text:
Agreed to an earlier starting date for my post-doc position, but my question about initially working from home remained unanswered
I recently had a postdoc interview that went well. The appointment was originally set to start in September, but shortly after the meeting they sent me an email asking if I'd be able to start sooner, in July. I said yes and asked if it would be possible for me to do my teaching remotely (in another country) until September, as I originally planned.
Now I've received the written contract, and I will accept the position, but I never got a response for this request. I have the following questions:
1) Is my request reasonable? I think that given the current state of affairs my physical location shouldn't be too relevant for the university, at least until late August/September.
2) Does it hurt to ask?
3) If the answer to (1) is yes, how should I go about asking this? Who would be the right person to talk with? If (1) is a no, thoughts and comments are also welcome.
Edit: the postdoc is in a public US university.

Whether or not we think it is reasonable has little bearing on whether your new work place finds it reasonable...

@JonCuster I understand, but I don't want to come up as someone asking for crazy things.

Well, if couched as wrapping up your current duties, and that it would not interfere with the time you could devote to your new position, there doesn't seem to be a reason to not bring it up with your new advisor. If instead (as an extreme example) you would be spending July-September teaching 40+ hours/week for your old institution while being paid by your new institution, well, that likely isn't happening.

If you don’t want to be at the new post in July why did you agree to it - you surely understood what was being asked...

@SolarMike I wouldn't say that. I'm definitely nervous about such a big change given the current global situation, but I will be there when I'm asked to be. What I'm looking for is some advice on whether I should try to continue this conversation with my employer or not, and if yes, how to do so. I'll think on how to edit the question to make this more clear.

@JonCuster thanks for the advice.

@SolarMike:  Why shouldn't one at least ask if you could start remotly in the current situation? Many people start their new jobs remotly now.

@user111388 because the OP agreed to the conditions - once you agree a contract you should not mess them around...

@SolarMike I disagree for two reasons: 1) I brought this up the moment they asked if I could start earlier. 2) Any hiring process requires clear communication of expectations from both sides. I think there's a problem because academic positions are so competitive that unless you're a top candidate it's hard to think we're allowed to negotiate, but this shouldn't be the case. In any case, thanks for your input!

1) Is my request reasonable? I think that given the current state of affairs my physical location shouldn't be too relevant for the university, at least until late August/September.

The request is reasonable for multiple reasons: 1. since it's for a limited time during your post-doc, 2. since you agreed to an earlier starting date than originally planned, and 3. due to the current pandemic.

2) Does it hurt to ask?

Assuming that your future employers are reasonable, it won't hurt. If they are not reasonable, now (that you have not signed the contract yet) would be an excellent time to find out.

3) If the answer to (1) is yes, how should I go about asking this? Who would be the right person to talk with? If (1) is a no, thoughts and comments are also welcome.

You should ask the same person who asked you if you can start earlier (probably the PI?) - as you already did. I was not nice of them not to answer your question. Probably, they either did not read the question or forgot to answer it. It's absolutely advisable to send a friendly (one-sentence) reminder about your question.


text:
Can I add a GitHub repository as an entry in Google Scholar?
I published a paper, the code for which is uploaded in GitHub.
Is it possible to add the GitHub link as an entry in Google Scholar? If so, can the citations be monitored in the same way as regular publications?

There are two aspects:

In your profile, you can manually create any kind of entry you would like to, including GitHub repositories.
However, the citations of your GitHub repository will probably not be tracked, because Google only tracks citations of things that it considers as actual publications (and which are maintained independently of your profile). From all I have seen, GitHub repositories are not among the kinds of items whose citations are tracked.

Instead, you might want to give people a hint to cite the associated paper. To this end, add a disclaimer at a prominent location in your repository's Readme.MD file:

Cite as: (bibliographic information for the associated paper)

The way with dealing with github repositories in a citable way is to draw a DOI from Zenodo. Zenodo allows you to create a tag or release in the github repository and make that citable.
I don't know specifically whether google scholar indexes that, but at least it is something you can put into a list of references.

You can cite the URLs of your repository with @misc in your BibTeX file
(see https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/35977/how-to-add-a-url-to-a-latex-bibtex-file )
If your goal is to receive indexed citations, the clean way to do it is to write in the beginning of your README something like:
"This repository contains the code relative to [paper]. Please cite [paper] when referring to this repository."

Google indexes things by crawling the internet, you don't usually add things to Google except to help collect the things Google has found into your personal profile (you can also manually add items to your profile that Google has not indexed, but I do not believe these will appear in searches by others or have any other functionality besides appearing in your profile; see also https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/143964/63475).
Generally, if there is a paper that goes with some code, people will cite the paper rather than github. If they link to github this will probably be in their code, not their paper, and isn't an academic citation but rather attribution as often required by the license you distribute your work under. There are even particular journals like https://www.jstatsoft.org/index that primarily publish papers that describe/link to software packages.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
How to refer to a source with typos in the title?
How to cite a paper with a typographical error in the title. In the reference list, should I correct it (and make it hard to find) or let it as is (and make an impression I was sloppy)?

In one of my papers, the publisher misspelled a word on the back cover but spelled it correctly on the first page of the article. This leaves me puzzled as to what the "official" title of my paper is. Fortunately, by using page and volume numbers and the title of the journal, I can inform others exactly what paper I an referring to.

@user6726, in that case I'd go with the version that gets more google hits when the entire title is in quotes.  In fact that would be helpful (if not necessarily completely valid) in the OP's case.

Who would perform this search if, say, a DOI is given?

@Raphael a reader on paper?  It's much easier to type a line of familiar words than a random string (some DOIs can be quite long).  Also "*if a DOI is given" -- I choose not to assume that, as a general rule.

It appears that among the dozens of papers that cite the 1961 title "On the Commutivity of the Closure and Interior Operators in Topological Spaces" not a single one has ever cited it verbatim.  After decades of unconsciously writing "Commutativity" myself when citing it, here's what finally tipped me off to the misspelling in the original: JSTOR misspelled it "Community."

This would be an excellent time to use the Latin sic:

("thus"; in full: sic erat scriptum, "thus was it written") inserted after a quoted word or passage, indicates that the quoted matter has been transcribed exactly as found in the source text, complete with any erroneous or archaic spelling, surprising assertion, faulty reasoning, or other matter that might otherwise be taken as an error of transcription. source

It is commonly used as a suffix in bracketed form after a citation e.g.

Charmley, John (2006). “The Princess and the Politicians” [sic]

or used after an erroneous word or passage

She wrote, “They made there [sic] beds.”

"latin[sic] [sic]" -- should be "Latin [sic]", right? ...bah, I need to know how to refer to a source with typos and [sic] in it :)

@onedaywhen: Backslashes?

What's wrong with "The Princess and the Politicians"?

@LightnessRacesinOrbit Whilst editing I actually removed one s from princess but my iPhone corrected it. Should be good after it has been reviewed and accepted.

Have you actually seen the use of [sic] in the references section of an academic paper? Do publishers actually accept it since it probably messes up with their automatic reference management?

Please stop suggesting edits to change Princess to Princes. The actual title is Princess, though one might expect Princes – that’s the entire point of this example (which was evidently well chosen).

I think this answer should be treated as incomplete, or wrong, until an explicit example of the use of [sic] in the references section of an academic article is given.

@onedaywhen English Stack Exchange on the case: How do you quote a passage that has used '[sic]' mistakenly?

Do not correct it.
The purpose of references is to help readers locate your sources as easily as possible. Correcting titles might give the impression that you are referring to another work.

@schester Google Scholar is too clever to care. But the professional databases are not.

+1 a copy editor approves this answer. We do introduce typos, even in titles. That's life. There is no need to point out the fact that it was a mistake; that's irrelevant at this point.

Do not correct it, if its only in the reference list then that's completely fine. If you actually refer to the name of the paper in yours, you may add "(Sic)" afterwards. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sic )

My personal solution to this is using square brackets, as often used for editorial adjustments. (In the sense of Brown: "This is a great idea." → Brown claims that "[t]his is a great idea.")
Similarly, you can cite

White, J. "A solution to the thee-body problem"

as

White, J. "A solution to the th[r]ee-body problem"

I think it's obvious enough that the [r] was inserted to improve an error and not the other way around. Also, if it were a play on words between "thee" and "three", it would be much more likely that round brackets were used, as in "th(r)ee". Outside formulae I would understand square brackets to be used for said "editorial adjustments" almost exclusively.
This best works when there is an extra or missing letter, but then all the typos I've come across in titles were of this type. For more serious errors, I would use [sic] or (sic). Also adding doi to a citation and paying attention to the issue numbers (which are sometimes not even printed on the published version) can help track down a paper with a misspelled title.

"Improve an error", now that is a new concept ;-)

@vonbrand Well, the error is not completely corrected, otherwise it would be "three" not "th[r]ee" =)

And how would you improve the threee-body problem?

@Davidmh I would say thr[e]ee or thre[e]e or three[e]. Now it should be clear enough that the [e] was inserted to not improve the error, but to be faithful to the original title, which contains a typo.

It's quite possible to write an article that has a bona fide "th[r]ee" in its title (both "thee" and "three" are correct English words). If I found your "solution to the th[r]ee-body problem", my first instinct would be to google it as-is. I don't think that "it should be clear enough" what is meant. Much better to use "sic", which serves exactly this purpose.

And a cut an paste search might fail because of the [r].

@EthanBolker That's why I suggested doi or at least volume, issue and page numbers. Anyway, Google is good at getting results by ignoring brackets, or replacing square brackets with round brackets. I found both instances of misspelled titles I know of on the first page with cut&paste with the square brackets. Of course, journal search engines aren't as smart.

@EthanBolker: I don't think we need spend too much energy pandering to people whose personal efforts cannot go beyond copy & paste.

@StephanKolassa I intentionally chose thee/three to be ambiguous. I still think that if this were a play on words, it would most likely have been written with round brackets, like "th(r)ee", and I perceive "th[r]ee" to be almost unambiguously an editorial correction.

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

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


text:
Why does an admissions committee need to look at the whole transcript?
Admissions committees look at a student's entire transcript to get an understanding of their academic abilities. Why is it not sufficient to judge a student's academics based on GPA alone?

The problem with GPA as a measure is that it just mixes together a bunch of different classes indiscriminately.  Consider these three different students:

This student is pretty steady, but not great, and tends to get an even mix of As and Bs across all of their classes, obtaining a 3.5 GPA.
This student always takes the class with the easiest grading policy whenever they can, and tends to get mostly As in the "easy" classes. When they cannot evade a "hard" class, they get mostly Cs, resulting in a 3.5 GPA.
This student is very strong and gets mostly As, but there was one semester when family problems disrupted their life, and missed assignments caused them to get Bs and two Fs, also ending up with a 3.5 GPA.

As you can see, even though all of these students get exactly the same GPA, they are very different. Student #2 is clearly far weaker than Student #1, who is in turn weaker than Student #3, whose GPA has been strongly affected by the one  problem area.
If we can see which classes they took and what grades they got on those classes, we still don't have the full story, but can get much closer to an appropriate evaluation of each student's actual strengths.
This set of pages at Berkeley may be useful.

@aparente001 This set of pages at Berkeley may be useful: http://collegetools.berkeley.edu/resources.php?cat_id=8

There's also Student #4, who had a C average in the subject they want to do grad studies in, but an A- everywhere else.  Or Student #5, who was the other way around.  Calculating "major GPA" can get around this somewhat, but not all places do this automatically when they issue a transcript.

In addition to jakebeal's answer-
Grad schools are looking for people who will make good researchers. We figured out long ago that great students (who have good GPAs) are not necessarily great researchers. Similarly, some students with middling GPAs can be great researchers, even though they didn't score top-tier grades.
A graduate admissions board is probably far more interested in a 3.5 student with a a research project or two rather than a 4.0 student with no extra-curriculars. (In fairness, I do know of a few people who take the opposite viewpoint- they get enough 3.9's and 4.0's applying to their programs that they don't see any value in considering other students. However, those people do not serve on admissions committees.)
For a more decision-centric answer, GPA by itself can only really be used to exclude people. You might discard the bottom 50% of applications by GPA, or you might establish a hard cutoff by saying you must have a 3.0 or higher. It doesn't give you good reasons to include people, and when committees make these decisions what they really want to do is find great reasons to include applicants.
Consider how these three statements would sound to someone who is trying to figure out who will make a good researcher:
"This person has a 4.0 GPA."
"This person was an excellent student."
"This person has some research experience and would like to understand better how to build city-scale sensor networks."

There are two major reasons, both of which boil down to "Context".

Graduate school is not "Undergrad+". There are few if any distribution requirements, and your coursework will follow a pretty specific subject. In contrast, your GPA is an amalgamation of all the classes you have ever taken. To use myself as an example, some major components of my GPA stemmed from 4 semesters of German, a feminist art history class on the middle ages (which was amazing) and a class on Grimm's Fairy Tales. As importantly, a number of classes didn't count toward my calculated GPA because they were taken while I was studying abroad, and thus the credits simply transferred. Most of these classes were in Microbiology. Assume I barely passed all of those. If I was applying to a microbiology program, do you think they'd prefer to see those classes broken out individually, or a composite score that's heavily influenced by being able to give reasons why the Bayeux Tapestry is more properly an embroidery, and why the Saxons in said embroidery are depicted wielding axes?
It lets the admissions committee actually look at you as a whole person. Did you take some classes outside your major that would never the less be useful? How well did you do in them? Did you take classically challenging classes (Organic Chemistry) that might explain why your GPA took a hit, or were you simply a middling student?

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


text:
Is the level of difficulty of the Physics GRE on a par with the Math GRE?
I have been speaking to someone who is going to take the Physics GRE, and to get an understanding of what that entails, I wanted to compare it to the one subject GRE I had personal experience with: the Math GRE.
How does the level of difficulty and preparation time required for the Physics GRE compare to the Math GRE?


text:
Preprint request etiquette
I am collaborating on a disability advocacy project with someone, let's call her A, who was told by medical researcher B:

Some collaborators and I have an article coming out soon which would lend strong support to your project.  I will write you a summary report of our findings and send it to you soon.

I would like to look at the whole article asap to evaluate how well it fits with our project, and to see whether we should make any adjustments to what we have already written, in other words, to incorporate some of B's data and interpretation into our project.  B is reportedly concerned that the government official that A and I are working with (and working on) will not have the time and inclination to read the article itself.  There is an undercurrent of ivory tower snobbery.  (Background information: A is extremely knowledgeable about the disability and is a skilled advocate but she's not strong on reading journal articles on our topic.)
Ideally, from my point of view, B shares the preprint with us and lets us decide whether to submit it along with, or instead of, the summary.  (I do not have direct communication with B.)

What is technically permitted?  Supposedly the article has been accepted for publication.  If that is true, is B permitted to share a preprint?
What is the etiquette for requesting a preprint?

Question 1 probably depends more on the publication venue and its terms & conditions. As for question 2 -- what do you mean by "etiquette"? Isn't a simple email saying "hi, saw your article listed on the conference/journal proceedings and was hoping I could get a preprint" enough?

Question 1 has nothing to do with the publication process, but rather with the coauthors if there are any. (At least in math.) But I'd be careful with statements like "which would lend strong support" before seeing the preprint. Perhaps, once you see it, you decide it is not worth the support anymore? (Abstracts and talks tend to create overly strong expectations for the content of the work, even in exact disciplines such as mathematics. Not to mention that you may discover the methods to be flawed or worse.)

@tonysdg - But I didn't see it listed anywhere.  I heard about it from collaborator A.

@darijgrinberg - You've hit the nail on the head.  I completely understand that B would be excited about her study.  But I need to see it myself, and since we're trying to get our project out the door quickly, I need to see it soon.

It depends on the agreement between the author and the publisher.  However, I've never heard of a case where an author would not be allowed to share a preprint privately.  (Some publishers do forbid preprints to be posted on public websites or repositories.)
Since the author has already expressed willingness to share a summary, I would write something like:

I appreciate your taking the time to prepare a summary.  If you would be willing to share a preprint of the article itself, I would find that very helpful as well.  Otherwise, I will look forward to reading it when it is published.

I used this as a starting point and changed it a little bit.  I wrote an email to B, and sent it to A, asking her to forward it to B.  She did, but we have received nothing from B.  However, C (another collaborator of A's) sent us two papers that don't help at all.  (I had already found four papers that lend specific support to our proposal, that are a much better fit.)  So, we will finalize without any input from B.  At least we tried.


text:
How do I get an email alert when my paper is cited?
I recently published a paper in a journal which does not offer a notification system to send email alerts when a paper is cited. The journal is a well known and has a high-impact factor in my field. Are there free services which can automatically send me an email alert when my paper is cited in another publication?

Scopus does this, too, if your university has a subscription. It will give you citations from published papers only, though, which means significantly fewer than Google Scholar and significantly later in time.

Academia.edu must offer this.  Even though I didn's sign up for them, I keep getting emails from them like "Gerald Edgar" was mentioned by "....", with a link View your mentions.

You can set up an alert on Google scholar that will do exactly what you want. From Google's help page:

How do I get notified when a particular paper is cited?
Search for the title of your paper, e.g., "Anti de Sitter space and
holography"; click on the "Cited by" link at the bottom of the search
result; and then click on the envelope icon in the left sidebar of the
search results page.

An even more effective way can be to set up a google scholar citation profile and select "Follow new citations" from the appropriate checkbox in the "Follow"/"Following" menu of your own profile.

Last sentence instructions seem a little out of date. I added a new answer with how to set up the automatic notifications for all citations on your articles.

The top answer mentions setting up a "google scholar citation profile" to get notified automatically when any of your articles are cited. Those instructions may be out of date, so here's how to do it as of June 2018:

Go to your own google scholar profile (you probably have to set one up first)
Click the blue "Follow" button
Select one or more of the three checkboxes: "New articles in my profile", "New citations to my articles", "Recommended articles".

If you like, you can also subscribe to these categories for other researchers' pages (probably "new articles" is the most useful in that case).
All of these email notifications can be listed and managed, along with your keyword alerts, in your Scholar Alerts page, which can be found at https://scholar.google.com/scholar_alerts?view_op=list_alerts&hl=en.

If you work in a fields whose main journals are indexed by the "Astrophysics Data System" (e.g., astronomy, astrophysics, or space science), you can use the ADS Citation Bot.  This bot will send you either an email or a tweet  when a new citation to one of your papers has appeared.

Another option would be ResearchGate . It a bit like facebook for academia (e.g., you can additionally follow people and get alerts when they publish new research). It's free, so you can give it a try.

And you get a lot of free spam, too!

I have used ResearchGate to find papers that I either cannot find elsewhere or that my library does not have a subscription for. That's about the only use it has. The "discussions" on the site are full of crackpot theories.

@MarcClaesen I don't know if ResearchGate is responsible for some of the spam I receive (it might be), or do you mean all the messages from RG itself? You can deactivate the notifications that you don't want.

@Moriarty Don't get me wrong, I'm not a RG fanboy! It's true, the discussions (and the ranking system) are IMHO often not very helpful. But I the citation notifications and the paper request system can be helpful.

I'm not even signed up for research gate and get a lot of spam emails from them. I would not recommend a company who works like this.


text:
What incentives does an advisor have to help PhD students graduate in a timely manner?
I've heard it suggested several times on this site that advisors (especially in experimental fields where the PI may benefit from a cheap, highly skilled workforce) have an incentive to prevent their PhD students from graduating in a timely manner, or at least that they have no incentive to actively promote graduation when the student is "ready." (Whatever "ready" means for that particular student.)
For example, user47148 says

You are the only one who cares if you finish. To your advisor you are cheap labor.

bfoste01 says

I often wonder if keeping highly-skilled cheap labor around to do something with the data that a PI is collecting from a high-profile grant is often an implicit factor that impacts students' trajectories. In which case it is not uncommon to see students in their 6th or 7th year of the program receive funding.

and grandmah77 refers to

keeping your advisor from keeping you there forever as cheap labor.

I am interested in learning more about the opposite: what incentives do advisors have to help their students graduate as soon as they're ready?
This question discusses incentives for advisors to increase their PhD completion rate. Presumably this is part of the answer, because a student who isn't allowed to graduate in a timely manner might just drop out instead.
But besides for that, what incentives (if any) does an advisor have to help students graduate when they are ready, rather than dragging out the length of their degree?
(In some programs, there are policies that limit the duration of PhD funding. I'm asking about programs where PhD students can potentially hang on for several years past the mean time-to-degree.)
P.S. answers supported by references to actual data would be amazing.

IMO, this topic feels like it is especially geared towards experimental fields. In the mathematics department I attend, I haven't heard about students staying on for longer than necessary for finishing their PhD thesis. Most of the students who stayed longer did so because they were finishing up a paper with their advisor and/or waiting for applications.
I think that each (well, maybe not all..) graduated student is a valuable extension of the professors network to other universities/companies, so that would be an incentive to let students graduate on-time.

Is an answer from my perspective acceptable for you? I can provide some observations about PhD studentship in Turkey.

@cagirici Sure, if you have an answer about how an advisor can benefit from their PhD students graduating on time. (It's always a good idea to state your context in the answer.)

A lot of students misinterpret criticism of their work, or the consequence of their own procrastination for their adviser's conspiring to take advantage of them. I think the "cheap labor" meme is vastly exaggerated.

@CapeCode I agree it may be exaggerated, although I do know of a few specific instances where an advisor definitely held on to a student too long. My own personal experience is the opposite - my advisor very strongly encourages us to graduate on time. My motivation in asking this question is to find out if there's any reason he's so eager to get rid of us :)

Also, there is a strong (negative) bias in the questions on this site: nobody comes asking how come their adviser agrees that they are ready to graduate... However, I have seen the 'cheap labor' effect in action. I also recall a student who ended up with a two-volume thesis - in that case the committee berated the adviser for keeping them around so long, but the reply was that the student was on (well-) paid leave from a company and chose to stay as long as they could, doing interesting stuff, before returning to work. Clearly, mileage varies...

@CapeCode why is this exaggerated? In some fields (CS, AI, ML) the difference between a phd stipend and an average salary in industry can be 4-5x. So no surprise that someone would like to build you a robot for a taxi driver's salary.

At my (former UK) University a simple but drastic measure: You have three years to finish a PhD, you get 1 year overtime. If you have not submitted within 4 years you have failed your PhD.
(There are extenuating circumstance which I believe can buy you another 6 months or so - but these will need to be substantial enough and have to go to admin.)

I don't really see how it's helpful to ask this in a general sense, when this is strongly dependent on location and on the specific institution. The difference between the US (where universities are happy for students to go on for seven years or more) and the UK (where it's a pretty universal rule that is you haven't submitted by 4 years you're out unless you can show special circumstances) is staggering. The incentives can vary from "none" to "graduate them on time, or not at all". Given this, I'm surprised this comes from a moderator.

@E.P. I did specify in my post that I'm asking about programs "where PhD students can potentially hang on for several years past the mean time-to-degree" i.e. I'm excluding programs where if "you haven't submitted by 4 years you're out." If you can think of specific details that are necessary to answer the question, please ask for them.

I'm mostly bothered by the fact that any useful answer will necessarily be very localized to a specific country and most probably a specific institution or funding stream, i.e. it won't be particularly useful. As it is, the universal aspects are close to platitudes ("it's just nice to do it") and that's what most of the answers have stuck to. It's a nice thing to ask, but I don't see this as a useful question, or as a useful model for questions to be asked on this site. Keeping the question to tangibles and asking for per-country aspects would help, but it's probably too late now.

I am rather concerned with advisor forcing me to graduate as he constantly turned down the research topic I want to pursue and said I have to focus on my thesis, the topic of which I hate and have absoluely no freedom to choose.

This is very simple. I care about my students, and want the best for them. Languishing in graduate school is rarely optimal for anyone. And then there is the issue of funding. For the same reason -- concern for my students' wellbeing -- it is very important to me to provide them with RA funding as close to year-around as possible. If funding starts to get tight, it doesn't help to have someone taking a luxury sixth year when he or she could have graduated earlier. I'd rather have everyone funded on RAships than have so-called "cheap labor" from senior students while junior students are forced to TA.
If the question is referring to why even a sociopathic advisor would want his or her students to graduate on time, there is some prestige in having students graduate quickly and move on to good positions, and some shame in having students in their sixth, seventh, and later years.

The incentives vary strongly by location, although I think the usual driver is monetary. For instance, in Germany, it is difficult to be employed as a PhD student at a single university for more than six years (following the completion of the master's degree). Moreover, because the recruiting of PhD students is often done "from within," if a professor becomes known for not graduating students, it can hurt long-term recruiting. (Also, DFG funding typically can be extended on a single project for five years.)
For US professors, there may be an expectation of graduating a certain number of students as part of the requirements for being granted tenure. However, I think the bigger incentive is that beyond a certain point it becomes too difficult to keep finding funding for a long-term student.

Is there any reason for an advisor in Germany to graduate a student after 5 years when they can keep them for 6?

Yes, there is: DFG funding typically only runs up to five years (except for large-scale initiatives).

Any reason for a professor to graduate a student who's ready to graduate, but for whom there's still a source of funding? (Is there any reason besides funding?)

@ff524: Available office space, doctoral degrees completed in an institute per year, and shifting experienced employees forward to higher positions (postdoc or externally, while they're still "fresh and good") come to my mind. If I have some time later, I will add a more elaborate answer of my own.

I think the bigger incentive is that beyond a certain point it becomes too difficult to keep finding funding for a long-term student Unless your name is  Mike Slackenerny.

At least at the university i'm at in the UK (and I belive this is true in the UK more generally and is pushed on them but some national body though i'm not sure offhand which) there is a 4 year limit on regular full time PhDs that can only be extended in exceptional circumstances. Students who fall off the end of said limit reflect badly on the department. Things that reflect badly on the department tend to result in the head of department having a go at the indidvidual academics who caused it
I belive this came about precisely because so many PhDs were dragging on for years and it was considered desirable to put pressure on both students and academics to finish up the PhD and move on.

Indeed. In France, in sciences (humanities are different), one easy reason advisors don't hold on to students is that the university won't let them.

Indeed - 4 year limit, though I do definitely disagree with it. In practice there shouldn't be anything keeping you from submitting a thesis even after 20 years IF your advisers are happy for you to still submit or willing to find someone to cover the supervision.
Incidentally, given the state of some places of academia and the very political "topic chasing" as well as the diverse background of PhD students, it isn't unusual for students to submit close to the end of the 4 years... (due to having to read about the topic, then finding a lack of equipment, etc.)

Prospective Ph.D. students talk to each other. Smart applicants will notice that a potential supervisor's students take a long time to finish, and they will go elsewhere. Professors looking for good Ph.D. students need to be attractive to candidates, too, so they have an incentive to do their best by them: supervise and coach them well, help them in their careers (also post-Ph.D.), integrate them in their network, connect them to other relevant people... and get them to graduate soon.
And if you have a good Ph.D. student, he will do his best to get the job done, write publications and graduate. I assume most professors would rather have two smart and driven students that do their Ph.D.s in three years back-to-back, than a single laid back student that takes six years and ends up with half as many publications as the two good students had after six years.
Finally, the most important driver will likely be that your money runs out. In Germany, grants are typically for three years, and you are expected to have finished both the study and the Ph.D. student's Ph.D. by that time. If you need more money, it will be progressively harder to get. Funding agencies notice whether you get your results in three years, too.
EDIT: a longer list of Ph.D. students also looks nicer on a professor's CV. Better to have supervised two students in a six-year time span than only one. This is also sometimes incentivized by universities, in the form of a modest cash bonus per graduated Ph.D. student, or per Ph.D. student that graduated without taking longer than x years.

Pride, and the sentiment of a job well done.
Sure, as a supervisor, one is the student's "boss", in some places in the world, it's even formally the case (where PhD students are employees). But the adviser-student relationship is also the one of an experienced academic guiding a promising student on the path to become independent and start contributing to the field.
Getting the PhD degree is a milestone on that path, it's the point where an adviser feels confident that the student is mature and that the work enclosed in the thesis will be looked as worthy of the degree by everyone in the field. Some people are perfectionists and think as long as there is funding, there's an opportunity to make the work even stronger, but other than that, who would want to delay that sentiment?

Mostly because it is very difficult to get the funding to extend the duration of the PhD position significantly. This is a very strong "motivation" for both student and professor, and there is no need for another one.
Failure to produce the descent PhD thesis during the allocated time would harm the reputation of both.
As a result, a professor usually cares about the success of the PhD studies. If the student is really bad, he is normally discarded as early as possible, way before the end of the PhD duration. Similarly, if there are some problems with professor, laboratory or research topic (also happens), a PhD student normally tries to migrate to another laboratory and this is relatively easy to do.

It shouldn't really harm a PhD student if they fail in the end - the question is why they fail.
It would cause more harm if starting a PhD is synonymous with obtaining a PhD.


text:
Finding non-REU funding for my undergrad math students
As a professor, I am sometimes asked to help undergrads (I'm currently at the University of Michigan) find funding for math research during the summer. In the past I have seen some get funding from the NSF REU program. The only problem with this is that it is only 8 weeks (At least at my school). Are there any other research grants that are given to undergrads that could last the entire summer?

Mechanisms for funding research are on-topic.

Edited to ask question from professor's viewpoint, in line with this site's guidelines r/t avoiding questions pertaining only to undergraduate students.

I'd also ask around your department. Many universities have various summer research fellowships available. For example, one enterprising student in my lab found money through NASA that was administered through the physics department but also funded math, science, engineering, etc.
Also, most funding organizations are happy to "pad" a research grant with 1-2 undergrad research positions. I usually add these to my budget when submitting. While other areas get trimmed, the undergrad positions have never been a problem.

Probably you are asking about programs, rather than grants.  Typically only faculty receive grants.  There are a variety of search tools available for these programs.  Typically the most flexible situations undergrads can get come from the undergraduate's university office of undergraduate research or from a faculty member the student knows who is willing to hire undergraduates using grant money.  Most of the government research funding agencies offer a summer research program.  These typically range from 8 to 12 weeks in duration and are not usually flexible, though I have heard of accommodations being made for students whose classes end late.


text:
How to present a review paper at a conference?
I sent an abstract of a review paper for oral presentation to a conference, and it was accepted. The presentation will be about the most important developments and contributions made in the last decade on my specific area of research. Now I am preparing the speech, but I am not sure how to give a 12-minutes speech about all the work that has been done (it's a lot). Can someone give some suggestions on how to do a nice presentation about a review paper?

In 12 minutes, the best you can do for your audience is highlight four to six broad observations or conclusions about the state of research. Here are some questions you might address with your observations:

Are the lines of research diverging and multiplying, or converging and consolidating?
Has it divided into "factions" or "schools" that define problems, methods, and solutions differently?  Or is all research operating under a single paradigm?
What's the influence and interaction with other fields and disciplines?
Where has research made progress addressing fundamental questions?  Where has research made no meaningful progress?
Where should researchers look for the most promising research directions and under-explored areas?

Don't try to make more than six observations in 12 minutes. By trying to say more, you are actually communicating less effectively.  Any one who wants the full story can read your paper.


text:
Difference between Poster Session and Oral Session
I'm a student with a question on conferences. What is the main difference between an oral session and a poster session? I want to know the difference in detail.
I can understand the meaning a little bit, but what else can you tell me about the differences in the details?

In an oral session, speakers present their work one-by-one in a series of short lectures (usually no more than 30 minutes, and potentially as little as 10 minutes). Each speaker presents, takes questions for a few minutes, and is followed by the next one. These presentations are usually in a room with a seated audience, in a lecture-style format.
In a poster session, a number of presenters each prepare a poster (in a standard size) and mount them on boards in a large room. For a fixed period of time during the conference, all participants are invited to wander round the posters, reading and asking questions as they deem fit. Poster presenters typically stand by the posters and answer questions as people come by.
For more information, see:

Talks vs. poster presentations: Which is better for advertising your research and building research networks?
How important are poster sessions in conferences?
What are some general good principles for creating a poster for a poster session?


text:
Helping spouse adjust when relocating for an academic position?
I am moving to a new place to take a new academic position.  Now that we have committed to it, what can I do to help my spouse adjust to or enjoy the new location?  We are both academics.
Edit: Several considerations were made in wording the question.  1.  Questions that are specific to a particular situation are discouraged here.  2.  I am past the negotiation stage so I do not want negotiation advice. (Yes, my spouse had many chances to change our plans.)  3.  Presumably this situation will occur to dual-career couples at most career stages.  Therefore I am thinking beyond my current situation in anticipation of the next one.  Answers from people who have been in this situation are appreciated.

You write the question as if you made the decision without consulting with your spouse.  That's really an unacceptable way to start this process...

A priori there's a symmetry between you and your spouse.  Presumably the backstory to the question is that this symmetry has been broken in a way more favorable to your career or preferences.  What isn't clear is what sort of answers you are looking for.  Talking about helping your spouse adjust to or enjoy the new location sounds condescending (although I imagine you didn't mean it that way), like your spouse is a petulant child who has to be coaxed or guided into accepting what you know is best.  More details about what you are looking for could make this more productive.

@BrianBorchers My goodness, I hope this is just badly worded. But I agree that it currently sounds an awful lot like "I already took a position, how to talk the ol' ball-and-chain into it?".

I am trying hard to answer this question, but all I can come up with is "As a rule, one does not "commit" to a new position and then think about what the spouse is supposed to do at the new place.", so I'll leave it at that.

I think there's no need to be judgmental, especially since we know almost nothing about OP's situation. The way relationships work is a matter of 'culture' and opinion.

I, too, tried to write an answer but not knowing how far along you two are with your careers and whether you're in similar fields, it felt like all speculation and potentially unhelpful so I didn't post it. Please give more details, especially what's the problem you're expecting?

I was surprised to get so many offensive responses to my question.  In this case, I was offered only one job and my spouse did not apply for any jobs.  Our choice was to take the job (which is a pretty good one) or risk being left with nothing.  So we took the job.  We are in different fields.

Please do not interpret the comments as offensive; I am sure the authors did not mean them to be. Often people seem more blunt than they mean in writing, especially when they are trying to be brief. Note, on the other hand, that many of these misunderstandings are caused by missing details. Your question could indeed use a few more words: what is your spouse's current position? Did he/she leave an academic job to move away with you? Is there any prospect for him/her at your university? What was your plan when you two discussed it together?

I apologize for causing offense, but I still don't understand what you're looking for.  The usual advice about moving applies (make friends, try activities, explore the area, invite friends/family to visit, focus on the benefits of the new place rather than what you miss), but there's nothing specific to academia about that.  There's a lot to be said about supporting a trailing spouse who is trying to maintain an academic career, but it's not clear that this is what you're talking about (since your spouse didn't apply for any jobs).  So I don't know what sort of answer you would find helpful.

The answer depends on the academic ambition of your spouse. If she/he has none, your question is borderline off-topic on this site. In this case, you can look into things similar to the Harvard Spouse & Partners Association, which I personally would only join with a gun to my head, but might be something your spouse is into.
The rest of my answer assume she/he wishes to stay in the academic loop.
From what I saw in several universities in Europe and the US, several universities try to take into account dual career ambitions. Especially if your spouse is a woman, chances are the institution that hired you will consider creating some sort of academic position for her. Look for things like 'gender-equality office' to have more information on the topic.
If there is no such thing, I know that some people attend classes and seminars in the local universities (this is true in universities unlike Harvard, were guest attendance is allowed and free). Some volunteer as lab assistants. Some join local chapters of scientific societies (a good way to meet potential employers or hear about academic opportunities).

I was told the other week that the new undergraduates' top priority for freshers' week is 'find a friend'. I think that's very important for anyone moving to a new city. Ignoring the academic aspect, I would encourage you to think about what social life both of you will have outside work, other than your time with each other. What things do you each enjoy doing? Are there ways you can make contacts before you arrive? Will your choice of living arrangements affect what opportunities are open to you? Do you need to make sure you each have suitable transport? How will you stay in contact with friends and family elsewhere? Can you find a replacement for your favourite restaurant/park/...?

(answering self) In retrospect, getting my spouse a good gym membership was very helpful.


text:
Appropriate process for following up on university job posting
I figure someone on here is involved in hiring in academia, so here we go.
A few years ago I left university work for private industry, and have since decided I hate it. I'm looking at moving back into a university. To that end, I found a job at a local school and applied 1.5 weeks ago. The job is now off the website.
I just found the managing director of the program on LinkedIn, and it's very tempting to follow up with him. In private industry this would be fine, but I'm not sure how this would work for a university. Would it be acceptable, or should I just keep refreshing my application on the university website? What is the appropriate process for following up on a job application in academia ?

What kind of job did you apply for? And what part of the world are you in?

Staff position, US.

Ok, thanks for clarifying. I was getting ready to write a detailed answer regarding faculty hiring, which would have been totally irrelevant.

Note: I'm assuming this is for a regular staff or research staff (lab tech/manager but not post-doc) position. I'm also going to assume you're in the USA.
We just ran a search for a staff position in my program at my large research university. The union rules for my university specify that we can must first open the search for internal candidates before allowing externals to apply. If there is an internal candidate, they get priority before any externals can be considered.

Internal candidate: Someone already with a position in the university staffing pools looking to transfer jobs or someone in the university layoff pool
External candidate: Someone who does not have a job with the university and was not laid off from the university in the last 180 (or so, union rules are byzantine) days

Although we had some good external candidates, we essentially could not consider them as we also had good internal candidates. Contacting the lab manager or program head (in my case) about the search via non-HR approved means would not have been productive.
You might as well try (what are they going to do, fire you?) but be prepared to be turned down or have your e-mail ignored as university hiring tends to be done strictly by the books in most American universities.

Yep, it's a staff position. I never did much hiring when I worked for a university before, so I couldn't remember all of the rules. I was just worried about contacting on something like linkedin, even just to ask about how the hiring process was going, would reflect badly on me.

If it were me, I'd note your enthusiasm but the fact you weren't contacted indicates to me that the position was filled internally. Usually we don't send the Dear John/Dear Jane letters until the new staffer takes up the position, so it can be up to a month for you negative responses to get sent out.

And don't use linkedin, just send a regular e-mail to the campus e-mail address of the head of the search or hr rep.

It's only been a week since the position was removed from the site. I was hoping I wasn't completely out of the running.


text:
PhD four years ago; can I publish a paper from PhD work without my supervisor's name?
I did my PhD 4 years ago. I was not comfortable with my guide but I concentrated on my work, and I successfully completed the PhD. But I published a little work with his name as correspondence author. But now I am in good position in another country, so I need to publish my PhD work without his name as co-author. If I publish a paper of my PhD work without my supervisor's name, what will be happen? Are there any legal problems that will be raised?

In what sense do you "need" to publish without him as a co-author? Why do you think it is relevant that you finished your PhD four years ago? Do you think it would be different if it was four months? Forty years? (It wouldn't.)

What field are you in? Most social sciences, it'd be fine but I'm assuming you're in the natural sciences?

@Parsa This is not a duplicate. The linked question is about work done after completing the PhD; this question is about work done during the PhD (but not published yet).

at first I misread as "I don't need to publish with his name", but even in that case there are still the concerns about contributions

You have left at least two important things unanswered:

Has your supervisor contributed to your work? (How contribution is measured depends on the field you are working in, it could be through "real" intellectual contribution, feedback, funding, ...)

But now I am in good position in another country so I need to publish
  my PhD work without his name as co author.

Why do you need to publish without his name as a co-author?

If I publish a paper of my PhD work without my supervisor name, what
  will be happen? Is there any legal problems will raised?

If he has contributed to your work, there may be several legal problems such as   fraud or copyright infringement.
If you are sure that he has not contributed in any way to your thesis (which is unlikely) then you are fine to publish on your own. Otherwise you should talk to him and ask him if he thinks he has made a significant contribution and wants to be your co-author.

And regardless of he deserving coauthorship, you are at risk you will end up in a messy fight about plagiarism, that cannot be good for any.

@Davidmh: it shouldn't be plagiarism, unless the supervisor actually wrote his PhD thesis, which I think is unlikely. But you're right that avoiding fights is a good thing.

It is fairly common for sole authored papers to be regarded as very important for someone's career.   Also, can you cite any examples of suing for fraud or copyright infringement where someone believes they contributed ideas to a paper (that is they didn't actually write the paper?)

Also, I feel that the standard required for a PhD supervisor to be a co-author may be field and even country specific. There are fields  (and countries) where the PhD supervisor has to have contributed as much as any other author. That is merely  having discussed the project with the other authors is not sufficient.

If you have discussed the paper with your supervisor in the past years; then your publication should meet his rights on the paper as he has previously contributed to your paper. Furthermore, if your research paper is done under financial support of your PhD university; then you have to acknowledge their rights too.
I think that the contribution of a co-author to a paper is important in acknowledging their right in project or paper, their supervision to your PhD thesis does not bring any right to your further (after graduation) academic publications.
As an instance, a paper is written based on a supervisor's contribution to it and it is part of a chapter of your PhD thesis; so it is obvious that you have to contact him about your paper. But if after graduation in the recent years you have found a good idea and worked on it without help of nobody else so there is no need to talk about your paper with others.
As a general rule, if you have never discussed your research project or paper with your supervisor, he has never contributed to your paper, you never used his resources, your PhD university does not hold any right to your paper idea and you meet the rights of financial supporter of your paper; then you may publish your paper solely. Otherwise, you have to meet their rights in your publication. Also, please note that one may build his academic relationship based on this rule to the other colleagues or students too. If and only if they have contributed to your paper, they can be a co-author of that paper.
I understand that you are a better researcher after a few years but I think that talking to a senior researcher and professor and asking him to read your paper will allow you to find your mistakes and publish better papers. Also, working with other researchers will add to your reputations and build connections with them. They may also contribute their papers with you and may ask you to read their papers in future.

This question has good answers to this question:
Advisor's/University's rights in the PhD/MSc alumni's research projects and publications

...your publication should meet his rights on the paper IF he has previously contributed to your paper. Discussing your ongoing work with someone, supervisor or not, does not automatically entitle that person to coauthorship.

Your new paper is based on your previous work, so if he has helped you in this new paper then give him credit. But it seems that this new paper is strictly your work, and no credit would be due. BUT you will be referring to a previous work which he supervised. Your PhD is your original research under his supervision. Unless he physically wrote words in your paper, either your new work or your PhD, I wouldnt think its necessary to credit them.


text:
What is the best way to learn without thinking ahead?
I've run into this issue in many fields in which I'm interested in learning about. For the purposes of this question let's assume electricity/circuits/power systems. I find myself starting at the basics and as I try to understand each concept, I start thinking of more of how this concept really works instead of accepting it at face value. In addition to this I also start to ask more complicated questions which I'm assuming I could answer if I would read on. The problem I end up running into is I won't let myself continue until I understand the concept completely. For example: I start learning about how current is always consistent in a single circuit which makes me start thinking about how total current/draw is measured in a household. Then this leads me to think that if everything is connected by wires, then shouldn't this be one large circuit with the same current.
As you see I start diving too deep. This seems like an inefficient way of learning and it usually causes me more stress than understanding.

A similar discussion regarding going down the "rabbit-hole" in the mathematics SE site: http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/617625/on-familiarity-or-how-to-avoid-going-down-the-math-rabbit-hole/617995#617995

Essentially, you're doing a "depth-first" search, when you should be doing a "breadth-first" search.

A good way to force yourself to focus is to try to actually do something with the knowledge that you are trying to acquire.  To paraphrase one of my former advisors who I much admire as a teacher, there are three levels at which you can understand a subject:

Familiarity with the concepts: able to recognize and talk meaningfully about them.
Ability to employ the concepts effectively in solving problems
Ability to teach the concepts to another person well enough to get them to level 2.

It's easy to get stuck at mere familiarity if you aren't attempting to actually use the things you're learning in order to do things.  From a pedagogical standpoint, this is actually the main value of homework exercises.
Now, what about doing it in the absence of an external forcing function (i.e., grades)?  If you can't motivate yourself to do homework-style exercises, why not pick a project that you actually think would be cool and fun, and let that be what forces you to put the learning to work.  For example, taking the electricity/circuits example, a nice classic example is to try to build your own FM or AM radio receiver from basic components (transistors, resistors, etc.).  It's low enough power to be physically safe and complex enough that you'll probably have to deal with a lot of interesting problems even if you start from schematics found online.  Then try to make it better... before long, you'll understand not just the basic concepts but why you need to know them and how they fit together.

Thanks that's helpful. I did try that kind of approach by building a simple air quality detector but the schematic essentially told me the components I needed to use (what kind of resistors, voltage source, etc). This led me to start asking questions about what I was doing and why I needed those exact parts. I stopped actually making anything because I spent time researching what was going on and getting further confused, Maybe this example was too advanced for me and I should have started smaller. The overarching problem is I start asking more and more questions at the basic level.

I'd suggest enrolling in night classes at a community college.  I've taken several night classes in subjects I'm interested in, and found that having a prof guide the learning either allowed me to ask my question immediately (they are usually quite happy to have enthusiastic students in class), or guided me to the answer quickly.
I have yet to have a bad experience as either everyone in the class is taking it "for fun" or I have been one of the best students since I'm genuinely interested in the topic.  Community colleges also tend to have faculty that is extremely student focused, which was a refreshing change from getting my "day-job" degrees.

Hmm I've never though of that. I guess without a guide I start getting stuck in my own mind. I guess teachers don't mind you're taking a course not for a degree but just to learn? I've already got a degree in CS and have my full time job so maybe this would be useful.

This helps me a lot:
Dont think about the subject matter too much from the very beginning. Read a lot of literature and as you gather more and more knowledge, many questions will eventually be answered, whitout you even realizing it.
Then, when your knowledge of the topic is more profound (it could be after 1 week of reading, 2 months of projects or 1 whole semester of classes) -> depends on topic, how difficult it is and what sources of information you have (dont set any hard deadlines, just let yourself get into it and take as much time as needed).
In my case, many things clear up just after the end of semester, when I am done with exams and I have free time to rethink the things I have studied during semester.
BTW, I am an engineering student (Mechatronics).


text:
Where to put declaration in phd thesis?
I am doing my PhD in an europe university and they have almost no requirements about the thesis formatting. I choosed the following outline:

Titlepage
Acknowledgment
Content
Chapter 1 - Chapter 3
Summary
Bibliography
Declaration

Now I wonder, is there a commen position for the declaration page (such as the first page after the title page or so?).
My declaration pages states that I did the work by myself and have not handed in the dissertation elsewhere.
I am a bit surprised, because in all so far viewed phd thesis I didn't find a declaration at all. Is this often taken out befor the thesis is published online?

What's the content of the declaration page? (And why do you put the abstract after the content?)

What does your adviser think? We don't know what a "declaration" is in this context. @StephanKolassa I imagine OP means "Table of contents"

Mine comes right after the title page, but I checked my (UK) university regulations and they also don't specify where it should be.

My (UK) university regulations stipulated that it should come after any dedication or acknowledgements, but before the table of contents.

@StephanKolassa I have added a description of the declaration page. I didnt mean abstract but rather a summary, I changed that too.

they have almost no requirements about the thesis, but you are not the first PhD student in that university, right? I would suggest you to go to the university library and check  how other PhD students in the past wrote their theses. Also check this with your advisor.

Not every university demands such a declaration (e.g., stating that it is your own work, and all external sources have been properly cited, referenced, and acknowledged). I had one in my master thesis, but not in my PhD thesis (performed at a different university). Just follow the university rules. If they demand a declaration, then typically there is a verbatim text that you have to put in.
If your university does not prescribe where it should come, but does demand that you have a declaration, then you are free to put it anywhere. It is, however, wise to follow the convention of your university, and put it where others have put it. As @scaaahu indicated, you can go to the library and look what others did.
(Btw, I have seen it typically somewhere at the beginning.)