text:
At what stage should acknowledgements be inserted into the paper if review is double-blind?
At what stage should acknowledgements be inserted into the paper if review is double-blind?
Is it only possible at the very end, when preparing the proof version?
Or is it possible once the paper is accepted with revisions?
By acknowledgments is meant acknowledgments to colleagues helping with some comments on previous versions of the manuscript, but also to the reviewers for their remarks.

When submitting an article to a double blind review process, it is advisable to leave all potential identifiers out of the paper until the review process is finished, this would include acknowldedgments as well, see also this instruction from Elsevier.
You can indicate that there are some omitted acknowledgments by including a statement in the acknowledgement section like "The acknowldgements have been omitted in this version to maintain the integrity of the double blind peer review process", if you want the reviewers to know.

There should be clear instructions when in the process your paper is to be unblinded. This includes adding author information and acknowledgements, as well as doing other smaller text changes you may want to do as part of the unblinding process (e.g., sometimes you may want to add more explicit pointers to your own previous work, which you may have removed in the submitted version in the spirit of double-blind).
If you are submitting to a journal, there are probably instructions about this on the "Author Information" (or similar) page. If you are submitting to a conference there may be instructions on the web page, or at least you will likely receive these instructions along with information how to submit your camera-ready version.


text:
De Gruyter and De Gruyter Mouton: the difference
What is the difference between the publisher "De Gruyter" and the publisher "De Gruyter Mouton"?
It seems that the main publishing company name is "De Gruyter", and it has an imprint which is "De Gruyter Mouton".
In the references, it is sometimes "De Gruyter" that is noted, sometimes "De Gruyter Mouton".
I search randomly two examples, reproduced here:

Chan, W. M., Chin, K. N., Nagami, M., & Suthiwan, T. (Eds.). (2011). Media in foreign language teaching and learning. Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.
Fornasier, M. (Ed.). (2010). Theoretical foundations and numerical
methods for sparse recovery (Vol. 1). Berlin: de Gruyter.

So what is the difference, and is it significative?
To put it bluntly, can I remove "Mouton" directly when it appears in a reference of my bibliography?

Your references should include whatever information your source actually has.

De Gruyter Mouton publishes in the "field of linguistics and communication science", according to https://www.degruyter.com/publishing/services/for-book-authors/our-subject-areas/linguistics-mouton?lang=en

I think you've answered your own question in your second sentence - there is a large publisher called "De Gruyter", which has an imprint called "De Gruyter Mouton" (among other imprints). The reason why your two references specify different publishers is simply that they were published by different imprints - one by the parent De Gruyter, and one by the De Gruyter Mouton imprint.
It would be usual practice to refer to the actual publishing imprint, rather than the parent publisher, so I don't think it would be typical to remove the 'Mouton' from a reference as it removes actual information.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Chances for master student from EU to stay in US as research assistant?
I'm a first year physics master student from EU currently doing a research internship at an Ivy league school in the US. It is also to fulfil the requirement of my home university to get an internship for 4-6 months.
Right now I'm wondering the possibility to find a funded research opportunity here in the US for a period of, say, one full year. (I do not want to continue with my current professor as I'm not that interested in what they do). And I'll no longer continue my second year of master and will apply for PhD next.
The reasons for this are

I really don't like to go to classes. To me, self-study is much more constructive than taking courses.
I found doing research is much more worthwhile and right now I have been doing pretty well with little guidance from my supervisor.
Language barrier. My home university is in Paris and I don't know any French. My undergraduate is in the UK. Although it is taught in English, the communication with peer students and life in general makes me feel so restricted and uncomfortable.

Before seeking out to look for opportunities, my concern is how likely I can find a PI that is willing to fund me for one year doing research with them? Also given that I'm an international student, is this possible at all?

In regards to some answers here,

is it not true that thousands of international students come to the US on a J1 visa for a short period of time, from one month to over half a year, to do funded research? (and I'm one of them, although the caveat here is that I'm holding the identity of a student...)
Technically, shouldn't a good research that you do be equivalent or even more valuable than a master thesis, in terms of PhD application?

If you won't be a student while you are working, it's extremely unlikely for immigration reasons. If you will be a student then it depends entirely on what restrictions are for you to work on your student visa.

@BryanKrauseisonstrike What immigration reasons to be precise?

You need permission to work in the US. A student visa may let you do some work with some limitations on it, but getting a visa to just work is not trivial and not something you get automatically for having had a student visa.

To add to Bryan's comments, there really is no good reason why a professor would want the hassles of hiring a foreign person to be a non-student research assistant when they already have students to do that job. Any international students will need a student visa, which is much easier to get than a non-student working visa. Sure, apply for PhD positions starting in the fall of 2024, but your best bet to get one of those is likely finishing up your masters degree (and what else would you do with your time?).

There are a few issues here. I'll try to answer your question first though. This probably isn't realistic for you. It might be technically possible but practically very unlikely.
If you are working as a student you can't just start working not as a student. I'm not an immigration lawyer but I'm fairly certain that this would run afoul of some law or another - unless you found a PI and their institution to sponsor you for a work visa. This can already present an issue for many highly qualified individuals (e.g., medical doctors, professors, other professionals) looking to move to/work in the US. I would think it would be basically impossible to find a willing PI and institution to sponsor such a low level position like a Research Assistant (especially on such a temporary basis). Students and recent graduates in the US already fight over relatively limited lab spots.
Now on to a couple thoughts I have that don't directly answer your question:

You say you don't like classes but if you are looking to do a PhD, you're still going to need to take them. In fact, in the US the first two years of a PhD are often basically a master's. I'm not super familiar with the university systems of any European countries you might be interested in but I'd be shocked if there weren't some requirements prior to your candidacy. Presumably, if classes aren't required during the PhD, there is an expectation that you already have a master's.

Quitting a master's in the middle might be a bit problematic. Lots of people do a master's then go on to a PhD. So, in my opinion, it is stranger to have quit and "switched" degrees than to complete your master's and then advance. I would bet you'll have to answer questions about this. I'm worried that your reasoning will not convince a new PI to invest time, energy, and funds into you - especially in some countries that treat PhD spots more like jobs.

I strongly recommend finishing off your master's program with a great thesis.
For one year research opportunities, check out pre-doctoral fellowships. You'll have to search on university websites; email hundreds of professors, etc. It is difficult but certainly doable.
If you have good relations with any of your professors, it might become much easier.

Funding of young scientists in a competitive field like Physics is difficult and channelled into certain tracks, mainly Ph.D. students and to a lesser extent undergraduate research experiences. It is unlikely to find someone who will fund you in another capacity, because they need the funding before they even talk to you. So, even if you find a PI with money to spend, they will most likely not be able to spend it on you, at least not without some real trouble. They would have better and easier ways to get their work done using traditional relationships.
Second, funding is often open only to people of certain characteristics, e.g. as part of an international academic exchange program. If you are not a US-citizen, any arrangement would also take cognizance of that, as you would only be allowed to receive funds in the US under very restricted rules. Basically, without you being a student, it would become suddenly very difficult.
You should really considering finishing your current degree and then apply for a Ph.D. slot in the US. Alternatively, you can already apply for Ph.D. programs, but jumping from an MS program to a Ph.D. program is begging the question of why you are leaving it. You would need to explain this in your application.
Make sure you have a good relationship with your current US-based supervisor, since you will need them as a source of a good letter of reference.

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


text:
Specific Advice about Grad-Undergrad Friendships & Relationships (US)
I am 21/M, and I am about to start my PhD at a R-1 university in the US in two weeks (if it matters, it's a southeastern state.) A month ago, I started talking to a 19/F on an online chat platform - she is also joining the same university this year, as an undergrad freshman. We have become pretty good friends over the past month, and we plan to hangout in person & keep in touch in the future. To clarify, I am not a TA for any of her classes, and there is no power dynamic involved. Since I am an international student, I do not know much about the culture associated with social interactions in the US, especially in a university setting. I have been stressed about whether it is "okay" to continue and maintain such a friendship over the next few years of graduate school.

How are grad-undergrad friendships & relationships viewed by other students (grad or undergrad) at the university? Are they common, or not so much? I understand that there are no legal and ethical issues in my case.

Are there any problems that I could potentially run into, and things that I should keep in mind? I fear that I am worrying too much, and I don't want to push a good friend away.

I know that there have been a few similar posts on this site before - but I'm trying to seek US-specific advice for my particular situation (i.e., small age gap, but different phases of life in academia). Thank you!
Edit: The subject areas are different - I am a Math PhD and she intends to pursue Civil Engineering.

Clarify if the subject areas/departments are the same or different.

"I am not a TA for any of her classes" Is it possible you will be a TA for one of her classes ?

In my (European) experience, nobody cares (why should other students find this strange?) i would defintely find it more strange if you would "hide" a good friend.

@Nobody In all likelihood - I do not think so. If that situation is to arise in the future, I am certain I could request the instructor/department/TA coordinator to switch my class with another. Right?

You know, engineers take math classes.

Most likely the institution has a policy that you can read. While often it is in the faculty policy, most will have something like "In addition, no faculty member, researcher, graduate student, visiting student, or undergraduate course assistant shall initiate or engage in any romantic or sexual behavior with any person, including a researcher or prospective or current student or employee, who is subject to that individual's academic supervision or evaluation." (cribbed from an actual policy). So, should you be a TA for a course she takes you will have to discuss with your department chair.

Caution: European perspective here.

Other students will (most likely) not care - it will be not stranger than if your friend was, say, a carpenter. (Why should it?)

Is it common? In my experience, in your age, yes - people tend to befriend people with similar age and similar background. (And with your age, it is very likely that those people are students.)

Potential problems: Apart from the problem that you should inform people before you ever were to have "power" over your friend (eg as a TA) or friends of your friend, I can only see the problem that you might have information about the university which you should not devulge (even if your friend asks). Something like "there is an exploit in our IT system". But, I think, this goes without saying.

Otherwise: I am pretty convinced that a good friendship is worth more than some problem one might have with this friendship because of university-reasons (and I could not think of any problem) :)

Thanks for your answer. I hope to see US-specific perspectives, also. It seems clear that there is no issue with a friendship - but I must clarify, is there a potential issue with a relationship, if things come to that (or should I actively not entertain any such developments)? I believe the same reasoning goes through and there should not be any problems.

I agree with you that I see no potential (academic) issue with a relationship. Obviously, again no supervison (or only with agreement of competent people)

FWIW, I've heard that there are some companies in the US which forbid relationships between any employees (which seems absolutely out of place to me). Maybe there is a university somewhere with absolutely strange rules?

Reading between the lines and reading some of the OP's comments, I will answer this question with the understanding that there is the potential for a romantic relationship here.
My answer is no: at any "secular American university" (by which I mean one without an explicit religious component that informs the culture -- e.g. BYU) I see neither any legal nor ethical problem with an older / more senior adult member of an academic institution pursuing either a friendship or a romantic relationship with a younger / less senior adult member of that same institution if (i) the two members lie in different departments and (ii) it can be ensured that neither member will serve as an instructor or even an official mentor for the other.  I am not claiming that these two conditions are necessary as well as sufficient, but I will say that in the absence of either one of them it becomes much less clear that this is a good practice.
In fact, graduate students dating undergraduate students from different departments is quite common at most universities I've known.  (Graduate students dating undergraduates from the same department is also common, but I think that in America in 2023 we look at this quite differently than we did a generation or two ago.)  Moreover you are only two years older, which is slightly under the average age gap for a heterosexual couple in the United States.  This is an age gap that many undergraduates dating undergraduates will experience.
I did want to comment on one thing you said:

To clarify, I am not a TA for any of her classes, and there is no power dynamic involved.

(Good that you are not a TA for any of her classes: please keep it that way.)  I encourage you to take a more subtle and expansive view of power dynamics, both in academia and in relationships. This woman presumably has no experience whatsoever with higher education.  You on the other hand presumably have an undergraduate degree and did well enough as an undergraduate to get admitted to a PhD program.  Therefore you have vastly more academic experience than she does.  We are discussing the possibility of you being her TA because you have enough (or almost enough; not all first year PhD students in math teach) knowledge and experience to teach some of the courses she is taking.  If we are being honest about it, the fact that you are (even two years) older and have vastly more academic experience is part of the dynamic of your friendship.  Again, that is not necessarily a problem -- who said that we need to have friendships, or any kind of relationships -- with people that are equal to us in every way?  No one has said that (yet: there are some trends pushing us in that direction).  This is just something for you to be mindful of.

The most small-c conservative or pessimistic answer is "This may vary from university to university, or possibly department to department," but in general it should not be an issue.
As others have noted, this can be a problem farther on down the line if your responsibilities change so that you do have authority or influence over this person.  In an ideal world, this would be handled by common sense moral actions like informing your supervisor of the situation as it arises.
However, academic regulations are not written on the assumption of common sense, but on past failures of common sense and/or morality.  Hence, the variability from place to place.
The agonizingly correct thing to do would be to hunt down the regulations at your new institution and department.  If they are insufficiently clear, ask for guidance.
I say this not because I expect you to have a problem.  I don't.  When I was a PhD candidate in a US R1, there were plenty of PhD candidates dating MS candidates or undergrads in the same department.  I say this mainly because you are worried about it, and this will help you cross the T's, dot the i's, and-- perish the thought-- if you're at a statistical outlier of a university, at least you will know and will be able to ask for local advice (probably from your advisor.)


text:
Can a (predatory or fake) journal refuse to withdraw a non-published paper, even though the journal is to blame for withdrawal request?
Synopsis: Can a fake journal keep the copyright of a submitted (not published) paper, despite the authors' request to withdraw it (because of the journal not keeping its full-waiver promise and also not following a correct article processing routine)?
Is this legally possible for the thief to legally keep the theft (and unpublished) article? Or can the authors ignore the previous journal's threats, and submit the paper to another journal?
The authors have paid no fee and will not pay any. But they want their paper back, so that they can submit it to another journal.

Details:

My friends submitted their paper to a legit-looking journal, on the condition that it has no article processing charges (APC) and fees, if accepted.

The journal agreed with no-fee request; they received the manuscript, and despite its promise of speed, it did nothing for 7 months. After 7 months, the authors asked about their paper, and due to the journal's lack of response, the authors withdrew the paper.

The journal replied after the withdrawal request that: it is accepted and in proofing stage (without any peer-review or revisions or even without any acceptance letter!). The journal asked for 1200 Euros to publish the paper.

The authors reminded the journal of their condition of No-APC.

The journal gave some untrue (completely provable), again asking for APC.

The authors asked for withdrawal again.

The journal refused, unless the authors pay about 700 Euros. The journal told the authors they are not allowed to submit their paper to any other journal because it is with the (predatory) journal and the journal has the copyright now. Is this possible?

NOTE: Upon the submission, the authors have told the journal that the paper is not submitted to any other journal and under consideration anywhere. Can the journal abuse this statement to keep the theft material?
NOTE: No copyright transfer was signed or sent to the journal upon submission.
NOTE that the journal as well is bound to publishing the paper (if peer-reviewed and accepted) without any APC, as per their agreement with the authors.
NOTE that the journal has not even peer-reviewed the paper!
NOTE: The journal had not even accepted the paper (there is no acceptance email)!
NOTE: The journal is open access and its website states that the authors retain the copyright (not that their website is authentic or that they follow their own guidelines, but even their website does not say anything about automatically transferring any copyrights to the journal upon the submission).
NOTE: The journal rushed to hastily accept the paper (without any peer review or revision) AFTER the authors' withdrawal. First, the authors sent 2 emails to the journal, requesting to withdraw the paper. Then, the journal said "the paper is in proofing stage and pending payment" (despite the no-payment agreement). So one may say that the paper was withdrawn BEFORE the (so-called) acceptance, right?

Questions:

Can the authors ignore the journal and submit the paper to another journal?
If so, how?
If not, what should be done?
What else should the authors do? For example, if they want to sue the journal, how should they do so?

ps. I see David's answer in this thread may be relevant to my question. The difference is that my friends' paper is not published (nor peer reviewed): How can I withdraw a publication from a predatory (fake) journal and resubmit to a legitimate journal?

Did the submitters actually sign a document transferring copyright to the journal?  What does that document say?

@jwodder No. They didn't sign or submit any copyright transfer document.

Then the first sentence in the post doesn't make sense. How could anybody "keep" what they never had in their possession?

Thanks a lot @JochenGlueck . This is what the journal keeps telling the authors (that the paper is with the journal and can't be submitted elsewhere). If legally, the journal can't keep it, then this is good news.

@RosemaryBlanchard: Please note that I'm not making any claims about legal issues. I'm just pointing out that, semantically, it doesn't make sense to talk about "keeping" something that one doesn't have. Please also note that what you describe in your response to my comment is different from what you said in the first sentence in the question (which I referred to in my comment).

@JochenGlueck yes the journal's threat was in those additional "details" points (see point 7).

Closely related, possibly duplicate: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/71872/what-to-do-if-predatory-journal-wont-withdraw-paper-after-acceptance

@Allure that link is for a different case where the acceptance is legit. In my question, the article has not been peer reviewed or even accepted; then it has suddenly moved to publication and pending payments. And this is the most important point: the authors had submitted the paper on a No-Fee condition. So the journal's request for payments voids the original author-journal contract. But according to responders here, I think even if the journal would agree to take no fee (as promised by them originally), the authors could still withdraw the paper because the acceptance was not real.

@Allure there is another important point that is central to my question: The journal keeps asking money for withdrawal. The authors will never ever pay such ransom money. The main question was whether or not the authors can simply ignore the journal's threats and money requests and submit their paper to another journal.

Are you 100% sure that none of the conditions of your original online submission carries a copyright transfer?  Nothing like that in a Terms of Use statement?

@RosemaryBlanchard If you feel those T&Cs are relevant to the question, you should probably edit them in, rather than leave them in comments.

@ScottSeidman as you can see in the added NOTE, the journal's website says that the authors hold the copyright. It doesn't say anything about any implicit and automatic copyright transfer upon the submission of the paper.

"Is this legally possible for the thief to legally keep the theft" regardless of the context, I'd say the answer will always be 'no'.

Just wanted to state the obvious here, but didn't they say they won't publish it without payment? So there's nothing to be worried about. It appears they are simply try to say whatever has a chance of them getting paid.  Can you expose the name of this journal?

@Pronte the authors were worried because the journal was threatening them that the copyright is for the journal and the authors are not allowed to submit the paper to any other journal. Regarding the name, I can't. But it is now a Longdom journal. At the time of submission, it was another publisher.

The journal has nothing to "give back" and no basis for demanding payment. As long as the authors still hold copyright the work is theirs and theirs alone.
All that is required is a communication that you are withdrawing the paper from further consideration. While it is good to wait for confirmation that they have received your withdrawal, you don't need their agreement.
A submission is an "offer" not a gift. You offered them something of value but they put conditions on acceptance that you don't like. That is on them.
Also, the journal doesn't need to be predatory for the above to be valid.

Thanks a lot for the excellent advice and the good news. I can't upvote right now, but 100 upvotes!

In the communication, remind them that you hold copyright to the paper and they have no permission to copy or distribute it.

@DavidSchwartz they told the authors they have its copyright now and that the authors are not allowed to submit it elsewhere. The authors told them (repeatedly) what you and others suggested about copyright. Ever since, the journal has gone silent and doesn't answer at all.

In addition to the excellent answers by Buffy and Anonymous Physicist, I will add a few points. For the sake of completeness, let me summarize the key issues I see here. I am not a lawyer, but I do have a decent understanding of copyright law:

As long as you did not formally transfer the copyright or grant a formal licence (e.g., signing a document that explicitly says that you transferred the copyright or that you explicitly authorize publication), you retain full copyright. No matter how much work the journal does or does not do on your manuscript (e.g., legitimate peer review and full copy editing), as long as you have not transferred copyright, you retain full ownership of your manuscript and you can do whatever you want with it, including withdraw it.
Your formal notice of withdrawal is all that you need to do to fulfill your ethical obligation of not submitting to two journals at the same time. It does not matter if the first journal refuses to withdraw the article from consideration. They have no right to do anything with your article (since you did not give them any legal right beyond merely reviewing the manuscript).
As long as they do not publish the manuscript, their threats mean nothing. However, they are not allowed to publish your manuscript without your permission. That would be a copyright violation and you could sue them for that. They know this, so they will probably not do anything beyond empty threats. It is annoying, but you can safely ignore them.
Considering submitting to other journals, you can safely say that your manuscript is not under consideration in any other outlet. As far as you are concerned, that is true. (And considering that they probably did not even peer-review your manuscript, that is even doubly true.) You should probably NOT mention anything about the predatory journal--just say that your manuscript is not under review elsewhere.
In the worst-case but highly unlikely scenario, the predatory journal might contact the journal in which you eventually publish to say something. If they do that, simply send the new editor your history of communications. That should be sufficient for any reasonable editor. Their main concern would be that you did not sign any copyright statements with the predatory journal. As long as you did not do that, there should be no problem.

Thank you so very much for each and all of your very useful and heartwarming hints. Yes, the authors have told the journal repeatedly that they are withdrawing the paper; and no copyright has been transferred to the journal; the authors have also told the journal repeatedly that they are not allowed to publish the paper without their consent. Hopefully it should do it then.

NB You may not have full rights to their edited version.

@fectin But the OP has nothing to do with any version edited by the predatory publisher. OP will only work with their original manuscript.

Is this legally possible for the thief to legally keep the theft (and unpublished) article?

A more relevant question would be:  Can someone libel me and legally get away with it?  The answer is yes, they can, if you cannot find them.  In most cases it is not practical to enforce laws or contracts broken by a predatory journal.  You probably cannot even find out what country they are in.
If their web host happens to be in the US, if they chose to publish the paper without your consent you could send the host a DMCA notice to remove a published article. All this does is prompt a malicious publisher to change hosts.

Can the authors ignore the journal and submit the paper to another journal?

Yes.

If so, how?

You already withdrew the manuscript.  Just submit it to another journal saying "this manuscript was withdrawn by the authors from consideration at another journal."  No details are needed.

What else should the authors do?

Check the reputation of journals more carefully before you submit.

For example, if they want to sue the journal, how should they do so?

That would be a waste of money, even if you can locate them.

Thanks a lot for the excellent advice and the good news. I can't upvote right now, but 100 upvotes! Regarding your question, they pretend to be in the UK, and have given a WhatsApp number too.  The authors trusted them originally because they were approved by EBSCO. I hope other Indexing agencies are more alert.

"'this manuscript was withdrawn by the authors from consideration at another journal.' No details are needed." -- I would consider this an incomplete disclosure of the situation at hand, and if I were in that situation I'd add something like "... I have no confirmation of the withdrawal from the editor".

@ScottSeidman I disagree.  They have confirmation that the journal received the withdrawal; the fact that the journal argued is irrelevant.  Complaining about one journal to another journal is unprofessional.

I'll offer a different perspective as to what usually happens when the new journal receives your "duplicate submission". The standard COPE guidelines look like so:

I highlight the key step. Even if the new journal suspects duplicate publication, you are given a chance to defend yourself. That's when you show the new journal all the correspondence you had with the original journal, which will quickly land you in the "satisfactory explanation" box, and the review process will proceed as normal. The old journal cannot stop publication; they can only trigger an investigation.
Be sure to keep the correspondence, in case it really comes down to an investigation. You could also include the correspondence in the cover letter when you submit, which might pre-empt any suspicion.

Sure, the authors will include the correspondence in the submission; although not all the correspondence is very friendly and includable. Perhaps the authors will give the gist of it instead; for example, they just say that this paper was submitted to that particular journal (with full name) but was withdrawn by the authors. And the journal threatened that the authors are not allowed to submit it elsewhere, which is not enforceable due to the journal not keeping its promises and also because no signed copyrights had been transferred by the authors to the journal.

I disagree with other answers with regard to whether you can resubmit elsewhere. My personal opinion is that if you know the paper is being published elsewhere, legally or not, you have the responsibility to at least tell your target journal about the situation when you resubmit.

But the paper isn't being published elsewhere as the authors withdrew it before publication

@adunaic. Seems more to me like the author is concerned that the paper may be published elsewhere.  What happens to the reputation of the author with the   more reputable publisher?

The paper is not being published there. If they would go with their own agreement of no-APC for publication, and if they had done a peer review, the authors would be somehow OK to compromise and publish it there. But (1) they had forgotten about the paper for 7 months, (2) they had not done any peer reviews, (3) they had not even sent any acceptance letter... And now that the authors have reminded them of the manuscript, they suddenly said "your paper is accepted and in the proofing stage!" (without even being reviewed, revised, or accepted); do give us a lot of money now.

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


text:
Is it normal that the co-authors can't see my camera-ready submission in CPS?
I submitted the camera-ready manuscript via the IEEE CPS online system, and I have a "Previous Submissions to the Conference" section in my page. But the other co-authors, who also recieved the email about submitting camere-ready manucript, cannot see the submission record via the link in the email (log in by their own account). Is this normal? Or is there anything going wrong?

I think the only people who can help you are the ones running the conference. Nobody here has access to your specific account to help you with this question.

I have sent emails to the CPS and they havn't replied. Actually I think it is very likely to be just the nature of the CPS online system, so I wonder if there is anyone who used the CPS online and had the similar experience.

IEEE Conference Publishing Services isn't like a normal submission and review system: it's more akin to the proofing and copyright form systems of other publishers.
As such, my experience with it has always been that:

it's kind of weird and bespoke,
the conference organizers aren't really involved, once they give the list of accepted papers to IEEE, so things often go a bit wrong during the hand-off, and
the system is mostly intended for just one designated author to interact with it just once.

Your experience thus sounds pretty normal to me. As long as you (or at least somebody) can upload the camera-ready manuscript, it should all be fine.

Thanks for your reply. I have asked the CPS and they confirmed only the author who submitted can see the submission status.


text:
Why do only a minority of US (and Canada) medical schools accept international students?
One webpage:

Out of the 141 accredited medical schools, only 49 are American medical schools that accept international students.

Another:

In 2019, 48 schools indicated in the Medical School Admission Requirements that they accept applications from international applicants.

Another:

Between the U.S. and Canada, only 82 medical schools accept international students—64 allopathic and 18 osteopathic.

Another:

international students only make up about 0.6% of all U.S. medical school matriculants

Given how lucrative medical school is, why don't more US (and perhaps Canadian) medical schools accept international students? Are there perhaps any legal barriers?
(I understand there are probably US Medical Associations that want to protect their industry and so restrict the supply of doctors by for example restricting the ability of foreign doctors to practice in the US, but this doesn't seem to explain why US medical schools aren't free to teach and award medical degrees to international students.)

Probably their purpose is not to make money

@gib I thought the medical school tuition in North America is famously expensive.

Nice question. Try to post it on other SE sites. Like politics stack exchange.

If a medical school is already swamped by domenstic applicants, they do not need to seek out more places to get students.

@GEdgar: Pretty much any decent school (any subject, any degree--bachelor's/master's/PhD/MBA/etc.) is also "already swamped by domestic applicants", yet they almost always allow international applicants. Medical school seems to be the odd exception.

I heard that medical schools in Caribbean countries have many students from the US who could not get into US medical schools.

@user103496 at least in Germany, medicine has more applicants per spot than almost any other discipline. I guess the situation might be similar in other countries (the US) as well

Canada has around half the medical doctors per student than europe. Education is heavily subsidized and It costs around 100K per year per student to go to medical school (7 to 11 years before you can practice). Almost everybody who starts their second year finishes, the system can't afford failure. With such investment and limited ressources, they prioritize the local population which will most probably stay afterwards.

Many medical schools are parts of state universities and were chartered to primarily serve residents of the state. The one closest to me requires residency in the state for one year prior to admission, or attending high school or college in the state. An exception is made for residents of several nearby states that do not have medical schools in them.

@Nobody I mean the purpose of founding them and running them was not to make money. OP's question "Given how lucrative medical school is ..." implies that he or she didn't understand this. This is separate from whether tuition is very expensive.

So first off, American medical schools can award medical degrees to whomever they want. Obviously a percent of schools will consider foreign applicants even if they rarely accept them. With some exceptions (like state schools or other mission-driven institutions) there are no real restrictions on what applicants a school can accept.
That being said, there are a few concrete reasons why schools choose not to take foreign students.

The most obvious reason is that American (or Canadian) medical schools want to train American (or Canadian) doctors. There are more than enough non-foreign applicants to fill medical school seats several times over.
Visa issues are likely more trouble than they are worth - see reason 1.
A foreign graduate will have a much harder time matching as they will need another visa for residency. Residencies, though more likely to consider foreign applicants than medical schools, generally prefer US citizens for a variety of reasons.
A ton of resources are required to train medical students. There is already starting to be a squeeze caused by the recent expansion of schools in the US (specifically local, high quality clinical spots necessary for 3rd and 4th year medical students).
Medical schools rely on a significant amount of local good will to function. It isn't hard to imagine a school could alienate its community by  admitting a large percent of foreign students.
Medical education is undoubtedly bloated and overpriced in the US. However, it is expensive to provide. On top of that, the goal of most medical schools is to train doctors, not to generate revenue. I'm not convinced that medical schools are the big money makers you assume they are.
Accreditation standards prevent schools from admitting 1000 students and failing half of them out or otherwise providing sub-par training (which is almost a given with classes of that size). If you are committed to investing in your students you probably want students who will finish school, stay in the area, and practice medicine. Admitting a boatload of foreign students for money is counterproductive.

This list could go on and on.


text:
Switching from formal to informal in email
I have contacted a supervisor (call him Dr Thomas Riddle) to chat about an advertised PhD project, writing

Dear Dr Riddle,

to which he replied with

Hi Luis,

and he signed off with

Tom.

In my reply, should I stick with

Dear Dr Riddle

or is it ok (or better?) to write

Dear Tom/Thomas

Whatever you decide, don't use "Thomas" when the professor has signed with "Tom."  Although my birth certificate says Robert, I much prefer to be called Bob, or maybe Dr. Brown, depending on the circumstance.  It would annoy me if I signed "Bob" and were then addressed as "Robert."  I suspect I'm not alone.

I suggest searching our archives, this has been discussed many times. For example here and here and here.

I think there's no wrong choice.
! would reply starting with Dr. Riddle (without the dear) and sign as Luis.
In the next round (if there is one) or if you become his student, then move to Tom, which is what he probably expects at that point.

This seems like a good balance. But there are cultural considerations. I'd guess this works in US or UK, but maybe not some other places that expect a more formal response from students. There is a story (apocryphal?) about a famous German mathematician who told his student (and mistress) that it wasn't necessary to call him "Dr. Professor X" when they were in alone in private. (or is it "Professor Dr." - I can never remember).

@Buffy The professor's first response is an implicit invitation to informality.

Yes, I agree. But I have my own cultural understandings.


text:
Can I use common abbreviated words in my Statement of Purpose?
I know that since SOP is a formal letter, abbreviated words cannot be used. But can I use commonly used abbreviated words such as GPA, COVID-19, BSc, USA directly in my SOP? It seems that writing the full term every time will take a lot of words. Any suggestion will be appreciated. Thanks.

The general guidelines for use of abbreviations should apply, see here for example: https://www.proofreadingacademy.com/advice/proofreading-tips-abbreviations-in-ap-style/ . Nothing special about the statement of purpose in that respect.

Thank you for yoour suggestion

I doubt that anyone would object to the abbreviations in your example, but use somewhat cautiously. Don't use chat-speak, lol, abbreviations, of course. You are probably writing to people a bit older than you are.

Yeah Thank you for your suggestion.....


text:
Should I mention conducting training programs in my Statement of Purpose for PhD admission?
I have conducted two hands-on training programs. I cannot decide whether or not I should mention this training experience in my SOP. I have quite a few publications, some conference papers, and 2 years of research experience. Will the addition of conducting the training programs as a "teaching" experience give my SOP more weight or should I avoid it?
The training courses were 1 month long each. Please provide any suggestions. Thanks in advance.

What were you trained in in the training programs?

I think you should base sharing this information on whether or not this information would be useful and showcase you as a strong candidate in what program you're seeking admittance. For example, if teaching is not a major or strong component of this program, you might not share it. If sharing this information will make you a strong candidate, then you should.

Thank you for your suggestion

Don't confuse your CV with your SoP. The statement of purpose should be about the future. What are your goals and how do you propose to achieve them? To some extent, you can mention past work, but only if it points to likely success in meeting those goals. I doubt this will help support your work as a researcher, which is the immediate short term goal.
I assume you don't want to run training classes as a career, so the information, which might be listed somewhere is better left out of the SoP so that you can stress more relevant things.

In the CV you might have a section for "service" or for "teaching related activities".

Thank you for your suggestion....


text:
Which option should be prefered in my Statement of Purpose for PhD application?
I am a new applicant and I am going to apply for Ph.D. in Biochemical Engineering in the US. I am a bit confused about how to write down my intended subject in my SOP.
My intended subject, Biochemical Engineering, is integrated into the Bioengineering umbrella program. That means, I have to apply centrally to the Bioengineering umbrella program and the program has four different Ph.D. tracks and Biochemical Engineering is one of them. The umbrella program also houses some other Ph.D. tracks that are not quite related to the Biochemical Engineering Ph.D. track and I do not want to apply for those tracks.
So, Can I say " I am interested in the Biochemical Engineering PhD track of the Bioengineering umbrella program" in my SOP? If not, then what can I write instead?
This is very important because my SOP has clear articulation of Biochemical engineering-related subjects, diplomas, and research interests and I can only apply to this specific Ph.D. track.
Any suggestion is highly appreciated. Thanks in advance.


text:
Roadmap for getting into a US graduate program in physics as an international student
I got admitted to Peter the Great St.Petersburg Polytechnic University, for a bachelor's in physics. I am starting this fall and it'll take around 4 years to graduate.
It'd be good to do the right things early, from the beginning. I want to have a clear roadmap of what you have to do right now, in order to get admitted into a US graduate school.
Of course, the top HYMPS colleges, etc. are really attractive, but I am open to all options out there in America.
I am not really sure If I should go into a master's studies or start pursuing a Ph.D. right after undergraduate school. Does getting a master’s degree improve the chances of being accepted into a Ph.D. program, or, perhaps, would it be a positive addition to my CV/ Resume for employment purposes?
If it does, is it important that the master’s degree has the same direction as the desired Ph.D.? For example, would it be okay to have a master's in Engineering and a Ph.D. in physics?
From what I know, probably a few things are needed in order to be accepted as an international student at a US grad school:

High undergrad GPA (3.8 out of 4 or higher)

High GRE score. Is it still relevant, though?

Concise and meaningful application essay. Describe exactly what you want to do. Explain why you are applying there. Explain the specific details of the school that would contribute to your mission/goal positively.

Solid scientific publications record

Affinity for the school. Really know the college. Laboratories, professors, etc. At least be aware of them.

Letters of recommendation from known professors and people in the field would be a boost to the application

Clean social media profile

I have also heard from a few interviews [1], [2], that it is good to present your ideas for research and experiments in the application.

I am interested in Quantum, Condensed matter, Nuclear physics
Also interested in Molecular biology and Biochemistry
However, I am ready to focus on one direction.
At the same time as studying, I'd like to earn money on a part-time job/freelancing/business.
I've accepted the fact that I am going to work/study all the time, for 15 hours or plus a day, every day.
What do you have to do to achieve acceptance to a US Ph.D. in physics as an International student? I'd be glad if you could suggest a roadmap/way to do this.

There is one thing you missed : TOEFL/IELTS English test. Your post looks fine. But, you need to pass the English test.

I'm not sure what is typical for undergrad students at your institution & in your country, but I encourage you to re-examine spending 15+ hours a day studying/working. Getting enough sleep (& having a fairly consistent sleep schedule) really helps process everything you're learning. Also, make time for having fun with friends & classmates! Brains need downtime

I sincerely hope that the situation 4 years from now is better than today but for purely political reasons I would assume that currently your chance to go to a US grad school with a Russian bachelors degree is close to zero no matter how good your degree is.

@AlysaObertas
"Brains need downtime" - While I agree with this, one would also need to earn and save some money for visa/flight tickets and other expenses.
Which means dedicating substantial (majority) amount of your time to just 2 things:

Study
Earning money

@quarague Why would you assume that? Could you explain more in detail how political woes are affecting admission chances?

@EmmaLincoln Not directly admission chances but chances to get a visa.

First of all, congratulations on your admission to St. Petersburg Polytechnic University! You can't pursue a Ph.D. without an undergrad education, so you are about to take the first important step!
I intend to write a detailed response later, but a few tips for now, stemming from personal experience:

Use American textbooks when you study for your classes or at least try. It'll help you learn the English jargon and also understand how the American education system works
Find a mentor, if possible. A professor, a senior student, a post-doc, or anyone who can provide guidance with respect to graduate studies. This person will usually be related to a research direction you choose so their role might be dual (research advisor and mentor)
Engage in research projects whenever you feel ready, don't rush into things. Do something you like. If you like it, you'll do a good job, and recommendation letters will follow (and perhaps publications)
GRE and TOEFL, were vital when I applied, but you should check the current requirements
Network. Network. Network. Connect with peers aiming for U.S. studies. Sharing experiences helps, and being around like-minded individuals grows the right mindset
The more I grow up the more I add this item. Please enjoy the process and have fun

Get close enough to a few professors in your intended field of study and impress them enough so that you can get good letters of recommendation. Very important in US. See https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/176909/75368

@Buffy. Very true! I hope I can return to my post and add a few items later, cause I'm working on something. But this takes me back. The OP is me from a while ago :)
Thanks for the link!

Big thanks for the response!

I can offer some answers to your specific questions based on my own experience from about a decade ago. Things may have changed somewhat since then, but probably not too much. (Also bear in mind that this is only one person's perspective and that requirements can vary from one university to another.)

I am not really sure If I should go into a master's studies or start pursuing a Ph.D. right after undergraduate school. Does getting a master’s degree improve the chances of being accepted into a Ph.D. program, or, perhaps, would it be a positive addition to my CV/ Resume for employment purposes?

In the US it's typical to go directly from a bachelor's degree program into a PhD program, with no intervening master's degree. The first couple years of a US PhD program are often pretty similar to a master's degree program: you take classes and do some amount of educational research, like a literature review rather than a truly novel research project. (Of course you can also be working with a professor on some original research on the side.) If you do get a master's degree and it is in the same subject (i.e. physics), you might be able to skip those first couple years, but this depends on the university.

High undergrad GPA (3.8 out of 4 or higher)

Most graduate programs do not have a strict cutoff on what undergrad GPA you need to get admitted, and for those that do, it's certainly not going to be as high as 3.8 (except maybe at a few of the most exclusive schools, but even then I kind of doubt it). If you do have a GPA of 3.8 or higher, then that's fantastic, but even if it's as low as, say, 3.3, you'll probably still have a good chance of admission to many PhD programs in the US as long as the rest of your application is reasonably strong. The expectation here also depends on the reputation of your undergraduate university: if you go to a rigorous school which has a reputation for turning out well-prepared students, then you can get away with a lower GPA than if you go to a school whose standards are loose. I don't know offhand how Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University fares in that respect, but based on some quick research it seems to be reasonably well regarded academically so that probably helps you.
Also note that your "major GPA" - that is, the average grade from among classes relevant to your major, i.e. physics, math, maybe computer science or engineering if you want to specialize in an area of research where those are relevant - is probably more important here than your overall GPA.

High GRE score. Is it still relevant, though?

The general GRE (verbal and math) don't really matter. However, the subject GRE in physics does matter. It's similar to GPA in that there is probably not a strict cutoff, but a high score will be impressive, while a moderate score will not be a deal-breaker if the rest of your application is strong.

Concise and meaningful application essay. Describe exactly what you want to do. Explain why you are applying there. Explain the specific details of the school that would contribute to your mission/goal positively.

I'm really not an expert on application essays but this all sounds pretty good. :-)

Solid scientific publications record

This is not necessary at all. If you have publications, that's great and will certainly be a major benefit to your application, but as far as I know, the majority of incoming graduate students at US universities do not.

Affinity for the school. Really know the college. Laboratories, professors, etc. At least be aware of them.

Again, not necessary.
Knowing a professor helps though. Specifically, if you've worked with or communicated with a professor at the university you're applying to, enough that the professor is willing to advocate for you to be admitted so you can work with them, then that will be extremely useful. This is one thing I wish I had known about graduate admissions when I went through the process: it goes better if you treat it more like applying to a job with a specific research group rather than applying to a university. But if you don't have that, no need to panic, it is certainly possible to get admitted without it and find a professor to work with after you enroll. (I did!)

Letters of recommendation from known professors and people in the field would be a boost to the application

Yes, absolutely.

Clean social media profile

This really doesn't matter at all. If there's anything extremely offensive on your social media then it might disqualify you, but it's also possible nobody will check.
At least, back when I got into grad school it would have been nearly unthinkable to take social media into account when considering applications to grad school. Maybe things are a bit stricter now.

I have also heard from a few interviews [...] that it is good to present your ideas for research and experiments in the application.

Yeah, probably true. Like many other things I've listed here, I don't think it's necessary, but it will help if your ideas are good.

One other thing I happened to notice while looking up information on your undergrad university: the Wikipedia article says

During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the University issued a public statement strongly supporting Russian actions, calling the assault a "denazification operation" and accusing Ukrainian leadership of endangering the security and existence of Russia and "all of humanity". According to Andrey Rudskoy, head of the university, while scientific cooperation with Western universities had been developed over decades, after the invasion it was almost completely destroyed, with foreign universities halting their ties with the university.

Now, I don't know exactly what "halting ties" entails, but it's possible that US universities are declining to admit graduate students from Russia right now, and especially from Russian universities which have supported Russia's position in the war. If that's the case, then all your other preparation may be wasted. However, it's also possible that the political scene will look very different in four years; if the war ends and there are some significant changes in the position of the Russian government and Russian university leadership, then I can imaging US universities might relax any restrictions they may currently have. So this is not a reason to give up hope. I just wanted to point it out because it's an important factor to be aware of.

The social media profile may be important to getting a student visa and being admitted by Customs and Border Patrol into the US. Even if the situation is different in 4 years.

Thank you a lot for the answer!

It's becoming increasingly common for incoming PhD students in astronomy to have publications, so I imagine it could be similar for physics. It certainly wasn't the case when I applied to grad school (almost a decade ago). Most of the discussion I've seen about it from academics is how it would be absurd for it to be a requirement, fortunately!


text:
Can I write an original article/paper (as a sole author) based on a commentary I co-authored?
A while back I co-authored a commentary with a colleague. I would now like to write an original article/paper, as a sole author, based on the commentary I co-authored. Basically, I want to extend the ideas presented in the commentary. Do I need my colleague's permission to do so?
If I do need their permission and they decline, what recourse do I have?

Sorry if I misunderstand something, but how, exactly, is this a research paper? What research?

@Buffy: I'm not completely sure what you are asking. Mark apparently wrote a commentary paper together with a co-author, and now is thinking of starting a line of research based off ideas in that commentary.

I think the confusion might be to do with the field, I'm guessing OP is from the social sciences, where research can be more investigating an idea in the sense of considering/discussing ideas. Therefore there may be some difficulty in separating the contributions of the authors in the two papers. Whereas Buffy (and me) come from hard sciences, where to do a research paper you'd need to do an experiment or a calculation. Since the commentary would not require experiment/calculation, there is a clear distinction of contribution and which is research.

@Buffy As @ N A McMahon correctly points out, I am in the social sciences where an original article/paper is also classified as a research paper or as original research, which is basically a scholarly article.

No, you absolutely don't need permission. After all, this is no different than extending the ideas in any published paper, and you don't need permission from such a paper's authors, either. (Suppose you read three papers, and their combination suggested a new idea to you. If you had to ask the authors of all three papers for permission, research would grind to a halt.)
Of course, you do need to cite that predecessor commentary. And it would be good form to inform your coauthor soon - they may actually be able to contribute something, leading to a second coauthored paper.

Thanks for the advice! I do plan to inform them soonest.

You certainly don't need your colleague's permission, but that doesn't mean there are zero issues.
You should certainly think about how this would impact the relationship with your colleague moving forward, and that may make discussing it with your colleague (whether you seek permission or just inform them of what you'll be doing) a good thing to do.  If the sole authorship is important for career reasons, let them know.

Thank you. I most certainly intend to inform them, I just wanted to know if I would their permission.


text:
Referencing style for Publications in German CV (Lebenslauf)
What is the Referencing Style ("Referenzierungsstil") for Publications ("Publikationen") in German CV ("Lebenslauf")?
Should I use APA or IEEE referencing style for the field of Electrical and Electronic Engineering ?

Note: I cannot find any guidelines about the Referencing Styles in Lebenslauf for application in the German universities' websites.

Unless the university specifies a certain style (which I would find surprising), you are free to use what you want. The most important thing, in my opinion, is that it is consistent and you don't mix different styles. To find specific examples, you can look at CVs of university professors.
To make this clear, I don't think the following examples are necessarily good examples for you to emulate. I just selected these to demonstrate that there is no certain style everyone follows.
An example by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Westkämper of the Fraunhofer Institute:

(Source: Frauenhofer Institute for Automation)
Here is one example by Prof. Dr. Peter Noll of the TU Berlin:

(Source: TU Berlin, Prof. Dr. Noll publication list)
Here is another example by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Brodmann of the University of Gelsenkirchen:

(Source: Westfälische Hochschule, Prof. Dr. Brodmann, CV)

Those look horrible (no judgement on you, only on them)!
Maybe it would be better to check some temporary staff, like PostDoc&co?
Very often professors have the guaranteed chair, so they do not care how their public CV is looking, no one will ask about that ...

@EarlGrey Temporary staff usually don't have public CVs in my experience. And while professors probably don't have to keep a neat CV, I think especially the second example isn't too much out of the ordinary. Make a clear, easily readable list. You won't get a lot of style points for s.th. like this in German engineering.


text:
Preparatory German course at Studienkolleg
I am a non-EU candidate with a Bachelor's and Master's degree in a STEM field. I'm applying to Master's programmes in STEM at German universities.
Requirement for Preparatory German course at Studienkolleg
I've received TDN 3 (B2.1-B2.2) in TestDaF and studying currently to reach TDN 4 or C1 level german. The universities require DSH 2 or TestDaF TDN 4-4-4-4 for admission.
According to Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, I must attend the preparatory German language course at Studienkolleg. This will take 1 semester (6 months).

KIT - INTL - Incoming Students - Advice
KIT - Another Link under the section "Preparatory German course at Studienkolleg"

Now, according to the website studienkollegs.de:

Studienkolleg takes 2 semesters (1 year)
In the application process page, it says "Check whether you can start studying in Germany directly, or whether you need to attend a Studienkolleg first"

My eligibility for direct access: I've received my Akademische Prüfstelle (APS) Certificate from German Embassy. It indicates that my degrees are recognized in Germany and I am eligible for direct access to German universities, i.e., "Art des Zugangs: Direkter Zugang" is stated in the certificate.
In the Types of Studienkollegs page at university, I am eligible for the T-course for mathematical, science or technical degrees. But this is only required for Bachelor's degree applications in Germany. Or is it also required for a Master's degree?
I am looking for advice regarding Preparatory German course at Studienkolleg.

I know that the duration of Preparatory German Course depends on the entrance exam. But, if I need only 1 semester after the entrance test, then what about the 2nd semester? I am confused about this.
Where and under which category should I apply?
Any further tips and insights are welcome.

P.S. I will also ask the university about Studienkolleg. But before I do that, I would like to have a clear idea about it.
Further questions (added on 30/04/2024):

For M.Sc. courses in summer semester, the application deadline in case of non-EU applicants is usually January 15th of every year. However, the preparatory courses will have TestDaF / DSH exam conducted between February and March of next year. Does that mean I have to apply for the winter semester M.Sc. programs in the next year (after passing TestDaF / DSH)?

Let's suppose that I am a student in German Preparatory Course at a public german university with student visa / student applicant visa. If I already have conditional admission in one M.Sc. program at german university, I need to re-apply for final admission with required language proficiency (C1 in this case). Will I get extension of application deadline as non-EU applicant for re-application to that M.Sc. program?

From the very page you linked: "Do I need to take a preparatory course (Studienkolleg - Feststellungsprüfung) before beginning my course of study?
The answer to this question can be found on the following link (see ,,Schulabschlüsse mit Hochschulzugangsberechtigung” or “secondary school qualifications with university entrance qualifications”):"
IF they recognize your Bachelor degree you are good to go, no Studienkolleg needed. And depending on the Master, even the German language requirement maybe it will be relaxed.

@EarlGrey In KIT, I'm applying for M.Sc. Electrical Engineering. For the application process, they need B1, but for enrollment they need TestDaF 4x4 or DSH2 or Goethe Zertifikat C2. The university provides 6 months preparatory course.

Please read carefully the requirements,  M.Sc in Electrical Engineering does note exist, it is M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology (ETIT from the German Masterstudiengang Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik), depending on which curriculum you follow, you are required

German language skills OR English language skills of at least B2-level [with various options to certify it, see https://www.sle.kit.edu/english/vorstudium/master-electrical-engineering-information-technology.php ]

@EarlGrey Yes, I just wrote the degree name in short in the above comment. I know that it is M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology. According to the Module Handbook of ETIT, some of the curriculum are in English, but not all.
In case of English language skills, my TOEFL certificate has expired on January 2024, but it has been verified and stated in my APS certificate by German Embassy. So, I will ask the university regarding this matter.

From the Webpage "Application for a Master's degree course" of the KIT.
In English they state

If you have not yet entirely fulfilled the language requirements for a
Master's course taught in German, you have the possibility to apply
for a preparatory course at the Studienkolleg.

and the original in German has the same meaning

Falls Sie die Sprachvoraussetzungen Deutsch für ein Masterstudium am
KIT noch nicht erfüllen, können Sie sich für einen
studienvorbereitenden Intensiv-Sprachkurs bewerben.

It is written nowhere you have to attend the course at the Studienkolleg. Check carefully the application requirements.
Please note that if the Master is in English, you have to

To attend an English language Master's course you have to provide
proof of sufficient English language proficiency. There is no general
English language requirement among the English taught courses.

which means a self-declararation should suffice.

The german requirements are usually satisfied with a DSH-2 (or DSH-3 ) certificate. Have a look here where they state you need 1 year preparation starting from A1
https://dsh.de/faq-eng-2 (check question 9. Do I have to take the DSH exam at the university, where i want to study?
No. Wherever you take your DSH exam, you will get a certificate, that will be accepted at every German university. and question 10 for the list of schools/institutions, also writing expected costs)

I did my Master's studies in Germany, but in English. This means that I might not be the best person to weigh on this matter. That being said, the Studienkolleg is first and foremost intended for pre-Bachelor students. It seems to me you are overqualified. Moreover, if all you need to do is to take a German language course, there are tons of other options to do just that within Germany.
Viel Erfolg!

not only within Germany, but also remotely and possibly in the current country of residence of OP ...


text:
Queries on Formatting of Lebenslauf (German CV)
I am applying for MS program in Germany. I have gone through Duden books and University websites, and found out that the format for German CV ("Lebenslauf") differs from one University to the other. So, I have some queries about the tabular Curriculum Vitae ("Tabellarischer Lebenslauf ").

A. The Format for Education section (i.e. "Ausbildung / Studium") und Work Experiences section (i.e. "Berufliche Werdegang")

Format for Education ("Ausbildung") on the right column after "MM/YYYY–MM/YYYY":

Format 1:_

Universität/Hochschüle, Ort
Studiengang (z.B. Bachelorstudium)
Studienschwerpunkte:
Abschlussnote:
Thema der Bachelorarbeit:
Note:

Format 2

Studiengang (z.B. Bachelorstudium)
Universität/Hochschüle, Ort
Studienschwerpunkte:
Abschlussnote:
Thema der Bachelorarbeit:
Note:

Format for Work Experiences ("Berufliche Werdegang") on the right column after "MM/YYYY–MM/YYYY": :

Format 1

Musterstelle
Musterfirm, Ort
~ Tätigkeit 1
~ Tätigkeit 1

Format 2

Musterfirm, Ort
Musterstelle im Bereich, Abteilung
~ Tätigkeit 1
~ Tätigkeit 1

My Question: Which one should I use for "Ausbildung" and "Berufliche Werdegang"? Should I format the Lebenslauf in according to the each of the university?
B. Page Margins (Seitenränder) for German CV ("Lebenslauf") and Cover Letter ("Anschreiben")
For cover letter "Anschreiben", I've used the DIN 5008 standard (with the side margins as 4.5cm on the top, 2.0cm on the bottom, 2.5cm on the left, und 2.0cm on the right).
My Question: For the Lebenslauf (CV), should I use DIN 5008 or should I use 2.5 cm on all sides? Or can I reduce the margins to around 2.0 cm?

External Sources (that I have gone through):

Karlsruhe Institut für Technologie: Bewerbungstipps - Lebenslauf | Anschreiben
RWTH Aachen: Lebenslauf FAQs
Leibniz Universität Hannover: Bewerbungstipss (PDF)
TU Berlin: Lebenslauf Vorlage und Guide (PDF)
Heidelberg University:  Der Lebenslauf – Erfolgsschlüssel und KO-Kriterium (PDF)
TUHH: Vortragstag rund um die Bewerbung (Video)

Are you expected to write this in German? (If yes, also have a native speaker proofread it.) If you just want to demonstrate your knowledge of German - exercise caution, having parts of your application in German just for the point of it and then having mistakes leaves an odd impression.

Yes. I intend to pursue a German-taught MS program and require a German CV and cover letter. So, I am preparing for TestDaF (German language proficiency test).

Then let a native speaker proofread it; I immediately spotted two mistakes in what you wrote above.

The main thing you should watch out for is consistent formatting. As you have noticed, there is no single fixed standard for the formatting of tabular CVs in Germany, and anything that is reasonable is fine. Unless the university explicitly requires specific formatting in their application documentation, you are free to choose it yourself.
All of the options you mentioned are consistent with typical formatting in a tabular CV in Germany, so I would just choose one consistent ordering of job/degree title & company/university, and choose a reasonable margin too (the three options you mention are all perfectly fine and anything reasonable goes, you just shouldn't make it a 1cm or a 5cm margin).

Another small question: How should I format the "irrelevant" work experiences under "Berufliche Werdegang": (A) similarly to other relevant experiences or (B) just in one line (stating only the Position and Firm Name without the "Tätigkeiten")? I cannot remove the work experience entirely.

Again, I'd say that both options you list are fine. If you think it could still be somewhat relevant (e.g., experience doing research in another unrelated field), I'd add a short description - if not, leaving out the details seems reasonable, as it wouldn't add useful information

I'd think that the really important thing is to stick to the explicit requirements of the institution you apply to. If something is not explicitly specified by the institution, you have some freedom how to do it. Things are not unified in Germany, there is much regional autonomy, and if they don't specify something, they will get all kinds of versions anyway and will have to work with them.


text:
How can I maximize my chances on PhD programs at the intersection of AI and neuroscience?
I am currently applying to graduate school and am looking for some advice. I am 10 years out of undergrad and was an entrepreneur in industry before deciding to pursue graduate school
Unfortunately, I don't have a very strong academic record for undergrad. I went to a pretty top CS school (think Stanford/MIT/CMU etc.) and got a 3.4 GPA, with C's in a few important classes. On the flip side I took tons of graduate level CS courses in artificial intelligence and computer graphics and did extremely well in them. I also did a masters where I got a much better GPA (nearly a 4.0)
I also don't have a particularly strong "formal" research background. I did a few abstracts related to computer vision and AI but my focus during college was on starting companies. The one thing I have going for me is industry experience. I started two companies. One was acquired successfully, and the other used some pretty modern deep learning methods. I can definitely get letters of rec from folks with PhDs who themselves have strong research experience in industry but they are generally not in academia -- they are founders/CSO/CTOs of startups. Would they count?

I can say the most about the neuroscience side of things, though it sounds like your background is more in CS.
First, let me say that there's really very little "practically useful" in applying neuroscience to AI right now besides hype and salesmanship. Maybe at some point there was, but the fields have diverged quite a bit. The environments are just extremely different: what works in biology doesn't work very efficiently in silico. That said, theoretical and computational neuroscience are themselves very interesting fields and often use concepts that overlap with AI, and there are also many AI applications to data analysis problems in neuroscience.
For the most part, you are likely to be applying to a graduate program either in Computer Science or in Neuroscience. The thing that will bring you to the "intersection of AI and neuroscience" will involve choosing a mentor that bridges that gap. So, you should be looking at specific people working in that area, and even though in the US admissions decisions will likely be at the program level rather than directly with a particular professor, you'll likely want to contact potential mentors ahead of time to see if they are likely to be taking students.
Graduate programs are looking for people who will be successful in research; it's going to be really hard to sell yourself without having research experience, but I'm not really convinced that your background in research is as weak as you think it is. A "couple abstracts" isn't that bad.
I do think it'll be hard to sell your background in a neuroscience program, because it sounds like you have very little biology training, and you'll probably struggle in a neuroscience program without it. That said, neuroscience programs also value intellectual diversity, so some committees may see your differences as a plus rather than a minus. Similarly, you'll probably find some departments are put off by your entrepreneurial activities while others will see it as a plus - you should be able to get an idea from looking at faculty bios and program value statements where they fall.
Your references will count, but they may not be ideal. The best references are going to be ones that can speak to your likelihood of success in the program. Therefore, a good reference is coming from someone who is familiar with mentoring graduate students. Your colleagues with PhDs are more useful than references from people who've never even been in graduate school, but they don't have quite the weight of a university professor with a history of training students. Still, you apply with what you have, not with what you wish you had.

I think this is all on the spot and very good advice, but I'm a bit confused about your statement that there is very little practically useful research at the intersection (...). Yes, cutting edge AI research will not be done by neuroscientists, but, as you continue to write yourself, AI is increasingly used in theoretical ns at least, and in overlapping fields like brain-machine interface, etc. (Hence, as you point out, OP's profile  sounds compelling to me - except the apparent complete lack of a biology background which could be a killer).

@gnometorule I'll edit to clarify. I don't know exactly what OP had in mind but I got the impression they were thinking about using neuroscience to improve AI algorithms, since that's the "cool thing" that seemingly everyone with a CS background but not a biology background thinks they're going to get out of neuroscience.


text:
Can I include high school info in CV for PhD application?
I'm a Master's student who is applying for Ph.D in the U.S. In my case, I graduated from high school (China), undergraduate (Canada), Master's (Korea, my home country) in all different countries. So I can speak 3 languages, and am really open-minded and independent. I want to show this experience but I know high school info is mostly excluded from CV. Should I still not write high school information?
Thank you in advance.

Are you planning on getting your PhD in a field relating to languages?

@AnonymousPhysicist No. Not really.

Can you? You can write anything you like on your CV. Whether or not you should is the question.
Personally I don’t think there going to be any issues with stating the name and country of your high school on your CV - but it should only take up one line maximum. I don’t think it would make provide much benefit either though (unless the country is particularly relevant to the application - like if you had gone to high school in China and were applying for a PhD about the Chinese education system, for example).
It would be beneficial to some degree to include the different languages you speak though. Again, how beneficial depends on the subject area, but being able to speak three languages well in impressive by anyone’s standard.

As someone else said, it's ok, but no more than one line.  It is information that indicates your adaptability and resilience, and students need that to complete a PhD. The admissions committee might not even notice it, but if I saw it I'd think "hmm, interesting" and then jump to the more substantive things in your application.  I don't think it would hurt you.


text:
"On Hold" for 2 Months on arXiv
I submitted a Physics Education pre-print to arXiv more than two months ago. It has been "on hold" ever since. The pre-print has nothing controversial. It is simply a few simulations of relativistic phenomenon which may be helpful for undergraduate students. It has been under review at an AAPT journal. I am applying for my PhD and every pre-print helps. I am thus wondering which of the following I should do:

Delete this submission and re-submit the same pre-print. I did this earlier this year with another physics pre-print which had been on hold for two weeks, and it was published the next day. It sounds surprising, and indeed I was taken aback when this worked earlier this year, but I am hesitant to do it this time. Why? Well, I've already waited two months. If I delete and re-submit the pre-print, what if I have to wait another two months?
Ask arXiv what's going on. I've already done this twice, and they repeatedly respond by stating that they cannot provide comments on individual submissions.
Something else? I could contact the editor for Physics Education on arXiv, but I have heard that is not recommended for some reason. Is this true? Is there anything else I can do? I should note that I have three other pre-prints already published on arXiv.

Update: I appealed for an arXiv moderation decision. Here's what I received in response:

Dear arXiv user,

We have received your inquiry regarding the “on hold” status for your submission. Unfortunately we do not have the resources to provide submitters with continual status updates for their submissions. All submissions to arXiv go through moderation screening and dozens of papers per day have some delay. Your work has not been singled out in this regard.

Your submission is currently on hold pending a decision by our volunteer moderators. The "Hold" status indicates that our moderators need additional time to consider your article. We have reminded our moderators that a decision is needed regarding your submission.

Something similar happened to me back in December. I submitted a preprint and it was rejected, for the first time in my life. The reason given was that "Our moderators determined that your submission does not contain sufficient original or substantive scholarly research and is not of interest to arXiv."
I've published over 30 papers and have put most of them on arXiv. My sense is that they had a change in how moderation is done and have started to reject more submissions. In this case, one issue is that my paper dealt with data that is four years old, because the paper was actually published back in 2021, and I only just now got around to putting it on arXiv (it had a double blind review, which is why I didn't upload it right away). Another factor that might have hurt me was uploading three papers all at once, for similar reasons: they had been double-blind reviewed and accepted.
Let me tell you how I changed their mind.
First, I don't think option (1) is wise. They will flag it again and it will probably make it harder to bring them around to eventually accepting your paper.
I went with option 2 and the official appeals process. I explained that the preprint I'm uploading was in fact already peer reviewed and published, and has already been cited 5 times, so it's hard to believe it "does not contain sufficient original or substantive scholarly research." Then I got the same message the OP got regarding being "on hold." Then, in March, I got another message saying they had reviewed the case and would agree to put the paper on arXiv but I had to change it to put our names on the front page (that was an oversight on my part, as I was uploading the version that was accepted, which was still "blinded").
Overall, I was left with the impression that the appeals process does work, and you just need to be patient. It's easy to get annoyed or upset, but it won't help. We are lucky to have arXiv and the free labor of the moderators. To be honest, all researchers are probably well-served by arXiv filtering out more crank papers. If this means that, once in a while, we have to go through an extra step to get a paper on arXiv, then probably that's a small price to pay.

One point here is that ArXiv "Physics Education" does not usually accept papers containing pedagogical material such as you decsribe. They accept papers on physics teaching research -- i.e flipped class room teaching methiods,  cogniitive burden studies, etc.  For pedagogical  illustrations class-ph is likely to be more receptive.

@mikestone Did I mention pedagogical material? The paper I am talking about is: https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.19199. I had tagged it stat.AP and they retagged it physics.soc-ph. But nothing in this was pedagogical. I have uploaded two pedagogical papers: https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.08858 and https://arxiv.org/abs/1801.06814

Sorry!  My comment was related to the OP's question, where he had submited to ed-ph, and  my experience with what the ed-ph mods accept.


text:
Can only get "did well in class" recommendation letters, how can I make the best of it?
I am applying to a master's program, and I had two professors that knew me well that agreed to recommend me. Both have expertise in the field I'm applying to. I took all their relevant elective courses and got As. I also worked with one of them as a teaching assistant, and with the other as a research volunteer on a relevant project. And they supervised my graduation project (also on a relevant topic to my MSc). Unfortunately, I lost contact with them, one is very ill, and the other left the university and went abroad, and he is pretty much unreachable now.
Now I can only get recommendations from professors who are not specialists in the field, and who have nothing to say of me except that I "did well in class". They are kind enough to let me write what I want in the letter so long as it's factually true. How do I make the best of this? I want to include something about my teaching and research experience/grad project in the letters, but these professors haven't worked with me directly on that, can I mention it anyway?

Don't make assumptions about the earlier writers and what they can do. The university can probably help you with both of them.

"Unfortunately, I lost contact with them, one is very ill, and the other left the university and went abroad, and he is pretty much unreachable now." Does "pretty much unreachable" mean that you don't know their current email address or that you asked multiple people at the university if they can help you get in touch with them and they all said no?

Thank you, guys, for your comments. I tried to contact the second professor multiple times on his emails, and phone but he didn't respond. I can keep trying, however, I should probably assume the worst and be prepared for it, because I had a friend who also needed his recommendation and contacted him shortly before he left and he promised to recommend her, however he stopped responding and didn't upload the recommendation till the last minute and she had to scramble to find a substitute.

The other professor has been seriously ill for a long time & is not expected to be back within the timeline of my application (I'm applying by next month). Even if he did, it would be in very bad taste of me to ask him to recommend me on a tight timeline when he would be just recovering from a serious illness.

All that to say, I need to assume the worst and make the best of what I do have.

It's probably not very productive to keep trying to call him when he doesn't respond, but it may make sense to ask one of his colleagues if they know how to get in touch with him. The answer might likely be no, but given that the difference between a strong letter and a generic letter could make or break your application, I would say it's worth giving a try. Of course you are right that the story with the other letter does not bode well for you.

Yes, I'll definitely do that. Thank you. However, since he has a history of ghosting students and not uploading recommendations to the last minute. I'll be prepared for the worst and work on my other references as much as I can.

Are there other people in the lab/research group/institute that would be allowed to write the letters and that know you, maybe not quite as good as the professors, but good enough to say something on your TA or research experience in their letters?

@DanielHatton Thank you for sharing. I'll certainly try to contact my professor through his colleagues if I they agree to help. I hope it doesn't appear like I'm spamming him, though :"D Because I do have his personal, and new institutional email addresses and I have already tried emailing him.

@Sabine In the research project that I volunteered in, there were my two professors, other graduate students, some TAs and some RAs. I think they would be very weak references; probably as week as the ones I already have (the did well in class) references. In terms of TA work and grad project, no one was directly involved other than my partner- who co-taught and did the GP with me- and the professors.

I would make sure that the people who have agreed to write for you can speak to your TA experience and thesis project. Let them know that you would usually ask A (sick professor) to write about your TA experience in the department, but since A is sick, you have included your TA evals and the course syllabus and are wondering if they can add a paragraph about your TA work. Similar logic applies to your thesis. They will think of it as “helping a sick colleague who can’t write the letter.”

Yes, thank you so much. I thought of that, but I wasn't sure how I'd put it in and make it sound relevant. I was also wondering if it would look suspicious that a professor is praising my work on something they weren't directly involved in and that is somewhat outside their specialty.

@green_bean: it wouldn't look suspicious if they also explained that the person who would usually comment on it is unable to.

This one for sure - committees reviewing this kind of thing understand extenuating circumstances - academia is also small enough that they may know your ill professor

@green_bean have you tried talking to them in person? Or at least by phone?

@AlexanderWoo, Thank you for the suggestion, I'll try to do that.

@lupe I hope they do :"D

@fectin Yes, I called the second professor a few times, and emailed him. I can't meet him in person because he's abroad. I also don't want to seem like I'm spamming him.

@green_bean have you tired talking to the people who have agreed to write letters for you in person?

@green_bean One thing that you could see is if the letter writers would contact the sick/missing professors on your behalf, by phone or e-mail, and incorporate their feedback. The absent professors would be more likely to respond, as it would take less work for them. The letter could say the writer spoke to the unavailable professors and relay their opinion.

@fectin sorry misunderstood your question. I talked to them only once to ask for the recommendation. They asked me to write a draft and send it for approval. So, I was thinking I'd write something about my TA work and GP and talk to them in person to explain why I wrote that.

@user71659 since they gave me permission to write my own letter. I was thinking I'd go ahead and include the info I want then talk to them to explain why I included it. I'd maybe ask them to help me contact professor B if they can. professor A, though, is currently hospitalized, so no shot.