve with various "zero tolerance" policies that impose an unrealistically high standard of behavior on students who may not be adequately prepared to be capable of satisfying those lofty standards.
Edit: thanks to all the commenters for their lively and intelligent discussion and criticism of my answer. You have persuaded me that the answer is perhaps more subjective than I thought. I am willing to tone down my recommendation and say that the plagiarizing student may be deserving of punishment. I think ultimately it would all depend on specific details about the facebook conversation and other evidence that we do not have. At the same time, given the information presented in the question I still think an educational, rather than punitive, approach, would be the most appropriate one in this case. The key question that needs to be answered in my opinion is whether the student "knew what she was doing" in the sense that she had an understanding that basing her paper off of another student's paper was wrong. It doesn't sound like she did, but I'm only speculating and am open to changing my mind about this if presented with new information.

I really agree with this, it's a fantastic answer that stresses the role of education.

I think this is a misunderstanding of the concept of mens rea. The student knew what they were doing, even if they didn't know that it would be classified as plagiarism, so I would say they did have mens rea. If they had read someone else's work years before and then unwittingly reproduced the argument without citing that might be plagiarising without mens rea.

@bdsl it sounds like we disagree on what it means to "know what you are doing", since I don't really understand your basis for making the claim that the students knew what they were doing. As for having mens rea, I think I'd need to see the actual Facebook conversation to be able to say with confidence whether there was or wasn't mens rea, but based on OP's description it sounds like there probably wasn't. Indeed, the thought that the students could not reasonably be blamed for their behavior seems like the main motivation for OP asking her question.

I mean it was done on purpose, it wasn't an accident. The students understood their own actions, they just didn't fully understand the concept of plagiarism.

A good number of university plagiarism policies I'm familiar with have no requirement that students understand that they are committing plagiarism before they can be found guilty of it. Many policies explicitly state that plagiarism will be treated seriously regardless of whether students know they are violating the policy. The student didn't need to know he was committing plagiarism; he just needed to know that he was copying another student's work. Similarly, a bank robber doesn't need to know robbery is against the law, just that he intended to permanently take someone else's money.

@ZachLipton okay, and I have a policy of using my own judgment before I blindly follow other people's policies, and also of trying to be compassionate and to give people the benefit of the doubt to the extent possible before I take drastic measures. The comparison of the mild plagiarism discussed in this question to bank robbery hardly advances your argument. I stand by my opinion that probably no punishment is justified, though clearly the facebook conversation and other evidence would need to be looked at in detail to reach a more authoritative conclusion.

@DanRomik I certainly respect using your own judgment and not wanting to take drastic measures, but I don't consider this "mild plagiarism" at all. It seems one student did an assignment (actually, multiple assignments) and shared it in its entirety with another student, who did a sloppy job of rewriting a few bits and turned it in as his own work. In other words: multiple entire assignments containing zero original work. That's no missing footnote or quotation marks, which can be honest mistakes. If the students thought this was a group project, I can understand, but that's not the case here.

@ZachLipton I completely agree the plagiarism is serious enough to be addressed, for example by requiring the student to redo the paper, as I suggested in my answer. As for the separate question of whether the student should be punished, I would say no. And yes, perhaps you are correct that the plagiarism should not be referred to as mild. I meant that it was mild as an offense, in the sense that it was not done with an understanding that it was wrong.

-1. I strongly disagree with this answer. If we had to prove a "guilty mind" before any kind of punishment, the law would be a complete joke. The students might have not been aware of the concrete consequences of their actions, but they knew that what they were doing had quirks (otherwise, why change the paper at all?). What will they (and others) learn if this goes unpunished?

I fail to see how this is any different from a student who has purchased a paper off the internet, changed a couple sentences, and submitted it as his own. The only difference is that, as far as we know, money didn't change hands. I do think it's reasonable for the punishment to take into account any mitigating factors, and their utter ignorance of plagiarism policies may well qualify as such a factor, but that is only relevant to the final consequence imposed and doesn't mean the university's plagiarism process shouldn't be followed here.

They changed it to not look alike.  That means they knew it was wrong to turn in two papers that look alike.  Whether they know the terms involved is irrelevant.

@LorenPechtel good comment. I agree they knew it would be wrong to submit overly similar papers. So they changed them to not look alike, precisely as you said, and then submitted the papers, apparently thinking (mistakenly) that because of the changes they were not doing anything wrong. As I said, everything depends on whether they had an intent to do anything wrong, or knew that they were doing something wrong when they submitted the papers. If they didn't, which is the impression I'm getting given the story about the Facebook conversation, then it would be inappropriate to punish them.

Thanks a lot for the comments! This is an interesting conversation! I am a first time teacher so I would like to make sure that the punishment is fair. I ended up emailing the administration and asking them for help.

It kind of seems like this answer rests on an implicit assumption that education is mutually exclusive with punishment, which I don't agree with. I do agree that when a student doesn't know they've done something wrong, it's good to teach them that they did something wrong, why it's wrong, and how not to do that wrong thing in the future. But aside from that, it's still possible to punish them. I don't think the fact that they didn't know they were doing something wrong is a complete excuse from getting punished.

Ignorantia juris non excusat - the fact that you do not understand or know the law is not an excuse. If the materials containing definition of plagiarism as understood at that particular school are available for the students to read, there is nothing to excuse them.

Indeed, the whole point of the education is that students are there to learn. So, if there is evidence that they have not learned something of relevance correctly, then the first tasks of the educator should be to try to teach them. If this fails repeatedly, one can think of other measures, in this case the issue of deliberate misconduct will be a relevant thing to look into, eventually. But that should not be the first priority.

As it stands, this answer poorly communicates because it provides a contextual modifier at the end. These answers are under version control, and there is a revision history - edit the answer to read holistically, do not try to include the revision history in the answer itself.

@mmmmmmm The idea that punishments are for teaching is very, very out dated. Punishments are deterrents, not corrective measures. The whole "Department of Corrections" shtick that the prison system insists upon is almost Orwellian.

@AaronHall Just because there is a revision history does not mean that it would be most useful to hide temporal information inside it.

Some students, myself in particular, get taught incorrectly in the early years of education that "putting something in your own words" is how to avoid plagiarism. This is of course, overly simplistic and wrong of course. If you give both students the benefit of the doubt, that neither know what plagiarism is, I don't think they should be penalized for this naivety.
I think you should probably invite the students to your office to teach them or send around the school's academic honesty guide to all your students (it should be pretty small and thoroughly define the terms it uses). If this is happening to one pair, it is likely happening to others or these two students are doing similar in other courses. Example: Jill reads something online and simply rewords it for the report while maintaining the structure and flow of the original material.

This myth continues well beyond the “early years” of education.

Honestly, I have been a bit irritated by the two of them throughout the quarter, especially the one who copied the work. They kept challenging me on their grades constantly. The one who copied the work emailed me saying "if it will make you feel better, I will write the essay again!"

It sounds like you have a student who is eager to learn how to do the right thing and get it right, even if she isn't doing so right now.  This is a good thing because you have a much stronger opportunity for a teachable moment where the teaching is more likely to be effective, than a student whose attitude is "I'll try this minimum that I think might scrape by, and in the unlikely event someone is paying enough attention to catch it, oh well, that'll just be the end result."  Further, you have students who care about their grades, and you control at least one of those, so you have some leverage that seems likely to be effective.
How about having that student write the essay - or a similar one on the same topic or another topic still related to your course - in a supervised environment* where she would have no access to classmates' work?  If network-isolated, you might have to provide some printed reference material, but (a) it might be a good thing for students to get at least one experience writing in that way and (b) this exercise/test is focusing more on the student's ability to critically analyze content and discuss the material with some potentially original insights, than on breadth of a background literature search.
You do apparently need to teach the distinction between copyright infringement (which involves copying the particular expression of ideas, and for which paraphrasing all the content is a valid way around), plagiarism (which relates more to passing off another person's ideas as one's own), and failing to write original content/ideas (which may involve proper citation of the others' ideas and is honest, but may not meet the course requirements for a top grade).  It appears the students in question are confusing the first two, and those in the third sentence of Prof. Santa Claus's answer ("They also think placing a citation is a license to copy") are confusing the latter two. These distinctions are not obvious and the ethics of each are not universal.  It does take teaching them, and it might be worth you having a conversation with the dean to try to make sure this gets into the curriculum in a first semester writing course or something like that.
Here, your students at least seem willing to learn.  Good luck making the most of the teaching opportunity!

(*): Where there are more people present than just you and the student, in case the student would otherwise come up with false accusations against you should she receive a poor course grade.

Thanks for the comment! I learned my lesson for future classes! rewriting the essays is not an option. I gave students extensive comments on their papers. Instead of fixing her own work, one of them copied her friend's work. I don't think the issue is her eagerness to learn but her obsession with grades. I told her she wasn't getting good grades because she didn't understand the nuances of the arguments and offered her help if she needed. Idk, my skin might become thicker once I do this often, but I am very exhausted right now! Teaching is very difficult!

When my mom was a TA back in the day, she had a similar situation where one student thought she was helping her friend by letting her see the paper, but the second student was straight-up copying. My mom and the TA of the other student came up with this idea: Grade the paper as though it were submitted singularly. Then, go to both students and let them decide how they want to split the points. For instance, if it were worth 80 points, they could do a 40-40 split, or the original writer could take all, or whatever else.

Do you know how the two decided?

This is in fact the strategy i think works best is. It works even better if you announce the policy beforehand as it makes it implicitly understood that its a bad idea in general, also makes a 3 way split impossible. But then you get these papers where they declare the WANT a 60-40 split.

@ joojaa 60-40 split would come out as 48 and 32, but I would say this is just a bad way to do it. At least one of them is cheating. I don't think there is anything wrong with showing others your work but you do risk them stealing it and the lecturer not knowing who it belongs to.

@jakebeal In my mom's case, they split it evenly (much to her surprise).


text:
Secondary citation MS Word 2013 (APA Style)
I can't believe I can't find an answer in Google for this. I need to insert a secondary citation like this

AuthorX 2013 (as quoted in AuthorY, 2010)

The closest answer I could find was editing the field and referencing the secondary author by tag with an '\m' switch but that cuts the whole thing too short.

googled switch codes and used the '\s' suffix tag. Problem solved


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Professor moving group project member in the middle of the quarter. What to do?
So I'm faced with an ethical dilemma and want some second opinions on how to approach this situation with a poorly calculated decision that my professor made.
So we have groups of 4 people for group projects which were created randomly by the professor. A new student joined the late (1-2 weeks after) and my team member volunteered to have her join our group when every group already had 4 members. However, it's been 3 weeks already since the group projects started and the professor decided to ask our main team member who has been our unofficial team lead to change groups because a student from another group is dropping the class at the last minute so that she can balance out the teams I'm guessing. She spoke to the team member whom she wanted to move privately before the weekend after class and then decided to inform the rest of the group that he's moving to another group. The person moving was the person who volunteered to add the new person into the group.
So naturally, I was infuriated in the manner in which she decided to supposedly balance out the head counts and that too a month into the quarter and also for choosing the group member who has been our primary facilitator.
I replied to her email saying that I wished she had talked over this with the whole group and suggested that she move the member who joined our team late since she invested less time and effort into the project than the rest of us. She replies to that email saying:

I am disappointed to hear you call out another person in the group, asking her to be excused, without giving her an opportunity as well. Please see me after class next lecture.

Clearly I didn't want any member to leave, but I thought it made more sense to move the newer member to a different group as she would leave behind a lot less of her efforts and thus would be the least disruptive way to do it. I spoke with the rest of the group after this reply. 1 other member said that it should either be nobody leaving preferably, but if 1 must leave it should be the newer member which I agreed to 100%. Even the newer member was understanding of the situation and said that she's willing to let the professor know that she doesn't mind volunteering to leave, but hesitated when her reply said that her decision was final.
So I don't want a target on my back, but this professor is making my remarks seem more controversial than they really are. What would be the best way to further communicate about this with the professor?

The "best" way to communicate this with the professor is to just drop it. You are acting badly as the professor noted by seeming to reject a team member and trying to impose your will on others. If you escalate it you will only hurt yourself.
Ranting about the teacher's action will get you no where. She made a decision based on some judgements and probably considered trade-offs. Your solution of putting the newest and least experienced person with the team that lost a member is the worst possible solution, as that group is already disadvantaged and would be disadvantaged further.
In the real world you don't get to choose your team members in most cases. People come and go. The teams have to adapt. You should try to learn how to do that. When teams get shaken up there can be disruption, but the disruption is worst when the team has poor dynamics in the first place. If you were working together properly and everyone communicating there is little knowledge lost by the team.
But perhaps you were depending too much on the team member that you lost. Give up this quest and get your team working effectively.
And, no, the teacher did not make an ethical error. The fact that you were displeased by it has nothing to do with ethics.

I didn’t reject anyone though. I was merely trying to propose a less disruptive solution and the alternative member I selected said she was willing to move to make the situation less disruptive. I never asked for any member to leave, but if someone has to leave the group, the newest member would have to sacrifice the least amount of their time and effort to make this switch so I kept them in consideration.

The professor went behind the group's back by speaking to that individual privately and then announcing the move. This looses the moral high ground from the start...
The "best" manner to have approached this would have been for the professor to have met with the whole group and say "One group is now short and you are plus 1, so could you agree on one person to move". I have had to do this with many groups for projects and, if you show the position and let them work it out, it goes much easier.
Perhaps the professor is "new" to dealing with groups, but IMHO this was handled incorrectly and is difficult to sort now.
Meeting her with the whole group may be best, but whatever the final result (ie who gets moved) she may "target" you for showing her up... As an adult and teacher she should recognize her own fault though... But good luck with that -  it does come with experience... I have been dealing with 30+ plus groups of 5 for 20 odd semesters...

Not to mention, this professor has a history of not letting students choose who the team members should be, which most other professors do. She always assigns people to groups randomly. Which is understandable because you meet new people that way. However, this I felt crossed the line when it was done behind our backs and now she is accusing me of basically not thinking that my remaining teammates are not good enough to continue on without our main guy, whereas I was simply trying to make a case for him to stay. She deflected my main concerns and stuck to false interpretations about my message

I always organize the groups randomly - it gives fewer problems in the long run. But, the issue remains on how she handled this particular issue and, it could have been handled MUCH better... Now, focusing on the "other" interpretations is just deflection to get the group to look at you and not at her... You could well be on a looser here, and if she is the only person grading : watch out... It could be worth, if the whole group agrees, seeing the Dean or level above her, but the consequences then....

Right...I'm okay with random assigning, but removing the team member behind our back in the middle of the quarter was clearly crossing the line. So now my main concern is how she's gonna try to spin this on me when I merely suggested a less disruptive solution to which even the person I elected said was willing to comply with. When I meet with her, I want to be able to stand my ground but also not give her a reason to punish me with some sort of consequence. And yes, she does all her own grading. She could potentially target me for the 2nd midterm and final exam bc questions are open-ended

Seeing the dean sounds like it would escalate the situation. I would have been ok with her giving us the option to elect someone, and it's not like the group can't continue on without the other guy. I'm thinking about speaking to another professor about it to see what he has to say since he is usually willing to offer professional advice.

There is also the other possibility that the group member who switched expressed to the teacher beforehand that they are unhappy with their group and would like to change if at all possible, and the teacher went this way so that the student could save face and would not have to tell their colleagues that they'd rather not continue working with them. Given how enraged btrbalin is, it certainly sounds like the switching student was pulling more than their weight, and maybe they were unhappy with their group as well?

I too considered whether the student pulled out started this because he’s been quiet about this situation. It could also be that he isn’t as affected by it as the rest of the team by switching groups.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
What are the opportunities to do research under good professors/organisations?
I am an electronics and communication engineering final year student. I have a 6.5/10 GPA. I do not have an exceptional academic record, or any finished research papers in my name to boast about. But I always wanted to be a researcher and problem-solver. I love computers and electronics.
This is why I took up engineering. But being taught lots of theory without being provided with practical implications for the same killed my interest. I tried to find out things myself, but after the first year, workload caught up.
But now I am doing my final year project and it has rekindled my interest in applying what I learn. I feel stupid for not having done anything productive for the past 3 years, but I want to change that. I want to learn about embedded systems and HPC, from a practical point of view.
I wish to pursue M.S, but I am afraid I do not have enough understanding of the subject, or grades to get into a good university.
Is there any way I can work as an intern/research assistant under a good professor/organisation with my average academic grades, so that I can gain experience and learn the subject more thoroughly?

HPC as in High Performance Computing?

This is a common scenario for many students. The answer really depends on your flexibility and any networking you have done. If you are willing to live in any country and gain the appropriate visas and work for nothing, then you will have more opportunities than if you restrict yourself to a single university and require to be paid competitively. Ideally you will have some professors who can help you find a lab that might be interested in your services. Otherwise you will need to do a lot of work to find someone who is willing to look at your CV.
Another option is to simply set your sights on a lower ranked MS program and do well in that.


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I just submitted my PhD applications. What do I do now?
I just submitted my applications to all the grad schools I am considering. Is there anything I can do during the wait to help my application?

You can start reading the PhD comic http://www.phdcomics.com/ :)

Is there anything I can do during the wait to help my application?

I'll answer assuming you are applying to programs that work like most U.S. math graduate programs.  In other words, programs where admissions are decided by a departmental committee, rather than by individual professors, and where there are no interviews or other direct involvement of the applicant after the application is submitted.  For other sorts of systems, I'm not competent to offer any advice.
To a first approximation, there's nothing you can do during the wait to help your application.  It's best to find a distraction and try not to worry about it.  That being said, there are several things to keep in mind:

You should make sure your letter writers actually submit their letters.  Every year, a few letter writers are many weeks late, and this can cause real damage.  Even once you have submitted everything you are responsible for, the application is not complete until enough letters are received.
Getting in touch with potential advisors might help, but it should be done exceedingly sparingly.  If the content of your e-mail amounts to "please look at my application" or "see how great I am", it will only annoy people.  "Please estimate my chances of admission" is even worse.  I'd recommend restricting pre-admission e-mails to cases where you have something genuinely substantive to say.  For example, if you have intellectually serious comments or ideas related to the person's research, then that's always worth an e-mail.  Same thing if you would like to bring their attention to a paper of yours that is closely connected with their work.  A good test is whether you would still send the e-mail even if you weren't applying to their university.  I don't recommend manufacturing a contrived reason to send e-mail, but if you never got in touch with someone whose research you extended, now would be a good time to do so.
It's usually possible to add information to your file if something important comes up (e.g., a paper acceptance or a prize).  This is not worth even trying unless it's a real improvement in your file, and you certainly shouldn't make repeated changes in an attempt to draw attention to your file (any additional attention will be negative).  However, if you get good news you should consider sharing it.  The best news is often financial: if you get a fellowship that would pay for one or more years of grad school, then you should definitely add this information to your file.  It's both a serious vote of confidence from another organization and a real savings to the department.

You should follow Anonymous Mathematician's advice. The very unhealthy thing to do is to obsessively update the Results Search at http://www.thegradcafe.com. It does pass the time, though...

I'm occasionally see it, but I don't know why it is interesting. Can you enlighten me?

@Ooker Once admission results start coming out, many people post theirs on gradcafe. By that time most people are in desperate need for information, and really want to know when their dream school starts to send out decisions (despite the fact that it's useless information).

On a side note, gradcafe can actually be a little useful. I eventually contacted one of my schools because I hadn't gotten a decision after I saw a couple rounds appear on gradcafe, and it turns out that due to technical issues they hadn't seen my application! After reading it, they did end up giving me an offer, so it worked out.

I am exactly in this situation. Here are some of my suggestions:

Advancing your specialty knowledge. If you are changing your field, or having some knowledge gap in your specialty, then you will need to learn a lot of new things. While learning during work is fine, knowing them ahead will save you lots of time. Everyday, you can read 5 pages of a good textbook, that only takes you half an hour. Do you have any subject that you want to have a review?
Knowing your body. You won't have much time to care about health, and going to hospital (in the US) will rip you off. If you have an illness, try to know the why your body goes wrong, how it goes wrong, and how to prevent it. I had always known that I should exercise, but I was just lazy, until I know the reason why I should do that: exercise will move my lymph, and my illness has a relationship to that. Since that day, needless to tell me that I should exercise, I workout everyday.
Reading books, learning new skills. You won't have much free time during your study. Read as much as you can. If you don't know where to start, then here are some topics I can suggest you: personal development, ergonomics, project management, personal finance, designing, language acquisition.
Exploring something new. What's your favorite activities? Swimming, playing go, drawing, taking photographs? It's time to do that. Going abroad, climbing mountain, parachuting, etc. They are the moments that you will never forget in your life.
Getting familiar to programs aiding your research. Every programs will take you a learning curve. If you have to simulate something, Python and Linux is your friends. Never heard about LaTeX? Better than Microsoft Word a million times. Learning to design, so that you will never make a boring slide or poster, or at the very least they are easy to be digest. I also suggest you to learn to customize the programs. My beloved apps so far are OneNote, Kanbantool, Toddledo, Google Keeps, ManicTime and Firefox with addons.
Having a job. Money is also good, right? Or joining a summer school or lab to improve your CV.


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How to send electronic TOEFL scores to institutions?

This is the paper result, right?(I just randomly entered a university) So...how can I let ETS send them the electronic result after the score had come out?...0.0

Firstly choose "Order Score Reports, then select "TOEFL Services"

After that click the "Send Additional Score Report(s) to Institutions" and choose the test you want to send and then look up the institutions information. You will need to pay 19$ per report.


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A LinkedIn Recommendation as compared to an Academic Recommendation
In what ways would a Professor's LinkedIn Recommendation differ from his Recommendation for Graduate School(Masters/PhD)?
In other words: In what was does the visibility of a Recommendation change a Professor's Recommendation?

related http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5106/do-professors-recommend-their-students-on-linkedin

I asked that question. I believe this is fundamentally different.

I believe they are totally different.

LinkedIn recommendation is more towards the visibility of student's soft/technical skills in general while the official letter of recommendation should address the student skills in a more academic/depth way.
Their audience is different. Recommendation Letter is intended to particular institute/committee while LinkedIn is more to the public general and industry recruiters in particular.
LinkedIn recommendations counts nothing for the admission committees while might have good impact on industry recruiters.

In short: Academia:- Recommendation Letters. Industry: doesn't hurt to let your supervisor recommending you - if they do have account on LinkedIn :-)

be prepared for professors to say no to a LinkedIn recommendation, some of them feel that it may open them up to potential FERPA violations.

Viewing LinkedIn recommendations may require to register and login. Just because you have a LinkedIn account, does not mean your employer has.
As a result, I would suggest to include the full text of the LinkedIn recommendation, not just a reference to it. But then it becomes not much different from just an ordinary recommendation that is just placed for public viewing on some website.


text:
Can I write my whole SOP about machine learning for graduate school admissions?
I am a computer science engineer and I am starting to write my SOP's for grad school admissions.
I am very interested in machine learning but most of the schools I apply to offer ML as a track like something to major in. Can I write my whole SOP about ML ? I have few achievements in CSE and few in ML.

It's not clear to me why you might think you can't. Can you elaborate?

ML is a part of CS, you know.

Read the answer I have accepted. I don't want to jeopardize my chances of being selected by targeting a few professors working in machine learning, who might not find my achievements relevant.

So you'd rather be admitted and then work in an area that doesn't hold your interest?  Really?  Your statement should describe your research interests honestly.

Writing statements of purpose (SOP's) can be challenging. If you make the statement too general, it may come across like you don't have a solid reason for attending a graduate program. On the other hand, if your SOP is too specific, you may unnecessarily restrict your chances of admission—for instance, if you only talk about working with one or two professors, and they're not taking new students, you may not be admitted.
That said, you are free to write your statement of purpose however you choose. Just keep in mind that in formal application processes, you are generally writing to an entire department, not just one or two professors.


text:
Different Statement of Purpose to the same advisor in two programs?
First I have to make it clear that I understand the SOP is not just written for my potential advisor to view; it will certainly be presented to the admission committee first. However, my potential advisor will be the only person who reads both of my SOPs. Below is the complete question with background information:
I am currently applying for psychometrics in both Department of Educational Psychology and Psychology (Quantitative psychology) in the same university. My potential advisor is a faculty member in both departments, doing research on XXX. When I wrote my SOP for psychometrics in Educational Psychology, I only talked about my research interests in XXX.
Now I am adapting my SOP to application for Quantitative Psychology which allows students to do research in collaboration with other fields in psychology in addition to their own research interests. I am interested in doing research in the Social Psychology and am considering if I should include this in my SOP, given I only mentioned that I am interested in XXX in my SOP to Educational Psychology? In addition, XXX is really different from social psychology in general..in other words, my two research interests are not relevant.
As my potential advisor will be reading both SOPs, I am afraid that having talked about additional research interests in my application for Quantitative psychology would make me appear not firm about my research interests in XXX (am I overthinking about this?) Or is it even necessary for me to mention my research interests in social psych in my SOP, as I will be given opportunities to work on research in other fields of psychology, including social psych, anyways?
Additional information: my potential advisor knows that I am interested in social psychology as I mentioned this to him. Nonetheless, we never had a talk about my research interests in social psych.
In short, 1) do I need to talk about my research interests in social psych in the SOP to Quantitative psychology? 2) if I do, what's the best approach to avoid my advisor feeling confused about my research interests? (for example, just vaguely mention that I would be excited about doing research in social psych etc. ?)

If you were offered both places, which one would you choose to take?

I could see you saying something like 'My research focus is on topic XXX, however, I understand the program promotes collaboration across fields, and given the opportunity I would also be interested in working on topic YYY, as it is related to XXX'

@user1938107 thanks for your suggestion! What if my two research interests are not related to each other?

@JessicaB Quantitative Psychology for sure as it allows me to explore both of my research interests.

@user1938107 I am interested in both! Y is not offered by Ed psych so i didn't talk about it in my application to ed psych at all.

Ill let someone else answer for you, but in my opinion you should try and find a way to make Y as an expansion of what you would do with X.  In other words, I would try and link them, and try to find a core item your are interested in.  Like behavior of children, then in Ed psych, you are interested in teaching children, in quantitative you are interested in analyzing it.  Or something like that

@user1938107 hmmm this totally makes sense. Thank you!

After submitting the second application, I would send an email to the potential advisor to let him know that while you would jump at either opportunity, your preference would be Psych (Quant. Psych).

Yes, it's totally fine. Its absolutely normal to apply for multiple positions and obviously promise them that you will do things that are unique to them if you are accepted. This shows that you have twice the interests and also ideas on how to fit in aside from determination.
1) Do I need to talk about my research interests in social psych in the SOP to Quantitative psychology?  Yes, as much as you want to mention possible cross-disciplinary researches but not too much. This should be 10-20% of your SOP. The rest should be really aligned with requirements of each program and the possible dissertation committee members from each group. Think of your dissertation topic and board members in each scenario and write for them as audience and signer of your dissertation.
2) if I do, what's the best approach to avoid my adviser feeling confused about my research interests? SOP is not a marriage proposal. It shows that you have interests in both fields and work and degrees. And you really want to be in that school. He will not feel betrayed or anything. If anything he should see how much you are interested in the whole field. Don't deny that you have skills in both fields though. There should be some 10-20% overlap. but you are proposing a whole new direction and possibility of your dissertation work.
Big assumption: universities don't really want you to be firm on your research interest when you are not even accepted yet. And even after that there might be no funding to some topics, so you might have to do other stuff. Research is just another industry that is limited to its resources and can not be idealistic about constraints. Meanwhile, they love to see applicants with muti-dimensional skills sets and openness to cross-disciplinary research. But beware of not looking focused on each of these SOPs.

Speaking purely from personal opinion, I think from a bureaucratic point of view you should write each statement of purpose as is best for the particular application (at least you've then demonstrated you can focus on the question at hand, not just waffle around the subject), but from a human point of view it would be worth discussing the situation with your proposed supervisor, preferably first. I would expect supervisors to recognise that students have varied interests, and may not have pinned down exactly what they want to focus on, and also that they will be making multiple applications. However, I would still feel somewhat confused by reading a statement about a second set of research interests if I had a reason to believe there was only one. I would probably feel misled, if I had had no explanation.
Also, applications are processed differently in different institutions, and you may not be able to tell to what extent your applications affect each other, or are affected by the supervisor's interests, or other applications. Knowing what your preferences are may help the people making decisions about who to accept.
At many (most?) institutions, the number of students applying to work with any one supervisor is low enough that they can afford to have a conversation with each. Personally I would email your potential supervisor and ask whether you could meet up to discuss your applications.


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Getting ORCIDs by DOI
Is there a web service that retrieves all of the ORCIDs for the authors associated with a DOI?  I've looked at crossref.org, but I can't seem to find information on how to do this with their service.
I am currently using their HTTP-based API to query information about a publication given its DOI.  It returns the names of the authors, but not their ORCIDs.
(An ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is a unique identifier for an author of a publication.
A DOI (Digital Object Identifier) is the same thing, but for the publication itself)

Please consider editing your post to be more clear and helpful to those who, for example, might not know what ORCID and DOI stand for.  You'll probably get better responses that way too.

Did you try linking ORCID with SCOPUS Author ID?

For biomedical publications it is possible to do using Europe PMC API (I work for this database). You can query the database using the DOI like this and extract (authorId type="ORCID") field. Here is the same query using JSON is you prefer.

Well an ORCID is made for distinguish persons, and it really become useful precisely in case of homonyms. So with an ORCID you can get the matching author, but how could you get an ORCID from an author name, ie let's say, John Smith? The best you can get in a simple way would be a list of ORCIDs, with no mean to determine which one is correct. A more developed system could relate authors between them or use some other information (subject area, location, ...) to disambiguate and get back the correct ORCID. I don't know if such a system exists.
So the answer to your first question is "no". The simpliest way to get ORCID associated to an author would be if your "information about a publication given its DOI" would include ORCIDs itself.

"The best you can get in a simple way would be a list of ORCIDs, with no mean to determine which one is correct. ": well, I disagree, you can then list the publications of each of those ORCIDs, and see if one matches the DOI you provided. So, there is a way to do this (I don't know of any web service providing this service, but I don't think it is impossible either).

@Clément Yes this answer is maybe getting a bit outdated. But I still don't know a tool which automatizes a reverse-searching from article authors to their ORCID. Manually it's possible, as you said; you could also develop your own solution based on provided APIs.


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Can a advance stage PhD student (without thesis subission) apply for post docs, or have to wait until the completion of final defence?
I am interested to know, whether an advance stage PhD student (without thesis submission) can apply for post doc positions or not?

Are you sure you can finish your thesis (and convice your possible future post-doc employer that you can) in time to start the post-doc?

Yes...I am sure that i can be able to submit it within the mentioned time. Moreover, the final defence will be pending.

That should answer the question.

@SibaMishra Perhaps you could edit your question to include the additional information regarding defense (that is relevant to the question).

Most of the post-doc hiring decisions I have made (as the hiring manager) over the last 15 years occurred before their thesis submission. Having a job awaiting the student (and the salary that comes with it) tends to be a spur to finishing and defending a thesis.

From my experience, I had to start submitting my post-doc applications even before I could start the paperwork on the thesis initial submission, not talking about the defence. Most fellowships I could apply to don't give you a second chance, and you must show that you defended and submitted the last version before starting the post-doc.

You can apply for whatever you want. What's your actual question?

David. Yes u are right. I can apply wherever I want. The concern is can I apply before my pre submission or I need to wait till the completion of my defence?

@SibaMishra Most people I know don't defend until they have a job lined up, or else they would just delay their graduation until they do.

For postdocs that are publicly advertised, read the advertisement.  Typically it will say something like "Candidate must have completed PhD before starting date MM-DD-YYYY."  That means you can apply before you are finished, but your application will have to convince them that you will be done before MM-DD-YYYY. If you're offered the job but then don't finish your degree on time, you may lose the job.  (It is possible, but not guaranteed, that you could be given the option to delay your start until after you defend; or to be hired under a different title, usually with lower pay, until you defend.)
For postdocs that are not publicly advertised, where you have to contact the PI to express interest, your initial contact message can say something like "I am finishing my PhD at (name of school), working with (name of advisor), and I expect to defend in MM-YYYY."  If they respond positively, you'll know that's acceptable, and can go on with a full application if needed.

Yes of course, not only you can but you should apply for postdoc positions before defending your phd, if you plan to stay in academia.
Postdoc positions are generally advertised several months before the starting date, so as long as you can convince your futur employer than you will defend your phd in due time it should be fine.
Moreover finding a postdoc position is much easier when you are a phd student (even before thesis submission) with money to travel to conferences, an academic email address, people around you to advise you and write recommendation letters for you, than when you are an unemployed doctor!


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Is it ethical to have results in your PhD thesis that are not strictly yours?
In some disciplines (such as theoretical computer science), it is typical to have papers where you have co-authors. Especially when the set of co-authors is large, and work is being done at different universities, it is possible that person X works on one part, and person Y on one part. Thus, perhaps you wrote and came up with one result, and another result was the result of the work of someone else. Finally, you publish that paper together.
Then, in your PhD thesis, you typically have a list of publications. From what I've seen, the author usually declares what is his/her contribution was for each publication, but this is quite vague. For instance, it might say e.g., "Publication 1 is joint work with X and Y, and partly written by the author".
So consider a particular result that appears in a paper where you are a co-author as a PhD student. My question(s) are:

Is it ethical to include that result in your PhD thesis, supposing that you did not contribute to the result? Perhaps you only proof-read the theorem.
Does it make a difference if you couldn't have come up with the result, or don't deeply understand it? Maybe professor Bigshot Superstar came up with it, wrote it, and it is using advanced machinery with several technical details.

It is nice to just say "this is joint work with Bigshot Superstar" to make yourself look good. I see it being done, but it makes me feel uneasy. On the other hand, while it seems honest, it can potentially hurt you to say "the author did not contribute to Theorem X".

If you "did not contribute to the result", then it is unethical to be a co-author of that paper in the first place.

@Kostya_I The situation could be something like the following. You have a single joint paper which includes three related results: one which is all your own work, one which you did together with your co-author, and one which is all your co-author's work. Clearly you are both entitled to be authors of the paper. Is it appropriate to include the entire paper in your thesis, or just the first two results?

It may be good to report results that is connected to your reports in your thesis even if you did not directly contribute to it as long as you attribute main contributor of the result from an ethical stand-off. But this would not be applicable if the concerned result is to play a major role in your dissertation. In which case, IMO, you can try to do something more or different to make up for the major result.
Apart from my views, the your thesis advisor ought to be the best person to clarify this particular doubt.

For example, if a coauthor calculated some baseline results, would this be covered if I properly attribute e.g. at the beginning of the chapter which bits were done by coauthors and which bits were done me?

As you noted yourself, it is fairly common to have coauthors on papers written during your PhD.
But this should not prevent these results from counting towards your degree.
How this was handled when I did my PhD (math in Denmark) was that I included what was essentially a copy of a paper I wrote with a coauthor (though with notation changed to match, and actually only about half the paper as that was the relevant part for the rest of the dissertation), with a note at the beginning of that section stating that this was what it was.
I also had to get a declaration from my coauthor that he was ok with this, which also stated how large my contribution to the work was. This was then sent along with the dissertation to the evaluation committee.

From the perspective of engineering/applied research, most work is done jointly and papers generally have co-authors. The lead author of each paper is generally decided in advance, so that said person holds accountability of the work. This generally translates into the lead author playing the key role in the active research component.
Lead authors list all their first-author papers in the thesis, provided that the themes are aligned. Since they are the lead author, their contribution to each paper may not explicitly mentioned.
An exception sometimes occurs, wherein a co-author ends up (eg. through a lucky breakthrough) playing a more pivotal role in the research than the pre-decided lead author. In such a case, the lead author may be shifted to a secondary position at the discretion of the supervisor. Such work (non-first author papers) are generally listed separately in the thesis, specifying the thesis-writer's role explicitly.
The take-away from this is that any results where you have contributed, and which are aligned with your thesis should be listed. The most ethical way would be to list this work separate from your first-author work. Lumping both sets of results together could be misleading, especially if you don't list individual contributions.

My personal opinion:

it should be perfectly clear that e.g. the result of the bigger experiment is not yours alone.

It should be clear to the reader what the specific result of your work was

I, as a reader, would much prefer that something like this happens in the introduction/motivation chapter where the context and importance of the work for a bigger experiment/theoretical undertaking is outlined and then the specific challenge tackled has a short and crisp chapter than a weird mix.
(something which comes to my mind here would be the construction of a sensor/detector/experimental setup for particle or astrophysics)

authors: سعيد القبيسي

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


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Somewhat regretting my decision about which graduate program to attend. Could I contact a program I declined and see if they still have a spot for me?
I've posted a few questions here in the past couple of days regarding grad school decisions; apologies for asking so many! It's a big decision and I want to do it right, but I don't want to bombard this forum with too many nitpicky questions. This should be the last one! The previous two are here and here, if you want additional context for this.
The gist of it is: I did my undergrad major in math and linguistics, and I'm looking to pursue research at the intersection of the two fields. For various reasons, it seems the optimal path is to come at this largely from the math side rather than the linguistics side. So I applied to grad programs in both fields, hoping to get into a math PhD. Instead, I got in to a few math Masters programs (at respectable, though not top-ranked, schools) and a linguistics PhD program at a top school. The PhD program also seems like it will offer me the chance to take some math classes along the way, and to pursue some generally math-heavy research topics. This, along with the fact that the degree is fully funded, made it very attractive, and I ended up selecting this school on the April 15 deadline.
However, now I am having some regrets. I feel like choose a math program would have given me much greater flexibility, and perhaps afforded me the chance to research other math topics that I really like (e.g. knot theory) that don't have much to do with linguistics. I am fearful that, by choosing this linguistics degree, I may have locked myself out of ever touching certain areas of math, whereas choosing a math school would given me the option to work on applied problems in linguistics and pure math problems, eventually in my career. I also heard something to this effect directly from a former professor of mine, and with this in mind I am having some serious regrets.
However, I see one option (though I'm not sure I really want to take it, but I at least want to consider it): perhaps, since it is still the weekend, I can contact one of the math programs whose offer I declined and let them know I have changed my mind, and see if they still have a spot for me. I am not sure if this would be the right decision, and even if it was it feels like a long-shot, but perhaps it's the right gamble to take. Apparently, others here have considered similar questions before, but their situation seems different enough from mine that I think posting my own question is probably warranted.
My main concern is that, because I've already accepted the offer to the linguistics program, contacting one of the math programs in this way would be against the rules (I am not totally sure?) and could get me rejected from both for some kind of ethics violation. I would really not want this to happen, so I want to double- and triple-check before I even consider this. It is worth noting that both of these programs are part of the same state university system (this is in the U.S.), and so I fear that contacting one would quickly get back to the other and possible hurt my reputation there.
Does anyone have any advice on what to do?

"For various reasons, it seems the optimal path is to come at this largely from the math side rather than the linguistics side." There is no "optimal path". It's impossible to meaningfully predict your career based on vague generalities about it being easier to move from math to linguistics. The specifics of the two programs are much more relevant. What you're doing is imo the very definition of letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. Rejecting a fully funded Ph.D. at a top school, after you accepted it, for a Master's based on vague generalities and speculation is imo not a good idea.

Beware of the lure of the road not taken (greener grass, etc). Whenever you have to make a choice that closes other avenues, it's easy to panic at the loss of opportunity - that does not mean that you've made the wrong choice, only that you've made a choice. Any choice you take will cancel others, and that loss can be painful. Learning to accept this is the only way to avoid living paralysed by indecision. For what it's worth, I think you've made the right choice. Good luck.

You should never, ever, ever do an unfunded master's degree that won't immediately lead to a well-paying or at least secure job, unless you're already independently wealthy. All the less given that you actually have a good option available.

[this] would be against the rules (I am not totally sure?) and could get me rejected from both for some kind of ethics violation.

The current version of the "rules" only require you to inform your linguistics department if you decide to renege on your promise to attend. You don't even need their permission.

see if they still have a spot for me...I fear that contacting one would quickly get back to the other and possible hurt my reputation there.

You should only do this if you have definitely decided to change your mind. Telling the math department that you want your offer back, only to reject it again, would be sub-optimal. And telling them that you may want your offer back does not make much sense.
But if you have actually changed your mind and definitely would accept an offer from the math department, then all the advice from the question you linked applies -- namely, the decision could go either way, probably depending on how many students accepted their offers before the deadline, relative to their target number. If your math department knows about your commitment to the linguistics department, it does not seem impossible that they would seek an OK from your linguistics department before extending you another offer - all the more reason to be sure before you ask for your offer to be reinstated.
As for your reputation: it's true that wishy-washiness and reneging on commitments may hurt your reputation, but it's also very understandable this early in your career. I seriously doubt it will do any real damage.

Does anyone have any advice on what to do?

I'm neither a mathematician nor a linguist, but for what it's worth...I think you made the right decision already. Accepting an unfunded offer is usually a mistake. The linguistics program will probably be happy to let you pursue as much math as you want (whereas the math program may limit your time devoted to linguistics). The thought that "once you know the math, the application domain is trivial" is not always true (relevant XKCD). You may find that working with math, linguistics, and computers will give more career options post-PhD than pure math. And finally, the fact that you've already made this decision and chose the linguistics program is an important data point...it's a good rule of thumb to never reverse a done decision unless you have a really solid understanding why that decision was incorrect.

+1 for: "it's a good rule of thumb to never reverse a done decision unless you have a really solid understanding why that decision was incorrect."

I think your best option is to stay put
Adding to cag51's excellent answer - I think your best bet is to stay put.  It sounds like you're a good fit for your current program.  I think what you're experience is somewhat common, and normal - just don't act on it.  There is a good chance your fears will calm themselves.
You've just been through months of extra studying for the GRE, getting great letters of recommendations, and crafting great applications to the schools you choose.  You spent hours or days researching the schools, weighing where you'd be happy to spend the next several years of your life there.
You've spent months with what-if scenarios and day-dreams about what life would be like at each school.  Since you accepted the offer, all those vague what-ifs are being replaced by concrete things.  Some of which are not as good as the fantasy that came before.  That's normal.
The reality is you will never have enough time to pursue every interest you have.  The good news - you found a program that lets you focus on 2 very different fields.

(Disclaimer - I did not do my PhD in the US, so maybe there is something that makes my suggestion harder in the US, but here goes:)
I think that you cannot fully know if a PhD program is right for you before you have actually tried it -- in either direction. Since you have obtained and accepted this very good place with funding, why not give it a go and see how you like it? As a student, it first feels like a catastrophe if it turns out that you didn't make the right choice for your PhD (speaking from experience), but that can happen to anyone, regardless of how certain they are beforehand, and it does not have to be a final choice.
If, next year, you find that the linguistics degree is not what you want to do, why not re-apply for maths PhDs then and see if you can get a good funded place at that point?
It sounds like there's a good chance that you'll love this program and will never think about changing, but if you do want to change later, you can still do it at that point.

This is probably good advice, thank you for the answer. Since I'm doing my PhD in the US, is there anyone familiar with the US system that can attest to any difficulties with this?