text:
Math Thesis Plagiarism Determination
I am an undergraduate student who is submitting my thesis for committee review. However, one of the committee member is unsatisfied and thinks that I attempted plagiarism from my advisor's paper. However, in my situation:

I am writing a result in extension to my advisor's paper;
I have proved new results in the almost exact same setup as the reference;
Since it is my first paper, a great deal of my explanation and logic is inherited from my advisor and his paper. Therefore, a lot of explanation and formula takes the same form (with possible slightly different definition of variables).
I pointed out directly that how this paper is related to previous work and added reference for directly quoted prop/defn.

This committee member will not support my submission of thesis unless I rewrite everything in my own words. However, I doubt if I can rewrite everything instead of simply rephrasing due to the nature of this work. I wonder what are your guys opinion and how I should deal with it?

What does your advisor say about this?  (You can edit your question to add that information if you like.  It will be easier to find that way than if it were provided in a comment.)

I wonder whether the committee member is not so much concerned about plagiarism per se as whether you actually understand your advisor's work.  An undergraduate thesis is supposed to involve, at least in part, the student gaining a certain level of mastery of prior literature (as well as building on it.)  This sort of understanding is usually conveyed in a "theory" or "background" section near the beginning of the thesis.
If this section reads like it was copied-and-pasted from your advisor's previous work, then the committee member may be concerned that you don't really understand what you've written and are simply parroting it without any real comprehension.  They may then have doubts that you haven't really engaged with the material in a manner that is really worthy of whatever level of distinction is associated with a "thesis" at your institution.  Being a mathematician is not just about finding some interesting results;  it's also about understanding about how they fit into the broader picture of mathematics, and about being able to convey your understanding successfully to others.   Your institution may value these latter parts just as much as the ability to find new results (and I applaud them if they do.)
If this is the case, you may just need to bite the bullet and rewrite the section.  It's probably OK if the equations remain in the same form;  but the "connective tissue" between the needs to show, in your own words, that you actually understand how you get from equation (1) to equation (2) to equation (3).  (One of the things I always try to convey to my physics undergraduates is that the "connective tissue" between equations is just as important for conveying meaning and understanding as the equations themselves—if not more important.)

(+1) for first paragraph, which was also my thought. I often wrote/write (handwritten in the 1970s & 1980s, LaTeX since early 1990s) manuscripts to myself explaining things to help me understand stuff, and they were always MUCH more detailed and commented-on versions of anything I ever found in print, because publications tend to be concise and intended for readers who didn't need all the clutter I wanted to include (some of my stack exchange answers continue this tradition -- example). The committee member may want something like that.

It is possible that the reviewer has a misconception. It is also possible that you do. Rewriting things "in your own words" is not a guard against plagiarism, which isn't about copying "words" but about misattribution of the source of ideas.
The proof against plagiarism is to make it clear where the ideas came from by using citation and some form of "setting aside" such as quoting (quote marks, indentation, ..."
I suspect that you need to do a rewrite and make sure that any reader can make a clear distinction between your ideas and those you have inherited, pointing to the source in the latter case.
But, rephrasing isn't enough. Rephrasing the work of others can be accepted, provided, again, that you make the source clear. If a reader might infer that the ideas are yours, when they are not, then it is plagiarism, no matter the words.

Note, the actual expression of the ideas, the words, is more a question of copyright than of plagiarism. They are actually independent ideas, but both involve proper attribution.
If your advisor still holds copyright to their work then they can grant you permission (a license) to quote extensively. Otherwise (if a publisher now has copyright) you have to follow normal copyright (and fair use) rules in quoting. But the attribution needs to be there.

Thanks for the explanation. The idea of the new result is undoubtedly coming from me. However, to carry out my "step", it requires a very long construction of results which is inherited from previous paper. With no concerns of copywrite, is there any problems in this situation?

As long as it is clear. One possible solution is to have a chapter on "Background" in which you clearly state that it is a summary of the work of the advisor. You can quote here or paraphrase, but if the reader has knowledge of the source then you are safe from plagiarism charges. Too many people, however, confuse "copying" with plagiarism, so I can't speak for the other committee member. They may need an education also, which can come from your advisor, if needed.


text:
Quoting a book whose title contains a racial slur
I'm writing a paper on the Front de Liberation du Quebec; a homegrown Quebec terrorist organisation in the 1960s. As research, I've extensively studied a book by one of the intellectual leaders of the organisation Pierre Vallières called 'White (n-word)s of America'. Given the rather alarming title, how might I properly cite quotes from the book?

Is the title in English or French?

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It is what it is. You aren't responsible for that. I suggest that you cite it as you would any other work. Presumably you aren't endorsing racist views.
You aren't being "kind" by hiding history. The people targeted by such words know they exist, their meaning, and the intent in their use. Scholarly discussions don't contribute to racism unless they are specifically designed to do so.
Treat words as words. Treat people as people.

If you feel you must, then put a footnote somewhere disassociating yourself from racist views.

Please see: The Idea That Whites Can’t Refer to the N-Word.

A few examples with similar citations from published literature would improve this answer and provide some support for your arguments.

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Please add citations on what is, and what is not, acceptable in citations in humanities citations on books such as this.  The only citation you provide is someone suffering non-trivial consequences for using the word in question in as a full humanities professor, and you don't even include a quote from it to support your opinion (answers should stand on their own, and not rely on links).  For example, here is a relatively recent use of citing this book: https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.893.4621&rep=rep1&type=pdf ;  a more recent example would be even better.

An academic paper published in 2017 had to deal with this issue because it examined this exact work. "The Struggle of Others: Pierre Vallières, Quebecois Settler Nationalism, and the N-Word Today" by Bruno Cornellier was published in Discourse, vol. 39, no. 1, 2017.
In the notes Cornellier states:

I explain later in the
essay the reasons I decided to redact both the English and French versions of the
N-word from this essay, with the exception of parsimonious references to the full
titles of the book (in French and English translation), for citational purposes only,
in endnotes and once in my introduction

So the standard Cornellier sets here is to redact the slur in the text of the piece, while leaving it in the citation.
The explanation alluded to in the above note is found on page 35

Before I proceed with my analysis of Vallières’s text as a textual
trace (then and now) of such hegemonic settler structure of feeling,
I must offer clarifications about my use of terminology. Vallières’s
own admission that he actually meant the English N-word—and
not what is often defended by French speakers to be the less derogatory and more acceptable French word nè***—explains in part
why I decided to redact both the French and English versions of
the N-word from this essay. Indeed, French users of the term have
too often found solace in the convenient ambiguity provided by
the French language between, on the one hand, the inflammatory
and unequivocal N-word and, on the other, something assumed
by white Francophone speakers to be less so by attaching the word
nè*** to something that would be more akin to the antiquated English term “Negro”—or, by any measure, to mean nè*** as a term
that could be used to mean the English N-word but not necessarily.
My decision to redact all uses of the term is not an attempt to sanitize Vallières’s text à la recent editions of Huckleberry Finn, nor am I
necessarily requesting that further reeditions of Vallières’s text also
be altered accordingly. Rather, I do so in solidarity with black colleagues and other critical race scholars who have asked that I better
situate myself, as a white Quebecois settler, in relation to this term
but also to take a stand against the cavalier alibi found by my fellow
white Francophone Quebecois seeking immunity in the (French)
language they use to produce and designate blackness for themselves and without black people. In other words, I consider such
strategic recourse to the ambiguity of the French word nè*** a way
for white Francophone Quebecers to use or imply with ease—when
convenient—the N-word and get away with it.

My interpretation of this paragraph is that it is the redacting of the French form that is explained, without noting why its unredacted in the sources, implying that may be an editorial standard that doesn't need discussion.

Indirect support for this answer can be found in the 2021 publication "Jung, M. K., & Vargas, J. H. C. (Eds.). (2021). Antiblackness. Duke University Press." The year should further address concerns of recency. On p. 33 where the citation first occurs, the authors use n***** in text, but use the full word when it appears as a citation. The same rule is followed for a Lennon/Ono song title.

A very good scholarly answer. But, ... we can anticipate that scholarly scrupulousness does not guarantee a friendly popular reception.

@paulgarrett: Agreed, but perhaps the absence of a popular reception is precisely when scholarly scrupulousness becomes all the more important.

@paulgarrett Well, if you are publishing on a controversial topic no wording will save you from the "other side", or potentially both sides, not taking your work kindly.

I endorse this answer too. Out of all the answers on this page, Cornellier is the only (so far) answer that shows he has gone to his black colleagues in his field and asked them for advice, and he has taken on that advice and acted in accordance with it. As a member of a minority (disability) myself, this is basically the gold standard.  I would consider quoting Cornellier's statement in its entirety (or nearly so, but definitely the part "I do so in solidarity with my black colleagues ... in relation to this term.") in your paper.

"My decision to redact all uses of the term is not an attempt to sanitize Vallières’s text à la recent editions of Huckleberry Finn" — rather, it is an attempt to sanitize Vallières’s text à la recent editions of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

To me, the phrase "black colleagues and other critical race scholars who have asked that I better situate myself, as a white Quebecois settler, in relation to this term" seems a bit ambiguous. Is this author saying that all the aforementioned people suggested that they redact all appearances of the racial slur, or that they offered some more general advice (e.g. "take a clear stand against the casual use of this French racial slur"), and that the author felt that the best way to implement this advice was to redact all in-text occurences of both slurs?

@Obie2.0: I don't think it's either/or, but I would guess it's as much the latter as the former.  In particular, I would guess (but this is way outside my area of expertise!) that the exercise of seriously thinking about these issues before making the decision is considered important in being a serious scholar on this topic, and that simply quoting and following Vallières’s decision without having done the same self-examination might not be seen as ok.  But again, I don't know, and very few users of this site know!  So OP please talk to actual experts!

(+1) for a useful answer with an (absolutely perfectly) on-point reference.  To help restore @Davor's faith in humanity, note that my up-vote here does not endorse the conclusion; better to eschew censorship of the word in my opinion.

@Ben - oh I agree that it's a good answer, I just hate that this is a good answer.

If it helps, at the time of this post, this particular work has been cited 210 times (per Google scholar) so you have 210 examples of what other academics have done when citing this book.  My own view is that it is preferable to state the title without redaction, but redaction might also be acceptable so long as the citing author clearly states that the title has been redacted.  Whilst practices may differ from field to field, I know that in the field of linguistics ---where scholars commonly deal directly with racial slurs (e.g., examining their etymology, history, etc.)--- the standard practice is to state the word under use without censorship.  (In that particular field they also tend to italicise the word under discussion, but that it not relevant here.)
One issue of possible importance here is that the slur in the title is important in identifying the class of people that the book is about, so a full redaction is going to entail a genuine loss of information about the subject of the book.  In some cases a slur word in the title of a work is not important in conveying information about the content of the work, but that is not the case here.  If the subject of the book is "white niggers" and you change this to "white [racial slur]s" (as suggested by another answer here) then the scope of the subject matter of the book arguably becomes unclear.  One possibility is to use partial redaction of the form "white [n----rs]" or "white [n-word]s" (the latter being your suggested formulation), which blunts the slur but allows the reader to "guess" the original word and so properly understand the scope of the book.  That is probably a reasonable redaction if you choose to proceed by that route.
Personally, I would not do any redaction; my view is that it is useful in academia to create an atmosphere where adults can engage in open discourse about topics, without falling apart if they hear a nasty word.  This is encouraged by citing works like this without redaction.  In any case, if you decide to fully or partially redact the original slur word in the title, you should make sure that the reader understands that this is your edit.  Using square brackets for your redaction, plus an explicit statement alerting the reader to the redaction (e.g., "[Title partially redacted]") will be sufficient to ensure that you are not misleading your reader about the true title of the work.

Is this for a class?  If so I would ask your teacher directly for advice (the way you wrote this question seems appropriate for such an email).

Good idea. If you ever in the future face criticism or other consequences from using such a word (or indeed not using it), being able to say "I consulted university authorities" would be useful.

True, but being able to develop your own judgment in the absence of explicit instruction from an authority figure is also useful.

Maybe sic would help here:

The Latin adverb sic ("thus", "just as"; in full: sic erat scriptum,
"thus was it written")[1] inserted after a quoted word or passage
indicates that the quoted matter has been transcribed or translated
exactly as found in the source text, complete with any erroneous,
archaic, or otherwise nonstandard spelling, punctuation or grammar. It
also applies to any surprising assertion, faulty reasoning, or other
matter that might be interpreted as an error of transcription.
The typical usage is to inform the reader that any errors or apparent
errors in quoted material do not arise from errors in the course of
the transcription, but are intentionally reproduced, exactly as they
appear in the source text. It is generally placed inside square
brackets to indicate that it is not part of the quoted matter.
Sic may also be inserted derisively or sarcastically, to call
attention to the original writer's spelling mistakes or erroneous
logic, or to show general disapproval or dislike of the material

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sic
(note: Take into account https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/25/noah-snyder comment, I know nothing about writing papers in Humanities context)

An interesting approach, but I don't think that absence of [sic] would cause anyone to assume that you inserted the n-word into a citation!  That way lies madness!

@Ben Let's hope nobody randomly enters words into citations! Not to mention insults of any type :-O

@Ben: The [sic] is important, because the reader needs that context to determine the actual name of the citation, in order to track it down. Was the Book actually called "White N-----" with hyphens, or is it actually the slur?

@MooingDuck: Your example shows how the “[sic]” would be useful if OP were citing a book whose title was literally “White N-----’s of America”.  But it’s not needed in either of their scenarios — either quoting it unredacted (where “[sic]” would be redundant as @ Ben says) or quoting it redacted (for which “sic” is not applicable).

@PLL: You are 100% correct. My bad.  I got it flipped with [Title Partially Redacted]

This makes it obvious that any quotes are, well, quotes. Which is what the question is about. +1.

While looking at things like Vallières' book, I think it's important not to be projecting 21st century American values onto a situation in early/mid 1960s Quebec.
As the 1960s started in Quebec, the frustration of the majority French-speaking population with the economic and political situation in the province and in Canada began to boil.  Since the British takeover 200 years earlier, economic and political power were concentrated in the hands of English-speaking businessmen.
After Maurice Duplessis died in 1959 and the Union National was defeated by Jean Lesage's Liberals in 1960, there was a feeling that change was coming.  To some, though, change wasn't coming enough.
From what I remember (I was in grade school at the start of the Quiet Revolution, but politically aware by the time the October Crisis arrived), Vallières's intent with that title was poke a stick in the hornet's nest, not to be racist.
The book came out in 1968, at the peak of the civil rights movement in the US.  Vallieres definitely wanted attention, he wanted to offend, but did not want to offend others who were part of the "struggle".  It was intended to signal that he felt that the cause of French Quebec had echoes of the US civil rights movement.  Others identified with the struggles of blacks in southern Africa (in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and South Africa).  The situation in Rhodesia was often cited (white farmers in Rhodesia owned most owned most of the land and controlled the economy).
You can see this in the symbol that "Westmount" became.  Westmount is an inner-city suburb of Montreal - if you walk across the street from the old Montreal Forum (downtown, where all those Stanley Cups were won), you are in Westmount.  Upper Westmount is also where rich English businessmen traditionally have their mansions.  In the 60s, Westmount and Rhodesia became synonyms: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpDV2E6dKLg.  When the FLQ planted bombs in mailboxes, Westmount was a favorite target.
Before I moved the US, I new that race was an important topic here.  It was only after I immigrated 30 years ago, though, that I understood how race shapes a significant portion of American history and contemporary American society.
If you grew up in Montreal (particularly if you are my age and lived through the 1960s and 1970s there), you understand how language shapes Quebec history and contemporary Quebec society.  Yes, the domination of the French-speaking majority by a small English-speaking business class doesn't compare to slavery, but it can define a "struggle".

While interesting background on this one paper, it doesn't attempt to answer the question, and certainly not in general.

@Buffy: agreed.  But I hope that it does provide some context.

Throwaway for obvious reasons:

a homegrown Quebec terrorist organisation in the 1960s.

I would thread carefully here; the judicial system does not agree with the label you used. That might stir more controversy than the choice of words you end up using to quote a text. And of course discredit you, your advisor and your lab quite badly. Of course, if you possess new evidences, the police would be the correct place to disclose it, not an academic paper. But unless you are capable of obtaining a conviction, I would abstain from such a term.
As for your question, that highly depends on your audience and who you are. If it's an undergrad paper that will only be read by your professor just ask him, otherwise it's best to bring it up with your advisor. Ultimately, he or she should know enough about the field and the journals to know what's appropriate.

On the one hand, -1. On the other hand, this answer is such a hilarious illustration of how demands for self-censorship multiply when one gives in to one; in a sense this is the best answer to OP's question.

Are you arguing that the FLQ was not a homegrown Quebec terrorist organisation in the 1960s.  That's a pretty good description, and you would probably find that many of the members of that organization would be comfortable with that adjective.  The FLQ grew from a frustration with the slow pace of change during the Quiet Revolution and a desire to radically change the status quo (in those days, much of the power in the province was in the hands of English speaking folks).  But, an organization that grew from Molotov cocktails and bombs to political kidnapping is, well, terrorist.

@Flydog57 I am not arguing anything, the courts did. A lot of criminal acts were attributed to the organization. Most of it still remains allegations since almost none of them ended up in convictions or successful investigations. You and the OP are entitled to your opinions, but in OP's case this might immediately flag him and his paper as biased by a reviewer. Therefore I would advise a more neutral term.

@darijgrinberg, the downvote won't make it any less true. Quoting a book a certain way might result in a request to censor the tittle by a reviewer; an obvious slant will most likely end up in a rejection from any serious journal.

It appears (from my very cursory research) that the concept of a terrorist activity entered the Canadian criminal code only in the aftermath of the September 2001 airplane hijackings/World Trade Center attacks. So, from a legal standpoint the FLQ was not a terrorist group. But, in the discussion of those laws, FLQ activities are nearly always mentioned. Bombing, political kidnappings, a political killing and a response that included the peacetime imposition of the War Measures Act makes it terrorism in my eyes. It should it the eyes of a reviewer as well

It should be the case that a published title is an established fact, to be debated on its merits. That's supposed to be a crucial part of the difference between academia and the mundane.
Since in today's world, politics has become at least as important as any kind of research, you should be taking this Question and all its ramifications up the chain of command in your department particularly, as well as to your institution generally.
Right or wrong, both either have or badly need detailed procedures for this hugely important Question.

An interesting idea, but part of the academic ethos is that we should all try to protect the academic freedom to make these decisions without "taking it up the chain".  I personally find the idea of seeking permission from the Department to use a word in my work to be sycophantic and unbecoming of an academic.

@Ben Precisely and haven't you recently felt academia second to none in putting woke PC ideas above inconveniences such as the fact that a title 'White (n-word)s of America' exists? Here in the UK loosely-related cases hit the national press about weekly, or more and teachers and lecturers are threatened and dismissed for saying little more than we are here.
"Taking it up the chain" should be abhorrent and the more so should be anyone feeling a need for validation from any group of colleagues other than recognised experts, whatever their skin colour.

As if to prove the point yesterday's (June 20) Mail on Sunday reports a geography teacher is being investigated for speaking the N-word while telling his class that Niger, West Africa, is pronounced not that way, but 'nee-zher.'
The MoS says in a later lesson, children were given complaint forms and asked to comment if they were unhappy. A letter from the head is cited as saying "A member of staff used racist language…" and that "students and their families have, justifiably, taken great offence to this and that there was no reason for the term being used."
QED

I take your point re dangers to teachers.  In a university environment, academics possess freedoms and discretions that a school teacher does not, so we're naturally quite protective of the right to make our own decisions on these matters.

@Ben Thus far… Here in the UK, the national newspapers report almost daily on university cases bordering on that Niger nonsense, not infrequently as bad and sometimes worse.
How thick d'you think is the line between academic freedom and complacency nd more to the point, what lies on the other side?

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Editor Declined Invitation is a bad thing?
I recently submitted an article to an Elsevier journal and under the current status, it says: "Editor Declined Invitation".  What does this mean?  Will this result in a rejection or is there another reason for this?

@Buffy I looked but it does not discuss this particular status (or how this fits in to the workflow exactly) in that post

I do not see how the generic answer to the generic question deals with this.  (Probably this is still a duplicate.)  Sometimes an error is made with in picking the editor to handle the paper.  I do not see this a reason to bother the journal.

I also don't quite see this as easily/obviously answered by the linked-to discussion. And, I'd comment that it's not a good sign if the managing editor's first pick for editor for the paper declined. Yes, it could be just a subject matter mis-match, but, also, it could be an implicit judgement. No way to tell without seeing the people involved and the paper itself...

Fair, I had a feeling that the paper may have been too "mathematical" for the journal I submitted to; so I'm also included to think its an implicit judgement.  Thanks for the advice all (and Paul).

I reopened the question since this status is not in the linked question.

@Allure, perhaps you should have added your answer here to the canonical answer.

Shortly after your manuscript is submitted, this happens:

Editor assignment or invitation
Based on the topic of the manuscript and suggestions by the authors, an editor is assigned to handle the manuscript. Depending on the journal, the assignment may be done by technical staff, the journal's chief editor, or automatic by submission category or author suggestion. With some journals, editors are invited and not assigned.

And at this stage the editor invited declined.
What does it mean? There're many possibilities:

The editor is currently busy and not able to handle submissions.
Whoever made the invitation thought the paper was in the editor's field, but it isn't.
The editor knows one of the authors of the manuscript personally and is therefore declining due to conflict of interest.

Could it be your manuscript is terrible and the editor therefore declines to handle it? It's possible, but more standard here would be to agree to handle it and then desk reject. If it happens I would guess that the invited editor is not experienced with the editorial management system.
In any case there's nothing to do except wait.

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


text:
Am I qualified enough to apply for a graduate scholarship?
I am a third year university student in Vietnam. My major is Computer Science. I focus on machine learning, especially deep learning for computer vision. I really want to have a master (or PhD) degree aboard but I'm not sure whether I am qualified for a scholarship or not. My family is not so rich that I can afford the tuition fee for a graduate program. The followings are description about my future direction and information about me.
About my future direction,

I want to study aboard and finally have a life there, my ideal destinations are Korea, Japan, the Europe (the Western and Northern), Australia or Canada.
I want to work on AI and machine learning, which expect employees to have master degree (at least)
I want to start my own business and apply my technical knowledge on that.

About my work experience and course work,

I study at Vietnam National University (1st rank university in Vietnam)
I got all A+ in mathematics-related subjects (e.g. Calculus, Linear algebra, Probs & Stats, Information theory, etc.). I also got a scholarship for excellent student given by my university (for a semester only).
My GPA is low (i.e. 3.25 / 4.0) due to low marks in non-mathematics-related subjects. As I estimated, I can reach about 3.3 or  3.4 if I get all A+ for the rest of my coursework.
I was high ranked (top < 10%) on several AI contests

Titanic contest and House price prediction are from Kaggle
A facial recognition contest held by a famous AI community in my country

I also worked on several AI projects, both in research (for my professor) and in the industry (for my company, which works on AI).
About my programming skills, I have worked with PyTorch, TensorFlow, Keras and a little bit GPU programming.

About comments from others who work with me,

I was highly qualified (currently) by my boss (at the company I'm working at).
My professor, who supervises at my university, told me that I was strong at mathematics but lack of algorithms-and-data-structure skills.

About my own thoughts,

I can read most of deep-learning-related research papers with almost no difficulty. I also write down my intuition for each of the paper I read.
I have strong mathematical intuition (as commented by my professor).

I am afraid of having low GPA (which is my biggest fear) when applying for graduate scholarships. Can anyone give my some advice ? Should I continue chasing graduate scholarships or work in the industry after graduation ?

The only valid answer you will get is from some institution with scholarship money to offer. The only way to get that answer is to actually apply. My opinion, not very useful, is that you have a chance and that you shouldn't worry too much about your GPA. Institutions look beyond that for indicators of success.
But two problems you will have are (a) some scholarships are reserved for citizens of the various countries, and (b) there is a lot of competition for admission and especially for scholarship money.
So, most of the details you present here are not relevant for an answer here but will be important to include in any application.
If you have a dream, follow it. Don't give it up based on random advice from the internet. But also, keep your options open so that you have something interesting to do if you find difficulties along the way. At this stage, however, it isn't a case of academia or industry.

Thanks for your advice. I'm just afraid that if I focus on research work, I will get stuck with finding jobs (in case I don't get any scholarship) and if I focus on industrial experiences, I will hardly get a scholarship. I just don't know which path should I choose now (focus on research or industrial experience). About me, I want to focus on research, but it's just not sure that I can have a scholarship.


text:
Asking my supervisor to be frank and give feedback
I am doing my PhD in the Britain and I've got a lovely supervisor which is like a friend for me. I want to ask her to give me direct feedback and tell me directly if I am doing bullshit or about any other thing that she thinks I am not good and need to improve (forexample if the way I send email is not very natural in the sense of language and ...). I want to say:
I would like to ask you to give me direct feedback on anything that you think I may need to improve. I won't be offended because I know your intention and I know you want me to be the best. I would be very happy to receive comment because I know that's what makes me improve.
Is it good or not? Is there as better way of saying that?

Is there a reason you believe your supervisor isn’t giving you honest feedback?

I think she does give feedback on some part of my work, but not on every aspect. And the feedbacks are indirect

What do you mean with "indirect"? Have you specifically asked about the aspects that interest you?

Are you both from the UK? There are cultural differences in the way people give and expect feedback.

No, I am not from the UK. There might be. @Mark

It seems that you are overthinking this. You say she is like a friend. Neither a friend, nor an advisor, has any incentive to lead you into traps. Accept it if she praises your work. Perhaps you are on the right track after all.
But we can all improve at the margins, at least. If you have specific doubts about particular things that you do, or write, ask about just those things and listen to the answers. Perhaps there are suggestions for improvement in there that aren't criticisms, but just pointers to better ways to do or say things.
But, your note almost sounds like you are soliciting negative feedback.
I'm pretty sure that if a friend and advisor saw you going down the wrong road you would be told that. Otherwise she is wasting her own time as well as yours. That doesn't seem like a reasonable action for an advisor.
After all, if you finish and go on to a brilliant career it reflects well on her also. Relax.

Many people are not good in giving feedback. Often, academica have never learned management skills like giving feedback. Some people think they are "mean" if they give negative things, some people feel they are being "picky" if they list small things (even if the other person would be interested in small things also).
From dealing with students (giving feedback on each other's talks), my feeling is that more specific questions like "List 3 things that could be improved" are more often answered then "What could be improved?". Also, there tend to be more and better responses when the feedback is written.
So, I would look in the Internet for a good feeback sheet which applies to your situation. Or create one yourself. Ask the supervisor if they would fill it out since it would help you (some academics hate it when they have to fill out yet another sheet of paper). Ask specifically for comments (not only for "grades" which do not tell much about how you could improve). Try to include only important questions as you do not want to annoy her.

I'm not sure I would make a blanket request for feedback on everything. It sounds not only like an invitation for negative feedback, as Buffy mentioned, but also an invitation to change the dynamics of your relationship, to a more critical one. I think it would also be hard for an advisor to know how to address such a general request - like how much feedback is this student looking for, where does the feedback stop?
My own suggestion is that if you wish to receive more candid feedback from her, maybe make that request when it comes to specific things. For example, if you have a manuscript draft or want to do a mock job interview or a dry run of a presentation - these would be good things to get feedback on and would be appropriate to ask her to not hold back regarding her critiques. For smaller things though, I think it might be a bit much for her and is heading into babysitting territory, as there are some things you just need to learn and figure out yourself through trial and error.

I agree with the other answers that asking for "negative feedback on anything at all, please, hit me" isn't the way to go.
But what you can do is say "hey, I have to submit this essay and I'm nervous about it, I'm afraid I'll overlook something big. Could you have a look at it and see if you can shoot any holes in it that I can fix before submitting?"
Also, read about Impostor Syndrome. It's very common in academia, take a look at yourself and consider if any of this might apply to you?


text:
How to ask for approval letter from dean?
I've studied in this college for Diploma and have now proceeded to the Bachelor's Degree. I am facing some problem that may cause me to extend my course.
The system of the faculty is like this: When you want to take certain subject, you need to pass all the prerequisite subject for that subject in the previous semester. This is reasonable by far. The prerequisite subjects are listed on the booklet sent to us during the faculty briefing.
But up until recently (my second last semester), I was told by the faculty staff that I cannot take my FYP (Final Year Project) because I did not finish all my prerequisite subjects. I was shocked and I showed her that the booklet of faculty briefing didn't state that at anywhere. She told me that this information is stated on a separate website specially for FYP. The problem is, I didn't have a single clue about the website before I went to take it. How was I suppose to know this information in the past semester?
There is no post about this information in the college official bulletin board website, and I didn't even receive a single email about this. The staff told me that I should be alert with all that kind of information.
I tried to appeal to the dean, wanted to talk about my issue face to face. But the staff stopped me and didn't allow me to talk with the dean. The reason they give is that dean has no time for me. They suggested me to write a formal letter and wait for dean's reply.
I have submitted my formal letter, but the due date for the registration of FYP is few days later. If they do not reply me for this issue, I cannot take my FYP in this semester. If this happen, I will have to wait another year just to take the single subject for two semesters (FYP part 1 and 2), and my graduation will have to delayed for one whole year. I don't want to extend my course because of this reason.
They do have a course structure for us to follow, but it didn't force us to take exactly same as the course structure, so we can plan our course before every semester. I didn't follow it because I need to handle harder subject in the earlier semester so that I can focus on my FYP in the later semester.
What should I do and try, so that I will not have to extend my course? I have also tried emailing to the dean about this problem.

The title question doesn't really match the text. Also, no one here can influence your dean or others. Maybe you need a lawyer or a discussion with any student advocacy office at your university.

Have you talked to your classmates? Do they have the same problem? I imagine that you're not the only student who did not know the rule.

Yes, I have classmate who do not know the rule as well. But for others who know, they got senior to inform them about this info.

If you have not completed all the prerequisites, then you cannot continue. Not knowing the conditions does not change the fact, and given the information is on the fyp website means it is not “hidden” as you say but just you did not check...

I don't know anything about your university or its normal practices, so this is only tentative.
If your university has any sort of office for student advocacy, go to them with your concerns. Hidden rules aren't appropriate in any situation, though they may be permitted - unfortunately.
In case there is no such office, go to any professor that you trust and who knows you well, and ask him/her to be your advocate. The dean will certainly offer a bit of time to a professor that they won't to you. You are asking for an exception to the "rules". Make sure that you have a basis for the exception (you have the needed knowledge to proceed) and not just that the rule is unfair if it is hidden.
Unfortunately, you are possibly making people uncomfortable and when that happens they sometimes behave badly. The more confrontational you make it, the worse it may get, so be aware of the risks.

Thank you for the answer, much appreciated.

Three suggestions:

Does your university have a "Dean of Students"? (This is usually a different position than the "Dean".) An ombudsman? A "Student Success Center"?
Probably none of these people could override a faculty member's decision, but they could at least give you a sense of how the university's bureaucracy works and what your options are.

Are you a strong student overall? Have you exceeded expectations in any of your classes? Otherwise made a positive impression? And have you found a faculty member who is willing to supervise your thesis?
If you have a faculty mentor who supports your case, believes that the prerequisites should be waived, and volunteers to supervise your Final Year Project, then you have much better chances.

If you are able to negotiate a waiver of the prerequisite requirement, you should make a plan to learn it on your own. For example, depending on circumstances, you might volunteer to take an exam on the subject at the beginning of the next semester.

Good luck.

Thank you for the suggestion, much appreciated.


text:
I got odd answer to my PhD application from Waikato University, What should I do now?
In November 2023, I submitted my PhD application to Waikato University in New Zealand. As part of the application process, it is required for each student to establish direct contact with a supervisor and obtain their agreement. I followed this procedure, and the professor subsequently sent me the following message:
"I have uploaded your doctoral enquiry – so you should be able to continue your application from here Afshin"
Yesterday, on March 13, 2024, I received a rejection message from the university stating that "I must reapply because I did not secure an agreement with a professor prior to submitting my PhD application". Yesterday, I sent emails to the dean of the department and the prospective supervisor to inform them about the issue, but I have not yet received a response, which is typically normal.
I do not know what to do?

Did you have any other comunications between you and the professor between Nov23 an Mar24?

"I do not know what to do?" Wait until you hear back from them.

No EarlGrey he only replied once, wishing me the best for the scholarship competition. After that, I simply prepared the necessary documents and applied for the PhD program. The scholarship is not under the control of the supervisor; the decision is solely made by the dean of the department. Consequently, I awaited the outcome of both my scholarship application and my PhD application, without any further communication between myself and the prospective supervisor.

I understand that this feels urgent but you need to wait more than 1 day (has it even been a full day?) to expect a reply.

My guess is that you misunderstood the requirements and so didn't fulfill them. They wanted you, I think, to get agreement from a professor to take you on. You got a weird communication that you misinterpreted as acceptance but that wasn't. It just stated that they had seen your materials.
I'd guess that they expected you to do much more working with this or another professor to get agreement. That would be consistent with application processes in many places, though not the US generally.
Whether they can make some exception for you or not, I can't say. I'd guess not, unless you can get some professor to agree to advise you very quickly.  But, as the comments have said, you need to wait for an answer to your query to know how to respond or even whether a response is appropriate.
My best guess is that you are stuck for the moment and need to carefully follow their procedures. Good luck.

Thank you very much for your response Buffy.


text:
Is an unaccredited online Master's degree comparable to a typical Master's if from a reputable university?
I'm considering applying for an unaccredited, online, Master's program at a university in the UK that is itself fully accredited.
I'm interested in pursuing a Master's degree purely for my own interest and to broaden my knowledge. I don't want to switch careers or necessarily pursue a PhD afterwards. I unfortunately have too many financial obligations to quit my job in order to pursue postgrad education full time.
I have my bachelor's in psychology from an accredited university here in Canada.
So, I'm just wondering: are there any reasons why I shouldn't apply for this online Master's program, given that it isn't actually accredited? Will the lack of accreditation cause me problems down the road?

What does it mean to say that a university is "fully accredited"?  It sounds a bit contradictory for a "fully accredited" university to not have all of its programs accredited.

@Nat The program may be very new, and thus has not completed the accreditation process.

Is it free? It doesn't seem like it's worth anything if it's not accredited.

It tends to be harder to stick with things that feel "optional," especially when they compete with necessities like holding your job. Thus, the biggest downside to this would be if you do not have the time or energy to pursue the Master's program and this results in poor marks.
If you apply for other degrees and/or visas, you may still have to declare that attendance and coursework, possibly with transcripts. (See Can I omit my undergraduate school from my CV? and Can I legally omit the fact I hold a Ph.D. degree?) You could certainly explain the circumstances when you're forced to mention it, but ideally you don't have to explain anything away to begin with.
You could avert this problem in several ways, such as officially withdrawing from a course instead of failing it (if possible in that system) or making sure to devote your full energy to each course you take.
Given your purposes for taking the class (interest and extending your knowledge), would it make more sense to seek out an open online course instead, or an interest group local to you?

This is a warning about a factor you may not have considered, and I don't mean it to sound needlessly harsh. You could learn great things from this program. Successfully completing this degree will probably be neutral-to-beneficial when anyone reads your resume/CV, and what you learn and practice there may be adequate proof of the program's success. Further, if the program later becomes accredited, your degree will accordingly gain in prestige.

Thanks to you both for the replies. I've considered doing an online course instead, which may alleviate the issue of possibly doing poorly due to having limited time. I'll take a look around and consider my options.

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text:
How am I supposed to go to conferences with a reimbursement system as a poor TA?
I don't get paid much as a TA. I wanted to go to conferences but all of them operate on a reimbursement system. Between flights, shuttles, hotels, etc. it can be up to like $1000 not including food. They offer funding but with reimbursement. I don't have $1000 in my bank account to pay with in the first place. Most other TAs I know are in a similar position.
Why do programs use a reimbursement system? I went to one conference where they reimbursed the flight and paid for the hotel. That was a month ago and I think my reimbursement check is still a ways away. Why does it take so long? Why not just buy me a ticket? How am I supposed to go to conferences?

They use a reimbursement system because if they just gave you $1000 there is no guarantee you'll actually spend that on going to a conference.

And they don't have travel agents on staff to buy a plane ticket for you.

It's not clear who is doing the reimbursing here.  I read it as the conference or organization sponsoring the conference, but the answers seem to be assuming it's your university.  (I've personally received more help from conference organizers than from my own institution.)

where I work you can get advances under certain conditions, and you can get reimbursed as you pay the various fees rather than all at once. It’s not the preferred option but it can be done when one asks nicely.

I assume that you're not going "as a TA" but going as a PhD student. Ask your advisor! It's literally their job to give you advice! In particular, the department is likely to have ways of dealing with this.

This is an unfortunate reality of life. I think at one point in grad school I had $5,000 in outstanding reimbursements because it took so long to process them. Many grad students don't have the liquidity to handle that.
You can, and should, ask whoever will reimburse you whether (i) they can book for you, (ii) let you use their payment card to book, or (iii) pay you in advance. It's often possible and there's no harm in asking. The situation is common enough that they will be used to such requests. For example, people traveling for academic job interviews will rack up a lot of travel expenses in a short time and will sometimes ask to have costs paid directly.
Unfortunately, some places have rigid bureaucracies that insist on operating through reimbursements or some other arbitrary policy. (I recently had a trip where they insisted that they book the flight for me, that I get the hotel reimbursed, and they gave me a per diem for food. Three different policies from one bureaucracy for one trip!) Ultimately, there is little that can be done about it if that's the case.
In the long term, the best solution is to save up a buffer to cover expenses like this. Alternatively, you could get a credit card or other loan to pay for it. However, that is more of a question for https://money.stackexchange.com/

I would also advise asking if there is a faculty credit card that you can use to pay for flights etc, or a possibility of getting an advance on the reimbursement (in my dept we can get 75% of the agreed amount beforehand).

@astronat - Great suggestion. // Another idea: get a credit card or take out a small personal loan.  In the US, if you are a TA and have your paycheck set up for automatic deposit at the local credit union, and you can give the bank a letter from the department showing that your employment will be ongoing, you can get a signature loan. In fact, getting a loan or a credit card is a very good thing to do as a student, assuming you pay it off in full on a regular basis, since this is precisely what will enable you to build your credit rating, which you'll need if you want to buy a house later on.

@aparente001 I agree that it's good to build credit, but getting say a credit card, paying for a trip, and then hoping reimbursement is quick can be risky/costly sometimes. So having some liquid funds available is a good idea.

@Anyon - This proposal is not intended as an either/or. // I don't see the risk. As for the cost, let's suppose the out of pocket outlay is $1000.  If the interest rate on the card is 12% annual (I chose a round number to make estimation easier), then the monthly rate would be approximately 1%.  If reimbursement is delayed two and a half months, then the cost to OP would be approximately $20.  Important: *set up the card to make an automatic minimum payment each month, drawing from the checking account within the same credit union, and avoid using the card for other purposes.

Is it possible to have credit card charges, including interest, reimbursed? (This does require another round of reimbursement, since you won't know how much interest is due until after the first round.)

@aparente001the risk lies in the the reality of a TA living hand-to-mouth. There is a risk that they won't be able to make the ever-increasing minimum payment until reimbursement is made, leading to late fees and overdraft fees. (If the foundation making the reimbursement is mis-managed or goes bankrupt, the reimbursement might never be paid.)

@user2768: I've never heard of any organization that would reimburse credit card interest.  I doubt that it's even worth asking for.

@NateEldredge Credit card interest is merely an expense. If it is (necessarily) incurred as part of a business expense, then I think the business would struggle to argue that it cannot be reimbursed.

@NateEldredge My employer will supposedly reimburse interest for purchases on my corporate card, although I've never tried it. So it's not completely out of the question.

Adding to what's already been said: since often there is no way getting around a reimbursement system, I would also suggest focusing on finding ways to be as frugal as possible where conferences are concerned, since you do have to cover your expenses initially.
My suggestions:

Not sure what field you're in and if there are many different conference options for you, but given the choice, opt for the nearby ones when possible. Choosing between attending a conference I'd have to fly to vs one I can just drive to, I always pick the latter.
Skip the student conferences – they won't count for much on your CV and probably not worth the cost.
If you're presenting at these conferences, try to double dip and squeeze in multiple presentations if it's allowed (in my field, the common rule is you're allowed only one single author submission, but 1-2 additional submissions as a co-author) – that way you can get a couple of presentations done at the cost of just one trip.
If you know anyone going to the same conference as you, see about sharing the costs (driving together, sharing a hotel room).

Great points! I have also stayed at hostels (in the US/Canada) during many conferences, and there are often many other conference attendees there, especially grad students. When I've chosen to stay in a smaller room (e.g. 4 people instead of a large dormitory) I've been more likely to have fellow conference attendees as my roommates.

One quick way to get around this is to look for zero balance transfers or zero interest purchase credit card. A word of warning though: if you're not good in managing your money; do not try this as it could clock up more debt for you in the end.
This way, you can use the credit card's ability to pay off your immediate expenses (and maybe accrue some points before they reimburse you). I know it may be difficult to apply for credit card given your limited financial constraints but it is possible (depending on your country and specific circumstances) to apply for a basic credit card that has some promotional interest free period.

There is a risk that the TA won't be able to make the ever-increasing minimum payment until reimbursement is made, leading to late fees and overdraft fees. (If the foundation making the reimbursement is mis-managed or goes bankrupt, the reimbursement might never be paid.)

Indeed, that is why I flagged the risks in my initial comment - you do require financial discipline and it may end up a risker situation. Having said that, there have been people that I know of (including myself) that have done this successfully.

Since asking doesn't hurt, just try to ask for an advance. At least at my university's reimbursement department, this possibility exists. You can submit a provisional travel plan (of course well sourced with some printouts of hotel& airfare prices and ideally signed of by your boss) and after the usual complaints they will advance you some or all of the money. After the trip you then submit the actual receipts and settle the difference.
Most of the times, people try to avoid this. After all, it is double the amount of bureaucracy and if you owe them money back in the end, they tend to want it ASAP. However for more expensive trips, this can be quite useful.

Apparente made an excellent suggestion in the comments about using a credit card or personal loan for up-front costs. I went to a conference with 3 friends in Boston by using my credit card with a $5,000 limit. We spent $2,200 for the flights, AirBnb, and food for 4 days. I was able to pay off my credit card before the due date, because I was reimbursed within 3 weeks.
The cool part is that I received about $30 in rewards points from the whole experience, so when we got back to Michigan I bought everyone a round at the bar.
In my eyes, as long as you submit your reimbursement paperwork on time and your department is reasonably quick in processing it, you should have no problem (or risk) in using a credit card. The very same logic applies to personal loans (or lines of credit at a credit union). If you’re making a graduate student stipend/salary, you should have no problem obtaining credit around $2,000, which in my experience is enough for you individually for even a week-long conference.
PS - this unfortunately doesn’t work in a lot of European locales, e.g. France, where credit cards aren’t common and loans are usually for big purchases (houses and cars).

I have been a teaching assistant in the past so I feel your pain. There were many conferences I wanted to attend and at that time, they wanted money up front and would only reimburse if you were an adjunct or faculty member.  Fast forward to now; I have known several TAs join a group of teachers going to a conference and the University covered the cost.  I know if you find a conference is coming, if you sign up early you get a discount.  Some IT conferences that I attended, I was able to skype into it and pay approx. $100~$500 to stream video to my home laptop.  I try to find conferences that are nearby - NYC for instance where I could drive and get my parking validated at a nearby hotel. Try checking prices for hotels near the conference though not where they take place, they may be able to offer you a discount, they know you have a choice. Best Western for instance usually offers a free breakfast and may offer a free shuttle to a nearby point near the conference location. Naturally, save all receipts - they could be used to reduce taxes owed as IRS recognizes them as professional development.  If there is a conference that runs every year and you want to go, try finding a weekend temp job and working it only until you get the extra funds then giving notice and stay on their contact list if they need someone again, its a chance for extra money.

Receipts are great for reimbursement, and (actual) reimbursed expenses are (and were) ignored for US tax. Unreimbursed expenses used to be deductible only over 2% of AGI, and as one of the many changes in the 'reform' law last Dec. (TCJA'17), they are now not deductible at all.

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text:
What can a PhD candidate do if their advisor leaves on sabbatical without warning?
This is a question somewhat related to another question about advisors on sabbatical.
I started what I thought would be my final semester of my PhD (applied math) in January. I have already passed quals and finished my proposal for candidacy without issue. (So I'm not reaching to say that I could/should be in my final semester).
However, in December of last year, my advisor suddenly informed me that he has decided to go on sabbatical (1 year) 800 miles away. He did not offer to take me with him or anything.
In the meantime, I'm stuck trying to grind out the last chapter of my dissertation. He'll call about once a week to check in on my progress. Emails outside of then have pretty much gone unanswered; his one reply was a terse "Thanks, I'll start looking at this.". He has told me outright that the papers "we" (meaning I write them and develop them, he edits them) are working on are his only work right now.
I am not aware of all the minutia of how sabbaticals are approved at my university, but it seems like a sabbatical to just work a few hours a day while sipping coconut milk is not in keeping with the purpose of the sabbatical.
Overall, my advisor hand waves all of this by just saying that he will pay me an RA-ship this summer if I can't graduate by spring, as if some pittance of money can buy me off. I would of course like to obtain a real job at some point. I have an offer on the table for a full time position, but it relies on me being able to finish by May or so.
I understand that I may not know the whole story. There could be undisclosed health issues, family issues, mental issues, etc..
Questions:

Is it normal for a PhD advisor to leave on sabbatical in a student's final semester?
Is there anything a PhD student can do about their supervisor going on sabbatical during the student's final semester?

What's the problem? Do you need his presence to finish your dissertation? In your final semester, you should be pretty independent and it sounds like you are. (My advisor was on sabbatical over 7000 miles away during my final year. I didn't have any problem with that.)

This question would be better without the angry jealously over the nice weather where he happens to be.

Does your adviser know that you have a job offer that requires you to finish by May? Can the adviser's sabbatical get your future employer to loosen that requirement?

Professors are people too. Given the opportunity to take a relaxed sabbatical under some palm trees after a few years of grind, wouldn't you grab it with both hands (assuming that you could make suitable arrangements with family and supervisees?). Actually I think this is a wonderful sort of sabbatical. After you get bored with the palm trees, you might just resort to thinking about things ...

(On a side note, I upvoted this question. I personally don't understand all the downvotes. The question is clear and useful. The fact that it's not written by a robot devoid of personal colour is not a good reason to downvote in my opinion.)

Voting closed as unclear-what-you're asking 'til @Thomas's question's answered.  As it was originally written, this sounded like more of an angry rant than a real question.  I edited out some of the more rant-ish parts, but it's still unclear exactly what the problem here is.

"Emails outside of then have pretty much gone unanswered" -- this is the serious issue, as I see it.  But I'd guess that's already been answered.

I had a colleague once take a medical leave of absence (mental health) but used a sabbatical to do it without losing pay. It was unusual, for sure —and not announced publicly as such, I only know because I was a close friend— but it had all the stamps from higher ups who were made aware of the situation. I have no idea if that's common but that could explain a low productivity.

I don't really understand what the problem is, but there are three clear-enough questions in here that I can answer:
What can a PhD candidate do if their advisor leaves on sabbatical without warning?
Keep doing what you're supposed to be doing -- do research, write papers, give and attend talks, network, write up a thesis, and graduate. These things should not be contingent on your advisor being around.
Is it normal for a PhD advisor to leave on sabbatical in a student's final semester?
Yes. Professors go on sabbatical and they will always have students in various stages of their studies. My advisor went on sabbatical in my second and again in my last year. (Yes, my PhD was that long.) It wasn't a problem.
Is there anything a PhD student can do about their supervisor going on sabbatical during the student's final semester?
Ask if you can come along? (I did that the first time, but not the second.) Again, I don't really see what the problem is that you want something done about. It's simply not reasonable for you to insist that he stays for your sake -- you should be independent enough to not need his continual physical presence.
There is a fourth issue here: using a sabbatical as a vacation This is indeed a bit unusual, but not unheard of. I think it's more common for professors to take a sabbatical at a university that "coincidentally" is in a very nice location, rather than have no institutional home during that time. Ultimately, professors get a lot of leeway in terms of what they do on sabbatical. As long as he does research, I don't think anyone cares where or how he did it.

Professor on sabbatical with student(s) finishing dissertations.  Fairly normal in my experience.
Professor using sabbatical leave as a vacation.  Not normal in my experience.  However, you're not in any position to complain about this.  It appears that the leave has been approved by the powers that be, so it's unlikely that a complaint would change the situation.

As in comments and so on... there are two very different issues here. The first is getting your thesis done, the second whether making a sabbatical into a vacation is ok along with whether it is standard practice to "ditch" students.
It is indeed very common to "ditch" students, not at all necessarily consciously maliciously, because there's not at all reliable funding for students at the other location. Nowadays, with the internet (!), this is not necessarily so severe, since communication is still very, very easy.
Is it ok or common to make sabbatical into a "vacation"? Mm, maybe not so much, but/and people needn't choose unpleasant locations for their sabbaticals... especially now that we have the internet. Notions of "relaxing" are legitimate uses of sabbaticals, since feeling refreshed and renewed is essential for good work. (Don't tell the bureaucrats and bean-counters...)
The only really important issue here is that you have (some kind of?) offer already, but that it is (reasonably enough) contingent upon your finishing... in spring? in summer? You should be able to communicate this to your advisor, and stir them/him/her to action at least on this account.


text:
What does the request to "benchmark your manuscript against recent articles" mean?
My manuscript was favourably received, with a recommendation to publish after a minor revision.  However, after submitting the revised version, the Associate Editor (or Editor-in-Chief) responded:

Please benchmark your manuscript against recent articles in [other journal] to increase the relevance of your manuscript to the journal's readership.

What does this mean?
Does this mean the Associate Editor (or Editor-in-Chief) doesn't like my manuscript?

I‘m a PHD student,  my PHD supervisor was pretty hands-off, and I don't know what to do now.

When they requested that you benchmark your manuscript against other articles in a journal, did they recommend that you benchmark it against other articles in the same journal that you submitted it to, or was it another journal?

I could eventually understand compare, but not benchmark. Contact your supervisor and the editor.

(i) Minor revision; (ii) same journal; (ii) I did some calculations with citation data from Journal Citation Reports and found out that the journal self-citation rate (2017-2018) was less than 10 %. I find several published papers (in 2019) were a little similar to my manuscript. So, I mentioned these recent published papers in the revised manuscript. Finally, the manuscript was accepted. Thank you for your help.

First, are you sure this is a reputable journal?  Avoid publishing with disreputable journals.
The editor is requesting that you compare your results to recent results published in the same journal.  It is normal to expect that you compare your results with previous work, however, it is a bit odd that the editor specifically requests that you compare with work from the same journal.  Perhaps the editor is attempting to inflate the journal's citation statistics.  It is also possible that the editor knows the journal has published multiple relevant papers you should have mentioned in your submission, but did not.
If you can identify similar papers from the journal with which you can compare your results, do so.  If you cannot find any similar papers, you may have selected an inappropriate journal for your work.

I understand. Thank you very much.

(i) I did some calculations with citation data from Journal Citation Reports and found out that the journal self-citation rate (2017-2018) was less than 10 %.
(ii) I find several published papers (in 2019) were a little similar to my manuscript.
(iii) So, I mentioned these recent published papers in the revised manuscript.
Finally, the manuscript was accepted.

I work as a manuscript editor for a medical journal. I suggest writing back to the corresponding editor and tell them that you would appreciate more direction. It is part of what they do--help new authors figure out the publication process. It will not change your acceptance and it is better to have the request explained fully rather than risking another round of edits if you don't do exactly what they intend.

Thank you very much. Finally, the manuscript was accepted.


text:
How long are typical letters of recommendation for grad school admission?
Is it bad if a letter of recommendation for graduate school is over 1 page, like 1.5 pages?

An LOR is typically one to two pages.  If it was five pages, that would be odd.

Are letters 2 pages in size common in graduate school?

Yes, an LOR that stretches to a second page is quite common.

Yes, this is about right. Just guesstimating, I’d say a mean of 1.4 pages with an SD of 0.5 pages. Less than half a page is very rare. More than two pages is unusual but not terribly so.


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If I receive an "honorary doctorate" from a reputable university, would it be wrong to refer to myself as "doctor"?
If I receive an honorary doctorate, would it be appropriate for me to refer to myself as though I had received a standard doctorate?
For example: Dr. Horse Hair, Horse Hair, PhD, etc?  Would I select "PhD" from the pull-down menu when submitting pubs?

Is your honorary doctorate a PhD? They usually aren't.

A modern example that comes to mind. Dr John Cooper Clarke was awarded an honorary doctorate (a DA) and nobody objects to him using the title of "Dr". However, he has no PhD of any sort.

This wikipedia article has a lot of good information about honorary degrees (especially, honorary doctorates).  The major takeaway is that a recipient of an honorary doctorate should not try to mislead people into thinking that he has an earned doctoral degree.  An honorary doctorate is really an award and not a degree, so it would be, well, honorable to take pains to describe it accurately.  Thus you should probably not describe yourself as "Dr. Horsehair" except in a context in which the honorary degree has already explicitly been discussed and is relevant (e.g. at a ceremony at the institution which awarded the doctorate).
Listing yourself as having a PhD when submitting an academic paper seems willfully misleading and thus unethical.  Moreover you should not at all neglect the possibility that an editor or referee will do some quick internet search and discover that your PhD is not a "real one": this would not reflect well on you.
A PhD has a very specific meaning within the academic community: it is an academic credential.  Academics take academic credentials very seriously, and the PhD is one of the most serious academic credentials, so you should expect academics to take that credential very seriously.  Appearing to flout -- or even worse, not understand the significance of -- academic credentials is one of the worst things that a would-be academic researcher could do.  On the other hand, a PhD is "just a credential": it is not a badge of honor, a sign of superior intelligence, greater worth or anything like that.  Most lifelong academics have met PhD holders whose academic skills are wholly unimpressive as well as non-PhD holders (of both the "not-yet" and the "never" varieties) who are brilliant and academically accomplished.  Portraying yourself as having a PhD is not going to elevate you within the academic community in any fundamental way (but, as I said above, a discovery that you do not have the earned PhD that you implied you did may well be held against you).  Just be honest and keep your head up.

In Germany, this title is denoted as Dr. h.c. Horse Hair. (h.c. = honoris cause).


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Are researchers for big digital companies experienced researchers/scientists or just experienced industry programmers?
Are people doing research for Microsoft, Apple, Intel experienced researchers/scientists or just experienced programmers using other people's research? Do they hire full time researchers for their research or do they take experienced/skilled professionals who are familiar working with java, C++ and other commercial technologies?

Microsoft has a prominent research arm, Microsoft Research.  Intel has Intel Labs.  Both organizations hire research-focused PhDs from both industry and academia, and both employ researchers that have joint appointments on research university faculty.  Employees at both organizations also routinely publish fundamental research at peer-reviewed conferences and workshops, and in journals.
Apple is a tougher nut to crack -- they spend truckloads of money on R&D, but rarely publish in peer-reviewed venues.  However, they do hire plenty of PhDs who do focused research on products that sometimes turn into the next iPhone.
All three companies file many patents, as well.
Many other big companies also have research labs, and openly hire researches specifically working on fundamental research.  However, as with any company, research tends to be focused in the direction that could eventually produce profitable products -- if you are considering a research job at a company, you should take this into consideration.  For what it's worth, Microsoft Research seems to be closer to the "research for the sake of science" than some other labs, although there are others (notably, labs such as (formerly) Xerox PARC and Bell Labs are famous for groundbreaking fundamental research).

This answer is excellent. Do note that this is really just a sampling; there are literally countless other examples from other fields.

I should add that getting a job at Microsoft Research is comparable to and as rigorous as getting a job as a professor at a top university.

@ChrisGregg I don't think getting a job as a professor is as hard as getting a job as a programmer.see this discussion http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/47778/why-are-sw-engineering-interviews-disproportionately-difficult-vs-research-int

@iOsBoy The link you posted did not mention professors at all (research scientist ≠ professor).

@iOsBoy, you should find a person who interviewed at both Microsoft and UC Berkeley or U Washington nearby. Or even SJSU in Bay area. Or better yet a person who worked in both. Like Hal Varian.

@ChrisGregg sorry my mistake.But are'nt they almost the same thing? One of the most important things when hiring a professor is what research he has done

@iOsBoy: The linked question about job interviews isn't in any way about the difficulty of getting hired, but rather about how much they hassle you during the interview (brain teasers, details about programming languages, etc.).

It's worth noting that Microsoft Research also hires staff programmers in addition to research scientists.

This is a discipline-specific question. Computer science may have Google, Microsoft, Bell labs -- what do other disciplines have?
I work in survey statistics, and while there are about four or five Ph.D. programs in the world producing survey statisticians and methodologists (Univ of Maryland, Univ of Michigan and Univ of Nebraska, Lincoln in the US; Southampton in UK; Iowa State has a statistics program that is traditionally strong on the survey side; other Ph.Ds come from scattered academic survey statisticians, about another 10 or so people in North America), the papers published in academic journals in the discipline split about evenly between government, industry, and academia-proper. I've heard from friends in chemistry that most of good chemistry research is being done in industry these days, rather than in academia. Don't quote me on this though. National Institutes of Health (US) have a tenure-like system for their researchers, as they are expected to produce top-quality research.

I have tagged this question as Computer science


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My MS thesis advisor wants me to delay my graduation for one semester. What should I do?
I planned to graduate this summer, and I went through all the process of applying for graduation and my advisor signs all of these.

Now I have just 2 weeks to meet the deadline to officially graduate this summer. I have emailed by advisor to help me prepare my final results, proofread my thesis document. This is 2 weeks back, and I don't have any reply so far.
I get an email from my advisor saying that I can't delay and have to postpone my graduation next semester.  "It is best for you to make an official decision to cancel your graduation, since it is getting too close to the oral defense deadline as well as reviewing thesis."

I am OK to graduate next semester, but what I can't bear to understand is the carelessness of my advisor. I have to pay again for a whole new semester because of this.
Any advice what I should be doing at this moment?

Do I understand you correctly?  First you gave your advisor only four weeks to proofread (one word) your thesis, and then you waited two weeks for an email response instead of talking to them face-to-face?  I don't think it was just your advisor who was careless.

Graduate from what sort of program... Undergrad? Masters? PhD?

@JeffE face2face ? He doesn't even come to lab/School. I haven't seen him since 5 months face-face. And proof read of final draft (not first).

@posdef : Masters

That's what co-supervisors are for, then.

I haven't seen him since 5 months face-face. — You need a new advisor!  But it maybe it's too late for that.  Do you have his home/mobile phone number?  Do you know where he lives?  You have every right to hunt him down and ask him to do his damn job.

@JeffE : I have tried his number - but no use, No I don't know where he lives. Its too late to revoke back now. I just want to finish it and graduate. The progress have been so slow due to his absence. It's my Thesis but without your advisors presence it will be slow. I know you guys would get that.

@gerrit : No, my school doesn't have that policy unless you are doing Phd.

If you don't have any problems with graduating next semester then just do that.  It will give you more time to refine your submissions and to prep for the defense.  A little annoying, granted, but it could be a blessing in disguise too.
As for working with your adviser, what's done is done.  Perhaps they were delayed in their responses but you may have to accept some of the responsibility here as well, I think.  It takes some time to make all of the arrangements for finalizing graduation.  It's not like undergrad where they can just look at the transcript and say "120cu, good to go". Heck, just getting a defense scheduled can be a major undertaking.  Especially if you're trying to squeeze in under the wire.  Stack the university processing and thesis review times on top of that and you're really cutting it close.
I can certainly understand your frustration (my M.S. was delayed by a semester due to a similarly inane set of circumstances which led to all kinds of fun) but my suggestion to you and anyone in a similar situation is to take a deep breath, relax, and use the time that you have to prep as best you can.
Aside: This type of advice question is not a very good fit to the normal SO format.  I wanted to provide a response since I suspect that many people have gotten into similar situations but have fair warning that it may get flagged.

Yes, two weeks is not enough, by far.

Ok. I understand now that 2 weeks is too short period of time. But I believed that proof read of final draft would take less time than the usual first and second drafts. But yeah , I decided to graduate next semester and in mean time may be refine my thesis and possibly try to submit a paper.

That's a very constructive way to look at it vulkkan. I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors.

@grauwulf : Thank you, I hope they don't talk down this post. I am pretty sure there are many people out there with the same problem as mine. Not all advisors ( irrespective of their reputation and skill ) are always proactive and kind enough to see through students problems.

I used to be able to do (detailed) proofreads of whole math-heavy theses in few days. I am afraid, I have now many more things to do which split up my time and require context switching, and my response time has thus gone up by an order of magnitude. Not by lack of will, but by sheer limitations of the universe's (and my brain's) capacity. Go soft on your advisor, it may not be his/her fault. :-)


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What to do with spare research topics?
A while back I reached the stage where my ideas for research topics/papers exceeded my capacity to personally work on them. As a PostDoc, I tried to head-hunt students or more junior researchers in my area (or at conferences, etc.) to talk with them about the ideas and see if they would be interested in collaborating or co-authoring a paper. This worked well for a while.
But now (more recently) I find that I again have a back-log of promising topics that have exceeded my capacity to even advise/delegate. I have no students to work on them. The ideas are mixed in quality, concreteness, promise, etc. and I'm saving some of the ones I am most interested in for myself or for students. But I know that there are others I will have to neglect (and I often choose the "safer" topics since being in tenure-track, I have a constant hunger for publications).
Now I have a text file on my hard-drive with a list of sketches of ideas so that I remember them. But a lot of the details are left unexpressed in my head; most of the ideas in the text file would be pretty meaningless in their current form without some explanation, further development, context and/or motivation from me. At the same time, I have sufficient experience to know that there are interesting paper/thesis topics in there that I could help develop and/or advise if I had the time/money.
For some of the topics, I have been saying "some day" for too long.
In any case, I cannot imagine I am alone in this. I am sure that various researchers see many potentially promising research topics fall "by the wayside" due to more urgent, day-to-day matters. I sometimes wonder if other professors similarly have lists of research topics that just rot away in a text file somewhere. It would seem like such a waste if this were the case: think about the union of all these text files sitting on local hard-drives! It would seem to be a major flaw in the academic research system if this were prevalent: that the sharing of raw (or perhaps lightly pasteurised) ideas is not properly incentivised by "the system".

The question ...
Assuming I have a surplus of (good) ideas for research topics in my area – that I cannot work on myself and cannot delegate or even find time to actively advise – what should I do with them?
To avoid a loss of generality, a good answer should assume that I'm not  nice: what personal incentive would I have for sharing my ideas in this manner? I don't want to give away my ideas for free. These ideas require development and expression before they can be shared (which is difficult to do "up front"). If I am not incentivised to develop the ideas into a shareable form, the reality is that I will use my precious time to do something else I am incentivised to do.

If you need personal incentives to motivate you to share ideas with the community, why are you in academia? :)  Pretty much the only way to get measurable personal benefit from academic ideas is to publish, so if you have no intention of doing that, these ideas will never do you any good and might as well be given away.

Are there open problems rump sessions at your major meetings ?

@Suresh, not stated as such, no. My area of CS is quite applied. There are discussion fora, but they tend to talk about the big questions/community directions rather than specific open problems/topics.

@NateEldredge, I wish it were that simple. Ideas have a certain inertia. If you've ever been at a coffee meeting at a conference, you'll have encountered this inertia I'm sure. :)

For a very interesting blog post on this matter (ideas backlog) see: this

I believe the most 'formal' way to share these would be to write a survey of the area that your open problems relate to, highlighting each problem. This adds a publication, and anyone who solves one of the problems is likely to cite it. Moreover, if the survey is sufficiently in-depth, it can generate a large number of citations as an introduction to the area.

Except that probably takes as long as just solving the open problems and publishing them!

An incentive you should recognize is time: worrying about these problems takes time away from what you do want to prioritize.
I recommend the following experiment, and will assume for sake of discussion that the ideas lie within mathematics.  Take one or two of the ideas that you consider expendable, and spend 30 minutes writing a MathOverflow post about them.  Post that on MathOverflow, and then sit back and wait.  If you do it with proper attribution, people may solve them and give you credit for your contribution, or otherwise make progress that you might deem satisfactory.  Or they might be ignored for a while.  The basic idea has been put out there, and you can decide to reprioritize it and then later post what progress you have made as a partial answer.
The point of the experiment is to see how you feel about letting something go.  If it works well for you, you can repeat it with other things.  If it doesn't, you can stop at the second or third expendable idea this way.  I have the hope that sharing some of your low priority expendable ideas will bring more satisfaction than waiting for the right time to reveal it to someone.  As my background is mathematics, I suggested the MathOverflow forum.  You will have to find or create an appropriate forum to share these ideas.

The long term solution is: 1) obtain funding, 2) build a research group, and 3) delegate. Goto 1. (Somewhere along the line, get tenure to ensure that this loop will continue indefinitely.)
These task  will require coherence across your research ideas.
Firstly to have a convincing enough thrust for funding agencies to invest in you.
You to have a narrow enough focus for your research group to work cooperatively (or at least, to be able to read and comment on each other's work).
Finally, you'll need ideas to come in big enough chunks for PhD students to write dissertations on.

I also have a long list of problems that I think

need to be solved and
where I at least have an idea in which direction a solution may be found

I tend to ask around at conferences or whenever I meet someone who may know something very much. Though we don't have "unsolved issues" sessions per se, it is not weird that a presentation points out an identified problem without solution.

What personal incentive would I have for sharing my ideas in this manner?

I also came to the conclusion that I'll probably never run out of problems or ideas to think about.
My research ideas are usually not ideas out of the blue, but problems where I could need a (better) solution.
So one incentive is: I need the solution.
A second incentive is: I've made the experience that while I can describe the problem in my field's jargon, this may not lead to search terms that find a solution which is already known in some other field.
Sharing the problem may save me from reinventing the wheel.
My personal experience typically is along the lines "yeah, you're pointing out a valid problem. Though I have no idea how to solve it or whether someone else has a solution". (Ongoing situation for some years, until I had thought long enough to arrive at a solution myself). It then was my solution that enabled me to find similar approaches in different fields - so not that successful at reusing already invented wheels. SX sites may be better than conferences in that aspect.
From that experience it looks as if I'm hunting for a rare chance that someone will step in who's interested in solving the problem.

I am finishing my PhD in molecular and cell biology and have recently made all my spare research topics public at the top of my website. It's a Gdoc that anyone can comment on and I am updating it periodically. As you are saying, the thoughts and ideas are "mixed in quality, concreteness, promise", but just the fact that I extended them to a public domain makes me excited as there is-albeit small-chance someone will read them and push them forward in some way. My personal view is that by letting my thoughts fly like this, I created (a possibility for) a feedback loop that will eventually anyway lead me to refining and possibly drastically improving their original form.

One platform where you can share research ideas, whatever the discipline, is Wikiversity: https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Category:Research
Whatever platform or website you use, you may have to advertise your ideas to colleagues, or they won't notice.
As for getting credit and being incentivized, this is not possible in the present system. But I am sure that you already do some free work for the community, if only peer reviewing. You may consider that an idea is worth sharing when sharing it seems a better use of your time than doing peer reviewing.

I had the same problem.  My advise is to at least write them down.  Excel spreadsheet is a good format as you can have a few columns for categories ad use the "filters" to sort them.  At least this way, they are not running around head as much. Also can put a prioritization in there and/or even a box for "done".
I advise NOT sharing your ideas much.  (Sounds radical but listen to me.)  If you have some 1-2 true colleagues who really help you and you want to help them, fine.  But in general this will not be the case.  In fact often people won't take action on your ideas, or if they do, they won't give you coauthor or even acknowledgement.   At least until you get tenure, you need to push your own sled and pump out your publications.  Also, maybe knowing that the ideas are relying on you to execute them will help to get them done at all.
Good luck. (Yes, this is an old post, but it's an enduring issue.)