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What's the best way to present regression results in a conference?
In many disciplines, regression results are a key finding that we use to present in conferences or seminars. I've seen many presentation slides full of numbers where in the end no auditor can identify a singe number.
What's the best way to present regression results (and other numeric tables) e.g. in seminars or conferences?
For example, what about mrkers for statistical significance instead of standard errors (or t statistics or p-values) and colors? Or should I prefer additional visualizations of coefficients?

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it's about presenting statistical results - regressions are also used and presented in business, law etc. Would be on topic at CrossValidated, where there are 69 questions on "presenting regression results" - consider looking through those, and possibly flagging this question for migration.

Have you seen the numbers for the tags? On CV, there are few, if any, questions on my tags. However, here the tags are widely used and my question precisely belongs to them.

I'd avoid presenting tables but would focus on (margin)plots that tell a story (which, of course, is based on your hypothesis/es). Here are a few links/references that might get you started:

Using Graphs Instead of Tables in Political Science
Interpreting and Visualizing Regression Models Using Stata
Graphische Darstellung regressionsanalytischer Ergebnisse (if you speak German) or Graphical Display of Regression Results


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Confused about ISSN number in Researchgate
We've recently published a paper in Physical Review D and then I just wanted to add this to my Researchgate profile. And when I was filling the journal's name, I got three options:

I'm a little bit confused since the ISSN of PRD is 2470-0010 according to PRD itself.
Can anyone tell what's going on here?

What's happened is that the name of Physical Review D has been slightly tweaked over the years, and a new journal title means a new ISSN. Often university library records are helpful to figure out these changes. As per https://library.usask.ca/ejournals/publisher.php?publisher=American+Physical+Society+Journals the journal was called

"Physical Review D: Particles and Fields" from vol. 1 (1970) to vol. 68 (2003), with ISSN 0556-2821 and E-ISSN 1089-4918
"Physical Review D: Particles, Fields, Gravitation, and Cosmology" from vol. 69 (2004) to vol. 92 (2015), with ISSN 1550-7998 and E-ISSN 1550-2368
"Physical Review D" from vol. 93 (2016) to present, with ISSN 2470-0010 and E-ISSN 2470-0029.

(These ISSNs can also be found at the ISSN Portal but without the information on when a given name change happened.)
The most recent numbers match what you see on PRD's website. These are correct, but there's no guarantee that numbers showing up on websites like ReseatchGate are.
Anyway, I suggest that you sit back and wait for maybe a week before trying to add the article manually. Usually ResearchGate indexes new papers in APS journals automatically, and will suggest adding new articles it finds. That way you don't need to worry about figuring out which of these incorrect ISSN numbers ResearchGate believes PRD papers should be assigned.

Thanks for your comprehensive answer. Just a quick note: I've already added the article manually, should I delete it?

I'd probably leave it there. If it becomes an issue later, where RG thinks you have two different papers maybe you could think about deleting the manually added version. (Or maybe there's some merging functionality.) Anyway, I think very few readers will care about the ISSN details. We know PRD is PRD.

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How do I find small, teaching-focused universities in the European Union?
I'm a European doctoral candidate about to defend her PhD dissertation. I'd love to eventually get a job at a small teaching university with a relatively larger focus on education rather than research; I'm thinking of something like SLACs (small liberal arts colleges) in the US.
I am given to understand that early-career European academics are unlikely to be hired at a US SLAC. If this is indeed the case, where do I look for a list of such institutions within the European Union? Does such a list or database even exist? If not, how do I compile one?
(I am aware that some European countries are reluctant to hire you unless you speak the local language - let us please disregard this for now.)

Note that this site isn't the place to get specific recommendations, but since you ask "how to find them" I'll guess it will be kept open.

Please clarify your specific problem or provide additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it's hard to tell exactly what you're asking.

I am not entirely sure what I am supposed to clarify. I am looking for a resource (such as a list or database) on teaching universities in the EU. In the absence of such a resource, I am looking for a heuristic to find small European universities with a teaching focus, comparable to SLACs in the US.

As far as I can tell, there is no equivalent to SLACs in Europe.  Small teaching universities in Europe behave like regional comprehensives (or vocational education oriented community colleges), not SLACs.  In some ways, the closest equivalent is the super-elite ENS, but ENS hires like Dartmouth, not like Albion.  (For that matter, Williams more hires like Dartmouth than like Albion.)

It appears I may in fact have trouble expressing myself.
The extent to which "small teaching universities in Europe" are comparable to SLACs is beside the point; I mentioned SLACs in order to illustrate my question with the closest example I could think of. Unless I am mistaken, you also assume that I am looking for a uni that is easy to get into. This is not the case (and not the primary reason US SLACs are less likely to employ EU graduates).
Again, I would appreciate any help on filtering out small teaching universities in Europe, whatever specific institutional form they may take.

"I would appreciate any help on filtering out small teaching universities in Europe, whatever specific institutional form they may take' A problem here is probably that the aim to "filter out" a list of such institutations conflicts with the goal not to specify their insitutional form (since, if you don't prescribe the institutional form, it will be highly subjective what constitutes a "small teaching university"). (But on the other hand, it will might also be difficult to speficy any institutional form, since the education systems differ considerably within the European Union.)

So I think you might be more likely to get useful answers if you elaborate further on the notion "small teaching universities": which are the criteria you are interested in, besides the focus on teaching? E.g., which field(s) are you interested in? Are you interested in institutions that focus on vocational training or rather on institutions which focus on theoretical topics? Would you like to teach subjects which go considerably beyond a typical high school curriculum, or would you also be interested in teaching a curriculum close to (or equal to the higher grades of) highschool level?

I'm a professor at a small liberal arts college (SLAC) in the USA. We have about 250 faculty, and I can think of around 20 from Europe (however, many of those got their PhDs in the USA). So it's certainly possible to get a job at a SLAC in the USA. The key thing is to demonstrate that you actually want to be at such a place, that your teaching is excellent, and that you want to live in the town where the SLAC is located. We put a lot of effort into mentoring new faculty and hate to hire someone who chooses to leave after a few years.
I am also aware of a few SLAC-like institutions in Europe, where we send our students to study abroad. The most relevant to the OP is probably Constructor University in Bremen, Germany. It has under 2000 students, is fully residential, and emphasizes high quality teaching. It used to be known as Jacobs University, and I visited there in 2017. It's a private university, but recognized and accredited by the government. They really run on a liberal arts model, even if their webpage now seems to be emphasizing research. I believe the vast majority of students are undergraduates, with only a handful of PhD students.
Another option would be to teach at a study abroad program like DIS in Copenhagen (or, they also now have one in Sweden) or AIT in Budapest (computer science) or BSM in Budapest (math). These programs often get a lot of students from US-based SLACs so they run on a teaching-focused, highly relational model.

Thank you for your detailed, informative answer. Do you have any info on whether DIS employs full-time staff / tenured faculty in addition to adjuncts / lecturers?

This is an answer for Germany, which is probably not applicable to other European countries.
I cannot answer where to find such universities, since no equivalent to SLACs exist in Germany. However, I can say where to find teaching focused jobs in Germany:

Many of the rather teaching focused universities are called universities of applied sciences or Fachhochschulen. There are quite a lot of them with many open positions. (Note that there are quite specific conditions you need to have to be eligible to be hired, see e.g. this question. And note that the pure focus on teaching is in the process of been given up and much more research is being done.)
As I guess is the case in many European countries, Germany also has many private universities. These are quite often rather teaching focused.
There are some pure teaching position in all kinds of public universities. Look for positions called Akademischer Rat or Lehrkraft für besondere Aufgaben. Requirements vary widely, and research might be a requirement. And often people are being hired that are well-known to the university.

Academic job posting in Germany (at least for 1 and 2) can usually be found on zeit.de.

I would not quite say "no equivalent to SLACs exist in Germany." The answer I just posted mentions one such equivalent, in Germany.

In France there is the professeur agrégé - and they may teach at any of the high school, classe préparatoire (equivalent to first two years of university), or university level. However this is an extremely competitive position.

There are many American universities abroad, quite a few of them in Europe. They are accredited by accreditation bodies in the US, follow an American-style curriculum, and teach in English. Usually they are teaching centric.

I'm not in the EU so this is a bit speculative. But this is how I'd go about it. I think many (most?) countries have a national education office (ministry). They may publish a list of accredited colleges and universities. A web search will probably turn up many of these, though you might need to know the local language to understand them. There may be some indication in such lists about the mission of those places. You can then go from there to the websites of places that seem interesting.
Another possibility is that such colleges (in the US, at least) are potentially members of various associations of similar places. If you can find one, you can, perhaps, go from there to the association to find a list of members.

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Government Job Hiring Process
I was recently contacted out of the blue by one of the national labs about a social science research position. I met with three members of the team shortly thereafter and they pitched the position to me, strongly encouraged me to apply, etc. One person even said, when I asked about the hiring process, that "you can read between the lines - we think very highly of you and hope you apply." Over the weekend I submitted my application and notified the team that I applied. I haven't heard anything in response since. I'm not sure what to expect as someone who has largely only been involved in academic hiring processes the past decade or so. Is the hiring process slow? Did I err in contacting them outside the process? Would I expect to hear from someone from HR first? Or is it possible they lost interest when they read my application materials? I would think the latter would be less likely since they appeared very familiar with my work, and even quoted my book, during our meeting.
Anyway, any information would be appreciated re: how the hiring process might work in at a government/government contractor organization. Thanks!

I presume a US national lab? Clarity may help. At mine, HR has to review applicants before I can see them. They also may not allow much to move forward before the posting closes.

I'm not sure what to expect as someone who has largely only been involved in academic hiring processes the past decade or so. -- Given this, I would expect that you would consider hearing back within less than 2 months to be fast! :) Indeed, other than minimum wage jobs, even the non-academic jobs I've applied for pretty much all (might be exceptions, but I can't think of any now) involved at least a few weeks before I heard anything nontrivial (i.e. besides an acknowledgment that my application had been received), and probably in most cases I never heard back at all.

Yes, a US national lab. Thanks! I noticed they reposted the job on LinkedIn the day we met. They said they'd done some initial screenings already.

US Federal hiring can take a long—and I mean long—time. I worked in Defense-Department research & development organizations for four decades and I have many sad tales of excellent candidates whom we were really interested in getting on board but who ended up going elsewhere because they literally couldn’t afford (financially) to wait out our sometimes glacial process. Admittedly, nearly all of our positions required background investigations for interim security clearances (the full-blown investigation required for final clearance isn’t even begun until the individual has started on the job), so that added to the timeline. Many Federal jobs in other agencies don’t involve handling classified information, so that wouldn’t apply.
I hasten to add that there are many advantages to Federal employment, so if you can endure a few months of waiting, you might well end up quite happy.
As to reaching directly to the technical people who first contacted you, they may have very little influence on the bureaucratic process. A lot has to be done by the HR people, and they can be organizationally very far removed from the people you’d end up working with.

I think you need to make a distinction between Federal hiring and national labs. National lab employees aren't Federal employees, they're employees of a contractor, typically a university (e.g. University of California for Lawrence Berkeley) or a consortium with a university thrown in (e.g. University of California, Bechtel, et al. for Lawrence Livermore). Hiring is somewhat easier, so is firing, payscale isn't GS-based and benefits and retirement aren't Federal.

Great point, @user71659.


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Is Manuscripts.io a legit tool? Any experience with it?
A colleague just tipped me about manuscripts.io which advertises itself as a collaborative writing tool, with some really sweet features like importing docx and LaTeX; searching and adding citations directly from within the platform.. It is also free!
That being the case my metaphorical spider-sense tingle a bit, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. I am wondering if anyone knows more about this platform. Are they secure, is the text submitted used for some other purpose (text-mining or so) in the background? In the cut-throat competitive nature of academia, it does not surprise me if it was a scheme of sorts (yes, I do realize how paranoid that sounds).
In any case, just wanted to know if anyone has looked into it and if so, what came out of it.

I have no evidence either way, but to me a reasonable assumption would be that they are just going the usual startup-way, where they start with a free product for maximum growth and then figure out monetization later. But most likely this will not be by academical espionage but by simply eventually limiting features (e.g. amount of collaborators) and offering a paid variant where those limits are lifted. At least that is how overleaf/sharelatex did it and to me they definitely look somewhat comparable.

@mlk that's basically it – Manuscripts.io is a product made by atypon.com, which is the market leader for providing content management tools for scholarly publishers (close to 50% of English speaking literature out there is on Atypon's Literatum platform). We are building other commercial products out of the same open source codebase (code at https://gitlab.com/mpapp-public) that manuscripts.io is based on also (using some of the same components used in Manuscripts for publisher facing products).

A good rule of thumb is that when you get something for free on the internet, you're the product, not the user.  There is often something being done with some or all of your user information or content you provide to generate some cash flow somewhere.  Or, you may be an advertising target.
An exception might be some academically developed mechanism supported by some society.
Poking around the website you point to, though, I see no Terms of Service immediately available, and this is a red flag.
There isn't necessarily anything inherently wrong with an arrangement like this.  You might find the service provided worth any use of your content/data or putting up with ads.  SE network, in fact, does this openly, and we're still here.

The terms are available and linked to from the site (https://www.atypon.com/privacy-policy/). Secondly, manuscripts.io is actually open source (https://gitlab.com/mpapp-public is where you'll find the source) so you can verify even yourself really how user data is dealt with. You can also find us on Slack (https://manuscripts-friends-slack.herokuapp.com/) for any further questions you may have.


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Difference between slides and poster presentation
I am wondering that how explaining your work with a talk with slides differs from a poster presentation. Since I do not have any idea, I always explain my poster to the viewer just same way as I would have give a talk: starting from intro, methods, etc. Doing this it takes more time and I lack the time to explain it to more viewers.
So I want to know that whether the work shown on a poster and on slides should be same? And are there any good ideas to present your poster to more viewers?

Could be quite different from a set of slides. See e.g. an XKCD-inspired http://figshare.com/articles/2015_Poster_on_OTU_robustness_reproducibility_amp_ecological_consistency/1437744

In the biology-related fields I'm familiar with, poster presentations are generally to one or a few people who are expected to interact with you, while slide shows are for larger numbers who are expected to be relatively passive.  That means the biggest difference between a poster and slide presentation is that the former should be customized to the person you're talking to.  Some people may be new to the field, and for them you may just explain what the question you're asking is, and the overall big-picture answer you found.  The next person may be the person who defined the field, and for her you may simply point out that you used this particular variation of her technique rather than the original one she published in 1972.
The point being that it's typically a conversation, not a one-way speech.  You have to feel out what the person does and doesn't understand, and try to focus on those, while not wasting time on the parts they know.
You might open with "Would you like me to explain, or did you want to read the poster yourself?". Often that leads to something (a detailed technical question, or a general question about the topic) that will tell you what kind of level to begin with.  The key is to treat it like a dialog and to make sure you're responsive to the audience, even if it's body language rather than specific questions.

Without being too wordy, a poster should be able to stand alone without you in front of it. At many conferences, your poster may be available to attendees at times where you are not able to be there to explain it. Therefore, it should be different enough from a set of presentation slides describing your work that anyone could walk up to it and get the point.

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


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Is there an open-source license that enforces citations?
I build simulations and make them open-source. Depending on the context I either license them with Apache or GPL. I publish the simulation results in paper and link to the code.
However sometimes some parts of the code are useful for others regardless of the overall original simulation.
Is there a way in the license to ask/recommend/enforce that people who use some of that code remember to cite the paper associated with it?
Is a friendly reminder in the readme the best I can do?

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.

Before thinking of the citation of the software, think of the related situation for scientific articles. Have you have read an article with a comment "If you use the results of our research, it is mandatory to cite this paper"? Probably not, it is because it is the practice of working scientists to cite relevant material (Comment here: I do not claim that the citation process is always well used, fair, or whatever in this direction. In general, this is the way scientists are supposed to work).
Because of the relatively recent status of software as an academic artifact (in comparison to books and articles), the situation is not as good as it could be.
Several initiatives have been made to think of this issue, to propose solutions that are considered fair, and to encourage a citation practice that is as good for software or data as it is for articles.

Smith et al "Software citation principles" PeerJ Computer Science 2:e86 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj-cs.86 collects the recommendation of the FORCE 11 working group on software citation. For developers and users.
"Encouraging citation of software – introducing CITATION files" is a blog post by Robin Wilson as part of the Software Sustainability Institute. It recommends to include a "CITATION" file with the relevant data to cite the software.
The Journal of Open Source Software is a journal whose purpose is to publish concise articles about a software. The papers have a DOI and can be cited, which enables you to include your software in the "traditional" publishing and citation practice of scientists.

There are probably other initiatives that I don't think of right now. There seems to be consensus anyway to stick to a well known license recognized by the Open Source Initiative (OSI): https://opensource.org/licenses
To conclude, the context of your software also matters. If one of your aims is that your software is re-used by others, either standalone or in combination with other tools, this influences the choice of the license. Looking furhter, if you want your software to be distributed in larger packages or in Linux distributions, a well established license is critical.

Wow, I had never heard about JOSS, that's a pretty cool concept, including the open peer review process.

A license requiring some form of citation is certainly possible, but there would be practical problems which, I believe, far outweigh the benefits.
To get an idea of what such problems might be, consider the original BSD license with an "advertising clause", requiring "all advertising materials mentioning features or use of [the] software" to display an acknowledgement of the original authorship.  This seems innocent enough, but led to an unreasonable accumulation of acknowledgements as more and more authors added their own name or organization to the must-be-acknowledged list; and it causes the license to be incompatible with other licenses such as GNU's General Public License, which prohibits many kinds of restrictions on redistribution; because of practical problems of this kind, the clause was dropped from later versions of BSD.
So, if you are the sole author of the software, you can write your own license which sets whatever conditions you wish for redistribution (subject to the limitations of what copyright cannot forbid, e.g., "fair use").  But:

this will probably make it impossible to combine (or even link, in the case of libraries) parts of your software with certain major open source licenses such as GNU's GPL;
it might not pass as "open source" or "free software" according to certain definitions of the term (e.g., Debian's Free Software Guidelines, which are interpreted in a very conservative way and don't consider the GNU Free Documentation License to be "free" — this is a long-lasting controversy), and this can cause additional practical problems;
when writing such a clause, you should carefully consider what happens if someone wants to reuse parts of your code in their own software (possibly having completely different goals and being used in a context that you didn't even imagine);
and a legal license is only ever useful if you are seriously considering taking violators to court (or at least threatening to do so in certain cases).

For reasons such as these, I submit that a non-legally-binding request is more appropriate.  Keep in mind that something non legally binding can still be morally (i.e., ethically) binding, just like citing previous works is morally required in academia even if it is not legally required.  So you can phrase your request for citation in a way that makes it clear that, while it is not a legal obligation, it is still much more than a friendly reminder.

Unless you use some third-party code that is copyleft-licensed and forces you to use the same license, as the author/copyright holder, you are entirely free to choose your own licensing terms. (There are some legal limits, but they are very broad. You can't ask for someone's firstborn.) You could make your own license that has as a condition of use of your code that any paper that builds on it needs to cite you.
However, in practical terms this is unlikely to have more effect than a friendly reminder in the README. It would enable you to take the authors of the paper to court, but this would be far worse for your reputation (and your wallet) than a missing citation is ever likely to be. Custom-made licenses can also come with their own pitfalls (it takes a lawyer to draft a good one).

Not in the United States. Someone could simply download a copy of your software and not agree to the license. They aren't subject to any restrictions in the license. They could still use your code as, at least in the US, you don't need any license to use a work you lawfully acquired. This is why the GPL, the BSD, and the Apache license make no attempt to put restrictions on use. They can't. If his tried to, it would be ineffective. All a copyright license can do is give you new rights you didn't already have subject to conditions. It can't impose conditions on rights you already had.

Every software license I know starts with "by using this software, you agree to the following conditions". Is that an invalid clause that just tries to make you believe you are somehow bound?

@nengel: Indeed. In all jurisdictions I'm aware of, this clause is void. An agreement prior to purchase can be binding. But as David Scwartz points out, Open Source Software generally isn't purchased so such terms wouldn't work there.

I would argue that a legal license is not the place to talk about citations, in the same way that copyright considerations are not the right tools to handle plagiarism of text in more normal settings. There are two sets of standards that academic publications need to follow, the legal ones and the academic ones, and we're better served by keeping them separate.
As such, the approach I would argue for is to choose a standard legal-considerations license (Apache / GPL / MIT / whatever works for you) and then make it clear that there are additional obligations (not just your wishes) from the academic arena. Thus, a sample readme section might read

This code is © C. Knight, 2017, and it is made available under the GPL license enclosed with the software.
Over and above the legal restrictions imposed by this license, if you use this software for an academic publication then you are obliged to provide proper attribution. This can be to this code directly,

C. Knight. ACDS: an Awesome Code to Do Stuff, v2.3 (2017). github.com/cknight/acds.

or to the paper that describes it

C. Knight. How the ACDS software solves every problem. J. Awes. Softw. 12, 37654 (2017).

or (ideally) both.

This separates the two arenas and it makes it easier (hopefully) to deal with problems if and when they do come around. Think about it: if someone comes in and uses your code without attribution (and you somehow find out), what are you going to do?

Are you going to sue? Is it going to work? Or can you at least present such a credible threat of legal action that e.g. their institution caves in? (Unless the answer to any of those questions is "yes", then there's not that much point to trying to come up with fancy legal language to attempt to enforce citations.)

Or, more realistically: are you going to contact their journal editors, show how the paper is plagiarizing your code, and demand a retraction?

The second option is much more likely to work, and it works entirely on non-legal mechanisms, because academia does have additional standards and additional ways to enforce them. The plagiarism might not have broken the license, but you didn't need to sue them to get what you wanted.

And, while we're at this, notice one important feature of the sample readme I just gave: it makes your code easy to cite! By putting this in up-front and making it unambiguous that it needs to be cited and how it needs to be cited, you're setting clear expectations and making it easier for authors to cite you. Some features of note:

Provide a 'proper' publication to direct the citations. You need them, because of the economies of academia, and plenty of people are happy to ping a paper so long as you tell them which one.
Ideally, write a software paper that describes the software itself, in journals like the Journal of Open Research Software (or, say, if you can stomach the elsevierness, Computer Physics Communications) or whatever works in your field. If your code is user-ready then a software paper is both useful for those users, and useful for you in capitalizing the work you've done on the software into forms that the ever-slow-moving academic economy of citations can recognize more easily.
Put your code somewhere easy to find, and make sure it's going to stay there.
Give every version of your code a DOI. They're easy enough nowadays, at least via github but also directly on Zenodo or Figshare, that there's no excuse not to. And, moreover, they make it easy to locate and download exactly what version of the software was used for any given calculation, making your software more accountable.

Think of this as a stick-and-carrot routine: set up some stern language to set expectations but then prime your users to follow your wishes and make the process as seamless as possible.

This shows why you need a lawyer. A GPL derivative of your work would lose the citation requirement. The GPL is "viral"; derivative works must also be covered under the GPL terms. But it also specifies specifically (section 7, Additional Terms) that non-GPL restrictions like yours may be removed from derivative works.

@MSalters Thanks for missing the point =). This is not a non-GPL restriction, simply because it is not a legal restriction at all, and handling academic citations via lawyers is like trying to crack nuts with a screwdriver - it's a useful tool, but that's not what the problem needs. You are right that the "further restrictions" (as the GPL sees them) in this answer can be removed from derivative works, but if that reuse is plagiarism it is still grounds for e.g. demanding corrections / retractions from a journal, without any mention of copyright violations.

I don't see the plagiarism. Imagine someone creates ACDEMS (Awesome Code to Do Even More Stuff), a derivative work from your ACDS but without the citation requirement. This is not plagiarism, it's not even an (academic) publication but merely a pure GPL derived work. Now someone else uses ACDEMS and does not cite ACDS. Is that plagiarism?

I wouldn't think so, so what you're describing is the system working as intended and something I would be wholly OK with. Perhaps you missed the conditional? If the reuse is plagiarism, then it's subject to the usual tools to deal with plagiarism (which, again, have nothing to do with the tools to deal with copyright infringement).

Is there a way in the license to ask/recommend/enforce that people who use some of that code remember to cite the paper associated with it?

I am surprised to not find Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (or any other Creative Commons licenses) mentioned in the otherwise excellent answers already submitted.
It does not exactly fulfill the requirement of "enforcing citations", but its premise (focus on attribution) is closer than that of most other permissive / open source licenses.
Also, it could serve as a subtle reminder by itself.
Caveat: It is generally not encouraged to apply CC licenses to software, but given the academic context and the nature of your cares, I'd call that notion at minimum debatable in your case.

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


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Referencing the reference?
Suppose I have a paper with the following text:

Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet, and so are you [3],[4].

As one can see, the author got the information from two other references.
If I want to add this information in my thesis, do I also have to reference [3] and [4] or can I just reference this particular paper, I got the information from?

If you need a reference that supports the factual information that roses are red etc., then you have to look up the original sources and cite those. If, however, you refer to a synthesis of the information that the author of your sample text has derived from the original sources (for example "flowers have different colors"), then you must cite the sample text.
Having said that, it is sometimes advisable to look up the references also in the latter case. First, because the information contained in them might be interpreted in different ways, and second, because you might learn something useful from them.
Only when you absolutely cannot access the original source, you may resort to a secondary citation, such as [3] as cited in [1].

[3] Carla Nancy Millstone Jennings. Ode to a Lump of Green Putty and Other Poems. Vogon Press, 42nd edition, 2018.  Cited in [1].

@JeffE: not exactly on topic, but wasn't that poem by Grunthos the Flatulent, Poet Master of the Azgoths of Kria? (Also Carla -> Paula.) I really wish I didn't know these things...

Similar to @henning's good answer, but emphasizing a way of thinking about such things: be forthright/honest. That is, you did literally learn of [3] and [4] from the secondary source, so it would be helpful to your readers (and factually accurate) to acknowledge this source, as secondary as it may be. That is, you help your readers by explaining the helpful sources you have found. Still, in terms of "primary facts", also [3] and [4] should be cited, for somewhat different reasons.
That is, I think the best (certainly the most honest) scholarship admits what sources were used, how one found things, and so on. To do the opposite, that is, to pretend that one only ever consults "primary sources", is fairly ridiculous, even if it is a popular style. In my field, mathematics, in some cases the original sources are quite inaccessible or anachronistic/archaic, in various senses. So I cannot trust myself to read them with understanding, even if I can acquire a copy. So I must trust others' rewriting, explication, paraphrase, etc. But/and I should acknowledge the historical antecedents even if I cannot directly benefit from them, and also acknowledge accessible/intelligible "secondary" (often with much "value added") sources also.

The process you are describing is called hearsay which is noteably unreliable.I would always go to the original publication if possible. I have seen peer-reviewed review papers that got basic facts wrong. In fact one such paper is accessible here: Applications of shape memory alloys in civil structures.  in this paper the authors state without even citing:

In 1932, Chang and Read observed a reversible phase transformation in gold–cadmium (AuCd)...

If you do some initial internet searching, you find nothing because the date and authors are wrong. Once correcting this you find that the 1932 paper was by Ölander and the paper by Chang and Read wasn't published until 1951. As far as truth, the statement blends elements of both papers, so not even that is correct. Therefore heed this as a warning against citing papers you have not read.

I think this depends on the area you are working in. In most sciences the wording of a result is of small importance, so you might say "Flora discovered that roses are red, ... (see [Gardener: A colour guide to flowers, chapter 4.6, ...])". The idea is to tell the reader who did it, and give an available and readable source, e.g. a monograph. This was fine in pre-bibliometrical time, however, today praising an author without citing her is unfair. If Flora's poem is hard to find, but Gardener' colour guide is on every desk, or Flora's original work is difficult to read, you can write
Flora[Flora: Poems, ...] discovered ... . We refer the reader to [Gardener] for more information.
Humanities are more subtle. Small changes in the wording or the context can completely alter a statement, so you should not only tell the reader about [3] and[4], but also about the treatment in the secondary paper, which can well have an independent intellectual value.


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Obligation to quote an unpublished source if I am the source?
Let’s say that, during my undergraduate studies, I have written an essay on some subject. It was a seminar paper, which never got published anywhere.
Now, while writing my master’s thesis, I find that one line of thought I’d like to express is pretty much exactly what I had written in that seminar paper.
Would I have to formally quote and cite that (unpublished) seminar paper (which I had written myself), or can I just repeat what I have written there without marking it as quote?
It feels awkward quoting myself, but I don’t want to run afoul of any misconduct here.

Ask your thesis advisor.

Telling the truth is a good first approximation to appropriate scholarly conduct.

Avoiding self-plagiarism is very much different from avoiding plagiarism. In the latter case your goal is to avoid using someone's else's work without credits. In the first case you avoid publishing the same piece of work twice (say, avoid inflating your cv). Thus avoiding self-plagiarism means avoiding reusing only your published work without references. So theoretically if you were using your unpublished essay in a new work, there would be no need to cite it. However there are several things to consider. First, as you're writing a master thesis, and not a journal paper, this is a qualifying work rather than just research, and you're are supposed to invest a certain amount of work in this assignment. In this sense reusing an earlier work may be considered sparing some efforts you're supposed to invest to get your degree. Hence, you may want to indicate that this piece of work was done earlier and should not count towards rating your work on the thesis.
Second, as your essay was written within the framework of some assignment given by a professor/instructor, you should acknowledge their input when reusing the essay. Did that person suggest the topic, guide your work or otherwise contribute to the essay? You should clearly give credits to their role, and in this sense it would also be better to mention that you're relying on your earlier essay written in the class of professor XYZ.


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Why and how do professors go for sabbatical?
I read several questions about sabbatical leaves in this website. When checking a faculty list, it is common that some are on sabbatical leave and some are visiting professors. When emailing professors, it is not strange to receive a reply that he or she is on sabbatical leave.
However, the general picture of sabbatical visits is unclear to me. It is interesting to experience a new academic environment in a different country; but how do people handle it?

Cost of Living/Moving: When someone goes to another country, there are lots of unexpected expenses. High rent for a furnished house (for a year). They still have expenses in their home country (like mortgage). They will receive half of their salary from home the university and zero from the host university (not considering exceptions where getting paid for occasional tasks).
Research Output: The professor cannot plan for a long-term research. Probably co-supervise some graduate students.
Position: It is not clear to me what the place of a visiting professor is. In a research group, he is not a postdoc to follow the PI plans to get hand in experimental works, and he is not the boss to plan and conduct others. In a department, the head cannot force him to teach a course (it is not his duty), and the department has not offered him an official position, space and service for doing nothing. The vague point for me is that there is no official contract to define each party responsibility (as the host university is not paying).

How can one handle the expenses? And what is the professional motivation to do a temporary job (beside the fun part of going somewhere)?
Sorry for a series of questions, I could not separate them.

Are you interested in a particular field? The answers will vary widely between theoretical fields like mathematics and more experimental fields like chemistry or experimental physics.

Interesting example of sabbatical is that of Donald Knuth - he took a sabbatical leave to create the TeX (typesetting program).

I think this will widely vary between professors, host institutions, and home institutions. I will try to address your questions, but always keep in mind that for each point there will be plenty of variations.

When someone goes to another country, there are lots of unexpected expenses. High rent for a furnished house (for a year). They still have expenses in home country (like mortgage).

Sometimes the professor just foots a lot of it from his own pocket. Sometimes, especially if the host institution is not academic but a company research lab, the host institution will cover this through a stipend, or by providing housing. However, it should be noted that most professors eligible for sabbaticals are full professors, who are in an age and career phase where they are not anymore required to turn every penny twice.

He will receive half of his salary from home university and zero from host university (not considering exceptions where getting paid for occasional tasks).

This isn't close to universal. In my institution, sabbaticals can be with close-to-full salary. Sometimes, the host institution pays the guest.

Research Output: He cannot plan for a long-term research. Probably co-supervise some graduate students.

Generally speaking, the sabbatical is a phase of planning, and finding inspiration and future collaborations more than execution. For a senior professor, it may also be a rare chance to actually do some research her/himself again, precisely because one is not necessarily required to herd a dozen grad students to dissertations.

It is not clear to me where is the place of a visiting professor. In a research group, he is not a postdoc to follow the PI plans to get hand in experimental works, and he is not the boss to plan and conduct others.

Well, the guest doesn't have a fixed place in the host lab as such. What the guest actually does all day will vary, depending on what the goals of the professor for the sabbatical and the plans of the host are. A few common ones that I have seen include:

The getting access to cool data sabbatical. Here, the prof. goes to a host institution (typically industrial in this case) with access to much more and better data. The guest uses his time there to validate (with the host professor and selected students) his theories on the data of the host institution.
The I wanna do this for real sabbatical. Here, he or she takes time off to actually apply his research in practice, either in an existing company or by creating a spin-off. He or she may or may not ever return from this sabbatical.
The setting up new projects sabbatical. Here, the guest ends up spending most of his time writing one or more project proposal(s) with the host professor and other academics in the area.
The marketing trip sabbatical. Here, the guest is primarily an ambassador of the home institution or lab, and spends a lot of time going through academic institutions in proximity of the host, giving talks and establishing connections.
The I really just needed a vacation sabbatical. Here, the guest ends up doing not much at all, except meeting up with some people and giving a talk here and there. The borders between this and the previous one are kind of blurry.
The entirely academia-unrelated sabbatical. And then there are of course the sabbaticals which are quite openly only on paper about anything academic. I have known professors that renovated their house during their sabbatical. I have known one who had medical issues and used the sabbatical to recuperate.

"I have known professors that renovated their house during their sabbatical" Lolwat ! (+1 otherwise, the 6 types of sabbaticals just makes hitting the uparrow irresistible.)

@TheDarkSide In my university, a sabbatical is basically understood as paid leave. The administration really does not ask very many questions what professors actually do in said leave.

At least in my field, there is the I want to learn something sabbatical where the guest learns a new technique from the host lab.

In my university, after taking a sabbatical, one is required to report (to the department chair) what one did during the sabbatical.  Renovating one's house or just taking a vacation would not make for a good report.  Depending on institutional memory, such things might make it difficult to ever get another sabbatical.

(2) is most definitely not true, at least in my field (mathematics). I can most certainly carry out research on the road, especially with access to the Internet and to a decent library.
As far as your (3), I think that is a big part of the appeal of a sabbatical. My position at my home university obliges me to teach undergraduate courses, to serve on committees, and to do other tasks which are necessary to help keep my department running. This is very worthwhile, but it is also a big distraction from research. Not having a clearly-defined position for a year means you are free to pursue your own goals!
As far as (1), this varies. I do know that many professors take sabbatical without actually moving to a different city for the term of the sabbatical. (They might still take a break from actually showing up to work or answering professional e-mails concerning department business.) I think that practical concerns such as you mention are a big part of their motivation.


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Effects of financial burden on PhD research
I am currently finishing up my 3rd semester in a very good (top 10-15 in US) PhD program in math. After this summer, I will have passed all my quals and will seriously have to think about my research. But I have been plagued with financial problems for the last two years and it is currently causing me following problems:

I work multiple part-time jobs outside of class and TA-ship, just to break even with my financial obligations. The fact that I am an international student makes it even harder to find such jobs; I usually end up working for late night jobs for low pay.
Getting tired from work, I rely on caffeiniated drinks to basically just survive and do my class works. It seems like forever since the last time I felt fresh and full of enthusiasm to do math. Going to seminars, attending reading groups etc all impossible because of it.I guess it has been working so far only because I am only in my 2nd year and only taking classes.

So my question is that how realistic it is for me to continue like this and expect to be at least moderately successful doing research? If there is anybody here who dealt with similar issues, I would be very glad to hear what your solution was.
P.S: Quitting the program and going back to my home country is not option an - I will have to stay in the program until I finish it or get a full-time, industry job in US, whichever comes first. Also, my adviser is sympathetic with my situation and helped me a lot by securing me a summer position, but that is the extent of what he can do to help me financially.

Are there grants for abroad studies in your home country?

@Cape Code no. there is not a single, funded PhD program in math in our country, let alone study abroad grant. But the reasons why I am not looking to go back are much more than that.

I wasn't thinking about going back, but a local grant to support people during their studies abroad. Some countries offer them.


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Authorship disagreement between PhD student and supervisor
I completed my PhD thesis two years ago. My thesis subject was supported as a project by my university scientific research committee. In this project my supervisor was principal investigator and I was co-investigator. After finishing my thesis, I cannot get along with my supervisor due to personal reasons.
I have to write an article from my PhD thesis according to the academic progress requirements in my country. I have already written a manuscript from my thesis and added my supervisor name as an author.
In many interviews with him, he said that he did not want to be a coauthor. However, he does not provide me with a signed document stating that he does not want to be a coauthor. It is obligatory to obtain a signed document of the author who does not want to be included in the manuscript as an author in my country.
If I do not add his name in the manuscript, I will be faced with plagiarism. If I add it, my supervisor can contact the journal to withdraw the manuscript after it is published. What should I do in this situation?

It seems like your country has peculiar enough rules that you will need to identify it to get useful answers.

Have you tried simply sending an email to ask if they want to be an author? That would provide a written (albeit easy to fake) confirmation, would that be enough for your country's rules?

strange that if you completed your degree there are still academic requirements.

"It is obligatory to obtain a signed document of the author who does not want to be included in the manuscript as an author" This seems to be circular. Could you please clarfiy what precisely this rule says and to which situations it applies?

Specifically, who is actually asking for this document? The journal won't care.

Just give us a photo or screenshot of the "rule" in its exact expression. Seems very strange.


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What's the difference between Advisor and Mentor?
In a lot of Curriculum of undergraduate and graduate researchers I see they list their research experiences using Advisor and Mentor too, to describe that people who guide them in the research.
So, what's the difference between Advisor and Mentor in a academic space? I tried to find some information, but only got things about coaching, and business related. Thank you.

I would say an advisor is someone who oversees something you do for (course/degree) credit whereas a mentor is anyone who serves the role of a boss. So an advisor is also a mentor (e.g. PhD advisor) whereas a mentor is not necessarily an advisor (e.g. postdoc mentor).

@ErikM, in current U.S. English, a "mentor" is not a "boss" at all...

@paulgarrett I think that a boss could be a mentor. It’d just be two metaphorical hats that they’d have to wear.

They aren't really different, if used in a singular context.
In my experience, "advisor" is synonymous with "supervisor" or "PI": it's the one senior person, usually a professor, who oversees the researcher. For an undergraduate, it's possible they might consider their advisor to be a PhD student or post-doc.
They could also call that person a mentor, and mentorship is a key part of the advisor-student relationship, but others can also be mentors. However, if someone just says "my mentor" to refer to a single individual they probably mean the one person who is also their advisor, PI, etc.
Mentors are important beyond earlier career stages, too. Professors themselves should have mentors, and may even be explicitly assigned mentors at an early career stage.

Thank you. You really help me to understand, Bryan.

In the context of your question the answer of Bryan Krause is almost certainly correct - no real difference.
But in a wider context, the idea of a mentor is a bit broader than that of an advisor. An advisor will usually have some official relationship as an intermediary between a student and the university with official responsibilities. A mentor, on the other hand, can be quite informal.
In my doctoral studies I was lucky to have both. My advisor advised me on the specific doctoral work and the field. But I had a separate mentor in a quite different mathematical field in which I was much less adept. But he was and remains my role model for what a faculty member should be and he gave me good advice and aided by development at one critical point.
With that in mind, you normally have one advisor (exceptions exist), but you can have several mentors.

Thank you for you complementary answer, Buffy.

The answer depends very heavily on local custom. In my university as a PhD student I have a Supervisor and also an Advisor who are not the same person.  My supervisor is there to guide my research. My advisor is there to guide me in anything that I do not want my Supervisor to guide me in, for example, if I thought that my Supervisor was doing a bad job. At some quite important meetings, such as annual reviews of progress, my Supervisor plays no role and is not present, but my Advisor is.
I have been a Mentor, but neither my Supervisor nor my Advisor perform that role for me  in my university.
I do not claim that this system is right, but I describe it to show that there  is no universal language that describes the different roles that might be invented in different universities to perform the same basic task.
So, the OP's question cannot be answered without knowing which institutions in which countries are being referred to.


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Harvard Referencing for Webinars
I want to cite a webinar in the Harvard citation style.
I have found many websites talk about website referencing but could not find anything about webinars!
How do you do that?

By googling your title, I found this style valid for online videos, webinars, etc.:

Author/Speaker (Year) Title of communication [Medium]. Available at: URL (Accessed:
  date).

The source I used was London Metropolitan University Library Services' Harvard Referencing Guide, but their stance seems to be corroborated by other referencing guides.
Adapted reference list example:

Stepp, K. (2013) HR & the workplace of the future [Webinar]. Available at:
  http://www.slideshare.net/thetalentproject/hr-the-workplace-of-the-future (Accessed: 18
  December 2013).

Note that there actually is no definitive Harvard referencing guide, so the journal you submit to (or university for a thesis) could have slightly different requirements. Nevertheless, the above citation is clear enough, and should be acceptable in most places.


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1960s Stylesheet/Format for working Physics problems
One of my Physics professors once mentioned that he took a semester-long Physics class that was all about formatting work in the correct way: The problems were done on graph/grid paper, and all of the numbers had to be written in uniform way like a blueprint. At the end, a box had to be drawn around the answer and points were deducted if the lines of the box extended beyond the corners of the grid and didn't meet exactly. I'd estimate that it was probably around the early 1960s when he took this class.
This was just an offhand tangent in one of his lectures, but it always stuck with me. Is anyone familiar with this formal way to work Physics problems? There must have been a lot more to it if the class lasted an entire semester, and I'm trying to find a textbook or style guide or whatever might have been used as reference for this kind of class.
(I think this is the right place to post this, as it doesn't have to do with Physics itself.)

You probably want a book on "Engineering Drawing" or similar from that era. I also took such a physics class in the early 60s. Computer graphics software has replaced this, but it wasn't available then and was how we got some precision.
I actually found it to be fun, though that is a long-ago memory.
If I remember correctly, the professor's blackboard (yes, with chalk) were very precise.
Your university library might just possibly have such a book from those days.

Can you recommend some titles to begin the journey? Books around  60s likely will be available on archive.org.


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Where can I find math PhD opportunities scholarship?
I am looking for scholarships of math Phds, mainly Europe/US/Canada but I am open for good programs in Asia, Is there a kind of database for math PhDs ?

In Canada (and I assume the US) math PhDs are assumed to be funded. The pay isn't great but it will usually cover cost of living. Sometimes the pay is in return for working TA hours, and sometimes it's for working on a specific project.
Each institution may have additional scholarships for additional students. But you're best to find a supervisor who you're interested in and who has funding.
There is the NSERC CGS and PGS scholarships which would apply to math, but last I checked they are for either Canadian residents or people who have already completed a degree in Canada.

This is accurate for the US as well. One applies to the math PhD program through the online system of the university in question, and if you're admitted, 99% of the time you will receive full funding.

Just to be clear, Phds in Canada/Us are not free in the sense that you initially have to pay tuition fees but they are funded by working as TA ?

There is tuition, and then you are paid a stipend that vastly exceeded tuition. So you might get paid CAD $30k per year between TAing and research, and pay $6k in tuition. Some departments might also have tuition vouchers so you don't have to pay.

@user1149748, "full funding" isn't really accurate. You generally will get a TA which has duties attached; grading and holding study sections for elementary courses. It includes a modest stipend for living as well as paying the tuition. (US perspective). That is quite different from "full funding" which is rare. It isn't a scholarship, but a part-time "job".

@Buffy True but it's distinct from Undergraduate, where you pay tuition and have no income, apart from scholarships.


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Should a research proposal contain sections
I'm writing a four page research proposal as a reply to a call for proposals for funding.
Should my document be organized by sections ? or it should only contain text ?

Do you mean sections, each with their own titles?

@buffy: Yes, that's what I mean.

This is likely to be discipline, or even funder specific. For the funder I work for a 4 page wall of text would be unlikely to be successful - but we have a guidance document which sets out the expected headings. Look at the guidance for the funder you want to give you the money.

As user rhialto suggests, it may be field dependent. But I'd suggest that you look at it like this:
The proposal needs to be easily readable and it needs to be clear that you have addressed each required element mentioned in the call. Normally there will be several such requirements. So, organize the proposal according to those requirements with a separate (titled) section for each important element. These might include such things as Researcher background and Work to be done.
Make it so that in a committee meeting, where proposals are discussed anyone on the committee can easily find the important elements and how your proposal fits them.
In a four page proposal, if there are a lot of requirements, you might have to combine a few. And don't format it so that it is too much dominated by white-space, though some white-space and reasonable font sizes is a help. Find better words, not just more words to get the ideas across.

Almost certainly.
Good scientific writing isn't just about having an idea worth putting on paper, it's also about conveying that idea in an understandable and unambiguous manner. A research proposal will usually have several distinct, but related aspects, including problem background and previous work, the hypothesis you want to test, and the methodology you're proposing. Breaking your proposal into sections will improve readability and allow your readers to focus their attention. The only downside I can think of is the minor loss of space if your page limits are very tight. Particularly when your writing is read in a competitive context, where you are competing for limited funding, you want to remove every impediment possible to the committee understanding your work.


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Ethical considerations in publishing raw data
Apart from taking measures to maintain confidentiality, do I need my ethical approval to specify permission to publish raw data along with my study? I'm trying to facilitate reproducibility in my research. It is a retrospective, cross-sectional study of medical records. The information is sensitive.
I know that there are other questions out there that touch on the subject, but they do not quite cover what I want to know.

Which kind of data? How obtained? Is it on a sensitive matter? Without these things it is hard to make a general answer.

Added information on study type.

If you're in the US, make sure the data set complies to HIPAA. Double check to make sure you don't have any information that would allow identification.
Another one measure that HIPAA may not touch on is the rarity of the medical outcome(s) in your data set. Participants in a flu data set are a lot harder to identify that participants in, say, an anthrax poisoning data set. You'd need to check on the definition of what constitutes a rare outcome.
Ultimately, you should seek advices and support from these following agencies: 1) your own institutional review board (IRB), 2) the funding agency that supports your work, and 3) the original owner of the medical records who allowed you to extract the retrospective data. If all these three are okay, it's very likely to be fine. If anything hits the fan, showing evidence that they had granted you support and you have done your due diligence in safeguarding the privacy of the data would do you a lot of good on legal ground.
Additionally, even for reproducibility, you don't necessarily have to make the data set available to everyone. With some work on your side you can set up a data user agreement mechanism, so that at least you can have some track records on who borrowed the data and for what reason. If you explain to the journal that any of the three agencies above prohibits free access, the editor will usually understand and agree with the data user agreement routine.

That's very good advice (even if I'm not in fact in the US). Thank you!

If your study deals with human subjects, for which confidentiality concerns apply, then how you manage the data definitely needs to be part of the plan that you submit for ethical approval.  For some types of information, raw data may not be possible to de-identify (surveys drawn from a small population, for example, where there may be only a few people belonging to a given set of demographic groups).  For other types of information, confidentiality can be maintained. Whatever ethical approval system you are dealing with (e.g., in the US, an IRB) should be given an opportunity to double-check and notice if you have overlooked anything.
If human subjects are not involved, then confidentiality probably does not apply (e.g., ethical approval is important for experiments with rats, but confidentiality is generally not a concern) though there are places where data not taken from human subjects may still end up containing people's personal information that still needs to be protected.  A good example of this is Simson Garfinkel's investigation of discarded hard drives.

From the Declaration of Helsinki of “ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects, including research on identifiable human material and data”, conforming to which should be required by any journal, (boldface mine):

The research protocol must be submitted for consideration, comment, guidance and approval to the concerned research ethics committee before the study begins. This committee must be transparent in its functioning, must be independent of the researcher, the sponsor and any other undue influence and must be duly qualified. It must take into consideration the laws and regulations of the country or countries in which the research is to be performed as well as applicable international norms and standards but these must not be allowed to reduce or eliminate any of the protections for research subjects set forth in this Declaration.
[…]

[…]

For medical research using identifiable human material or data, such as research on material or data contained in biobanks or similar repositories, physicians must seek informed consent for its collection, storage and/or reuse. There may be exceptional situations where consent would be impossible or impracticable to obtain for such research. In such situations the research may be done only after consideration and approval of a research ethics committee.

So, unless I totally misunderstand what you did, you needed ethical approval for even performing your study. Publishing the data is only possible, if the subjects gave consent acoording to the declaration, which you should really have approved by the committee, because you can get into big trouble otherwise, even if everything turns out to be correct. I know of cases where people had the perfect data for a specific study bould could not use it because what they wanted to do with it was not covered by the consent given by the subjects.
Also note that your national or institutional regulations may go further regarding this.

It was approved by a ethical review board, and everybody provided consent at the time the data was collected. It was retrospective in the sense that the hypothesis was established post hoc.

everybody provided consent at the time the data was collected – Still, you should have your committee check whether what you want to do publication-wise is covered by it (unless this is incorporated in the approval of your study). Not doing so may destroy your career and more.

Almost certainly. You will need to explain how you will maintain confidentiality, and convince them that this is appropriate. You will need address any possible negative repercussions that could occur should you publish your raw data.

Who are They?

Your ethics board. The organisation whom you must seek ethical approval from for every experimental work you conduct.


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What is meant when a job says PhD or equivalent required?
I saw a job posting that says

PhD or equivalent required.

What is meant by equivalent? What can be an equivalent for PhD? Expertise gained through work experience and publications?

Here's what can be equivalent to a PhD:  whatever forces created the first. one.

DFA (Doctor of Fine Arts), DSc (Doctor of Science), DLitt (Doctor of Letters), Ed. D (Doctor of Education), MD, D. Phil (naming variant of Ph D), DBA (Business Administration) are possible "equivalents". DDS and JD probably are not, and obviously DFA, MD and Ph D are not functionally interchangeable for the same position. A professor of dance might have a PhD, or a DFA; a professor of pathology might have a PhD or an MD, or a DSc earned in Japan.

One more: D. Eng. (Doctor of Engineering). Not common, but it does exist.

@Victor: Not every doctorate is a PhD.

In many countries, there is not a single degree called "PhD".

I'd add ScD to @user6726 list. And for many positions in my field, for example, PhDs and MDs are functionally swappable.

In an academia context, I would assume it is mainly a matter of equivalent degrees. In industry, it is far broader. When I told my boss I planned to go for a PhD, I was informed it would make no difference in my career and promotion prospects - they already considered me qualified for "PhD or equivalent" jobs in the company.

What type of job? Government, academic, or industry?

It could also be an equivalent degree from another country. For example, a degree, equivalent of PhD, in Russia is called 'Candidate of science' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Russia)

You don't even need to go to Russia, many post-comunist countries that are now members of the EU used the title as well.

@yo' Is the implication that using Russia as an example is "going further" than using an example from Eastern Europe?

@yo' Yes. For example, you can get candidates with either Ph.D. or CSc. (Candidatus Scientiarum) from the Czech Republic, where the only substantial difference is when the degree was awarded.

In an advertisement for a tenure-track position (assuming from the tags on your question), in the absence of more specific information, I would assume this wording is meant to include other names for a doctoral degree, e.g. DPhil or one of the other degrees on this list.
Sometimes it even specifically says as much, e.g. here:

PhD or equivalent biomedical doctorate(s)

Presumably this wording also allows them to hire someone without a PhD, without having HR make a huge fuss, but I would assume that would be a rare situation.
If it said "or equivalent experience," then perhaps it could be interpreted to mean equivalent experience gained outside of a doctoral program.

The omission of "or equivalent experience" could easily also just be a typo / brain fart. If the job is not on the tenure track and does not require teaching duties (i.e. for a research assistant, industry jobs), the main requirement is probably just that you have a reasonable amount of research experience.

@Moriarty That could be. But with the missing word, I'm inclined to assume "or equivalent degree" rather than "or equivalent experience", especially given that the original question is tagged [tag:tenure-track].

I missed the tag – I thought the question was more general. You're absolutely right for a tenure-track job.

@Moriarty, I don't believe in brain malfunctions in something as carefully worded as such a call.

While it does seem to be less common now relative to several decades ago, I certainly know, and know of, several folks who had masters degrees, went to work at US National Labs, and were world leaders in their technical fields. Often, to their amusement, they were introduced at conferences as "Dr. So-and-so". None that I knew personally moved to university positions, but most had been contacted about their interest in doing so. All were quite capable of being a professor at a research-oriented university, with strong publication records and funding success.
A different question is what has changed since the, roughly, 1970's when this pattern seems to have been broken. One possibility is that there are many more graduate programs, so those kind of folks are probably just going on to get a PhD.

Most likely, what changed was that the National Labs made having a PhD a requirement for getting those jobs.

But I'm not sure this really answers the question: you give an example of some people who would have been "PhD or equivalent" but then say that it stopped happening 40 years ago. The question is, I think, about what the phrase "PhD or equivalent" means in a job ad today.

@DavidRicherby - That is a fair and accurate comment. As a national lab person, looking around, such folks are nearly non-existent at this point (and perhaps I'm partly to blame on the hiring side). Not stressed (enough) by me was - if you are a masters but have a strong track record of publishing and getting funding, the university will not care about the lack of a p, h, and d.

In addition to the answers given such as "Some doctorate degrees don't have the abreviation 'PhD'" that several people have provided, especially in the biomedical fields there may actually be several possible alternative degrees that might compete for the same position.
For example, there are positions in my field that might capable be filled by a PhD, and MD, or a DVM, each of whom would add their own particular twist to the position, but all of whom might serve the needs of a particular program.

PhD or equivalent. An experience equivalent to a PhD surely does exist and has been used by almost all major Universities a round the world in recruiting for tenured positions. Professional fields like Medicine, Law, where professional life are as rigorously academic as being in class  still use it a great deal.  A bachelor degree or masters degree holder but with relevant experience, could be considered an equivalent to a PhD. or better if he had comparable or better experience. However as the opportunities for PhD studies are increasing, most employers are today insisting on the actual PhD. However you will also realize that a lot of top level institutions look for the best brains not schooling history! I was once in recruiting an expert in Elephant Conservation. We had two great candidates. One had an M Sc in Conservation Biology with fifteen years experience working with elephants and 30 papers in top range refereed journals. The Other had a PhD in the same field, but with five years experience with elephants out of which he had published three papers in good journals. They were both very good, however the MSc fellow had greater academic depth than the PhD fellow. The MSc  fellow was taken!

A Ph.D is a research degree which involves, in part, convincing a committee of professors that the student is capable of doing professional level research, and writing the results of such research in a formal style.  No actual publication of the research is involved.  An equivalent Ph.D could be actual publications in scientific journals without having attended, or completed, a formal university degree program.

In some countries it is only literally called Doctor of Philosophy if it is a humanitarian / theoretical sciences subject. "Doctor of Technology" is another and "Doctor of Medicine" is a third, so the name kind of specifies the subject.
To start a PhD in some countries requires a MSc degree first and in some places a BSc is enough. In some areas (both geographically and by subject of study) one year worth of formal course work is enough in some two years is required. In some areas you are expected to produce maybe 5 or 6 peer-reviewed publications in some you may be able to get away with considerably less. Also the length of studies vary. From 3 years in some places to 5 in some and in practice often a bit longer than that.
There really exists no "equivalence". What they are polling for when phrasing it like that is probably not primarily any particular skill set, but rather a type of person who has the personality and mental drives fit for a particular type of role or position.


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Does an unpublished document you upload to ResearchGate count as prior publication when submitting to a journal?
On ResearchGate, if you upload something like a thesis, and then it says publish resources, does this mean the thesis becomes properly published in the sense of the usual requirements of journals that there be no prior publication of the submitted work?
I ask because I’m drafting thesis chapters into journal articles and did not choose to publish the thesis as a whole work in order to do so, so I want to make sure that by clicking publish resources I am not actually publishing the copy I’ve uploaded, I’m just making it publicly available? Does this mean it becomes published despite it not technically being a published work? (If so, I’ll just remove the copy I uploaded).

What effect do you envision "publication" has with respect to copyright? My understanding is that creative works become copyrighted as soon as they are written; I'm not aware that publication of any kind is relevant.

I don't think copyright law is your issue. Your thesis is copyrighted whether you put it online or not. Your issue is whether the journal sees the thesis as a form of prior publication that might prevent them from accepting your manuscript.

@awsoci: I reworded your question to focus on the issue you are interested in and not to mention copyright anymore. Please check that everything is still according to your intentions.

Note that at least where I am from, PhD thesis have to be published anyway (though many journals have special clauses for this).

The problem is less ResearchGate and more your field. As far as I know, ResearchGate, unlike Academia.edu, does not claim copyright or commercial license for your uploads; and they refer to their upload service as more self-archiving than anything else. That said, different fields and different publishers have different attitudes toward what it means to be prior publications.
In Mathematics (my field), for example, almost certainly no journal will count uploads to pre-print repositories or online social media or your own webpage as prior publication.
In fields like Medicine and some subfield of Biology, the rules are much stricter, where sometimes too-detailed conference posters can count as prior publication when it comes to journal submissions. Wikipedia has a listing which shows, e.g., journals of the American Society for Microbiology having this type of strict pre-publication rule.
So the only general advice for your question is: consult the website of the journal to which you intend to submit your articles.


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Chances of publishing paper(s) in last year of PhD
We have a recent rule in our institution that at least two papers need to be published in SCI journals for being awarded a doctorate degree.
Students were well aware about the rule since the first year of their PhD degree. I called it a recent rule because the university never had this rule prior to this, and this is the first batch of students to whom it applies.
Almost 95% of the students do not have a SCI journal publication in the last year of their PhD. Those who do are from physics or physics. Almost all the rest belongs to computer-science subjects like cryptography, machine learning etc.
We do not have any statistics regarding the possibility of publishing two papers in the last year by PhD students since the rule is relatively new. So, stats of seniors are not much helpful for us.
Most of the seniors published their research papers in the last year of their PhD. But, almost all of these publications are in non-SCI journals. So, their stats are no longer relevant to us.
Many users may answer that it totally depends on the student, supervisor, environment etc.,  But one can observe that only 5% of students get their papers published in their early years and 95% didn't have any progress in publications. So, I am hoping that there would be statistics related to this phenomenon.
Is there any survey or stats regarding this? What percentage of students get their papers published in standard journals in their last year of PhD?

To make sure I understand your situation: Your university imposed a new rule, and the problem is that this new rule also applies to existing students. If they had known that at the beginning they would (or at least, should) have chosen a different strategy, but that is obviously no longer possible. Is that the main problem you wish to address in this question?

@MaartenBuis Not exactly, all students know about the rule by the end of their first year of PhD. But, it is the first batch having such rule. Students knows about rule in their earlier stage only.

@Wrzlprmft 1) Although the name contains the word institute, it started offering a variety of branches in the last ten years including business degrees. 2) The former one. Those without any publication.

The former one. Those without any publication. – That’s weird. Those disciplines always strike me are as having a rather high publication output.

Also, thinking about it: So 95% of your PhD students are from computer science and similar, 2% from biology, 3% from physics, and (almost) none from business and other fields. Those are weird proportions. Are you sure, this is correct?

@Wrzlprmft Yeah.. The Ph.D. degree is not started in the business domain. Currently, the institute is offering a post-graduation on it...

@DanielHatton yeah, some of the people work in the same institute in different domains... Including teaching and non-teaching staff..

@DanielHatton But not almost. Because many of them work in colleges that have fewer rankings than my institute..

What about the advisors in this? They also know of the requirements and should have been making sure research was done in time to turn into papers and that they were submitted to SCI-indexed journals...


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Cons of putting accepted paper on arXiv?
If I have a paper accepted for publication in a journal, putting a version of it (that does not conflict with the agreement with the publisher) on arXiv will help make it more easily accessible. On the other hand, are there good reasons not to put it on arXiv, supposing the paper is on topic for arXiv?

The more visibility, the better. If you are allowed to post it (cfr. publication agreement), don't hesitate.

Do you mean before the journal publishes it online or after?

It's really hard to find cons. If I were forced to list some, I'd say:

people get to see your LaTeX source. If it contains secret macros or unflattering comments that you forgot to delete, the whole world sees them. It is also possible that they contain other copyrighted material that you do not have the right to distribute, such as a commercial font. (In my experience, no one will look at your LaTeX source anyway).
Arxiv gets rights to distribute your paper online, forever. This may conflict with copyright rules for your future publications. For instance, you may want to insert content from the paper into your thesis, and then publish your thesis as a book with a publishing house that wants full 100% absolute exclusive rights. (In my experience, respectable publishing houses don't.)
Your publication agreements or grants may mandate additional requirements when you publish your work. For instance: provide a reference to the journal version, or acknowledge the National Institute of Funding Grant 1234567890. If you forget about them, trouble may ensue. (In my experience, it hardly ever does).

"No one will look at your LaTeX source" Counterexample: https://twitter.com/OverheardOnAph

@Davidmh This is pure gold!

The last time I uploaded a paper at ArXiV, one could tick that the TeX sourcecode should not be downloadable, so unless they changed it, this may be a non-issue. However, some publication venues that operate "on top of ArXiV" (such as Electronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science) do not allow you to do so.

@Davidmh that link does not work.

@DavidWhite It's because Elon changed name to Twitter and locked it down to non-subscribers, unfortunately. You can still get access through alternative frontends. Anyway, it was a Twitter account that reposted funny sentences found in comments on .tex files posted on Arxiv' astrophysics section, such as "This is wrong, but gives me something I can work with" or " It is somehow metaphysical nonsense, yet very minor".

@FedericoPoloni Thanks!

@DavidWhite what Federico said. After logging it it does work, although they, sadly, stopped posting almost ten years ago.


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Several questions about getting a master degree in mathematics in US
Currently I am a junior at UCLA. I have taken some math classes and they seem really interesting. However, I am not sure whether I should pursue a PhD in mathematics. So instead I'm thinking about getting a master degree. However there's very few information about master in mathematics online.
Question 1: How rare is it for people to go to industry first and then go back to academia (after 2 years, for example)? How should they deal with the recommendation letter part?
Question 2: Some of my friends have been taking honour classes since they were freshman. However I used to be a math/economics major so I've been taking regular courses. How would that impact my application? (suppose I'm NOT talking about master in computational finance or financial engineering. I took a class in option pricing and interest rate model, worst "math" class ever)
Question 3: Is there any "rule of thumb" of determining whether someone should pursue an advanced degree (master and PhD) in mathematics? I remember once one of my TA told me that "if you cannot get six A's, then probably this is not the right path for you". Now, my major GPA is 3.8. Got 3 A's in upper (analysis and linear algebra), bunch of A- (complex analysis, differential geometry, probability), and B+ for abstrac algebra.
Any advice/insight is greatly appreciated. Thank you very much.

Why do you want to pursue a Master's degree in mathematics?

@Potato It's a long story and probably doesn't make sense to other people. I used to be a math/econ major. But as I took more and more courses, I realized that I neither liked economics nor I was pursuaded by its theory. At the same time, as I took more and more upper math, it really interested me, especially after I took my first analysis class. It was simply fascinating (compared to economics). Then i took differential geometry where we used analysis and algebra, and that was really cool, too.

I don't have any experience in honour courses, not to mention graduate courses or research. In fact, my goal has always been becoming an actuary after I graduate. And indeed I have passed couple of actuarial exams and have done two internships at two large companies. I wouldn't call them "bad experiences", I mean I get paid and the job itself isn't boring (well, sort of). But it's not really "math-related" as I expected. And I realized that probably no job would ever care about "when an open cover has a countable subcover", stuff like that...

You discuss this with a trusted faculty member. You should ask that faculty member where they think you might have a chance at being admitted to a PhD program. A PhD in mathematics in probably not worth it unless you're going to a very good school, for a variety of reasons (number one being the terrible academic job market). If your application is not strong enough, then discuss Master's degree options.

Yes, a lack of independent work and honors/graduate coursework is going to be problematic. See my previous comment.

@Potato Thank you. I'll definitely do that. I've heard of stories that a math PhD ended up working as an actuary or going to investment banks. It seems to me that most PhD still end up in industry and doing things irrelevant to what they've been studying :(

Indeed. Unless you really, really want to become a professor, don't get a PhD in pure mathematics.


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What questions should I ask when I visit labs for potential post-doc employment?
I am approaching the end of the tunnel and starting to look for my options beyond the PhD. The few contacts I have initiated have been positive so far and I will be visiting some labs in the coming months.
I am wondering which questions would be good ask during these visits. What insights would be valuable to acquire after these visits?
Regarding the talk with the group/lab leader, I am thinking of keeping the conversation/discussion around research interests for both parties, as well as his/her expectations from me and my responsibilities, if I start a post-doc there.
With respect to the group members, I intend on inquiring about the social environment, work ethics/common practices, different competencies that are in the group. Edit: a good advice I recently got from an ex-colleague who's doing post-doc in the US now, was to investigate whether or not there is a tradition of inter-group competition, i.e. will there be another post-doc working on the same project?
Any comments/suggestions based on personal experience?

Possible duplicate: "What to do when visiting a lab or a university for prospective application?" http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1819/what-to-do-when-visiting-a-lab-or-a-university-for-prospective-application

@DavideChicco.it even though the question titles are similar then content does not appear to be all that similar.

Your list is a good start, but I would dig a little deeper into the "expectations" item than you may plan. "Postdoc" is maybe the least well-defined role in a research group, and what you are supposed to (and allowed to) do can vary greatly. You need to have a clear understanding in advance whether your vision of the position matches with the vision of your mentor. Concretely:

Ask whether you are supposed to write papers without your mentor. If yes, try to get a feel whether the mentor means it (very few will outright say No to such a request). Try to get a feel for what percentage of joint vs. individual work your mentor expects.
Ask whether you are supposed to write grant proposals. Ask whether you will be the PI of said proposals, or your mentor.
Ask whether you will be responsible for your own PhD students.
Ask whether it will be possible to work on topics that are of interest to you, but of less interest to your mentor.
Try to get a feel for the mode of collaboration your mentor expects. Everything from "you do your thing and ask me for input when you need it" to "I'll tell you which problem to work on, and you report back your results to me" is possible, and you will want to know which one it is.

In addition to that, also ask what your mentor has in mind in terms of your career plan. When you apply for assistant professorships in a year, will he fully support you, or will he want to keep you around for longer? If the latter, what can he realistically offer you?

Do not forget to ask about what training you can expect.
As a post-doctoral fellow, you are supposed to develop new skills and expierence.  A supervisor might simply look for a cheap scientist.  One person I know was hired to do pretty much the work she did during her PhD, except at a different location and with virtually no supervision at all.  They needed a specialist and she fit, but as she is the expert she has little use of the other group members.  The good thing is that she keeps writing papers.  The bad thing is that she doesn't really acquire any new skills that she didn't already have at the end of her PhD.

If you are in the market for training, you definitely need to make this explicit during the interviews. Many profs. specifically hire postdocs because they expect them to need no, or very little, individual training vs. PhD students.

@xLeitix At the University of Toronto they call post-docs trainees...

The US NSF requires a postdoc mentoring plan for every submitted grant that includes salary for a postdoc. This is supposed to include training on things about being a good researcher at the very least (grant writing, teaching, presentation, career advice, collaboration, etc.). They have samples (MS Word Doc).


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How much do your undergraduate and graduate GPAs matter when applying for a faculty position?
I’m looking for a job in academia and was a little concerned about my undergraduate GPA (Grade Point Average) (around 3.0) from a good school.
I had masters and Ph.D. GPA around 4.0 from good schools and a list of decent publications in good journals. It has been more than 10 years since I got my undergraduate GPA but it just suddenly came to my mind while preparing CV and application.

Your recent publication record is far more important than your grades from way back.  Rather a productive scientist who didn't excel at written exams than someone who can perfectly ace exams but lacks the creativity to produce great science.
Don't worry about it.  Good luck on your job search.

Indeed, it's unlikely they'll even LOOK at your grades, let alone care about them.

Thank you for the assurance. It helps a lot.

Really the only people that will care about undergraduate GPAs are the hiring manager for someone's first job after getting their bachelor's, and the application committees for grad schools. Once you've graduated from grad school, basically no one will care about, or even ask for, undergraduate GPAs. And once you have your first job out of grad school, almost no one will care about your grad school GPA, either. As gerrit said, by that point you have much better metrics for success to be judged on than how well you did exams and homework. Unless explicitly asked, you can pretty much stop including anything about GPAs/coursework on your resumes/CVs after that first job experience out of grad school.


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How do I go about adding a figure from APS journals to Wikipedia?
I would like to add a figure from an article published in Physical Review E to a Wikipedia article. I have already contacted the corresponding author for permission, but I am not sure how I should about requesting permission from the journal in which it is published.
In general, for the Physical Review-series journals, published by APS, how do I go about obtaining the appropriate legal and courteous permission to add published figures to relevant Wikipedia articles? Similarly, how do I properly go about adding figures to Wikipedia which are published solely on the arXiv?

The APS has a very detailed FAQ page about publication rights.  It appears from this answer and this answer that if you have received permission to reuse part of a paper from the author(s), you do not need to seek further permission from APS.  They will grant it automatically, so long as you are not using the actual journal-version PDF file.

As the author of an APS-published article, can I post my article or a portion of my article on a web resource like wikipedia or quantiki?
Sites like wikipedia and quantiki are strict about permissions and require that authors hold copyright to articles that they post there. In order to allow authors to comply with this requirement, APS permits authors to hold copyright to a “derived work” based on an article published in an APS journal as long as the work contains at least 10% new material not covered by APS's copyright and does not contain more than 50% of the text (including equations) of the original article. The APS will extend the author of a “derived work” the right to all papers published in APS journals.
...
As the author of an APS-published article, may I give permission to a colleague or third party to republish all or part of the article in a print publication?
Yes, as the author you may grant permission to third parties to republish print versions of the article provided the APS-published version (e.g., the PDF from the online journal, or a copy of the article from the print journal) is not used for this purpose. The article may not be published in another journal, and the third party may not charge a fee. The appropriate bibliographic citation and notice of the APS copyright must be included.

For arXiv preprints, you should also just need to contact the author.

Thank you. What copyright tags/options should I use when uploading the image in the Wikimedia Upload Wizard?


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Photo on a CV for a researcher application in Japan?
Is a photo on a CV for a researcher (postdoc or faculty) application to a university in Japan

prohibited,

optional, or

necessary?

In the optional case, what are the usual consequences of including/omitting a photo?

Have you read the application carefully?  As I recall, in ads I've seen they often specify (with photo).  I believe one ad I saw said specifically not to include photos.  If it's not specified, see Naveed's answer.

@Kimball I don't read applications — I write them. If you mean ads: of course I read them carefully before asking here.

Yes, I meant ad.  And I ask because there are people who will post questions without carefully reading instructions first.

@Kimball Do you have any evidence suggesting that I might have not carefully read the instructions in the job ads at my disposal first? Or are you simply assuming by default that folks asking here are silly? That's quite an annoying, irritating, and insulting view of yours.

In Japan, it is customary or a general practice to include your photo in your CV [1]. And the eyebrows could be raised on not following the rule as you are unaware of the cultural norms and that could go against you. So, without thinking too much about the level of acceptance, just add one. Well some regions like EU has standard resume templates that they encourage to follow if you are applying for any position in the region. Similarly, in the case of Japan, I would recommend you to use rirekisho website to generate an autoformatted CV that allows you to add your picture [2].

It's general practice in East Asia well beyond Japan as well. I was told that in Taiwan that at least for industry jobs there can be several interviews and an English test, and they want to re-confirm the person's identity for each.

Are you applying in English or Japanese? In my experience (both as a successful applicant and as a hiring committee member), if the job application is in English and you're applying in English for an academic job in an English-speaking environment, then it's expected that you'll submit a Western-style academic CV, as you would in an English-speaking country. In that case it won't hurt if you don't include a photo, although it will also not hurt if you do.
It might be a bit different if you're applying for a job in a more traditional Japanese-speaking environment, especially if you're applying in Japanese. In that case the links in @NaveedAhmed's answer should be helpful.