text:
Is it wrong for students to report suspected / borderline plagiarism?
Last year I came across a student in our department (we are both PhD students) who copied a journal article in her final paper. To be sure, she didn’t copy the article word from word but did use the exact same research design (variables, data, methodology, mechanism part). The two abstracts therefore look extremely similar, as the student replicated the journal article without citation. She almost got away with this since the journal article is in another language that the instructor doesn't know. My advisor considered this as borderline plagiarism and supported me in reporting. Eventually the faculty regraded the paper but didn’t term it as plagiarism.
Several months later the student and her friend posted this incident online and attacked me personally. I heard mixed opinions from fellow students. Many people say that even though the student is guilty, I should not report her in the first place.
I am confused. Was I wrong in reporting academic misconduct?

I am going to suppose that a decision on such an event is not possible without a lot more investigation.  It would require, for example, carefully examining the work the student handed in and comparing it to the source article. Also looking at the specification of the work that the student was working under. Probably this isn't going to happen completely in this forum.

Full support to you, the scientific community needs more people stepping up against poor quality content. So many papers are not correctly reviewed nowadays that it feels like very little things makes sense anymore. Plagiarism is part of this low quality content I am referring to.

I don't understand how this can only be considered as borderline plagiarism (or not even plagiarism by the other faculty).

For that part I also didn’t understand… I didn’t have a chance to know about the inspection process. The faculty showed the paper to different people who understood the other language and they may have different opinions on plagiarism. Or maybe the faculty only wanted to educate the student by giving a lighter punishment.

Regardless of whether or not it was the ethical thing to do, many people believe that snitches get stitches.

It's common that people caught cheating are upset they are caught.
It's unfortunately also common that people who act unethically feel like consequences for their unethical behavior are the fault of someone besides them, the person who decided to behave unethically.
There is sometimes an "us versus them" mentality, where it may seem to other students that you've somehow "betrayed" them by revealing evidence of cheating to the authorities. However, if they simply had not cheated in the first place, they would have no consequences to bear because you'd have nothing to report. The social stigma behind this is designed to protect cheaters.
I don't think you did anything wrong here. It seems you were especially careful in that you consulted with your advisor, and the paper was reevaluated with your information taken into consideration. Once you report, it's not really your responsibility anymore. There's nothing much you can do if people want to blame you for their own misconduct.

Here's a story of someone who has decided to become basically a professional detector of cheating in academic publishing: Meet this super-spotter of duplicated images in science papers. Specifically, she finds cases where people have manipulated and duplicated images to falsify data, or to represent old work (sometimes by completely different authors) as new work.

“At some point, I am afraid people will sue me,” she says. She tries to keep her critiques to research papers, rather than accusing their authors. Bik has not faced a lawsuit, but has been harassed and has sometimes taken time off Twitter. One person e-mailed her former colleagues at Stanford arguing that she had abused her research grant funding by pursuing image integrity investigations during work hours. (Bik says this was untrue.) Another posted personal information on PubPeer (now removed). “I’ve been called a bitch a couple of times,” she says. “It comes with the work I do.”

Your latter example shows that, when one does such a reporting, one should be careful to have extra clean record. Secondly, I am quite surprised that OP's name appeared at all in the investigation. The evidence of plagiarism is either objective or it is not. It does not depend on OP's witnessing. OP solely pointed out that there may be a problem. I am surprised that they were dragged into this at all, and as a vulnerable person, they should not be exposed to to the blowback from the process.

@CaptainEmacs Agreed - the best practice here is anonymity from OP, and everyone on the other side (advisor, instructor, etc) should do their best to protect OP's identity to prevent any blowback. The example I give is a bit different because this is public commentary of work in public, I included it only to show that people doing good work to expose frauds are often targeted, and it is not a good indication that sharing the information with the people who need to hear it was wrong.

The advisor and instructor did protect me in their investigation. The student and her friend found out it was me because there were few students who took the same class and understood the other language at the same time.

@Kayla That's quite unfortunate. In any case, you did right. Do not get intimidated. Don't engage, tell them that, in the end, it's the process which decides whether they plagiarised or not and that's the institution's responsibility. If they bug you, tell them that, if you had been wrong, they would have been exonerated. People do not like (what they like to call) "cheats" because they expect your personal loyalty (which they have no entitlement to) over loyalty to an abstract system of values. You chose values. You took the difficult route. You have my respect.

Was I wrong in reporting borderline plagiarism?

No. You are never wrong to report (suspected or actual) plagiarism to a professor or department for review. You should not feel guilty about bringing this case to someone's attention. In short, you did the right thing!
Even if you turned out to be wrong, it doesn't matter: an honest, good-faith report cannot alone be used as evidence against the student, but will instead be a pointer to look into the case further and determine if there is sufficient evidence for plagiarism.

My advisor considered this as borderline plagiarism and supported me in reporting.

Talking to your advisor (or another trusted faculty member) is exactly the right thing to do here. The fact they supported it is further evidence you were not completely misguided in your suspicions.
In general: simply turning the case over to the department or a trusted faculty member is the right thing to do, rather than trying to figure out yourself whether it counts as plagiarism. They will decide how to proceed (as they did in your case), whether that be to pursue academic misconduct proceedings, or just to give a warning, or to ignore it.

Several months later the student and her friend posted this incident online and attacked my personality.

Many plagiarism reports are anonymous. I would encourage you in the future to ensure your name can't necessarily be tied to your report. On the other hand, being attacked online for this could be considered bullying or harassment. As the student and their friend are only posting one side of the story, try not to worry about what people are saying about it online.

If the online attacks continue I would bring this up to the department and/or the dean (or ombuds if you institution has them). Those actions should not be tolerated either.

I'll add that any thorough guide on ethics is not only going to forbid plagiarism, it will also instruct any and all to avoid even the appearance of plagiarism. If something looks like plagiarism, at the very least the person presenting it as their own work was not careful enough in avoiding the appearance.

To answer your question, no, reporting plagiarism is not the wrong thing to do, ever. Even if it had been a misunderstanding, checking for plagiarism is part of the system, it's nothing personal. But since the student was reprimanded, it further shows you did exactly the right thing.
I have to admit I am mainly commenting to add a strong suggestion. I am not sure how long ago those public comments were made by the student. However, such comments don't just put you in a bad light, they also inadvertently imply that the faculty reprimanding the person was in the wrong too. Students are welcome to challenge any and all judgements, but doing so publicly without the possibility for the institution to explain their reasoning is unfair and puts the whole faculty in a bad light.
If I was the head/member of said faculty, I would want to know this is happening, have a discussion with this student and unless they can prove their stance, handle this case according to the institution's guidelines.
But, of course, it is not your duty to do this. I would fully understand why you would want to avoid anything to do with this student for the rest of your career.

I'm not going to tell you whether it's right or wrong.
I believe you should think consciously about your own ethics. What is the basis for you thinking that something is wrong and something else is right? I think people should not rely on other people's opinions regarding what's wrong and what's right, they should have their own. (This doesn't mean you shouldn't listen to other people and potentially learn from what they have to say. Fair enough you ask this question and get some views, still try to get yourself up to the point where you have a well founded view on this yourself.)
The bigger picture here is how you think society as a whole should work and what role science should play in it. What are the implications of plagiarism, and of somebody getting a degree based on plagiarised work? Could it be a problem for society? Or at least for some people (such as those who later employ the plagiator based on their degree, or those who don't win a position because a competitor has plagiarised and looks better on paper than they actually are)? How important is this to you?
More generally you may ask yourself whether and why you think that we should generally "play by the rules" (or not)? To what extent does it depend on the specific rule, or on who enforces them, or who benefits from it, and who is maybe disadvantaged by it?
You may also ask yourself about your ideas on solidarity and relations between students. Do you see the students as a group of people that should generally help each other, also against authorities who by marking them may determine their future fate to some extent? On the other hand, you may rather have the view that ultimately students compete against each other, and the best ones should "win", so solidarity should definitely not go as far as helping others to achieve better marks than they deserve (you may also think about who, in your view, really "deserves" what for what reason, and whether you think the the marking at universities is fair in this respect, or what would make it better, or worse).
And then you may ask yourself about whether generally standing in for your ethical principles is valuable also in the face of potential backlash. You can expect that people won't be happy if you do something that damages their position, so if you so something like this there is always the chance that you get a hostile reaction. Do you think it would be worthwhile avoiding it? Why or why not?
There are probably even more aspects of this. In any case I'd like to encourage you to train your own judgement and to learn how to use it confidently.

What is the basis for you thinking that something is wrong and something else is right? - The University's guidelines on academic misconduct, probably.


text:
How should I write leaving a PhD program after 6 years on the CV?
I started my PhD in engineering in 2018 right after finishing Master's. In my 3nd year, COVID happened and I couldn't continue my research for various reasons. I tried to switch topic, but after doing it for about a year I couldn't find the passion to continue doing research.
My family convinced me to try at it a bit longer and I did, but time passed by without significant progress. I decided to quit and am now looking for a job in an industry related to my field. (Officially, I am still in the program, but I don't have any desire to finish.)
My concern is how should I present this on my CV. As the normal duration for Ph.D. program is three years, and I extended it to 5-6 years without being able to get the degree.

What do you need in order to complete your PhD? If you were on the program for already 6 years maybe you have already some work done, and not too much is remaining to do to get the degree.

@Amelian, I think, that is not a correct assumption. Sometimes people quit PhDs because of the project's failure. Projects fail because the initial research and hypothesis are incorrect.

@user366312 sorry if my wording was confusing, but I made no assumption on my previous comment. I'm aware of what you say, that's why I said "maybe". I just think that you might get more useful answers if you clarify how advanced the work you have done is, or (roughly) what else you think you need to do to finish.

@Amelian It's close to a project failure. I realized that around my 2nd-3rd year so I tried a new topic that my advisor recommended. I tried it for a while but I don't find it interesting and didn't make much progress.  At this point, I don't have the mental capacity to continue that topic or start new research again.

Re "In my 3nd year": 2nd or 3rd?

Everyone knows what BS is.  MS is more of the same.  PhD is Piled Higher and Deeper.

I think what @Amelian is pointing at is: At the end of a PhD program, just handing in something will get you a degree. Reasons for that: 1. Your work should be rewarded, no matter the outcome. 2. Its sufficient for a PhD thesis to demonstrate the ability to build on a research hypothesis, even if its not fruitful and the results are not publishable. 3. It is difficult to judge how much work goes into certain results and hard to draw a line where it is not enough.
I don't know how this is handled in your field, but "just hand something in" is, I think, good advice if your time is up.

I left PhD after 4 years. I have my PhD time under "experience" not under "education" and I have explicit "not completed" line to prevent any confusions. In my experience, no one will care if you finished your PhD or not if you have the necessary skills for industry. In fact lots of people in the industry do not have the highest opinion  of academia and they totally understand why someone would leave.

I used the term "Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter" -- "Scientific Assistant" for my stint in PhD studies. Noone ever questioned (negatively) why I didn't finish.

Only once I had "issue" with not completing PhD. When interviewing with Meta, that said that they can offer me only research engineer position and not research scientist position as that is reserved only for people with PhD.

Yeah well, if the job requires a PhD, it requires a PhD.

Well I'm a postdoc now, which usually requires PhD :) sometimes there are ways around these "requirements".

I agree strongly with the emphasis on "Not Completed". We had candidates apply for positions where I work and once we found out that they hadn't finished their PhD despite having it listed on their CV, we looked very unfavourably on the candidate as dishonest. It pretty much cost them the job. Honestly, it's not a good indication of a person's ability to finish a project (or know to cut it short early) if they have bailed on a project after 4 years, but if you can justify it properly and explain that you've learnt some important lessons then it's better than being misleading/dishonest.

PhD supervisor here.  I'd suggest listing it for what it is—you have done a few years of research work and hopefully learned a bunch of useful stuff from them.   The same as you would have gained by, say, working in a company R&D lab for that time.
It's sad when PhDs don't work out, but sometimes it happens and everyone knows that.  There are lots of random factors—personalities, supervisors, topics, fundings, and life events, many of which are completely beyond your control.   Can you change supervisor and/or topic to get to the finish line? Maybe talk to your supervisor and university to see if there are any options for you to go back and finish it later in your career?   (E.g., Brian May from Queen did this!)   Or sometimes if you take an industry R&D job you can carry on some of your research or something related and roll that into finishing a thesis.  Talk to companies about those options?
If you just want a qualification now—do you have enough material to write up and submit something now, either as a PhD attempt or as a lesser degree like an MRes or MPhil perhaps?   Did you publish anything during your research?  If so—publications are generally more valuable than PhD degrees nowadays.  When we hire for postdocs we are looking for publications rather than degrees.

Also, in the US one is often an RA/TA or if you worked for a company while doing this so much the better.  So be sure to list out anything that you got paid for, even clerical (e.g. my brother was in grad school in history but worked a clerical job for a different department).  Also, list out any relevant volunteer work, or associations.

I left my first PhD after 3 years (out of 5 years) in 2021 due to various reasons. My official designation at the time was "Junior Research Fellow" and this is how it reflects on my CV. I'm yet to be questioned on it - I'm still in academia though in another PhD program (finishing in one year).

First of all, let me congratulate you on making a decision and acting on it.
It is a bold step to aboard any undertaking after such a long time.
From my experience of quitting a PhD mid-way, the only harm would be to not having learned from it.
Compared to someone who always passed without a hassle, you know your limits -- and some companies find value in that.
How about presenting a CV where you also write the subjects of what you did when?
That way, you can split your career steps within the PhD program visually into shorter sections.
Also, depending on what you did in parallel, you can list that with overlapping dates.
Prepare yourself to have one (not many) consistent explanation why a PhD didn't work out for you, when asked about it, or when you tell the story of your journey.
I mean, if you get asked about it during a hiring process, you're already talking with people about what's important: you.
Don't try and hide the fact of coming out of a dead end!
You never know, what background checks a company might run, what people they know in your surroundings, etc.
And you'll probably tell your future colleagues about that time anyway.
There is a lot of potentially non-repairable damage, if anybody later gets the feeling of a deceit during the hiring process.
Good luck!

Since you are still in the program, you can write that you are on a leave of absence, not completed, moved to 'candidate' (assuming you passed your exams already), etc. Speaking of that, does your university offer the option of a non-thesis terminal Master's with what you've done so far? That'd take care of the issue.
There's no shame in leaving a program if you've lost the motivation for it and don't see yourself restarting a new research topic. In fact, there's a lot to be said about someone with the wisdom to know when quitting and moving on is the best option. Your family might be disappointed because it's hard to explain how stressful grad school is to outsiders. But the people that matter, ie hiring managers, don't care. They care about your skills and experience.

"Leave of absence" implies there is a possibility of going back. I'd avoid that phrase, as it conveys to potential employers that at some point you may quit and return to academia. I see it as neither an accurate characterization of the situation, nor as conveying a particularly helpful message.

Agree totally with Nuclear Hoagie's comment:  avoid phrases that are either untrue or unhelpful, this appears to be both.  However, the second paragraph of cheery.beach7701's answer seems to be useful, perhaps the overall answer could be re-worked a bit?

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
How to handle repeated references in footnotes?
I have to cite the same reference two times on each footnote on different pages. Suppose footnote note 1 on page 1 is the same reference as footnote 7 on page 4.
Should I provide different serial numbers for the footnote or the same?
Can I repeat the same reference twice with different footnote numbers, or should I us the same footnote number for identical references? I cannot write "ibid", as the footnotes are not in sequence.

Generally speaking, you should use whichever style sheet your publication venue asks you to use. Different styles have different ways to handle this.
As an example, the following are two common ways to deal with repeated references in footnotes:

Use "op. cit." to refer to the prior reference by the same author.
Use "supra X", "supra note X", to refer to a prior footnote, where X is the number of the footnote. This is relatively common in law. You can also provide different page numbers by using "supra note X, at Y" where Y is the page number.

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


text:
If I see a research paper published in multiple places, how can I tell whether or not it is unethical dual publication?
I have come across a publication by a set of well recognized professors that has been published in both IEEE and ACM in two different years.
I know that IEEE punishes scientists who publish material which uses more than 25% of the content from another publication. Accordingly, I cannot think of a reason how the later publication, which is just a copy of the first, could be ethical. What am I missing here?
Could someone please tell me if this type of academic publication is doable? If so, how do I get permission to do something like this?
The paper was first published in 2014 in the ACM SIGMETRICS conference, and in the journal that automatically publishes those conference proceedings. The second version of the paper was published in 2015 in the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications. The list of authors is identical on both. The changes (which I think are minute) are:

The second (journal) paper has some additional results (a few figures and explanation) that were not in the conference paper.
The second paper also has a short appendix with proofs that were omitted from the conference paper, which refers the reader to an online technical report for the proofs.
The second paper lists the conference paper first in its list of references.

Was one publication in a conference proceedings and the other in a journal?  This is normal accepted practice in computer science (although in most subfields of CS the journal version is expected to contain material not in the conference version.)

Adding to what @JeffE said, some conferences even have an embedded double submission system, when you submit you can tick a box and it will be also considered for a journal they have partnered with.

Note that in some fields (I don't know in CS) certain special topic or review papers can be published, sometimes traditionally, in more than one journal (see e.g. this and this), for which there is probably some kind of agreement.

Please do not disclose the paper.

I don't have access to the full texts but, from the bibliographic data, this looks like the usual situation in computer science where a paper is published first as an abbreviated conference paper, and the full version is published later in a journal. (Admittedly, in this case, there full version doesn't seem to be a whole lot longer than the conference version but that does sometimes happen.)

I've added the relevant info to the body of the post and removed the link to the papers, both because of what @Wrzlprmft mentioned in the comment above and also for the benefit of those who don't have access to the full text.

please do not change the meaning of this existing question. It is asked to find the answer of a specific question. If you have a different question please do post as a new question.  It is not required to defend on behalf of the authors of these papers. This is merely an honest question.

This is a very common situation with IEEE conferences and journals from sponsor societies as @DavidRicherby mentioned above. There are even IEEE societies that allow the publication of a conference paper after an article has been published to a journal of the society. Also, where do you get the info with the 25% between publications for IEEE?

https://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/crosscheck_portal_users_guide.pdf Page 15
IEEE States ">25% match—This level of similarity from a single source should raise serious concerns
about inappropriate reuse, and should be checked very carefully."
Thus my question.

I found one publication made available by the university
http://wimnet.ee.columbia.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/MoversShakers_sigmetrics14.pdf
The other is on ACM.
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2591986

If you want to ask a question in this community, you have to follow the guidelines of this community, including the answers in this meta discussion on naming individuals who have not agreed to be discussed here. We're not doing this to defend anyone; we're asking that you follow the rules if you post here.

Generally, a publication is an unethical dual publication if

the editor didn't know about the previous publication (i.e. the authors did not disclose it), or
the author didn't cite the previous publication (and policy requires them to do so), or
the authors have violated the "dual publication" or "extended paper" policy of the journal, which may have its own specific requirements. (For example, many, but not all, journals in CS and EE have a policy that conference papers republished as journal papers must contain 25% new material, a determination that is made by the editors based on the reviewers' assessments.)

In your example, the authors do cite the previous publication in their reference list. There is no way for you, the reader, to know whether the editor was aware of the previous publication during the review process, but it seems likely (since the authors cited their previous work.) If you're concerned that they didn't know about the previous publication, you can always send the editors an email and ask them.
The policies of IEEE, the IEEE Communication Society, and JSAC, all permit conference papers to be re-published in journal form, as long as it's cited and properly disclosed to the editor at submission.
The document you've cited from the IEEE is about using CrossCheck, a plagiarism detection tool that finds "similarity" between a submitted document and previously published material. It says:

Interpreting Matching Percentages of Individual Sources
It may seem that any source of matching text should be a concern, but in fact many matching sources are likely to not be the result of plagiarism. For example:
...
>25% match - This level of similarity from a single source should raise serious concerns about inappropriate reuse, and should be checked very carefully

which is probably why you believe that IEEE punishes authors "who publish material which uses more than 25% of the content from another publication." That document then it goes on to say

Factors to Keep in Mind when Reviewing Individual Sources
Is the similarity to the authors’ own work?
This can often be the case. Authors build upon their own previously published work, and will often reuse portions of text. While this would not be considered plagiarism, it may still indicate a potential problem if the reuse of previously published content is not cited properly.

The plagiarism discussion with the ">25%" guideline is not about authors who reuse their own material.  A separate "self-plagiarism" policy applies to them. The policy on authors republishing their own work (in identical or modified form) is called the "dual publication policy." The IEEE Communication Society's (JSAC is a ComSoc journal) dual publication policy is:

The guidelines recognize that it is common in technical publishing for material to be presented at various stages of its evolution. As one example, this can take the form of publishing early ideas in a workshop,  more developed work in a conference and fully developed contributions as journal or transactions papers. This publication process is an important means of scientific communication. The editor of a publication may choose to re-publish existing material for a variety of reasons, including promoting wider distribution and serving readers by aggregating special material in a single publication. This practice continues to be recognized and accepted by the IEEE. At the same time, the IEEE requires that this evolutionary process be fully referenced by the author.
Authors submitting manuscripts must disclose whether there are prior publications, e.g. conference papers, by the authors that are similar, whether published or submitted. They must also include information that very clearly states how the new submission differs from the previously published work(s). Such papers should be cited in the submitted manuscript.

In other words, they permit re-publishing as long as the editor agrees and:

On submission, the authors disclose that the work is previously published, and state the specific differences between the new submission and the previous publication.
The previous publication is cited in the new submission.

This is consistent with the general IEEE policy on author originality.
The journal's specific policy is also consistent with the IEEE and IEEE ComSoc policies:

With respect to authors' previously published or to-be-published work, material which has been previously copyrighted, published, or accepted for publication will not in general be considered for publication in J-SAC. Exceptions to this rule include an author's prior publications that have had limited distribution, have been printed in abstract form only, or have appeared in conference records or digests. All papers are considered on the basis of their individual merit alone, and the fact that a paper may have been accepted for presentation at a conference does not ensure its acceptance for publication in J-SAC. In many cases, a conference paper must be substantially revised to meet the technical standards maintained by J-SAC. A manuscript identical to or largely based upon a conference paper must be so identified. Please refer to IEEE's policy on originality of content for more detailed information on the use of previously-published work as the basis for a J-SAC submission.

Specifically,

Work that has only appeared in conference proceedings may be considered for publication.
Authors must disclose at paper submission time if they are submitting a paper that is "largely identical" to an already published conference paper.

Generally speaking, computer scientists are allowed to publish the "same" paper twice: first in a conference proceedings, and again in more updated/generalized/polished/complete form in a journal.  This is NOT considered dual publication.  These are just two versions of a single paper.
Many journals require a significant addition of new material to be added to a conference paper before it can be considered by a a journal, but the necessary fraction of new material varies widely between subfields and even between individual journals.  In particular, for some journals, the de facto necessary fraction of new material is 0%.  However, regardless of any changes or lack thereof, any journal submission must cite any previous conference version.
The same paper/result can also be published as (part of) a publicly available MS/PhD thesis, as a technical report, as an arXiv preprint, as a set of slides for a talk, as a blog post, and/or as a video for a talk.  None of these are considered prior publication that would forbid submitting the result to a conference or journal.
Even in computer science, publishing the same paper in more than one conference, or in more than one journal, is strictly verboten.

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


text:
A potential PhD supervisor declined to accept me as a student; can I ask a second time?
I found a relevant PhD supervisor who refused to supervise my PhD project by saying that he has no open position in his research group. Is it OK to mail him again and request to accept me as a student, because the work he is doing in his research group is extremely relevant for my research interests. I have received funding and just need space in a research group.

Even if he would accept you, he would not have any real skin in the game since you are bringing your own money. There is not accountability towards a funding agency on how their money is being spent vis-a-vis your progress. This means that you would not be his highest priority to allocate time/guidance to. Only reputation of having students in his group doing well would act as a check on that incentive.

Is the funding situation a new development? Or did you mention that already the first time you asked?

Loosely related: another question on appealing a rejected PhD application

In my opinion, you only ask something again if relevant parameters have changed meanwhile. For instance you received funding...

You can always ask.
However, be prepared that the answer may easily be still "no". Direct funding is by no means the only resource that an advisor has to pour into a student. There is also the time investment of actually advising a student, assorted costs for overheads and utilities, as well as presumably some money to fund conference trips. This isn't even to speak of simple inter-personal matters, such as that the professor may feel that you are not a good fit for the lab culture.

More strongly: Be prepared for the answer to be "What part of 'no' do you not understand?"

To add: "no open position" does not necessarily mean "no funding". It could also mean that "I only have the time to supervise 3 students, and none of them are graduating in the next year."

@WillieWong: Exactly, if he asks something along the lines of "Sir. In case the there were no open positions purely because of funding, I would like to inform you that I have secured alternative funding. I understand if you have no open positions due to time constrains or other reasons, but I did believe it appropriate to inform you of this option" I do think that would be fine and not illicit reactions like JeffE expects.

If you had already obtained funding prior to the first request, and the professor was aware of this, you have to seriously question why you were refused a position. Possible reasons are:

The professor feels you won't fit in to the group or get along well with him as a supervisor.
The professor doesn't have enough time to supervise another student. You don't want a supervisor that has no time for you.
The professor doesn't want another student doing the stuff that you're doing. Maybe he wants to diversify into some different areas of your field.

Sure, you could ask him again (and perhaps you should, if you have only obtained funding after the first request). But you should also ask why you were rejected in the first place, because the answer to that question could tell you whether or not you are likely to enjoy your time in his research group.

Assuming the funding is new information, I would ask for an appointment to discuss your situation and any concerns/hesitations the professor might have. Face-to-face meeting has advantage of a dialog that email lacks. You can ask for professor's concerns, express your enthusiasm, and perhaps come up with a partial solution.
Some faculty is hesitant accepting students that they haven't worked with before (from a class), for example. If that is the case, you can either take a class, or ask to be admitted on a trial basis. Other times, faculty might not accept new students because they plan on leaving their current job or retiring.
The solution for you will depend on the specific circumstances that you can only find out through a face-to-face, honest discussion.

In this case I think it's best to first ask for permission to ask.  Now, I don't mean to break your request into multiple communications; that wastes everyone's time.
But do start off with mentioning the additional funding and asking whether having funding makes any difference.  That way you don't show a lack of respect for his earlier refusal.  And if he can give you an answer just from that, he needn't waste his time reading further.
Farther down you can lay out any other arguments, pleading, etc.

Yes you can and you should. Although the group may be full (which can be a good sign) showing persistence and motivation is a good sign for the group leader: they are often very much interested in a motivated student - after all, having groups from which no one finishes the PhD (as may happen with non-motivated students) is not a good thing for their personal results evaluation.
I have a recent story for you: Päivi Rissanen - a former psychiatry closed ward inmate got finally, after a LOT of convincing a place under professor Antti Karisto (http://blogs.helsinki.fi/akaristo/in-english/) in the Department of Social Policy in University of Helsinki and will soon be a PhD, according to Helsingin Sanomat newspaper.
A strong will may meld the world around it to its liking. Do it.

Motivation is good. Persistence is good to a point. Asking twice might indicate that the student doesn't give up too easily. Asking three times indicates that the student refuses to take no for an answer and would be impossible to work with. And a strong mind will find it very hard to meld the world around it if its emails get put on the ignore list.

Agreed, persistence and pestering are two different things. Not agreed "And a strong mind will find it very hard to meld the world around it if its emails get put on the ignore list." sending just an e-mail is quite a weak approach. Also academia might find it useful to try to get a personal meeting when selling oneself. Original question was "is it OK to mail him". Try personal face to face meeting. Also, PhD:s are not gained by being a quitter. How would you respond: http://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/people/david.richerby/ ?


text:
How to judge the reputation of a potential advisor or research group for good quality research for PhD?
I am planning my PhD and am applying to various labs and professors.
I am getting positive responses, but I am having trouble making a decision as to which lab to go for. How can I judge the quality of research of a group? What parameters shall be kept in mind while making a decision? I usually look for relevant research interests.

I have removed the previous tags (neither of them really applies to the core question) and added research-group. But I am not really happy about this either. Does somebody have a better suggestion?

@Wrzlprmft I added two tags to the question. Please re-edit the question if you find these tags irrelevant too.

How can I judge the quality of research of a group?

This is the wrong question.
What you should be asking is "How can I judge which research group will best support my educational and career goals?"  And yes, this is a very different question.  And while lab productivity may be correlated with the future career prospects of its members, the two are not identical.  Some great researchers are terrible advisors.

Are the lab's students happy?
Do the lab's students have a consistent strong track record of publishing new results?
Are the lab's students strongly represented at conferences, workshops, and the like?  In particular: Are the lab's students given ample opportunity to present their research outside their home department?
Are the lab's students given ample mentoring and support, both in developing their own research agendas and in applying for external fellowships, lab exchanges, internships, postdoctoral positions, faculty positions, and so on?
Are the lab's students given ample opportunity for substantial intellectual contributions to the lab's published research, or are they just lab/code monkeys?
Does the lab's research agenda closely match your own research interests and abilities?
Most importantly: Where do the lab's former students work now?  (The worst possible answer is "We don't know.")

Almost none of these questions can be answered accurately without physically visiting the lab and talking directly to the students without the PI present.  If travel is impractical, use Skype / Google hangout / Facetime / whatever.  Or telephone.  Or, if all else fails, email.

Also see What questions should one ask to the former/current students of a professor before deciding whether to do PhD under him/her?

+1; great researchers may also have very large groups with the result that you rarely get to meet with them and are supervised by a postdoc instead.

As an additional comment that is somewhat in the spirit of JeffE's answer, also consider which labs' research are the most interesting to you.  The more passionate you are about your topic, the easier it will be to produce and publish good quality research.

@JeffE I cannot judge all this while sitting in Asia and applying in Europe....what do you have to say about this?

Well, of course not.  You have to ask them.

@Alex Good suggestion. Added!

JeffE lists many proper good factors.  Few extra to add to the list:
General:

Is the group in a good department, university? These also influence your experience and your resume. It's also nice to have fallback options if the fellow leaves/dies/loses funding, or you have a conflict.
Is it in a town you like and can have fun in? For most people major urban centers are a draw.

Group specific:

How fast do his students get their Ph.D.?

The H index truly is the measure you're asking for.   Other considerations I'd throw in before you make such a key decision:

professor's background/age/culture
is the prof a hypomanic, and to what extreme
how well you identify with the other students
how expediently are they finishing PhDs compared to your plans for life

The H index truly is the measure you're asking for — No, it isn't.

@JeffE why it isnt?....

The h-index is at best a rough estimate of the square root of the total number of citations.  The only way to judge the actual quality of the lab's research is to actually read the papers, with reading how their work is cited a close second.  But even if h-index actually measured quality, it would be the wrong yardstick to use when looking for potential PhD advisors.  See my answer.

There's an interesting parallel between a citation statistic which you feel is not correlated with quality, and Stack Exchange votes/reputation which may also have nothing to do with quality.

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


text:
help needed for contacting a supervisor for PhD
I have done my Masters research in Microbial ecology. I am interested in stem cell research but I belong to a developing country where we don't have cutting edge research opportunities to gain hand-on experience. I have a good academic background but no research experience except undergraduate and postgraduate research. I am really willing to learn new techniques and want to change my research field to stem cell research. I am not good at convincing and presenting my point to convince a potential supervisor and show my motivation and interest.
Do I have to explain all this to the supervisor I am about to contact to make a point or straight away show my interest? I have obtained a scholarship just need acceptance and secure admission.

@EnthusiasticStudent generally, we add discipline-specific tags only if the question is about standards or conventions specific to the discipline - not every time someone mentioned their field in the question. Also, the [tag:stem] tag is not about stem cell research (as per its tag wiki excerpt)

If you have funding, you might email him:

Hello Professor X,
I am interested in researching stem cells, and see you are an expert
  at researching stem cells. I am wondering if you are accepting new
  graduate student this application cycle?
My background is QRS and also have some interests in TRV. Your paper
  on "MMMMM" is interesting, and wonder if your group is going to expand
  on that paper and if there are any opportunities in this field for
  graduate students if you are accepting students?
It is also important to note that I have a scholarship that will fully
  fund my education, and thus, am looking for a place to spend this
  scholarship money.
Thank you for your time,
Marviii

Your actual email should probably be more specific and formal, but keep it brief. You are essentially a free graduate student (except time), so potential supervisors should be interested in you. Don't be modest about mentioning it.


text:
Is it unfair to quit PhD and leave with a masters?
I am a college junior looking for CS PhD programs. I actually want to go for a masters degree but it is super hard to get funding. I have had research experience, but I did not enjoy it too much. I have been thinking of applying to PhD programs and then leaving with a masters. Should I take this path? If I do get admitted, obviously, my initial goal would be to go ahead and complete the PhD but this is not too likely since I did not enjoy my summer research too much and I would rather work in industry. To reiterate, I will be applying to PhD programs with a BA degree.

If you would rather work in industry, go get a job in industry.  You likely do not need a masters.

Short answer: yes, it's unethical to mislead the school about your intentions.
But the other information in your question is mitigating. If your "initial goal would be to go ahead and complete the PhD" then you are not applying under false pretenses. Perhaps you did not enjoy your research experience because you were not well prepared for it, or it was a project that did not suit you. As a PhD student you should have more freedom to find something suitable.
You are only a junior, so have a year to think about this. You could also consider an industry job and a return to graduate school with industrial experience behind you.


text:
Could applying for pass/fail with a grade showing in the transcript affect my chances of entering a PhD program?
Because of Covid 19, we are facing multiple dilemmas regarding putting courses on pass\fail option.
As an applied biology MSc student, my GPA is currently 4.10 out of 4. All of my courses are (A+) and (A), this semester I got one (A-) in Molecular biology, and I was going to apply pass/fail on it. It will affect my GPA (from 4.10 down to 4), but our University (J.U.S.T) provides the grade on the transcript even if it was counted  as pass/fail, so that the universities outside my country could evaluate me more easily,
(A-) is not terrible at all and it's actually good. But i didn't want to gamble on the GPA since I've got 4 courses left.
Will considering this one course as pass/fail affect my PhD chances?

The worst that would happen is that people (myself) would wonder why you are gaming the GPA at such a fine level. What are your educational goals? Grades only? How much trouble will you give me in the future if I think you deserve a "less than perfect" mark?
I realize this is a personal and pessimistic view, but I'd suggest you focus your mental efforts elsewhere. For study in the US, the extremely minor difference in the GPA would have exactly zero effect. But don't let it raise questions about your attitude.


text:
How to cope with studying on online platforms
I would like to know about any suggestions that the community can give about coping with online school. I have both school and my coaching classes. Hence the screen time is too high and I also require time for self study. The syllabus covered in school is the same as in the coaching institute. The teaching of my coaching is better, but attendance in school is compulsory (for internal marks). Also, currently both are through online platforms itself, so let me know how to manage my time. (School timing 6 hrs each day for 6 days a week and coaching timing 7.5 hrs in a week)

I'm afraid you might not find a good answer here as it depends on individual factors.

Please edit the question to limit it to a specific problem with enough detail to identify an adequate answer.

You should discuss this with your school and your coach: they are the ones that can do something to change the situation.

I think it might help to add a subject and the level of study here. To much screen time may be a common problem, but the solutions vary according to what else you could be doing. For example, if the work requires coding, some quiet multitasking would be a good way to help you get through lectures that are repeating material. Unit tests really only require half attention to write.

@Clumsy cat...I am studying high school level physics, maths, chemistry, social science, mental ability, information technology and a couple of languages.

Voting to close since high-school level teaching and learning is off-topic on this SE site, which is for postgraduate studies and university-level teaching.

Clearly it's going to be a sub optimal use of time to attend both lessons and pay full attention. I will assume the coaching classes are happening because the school classes are sub-optimal, therefor in the school classes, you need a second activity to occupy you. It needs to be something that wont get you in too much trouble, so it needs to be strongly related to the class.
Using the information in the comment;

I am studying high school level physics, maths, chemistry, social science, mental ability, information technology and a couple of languages

Of these subjects, I know that maths chemistry and physics are mainly exam based, and from almost any given exam, there are lots of past papers available. You should print out exam questions of the appropriate subject and try to work through them during class. Printed exam questions, rather than reading from a screen, so that it doesn't look like you're browsing the web.
You must be able to hear the class as you do it, and if someone asks you what you are doing, apologise and answer honestly. Say you feel you have a good grasp of the material, and want to practice for the exam. Most teachers will find this answer acceptable.

Thank you for the help!!

@Anonymous it this answered your question you can accept the answer by pressing the tick to the left, so that it goes green.


text:
Dreading starting PhD and wanting to opt for other option
Many apologies if this is not in line with the questions for this site, but I am seeking some advice for the following problem.
I have finished an integrated masters degree and applied to PhD positions this year. There was one I wasn't entirely convinced by when applying, but the prospective supervisors seemed very supportive and 'human' when I was interacting with them, and I kept thinking at every stage as things progressed 'well, I guess I can just go ahead and see what happens. No harm there'. Unfortunately, I followed this trail a bit too long. This was the only PhD off I was given, and was funded. I initially declined the offer. It felt 'right' to do so, even though it probably wasn't very rational given the present uncertainty over PhD funding for future years in light of coronavirus.
But anxiety was eating away at me. I started having pain attacks, and ws getting very little sleep. In a moment of panic, when waking up very early in the morning screaming for fear of not having anything to do in the following year and the uncertainty of reapplying for PhD, I wrote an email asking for the PhD offer back. After calming down somewhat, I thought it was a really stupid thing to have done. But alas, the offer was given, and even though I told myself I wouldn't;t accept because I didn't;t think it was the right thing, I didn't feel there was anything to do but accept.
Now I am miserable, because I am not happy with the PhD situation, and because another opportunity has come up for this coming year which I would be really happy doing and I think it would open doors. But to decline the PhD offer now would be such a big blow I know. But please note before berating me, that much of the 'decisions' I made were done out of anxiety, clouded mind (partly due to coronavirus related issues) and just feeling there was no way out. I didn't feel I had anywhere to turn to for advice because people would just tell me 'you've accepted, so get on with it'.
But concisely, here are the problems:

I have accepted a position with funding. I appreciate I may have deprived someone else of it.
I can't imagine myself being happy in the location where the PhD is.
The department doesn't do research precisely in my area of interest. It has a truly excellent department in an area which crosses heavily with my interest, and that is why I applied. At the time I wasn't sure to what extent I would like to dapple in this area.
My prospective supervisor is nice, but also very young and doesn't have many past students. I feel like it would be so rude to deprive him of a student he is interested in having.
But I genuinely fear going, not being happy, not doing good work and/or wanting to transfer. I should add that the prestige of this institution is far lower than that of my previous place of study, and I sometimes feel like they wanted me for that reason. It sometimes eels like martyrdom.
Maybe I would come to love working in this area alone after all.
Burning bridges and tarnishing my name in academia. This is the thing I am terrified of right now. As I mentioned in 3, the present university is a hub for the research which crosses Healy with mine. So this could be a huge, mega blow to my future academic career. Also, I think I will inevitably end up interacting with the people in this department at conferences etc, which would be really horrible.
I mentioned I have something lined up for the coming year which I would be happy doing. It may not help with getting a PhD though.
Another point is that because of the overlap of fields of interest, I would have a difficult time saying that 'I realised I wanted to work on something else' if I tried to transfer schools.

I'm starting to get quite exasperated. And not just with this but life in general (please don't take this out of context and say 'I need professional help'). I have spent the last few years working really hard to overcome very difficult personal obstacles and challenges, and try to shape myself and my life into what I want it to be. It feels like I'm almost going backwards, ending up in a location which feels mildly oppressive to me, for the sake of research in a good group.
My questions are these:

How detrimental might it be to my future academic career to reject the PhD offer at the present moment? I hear of scare stories that bad relationships with supervisors have come back around to bite.

What are some ways to balance this prospect with doing what I think will make me happier?

Is PhD funding likely going to be more scarce in coming years?

"please don't take this out of context and say 'I need professional help'"  The symptoms you describe indicate that you do need help from a mental health professional.  Quitting your PhD is a minor thing compared to taking care of your mental health.  Exiting a PhD program or changing PhD programs are normal things to do.

Is there an answerable question here? I don't think there is anything we can offer. Sorry.

@Buffy I am trying to gauge just how detrimental it might be to my future academic career to reject the PhD offer at the present moment. I hear of scare stories that bad relationships with supervisors have come back around to bite. I am trying to balance this prospect with doing what I think will make me happier, and also the prospect of PhD funding being scarce in coming years. I think the latter point is also something that can be concretely commented upon, even if the situation is not definite/clear

I'll give some thought to what I might advise, but the best advice is in the comment of @AnonymousPhysicist. Just Do It.

Actually, henning..., none of your edits are questions. Concerns, perhaps.

@Buffy I'll add some question marks then. ;)

Applying, getting accepted, backing out, asking for an exception to get back in, getting that exception, then backing out again, will unquestionably burn bridges.  It seems highly unlikely you're going to hurt anyone's feelings, because this sort of thing happens.  I don't think you'll "tarnish your name", but I don't think you could rely on them giving you another chance at admittance.  Within a another application cycle or two it's unlikely anyone at the department even remembers the name of one applicant who didn't start the program.
But now that that's out of the way, the rest comes down to your own feelings and priorities.  What made you want to do a PhD in the first place?  You mention the lower prestige of the program, but also mention that this is the only place that accepted you.  Is doing a PhD still a goal of yours?  If so, where would you apply if this place is no longer an option?  They may not recall your name off hand, but I'm sure admissions would have records.  It's also true that doing a PhD is often an arduous task.  Is this something you could just work through for the long-term benefit, even if you don't like the location?  You may have all kinds of good options available once you complete the program, but the anxiety and panic attacks you describe may suggest problems with getting through a whole PhD.
But these are things only you, and any professionals you choose to consult, can really analyze.

I agree completely with Jeff's answer. Just a few additional notes:

While pulling out now wouldn't look great, it would be far worse to accept the offer and then do poor work and/or leave on bad terms. So, if you already know you will be unsuccessful, you should not attend. That said, it can be difficult to tell whether you would actually be unsuccessful, or if you are just nervous. You shouldn't make this decision alone -- ideally, both an academic who knows you well and a mental health expert should advise you.

Your comment about the institution's prestige is a little strange. For undergraduate, the most prestigious schools are usually the famous ones (Harvard, etc.). But now that you are a grad student, it is your department's or even group's reputation that determines prestige. So, it this place is a "truly excellent...hub" in your area, it's a little contradictory to say that it's not prestigious.

Regarding your other opportunity, I would just comment that many people plan to start a career (and/or family) and then pursue their PhD "in a few years," but in my experience, few actually follow through with the PhD. And this is not a bad thing; many people correctly realize that they can have a rewarding career without a PhD. But, you should be aware that there is some chance that doing a PhD is "now or never."

Thank you very much for your and Jeff's replies. But I was wondering about the prestige point; what I was trying to get across is that the department is excellent for a specific niche area that crosses over with my area of interest. They don't have anyone working directly on that, so I would be 'on my own' in some sense and the name itself wouldn't show for much. If I wanted to keep going with the are in which the department excels, then that would be great.

But I don't think I do. In cases like this, I think having a name like 'Cambridge', 'Harvard', 'MIT' etc would be in my favour if trying to get postdocs in a tangential area to my thesis.


text:
Meeting like-minded people for forming collaborative research relationships
I'm quite new at doing full-time research as a career. It seems that everyone in my department whom I talk with is focused not only on "their" research but also on various side projects with other researchers — Including people who are newer than I am. What am I not doing which they are? — I don't want to simply go to everyone I meet and ask "what exactly are you doing, and do you need help with it?" (it sounds rather artificial/forced/desperate/etc.).
This is related to an already-existing question about approaching researchers about (potential) collaboration, but if I don't even know whom to approach, then the answers to that question are not very useful.

Yeah, I saw that one and thought it is applicable, but I suppose my question is more general... like, if I knew whom to approach about what, I'd have just asked the other one

In reality collaborations come easier to some than to others. Here are the factors I found help most:

Be a member of the community. Go to conferences, give talks (or present posters, or demos, or whatever else is common in your community), organize events and workshops. Talk to people about your work. A first step towards collaboration is that others need to be aware that you exist, and what you are working on. Once people are aware of your work, chances are somebody is working on a related problem and would like to know your opinion on it.
Be a nice person, and make sure that you are pleasant to work with. When you collaborate with somebody on anything, make sure to be constructive and deliver what you promise on time. News travels fast about collaborators who have a tendency to be overcommitted or who use collaborations mainly as cheap paper producing machines.
Have ideas. You say you don't want to go around asking whether people "need help" - well, no, you should not - collaboration is not a consulting service. You should listen to their current work, and propose directions that combine their problems or expertise with yours.
Have uncommon (but helpful) technical or methodological skills, and be sure that people know about them. If all you can do others can do similarly well, why would people want to collaborate with you?
Have access to data that others don't have access to. This may be a proprietary data set, but it can also be that you just understand a public data set very well and have good tooling to effectively work with it.


text:
When to use professional e-mail address during PhD application
When corresponding with administrators and/or academics regarding graduate school/PhD applications, are there any guidelines about which e-mail address to use (personal vs. professional)?
In the non-academic world, it should be fairly obvious that you shouldn't use the address of your current employer to look for a new job, but this doesn't necessarily translate to academic positions.
On the other hand, an address associated with a position with hard time constraints (such as an address at the university you're doing your Bachelor's/Master's at) seems like a no-brainer, because the people at your department probably hope you get a job somewhere else.
However, what about positions with "soft" time constraints, i.e.: "If we manage to find money for you by date, we might take you on"?-- On one hand, everyone knows that your future is uncertain and so constantly being on the lookout for future opportunities should be understandable if not even supported... but on the other hand, it entails you don't have "faith" that you'll get an extension at your current place... which means you either don't have faith in your own ability, the ability of the department to get funds, or the ability for anyone to get funds (e.g. in times of general cutbacks).
Lastly, irrespective of whatever stigmas (incorrectly) using one's current professional address may be, using an address at a well-respected organization does have an impact in the academic world over compared to using a personal address despite that academic quality should be based only on its own merit.

There are professional email addresses that have no connection with a place of employment. In many professions you can have an email address at your professional society, which serves both purposes. It shows a separation of your professional and personal life, does not link you with your employer, and also shows you to respect your profession enough to use the appropriate professional body.
In the case of computing  the ACM and the BCS (in the UK) offer email addresses to members, which can then redirect to your personal or employment address.
I am not sure how many professional bodies do this, but this would be the proper way to go.
I have a number of email addresses, each one associated with a different aspect of the many roles that I play as an employee, a professional, an officer of my professional body, a parent and a private individual. I use the relevant address as appropriate in each situation. Just having two addresses is just not enough for  busy well connected professional.
When I see applications to university I certainly note if inappropriate addresses are used. Inappropriate addresses are more usually seen in undergraduate applications that postgraduate ones, but they do make indications of professionalism in the subject.

This definitely seems like the "cleanest" way to go, but, sadly, are those memberships not often pretty expensive for people not affiliated with some big organization?

P.S. However, at least in the case of the ACM, it seems to be free even without paying membership dues.

I am not aware of any guidelines on this, and doubt it will have any impact whatsoever (after all, your current position/university should be clear from your CV). However, there is another reason for using your personal email: access. If you apply for a job somewhere else, there is a good chance you will eventually lose your current professional email adress. And this type of correspondance can be useful to hold on to.

Does your academic institution provide alumni email addresses?
That would be a good balance of emphasize the credibility of your academic institution while ensuring your permanent access and control over the email account.

That would be a great solution if it were available...

It's not clear what you mean by "professional" email address - are you saying, should you contact universities you're interested in applying to using your current work email account?
Generally no, both for the reason @ipoga stated, but also because that's not "your" email account, and you should have no expectation of privacy. If it's public knowledge at work that you're applying to grad school then perhaps it's a non-issue, but we've heard of at least one case where an applicant's plans to go back to school were "outed" by an IT administrator who was looking through his emails, and told his manager.
Also, if you're using your work email to do personal stuff, most would assume you're using work TIME to do it, and that's considered stealing.
Maybe I've misunderstood the situation completely though.

Yes, you have... sorry. See paragraphs 2-4. Nevertheless, the privacy bit was interesting.


text:
How to ask for a shift in graduate assistantship from research to teaching?
I am a graduate student in NYC and would like to learn how to ask my advisor and my professor to shift from research assistantship to teaching.
I have been working on a research project for one semester which I am not interested in anymore. I am more interested in the teaching experience and need to explain it clearly.
Since my research colleagues are graduating nowadays, my professor distributes all the tasks on me out of the schedule. I need a certain schedule because of my parenting situation.
Could you help me to figure out how to explain it to the advisor and to my professor too?
Thank you and happy new year to all!

What degree are you enrolled in?  Masters, PhD, ...?

Suppose both had the same schedule. Which would you prefer, teaching or research.

You're less likely to get fired as an RA because of built up experience. I suggest you just spend less time on research and let your advisor complain.

Let me suggest a few things. First, having some teaching experience is useful for most beginning academics. So a TA has value in itself. It shouldn't be hard to "sell" that. However, the professor now funning you has no input into who is a TA. That is normally a department decision. You apply there for a position, not to a particular professor. You may have little control over your schedule as a TA, but it will be fixed, at least, so perhaps you can work around that.
Next, your relationship with the professors needs to be managed separately. They are probably depending on you for important work. If you just quit the project they might be unhappy enough to negatively affect your future, at least in the short term. But having family responsibilities is a reasonable enough reason for changing things around. But you should, I think, negotiate an exit, leaving the project in a good state. You want their attitude to be "Sorry to see you go, but we understand."
I would talk to whoever in the department is responsible for TAs first, so that you know whether a position would be open to you. In some fields (math) there is usually a need for lots of TAs. But you would probably be assisting in lower level courses, which might be a bit boring. That might be good, or not, depending on your other responsibilities.
And these are the kinds of discussions/negotiations that need to be done face-to-face, not by email.


text:
Can I change the referee once the letter of reference has been submitted?
I am applying for a PhD position in US universities. I started an application for a specific university and suggested my referee names. My referees have already submitted their LORs. But I did not submit the application later. But they are in the application portal.
Now I want to submit an application for the next semester and I have a hunch that one of the letters was not that strong or impact my application in a negative way. So I want to change my referee. My question is- is it possible to change because she already submitted the letter.
Also, how important a referee is? I have a referee with whom I worked on one project and have good relations. On the other hand, there is someone with whom I have 3/4 publications but I have a doubt he will write something good (because he wants me to finish the remained projects first and does not want me to leave the lab right now).

"does not want me to leave the lab right now" You would be leaving in about six months, right?

The importance of letters of reference is covered in many other questions on this forum, and I won't discuss it here.
As for changing letters of reference: Most systems are set up to just take as many letters as are submitted. They will then all become visible to the selection committee. In other words, there is probably little you can do about the already submitted letter short of writing to the selection committee to disregard that one letter -- but that raises so many other questions that I don't see that as a winning strategy either.

Presumably in many such systems one could create a new user account (using, e.g., a different email address) and the system would not be clever enough to link it to the original? Of course this would then require asking referees to resubmit their letters.

@avid  It's also possible that creating a different account could be viewed as misconduct by the university, resulting in any application by OP being summarily rejected.

Yes, you try to game the system, you have to pay the consequences if you're found out.

@Bob Brown- I think creating a new account seems fine. Also, I did not submit application so I don't think anyone who didnot submit the application and did not pay the application fee, they will review the LORs or other documents in that incomplete system.


text:
Create journal database: is there any easy way to auto-download all the citations of a volume or all the volumes of a journal?
I am trying to create my own research database. The first step for me to do is to identify the journals that I need to read and refer to. The way I create the searching database is by copying all the articles' titles and authors one by one, or downloading the EndNote citation format and input it into the EndNote database. I found this process very time-consuming and wonder if there are ways to download all the citations of a volume/journal at one time or a few times?
Thank you!

Bulk downloading of articles (and likely citations) is against the terms of service of most journals. And no, you don't really need your own giant database - it already exists from each journal or something like Web of Science. You need a database of those articles that you have actually read and understood, which is a much smaller number.

Thank you for your response, yes. I have a database for that. This is very useful.

Most journals deposit metadata at CrossRef, and CrossRef offers an API for accessing these data.
To access journal-level data, you need the journal's ISSN. You can find it on the journal's  website.
For instance, to access the metadata of the journal International Organization (ISSN 1531-5088), you can look at:
https://api.crossref.org/journals/1531-5088 (You should use a JSON-Beautifier to format the text).
Look at CrossRef's API Documentation to find out how to fetch the journal-level data you wish to get.
Just as an example, if you modify the URL to this one: https://api.crossref.org/journals/1531-5088/works?sort=issued&order=desc&filter=from-online-pub-date:2020-01&select=author,DOI,title,references-count - - then you will see all articles from the journal International Organization issued since January 2020, and for each article you will only see those metadata that you selected in the URL, i.e. the author name, the DOI, the title of the paper, and the number of references the paper contains.
Good luck.


text:
How does one use the Chegg bulk-takedown request form?
Cheating in online tests has accelerated and become rampant this year. I'm in the U.S. and my institution has had all-online courses from March 2020 to at least September 2021. Many of my test questions have been showing up on the Chegg website during the course of my tests. This was much more pronounced in the Fall term versus the Spring term.
Having tracked down a significant number of such posts, I note that Chegg has a web page for submitting DMCA takedown notices regarding content for which one can assert copyright. I have submitted one notice and the test question was indeed removed a few days later.
For the extensive number I'm dealing with, I further note that there's a tab labeled "Upload file with links" that claims, "For a large set of links, we accept a CSV file". In this case, I've prepared a CSV file of offending links (with simply one link per line) and attempted to upload it. However, this fails and returns an error: "Invalid file type, please upload csv file".

I've tried this on three different web browsers, and the result is the same in each case. I've reached out to the Chegg company for technical help (via copyright@chegg.com) and received an apparently stock response which did not address my technical question. My follow-up inquiry received no response.
Question: Has anyone successfully used the Chegg bulk takedown request facility? If so, what is required?
Note: This is not a question about how to prevent cheating during an online test in general. Such a discussion would be a separate question (example for math). Answers that focus on changing or avoiding the online assessments in the first place will not be chosen as the accepted answer, and comments in that vein will be ignored.

If your problem is cheating during an exam, how will takedown after the exam help?  You need to address this with your students; even if they wanted to, Chegg could not stop cheating during the exam.

If cheating is so rampant, you really ought to change the way you administer the online exams. Because you're closing the stable door after the horses have bolted.

@MishaLavrov: In my experience, they do not do that.

@MishaLavrov: Perhaps you're splicing the separate "investigate" and "takedown" procedures available at Chegg. I'm in close contact with our chief academic integrity officer, and am the first to inform and educate them about what Chegg is and how it works.

Have you tried changing the delimiter or the file-encoding?

Nothing requires you to submit your DMCA notices using their (broken) form. According to their copyright page, they also accept notices by e-mail, fax, and regular post. So why not just send your notice by e-mail and attach your CSV?

The form has three fields. What does your CSV look like? Are you including all three fields, even if empty? e.g. "https://example.com/path/to/exam/question",,

@Jeroen: I have tried changing the delimiter and file-encoding (to no effect).

@shoover: I have tried including three fields (to no effect). In fact, my guess was that the three fields would match the individual-request form fields (URL, location in page, work infringed) but that didn't help.

@Psychonaut: That's an interesting option -- but it appears to be more involved, in that it seems to expect a legal-form letter with additional information, an actual signature, etc. It would certainly be more convenient if the automated web form worked.

This doesn’t answer the question but... Chegg will provide details on uploads to universities.  Details include time of the upload and email associated with the post, with IP address I think.  Anyways our uni. has had this issue in multiple courses and exams, has gotten info from Chegg on multiple occasions, confronted students using Chegg data in several cases, and secured academic misconduct penalty as well.  It doesn’t solve the issue of the OP but certainly an unpleasant surprise for the students.

... Chegg could simply have a 3hr embargo on screenshots and that would solve a lot of problems.


text:
Finding original research ideas/topics as an undergraduate student
I am currently an undergraduate student majoring in mathematics and biology. My plan is to combine both of these fields with the hope of somehow working with modeling infectious diseases through the use of differential equations and other methods.
I recently took a course in mathematical modeling and an independent study on modeling infectious diseases. I worked with the SI, SIS, SIR and other models. The main method was using differential equations to model the diseases. I've worked with very simple models that were logistic, to more complicated models such as the Zombie model.
This field really interest me and I would like to work on some sort of topic that isn't well discussed or well known. Maybe even create my own model. However I don't particularly know where to start. How would I go by finding some sort starting point? Any help in the right direction would be appreciated. I am on winter break and I have a month of free time. I'd like to use this time to do some research and write a paper on it. Something that I may possibly use in the future.

To develop something that is both (1) new and (2) meaningful, you'd have to start by reading a lot of published research to find out what is already out there. After reading widely, you'd start to get a sense for what the trends are in the field, and possibly start to see some gaps that point to open research problems. You'd also start to see what you'd be expected to do and say in a similar paper, i.e. the standards and conventions in the field, what kind of contributions a new model is expected to make, etc.
This is very difficult and time consuming for someone working alone without a lot of experience in the field. (It would definitely take more than a month!) The best "shortcut" is to find one or more advisors (perhaps the advisor from your independent study?) who can help point you in a promising direction, and give you feedback on your work.

Say I want to write a paper that describes this field and goes into detail with some common concepts that are typically in most papers. How would I go by this without simply regurgitating a bunch of information from different papers? Say I wanted to put my own original twist to it.

@Frumpy sounds like you're talking about writing review paper, not original research (developing a new model.) That's a completely different question.

@Frumpy Research papers you see in journals are presenting novel information. Maybe they took an existing model or algorithm, and they made it more accurate, or more efficient. Maybe they presented a way a phenomenon acts that wasn't well-understood before. The point is that it's a new, or unexpected approach to understanding the field. You will regurgitate some info to show where the field is at in respect, but therein the experimental design, results and interpretation are yours.

I understand, I was simply asking another question since you have described that it would be very difficult to find original research. If you don't mind asking me, can doing a review paper on the whole topic be useful and or develop into something I can use as experience or something that can be published/recognized? Say I begin by reviewing many different papers on different topics, and combine all of it into a broad and general paper that describes infectious disease modeling from the simplest unit to the most complex.

@Frumpy Good (publishable) review papers are also very time consuming and difficult to write, especially if you don't have a lot of experience in the field. Honestly, if you're looking to write a paper (that's publishable in a non-junk venue) from scratch in a month, it's not realistic. If you want to do this as a useful exercise for yourself (not to publish) it'd probably be a valuable thing for you to do, if you hope to do research in this field in the future.

@ff524 Well I am not restricting it to 30 days but yes, I want to do it for my own benefit, and to begin to gain some experience.

@Frumpy The best way to gain experience is to find an advisor to help guide that experience. Otherwise you are likely to waste a lot of time duplicating things that are already done by others (that you haven't found because they're called something else by the experts and you don't know the right search terms), or on ideas that aren't useful (which you haven't realized because you don't know that all the experts already considered and rejected this idea), etc.

@ff524 I have emailed my independent study advisor, but I feel as if she does not have that much experience in this field to find me unique or not well-known ideas. I will nevertheless find an advisor who can help me.


text:
Is the title Ph.D. or Dr. meaningless in the sense that anyone can use it?
I know a businessman who has received a LOT of mileage off of using "Dr." and "Ph.D." with his name - in fact he puts it front and center.   However, it turns out that he never had more than two years of undergraduate work.  Is there any teeth behind either of these titles, or is it just a matter of how many you can deceive for how long?

Could you specify which countries you are interested in? In some countries, using a doctoral title without actually having it is a severe offense, while in others, that may be handled differently.

In his case, there were obviously "no teeth" behind the titles, and it was just a matter of deception. But this is not the case for most people with the title of Dr. So-and-so.

Please provide more context to narrow down the question a bit and enable a single, objectively evaluable answer.  What country?  What field/discipline?  Are you asking about legal aspects, social aspects, or something else?  What research have you done?

I am somewhat confused why this question has been closed. Is this really broader than many other questions we have here?

@xLeitix: It’s not the question that is the problem, it’s the answers it’s going to receive. From the asker’s point of view, it was probably reasonable to assume that the question is sufficiently narrow and independent on the requested details. But if you know something about the matter, you also know that the answer does strongly depend on those details, which is a problem as it leads to tons of contradicting, dependent answers. Thus it is entirely legitimate to ask the asker to specify.

@xLeitix  Unfortunately the SE community relies on the idea of "correctness", and doesn't like "contradictory" responses, even when correctness isn't appropriate and a discussion is warranted among the community.  Each community seems to vary with tolerance for multiple, equally good answers.  Personally I find it interesting to understand how different countries deal with trying to protect titles, but apparently the SE community doesn't appreciate broad ranged answers.  Too bad for SE.

On SE law:  Is my title part of my legal name or does it hold any legal meaning?

@FranckDernoncourt It's a pity that Law.SE is in private beta so most of us can't follow that link.  If this question can get re-opened, would you mind sharing key points from the content in an answer if it's useful?

@jakebeal Answers there are not terribly useful so far. I can send you an invite for this SE if you're interested.

@FranckDernoncourt Thank you for the offer, but I'm preferring to focus my involvement.

Sounds like fraud to me.  Fraud is a felony.

I know a businessman who has received a LOT of mileage off of using "Dr" and "PhD" with his name

I don't know which country we are talking about, but at least in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland "Dr." is a protected title, and pretending you have one when you don't is a criminal offence. In Austria, for instance, this is part of federal law (see also the Bundesgesetzbuch). I would assume that PhD is also a protected title in the US and Great Britain.
However, note that this law explicitly only covers "pretending to have a doctoral degree", which leaves some wiggle room. For instance, there is an notorious Austrian bus company called "Dr. Richard", where the "Dr." are officially just the initials of the name of the owner (Dragan Richard).

It's not protected at all in the US to use Dr. or PhD. It would be a crime to practice medicine w/o a license which requires an MD, DO, DC, DDS, etc., and it would probably be fraud to represent yourself has having a PhD for a position that required it. But just going around calling yourself Dr. Big Shot is not a crime here as far as I know.

@BillBarth If he's using it to further his business, it might fall under false advertising. Though I have no idea what kind of enforcement or penalties there are or what it would take to fall under that.

There is also this case where a person legally changed their name to include 'Dr'.  However, it is unlikely Dr Omelette would be construed as falsely portraying a medical doctor.

@xLeitix: Wondering if there is a title for PostDocs or for Professor ... are these protected?

@RogerFan So far Dr Pepper hasn't been sued do to "false advertising", nor has Dr Seuss so I think you might be stretching it a bit.

@motiur Professor yes, postdoc no. "Professor" is a formal title, postdoc is just a job label.

@SteveSether: You made me laugh, thanks for that.

As an American, I don't even think the idea of a "protected title" exists in the US, at least not like it does in Germany. (Or if so, PhD is not protected.) Like Bill said, you can get in trouble for practicing medicine (or law) without proper qualifications, but it's the practice, not use of the title, that causes the problem. It's also illegal to impersonate a law enforcement officer, but there's nothing wrong with calling yourself "Officer X" or "Agent X" as long as you're clearly not passing yourself off as a representative of the FBI or local police or such. (disclaimer: IANAL)

In U.S. universities, it's a serious offense to misrepresent anything related to your academic credentials. See, e.g., the case of Arthur Laffer -- yes, the creator of the "Laffer Curve" -- who performed graduate studies at Stanford, got a job at Chicago, and quickly got tenure at Chicago despite not having completed all requirements for the Ph.D. degree. Because he had claimed to hold a Ph.D. degree, he was forced out of Chicago once it was discovered he'd been using the title "Ph.D." anyway. Maybe unsurprisingly, one doesn't find any reference to this affair in Laffer's wikipedia page.

@Mico assuming that's true (I can't easily find a source, though it doesn't matter), that's different: it wasn't illegal for him to claim to have a PhD. It's an academic offense, not a legal one. E.g. Chicago would have been entirely within their rights to overlook the fact that he didn't have a PhD, if they wanted to do so; they didn't simply because it would have ruined the university's reputation in the academic community.

@DavidZ - Thanks. I definitely didn't mean to suggest he'd done something that opened him to criminal prosecution according to one or more U.S. federal or state statutes.  However, an action needn't be covered by a criminal statute to make it an (in this case academic) offense that can have serious negative repercussions for one's career, right?

@Mico certainly. But I've been working from the premise that "protected title" means legally protected - that using the title without having earned it is a crime, and not merely academic misconduct. I suppose if that was not the intent of the question, I'd have to revise my statements.

@DavidZ - I honestly can't tell what the OP's intent was. He/she also didn't seem to be concerned with how behavioral norms (legal or otherwise) may differ across countries. At any rate, this ambiguity is precisely why I chose to start my comment with "In U.S. universities, ..."

@SteveSether Dr. Seuss has a doctoral degree from Dartmouth (http://thefw.com/things-you-didnt-know-about-dr-seuss/).  Dr. Dre has a doctoral degree from UCLA (http://www.huffingtonpsst.com/2014/09/01/dr-dre-receive-honorary-doctorate/).  I have a PhD from the School of Hard Knocks.

In the United States, the appropriate response to such a fabrication is to call the person out and shame them publicly.  Once this happens, it is often quite effective, as attested to by infamous cases such as Marilee Jones being forced out of MIT.  The same goes for people claiming to have proper credentials based on a "diploma mill" degree.
This will not, of course, stop a person who has no shame, but it will at least make their life harder and make it difficult for them to maintain their lies with people who actually care about qualifications.

I've tried in vain to shame Doctor Feelgood, Doctor Love, Doctor Who, Doctor Detroit, Doctor J, Doc Severinsen, and Doctor Dre, but it didn't really work out very well.  Doctor Science at least admits he's "not a real doctor", but I don't think the others have taken a real position here.

From reading that wiki link, it's not clear that that person has no shame.  It very well could be that she just has a different grasp on reality than other people.

@SteveSether How do you know the Doctor did not receive a doctorate on Gallifrey?

In Portugal, due to historical reasons, almost anyone that has some education can (high school degree suffices), and sometimes demands, be referred to as 'Doctor' (Dr.), although in Portugal as well, the title is legally protected today. So ultimately it depends on the cultural context and whether the person you refer to goes beyond putting the letters 'Dr.' in business cards, or actively lying about his/her qualifications.

In Portugal, up to recent times after the completion of an undergraduate degree – except in architecture and engineering – a person was referred to as doutor (Dr.) – male or doutora (Dra.) – female.
  […] Nowadays Portugal is a signatory to the Bologna process and according to the current legislation the title of Doctor (doutor, doutora) is reserved for graduate holders of an academic doctorate.

Source: Wikipedia

@jakebeal, Henning provided a reference. It turns out that my comment is a bit outdated as I was not aware of the new legislation. Sadly I could not find a better reference than this or this one (in Portuguese) to support the common (ab)use of the title in Portugal. It is a cultural thing and that was the main point I was trying to make in my answer.

@fridaymeetssunday Actually, it is in fact common in some places to use "Prof. Dr." instead of "Prof." Notably in Oporto, much less in Lisbon.

In the US, I know that when you apply for a job and post your credentials, most basic background checks will at least ensure you graduated from said school with what degree you put on it. Lying about it, depending on what job, will probably result in you getting fired or potentially arrested depending on who you lied to.

It is also not uncommon to find mistranslations from spanish regarding the term 'Professor' (usually holding a PhD title), since the word for 'teacher' is the same in Spanish for both, altought the second does not generally require to be a doctor. The same happens with "Associate Professor" and "Full (time) Professor". Further, some medical practicioners are always regarded as doctor whether or not they have a Phd or even some sort of postgraduate or advanced studies. As long as the misinterpretations are not due to malign intentions, this does not suppose a matter to worry much about, but it is always a good idea to find out more about the context where the term is forged. Also be on the look for slight transliterations such as 'Doctorand' or 'PhDc' (PhD candidate) that people generally use when they are in the final stages of attaining the title, but not officially there yet, such as when right before submitting the dissertation or after doing so, while the academic authorities issue the title with the seals and all. But no, the title Ph.D. is not meaningless at all (neither all of the others) and it is generally respected worldwide. There is always of course some trouble with homologation across regions, universities, countries or supranational areas, which is one the the issues that the Bologna process is struggling to deal with across European member states. Some other treaties to be on the look for is the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents, a.k.a. "the Apostille Convention", or the "Apostille Treaty".


text:
Recommendations from professors in unrelated fields
I have been working with a professor (working meaning meeting roughly once a week to discuss progress and problems) for a few years now, but plan to apply for graduate schools in an unrelated field. I have enough (strong) references without needing to ask this professor for a letter of recommendation. Given this, I have a few questions:

Since I plan to list this experience (is this even a good idea?) on my application, will it look bad if I don't list this professor as a reference/ask them for a letter of recommendation?
If so, is there anything I can do to mitigate this? (My main reason for not asking for a recommendation is to avoid having too many letters. Is this even a problem?)

There's very little reason to provide more than the required number of letters. Why would you include your weakest letter when it can only lower the average recommendation strength? The only time I would provide extra letters is if the letters provided non-overlapping and crucial, relevant information.

@Roger, I disagree. The number of reference letters requested is in many case arbitrary. The authority who decide on the application is not necessarily the same authority who decide on the number of references. Hence, there is no harm in submitting more than the required number of letters. Except, as you rightly say, if the average strength is decreased by adding up letters.

Since I plan to list this experience (is this even a good idea?) on my application, will it look bad if I don't list this professor as a reference/ask them for a letter of recommendation?

Yes, it's a good idea. And no, it wouldn't look bad.

If so, is there anything I can do to mitigate this? (My main reason for not asking for a recommendation is to avoid having too many letters. Is this even a problem?)

It is not a problem to have many references. Certainly having many good references can only help.
Note: having more references than needed, while some references are not good should be avoided.


text:
What is the meaning of "in residence" at a university?
I'm applying for readmission to UC Berkeley after taking a semester off.  In the Application for Readmission, one question asks, "Will you be in residence at Berkeley for the entire semester?"
Does "in residence at Berkeley" mean "using on-campus housing" or just "living in the vicinity of the university"?

The equivalent at Oxford is unusually precise: within 6 miles of Carfax tower for most undergrads, 25 for graduate students.

This is the response I received from my graduate program's coordinator:

It just means physically being here, so doesn't have to be on-campus housing.

It means being on-campus for your studies: e.g., attending classes, doing research, collaborating on research, whatever.  It's not a question about where you sleep at night (whether your home residence is in on-campus housing or not) so much as about whether you are physically here for your studies.
This is aimed at separating out "working remotely".  If you are living on the other side of the country and trying to do your studies remotely, then you're not in residence at the university.