text:
How to choose an associate editor for my manuscript?
I want to submit my manuscript to a journal.
It is written that I need to choose an associate editor for my paper and if the associate editor whom I assign rejects my paper,
I cannot resubmit my paper to the same journal with another associate editor of the same journal.
So the question boils down how to effectively choose the associate editor and assign my paper to him?
What are the things to keep in mind while choosing an associate editor for my manuscript?
Is it possible that wrong choice of associate editor can lead to rejection of paper? Or is it possible that even if I choose an associate editor who is not an expert in my field he may send my paper to the appropriate associate editor?

The question boils down how to effectively choose the associate editor and assign my paper to him?

The associate editor (AE) has to first decide if the paper is worth reviewing for the journal (they can often do a summary reject if the quality of the work is low). If it is, they then have to select the reviewers for your paper, get the decision from the reviewers, and then use that to make a recommendation. So, ideally you'd prefer someone who is:

familiar with your area and work,
familiar with people who would be good reviewers for your paper,
someone that you or your co-authors get along with.

Getting #1 is hardest - most journals don't have AEs in every sub-area of a field. As an AE I often handle paper that are in related fields so I know of possible reviewers, even if I'm not an expert in the field myself.
For #3 you can't have someone too close to you (e.g. someone that a co-author regularly publishes with), and you also don't want someone with whom one of your co-authors has very poor relations (e.g. fundamental disagreements about the field).
Note that while you may recommend an AE to the editor when submitting a paper, the editor has the final say on the AE that is selected for the paper.
With regard to your other questions:

Is it possible that wrong choice of associate editor can lead to rejection of paper?

It is always possible (eg if the AE doesn't like the line of research or chooses poor reviewers), but there are many factors that can lead to the rejection as well, and it is almost impossible to control for all of them.

Or is it possible that even if I choose an associate editor who is
  not an expert in my field he may send my paper to the appropriate
  associate editor?

The editor may do this if the AE is busy or if the editor thinks that someone else can handle the paper well. It would be more rare for an AE to  ask for a paper to be sent to someone else.

Re #3: but that someone also shouldn't be too close to you or your co-authors, to avoid conflicts of interest.

One question : Is it possible that wrong choice of Associate Editor can lead to rejection of paper

@Learnmore Unfortunately, there are many factors out of your control that could lead to the rejection of your paper. But, even though you indicate a preferred AE, this doesn't mean that they will be assigned the paper. The editors of the journal may override your suggestion if that AE has too high a workload or for other reasons.

@Anyon That as well - I was more thinking the other way of avoiding someone who doesn't like your work or who you've had disagreements with in the past. But, both are valid concerns.


text:
How to do a PhD to equip myself for a job as assistant professor
This is in reference to my older question: Will every PhD student from a reputed institute land a postdoc position?.
I have completed my master’s in pure mathematics and have got a funding for five years.
I have been told that there are few faculty positions available w.r.t the number of PhDs generated (I don’t know if its really true).
My questions:

How should I plan to do my research in order to get an edge over the others in getting a job?

Should I try to visit some famous universities (see if they accept me) and work with some very good advisors so that I get to solve a very good problem?
Should I try to get a breakthrough result even if  it takes seven to eight years and complete my PhD in that? Because completing your PhD in less than five years and having no major result will push you back.

In other words how should I prepare myself to be better equipped in landing a postdoc and then a job as as assistant professor?
I am asking this because, no matter how passionate you are about mathematics, you need to find a job some day or the other to run yourself and your family.

you need to find a job some day or the other to run yourself and your family — True, but even in mathematics, "finding a job" dos not mean merely "finding an academic job". If you're really worried about feeding your family, devoting 5-8 years of your life for a small chance at an academic job—if you're lucky enough to be successful—which pays significantly less than a non-academic job you could train yourself for in six months, is perhaps not the best strategy.

It is true that there are far fewer postdoc positions than graduates with a PhD. So it is legitimate to ask what you can do to improve your chances to eventually get a postdoc position, and from there on a faculty position.
The problem is that the number of factors that influence whether or not you will end up with one of these positions is large. There are some obvious ones:

If you get a PhD from a good university, that helps.
If you have a famous adviser, that helps.
If you are substantially better, that helps.
If you work in a field with current excitement, that helps.

Of course, there is also the issue that if you work in a field that is "hot" but that you don't enjoy, you're probably not going to do well.
Many of these factors are either out of your control (admission to Harvard or Berkeley) or that you can't foresee with your current knowledge, given that you haven't been involved in research for too long. But, if you get admitted to a good university, take the position and go from there.
(I will note that -- having read maybe 500 grad school applications in math -- about 2/3 of grad school applicants want to eventually become professors at a research university. This is wildly unrealistic -- I don't know exact numbers, but would imagine that overall only maybe 10% of grad students will eventually achieve this. I'm telling you this because you will have to contend with the fact that basically everyone around you has the same goal as you: they all want to go to a good university, be advised by that famous professor, etc. You'll have to work hard to be better than all of those others.)

Why are there so many less positions available in academia

Should I start looking for some famous Universities and try to get in there if I want to land a job as a Professor

I don't understand why would people do a PhD in Pure Mathematics to land a job outside academia

I dont agree with Wolfgang, bcs OP is PhD in Math.

@SSimon: What exactly do you disagree with and why?

@New_User: I don't understand why would people do a PhD in Pure Mathematics to land a job outside academia – There are a lot of positions that require some PhD simply because during a PhD you also usually learn to work independently, organise your thoughts, perform research in general, etc. At least where I am from, few PhDs in maths, physics, etc. are hired outside of academia for their subject expertise.

Please understand that Wolfgang comment is too broad to relate to @New_User field.

On last question .Regarding your 4th point How does one  know where does "the current excitement" lie in the mathematical field

I don't think there is much point trying to get Ssimon to be more clear. From past experience all comments will be short and hard to make complete sense of.

I am preaty clear that wolfgang answer is nonsence https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/44183/what-do-mathematics-researchers-do-if-they-arent-good/44187#44187

@New_User: "Why are there so many less positions available in academia." I don't know how to answer this because I don't know what you mean -- are you surprised that there are so few faculty positions, or so many PhD student positions?

About the "hot" areas: That's something you have to talk to people about. Talk to the professors who teach your first or second year grad courses, before you have to make a decision about the area you want to do research in.

@WolfgangBangerth;By "less positions available in academia"  I meant why the number of faculty positions are so few as compared to PhDs .

@WolfgangBangerth;Since the number of PhD students are increasing why are the faculty positions not increasing to make students graduate

@New_User: Why do you think there should be as many faculty positions as PhD students? Each professor can handle multiple students at the same time. But even if they only had one student at a time, then they'd produce one PhD every 5 years. But you only need one PhD graduate every 35 or so years to replace a professor.

@New_User: "Since the number of PhD students are increasing why are the faculty positions not increasing to make students graduate" -- the number of faculty positions is increasing in the US. See for example here: https://www.humanitiesindicators.org/content/indicatorDoc.aspx?i=71

@WolfgangBangerth;Thank you very much for your comments

@SSimon Wolfgang is a professor in mathematics. He mentions mathematics in his answer. Therefore your claim that his answer is "nonsence" [sic] and that "I dont agree with Wolfgang, bcs OP is PhD in Math" do not make sense to me, and suggest that once again you have not read properly what other people wrote, before jumping in with your own hasty reactions

I was refering to job market @YemonChoi sorry for misunder...

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text:
What is considered a standard time for asking a status update from the editor for various stages of peer-review?
What is considered a standard time for asking a status update from the editor for various stages of peer-review?
I have heard that editors get irritated for asking a status update for the manuscript.
But the problem is getting timely reviews is absolutely necessary for submitting a PhD thesis.
Hence it is extremely important to get review within a stipulated time.
Since peer-review is time consuming,  my question is:
When can I ask for a status update from the editor for  a manuscript which is roughly twenty pages long for the following stages of peer-review?

Manuscript is "With Editor" and it is not yet sent for peer-review.
Manuscript is sent for first round of review  but the reviews have not yet reached the author
Second round of review when the manuscript is under minor revision which includes correction of typos, grammatical errors etc.
Second round of review when the manuscript is under major revision.

Does your program actually require papers going into your thesis to be peer-reviewed? That seems quite unfortunate if true. I believe a more common standard is "peer-reviewable", that is, prepared and submitted or submittable. Your thesis committee is reviewing your work, too, in a different sort of review but similarly thorough.

In any event, there seems to be a misconception here that if somehow you choose the ideal time to pester the editor at each stage of review your paper will somehow get special accelerated treatment. That seems very unlikely.

As @BryanKrause says, "don't pester the editor". It won't help anything. The process is slow, etc., but, ... it's that way for everyone. Indeed, it is not a good structure, but at this year we have not systematically implemented better processes.

@BryanKrause; yes the program unfortunately requires papers to be peer-reviewed before getting into thesis. Do I inform the Editor about this process of ours, will that help?

@Learnmore You may have heard "Lack of planning on your part doesn't constitute an emergency on mine" or similar. Not saying it's specifically your planning, but basically your program's bad policies aren't the editor's fault. Your program has chosen a policy likely to cause students unnecessary stress, that fails to appreciate the unreliable timing of peer review, and seems to me to encourage publication in lower quality or even predatory journals. None of that is the editor's fault.

I can see two reasons where asking for a status update is any reasonable:

You have a practical use for the information, i.e., it would actually affect a relevant decision you make. For example, when you know that the journal is only waiting for one reviewer who is trustworthy and promised to submit a report next week, you would not plan a lengthy vacation so you can react to the decision. If you just want a prognosis to soothe your impatience or similar, that’s not a practical use.

Things are taking too long and you hope that nudging the editors will get them to take relevant action such as reminding reviewers. Mind that this is too long with respect to the standards of the field and journal, not your own time constraints. For details and particular what is too long, see: Is my paper under review (or similar) for too long and if yes, how should I react?.

In particular, there is no reason to expect that asking for status updates is accelerating anything unless Point 2 applies. It’s like repeatedly pushing the crosswalk button.
If you want to communicate something to the editors, do it explicitly (and not implicitly by sending frequent status requests).
Specifically, just tell them why it is crucial for you to have a decision on this paper within whatever your deadline is.
Even then, this will likely not considerably accelerate the process or ensure anything, but at least the editors might give you a prognosis as to how likely they will be in time or tell you when it becomes evident that they cannot make a decision in time.

Hence it is extremely important to get review within a stipulated time

First, are you sure? You can usually already search for postdoc positions and similar without your PhD being actually completed. Second, just that it is important does not mean that you can do something about it. Sometimes, things are just a matter of luck; this is usually one of those cases.

I don't have the citation on hand but I'm pretty sure I've read psych/UX papers that talk about how the crosswalk button (and similar scenarios) is actually quite cathartic and improves the user experience. Leaving people a pushable button makes them feel good. However, crosswalk buttons don't have feelings and don't get irritated with people triple-pushing them.

@BryanKrause: However, crosswalk buttons don't have feelings and don't get irritated with people triple-pushing them. – Hehe. And of course even if they make you feel good, crosswalk buttons do not actually make the light change faster (except for the first push).

Thank you very much for the answer , I have one question, In point (2), you talk about overly long, what is considered overly long here?

@Learnmore: There is no general answer to that, see the linked question on how to find out. Also see my edit.

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text:
Should I define two essential terms in abstract?
A big aspect of the novelty of our paper is distinguishing among two things which are often conflated, or at least a bit garbled together in some non-standard way per application, within our community.  It’d be helpful to explicitly label and identify how we will use these (original, not repurposed) terms ASAP in the paper to bring our readers on board with how we’re tackling the problem.
It’d be useful to have the terms loaded with our meaning to use them in our abstract; so useful that I’m willing to devote the first two sentences of our abstract to this purpose.
Is this appropriate?  I haven’t seen it done.  I’m also worried that it’s a bit of a buzzkill / alienating to read an abstract which throws new language at you instantly.  If may be helpful to know my target audience is engineers and physicians.
My current solution “masks” the definitions a bit:

In this work we draw a distinction between X, [definition X], and Y, [definition Y].  For example, in [example my community knows about] X which is [instance X in example] and Y which is [instance Y in example]. ...

I’m avoiding giving more context as it would be burdensome and make this question less relevant to others who may stumble on it in the future.

Without knowing a lot more of the context -- and perhaps even knowing a bit about your field -- I think it will be hard for people to answer this question.

That's true, though I worry that giving the context would limit how useful this might be to others.  (Additionally, I don't know that I could give unbiased or brief context).  Right now I wrote something which seemed to "mask" the definitions a bit: "In this work, we draw a distinction between x, which is this thing, and y, which is this other thing.  For example, in this common thing my community all knows about, x is this while y is this other thing ..."

Many author guides I am aware of advise to only define something in the abstract, when it’s really needed. For example, Physical Review X advises (boldface mine):

In particular, the abstract and introduction of each article should be written so as to be understandable by a broad spectrum of readers. New terminology should be introduced only when clearly needed. It should be appropriate and, if possible, convey to the reader an accurate impression of its meaning.

Now, you have good arguments to define something in the abstract, but an overzealous editor or referee might still be against it due to interpreting guidelines as rules.
That being said, I have seen new terms introduced in abstracts many times and most of the times this was the better alternative to me – this also applies to interdisciplinary papers relating to medicine. I have rarely seen terms rigorously defined in abstracts though.
Some further remarks on this:

The main purpose of your paper is probably not to define these terms but to analyse the differences between them or similar. Most probably there also is a practical benefit of being able to make this distinction other than clarifying communication. This should be your motivation. Also, you should write your abstract (and paper) from this perspective and not from the perspective of introducing a new terminology – which is what your current abstract sounds like to me.
Do not start with the definition right away, but motivate it first. It’s not new language that is confusing (at least as long as we are talking about two terms only), it’s unmotivated new language. If you motivate the distinction first, the reader can associate something with the terms and thus better memorise them.
By all means, make clear that you are defining something when you do. Nothing is more confusing if you do not know whether something is new terminology or not. The context should make clear that the term is new and, if it’s not unseen in your community, italicise the newly introduced terms.
It’s not important to precisely define your concepts in the abstract – you can do that later. Rather give the main distincitive aspects, so that most readers get the central idea to your distinction. Of course, if the definitions are sufficiently concise, you can use them in the abstract.

To distill this into an example abstract, which does not exactly match your case, if I understood it correctly, but should illustrate the idea:

We show that phenomenon Z can occur in two distinct flavours, which exhibit relevant differences in behaviour in [application]: [definition X], which we denote as X, and [definition Y], which we denote as Y. […]

Some fantastic food for thought, most of which is relevant (no small feat given the brief context!).  Thank you.

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Is it good to mention in a recommendation letter that a student always attends office hours? What kind of impression does this make?
I'm writing a letter of recommendation for a student in my class who always came to my office hours.  Is it good to say he attended a lot of office hours?  Will this make the admissions committee think he is a diligent student, or too dependent on the instructors?  He is applying for a master's program in computer science.

You can talk about why he comes, and what kind of discussions you have with him.

The usual question in the site is "what can I write about a student I nearly don't know", but you know this student, so you are in better position than the average professor to write a letter of recommendation.

Voted to close due to lack of clarity, as explained in answer by @DSVA.  If you edit the answer and want a reopen vote, please address a comment to me.

My immediate question is "But what did they do during office hours?"  Did they ask lots of insightful questions?  Did they give insightful answers to other students' questions?  Did they frequently ask for clarifications on elementary/prerequisite material?  Did they bring you candy and beg for extra points?  Did they silently take a picture of the whiteboard every five minutes?  Did they just sit quietly in the corner?


text:
After working 10 years in the non-profit sector, will getting a PhD open new doors?
I am trying to come up with criteria to decide if I leave my job and start a PhD I was recently offered. One issue is the impact the PhD will have in my career: will it open new doors, will it make me a more attractive candidate to work for the government or the non-profit sector where I have been working for the past 10 years? Or should I just continue working on the issues I already have experience with and a network?
The main reason I am considering the offer is because I love the topic, I have been wondering about it for many many years and I would like to become an expert on it. It will be a big change for me, financially and geographically, as well as socially. PhD students can be very young these days.

A surgeon I know gave a local radio interview, in which she advised young people, "Only go into surgery if you feel it's the only thing that makes sense for you."  That advice would apply in your situation as well.  (But it has nothing to do with your being a returning student.)  Getting a PhD can be tremendously rewarding but it can also be very, very hard on the person and his or her family.

The issue isn't your age but what you want to get out of a PhD.
A PhD teaches you how to do research. If you want a job doing research or teaching at the university level, then yes, it might be for you!
For any other type of job, it will probably result in slowing down your career without opening many other doors. In the US, a PhD can take 4-7 years of full-time work with very little pay.
The other possibility is that if you really just love the subject and don't care that it won't increase your salary potential, then it might also be for you.

I have acquaintances who have spent 10 years working on Ph.D.s.

@Austin answered you on what you should be expecting from a Phd. But he misses the importance of Phd in industry and commercial potential.
It depends on what exactly you did in your last 10 years. I should share my personal example. My background is in software engineering, but I'm focusing on quantitative modelling (eg: machine learning) where my all colleagues have a Phd in mathematics, bioinformatics, statistics etc. It makes total sense for me to do a Phd, because it'll give me huge opportunity to advance my career.
However, all my friends who did software engineering with me are doing general programming (JavaScript, iOS, Android, UI development etc). They have no motivation and no career proposal with any Phd degree. Nobody expects a phd iOS/Android app developer.
To make a decision, you should ask yourself whether what you have done in the last 10 years is something relevant to a Phd degree. Is that something very technically advanced? If it's not, your experience won't count and you'll be nothing more than a fresh Phd graduate.

As already stated above, it depends on what you want to get out of PhD. If you are simply doing it because you are passionate about the topic and don't expect much in return in terms of your career growth then avoid it. You can alternatively read the stuff to have pleasure. It will take a huge period of time and you may end up lagging behind in your career. If you expect some solid career related returns, especially in academics/research then definitely go for it.
Somewhere I heard this "A PhD holder knows too much about too little" !!!!!!!!!!


text:
How to reference a picture from a website in a report?
Let's say that I have taken this picture in this webpage
https://www.nde-ed.org/EducationResources/CommunityCollege/Ultrasonics/js_apps/transducerBeamSpread/
If I did change some things in that picture , How can I now make the reference of that picture in my report? Can you please write to me how the reference will be?
Thanks

Just caption it as "credit: www.nde-ed.org (with original amendments)" and then drop the link into a footnote.


text:
What is reasonable expenditure on meals during a conference?
I am currently at a conference in the US
and I will be reimbursed by my adviser.
I was wondering what is a reasonable per diem spending for meals?
Of course I could ask my adviser directly,
but I feel bad doing so,
because I am afraid my adviser will think that
I am trying to spend the maximum amount possible.
I don't want to blow my adviser's budget,
but I also don't feel that I need to save every last penny
in terms of my meal spending.
I would like to have maybe one nice meal a day ~$20
but otherwise eat cheaper meals < $10.
What types of spending guidelines would help me not to upset my adviser?

I'd like to point out that your adviser will probably not be offended by the question. If I told you that you had a $100 food allowance, the normal reaction is probably not to attempt to eat $100 worth of food because that's how much you're allotted.

If you are at a conference in the U.S. in a major city, you will not be able to have much of a "nice" meal for 20 dollars. A typical per diem rate on www.gsa.gov is 50 to 60 dollars for meals each day. It will be higher in big cities (e.g. $71 in New York and Los Angeles) and lower in rural areas (e.g. $46 in Ithaca).

As a bit of a guideline, my London-based university allows me £10 for breakfast, £7 for lunch, and £20 for dinner for any work related travel (be it conferences or meetings away from the university). That is set by the university, not my advisor, even though it comes out of my grant money. You really need to speak to your advisor about it though. I would just approach it like a general conversation about claiming back expenses.

Ask your advisor. Your university is likely to have a maximum allowable per diem that is based on the city that the conference is in. It varies from university to university, but mine just pays the per diem for that city regardless of how much you actually spend. Many universities do it this way. It saves time and money processing expenses on a meal-by-meal and receipt-by-receipt basis. If your university does this, then it doesn't matter how much you spend on yourself.
Also, given that the per diem is likely capped in the $40-$50/day range anyway, you are unlikely to blow your advisor's travel budget on food even if you hit the max every day.

Typically, travel policies allow for a set rate of reimbursement ($x per day) without any need to submit receipts.  The US federal government sets per diem rates for both hotels and meals and incidental expenses, and if your funding source is a federal grant you can't exceed these rates without special permission from your program officer and then receipts are needed to justify the expenditure.  Similarly, most states have their own standard rates (which may just be the federal rates but are often lower.)

+1 for Ask your advisor. You don't only need to know the amount you can spend, you need to know the exact travel rules you need to follow. (Do you need receipts? Can alcoholic drinks be reimbursed?)  Failure to follow your school's rules can lead to you not being reimbursed!

@OswaldVeblen: Indeed, this would be a good question to ask as part of a longer conversation about how travel expenses and reimbursements are handled.  It's important to make sure you are completely clear on all the details and rules.

"Ask your advisor" -- they'll possibly have no clue. Ask the person who actually deals with this stuff, e.g. the group secretary.

Advisers usually have no clue about it. Ask the group / department secretary or administrator instead, they will know much better.

Here's the guidelines according to SIAM:

There are two options for meal reimbursement. You must select an option and use it for the entire trip . The options are:

Full Reimbursement - For full reimbursement, detailed receipts are required
  whether the meals are paid for in cash or credit card . Detailed
  receipts for meals showing the food and beverages ordered are
  required. If the meals are included on the hotel bill as room service,
  a detailed receipt is still required. Since SIAM receives funding from
  government agencies it is mandatory that we receive the detailed
  receipts so that unallowable costs can be segregated for government
  funding purposes. If a detailed receipt/receipts are not provided to
  support a meal item on the expense report , the meal(s) will be
  deducted from the expense report and not reimbursed .
Per Diem - Costs vary according to the area of the country ; there are no fixed per- diem rates . The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA ) updates the per-diem by city periodically. If using per-diem, the rate for the
  conference city travelling to should be used. Current per-diem rates
  are available at:

Domestic ~ http://www.gsa.gov/portal/category/21287
Outside US ~ http://aoprals.state.gov/web920/per_diem.asp

If you use the per-diem rates, you can comfortably afford a nice meal every day, no matter which city you are travelling to in US.


text:
How to deal with classes that I must cancel due to conference travel?
I will be teaching a course which is made up of 13 weeks of classes
in the Fall of 2016.
Unfortunately, I will also be travelling in the middle of the semester
to a conference in the US from my home university located in Asia.
This means that for one week, I will not physically be in my home university and I will have to cancel classes.
Unfortunately, we cover quite a lot of material in the course. Therefore, I am afraid that if I cancel one week of classes I will not be able to cover all the material.
What are my options in such a situation?
I was considering recording a video of my lectures just for that week I am away.
Assignments can be submitted electronically so I could assign work for the students which they can complete and submit online.
What have other professors/lecturers done in such a situation?

In my experience this is usually handled with a combination of a) canceling class, b) lectures by the TA, and/or c) guest lectures from other faculty/postdocs/etc.

My advisor usually plans exams/field trips on the classes he is traveling. I'm his TA so I take over on such classes.

My favorite lectures as an undergrad were ones taught by a (competent) TA. They provide a difference in style, and sometimes explain things better than the professor.

I do it like this:

Try to let a colleague* take over. This almost always works with 'standard' classes (intro to statistics, this kind of stuff)
Plan the classes in such a way that the students are busy with something else in this week (e.g., data collection), so that a plenary meeting is not necessary.
Cancel - but if I would cancel more than one meeting of a course, I would probably get problems with my department.

* we don't really have the concept of a TA here, you are either teaching (then, you are a colleague) or not - so 'colleague' also can include graduate students that might be referred to as TA in other systems
(context: Europe/Netherlands; social sciences)

Yes, my department doesn't allow travels during teaching semesters unless one provides adequate substitutions or alternative plans. Reschedulling classes is generally not possible or very difficult because of the packed schedule.

The first step should be to ask what is usually done at your institution.
Currently I can reschedule lectures when it's really necessary.
At a previous I have written slides for my TA to give. I also covered a lecture for a colleague, from their notes. In this case there was a minimum number of hours of instruction for the course, so missing any would have been a problem (I did cancel one, but in unexpected circumstances).

The first step should be to ask what is usually done at your institution. This.

Adding on to @damian' answer, another suggestion prepone your classes of that period by swapping sessions with your colleagues. This would also require cooperation and understanding from your colleagues.

Besides to all other solutions presented in other answers, I can add these options too.

If your university/ department regulations allow you, cancel your class at that day, so your students will be able to schedule their day studying or reviewing their courses; or simply enjoy going out and not having to study at that day. (Joking but your students may be so happy with this option!)
Reschedule your course for another day. Of course, this option needs to be checked whether regulations of your university/ department allows you or not. Also, you have to see whether your students can attend at an alternative date or not.
Distribute the time of your class between other sessions. For instance, if your class is 45 minutes, you may add 15 minutes to other three sessions to cover time of that class completely. Some students may not be happy with this option because they may have scheduled class after your class and this extended time may waste their coffee breaks.
Use distance learning methods and if your institute has video conference and high speed internet, teach by video conferencing methods. Some applications such as Skype may allow you to do so. However, you should think about this method and whether your university/ department allows you to do so.

Plan some programs which do not require you to be present with your class at the day you are going to the conference. This may include activities such:

Some professors or lecturers have quizzes or midterm exams during the semester.
You may schedule your quizzes or class exams to be taken at the day you are going to travel. Of course this needs previous notification to your class.
Some others plan short one day technical visits to projects, laboratories, etc. These types of visits is very often in the courses of Engineering programs such as Civil Engineering in which students visit some construction projects as part of their courses. If your presence is not important in such one day programs, then scheduling your travel during these visits seems to be perfect.
Some courses are presented by two lecturers. If your course is the same, you may ask your partner lecturer to go to the class in that specific day.
Ask a colleague lecturer to go to the class. However, I do not really recommend this option in a student's perspective. When I was a student, I did not really like the change in the method the course delivered to me by an alternative lecturer. Professors have different ways of lecturing, and just one session will not give enough time to lecturer and students to get to know each other and productivity may probably be affected. Of course some lecturers are so professional and can deliver courses and control the class perfectly. I will recommend to put this option as last choice.
Ask your TA to have one of his classes at the time you are not going to your class.

Mm... "that day"? The OP said that they will have to go away for one week of a 13 week course. This might mean up to 3-4 days of classes per course (in my university where we have a 14 week semester, a course has an average of 7.5 hours of lectures per week, distributed across 3 days - typically lectures are 1.5 or 3 hours long).

@MassimoOrtolano The OP did not exactly mention how many sessions he has each week. Just pointing to the day on which his class is being canceled, the OP may use a combination of above suggestions if he is going to cancel multiple sessions.

My first teaching experience was delivering a lecture, from notes prepared by the instructor, for a course I TA'ed in. Decades later, as an adjunct, I was able to give one of my TAs the same opportunity. Other things I used in other years included:

holding the midterm the week I was to be away, and getting my TAs to supervise it. This works if you only have to move the midterm one week in either direction
teaching into the "tutorial hour" twice (typically once before and once after the absence) to deliver two extra hours of material, allowing me to skip an entire week (I had a three hour slot once a week, two hours of fast paced lecture followed by an hour of informal chat for those who wanted to stay.)

Checking with your department is key. They will generally approve whatever you suggest if you ask them in advance, but be annoyed if you just do something unusual and then students come and complain. And believe me, students will come and complain. There is always one who would have got 99 on the midterm if it had been held as planned, but because you moved it a week only got 34, and goes to the head to get some justice.
If you don't have a TA, your department may be able to suggest a grad student or fellow prof who likes your topic and can do it. Also, your TA may be terrified and try to decline - be prepared to spend some coaching time. This is part of having a TA, inducting them into academic life. Or they may think it's going to be great, but not actually do very well. Allow some time the week you are back to review what was done with the TA, just in cse.

Create a video of your lecture.  This works especially well since you have such advanced warning that you won't be present -- you have plenty of time to plan, record and edit the video.
I've done this a half-dozen times or so and find it works very well.  The recording/editing tools have become easy to use in the past 3-4 years.  I use ScreenFlow to capture my slides, web cam and audio.  Other tools would do as well, I'm sure.
I then upload the video to our LM system and warn students with an email.
For one of my sophomore-level classes, I have a TA show up in the classroom at the assigned time to watch the video with any students who want to attend.  The TA can then replay part of the video ("hey, what did he say there?") or pause the video to answer questions.

Don’t go to the conference, the customers (students) have paid to get these classes.  Therefore they have a right to be put first.
Without students there would be no money to do research…..

This is not an accurate representation of the funding model of many universities.

@BenCrowell: This is a nice ideal, but in practice it's not compatible with the expectations of a faculty position at a research university. "People who need to go to conferences can do it during the breaks between semesters."  But that's not when the conferences are.

@NateEldredge, if universities cared about their customers  the conferences would be run at times that did not effect teaching, as empty conferences would not be repeated.

@Ian: Until such time as that happens, I'm afraid this answer is more wishful thinking than practical advice.

Also, the best quality teaching depends on research. My research informs my teaching. If I stop doing research, my students won't gain. They'll lose.

@Ian - You are assuming: firstly that it is a university hosting the conference; secondly, that the academic is within the same country as the conference (it is quite feasible that semester/term dates may/will differ between countries, thus an "off date" for the organisers may not align with the "off dates" for this particular academic's institution).

Staying at the bleeding edge of your field is one of the things that creates an environment for education, and is a faculty responsibility


text:
Why does my PhD supervisor not talk to me directly?
There is an incident between me and my PhD adviser, which is repeated for the second time (The first time was a couple of months ago), and its details are:
My PhD supervisor talked about me and my problems to one of the post doc scholars in our department, who is not my PhD adviser's post-doc. The first time my PhD adviser talked to this post-doc about me, he said that I was not present at a conference and presentations. In fact I was, and even in some of those presentations my PhD adviser was present and I'm pretty sure he saw me there explicitly. But I heard from this post-doc a week later that my PhD adviser was not happy cause he didn't see me there... I never received a notice from my PhD adviser and he never talk to me about that. As a result, I said that maybe was just a mistake and moved on.
Today, I heard from this post-doc again that my PhD adviser is angry cause I removed a document that he requested me to update that yesterday. In fact, I updated that document just a couple of hours ago and fortunately it is uploaded in the box and could show the details of changes to that file and how many version is uploaded. Also, box could show who viewed or downloaded the files and the last time my PhD adviser saw that file or downloaded was yesterday, when he requested me to update that and I did it today morning. I'm just mad and angry because if there is a problem with me or my work or my personality or whatever why my PhD adviser does not talk to me directly? He could just send an email to me say hey what the hell are you doing?! instead of talking to other people and I incidentally hear the problems from other people behind me?! I'm just angry and please excuse me for typos or rude language.
My question is: what can I do to solve this problem and why my PhD adviser does not talk to me directly about my problems? I appreciate any suggestion.
Update:
I talked to my PhD adviser right now and he was quite okay and cool with me and did not talk about the incident that post-doc talked to me yesterday. So, I think something is wrong with this post-doc... I really appreciate if someone help me to find a proper way to tell this post-doc that my issues or problems are not his/her business...

I think you should ask the postdoc how "bad" it is first. Make sure that he knows that this is bugging you, and try to find out whether your PI is truly frustrated with you. I can easily imagine a scenario in which your advisor said these things during a coffee break without choosing their words carefully, after which the postdoc may have overestimated the seriousness of the situation.

@Mowgli Even for minor things or not so important things why I should be the last one that my problems are discussed with? When I see other people or my friends that they have lot of issues but their advisers do not talk behind them with other people but for me that I do my adviser's work promptly for sometimes even within a day that I received a notice, it really makes me mad... I mean it really hurts... I don't say I have no issue but why my problem should be discussed with unrelated people? If he talked about me with other professors or chair I was not mad like this....

I think your question about how to handle the post-doc now should actually be a separate, different question.

You seem to be getting all the information about your communication issues with your advisor from a third party - the postdoc. That information may not be accurate, though I can't say from this distance. But you should consider the fact that it is the third person with the problem and not yourself.
But the solution is to go and talk to your advisor. I wouldn't take a confrontational attitude, but mention that you did the work requested and were at the meeting you mention, etc. Ask for an assessment of your progress and position. If there is a problem you will know, from the actual source. If there isn't a problem it should be obvious from the way the advisor responds.
Like many such meetings, this needs to be face to face and informal. If you suspect from the answers you get that the post doc is trying to subvert you, I'd spend some time deciding on a plan before complaining about it.
If your advisor, in fact, has no problem with your actions then there probably was no reason for him to communicate. But if he does have an issue it is better that you hear it directly and you may need to take the initiative to make that happen.

I just preferred to not talk to him at least today cause I'm really angry and I didn't want to appear as a bad or rude guy... We have meeting scheduled tomorrow and I will talk to my adviser and just say I did the requested work to see how he would react...

And make sure any anger is directed at the correct target.

Talking to your advisor about your professional issues is why they're there. Do not assume the worst in people! It can be antagonistic, and not productive towards getting your thesis going.

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


text:
Is it possible to do a PhD in Environmental Policy and Economics if I do not have an academic background in Economics?
Is it possible to do a PhD in Environmental Policy and Economics if I do not have an academic background in Economics (except for two papers in my graduate prog. one on Environmental economics and the other on Resource Economics which, I feel were very watered down)? I have an Graduate degree in Environmental Studies and undergraduate degrees in Biotechnology and Law. I am very interested in pursing a PhD involving Environmental Policy; and Economics I feel is an integral part of the discourse.
What can I do to overcome my lack of a degree/ course on Economics in my academics career so far? Will writing papers that uses Economic theories and concepts help me in getting accepted for a PhD position?
Will I have to pursue another graduate degree in Economics?
I am from India, where education is very compartmentalized and not generally interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary (with few exceptions).

Sure you can. However make sure your supervisor(s) know the economics better (e.g., by looking at his/her current publications) than you. This is because if the supervisor doesn't know the area very well, he/she doesn't know if your work is in fact a contribution because he is not an experienced yet; and therefore it will create a very unpleasant situation in which you work hard; without knowing you are on the right track.

Thanks for the reply.
I have a follow-up question. To be accepted by a supervisor, won't I have to exhibit some competencies in Economics ? Or are most supervisors open to accepting students from even outside their core disciple, like in my case?

@lyn.irene I met many friends of mine that went from Mathematics to Computer Science-based Ph.Ds or visa versa. In fact you might have a better chance at getting a Ph.D. position from an Academic in the area of Economics because then he/she can contribute with you in both fields; and therefore by accepting you, his/her research resume will cover more grounds. Think about it this way: the supervisor already knows economics, so he is already active in this domain, and so he/she wants to expand on his research contributions for future promotions.


text:
What are best practices for dealing with OCR'ed but ugly papers ("picture of text on top of the text")?
Many PDFs of old papers are only an image of text. Other papers have been converted with optical character recognition (OCR). By OCR'ed, I mean the text is electronically typeset, and so there are no artifacts from the scanner and good support for zooming in, copying-and-pasting, etc. In a properly OCR'ed document, the text layer is on top of the image level, so the reader can read the text comfortably; otherwise, the text will look ugly, as if the document has not been OCR'ed at all.
I find documents of the latter group to be very annoying. Is there any free service to fix such documents? Or other options to make reading such documents easier?
Example link:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%252FBF00117714
By OCR'ed and ugly, I mean the following image. Please click on the image to see the enlarged text:

Before downvoting - consider this may be a barrier to people with poor vision or who rely on screenreaders, etc.

There was great confusion about OP's goal here. I made my best guess and cleaned up; Hamidah, you can edit if necessary.

@cag51 Great edit!  But to repeat a question I asked the OP: Do you know of any examples where this has been done?

@cag51 The paper in my original post was OCRed but ugly. The image layer was on top of the text layer, so the text was searchable but super annoying to read.

@Hamideh Do you have an example of a research article which has been "properly OCRed"?  I do not think I have ever seen this.

Yeah, sorry, I have no idea what distinction you are making.

@cag51 I added an example.

Yeah, I'm still not getting it. The first link is behind a paywall, and the second picture seems fine. Hopefully someone else can help, good luck.

@Hamideh That's a negative example.  Do you have a positive example of what you are looking for?  Otherwise the answer is most likely just "no-one does this, and there is no service for this".  (After all, you claim in your question that such examples exist!)

I think you are using "OCR'ed" in a way that might not be what we are understanding. It sounds like you want old papers in a "modern" format that is properly typeset. OCR does not and has never done that. Do you want a service that updates old papers? Or do you only want an image converted to copyable text? The on top/below distinction is still not clear to me.

An easy way that often works: Go to https://scholar.google.com and search for the paper and then click "All X versions".
I not only got an open access version (your link is paywalled), but it even was OCRed (the original image lies over the OCRed text, but you can copy & paste as usual): paper link
Another option would be to OCR it yourself. There are very good (and often quite expensive) commercial products, but you can try to use pdftk and tesseract/gocr on the command line as well. You'll probably also find easier to use frontends for the open source tools.
If you're looking for a nicely formatted document, you'll out of luck unless the author's (or someone authorized by the authors) published a newer version with modern formatting.
For equations no automated process will help because even when it mostly works someone needs to check the result afterward, as even small errors in recognizing parts of the equation are a huge problem.

If by "ocr pdf files" you mean applying Optical character recognition so that they become searchable, you can either:

Look for a software to do it yourself. I personally use OCRFeeder with correct results, you can find more recommendations e.g. on writing.sxe or softwarecs.sxe.
Find a service on-line that runs one of those tools and do it for you. There is some discussion about this in graphicdesign.sxe

If you mean "typing it in a new document", then you'll have to find a human person to do it, as it cannot be automatized (as far as I know).
What specific software or on-line tool to use is a) Outside of this particular stackexchange website, b) likely to be treated as a "shopping question" and therefore closed.

The full Adobe Acrobat (DC?) does a pretty good job of OCR. A few years ago I got an old copy of a 100 page report from 1962 ("typeset" on a typewriter), ran it through a scanner to make a PDF, then used Acrobat to OCR it. There were a few oddities, mainly from equations partly hand written, but it did a great job overall.

The paper linked in the question is OCRed and searchable.

@user151413 - good catch. So, using full Acrobat one goes and formats the text into another font (which will likely move stuff around, but...) that is more readable.

@JonCuster Indeed. Should work well for papers like the linked one, but less well for a math paper.


text:
Finding scholarship in England
I am a master's graduate from Iran. I received an admission offer (PhD in business) from one of the reputable universities in England but I don't have scholarship yet.
My question is: In addition to internal scholarships(I mean the university's) What are external scholarships I can apply for? i.e.  If the university doesn't give me a scholarship, are there other British institutions to fund my phd studies or not? I am exploring all my chances in the remaining time to accept the offer.

Have you received any advice from the university which made the offer? It seems slightly strange to me that they would make an offer without giving a definite "yes" or "no" to providing a scholarship

@YemonChoi It doesn't seem odd to me. Some students come with their own funding. Others need confirmation of a place in order to apply for a scholarship. They might be hoping to offer funding to someone, but not yet be in a position to know what money they have or who they will give it to. And right now things in the UK are unusually uncertain.

@YemonChoi They said No but I am still corresponding to see if there are any chances.

@JessicaB Fair enough. Speaking only for my own department: it has been comparatively rare that we make an offer without either confirming funding or confirming there is no funding

@HamidehIraj If they said no, I don't understand why you're asking them if really they meant yes. When they said they didn't have any funding for you, they surely meant that. Or do you mean that you're in corresponding with them about the possibility of external funding?

@DavidRicherby my question is about external scholarships awarded by institutions outside universities.

Jobs.ac.uk has a page about funding a PhD that includes the following:

A number of charitable organisations, foundations and trusts can help fund PhD’s. These include:
The Wellcome Trust
Cancer Research UK
The British Academy
The British Federation of Women Graduates
The Institution of Civil Engineers
Institution of Engineering & Technology
Institution of Mechanical Engineers
Royal Geographical Society
Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland
Leverhulme Trust
Action Medical Research

One friend introduced Islamic Development Bank (IDB) scholarships.


text:
When to use the abbreviations f and ff in scientific literature?
As discussed in this question, the abbreviations f and ff can be used to refer to following page numbers. For instance, pages 45-46 can be written as 45f. This is quite common in German law, but I wonder if it is commonly accepted for scientific publications? I work in the engineering field, but I would be interested in a more general answer.
Further questions that come to mind:

Apart from page numbers, can these abbreviations also be used for line numbers and paragraphs (e.g. lines 10ff, paragraphs 3f? This would be useful as I am currently preparing a review of a paper and need to refer to specific parts of the manuscript.
Are there cases in which I should prefer specific notations, such as lines 10-23 instead of 10ff?

What are you trying to do with these abbreviations, and in what field? I've not seem them used in STEM publications, but I could imagine if appearing in something more textually focused, like a literary critique.

I have never come across these..

@jakebeal literature guy here. I wouldn't use them as described in the linked question. For me, f./ff. are direct equivalents to p./pp., but used for manuscripts and incunables that, instead of being numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ..., are numbered 1r, 1v, 2r, 2v, 3r,  ... I would probably not recognize it initially to mean the following pages (I'm used to ss. for that although I don't know anyone who uses it)

@jakebeal Engineering - I updated the question.

I have seen f and ff, but not in scientific writing.  And never for paragraphs or anything but pages.

@guifa Sounds like you could give a nice clear answer here --- can you please expand your comment into an answer?

@jakebeal I could if you think it would a good answer, but the question is for the sciences and I'm in the humanities, that's why I left it as a comment

@guifa Personally, I would like to see multiple answers for the individual fields. Not sure if this is in line with the SE etiquette.

Using f and ff is not an accepted style for APS journals (American Physical Society), having just looked through their style manual.

I don't think I have ever seen this in another language than German (where it is common in every field where you would want to point to a sufficiently long bit of text.)

Working in STEM fields, I have never seen this form of citations. Instead, on those rare occasions where citations talk about specific locations in a text, people use explicit page and/or line numbers.
I thus suspect that if you used this form of reference in an engineering publication, it will be confusing to your reviewers and readers, and you will be asked to change them.

Chiming in from biological sciences, specifically neuroscience. Also never seen this and would not recommend.


text:
Can I receive both an NSF international postdoctoral award and salary from a foreign university?
Recently I was offered a full salaried postdoctoral position (not a fellowship) in Australia (with a long lead time).
I am a US citizen, so can also apply for the NSF international postdoctoral fellowships.
Suppose, hypothetically, that I apply for and receive an NSF award.
Is it acceptable to increase my postdoctoral salary with the fellowship, or would it not make a difference?
Given that I already have an offer in hand, if the NSF fellowship wouldn't increase my salary, then it isn't worth it to me to apply (I realize there are other benefits, prestige, that go along with receiving a fellowship, but I'm time-strapped at the moment).

Please link to the NSF program announcement.  The Australian fellowships I am familiar with must be given up in case of winning another award, but they sometimes give a research funding bonus or salary to-up when that happens.

The Australian offer isn't a fellowship, it is a full salaried position.

Why the downvote?

There will be rules that NSF sets for these fellowships. You need to look them up and/or talk to the program officer who administers the grant.
My best guess is that you can't double dip. So you will likely have to decline one salary or the other. On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with still listing the grant on your CV -- it is a grant you won in a competitive solicitation, so it belongs on your CV.

I admit I haven't yet spent a whole lot of time finding the rules, but I have not found them yet through cursory googling, I'll have to dig in more deeply. The Australian offer is better, monetarily, than the NSF fellowship.

I don't know how these NSF fellowships work. If they were like other grants, then you'd have an office in your university through which you receive your funds, and they would know. In any case, since I assume that you will want to remain eligible to receive NSF funding in the future, I would take the issue seriously.

yes of course, I don't want to do anything unethical or against the rules.

I am only familiar with the US NSF Fellowship, but there should (hopefully) be a comparable FAQ for the international version. But in the US, you are allowed by the NSF to accept a fellowship and other source of funding - potentially!
The NSF explicitly forbids "double-dipping" of federal funds - so you are not allowed to accept an NSF fellowship and a DOD fellowship, as they both are paid out of US Federal Government funding sources.
Are you allowed to accept other sources of funding, along with the NSF fellowship? According to the same FAQ for the US domestic fellowship:

Where can I find funding for my Reserve Years?
Many programs and departments have research and teaching
  assistantships and fellowships available for GRFP Fellows. In
  addition, the nsfgrfp.org website has a listing of other funding
  opportunities. See the Guide for rules regarding multiple funding
  sources.
May I be supported by a Traineeship (e.g., NIH, IGERT, etc.) while on Reserve?
Yes. Traineeships are appropriate for Fellows on Reserve.
May I accept or be paid from a private Foundation Fellowship?
Supplementation to a Fellowship while on Tenure is at the discretion
  of the GRFP Institution. Fellows should check with their COs.
...
May I also be paid (supplement my Stipend) from a university or private Fellowship?
Supplementation to a Fellowship while on Tenure is at the discretion
  of the GRFP Institution. Fellows should check with their COs.
May I be paid (supplement my Stipend) as a teaching or research assistant on top of my Stipend?
Fellows are expected to devote full time to advanced scientific study
  or work during tenure. However, because it is generally accepted that
  teaching or similar activity constitutes a valuable part of the
  education and training of many graduate students, a Fellow may
  undertake a reasonable amount of such teaching or similar activity,
  without NSF approval at the affiliated institution. It is expected
  that furtherance of the Fellow's educational objectives and the gain
  of substantive teaching or other experience, not service to the
  institution as such, will govern such activities. Compensation for
  such activities is permitted based on the affiliated institution's
  policies and the general employment policies outlined in The
  Administrative Guide for Fellows and Coordinating Officials.
May I have an outside job?
Outside employment is not governed by the NSF. Fellows should check
  with their CO about specific institution policies.
Does the NSF GRFP Fellowship provide funds for my research project?
No research or travel allowances are provided with the fellowship.
May I accept funding for my research project?
Yes. Fellows are permitted to solicit and accept, from NSF or other
  federal and private sources, support for research expenses, such as
  laboratory supplies, instrumentation usage fees, field-station usage
  fees, travel expenses, conference/registration fees, workshop
  expenses, or subscription fees. For Fellows on Tenure, support for
  living expenses associated with off-site research activities will
  require approval by the CO.

So the answer for US NSF guidelines is that you are free to accept monies that are not strictly from US federal government fellowships in addition to the NSF fellowship. Whether or not this is also true of International applicants, I am not at all qualified to say - but hopefully this will help you know what to look for and what questions to ask of your sponsoring institution and of the NSF international program.
Note that some institutions establish stipend maximums, often under conditions such as "if the scholar is receiving any stipend from the school, their total stipend may not extend X". If your outside funding is greater than the school maximum you are generally allowed to decline the school stipend and accept the greater outside funding, sometimes while the school still provides other compensation such as health insurance, etc. Again, at least this is true of US institutions - I can't speak for Australian rules.
If you are still interested I would encourage you to review the NSF international rules for similar provisions, and speak with your sponsoring department in Australia to see if they have any experience with these sorts of arrangements. There's nothing sneaky or dishonest here, and such financial questions aren't weird or out of line.

This is a good answer, but I finally found one of the solicitations which wasn't canceled which give an answer here : http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2014/nsf14509/nsf14509.htm, if you add it to your answer with commentary I'll check yours...the answer is no, you cannot accept both.

I want accept this answer, but I need you to update the answer to reflect the information in the link I provided first, thanks.


text:
How technical should my oral PhD defense be?
I thought this would make a good question, and will ask my advisor shortly.
In the fields of optical sciences, electrical engineering, or applied physics at an RU/VH institution in the United States, how technical should the oral PhD defense be?
My last conference talk did not get any questions (on the same topics in my dissertation), so I believe that my presentations may be overly technical.
For some context : This work, some recent work by my former labmate, and recent work in this same niche by my advisor have been heavy on the mathematical/theory side, and none of us have received many questions at recent conferences.

What country?  This varies significantly from nation to nation.

The only people who can answer this dquestion are the members of your defense committee, Ask them.

I would go for a combination, just as the most successful children's movies do -- so that everyone who attended leaves feeling they got something out of it.  However, I would aim for one-third or one-fourth for the proportion of material aimed at the common denominator.  Your defense is quite different from a conference talk.  In your defense, your original research must take center stage, and if that is very mathematical, then you get to be very mathematical in your defense.  If there's one place you shouldn't have to water things down, it's in your defense.

You need to find out what the standard is in your department, since it varies. You can:

ask your advisor
attend other defense presentations in your department
ask students in your department who have successfully defended

Better yet: do all three.

For the second and third points, I have, and the standard varies greatly. When my advisor wakes up I'll ask him (he is in another time zone at the moment).


text:
Paper in high impact journal duplicates work done a decade prior, how should I respond?
This paper was published in a high impact journal for physics, Physical Review Letters, in 2010, and basically duplicates work done in 2000 by another author in the field, here.
What is strange to me is that, in our subfield of optical polarization theory and measurement, the author of the second, older paper, is well known.  There is no way that an adequate reviewer couldn't have known about the second author's work in 2010. The 2010 paper doesn't cite this former work.
What is the protocol for this situation?
The first, newer paper, has a more elegant and easily understandable derivation, but it still duplicates the older paper, and isn't original, just more concise.  However, the 2010 paper, disingenuously states that "non-quantum entanglement" is used to resolve an issue (the issue solved in 2000).  This needs to be called out, because mathematically all we have is a 2 element vector with elements that are not linearly dependent, and this is what they are denoting the "non-quantum entanglement."
In my opinion, this lack of citation of the original work by the authors of the first paper above (newer), likely where they got the idea in the first place, is potentially unethical.
Edit:
Now that I've been in academia for awhile, I find myself often disappointed and disheartened by the following problems, most of which are primarily political :

The unfortunate view that retractions are so unpleasant that they almost never occur.  Everyone is wrong occasionally, the literature shouldn't be polluted with incorrect results.
Everyone always being afraid to be wrong, and subsequently afraid to fail.  Failure is essential to developing new frontiers.
The lack of risk taking in mainstream science.
The focus on positive results, especially in experimental sciences.  I'm sure we would all love to know when not to spend years going down a fruitless path.
Ethical issues being addressed as just ignore it.

Retractions (for ethically sound reasons, like mistakes, etc.) really shouldn't be so unpalatable that we end up with incorrect results proliferating in the literature.
Ethical problems like the above, failing to cite likely known prior work shouldn't be swept under the rug and just ignored for political reasons.

The usual course of action would be to contact an editor of the journal with your concerns.  They would normally not identify you to the authors or anyone else.  But I wouldn't be surprised if someone reading this is an editor, or knows someone who is, so there's a fair chance your concern will reach the right quarters simply by you posting it here :-)

Note that Gil (the author of the first paper) cites both papers in this review article.  It's worth taking a look at how he handles it.

Thanks @AnonymousMathematician, I haven't read that paper yet...

This is a very opinion-based answer, but ...

What is the protocol for this situation?

Letting it go.
You say that the paper got published in a high-impact journal 4 years ago. It reproduces results from another well-known paper. It is pretty much guaranteed that you are not the first person to notice that. It seems unlikely to me that the paper is indeed perceived as "suspect and unethical" by your peers.
Maybe your peers value the "more concise" write-up? Maybe there is a subtle difference that you have not noticed? Maybe, for some types of (empirical) papers, having a reproduction paper that basically just confirms that the observations from the first paper are indeed general is a really valuable contribution (although not citing the first paper is of course very bad in this case).
If you feel the case is indeed bad enough that something needs to be done, you have two options:

Mail the authors of the first paper.
Mail the EIC of the journal.

However, realistically, the chance of retracting the paper based on a years-delayed decision that the contribution was not novel seems very small, as long as there was no clear case of unethical behavior or a significant technical problem with the results.

Another outcome could be not retracting the second paper (assuming it is still valid but done independently) but adding a brief note acknowledging the first paper's priority.  I don't know enough about this area to know whether that would be appropriate here.

“It is pretty much guaranteed that you are not the first person to notice that.” – I would be very careful with such a statement. I have seen several reviewers and authors not noticing that a paper proposes an overcomplicated method to calculate 1.

I added something to the question, I wouldn't care as much if the 2010 paper had cited the older paper, which it doesn't...

@Wrzlprmft Sure, but after a paper has been in print for multiple years in a well-known journal, it is very unlikely that nobody is aware that the paper, as you say, "proposes an overcomplicated method to calculate 1".

@xLeitix, well it is in a well known physics journal, but most of the papers in our field are not published in PRL, so my advisor and I actually didn't come across this paper until recently...

As a graduate student, I suppose it would be foolhardy for me to pursue this further, but I must say that the "let it go" attitude is a huge part of the problem with the explosion in erroneous and fraudulent results in the literature, and the slaps on the wrists professors receive for unethical behavior. The "let it go attitude" allows more gaming of the system, and for the cheaters and unethical people to win (the game)...


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What is the etiquette for asking a professor to waive the prerequisite for a course?
Should I mail the professor? Should I meet him in person? I am a MS student in CS who wishes to take a graduate level course in Statistics department. The course is Machine Learning and I did cover most of the prerequisite course's content in multiple undergraduate courses so I want him to waive the requirement. I have budget for only 10 courses and wish to complete this degree in 2 years. Taking these prerequisite course would mean that I cannot take other courses that interest me.
The other reason I wish to have the requirement waived is because the prerequisite course itself is a statistics department course which also has prerequisite statistic courses and my college only allows me to take 2 courses outside of our department.

I would say that one of the biggest worries for the professor could well be that if you turn out not to have covered all the pre-requisite material then it will become their problem. I would imagine they would be more inclined to let you off the pre-requisite if you make it clear you take responsibility for your choice and will deal with the consequences yourself.

Some universities do not force you to take the prerequisite courses, they are just recommended.

Some prerequisite courses can be waived if you pass a quiz or an exam. If the professor is willing to arrange such a thing it's an acceptable and relatively quick way of waiving.

It depends in which country you are studying, sometimes the prerequisites are a legal thing. The Ministry of education says that to make this government approved masters you need to have studied that an that and its not in the hand of the professor to change it. Real life example: Due to educational system changes, to be able to make a PhD in my home country I needed another MSc (after having studied a 3 years  MSc already!). However, I moved to the UK and I  have no problem. Legal stuff sucks sometimes! Good luck

As @JessicaB says, I'd be most worried you haven't really covered the requisites. and would appreciate the opportunity to meet and find out eye to eye.

Go in person. Tell him what you told us. Be prepared for a few quiz questions about your stats knowledge. Answer them correctly. You might not get any questions, but you should be able to describe, at the very least, what your prior classes were about.

I don't know that this is so common, but you might also bring along a copy of your transcript to make the process smoother.  (I seem to recall getting sent transcripts sometimes when I've received such requests by email.)

A copy of the syllabus from the class you're trying to substitute for the prerequisite is also likely to be helpful.

I doubt it matters whether you hold the discussion via e-mail or in person.  Instead, the important thing is to give convincing arguments.  You mention three issues: you already know most of the prerequisites, you don't have time to take those courses, and you can't receive credit for so many courses outside of your department.  I'd recommend focusing on the first issue, and mentioning the others just briefly, if at all.  There's no need to emphasize the fact that it would be inconvenient to take the prerequisite courses (that's implicit in the fact that you are asking to skip them), and it's not really relevant to the question of whether you are well prepared for this more advanced class (even if the prerequisites are terribly inconvenient, you might genuinely need them).
The two key pieces of information are how much you already know and whether you are able and willing to put in extra work catching up if you discover gaps in your background.  If you can address these points convincingly, then there should be no problem.

It depends on the department. In some university that I know, you need to fill a form and submit it to the head of the department and submit some supportive documents like the course plan of the course that you previously did. Then the head of the department will look at your overall academic background and contact the professor. Then the professor will check if you really have done everything in that prerequisite course. If yes, he will sign the form to waive the prerequisite. If not, he will not do it. In other university, it works differently.  So you should probably just go to ask the secretary of the department about how it works at your university. Or if it is easier for you, you may also ask the professor and he should generally be able to also explain that process to you.

In my case when I did my post graduate, I emailed to professor describing why and how I already have the knowledge that is taught in pre-requisite subject (maybe I have already done it somewhere, maybe I have real experience in that field or maybe there is something else that proves I have that knowledge).
And most of the time they were happy to waive it.
But until you apply, you'll have butterflies in your stomach and think that you are only one who is in the class with a waiver, but in most of the cases, after some interactions with other students, you will come to know many students are in with a waiver. So, be confident and just write an email.

Taking a course as a post-grad and as a master is usually two completely different things, I'd say...

Ok,what is difference between postgraduate(master degree) and normal master degree? I mean master as well.

The difference is that if you come to a professor and you say: "Hello Jacob, I do my PhD here and I'll like to attend to your ABC course." Then he'll likely reply something along these lines: "Ah yeah that's fine. And how's your project going? Who's your supervisor, btw? ... (after a short chatter) ... Ah interesting. Well, yes, I'll be more than happy to see you there." At least this is what typically happens at the two universities where I studied (Czechia and France). This doesn't happen really with master students.

Ask your academic adviser if there is a preferred protocol at your college. Helping you with this type of issue is your adviser's job. If your adviser isn't very helpful or is difficult to work with, you can contact the professor directly. Personally, I would ask the professor in-person during office hours, but email or a phone call should be fine too.
When I was in college my academic adviser knew many courses for which the prerequisites were unnecessary, and it seemed as though the prerequisites for those courses were only required if you were majoring in that field, not if you were taking those courses as electives.
I didn't take any of the prerequisites for any of my 200- and 300-level psychology/sociology courses, or for my 300- and 400-level philosophy courses, and I did fine in all of them. At no point did I feel as though I had missed out on critical background information that would have been provided by one of the prerequisite courses.
The only time that I really messed up was when I registered for an animal science class as a fun elective, without realizing I had signed up for the advanced section instead of the beginner section. The beginner section was just horseback riding, but the advanced section also involved learning more advanced riding techniques and training horses.  I was the only person who couldn't even begin to process the phrase, "go catch a horse and meet me in the stable." When I realized my mistake the first day and informed the instructor, she was very kind and let me stay in the advanced section, and made certain I received a little extra help when I needed it in the beginning.

Based on the class I teach which is a prerequisite:
Students would need to follow several steps:

They would have to tell the instructor of the prerequisite course that you believe you don't need to take the course because of x,y,z OR tell academic affairs (or the equivalent) and they will contact the instructor for you or give you their contact info
The student needs to fill out formal forms based on what they told the prerequisite instructor that will be reviewed by the prerequisite instructor, the students advisor, and the course that will be taken if this gets approved
If the forms are approved then the student will be given a test from the prerequisite course which if the student passes (I believe they need a B- or a B to pass this test). The instructor of the course to be taken will review the test to make sure you have enough knowledge the be able to take that course and not fall behind. For example: A student answered all questions about X correct but only 60% of questions about Y and 40 % of questions about Z and the course to be taken has a lot to do with Y and Z. Even though they passed the test with a B-/B for the prerequisite course the course to be taken relies on parts that the student didn't understand very well likely wended with a denial.
If the course to be taken instructor believes the student can take their course then that instructor has forms to fill out (forms I'm not familiar with) these forms allow the student to enroll in the course.

At the other extreme, all the graduate courses I took that had prerequisites included "or consent of instructor". All I had to do was explain to the professor teaching the course I wanted to take why I thought I had the required background knowledge. There is no substitute for finding out the rules for the specific department.

Whichever you're more comfortable with would be fine.
If there's another step involved, such as communicating with a department head, filling out a form, etc., the professor should be able to point you in the right direction.


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Etiquette: Interrupting your supervisor having a meeting
I'm doing an internship as a high school student in a lab and am wondering about etiquette in research/life. The problem is that I interrupted my supervisor while he was having a meeting to tell him someone from another country was on the phone (I know he regularly collaborates with researchers in foreign countries). I'm wondering whether this would be perceived by him as rude. He is still in his meeting so I want to know what to say to him when he ends it.
The details are as follows:
Due to some complications (unnecessary details) my supervisor and I have switched offices.
At some point while I was sitting in his office, the phone started ringing. Thinking that it could be urgent and knowing he was in a different office and so may not get to checking this voicemail, I picked up the phone. It ended up being one of his collaborators from another country who asked to speak with him. I went and found my supervisor talking to someone in person, likely another of his collaborators. I assumed that because this person on the phone was calling from another country, it was important; so I tapped lightly on the door and informed him that someone from country X wants to speak with him. He told me he'd call back the person later, telling me the phone call wasn't important enough.
In hindsight, I think I did two things wrong: (1) I picked up his phone, and (2) and I interrupted his meeting.
My questions are:

Is what I did wrong?
How should I approach him afterwards?

Everything techmsi said below, plus: you are a highschool student doing an internship. If your supervisor is anywhere close to reasonable he will not hold this one event against you, especially if you do as suggested by apologizing and asking for clarifications on what to do in the future.

This isn't specific to academia. Nor is it a big deal. One learns how to behave in professional environments, and this sort of thing is part of the process ;)

Is what I did wrong?

Picking up his phone might not have been the best idea, unless he specifically asked you to do so. What if the call received was a personal one? How would you handle that? Then interrupting a meeting to relay this information was not a good idea. However, you will make many wrong decisions but it's important to learn from them.

How should I approach him afterwards?

I advise open communication this case. Begin with an apology then continue by explaining your reason and end by asking what process he would like you to follow should this occur again in the future. Finally, ask for clarification if the answer is vague.
Example:
"Apologies for answering your phone & interrupting your meeting"
"but I believed this call would be urgent."
"If someone calls again, what would you like me to do?"
"Should I answer & take a message? Should I ask them to wait? Should I interrupt you if you're in a meeting?"

In hindsight, I think I did two things wrong: (1) I picked up his
  phone, and (2) and I interrupted his meeting.

At most, you did one thing wrong. Interrupting the meeting was a judgement call. It's perfectly reasonable to think that a long distance call from another country might be more urgent than a meeting. In an ordinary business environment, I might have interrupted the meeting too. However, academics tend to receive a lot more long distance calls than your average worker.
As techmsi says, it's usually not a good idea to pick up someone else's phone. But given that the supervisor had just moved and you thought he might not check that voicemail, it's an understandable faux pas.
I agree completely with techmsi's description about how to approach your supervisor about this. And as Willie Wong says, you are an intern. Part of the purpose of an internship is to learn how to navigate the business/academic world. You are expected to make mistakes... and to learn from them. So don't stress out about this. If your supervisor gets angry, he is being unreasonable.


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How to respond, safely, to a student's 'risky' email?
A student I had emailed me to ask about working in the industry-because I have years of experience in it-after they finish school and how their past may affect how an employer will react to them. To paraphrase the email:
"I'm afraid that even though my grades put my at the top of my class that a simple search online about me will have some risky results"
"I used to work in the adult pornography industry and when you look up my name on a google search this becomes VERY apparent."
"If this is an issue how can I talk to an employer about this without eliminating all chances of my gaining the job?"
I want to give them an honest response but I don't want to step over bounds and get in trouble myself.  What's the best way to approach this email?

Refer them to the placement office? Guidance in writing resumes and so on is their field of expertise. Outside of that, all they can do is say "yeah, I was young and stupid.  I've matured since then." There's no particular reason this would have to interfere with getting a job unless the job requires being a public spokesperson.

I can't think of any way this person could distance him or herself from these search results without a name change.

I would recommend you to flag the mod to migrate this question to Workplace SE. I think you will have better answers there.

@scaaahu I disagree. I don't think the OP is asking for advice on what to tell the student, but rather how to frame the advice without getting in trouble with the university.

@Johanna Yes, you have a point. My concern is that how would the OP frame the advice without knowing what would be good advices for the student if he wants to respond to the student.

Tell the person to post his/her question at StackExchange.

@JoelReyesNoche I strongly agree with your advice.

@Johanna: I agree with scaaahu that this would be a better fit at Workplace. A question about what to tell the student would certainly be on topic there. And there is little academic about this question - some non-academic mentor of a younger person could ask the exact same question.

The question and the problem behind are really unclear to me, would it be possible to edit the question to clarify it?

I digged out a question on Workplace SE for you (the OP). What are the career risks of taking a job related to adult entertainment?.

The person's best bet might be a name change.

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because the issues raised don't seem to have anything to do with academia per se and would be better dealt with on [workplace.se].

@DavidRicherby - I disagree and here's why.  If a widely publicized sex worker applies for a job as the manager of a restaurant, the previous job will not be as potentially problematic as it could do in Academia.

@aparente001 What evidence do you have for that assertion?

@DavidRicherby - I'm curious -- are you asking because it's good SE practice to back up one's assertions, or have you seen people have difficulties doing this?

One friend did a surname change because he felt his original surname was too common; he took his mother's maiden name instead.  Another friend changed her first name as part of a distancing from her birth family.  Untold numbers of people do it when they get married or divorced -- mostly women, but men too.

@aparente001 I'm asking because your comment is a blatant assertion. On what basis do you claim that being a well-known sex-worker is less of a problem for a restaurant manager than an academic? Is your claim based on anything more than how you imagine people in a restaurant versus academics would react to the knowledge that a colleague is/was a famous sex-worker? For example, is your claim based on your extensive experience of hiring famous sex-workers as restaurant managers and academics?

@DavidRicherby - Oh, sorry, I backed up the wrong assertion!  I'm using knowledge of academia and the non-academic job worlds.  Restaurant workers (that was just an arbitrary example) don't need to be positive role models for young people, and will not get googled as part of the hiring process.

If you want to be completely safe, I would answer something along the lines of: "This is outside my area of expertise. I recommend that you consult the career center on campus (insert contact information to career center)".
If, however, you want to actually give them advice, I would give it in a very neutral manner, where you could substitute every mention of "adult videos" by "video of student kicking a puppy" (or other potentially career damaging Google result). If you keep it on that very professional, neutral level, it shouldn't get you in trouble (note: I'm not a lawyer). Write your response, and then try the "puppy kicking test". If the email still makes sense, you're probably (again, I'm not a lawyer) safe.

Hmm.  It sounds like you're concerned about the effect on your own academic standing if you include the word pornography in an email.  If that's the case, perhaps it would be a better conversation to have in person.

@aparente001 No, not exactly. Every conversation that it about sex between a professor and a student could potentially be turned into an accusation of sexual harassment if the professor is not careful with how they word things. A conversation in person is even more dangerous, because there will be no record of what was said. Using the word pornography is fine, but you have to be very, very careful.

If the professor is concerned about protecting him or herself -- would it be helpful to have a third party present for the conversation?  Which, by the way, need not touch on anything related to sex at all.  The student is asking for advice about how to get a job despite huge amounts of extremely unfavorable google search results.  Since it would not be possible to get the embarrassing search results off the internet in this case, for most intellectual jobs the student would be best off going for a name change.

@aparente001 Having a second person in the room would certainly help. Since the original question is about pornography, it takes a great deal of tact to handle it without talking about sex. That's where the puppy-kicking test comes in. It's also why I would recommend that the conversation is over email. Much easier to censor yourself in writing than during a conversation.

In the current internet climate, kicking a puppy (or a lion or whatnot) is much, much more "unfavorable" than acting in adult entertainment.

You could propose to have a talk in person, rather than respond on the matter by email. In that way you stay away from creating a paper (email) trail that could be turned against you while you are only trying to help.
As indicated in the comment by @aparente001: Have a third person who can be trusted by you and the student present in the meeting (mention that in the email to prevent the student being surprised). Try to be diplomatic in the conversation.
By the way, a practical approach (which you do not need to pass on if you do not agree) is to use (slightly) different name in the application letter and cv, if that is legal in your country. The student can then reveal his/her real name when invited to an interview, and explain the situation.

Obviously I support this!  Except I don't see any point in revealing the name.  Let the student have a stage name and an academic name.  (I think a legal change of name would be the clean way to do this; it is not hard to do.)

@aparente001: of course it is possible for the student to completely change his/her name, but I am not sure that he/she is willing to do so. Anyway, it is his/her choice. The OP can only give advice.

And we can only advise the adviser!  ...  Note, people change their legal name all the time; it's not difficult.


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As a presenter, should I attend all days of conference?
Recently, I have a paper accepted at an IEEE conference, and I am supposed to present my paper orally at the conference.  The programs have been released, and it is a four day conference.
I am supposed to present at the last day.
The question I want to ask, is that, should I also attend the first day (openning ceremony) as well?

Do you have a sense of how many people will attend this conference overall? There are some differences in etiquette between e.g. a 5,000 person conference and a 50 person conference. I assume a 4 day conference is more like the former, but the info would help with writing more focused answers.

A conference is so much more than just an arbitrary concatenation of presentations. It is a place you can meet researchers from different places who usually work in a similar field to yours. You can use the time to get to know new people, get to talk about new ideas, find out what others are currently doing in your field, and much more.
Therefore, if you have the opportunity to attend the conference more than just the day of your presentation you should.

... but, you don't have to. (I feel like that needs saying.)

@Davor: It literally does 100%. How does it not? OP asked whether they should go to the rest of the conference. This answer says "yes" and gives reasons why.

@Davor: Mate I don't know which question you're reading, but it ain't this one. The question doesn't have a single utterance of the word "must". Not one. It does, however, contain "should" multiple times.

In my experience, the networking opportunities are actually the most valuable part of the conference. The more time spent at the conference, the better. Of course, nobody takes attendance, except perhaps at very small workshops.

@Davor: on this site, it is appropriate to give answers that go beyond the literal question to address the deeper issues behind the question. This answer seems very closely related to the literal question, and appropriate, to me.

Well, "should" is a thing, "have to" is another. Let's assume you ask the latter: the answer is No.
It's up to you how much time you want to spend at the conference. Your registration can usually be done every morning of the conference and you are free to decide to which session/presentation you want to go. The opening ceremony is always optional and it's very common for attendees to skip it to save a hotel night.
Now, if your institution is paying for the registration, they might expect you to attend the whole thing. Depending on the conference, you might not get discounted registration fee if you do not attend the whole conference. And from your point of view, your talk is the least interesting part of the conference: you already know what is in it. A lot of the value of attending a conference is in the informal parts where you can build your network and discuss ideas. If you can afford to attend more than the day of your talk, it will be more beneficial to you.
Beware of one thing: the program can change (I learned it the hard way once). Sometimes flights are cheap at a moment when the final program is not out. Take that into consideration when you plan your travel.
One point: if your presentation is part of a themed session, or a moderated panel, or a "round table"-type of session, decency and etiquette require you to attend the whole session. Of course nothing will happen to you if you don't, but it will be seen as rude and pretentious.

"It's almost never the case that you can have discounted registration fee if you do not attend the whole conference." - actually, I have often encountered single-day registration fees that were lower than the full conference fee (but in a way that already 2 single day registrations were more expensive than the full (four-day) conference registration).

@O.R.Mapper yes, I used to see that often in large meetings, and a lot less in small, narrower-scope conference. I edited my answer accordingly.

I was recently invited to speak at a conference. The "invitation" included a one day registration to the conference - only the day on which I gave my talk (otherwise I would not have been able to get into the building, I suppose). As it happens, I needed to be elsewhere for the rest of the week, so I did not mind terribly. But it does suggest that conference organizers for one don't expect speakers to attend all week.
But if it's in your field, and you have the time - why wouldn't you? Academic advances happen most often at the intersection of minds and ideas - making conferences an ideal place for planting, nurturing or harvesting the ideas that will build the next advance in your field.

Well, there are situations when it is almost a "must."
In a country which must be nameless, all conference presenters are usually presented with a certificate each to prove that each of them really presents a paper. The reason? All academic jobs in that country have compulsory requirements of conference presentations to keep the job; as far as I remember, it is (3) local conferences and (1) international conference at least. But some academics abuse the chance to visit a distant place by spending the time as a tourist, rather than at the conference. Hence the requirement of such certificates!

But do they have to be present during all days of the conference to get the certificate? I have a hard time imagining any organizer of a reputable conference checking this for some attendee.

Of course, it is not like a workday. Yet, presenters should be present for a reasonable extent of time each day. In other words, it is not good if you appear only at your presentation.