text:
How to submit a paper without being backed up by my employer
By day I am employed (as a research engineer) at CEA, LIST in France (near Paris) working (in 2020) on Bismon (funded by CHARIOT, about cybersecurity). My work contract is under French law (legally some contrat de travail à durée indeterminée) and I am a French citizen.
On my spare time, at home only and with my personal computer equipment, I am developing with others the RefPerSys open source artificial intelligence system.
We would like to submit some paper about it to ICAAINN 2021 (a conference in Paris, France).
The conference submission website requires mentioning some institution.
I don't want to mention my employer for something I am not paid for doing.
If the paper was accepted I have both enough money and enough vacation to go presenting it.
What institution should I put in the web form for something done at home (and improving my old PhD ideas)?

This is most certainly a duplicate, but I didn't find the previous question. Anyway, the answer is that you put "Independent Researcher" in that text field.

However you handle the affiliation issue, make sure that any email address you give (that might appear in the published work) is one that you will be able to keep active. Some professional societies will provide you an email address. acm.org does, for example.

@buffy: I own and pay for the starynkevitch.net  DNS domain, and my personal email is basile@starynkevitch.net  since more than a decade

Make that your affiliation. But maybe buff up your landing page.

Thanks a big lot for that advice!

"Independent Scholar" or "Independent Researcher" is the way to go (as also mentioned by Arno in the comments).
According to LENS, the affiliation "Independent Scholar" seems to be slightly more prevalent than "Independent Researcher", with 3.085 versus 2.426 occurrences between 2015 and the end of Nov. 2020.
(Just for the record, the term "Independent Scientist" was used only 31 times in the same date range; and the earlier centuries' label "Gentleman Scientist" seems to be completely outdated by now.)
Here at Academia StackExchange, there is also an independent-researcher tag (here).

For some purposes, if accepted, one's own name might be enough.


text:
How to make a case based on factual evidence that my colleague's writing style for submitted manuscripts has got to be overhauled?
Background (and, OK, venting a little frustration):
I have a colleague who's writing with English as a second language. They've learned a scientific writing style that was probably already outdated decades ago; something one might find in painful-to-read century-old textbooks.
I'm the only native English-speaking co-author on their papers, it falls to me to "fine-tune the grammar" but the long, stilted, complicated, highly structured sentences just can't be fine-tuned. Small adjustments bring them to English which is no longer incorrect, but it's still far from natural language.
Before I can implement this advice I must convince my colleague of the dire nature of the status quo. Yes, reviewers' comments on manuscripts invariably contain pleas to improve and correct the English and have a native English speaker review the text. I'm tasked with addressing that issue, but my effectiveness is severely limited for two reasons:

I'm only presented with the manuscript at the very end - there's no opportunity to suggest changes during preparation (it's just their "do everything myself" style)
After their six months of writing slowly and carefully in solitude, there is a sense of urgency and immediacy. There's no way I can take the time necessary to completely rewrite the full manuscript in natural English. The points are complex and it would be a slow, interactive effort to make sure each step of the way my rewrite did not change some nuance I didn't detect but my colleague is certain it is clear as day.

Actual question:
The only way I am going to get my colleague to embrace working directly with a style checker as they write or even a digital writing assistant is to convince them that their style is old and outdated and must change, and it's not the typos or an occasional missing article or singular/plural mixup that the reviewers are complaining about, it's the sentence complexity and 1950's textbook tone that they're reacting against.
The text is simply quite painful to read!
What I need is indisputable evidence of this fact. They're quite logical, and faced with factual evidence, they accept it and can implement the changes necessary. But not until then.
Are there:

Style scoring algorithms, perhaps with website implementations, that might score things like sentence complexity and paragraph density? I'm not talking about an AI assistant yet, just something that can tell the difference between a poorly written and painful-to-read paragraph (as discussed above) and a similar content but well-written, clear paragraph using more natural English? If the output were numerical and could differentiate style, that would be helpful to demonstrate that something needs to be done.
An academic review of how academic writing styles have evolved from stilted/mechanical to more natural language. Something that might support a statement that "Things have changed, scientific writing is now much less formal and more like natural speech."

Basically, I need to make a case based on factual evidence that the writing style for submitted manuscripts has got to be overhauled.

Comments have been moved to chat; please do not continue the discussion here. Before posting a comment below this one, please review the purposes of comments. Comments that do not request clarification or suggest improvements usually belong as an answer, on [meta], or in [chat]. Comments continuing discussion or containing answers will be removed.

Get someone uninvolved to proofread for comprehensibility? You don't need a formal metric, you need to know whether the target audience will have problems with it.

Can you, please, provide a typical paragraph or two from that text so it would become clear to us what exactly you are talking about? All we have now is your opinion of the style and I would like to form my own one before giving any advice :-)

@fedja for obvious reasons of personal privacy, I certainly will not be posting examples of someone else's writing. And any user's own opinion of the writing style is non sequitur here; my quesiton asks for "Style scoring algorithms..." and "An academic review of how academic writing styles have evolved..." that can be used to "...make a case based on factual evidence...". I've carefully written the question so as to exclude any need for individual opinions or advice on style itself, even if that's the kind of opining answer that folks would love to post! :-0

Choose your co-authors carefully, and lay down working requirements if needed
Firstly, you get to decide who you co-author papers with, so you don't need to convince him of shit.  The notion that you need to "make a case" for changes in his writing style and "collect factual evidence" for this is a misunderstanding of where the onus of decision-making lies in this case.  You can stop co-authoring papers with this academic any time you want, for any reason at all, or for no reason.  If he wants to keep doing papers with you, then he will need to ensure that is a mutually beneficial arrangement that suits you.
My recommendation here would be to start by considering whether it is worth the trouble of continuing co-authorship of papers with this academic, and weigh this off against the potential difficulties of laying down requirements over writing style and duties.  If you decide that a continued co-authoring relationship is beneficial (or at least, potentially beneficial), I recommend you do the following:

Tell your co-author your concerns about his writing style, being tactful and empathetic but also frank.  Explain your position and give examples and evidence (e.g., reviewer comments) if helpful, but don't try to "prove" anything.  Don't get into a debate on the issue --- just be clear on your position and your reasons for this position.  You can acknolwedge that your colleague is ESL, and that is an understandable reason for the inadequate writing style, but the result is the result.

Address the fact that your colleague wants to "do everything himself", but is evidently incapable of doing the writing well.  Something has to give here.  It will probably be necessary for you to write the first draft of the paper yourself, to avoid large amounts of editing work.  If your colleague is not amenable to this solution, it is likely that there is no fruitful collaboration here.

Understand the limits of your role here, but also your own decision-making power.  If your colleague would like to continue co-authoring with others but doing the writing himself, he will need to take the initiative to improve his writing.  It is not up to you to make a plan for him to do this or direct him to resources for this purpose.  He is a big boy with a PhD (I assume), so he can find resources for improving his writing if this is something he wants to pursue.

+1 for tactful first bullet point

Well said. If they need something factual, present them with the fact that if they don't change their approach to writing papers, they will no longer be writing them with you.

1 Know when to hold 'me, when to fold 'em, and when to walk away!

I'm going to have to suggest that your quest is fruitless in the time frame available. If their writing style is so cramped as to be painful, it is not going to be changed by any means in the short term.
You would be far better off, painful as it is, to take over the writing yourself, depending on them only for disambiguation when you don't understand the arguments made in the draft you have. A style checker is unlikely to help as they might not trust it.
I only hope that as a native English speaker you can convince them that ESL isn't going to be enough in this case and to trust you. You need to get in to the writing process at the beginning, not at the end.
Alternatively, you can just let them do what they do and go through the multiple revision cycles that will be suggested by reviewers to bring the writing up to journal standards.
If you need to convince them, ask a trusted native speaker, independent of your project, to comment on the writing style. That might be enough.
Neither is ideal, but what you suggest in the question seems like a pipe dream. Good luck.

Thanks! This is certainly good advice for future readers in similar situations, but for me specifically, "take over the writing yourself" is simply not an option, nor is finding a second "trusted native speaker". It's been five years, and several submission cycles for each of several journals for each of several manuscripts. What I need is a "your writing style doesn't fly in 2024, and this is why" coming from a nonhuman source, something based on statistical analysis, not an opinion.

@uhoh "Take over the writing yourself" - I have done so, even starved for time. I basically transformed the co-authors text completely in something I wanted to see instead. So they could compare, section by section, what the issue with the style was. Just merely throwing books or instructions or AI at them is not enough. They have to see it live. The next round was much easier and less work to fix.

@CaptainEmacs That is definitely good advice! I'm currently working on two manuscripts myself, a proposal, and about three different sets of data that needs new algorithms to analyze. But that shouldn't stop me from at least taking a few pages to rewrite as an example. Ya, this might be something I have to do. Thanks!

@uhoh what you think you need doesn't exist. Language can't be measured like that other than by polling people. Therefore, you need to find a different way. The usual way to resolve an interpersonal conflict is to have an honest talk.

@DonQuiKong "doesn't exist" Not so sure about that. Just for example this comment in 2018 links to https://www.usingenglish.com/resources/text-statistics/ Commenter told me my sentence had a "fog index" of 10.3! Surely in the following six years MORE, not fewer text analysis tools have become available. And my goodness, there's been zero mention of an "interpersonal conflict" anywhere! If I bring them objective data, they will accept it.

@DonQuiKong 2015: Analysis Engine doesn't do exactly what I need, i also demonstrates that text analysis tools have existed well before AI. I'm simply looking for a tool that gives more feedback than these, and I'm not yest convinced they don't exist - just that most folks like their own writing style and so have not looked for them. Also 2012: “My Message is Simple”: Obama’s SOTU Written at 8th Grade Level for Third Straight Year.

@DonQuiKong also The Flesch–Kincaid readability tests are readability tests designed to indicate how difficult a passage in English is to understand. There be stuff out there, it's just that many folks are too enamored by their own writing style to consider finding out about tools to improve it.

Readability is a well-studied field.
Simply put, yes, there are objective metrics that you can use to show your co-author's writing style is bad. Just open up Microsoft Word, head over to the "Review" tab, open the spellchecker, then scroll down to the button labelled "Document Stats" in the right-hand toolbar and click on it. Those readability and grade level stats? Those are objective measurements of how easy your document is to read.
The names associated with them in Word are the names of the academics that created them. I'm sure you can use that as a starting point to find a million papers on readability and literacy to clobber your colleague over the head with.
As for options to actually improve your colleague's writing, I have a few suggestions:

Try to get a readability score of 50 or higher and a Grade Level of 10 or lower. The majority of the populace has a surprisingly low level of literacy. This would doubtlessly be higher for academics, but time is precious and the easier it is to read, the more people will read it and the more citations you're likely to get.
Microsoft Word has a readability checker built-in, but it's pretty basic. You may want to consider using a paid readability service like Grammarly or VisibleThread to assist in the revision and writing process.
Consult your Style Manuals. Obviously, the Style Manual the journal you're writing for takes precedence, but you can also consider the guidance of other manuals in areas where they don't conflict. For example, the Australian Government Style Manual was written with the intention of turning "bureaucrat-ese" into plain English, which is very similar to the task you're facing here.

Do you really think it is desirable or even feasible to get a Grade Level of 10 or lower for a scientific paper? Even the jargon one would have to use to explain work in a specific field would fail that, right? It seems to me that, by definition, writing for a peer reviewed academic journal means you need to write for a Grade Level of, well, PhD. The majority of the populace is not the target audience here; when we write in journals, we write mostly for our peers and we don't want to waste their time by trying to bring our text to a level that a school child would understand.

@terdon I don't know about the metrics, but there's a difference between using technical language regular people (eg high school students) wouldn't understand, and using elaborate English where it can equally be phrased in an easier way. The first is language complexity necessary to the task, the second is unnecessary complexity. If you could replace obscure words with common ones without losing meaning why do you need the obscure words?

@user1908704 that's a fair point, and one should certainly avoid complexity for complexity's sake, especially since across all our fields, most of our peers are not native English speakers. So if the suggestion here is to keep things simple, apart from jargon, that does make more sense. Although, even then, a broader vocabulary and more precise, if obscure, words can help keep a paper focused and within the word limit. No need to overcomplicate thre grammar or sentence structure though, you're absolutely right.

@terdon "Do you really think it is desirable or even feasible to get a Grade Level of 10 or lower for a scientific paper?" Sure. The grade level metric in question is computed by measuring the average number of words per sentence and the average number of syllables per word and then applying scaling factors. You don't need to use long words or big sentences to get your point across

@nick012000 long words and sentences shouldn't stop a PhD student from understanding something potentially rather the opposite. Long words = technically specific words; long sentences = expressing a complex thought. Yes, sometimes you can break down something and that can help, often you rather give the full picture in one complex sentence and then break down the individual parts. If I'm a bureaucrat I'm probably fine with bureaucrat-esce writing style. I.e. I'd at least take those measures with two grains of salt.

One resource you could point them to is a book called The Chemist's English, written by Robert Schoenfeld. Schoenfeld was an editor of the Australian Journal of Chemistry, and adapted several of his own articles to form chapters in this book. It is very useful, even for a native English speaker, as it deals with grammar, punctuation and gives advice on writing style, even discussing the use of italics. While it is called The Chemist's English, most of the content is relevant for any discipline (it just happens that the examples all relate to chemistry). As a native English speaker myself, I cannot recommend this book enough!

Your link goes to the German Amazon site. Please modify to go directly to the publisher.

@JeffreyJWeimer done!

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Writing about injury-induced gap in my resume (statement of purpose for graduate admissions)
I'm currently working on adapting my statement of purpose from the 2020-2021 admissions cycle for use in the current cycle. Since the last cycle, much has changed. As a result of a severe ulnar nerve impingement (which randomly flared up), I had limited use of my dominant hand for the last few months.
I left a job (which was related to my field) and didn't take classes over the summer. Currently, I'm enrolled in 2 courses (graded S/U, since I cannot even use my dominant hand at all) and auditing 1, all of which are relevant to my field. I've since had an operation to repair this, which has put my dominant hand in even more inoperable condition temporarily.
Clearly, I need to address this in my admissions packet somewhere, but I'm not quite sure where or how. Should it figure prominently into my statement of purpose? Should it be a bullet point on my resume? I feel that if written well, this could even potentially help me build a good narrative. Any advice is appreciated!

The correct answer is: https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/60325/13240

It can go into a personal statement, not a statement of purpose.

The Statement of Purpose is not the best place for that. Make the SoP about the future: plans and goals. The CV is about the past. If there is a cover letter, then it might be mentioned there.
But if the job you left is on the CV, then you might mention there that you had to leave for medical reasons.
But the SoP is not best used to explain any deficiencies. It needs to project that you have a plan for the future, both the degree and thereafter.
If you mention it anywhere, and it may not be necessary for a short break, be prepared for questions about it.
At most, a short phrase introducing how you were a fantastic success in xyzzy in spite of dealing with nerve damage in the hand. But just a phrase. Elsewhere is better, however and not the focus of the SoP. No one will accept you because they are sorry for you. They accept you if they can predict your future success.

Thanks for the quick response. I'll keep this in mind.

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


text:
What is the effect of choosing the wrong topic(s) during conference paper submission?
My domain is Image processing.
While submitting papers to conferences, authors are usually asked to select a primary and secondary topic for there paper.

What is the actual purpose of this?
What if authors by mistake select a wrong (not completely) topic instead of a more suitable topic? Does this get changed before/during the review process?
What if this is not corrected and paper is assigned to a reviewer who thinks this is not the proper topic of the paper? Does this affect the paper review process or increase chances of rejection?

Conferences often use some sort of semi-automated system for matching papers and reviewers, in which case keyword/topic selection will be very important.  Even when it is done by hand or by bidding, keyword/topic selection will typically guide who the paper gets assigned to.  Moreover, some conferences also have special reviewing procedures or criteria for certain tracks.
Thus, what you select determines the audience you are claiming will best appreciate your paper, and thus which reviewers will be looking at it.  If you pick the wrong ones, you'll get unappreciative reviewers, and have a much higher chance of getting rejected.  If might get noticed and corrected on your behalf, but in my experience it is more likely that you will simply have a mismatch and get poorly reviewed.

Yes, this helps organize the papers for the reviewers and structure the conference. Ticking the wrong box can indeed cause a paper to be rejected, as not all reviewers read all of the papers and realize that it is just misplaces. Do choose these with care.

As Jake and Debora have said, the topics are used to allocate papers to the most suitable reviewers.
I know of a technical committee that had received approximately 400 papers for their conference. They wished to have 3 reviewers to each paper for a total of 1200 reviews.
They printed off the 400 submissions, laid them out on a very large floor and proceeded to attach post-its with reviewer's names on them. They had choose the 3 most suitable reviewers for each paper and keep a tally to ensure that no reviewer was overloaded.  The whole process took almost a day of back and forth, and there were still errors when they had finished.
An online system can make a first pass on the allocation in minutes, taking into account paper topics, reviewer area of expertise, no of reviews per submission, nepotism and other factors. The chair can then tweak the allocation before inviting the reviewers to get started.
In answer to part 3, some abstract/paper management systems* will allow a reviewer to view the abstract/paper and if they feel it is not in their area of expertise, they can notify the chair who may re-allocate it to another reviewer. (Even though this is a useful feature that should, we have found that some chairs elect not to turn it on, believing that it gives reviewers an easy opt-out
*Disclosure - I'm a co-founder at Ex Ordo, an online abstract management system that includes these features.

In connection to your answer to question 3 (last para), is this generally the case in flagship and/or top quality conferences? I mean, since these conferences are known for follow fair/strict procedures.

Stalin: yes, this happens mostly in smaller conferences, but also in newer conferences where the reviewer pool is still being established, or not as familiar with the conference.

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


text:
Should an e-mail application to a lab for a masters thesis include attachments, or should I wait for these documents to be requested?
I would like to ask a researcher in a foreign institution to do my master thesis ( 5 months worth of research in Experimental Physics ) under his supervision.
I have written both a motivational letter and a short, coincise email stating what my intentions are.
Should I only send the coincise email, and wait for them to ask me for a motivational letter + curriculum, or should i attach those to the mail?
Otherwise, would it be better if I wrote the motivational letter in plain text under the mail, so that if they want to read it they won't have to ask me for it?
I know from my previous advisor that he often rejected such proposals if they were not coincise enough because he did not want to waste time. He told me that he mainly answer those who "tickle" his interest in few words, but I would like to hear more opinions.
Here is the short mail I was thinking of:

Dear Professor, I am a graduate physics student at the University of
  QuantumState currently on my first year of my master.
During my four years of studies I developed a keen interest in the
  peculiar laws that describe lower dimensional quantum systems,
  alongside a passion for the challenges that are encountered in the
  experimental study of such systems. I would like to dedicate my master
  thesis to an experimental study in this field, in particular, I would
  like to do so under your supervision in your research group.
Alongside my interest in the field ( and I know that your institution
  is one of the top research centers in the area ), I also have a strong
  personal desire of moving to Copenhagen: if during my stay you would
  find me a suitable addition to your group, I would be more than
  looking forward to apply for a Doctorate position at your institution.
The timeframe allotted by my university for work on the master thesis
  is the period going from february 2016 onwards (usually 5 months). I
  know that it is very early, but to do the research in a foreign
  institution my university requires me to obtain a statement of intent
  from the external advisor long before.
Attached you find a more throughout letter about my interests and Ideas, and my curriculum.
Best regards,
  Me Myself

Is this email short indeed?

Not really. But I don't know what would be a wise choice removing. Originally I thought about having only the first 2 paragrphs.

Personally, I never attach things like this. In this context, I would instead provide them a link to my website/CV/portfolio.

I do not know what the customs are in physics, but professors get requests like this a lot, and most of them feel like form letters (i.e., as if a student is sending out a bunch hoping someone will be interested).
If you want to get noticed, be very explicit as to why you are interested in this person and their lab, and if your desired research aligns with projects you know they are doing, say so with explicit references.  Your paragraphs above sound very generic, something you could have sent many places.
Also, please consider:
- if you are excited about a large project the professor is doing and would be happy to do a project for the professor that they need done, say so.  Typically, if you have an idea already, that might be less appealing than being interested in doing something that the professor wants/needs to be done.  Of course, having as specific interesting idea also shows you understand the area and the professors work.
- if you have funding and will not cost the professor anything, say so.  Oftentimes, professors don't have spare funding to pay for a visiting student (especially one they do not know) ever if they wanted to.
- I would somehow (perhaps in the longer document) give an indication of experience you have (don't just tersely list it on the resume).  A big question a professor would have is how much experience you have and how likely you are to be able to do something good in a short few months.
I would also definitely include the attachments of the long statement and resume in your first message.  If the professor gets through your note and is interested, they would probably appreciate knowing more about you before replying.
Remember: the most precious commodity to a professor is their time.  You need to convince them that the time they will invest in you is worth it.

Given the fact that professors or even post-docs receive bulks of these emails (most of them mass spam mails), you really don’t want to waste their time looking through numerous attachments.
When I applied for for my master thesis at top-tier institutions in the US/UK, I went with your first suggested option: a short and concise mail with 1 attachment. This worked for me and led to a visiting research stay at the MIT.
This short mail with the most important and relevant information should replace the classical motivational letter in my opinion. It is important that each line of your mail provides sufficient value so that a professor continues to read to the next one. So it’s good to refrain from standard phrases. Besides being short, the message really needs to be individualized. I tried to show that I familiarized myself with his specific research such as recent publications. Aspects of the message were mainly motivation, the research idea/topic, my qualifications and how I can contribute. As already mentioned by Blair your chances increase significantly if you state that they don’t need to fund you.
With this email I would recommend at most 1-2 attachments e.g. your CV or already published papers. In a further note you could still offer to send further documents such as transcripts, writing samples or what else could be relevant in your research area on request.
If you are interested in the application beyond the questions about attachements, it might be worth to look here https://www.termabroad.com/ , where we wrote a little guide about the application as a visiting researcher e.g. for a thesis.
Best regards

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


text:
Can a paper get rejected in the copyediting phase (after peer review acceptance)?
A journal with high impact accepted my paper after peer review.  In the copy-editing phase I noticed some errors -- mostly mixed up references.  Can the paper now be rejected due to these errors?  What about if I want to update some references?

Formally, a paper can be rejected at any time, even after printing.  E.g. IEEE describes such cases, which are mostly plagiarism-related.  In your case of mixed-up references, a rejection is unlikely.
Updating references should be a non-issue in the early copyediting phase but problematic in the late stages.  You might have to live with published wrong references.

If you ask for too many changes on the page-proofs  it might be that you are charged a fee for this. Various journals say they will charge for too many changes as it increases the production cost; but I have never heard of a situation where it actually happened.
Mixed-up reference, especially if these are clerical errors, does not sound that dramatic a change, so this should be a non-issue.
Updating reference is perfectly fine; journals will even actively ask for more complete data if available in the page-proofs if the original manuscript only quoted a preprint for example.
Generally, once you are in the copy-editing phase the scientific decision to publish your paper was already taken. A reason for it not to be publish typically could only be procedural (e.g., you do not agree to sign the copyright form or otherwise mess up the process completely) or possibly very severe problems with the paper that emerge.


text:
Use of verbatim quotes in reporting findings in qualitative research (semi-structured interviews)
In qualitative research (semi- structured interviews) do we have to use verbatim quotes in reporting the findings?

There is no prescription.
However, it is always nice and useful to convey through your report the 'voices' of the interviewees through carefully selected quotes, i.e. the most significant, revealing or unique.
Hope that's useful.

I agree that there is no prescription to use quotes however more than being nice, using quotes provides verification.
In qualitative research we speak of verification instead of validity. So using a rigorous process and describing it for the readers helps verify the findings of your work. Using "rich" quotation to give context and voice to the participants is one method, among others such as triangulation, member checking, or collaboration.


text:
Telling my bachelor thesis supervisor about my mental health issues
I am in the process of writing my bachelor thesis, but my mental health has been in very bad shape lately, although I'm starting treatment soon. I am confident that it already had an effect on my productivity, and I can see the treatment procedure also affecting my productivity in the future. It was therefore advised to me by the "student advisor" (a member of my faculty that advises students about general concerns) to let my thesis supervisor know about my problem.
However, I am not sure how to go about doing this in regard to how specific I should be in describing my issues. One possible option would be to let him know that I have some sort of mental health issue. The benefit of this would be that he might be somewhat more receptive and understanding of my decreased productivity (and possible other problems). On the other hand I'm afraid it might be a bit harsh on him, because he might me reluctant to mark my thesis as insufficient or to have tons of negative commentary. (realistically speaking, I'm sure everyone involved in grading my thesis will understand that me not passing will not affect my health positively, to say the least) How should I approach this problem?

It's important to be clear with yourself, and also your supervisor if possible, as to what outcome you would ideally like. This will affect how much your supervisor needs to know. Do you just want some sympathy? (I don't mean that flippantly, it's a very valid wish!) Do you need your supervisor to ease off the pressure, or by contrast, to check up on you more frequently? Do you need extra time to complete your thesis, or special consideration when it is marked? Or are you overwhelmed and you don't even know where to start answering questions like these? ...

... If you can add any information like this to your question it may help to get more constructive answers. In any case, take care of yourself, and good luck!

I guess I could have added a bit more details. I don't really expect anything from anyone (although I'm sure he will be sympathetic towards my issues , minimally in the sense that he will see how it could effect my performance), but I do think I would feel more at ease with the knowledge that I could get deadline extensions when needed.

It was ... advised to me by the "student advisor" to let my thesis supervisor know about my problem.
However, I am not sure how to go about doing this in regard to how specific I should be in describing my issues.

I'd say you've done the right thing by speaking to somebody in an official capacity. That first conversation can be the hardest part! Assuming that this "student advisor" is a member of staff (in your department?) I would suggest speaking with them again, and discussing some of your concerns about "how specific" to be.
If, however, I am misunderstanding the term "student advisor", and the person you spoke with was instead somebody in a counselling/support role, I would suggest speaking with an appropriate member of academic or administrative staff -- in my experience, that would be a "Director of Studies" or similar, but the Dutch system may differ!
Either way, "the university" should be able to tell you what is an appropriate level of detail, especially if you have concerns about putting your supervisor into a conflicted position with regard to your grade.
When it comes down to actually talking to your supervisor, I would suggest that beforehand you set yourself a minimum level of detail that you feel is necessary to convey, and a maximum level that you feel comfortable with. That might help you feel a little more in control of the situation. As for what exactly you say, you can then go with whatever seems comfortable (for both parties) when you're having the actual conversation.

One possible option would be to let him know that I have some sort of mental health issue. The benefit of this would be that he might be somewhat more receptive and understanding of my decreased productivity (and possible other problems).
On the other hand I'm afraid it might be a bit harsh on him, because he might me reluctant to mark my thesis as insufficient or to have tons of negative commentary.

If I remember rightly, when I was in a similar situation to you my supervisor was wise enough to ask me what would be (un)helpful in terms of negative commentary etc. Your supervisor may also volunteer to have that discussion; however, if not, you can always bring up the topic -- if you fear that he'll be reluctant to give you (constructive) negative comments, you can say explicitly "I don't need you to be gentler with your comments; I just wanted to let you know that this is the situation, and that accordingly I am having some difficulties" (or whatever wording best addresses your concerns and desires!).
As a quick personal note (which, hopefully, helps anyone having doubts about talking to their university regarding mental health issues) I should say that after years (and several degrees) dealing with these kinds of problems, I've never regretted talking to a member of staff about my mental health; I do, however, regret the occasions where (I now know) I could have let somebody know that I was having problems, but didn't. It's very easy to be nervous about these conversations, but they're often the best way forward.

N.B. While I have been in a similar situation, I should note that in my case it was/is a PhD thesis (and is in Britain), so my supervisor is not the one responsible for final grading of my thesis. However, your concerns regarding what level of detail to go into sound very familiar to me, as does your worry about putting your supervisor in a difficult position with regard to his comments on your thesis. So, hopefully, this answer remains helpful.

Thank you very much, I actually really appreciate your personal note! Telling my supervisor to be somewhat more straightforward when I suspect he's not indeed seems like a good solution.

If there is an Office for Students with Disabilities, you could ask them give your professors the basic information (which you could then personalize, if you wish).  (You would probably need to provide some documentation from your mental health provider.)
You could ask your student advisor to go with you to meet with your professor.
It can be helpful to practice, by telling some other people first.
It might be a good idea to prepare for the conversation by thinking about how you might answer questions such as, "How can I help?"  However, it is also okay to say, "Thanks for asking; I'm not actually sure yet."
It can be quite helpful to read lists of accommodations that other students with a similar diagnosis have found helpful.  They won't match you exactly, but reading such lists can help you think productively about what would be helpful for you.
It's hard to weigh in on how specific you should be about your issues because I don't know what they are.  But until you're ready to talk about supports you'll need in your studies, there's probably not much gained by getting very specific.
Possible starting point:

Prof. XX, do you have a couple of minutes?
I'd like to give you a brief update about my health situation.  I've recently had a mental health evaluation.  I will be starting outpatient treatment in a few weeks.  I expect to be able to continue with my studies during treatment, although perhaps at a somewhat reduced pace.  Getting evaluated and arranging for treatment has been a positive step for me.  But I felt it was important to let you know what my situation is.


text:
Ethics of a potential collaborator removing another researcher from a project?
I work for an organization that has some research restrictions -- for instance, we do not allow non-employees to have direct data access for security purposes.
I recently invited an academic collaborator to work with me on a new (social science) project that may get launched. It would involve data collection from a non-profit. The plan was for the non-profit to send the data to my organization. My potential academic collaborator and I were in very early talks over the ideas and direction of the overall project when I mentioned the data restrictions. His response was that not having direct data access is unacceptable (although I offered to try to facilitate an on site visit) and as such, he is going to directly contact the non-profit, thereby eliminating me and my organization from the project.
The original contact was made by another employee at my organization, meaning that he would have not had access to the non-profit without me.
My gut reaction is that this behavior is unprofessional and unethical. My understanding was that many organizations restrict data access to give preference to their employees, so that this restriction is not unreasonable. My question is whether others agree regarding 1) those restrictions and 2) the ethics of this professor's behavior. Thanks.

Added:
  A follow-up question, given the response below, is whether we have any obligation (ethical or otherwise) to keep the academic on the project. We built the relationship with the non-profit for months prior to contacting the academic, so I certainly would feel comfortable moving forward with the non-profit on another idea (and possibly this one, if the logic holds on both directions).

If the non-profit is gathering the data, why would it be reasonable for your organization to restrict access to it?  Isn't it the non-profit's choice who should get access to their data?

To turn jakebeal's comment into a specific proposal, why not ask the non-profit to supply the data to both your organization and the university?  Then your organization will be happy (since you'll have the data and won't need to jeopardize security by sharing it), and the academic collaborator will be happy (since he'll have the data too).  Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see any downsides to this, unless the data is so sensitive that the non-profit would refuse to share it without extra security.

Thanks. The data is very sensitive, but this is certainly one option. I think part of my unease comes from the fact that the academic did not offer dual access as a possibility (or any of the other arrangements that i thought could be workable); he simply jumped to going around my organization. At a certain point, it seems like we are the only ones willing to be accommodating!

There is nothing unethical about this.  You approached a researcher with an idea for a future project, which you both agreed would be a good idea.  However, your employment situation makes it impossible to meet the potential collaborators entirely reasonable demands.  (I would probably not get involved in any research project in which I could not, in principle, have access to the underlying data.  I might never need to see it, but if there is some kind of problem, I would definitely want to be able to look at the raw data for myself and draw my own conclusions.)
Having suggested the research project but been unable to come to an agreement about how it should proceed, you are in a tricky situation.  The other researcher has no obligation not to pursue the project without you or your employer.  I would not consider it a particularly friendly thing to do, but there is no ethical problem.  Your original idea should be acknowledged in the final publications (or whatever) based on this research, but that is as far as your contribution may go.

I'm interested in your response. My thought is that the researcher also has no obligation to pursue the project; they could also drop the collaboration after deciding that the conditions of the agreement do not need their needs. I obviously would not be upset with that decision, since that is their preference.

@Rachel:  Sure, they have no obligation to go forward with it; and, as I said, it might be friendlier if they dropped the whole thing.  But that evidently is not what they want to do--leading to your problem.

I suggest you work within the hierarchy of your organization to make an exception to the policy that prevents non-employees to have direct data access, because in this case, it is not your organization's data.  I think this is the underlying ethical problem.  I personally would not feel it ethical to participate in this type of imbalance of power relationship.
If you respect the independent researcher, then please trust that his or her continued involvement with your proposal will be a good litmus test for the ethical validity of the project.  In other words, if you get the parameters fair and clear enough for the independent researcher to continue his or her involvement, then you need have no qualms about whether your own participation is ethical.
(Not that that was what you explicitly asked.)

Whether or not you agree with the conduct of the academic, it seems the issue boils down to a non-profit interested in having their data used in some academic and beneficial way. If you have had contact for months and built a relationship with the organization, and a random person (from their perspective), contacts them with a proposal to do the same research you have been in talks with, I doubt they would not say anything to you.  Rather, you can discuss the issue with them, propose that your organization alone has access to the data, and ignore what the failed collaboration would have been.  If they want to pursue both opportunities, you can suggest your potential collaborator work together, where both your organization and the collaborator have direct access to the data.  If they send a proposal to the organization around you, and use your proposal as the basis, you may be in a plagiarism situation.  However, I would be cautious to jump to that conclusion, and even if this was the case, I imagine the non-profit would notice this and discuss it with you.
In the end, I would hope the academic you refer to would find his/her direct access to the data a method for everyone to collaborate.  If not, based on the track record you described with the non-profit, the academic will not be able to pursue a research project with them without your knowledge/acknowledgement.

It seems to me that you need to "reroute" the data. That is, get the non-profit to send the data to the outside researcher's organization instead of yours. Then work with him on the project, riding his "coattails." instead of yours.
A possible solution is to try to get your organization to carve out an exception to the policy because this is really "third party" data, not proprietary. But the other solution may be more workable. In either event, try not to "miss the boat" if you can avoid it.

I respectfully disagree with this idea. Riding his coattails would have the effect of cutting MY teammates out of the process, the exact outcome that I'm trying to avoid.

@Rachel: Then I recommend that you lobby your organization for a "third party" exemption. But your view is certainly a reasonable one, you need to decide whether you have greater loyalties to your organization and colleagues or to your own ideas and career. You may end up going your way, I'll go mine.


text:
Okay to state very specific research interest in statement of purpose?
*I am applying to Psychology PhD
For graduate (PhD) applications, most universities ask for a statement of purpose and instructions simply state to discuss your research interests. This type of open-ended prompt suggests to me that they may also be anticipating a rather wide range of research interests from the student. However, for my case, I actually have 2-3 research questions I intend to look at. I have also contacted a professor at the university, to which the professor responded that the questions were interesting and exciting to research. However, since the questions are very specific in nature, they do not correlate very well with many of the other professors' interests in that department. Only the professor with whom I have been in contact with has those topics listed as their areas of interest.
From a PhD admissions committee perspective, would a student who has clear ideas of what research questions they want to research be viewed positively (i.e. sees the student as being prepared) or negatively (e.g. student's lack of interests in other professors' labs), assuming GPA, GRE, etc. are adequate.
I thought about writing my specific questions but also state that I'm open to new ideas, but I was not sure whether that will come off as being snobby or, conversely, desperate.
Any advice from people who have read or written a statement of purpose would be greatly appreciated!

Well, it's a gamble: a specific research question preferred by a particular professor will get you strong attention. However, if you miss, you won't have a backup.

Frankly, I would state my SOP to align with the interests of the reader. You might have many interests, it would be better to showcase what matters the most to the intended professor.

First, how about asking the opinion of the professor who has the common interest with yours?  S/he will hopefully be able to assess how much influence s/he might have with the admissions committee.
For the rest of my answer I will assume the professor advises you not to make your statement too narrow.
I suggest you start off rather broadly, for approximately one paragraph, talking about an area that includes at least one of your specific research questions.  At this point you are filming the city from a helicopter or drone.  In the next paragraph, you can bring your camera down to street level, and start describing one or more of your specific questions, as an example.
If you are really creative, you could write the broad paragraph in such a way that at least one other professor in the department could see some spark of commonality.


text:
Tips for transition to online classrooms given university shutdowns in response to COVID-19
Given the recent shutdowns of many universities across the world, there's an increased interest in online education techniques.
In my case, I am a TA for a quantum chemistry class, and I'm finding it daunting to transition to online teaching. At first, I got really excited because I thought of taking advantage of this situation to run a flipped discussion section: I'd record lectures in advance, and then have virtual office hours where students could Zoom/Skype/Google hangout with me and we discuss in the same chatroom (so everyone hears the conversation).
However, in what I suspect to be an attempt to distance themselves from something nice and free/far cheaper (like edX) which has been doing this online routine for a long time, my university has required that we livestream our lectures/discussion sections. This is purportedly to be in the aim to make their online experience as college-like as possible, but it's problematic for multiple reasons. First, lectures are at 9AM EST... Do we expect students to tune in at 10 PM in Japan? Or 3 AM in Hawaii?
Second, we should use the silver linings present in this university shutdown: video lectures = students get to go back and re-listen to a part that confused them! From my perspective, this university requirement goes against an attempt to maintain normalcy: normalcy should not be defined as continuation of the same daily routine (impossible for many), but rather a continuation of helpful instruction.
I intend to find out whom to email about this, but in the meantime, what resources/advice would you suggest for an instructor who suddenly has to transition to the digital classroom?

There is a meta thread started here: https://academia.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4680/proposed-corona-faq-please-contribute linking some related questions. Yours seem pretty broad, so maybe you can start there and see what is missing from the existing Q&A and then ask a more specific question?

will do, thanks for the link!

Also see https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/105448/online-learning-chat for more open-ended discussion rather than the typical Q&A.

Why do you have people listening in from Japan and Hawaii? Were people sent all the way home at your school?

@AzorAhai yep, sent home due to COVID-19 concerns, minimal exceptions

This is marked for community ownership so constructive edits will be welcomed. It is, however, more directed at those who can design a course, rather than a TA who has limited control.
Background
Many of the teaching techniques we use are not optimal for learning. They have been designed for economic efficiency since they scale. Some of them have been a bit obsolete since the creation of the internet. But face to face classes in real time are no longer necessary. Lecture is efficient (one teacher, many students, synchronous), but again, not optimal. Testing is a poor way to guarantee competence. This current emergency can be considered to be an opportunity to rethink everything we do toward finding better ways to educate people. We are forced to act and the old ways don't work in a new environment. We should be looking for new ways.
The essentials of teaching are Delivery, Practice, Feedback, Assessment. All of these require Two Way Communication. They don't require synchronicity or exams. The first job is to teach people, not to grade them. If you get that part backwards then you are only "teaching" people who don't need to be taught.
Every student is different. Nearly every student learns differently from the way their instructor does. The instructor has been proven to stand out in a particular system in which others have failed. As an instructor you have an obligation to every student willing to put in the effort, not just to the ones naturally predisposed to "win" in some system. Not every student starts at the same place with the same understandings. The same words don't necessarily have the same meanings to different people.
Some people have handicaps that prevent certain kinds of interactions. Hearing impairment and vision impairment are obvious ones, but there are others.
Learning is individual, but the process need not require isolation. It can be a communal process with learners helping each other. Denying students the option of working together is sub-optimal. A course can be a communal activity, not a hierarchical one.
Some students will succeed no matter the system. They don't really need you for anything more than pointing to important sources/ideas. But most actually require your assistance since insight into a topic can be hard to come by. Many students actually need to be taught how to learn. If you change the system of learning they may need to be retaught how to internalize ideas and turn them into competencies. It isn't automatic or obvious.
Learning isn't "consuming" material. It requires active participation. It requires a change in the brain (The Art of Changing the Brain by James E Zull)
All of these things have long been taken into account in designing educational systems, but the current practice is a compromise that values economic (scale) values over educational ones. Not everywhere, of course, but the exceptions seem few to me.
Let's assume that everything is on the table, except that students and instructors can no longer meet face to face in groups. Meetings of any kind need to be small and optional with alternatives provided. Computer communication of some kind is needed, but costs are an issue as is the privacy of all participants.
What to do, what to do.
Ideas for Delivery
There are a lot of ways for students to have access to the material of a course. Books are traditional. Lecture has replaced most other methods. But lectures are longer than they need to be. Some research I read suggests that lectures of 10 to 15 minutes are more efficient than hour or longer lectures (https://spokenimpact.com/what-is-the-ideal-length-for-a-presentation/). Those contemplating video should take note of that. Video also needs to be accompanied with a transcript to aid those with impairments.
Moreover, students need to be able to review material. Video is difficult in this regard since it is hard to quickly return to a small part that needs review without watching longer sections, which leads to boredom. Transcripts can mark the time that important ideas are introduced.
There is a fine line between having good and poor production values in video. If they are too good, a video talk becomes just entertainment with poor learning, unless other means are used to encourage/enforce engagement. If they are too bad, then students will get lost and frustrated. Video professionals are good at this sort of thing, but it is hard to bootstrap immediately at scale.
Delivery alone is just media. Students need to incorporate what they see in a lecture, long or short, into their long term memory and into their effective competencies. More is involved than the eyes and ears. Students often think that the will automatically "learn" what is presented to them in a lecture, talk, demonstration, etc. but it is anything but automatic.
Caveats: Any "solution" that requires real-time synchronous presence on the internet will probably fail. And it will fail invisibly for some. Connections are dropped, servers overload, etc. It is hard enough to keep students off their phone when in a class. It is probably impossible to do in a real-time internet lecture. Other distractions will intrude. Moreover, unless you have an exceptional communication system, students won't be able to interrupt you when you make a mistake, as you will. No questions are likely to be asked in real time. It is also difficult for a presenter to give a lively talk with no audience feedback at all. Especially if you are trying to do this under emergency conditions without training and experience.
But if you absolutely must use synchronous delivery you need to do two additional things. The first is that you need to record and post your lectures so that those who must miss the original don't lose access.
The second, just as vital, is that you provide a real time feedback to yourself (or to an assistant sitting by your side) so that questions can be asked as you lecture and so that students have a way to mention/note errors you make.
And make sure that students know what to do in the case that you lose the server and the ability to broadcast. Avoid chaos and uncertainty as much as possible.
Ideas for Practice
Student practice exercises and tasks may not need to change much. Students, depending on the field, need to write, solve problems, and other things as appropriate. For the most part this can probably proceed largely unchanged. Instructors have access to many such student exercises. If the students have a text book they probably have a bank of suitable exercises and questions.
And note that practice and reinforcement is probably the most important element in a delivered education. The "content" that a student needs is, for the most part, available to them. There are exceptions for very advanced work, but the world's knowledge is pretty much available. Instructors help students choose the important things and avoid the garbage, of course, but it is up to the students themselves to learn by reinforcement (combined with feedback). Whatever the topic, competence comes from repetition and reinforcement. The only thing I teach nowadays is Tai Chi. We have a saying that you need to repeat a movement ten thousand times to learn it. Somewhere in those ten thousand tries, insight will start to develop. The same is true in things like mathematics and writing poetry.
So, remember that the things that you make the students do to learn are much more important than the things you say. Good course design focuses on the student tasks, not the lectures.
I caution, however, that copyright considerations may apply if an instructor tries to utilize exercises from copyrighted material. They are, in a sense, publishing things they send to students in an online course. Caution and legal advice is useful.
Ideas for Feedback
Feedback is two way. You need feedback from the students on your presentations and assignments. Students need feedback on their own work. A number or letter grade on a paper isn't feedback. It gives no basis for understanding how to improve.
If the materials presented are well vetted, such as textbooks, the need for feedback to the instructor is a bit lessened. But videos, especially those prepared in the moment are likely to contain errors. Shorter videos are easier to fix than longer ones. But, unlike face to face classes, the instructor isn't likely to be interrupted when there is a misstatement or an omission. Moreover, you need some indication that the students have actually understood what you have been saying and presenting. Again, in fact to face classes you can look at expressions on their faces for some important feedback.
Lets assume for the moment that you have already taught your students the importance of taking notes during presentations. At the end of a lecture you can ask individual students, perhaps volunteers, to tell you an important idea from the talk. You can do this two or three times and give them feedback on their replies. This can be transferred to online learning. If readings or video presentations are short (and, I assume asynchronous) you can ask students to send you a summary of the lesson. Restrict them to one or two sentences. Another possible request is to ask them to send you a possible exam question on that material. At some point, all student replies, perhaps anonymized, can be made available to everyone. By glancing through the replies you learn whether they are getting the main points and they are also getting the reinforcement they need.
Giving feedback to students on their work is critical to learning. This involves answering questions that they have, but also showing them where they are making mistakes, and why, in their own work. The previous section talked about repetition and reinforcement. It is possible for students to learn and reinforce the wrong message. If you get an incorrect idea deeply ingrained in your mind it can be difficult to dislodge. All student work needs to be commented on, not just graded. Publishing solutions to exercises after the fact can help, but it isn't the same thing.
This idea of individual feedback is one of the most difficult things to arrange in the modern educational system, simply because of scale. My university teaching (and student life) mostly involved classes of fewer than 30 students. At that scale, I could easily give good individual feedback on weekly assignments. At 40 students I found I needed help. Massive courses have a problem here that requires tools - probably better tools than are now available. I'll note that Harvard's CS50 course is delivered to about 800 students at a time. But the staff for the course is about 40 individuals, so the ratio is about 20:1. Some of the staff are graders who comment on student work. Others are TAs who hold individual "recitation" sections of 20-30 students so that questions can be answered and misconceptions dispelled. I worry that moving such recitation online might not work as well at scale unless there are communication tools that let people learn from the questions of others. Many students are reluctant to ask questions. The brave students willing to do so actually contribute to the education of their peers. But, answering a question for a single student, say in an office, is much less productive than answering it in public, so that all can share the response. Tools are needed for this, though they can be pretty simple. University managed email lists subscribed to by students and staff are pretty effective.
But if students produce "papers" of any kind, those need to be annotated and returned. More than a numeric or letter grade is needed. Something as simple as pointing a student to a place they need to review is helpful. But the goal is to foster insight. PDF files can be annotated and returned, but the process is awkward at best. And, again, there is the scale problem. It takes time to review and time to annotate. Then, the student will likely have questions that need to be addressed based on the annotations. The increase in awkwardness using current tools may require more staffing to make things work effectively. Even a simple email to a student takes more time than jotting a comment on a paper and then returning it at the next face session.
Ideas for Assessment
In my view, evaluation and assessment are the most difficult issues we face in moving to an internet model. However, they also, again in my view, have the most potential for long term improvements in student learning, provided that we take the opportunity to learn how to do a better job of it.
The first principle of assessment ought to be that any sort of evaluation have an actual educational purpose, not just a "sorting" purpose. I think that many of us aren't doing a stellar job of this, having opted for easy solutions that scale, rather than solutions that aid student learning. Multiple choice tests are overused and while it is possible to design good ones, it is devilishly difficult. Things that rely on machine grading in general are too likely to also rely on only shallow learning and memorization, rather than deep learning and mastery. If the students can be held in a room and closely monitored this sort of thing tells you something about them, but it can likely be better. Move them outside your purview and it becomes nearly impossible. And it even fails at scale.
While you can do some technological things to lock up a student's personal computer they are intrusive but also ineffective. You can enlist a vast army of TAs to monitor student webcams (intrusive, again) but even there, what happens slightly off screen is invisible. Without such intrusive measures students have access to helpers both human and electronic. Closed-book, closed notes exams are probably a mistake in any case, but online they are difficult to impossible to monitor. There are too many inducements for students to break the rules to really assure validity. Honor codes, such as those of Dartmouth College do have a positive effect, but part of that effect is that the codes have been in place for half a century.
I have some personal suggestions about alternatives to examinations and, especially, high stakes examinations such as finals that account for a large fraction of a students grade. I don't claim these are the only solutions, but am more interested in sparking thoughts about how we can do a better - more learning focused - job of evaluation and assessment. I implemented these more and more as my career progressed and I learned more about students and about learning.
The first idea is to reduce the overall effect of any given exam or test. If you have forty small items you can get at least as good a picture of a student's progress as if you have only one or two large ones. Moreover, high stakes testing too often leads to poor student studying habits, such as cramming for exams and cheating.
One technique I used toward the end was "cumulative grading". A course had 1000 points assigned to it and different student activities were "worth" a certain amount of points. A project might be 100 points. The result was evaluated (and commented on) and a certain number of points was awarded, perhaps 80. I also published the minimum number of points necessary for each letter grade, say 800 for a B. When a student accumulates enough points to "earn" the grade they desire they no longer need to do more. There was no risk. Another feature of it was that if the student wasn't satisfied with the points earned they could re-do the work and possibly earn additional points. Some limits were put in place, but they were generous. The philosophy behind it is "You aren't in this course to prove to me that you don't need to be here." But note that I could do this since the ratio of staff to students was good. This is hard to scale without help.
The second main technique I used and can recommend is to make almost all assessment and evaluation based on student writings and projects, not examinations. And, if the nature of the course permits, use group projects primarily. For my courses the group size was usually between two and five. These groups can meet in cyberspace or, if location and other factors permit, they can meet face to face. The projects might be large or small. They can be graded once or often. Points can accumulate. It is the project that is graded, not the individuals, so everyone earns the same grade unless that is impossible. Peer evaluation is used to award bonus points or to solve issues of non-participation, etc.
If there are a number of group projects students can move between groups if needed. But students also need to be taught how to run an effective group project. In the courses I taught, dividing up the work "equally" was always discouraged and if done, usually leads to poor outcomes. Students need to form teams, not just amalgamations of individuals. In CS this skill will be valued later in their careers.
Also, peer evaluation has to be properly managed. Students don't "grade" one another. They comment on the contributions of a few or all of their team mates. "Who was the most helpful team member? (or three top members) Why? What did they contribute? What was your own chief contribution?"
At a certain scale or with sufficient help you can easily determine who falls into which important grading groups. Who is excellent in all respects? Who shows promise? Who is getting by? Who is deficient? Who has failed? Elaborate point systems in which an 85 is somehow significantly different from an 87 have little real meaning in my opinion.
To emphasize a point above. In many fields, even very technical ones, writing is an important skill. Writing essays on a given topic is good professional preparation for a budding mathematician. Exams can be replaced with such essays, lessening the needs for security and such. They seem to me to be much more value long term than skill at exams. But you can probably expect that students will hate it initially.
The above, of course, are just ideas. But I found them to be more aligned with the teaching mission than the more traditional lecture and test.
Ideas for Communication
To handle all of the above with online courses the main need is for effective communication between faculty and students and, I found, between students themselves. One goal is that what any student sees can be seen by any other student.
Communication tools need not be complex or comprehensive. But they should permit asynchronous communication and should permit many-way communication. Threaded email lists are very useful and don't require extensive facilities. They can be private lists, managed by the university alleviating some privacy issues, open to only class members and staff. Documents can be distributed. Questions can be asked. Questions can be answered at any time of the day or night - even by other students. Someone needs to monitor these to make sure that misinformation is quickly corrected and that any rules about posting or not posting certain content are maintained.
If project groups are long lived, then each group can have its own mailing list and can also use other tools they find for communication.
Another useful tool is a group chatroom. Group chats can be held periodically, though the email lists were more useful for discussing course material. These are necessarily synchronous and so not every student might be able to "attend". But it is easy to capture the complete conversation as a text file and send it to everyone or post it on a course web site.

My own expertise in this comes from helping to design and deliver a graduate program in which students met face to face only once a month for half a day per course. All work was done in groups (of about 5). Face time was only used for things that could not be done on line. We used simple tools for communication. All student-professor communication (other than personal things) was open to all students. Students could ask questions at any time and other students were encouraged to answer from their own expertise. The course was always live, every hour, every day. Questions got answered quickly, if not always perfectly. Students didn't get stuck. The goal was to build a learning community. That community has persisted past graduation.

Minor updates only anticipated.

An interesting alternative view can be found here:  https://anygoodthing.com/2020/03/12/please-do-a-bad-job-of-putting-your-courses-online/. Thanks to user curious for pointing this out.


text:
References must be cited vs. need not be cited
In reviewing publishing guidelines prior to submission to a journal, it is listed that "References need not be cited in text." This is also listed in the style guide for the associated professional society.
While simultaneously, the Elsevier guide for authors states "Please ensure that every reference cited in the text is also present in the reference list (and vice versa)." Likewise, a previous question asked on this board received almost unilateral support for  the one citation, one reference style.
My question is what purposes would there be for allowing uncited references?
Or alternatively, could someone clarify what is meant by "References need not be cited in text."
Edit to clarify: My interpretation of "References need not be cited in text" is that it is allowable to include a reference in the reference section of a manuscript without citing this reference in the text of the same manuscript.

See Is it acceptable to include a paper in the reference list but not cite it in text?

While the language is a bit ambiguous, you have misinterpreted their intent. It is about how to cite, not whether you need to cite. Always cite. Whether you do it inline in the text or otherwise is the distinction intended.

@ff524 your comment is helpful, and those are exactly the sort of examples I was looking for. Thank you

This sentence is present on page 5 in the IEEE guide at:
https://www.ieee.org/content/dam/ieee-org/ieee/web/org/conferences/style_references_manual.pdf
The guide gives an explanation to it as follows:
References in Text: References need not be cited in the text. When they are, they appear on the line, in square brackets, inside the punctuation. Grammatically, they may be treated as if they were footnote numbers, e.g., as shown by Brown [4], [5]; as mentioned earlier [2], [4]–[7 ], [9]; Smith [4] and Brown and Jones [5]; Wood et al.[7]
This clearly means that numbers rather than the author name (s) are preferred to be used in the text. When author names are used, the guide gives some examples on how to cite them.

Hmm, I don't think this interpretation is correct. I could see it making sense as a trick reading of "References need not be cited in text [form]", but the excerpt you provide clearly says "in the text". Like the OP, I'd certainly read that as the style allowing a paper [4] to be included in the list of references without ever being cited "in the text".

You are correct that my question is about the IEEE style guide as linked in my question. Would you be able to clarify your point?


text:
What can I do long term if my degree grade is not good enough for chosen PhD?
I am interested in some PhD courses which require a 1st class undergraduate degree, which I do not have.
I am in my 30s, and originally took a combined 4 year Master's degree, in a related field to the PhDs. The reason I feel I could be capable of undertaking such a PhD is that during my final (Master's) year I got a good 1st class grade. I did poorly in my second year and very badly in my third year for various reasons which are my own responsibility. I learned from this which is why my 4th year was better, but my grades were too bad to recover completely. I achieved a 2:1 overall. The taught subjects in the final year were generally more advanced versions of the ones in the third year. I got a 1st class grade in my first year.
Is there any possible way to enter these PhDs? Or are they now closed to me permanently? I don't mind a long-term path such as another Master's degree. I would probably not re-take my undergraduate degree at this stage. My career has been reasonably successful. I believe I will be able to publish high-quality peer-reviewed research in a different field (related to my career) if that would help.

Given the terminology that you are using, it sounds like you are in the UK. Is that accurate?

Yes that is correct.

Here we need to distinguish between getting admission and getting funding. If a scholarship is advertised requiring a first, then awarding it to someone with a 2.1 would be unfair and possibly illegal. I wouldn't count on this at all.
When it comes to admissions there isn't a clear competition between applicants. As such, making exceptions is much more feasible. I would expect that if a prospective PhD advisor makes a strong case to a PGR admissions tutor that an applicant is highly suitable despite not meeting a grade threshold, this will have a decent chance of getting that person in at most British universities.
Your argument, however, does not seem particular strong to me. I would assume that a department asking for a 1st for PhD admission will believe they get enough applicants who actually have a first. So "If I hadn't done something stupid in Year 3, I could have earned 1st, too." isn't going to get you far. If there is a way how your career since then has increased your qualifications for a PhD, that might be a better point to focus on.
If you do need to gain more qualifications, going for a 1-year research master course (Eg MRes, MSc by Research) would be the natural choice. A good result there is probably be the best possible argument that you are indeed suitable for a PhD.
(I'm a PGR Admissions Tutor at a UK university.)

Thank you very much.


text:
Is it normal that a managing editor handles a paper instead of an associate editor?
I submitted a manuscript to an Elsevier journal. The status changed in 2 days from Editor Invited to under review and I got an email saying that "your paper will be handled by X (editor's name)". When I checked the Editorial Board, I saw that the handling editor of my manuscript is indeed a managing Editor of that journal.
My question-Is it normal that a managing editor handles a paper instead of an associate editor?
The possible reason I can imagine that all the associate editors are away from the content of my manuscript and that the managing editor is somehow closed to that content.
But, why then the status editor invited displayed initially if the managing editor would handle my manuscript. Of course, there is another possibility that my manuscript fell into the hands of another managing editor who then invited the managing editor who is handling my paper.
Note: I initially given a name of an associate editor during the submission, though that AE's expertise area was away from my manuscript content.
Any comments about the possible reason that my manuscript is being handled by a managing editor rather than an associate editor.

There's no rule against anyone on the editorial board handling papers.

@DavidKetcheson, ok. Thanks

These emails are often automatically generated by the journal's manuscript-handling system. Sometimes they do not quite reflect what is actually happening 'behind the scenes'. The only way to be sure who is making decisions on your manuscript is to wait and see who signs the decision letter.

In particular, a journal might wish authors to send correspondence (most of which is routine requests for updates) to the managing editor rather than the associate editor.

@avid, ok thanks. But my question- Is it normal that managing editor handles a paper ?

What is "normal"? It probably isn't common. It probably occurs with some regularity if the managing editor has some special interest in the topic of the paper. They might be more than just an admin.
I wouldn't read anything in to it now, but you might get more information as the process goes on.
Possible? Yes. Normal? It depends on the qualifications of the various people. Common? probably not. People are busy enough with their defined functions.

ok. Thank you very much

Quite indeed. I'm the Editor-in-Chief of a journal and there are papers I'm interested in. Sometimes I assign myself as the handling editor, and sometimes I assign them to others to handle and ask them to pick me as a reviewer. All combinations happen, and I think that's totally normal.


text:
I submitted a conference paper that was too long...what now?
I'm a MA student, and I think I've made a big mistake submitting to my first conference...
I submitted an abstract to a regional academic conference over the summer, and it was accepted. I had to submit the full version of the paper for the student competition a few weeks ago. I was having trouble cutting my material down to meet the limit-- all the conference said was that papers should be "no longer than 20 minutes." The due date crept up on me, and I did my best to cut it down as much as possible, not having enough time to read through my drafts out loud to see how "long" they were.
The conference is two weeks away, and I have started practicing out loud...and it's taking me around 27 minutes to read my paper. What do I do? Is it a big faux-pas to shorten my submitted paper for the presentation so it doesn't go over the time limit? I've had trouble getting in touch with the conference organizers about other things, so I'm doubtful that I'll be able to talk to them about this.

Are you actually supposed to read your paper out loud?

I'm assuming so, since the length of the paper is supposed to be 20 minutes? They had 0 guidelines anywhere, so I emailed the conference organizers to ask about this, asking if I should prepare a powerpoint-style presentation that goes over the main points. They misunderstood me and just said they're not sure if there will be powerpoint capabilities, so don't be reliant on a powerpoint. I emailed back for further clarification and they never answered...

That all sounds like a terribly organized conference. Is it common in your field that people simply read their paper to the audience? In mine that would be considered about as poor of a talk as imaginable.

I think this is a more common format for literature/cultural studies fields? Still learning my way around the field though!

@Tobias from what I've heard, it is indeed standard in the humanities.

@ff524 Interesting. I must say I wonder what the point is (I mean, I assume the audience can read), but the comments is probably not the place for that.

Keeping in time is mandatory
In general, you can expect to be cut off if you are over the time limit, so you definitely should shorten your presentation - it's very likely that important parts of your talk are at the end so it's very important not to lose the ending!
In most fields, presentations are very, very different from the actual content of the paper - if someone wants to read the paper, they can do so at any time; but the presentation should cover why they'd want to read your paper afterwards and also explain things that might be easier to show or demonstrate rather than read about.
Even if in your field tradition is to read the paper as-is, that is optional but keeping the schedule is mandatory. I would suggest to reduce some parts that describe the background/foundation/earlier results which would be known by the conference attendees but might be less known for a general reader of your paper. You should mention earlier work, but you don't need to go into detail about that even if you do so in your paper.
Keep the focus of your talk on the novel parts of your paper, and also make sure cover in detail the motivation of this research and it's wider context in your field.

Super helpful, thank you @Peteris! Freaking out a little less now :)

I'm going to go out on a limb (well, an educated limb) and state what is probably obvious to all who have been to conferences of any kind before: The term "to read a paper" is not meant to say that you should "read out aloud every word and sentence of something that you have submitted before". Rather, it is meant to say "present the material that you cover in the paper you submitted". (This is in the same sense as a "Reader" in the British university system is not actually "reading" anything out aloud to the students, but is in fact just a regular professor who is lecturing -- even though they use the word "professor" for something different.)
In other words, prepare to give a lecture or presentation of some sort about the material you covered in the paper. How these presentations look like is quite different for different communities, but you definitely have the freedom to:

Use words other than those you chose in the paper (and in fact, you should: written language and oral language are quite different; for example, when we speak, we almost always use far shorter sentences, and speaking as we write makes it unnecessarily difficult for listeners to follow).
Select among the material in your paper and determine what you think is the most relevant if you have a 20 minute time limit.

Most conferences today have projectors that you can use to display slides. If they do not support Powerpoint, you will almost always be on the safe side if you show up with PDF file of your presentation. Whether they have projectors, and whether they have computers you can use, or whether you have to bring your own laptop, will depend on the conference. You should ask the organizers again about this aspect.

The session chair will (or at least should) try to keep the talks at a conference within the allotted time.
When you appear to use more time, the chair might start to notify you that you need to wrap up. When you fail to do this, and it becomes clear that you are taking more than a few minutes extra, the chair might even cut you off.
Finally, I would like to point out that extra time taken by you might lead to less time for the speakers after you, or less time for scientific discussion. You have a responsibility to your peers to be prudent in claiming their time.

Thanks for answering! So given how important it is to stay under the time limit, is it acceptable to modify my presentation even though my submitted paper is too long?

Yes, as long as your main message, findings, and supporting evidence are done justice.


text:
How are research assistantships for international graduate students funded in the US?
I was recently talking to a professor at a top university seeking advice for graduate school applications. The professor happened to mention that departments in the US have funding concerns when it comes to international students because they aren't eligible for government funding from agencies such as NIH or NSF. Moreover, admissions decisions are made based on whether there is funding available to support the student for atleast 5 years. I had a couple of questions on how exactly this works.

Can international students be paid through NIH/NSF grants (as research assistants) that are awarded to the PI or does a lab use funding from industrial sponsors or other endowments to fund them?
I was under the impression that theses government grants are usually good for a shorter duration (2-3 years). How can the department be certain of further funds at the time of admitting a candidate?

PS: The title of the question might be similar to some other questions but I am interested in understanding the broader mechanism of how this works instead of specific agencies that fund international students.

See What are the most common ways international students secure funding for graduate school in the U.S.?

I should have specified in the question. I was curious about the source of funding fro research assistantships for international students

Can international students be paid through NIH/NSF grants that are awarded to the PI

Yes. International students are generally not eligible for personal federal fellowships, such as the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program, but they can still be paid through regular research grants awarded to the PI.

I was under the impression that theses government grants are usually good for a shorter duration (2-3 years). How can the department be certain of further funds at the time of admitting a candidate?

They can't. This is a major source of pressure for PIs in some fields; they have to secure funding for already enrolled students, as well as future students. If the PI is not able to secure funding through research grants, there may be institutional fellowships, industry funding, teaching assistantships, or other sources of funding that can be used in a pinch.
But, this is not really any different for international students vs any other students.

Projecting graduate student funding is always tricky, because most grants are not well-aligned with the coming and going of students.  A faculty member with a healthy research program, however, can often make reasonable projections about how many students they will be able to sustain funding for, and there are alternative mechanisms like TAships that can help fill in the gaps.
As for how this applies to international students: one can generally think of graduate student funding as falling into five general buckets:

Fellowship funding, which is given directly to the graduate student and is typically restricted to US citizens (and maybe permanent residents too; I'm not sure about that)
Project funding from "pure science" agencies like NSF, which can generally be spent on any student that the faculty member desires.  Most university funding is of this type.
Project funding on projects considered sensitive in some way (e.g., certain Department of Defense or Department of Energy projects) and which comes with a restriction to US citizens and/or permanent residents.
Internal funding, like TAships, which can usually be applied to any graduate student that the faculty decides to support with them.
Private funding, from corporations or foundations, which comes with whatever restrictions the funder might feel are consistent with its mission.

I think TAships do not follow under research assistantships, just because you are not paid to do research, and there is a clear difference in time investment and duties between the two.

@user4050 With TAships, I am addressing this part of the question: "How can the department be certain of further funds at the time of admitting a candidate?"


text:
Will mentioning that I'm considering a PhD to start a company hurt my chances?
I would like to do a PhD in pharmaceutical sciences. I love doing research but I'm not sure that I want to become a professor and stay in academia. I would, however, like to commercialize the research I would do and start a company. I think that a PhD would provide crucial research experience, networking opportunities with smart and talented people and a platform to develop a good product. Although many universities encourage entrepreneurship these days, I'm unsure whether they expect this from graduate students as well. I was wondering whether writing this in my Statement of Purpose would hurt my chances to get into a good PhD program.

Depends on the job market I'd say. In physics at the moment it's very difficult to get a job and stay in academia after a PhD; there just aren't enough jobs. I think admissions committees would look favourably on applicants who have a plan B (or in your case, a plan A) if post-doctoral research falls through.

Doing a PhD to start a company is like pulling out all of your hair with tweezers to become a peaceful Buddhist monk. Save yourself the pain and focus on the monk-stuff.

Academia is s sort of pyramid scheme. The number of people interested in positions at the next level up greatly exceeds the number of vacancies. This is not a secret so an applicant who wants to go into industry should not be disadvantaged.
That said, whether you will be allowed to commercialize the results of your PhD research will depend on the University and group / department policies as well as the source of your funding and any conditions attached to that.

One thing you should really consider first, is what are your rights to take the research and start a company: in most universities, whatever discovery is made there legally belongs to them. You might be named on a patent but you may not be the legal owner of any of it, or you may need to license the intellectual property from the university.
Now, in some places, they actually encourage this kind of ventures, but it's framed within the university bound; that means they may even help you start a company, but they'll want royalties or something in return.
In the end, I'd recommend you look at where your career goals will be best received, in your field of choice, rather than apply all over and interview to discover they don't encourage this type of outcome. That'd probably save you some precious time.

You simply need to show that you are likely to succeed in getting a PhD in the relevant field.
Universities churn out more graduates than the academic job market can absorb.  They understand that many of their graduates are going to work outside academia after graduation.
Many universities actively seek people who have a knack for working on marketable products.  I would therefore think that mentioning your entrepreneurial dream would be a plus -- as long as you show the requisite strengths in your field.

As a PhD applicant myself, I don't think this will hurt you, although, as @WetlabWalter says, a PhD may not be the best route for you to take (this is a separate question in itself).
My reasoning for this answer is that in my field (physics) there are simply too many recent or soon-to-be PhDs for the number of post-doctoral research jobs. This has been a well-known problem for the past few years, as a quick Google search of the phrase "how many physics phds stay in academia" shows.
However, I would be careful with the wording of your intentions. Make sure you emphasise the skills your PhD is going to give you (as you have in your question), so that the admissions committee can tell you are not just in it for the perceived prestige, or the hope that it would lend weight to your business ideas.
Finally, I am hoping to stay in academia once I have finished my PhD, and am saying so in my personal statements. However, I fully expect to be asked about this at interview, and am prepared to discuss my alternative career plans (industry, civil service etc). If you explain yourself well at this stage too, and stay open to other possibilities, I don't think it will harm your application.
I think academics are well-aware of the post-doc drought and it's unrealistic for them to expect that everyone wants a career in academia.