text:
Does a chapter published in a book fit as part of a paper-based dissertation?
I've just received an offer to write a chapter for a book that will be published with an important publisher. I was about to say yes, because the topic fits with my dissertation topic and I thought I could use it for my paper-based dissertation, but a colleague told me that a chapter in a book may not be considered for a paper-based dissertation. What was your experience? Do you know anything about it?
Update: Finally my Uni will accept a book chapter as part of my paper-based dissertation. I had to argue that even though it was a book and not a journal, the chapter (actually the whole book) will be reviewed by at least two reviewers. Thanks for your answers!

What do you mean by "paper-based dissertation"?

A dissertation by publications. This is, despite writing a monograph I should write at least three papers that have to be published. The problem is that I cannot find any regulations concerning whether they have to be articles in a peer-review journal or it is ok with book chapters. I just wanted to know if someone had a similar experience :)

The only regulations that count here are your own institution's - there are no universal laws. If they don't have clearly stated regulations on it you'll need to find out what they would say if the question came up... which means you'll probably have to ask them either way.

What did your advisor say when you asked them this question? (You did ask your advisor, didn't you?)

My supervisor said "I do not know if a book chapter could be used for your dissertation. We should find out if someone did it before."
The thing is that regulations in my uni are very general. They say "publications" without mentioning if papers should be in a journal or not, not even if they have to be peer-reviewed. It is taken for granted that the "normal way" is to have your papers published in a good journal, but I wanted to ask if someone got a book chapter accepted as part of the dissertation in order to have an useful example of a university that accepts this kind of publication.

@Ophelia: I see now. I have no advice from experience on this, but, from the comments and answers above and below, it seems that you have enough flexibility in choosing the dissertation-counting publication type. I would say that, since your advisor is not against it, your university's rules do not prevent this option and you have a nice offer from a solid publisher, you might as well go ahead and choose the book chapter route. Regardless of what you will decide, I wish you good luck and smooth sailing in the program and beyond :-).

While regulations may differ from place to place, I find it highly unsurprising that a book chapter would not "count" for a paper-based dissertation.  The reason is that book chapters are typically peer reviewed lightly, if at all.
As such, if your dissertation requirement is effectively "N peer-reviewed papers," then this book chapter is highly unlikely to be peer-reviewed in a manner consistent with the expectations of the university.  Just in the same way, your professors would probably not count a paper in a predatory journal as helping to meet your dissertation requirements.
Note, however, that this doesn't mean you should not write the chapter, if it is a good publisher and a work you would like to create.  Book chapters can be a good way to organize your thoughts and put together reviews, and in some cases can actually be quite highly cited.  Likewise, the text from the chapter may turn out to be useful as part of your dissertation (depending on university regulations about copyright and theses, of course).  It's just that it's probably not a peer-reviewed publication and will thus likely not count toward the number of such that you need for your dissertation.

As the other answers say, the definitive source has to be your university, but...
I can imagine that a book chapter may not count towards the number of papers, because book chapters do not necessarily include original research, but may just be a review of existing literature. In other words, you might write a review paper that makes a perfect book chapter, but that you would have trouble publishing in a good journal, because it doesn't contain enough original research.
I think that the rationale for "staple theses" is that someone has done enough original research to be awarded a PhD, and for this papers are a much better indicator than book chapters.

Such rules differ from university to university and department to department. So you need to ask the persons responsible for determining whether or not you fulfilled the requirements.


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Non-salary fellowships and US income taxes
In general, are fellowships which are granted to individual researchers, but do not constitute salary and are not held in a personal bank account, considered taxable for US passport holders?
For example, if a US national has a postdoctoral contract which gives them an income, and they are awarded with a supplementary fellowship for travel and research expenses, does the researcher need to declare only their salary when they file income taxes, or do they need to declare salary + the fellowship?
I understand that fellowships can now be considered taxable under some conditions:

Taxable
You must include in gross income:
Amounts used for incidental expenses, such as room and board, travel,
  and optional equipment. Amounts received as payments for teaching,
  research, or other services required as a condition for receiving the
  scholarship or fellowship grant. However, you don't need to include in
  gross income any amounts you receive for services that are required by
  the National Health Service Corps Scholarship Program or the Armed
  Forces Health Professions Scholarship and Financial Assistance
  Program.

However, it is not clear how it would apply in this case.
I'm also confused as to the specific circumstances of a US national who is working outside of the US in this situation (postdoc salary and fellowship are both of non-American origin). I know that they must file their taxes in any case, but that their tax payment is usually 0 due to the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion. If this researcher's salary is ~$50k/yr and the fellowship is ~$50k/yr, this puts the researcher near the exclusion limit if the fellowship is also taxable.
It would seem that if the fellowship is awarded to somebody for purposes other than obtaining a degree, the fellowship is indeed taxable. However this seems like a very undue burden for a researcher, where getting fellowships and grant funding is considered vital for their success. Am I missing something?

Fellowship funds used for personal expenses including room and board, food, etc, are taxable, just like it says in the passage you quoted.
If social security taxes, medicare, etc, is not withheld, you don't need to pay those, since it is taxable income but not taxable wages. In that way, a fellowship is treated like any other academic scholarship that includes money for living expenses, rather than like an hourly/salaried position.
See also How much are taxes for a postdoc in the United States? though that question is not specific for fellowship-based income.
Fellowships awarded to individuals that include other expenses, like research expenses, are typically granted to the institution not to the individual, so those other expenses would not be part of your personal income even if it is an individual expenses. If they were paid to an individual, you would likely be able to deduct them as business expenses, but you would be best off working with an attorney or tax professional in that unusual situation.
If you are talking about receiving a foreign $50k fellowship in addition to a foreign $50k salary abroad, then yes indeed you are approaching limits for exclusion of foreign income but it is unlikely you will be taxed twice on the same income due to foreign tax credits for US taxes, but that is really now an issue of tax law for expats and not really related to academia specifically; that situation seems like it would be quite unusual in academia for a post doc, and although it may place a burden on a researcher, an income of $100k+ would place you in a fairly high percentile of individuals where the US government expects that there is a burden on your income to pay for the costs of society - this is true in many other countries as well.

Yes, that is good advice from @CJ59 - see also https://www.irs.gov/individuals/international-taxpayers/foreign-tax-credit for self-help, which talks about US tax credits for tax paid to foreign countries.

Re: your final point - basically, it's a 50k/yr fellowship which goes only into travel expenses or various research expenses (like supplementary equipment). Nothing is earmarked for salary (your host institute is expected to pay you). I'm applying for it because it would be great for career mobility, but the potential tax issue was giving me pause (especially since the fellowship 50k wouldn't be 'my' money at all).

@lafemmecosmique Who is providing the fellowship?

@BryanKrause it would be the International Astronomical Union (IAU).

@lafemmecosmique You can consult with the IAU or maybe someone here is familiar, but given how much their grant involves coordination with your host institution I would be very surprised if they write you a check directly: the funds will likely be going to your host institution. The same is true for grants applied for at other stages of an academic career.

Alternatively, assuming you are talking about the TGF Fellowship Programme, the IAU states "While the IAU Secretariat will administer the grant..." which might mean that they directly reimburse for expenses. Expense reimbursements are not typically taxable, but again, that's an issue for tax law not for academia.

Yes, that is the one I'm asking about. I'm a bit new at decoding the language used for these things, so that's a great catch on your part. Thank you. This possibility also makes the most sense all-around, so it's a bit of a relief. Thanks again!

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Working with PhD student instead of professor
I'm currently an undergrad, and our university has a research program that I'm taking part in. I was hoping to get the chance to work with a professor, but in reality I just worked with the professor's PhD student. In fact, throughout the whole semester, I've only met the professor once at the start of the semester. I have other friends who joined the same program under other professors, and they also shared the same experience.
Is this normal for undergrad research programs? I'm just concerned because for example if I need recommendation letters in the future, I don't think the professor knows me that well (and I don't think the PhD student is allowed to write one?)

One of several already answered: https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/123300/72855

Does this answer your question? What does it mean to do research with a phd student?

I flagged this as a duplicate. But, I will add that this kind of thing isn't normal but also isn't unheard of, as the other thread makes clear. PhD students certainly ARE allowed to write letters of recommendation. In fact, I did that for someone when I was a PhD student and he did get into the PhD program he applied for. That said, letters from professors are better as they are more able to reliably assess your research potential.

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An undergraduate said they may hire a freelancer to do their work for them. What should I do?
I, a graduate student, have started tutoring undergraduates in computer science at my university to help make ends meet. One student who inquired about my services turned me down upon hearing my rates and remarked (in writing) that they might as well just buy solutions to their projects on a particular freelancing website for that price, as their friends do.
Should I tell the professor about this student, in case he wants to review their submissions more closely? I don't have any proof that they have already cheated, but to me their exact words (which to protect my anonymity, I have chosen not to publish) and phrasing suggest strongly that they are likely to. In this question, the OP appears to have evidence to suggest that cheating has taken place already, which seems more clear-cut.

Stories like this are one of the reasons I have moved away from projects as assessments - many projects suffer the "two day crash" preparation along with the well-prepared students "helping" the ones doing a late piece of work.

-1 for "constitutes strong evidence that they are likely to". What you have is evidence that the student is aware that such services exist and are being used by others, and is aware of what the prices are.

"One student who inquired about my services turned me down upon hearing my rates and remarked (in writing) that they might as well just buy solutions to their projects" You might want to respond "And photoshopping your name onto a diploma would be even cheaper". It's bizarre that someone would think that "cheating would be cheaper" is a legitimate response. Of course it is. That's why it's cheating.

Possibly related: Is it ethical to give paid private tutorials ... for a module I am TAing?

In dubio pro reo. Evaluations of projects is already a highly subjective process. If you tell someone "Please evaluate this project, it is very likely the author cheated" they will probably give a worse grade than if simply told to evaluate the exact same project. What if the student then didn't cheat?
If your institution has no way of properly assessing a candidate, i.e., one could "buy" a degree by having external services do the work, then this is an institutional problem and you won't fix it by suggesting to a professor that one of their students may cheat.
Lastly, think about the effects your behavior has on the institutional climate. Would you like to study in an environment in which people tell professors "Arnold may be cheating, I watched him visit that freelancing website"?

There is a huge difference between “Check this particular project; the author may have cheated.” and “Check out this freelancing site; you may have a systemic cheating problem.”

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

[The student] remarked (in writing) that they might as well just buy solutions to their projects on a particular freelancing website for that price, as their friends do.

That does not sound to me like "admitting" that they "would" cheat. If I said to a prospective financial advisor, "your rates are so high I may as well just declare bankruptcy now", that does not mean that I am going to declare bankruptcy, it is merely a way to express that the advisor's services do not seem cost-effective.
Given this, I would do nothing -- you offered legitimate tutoring services and the student declined your offer. You have no compelling reason to suspect that the student will actually cheat.

I agree with this analysis of the student's (lack of) guilt.  However, the last four words of the quote outright say they have knowledge of other students cheating.

It's hard to know whether the student was making an actual claim ("I've seen others cheat") or just demonstrating superiority bias (it's easy to assume "lots of people" are cheating and that we're one of the few honest ones). Even in the former case, it is very difficult to prosecute such an indirect offense. I think OP should do nothing -- at most, they could tell the professor to watch for cheating generally, but that's not terribly helpful.

...After all, this may all be just a naive attempt to drop the price.

I chose not to publish their exact words out of fear of deanonymizing myself. (And seeing that this question reached HNQ - yikes! - I am glad I did this) I am quite sure this student is willing to cheat, particularly given their phrasing regarding their friends.

You need to find and read your University's honor policy.
Assuming that:

It makes cheating an offense
It requires reporting violations of the policy

then it puts a reporting burden on the student who knows of cheating to report it, and either (a) they did report it (to you), which you need to relay or (b) their failure to report it is a violation which you know about, making you responsible to report that.  Yuck!
As a graduate student, the best thing to do is to just kick this up the chain.  Do not tell the professor that the student you met with is cheating, or tried to cheat, or is likely to cheat.  Stick to the facts that they told you cheating was going on but you don't know the details.
The professor has a lot more latitude to stop the process at that point, perhaps by making a point during the next class to inform students that cheating has not gone unnoticed and needs to stop immediately.  You can even make a suggestion to not drag the student in for questioning.  The professor has (probably) the authority to make that decision; you do not.

Note that while you may feel that reporting is not ethically required, the correct way to fight back against such a policy is to tell your school you think (2) is unjust, not to go around disregarding it.

Very much this. "Stick to the facts that they told you cheating was going on but you don't know the details.". Naked facts without any interpretation, suspicion or blame. Especially without blaming student who was just seeking legitimate tutor and not cheating, at least not yet.

Good answer. -- Note about the facts: You seem to have heard cheating was going on, but perhaps it is not really.

You're actually bringing up two separate possible things to do:

Telling on the specific student, and
Discussing the general situation of students buying intended project outputs online.

I suggest you pursue the second action with the Professor, without incriminating the person who gave you the tip (i.e. without the first item).
As for what to do about this problem - that's a matter for another question.

Fully agree, also keep in mind that if you DON'T bring this to the professors attention, you actually disadvantage all the other students (including the ones that you are helping).

I think it's clear the students motivation for this comment could have been too stress you are charging to much. I think he would be well within reason to be upset by you earmarking him for cheating.

I would agree with this opinion and add that freelancing as tutor while course TA is itself a conflict of interest. If tutor T who failed to sell services to/get respect from student S, reports S for possibly cheating in his capacity as a course TA without good evidence, another way to view this is that teaching assistant T may have retaliated against student S over an unrelated commercial or personal matter.  T appears to have used their trusted university position to settle a personal score. T may also have slandered S.  That's enough for lots of nasty things to begin to happen.

@Paul, Agreed, perhaps I overstated 'clear' but I don't see away through this that doesn't run into those issues.

First, I'll guess that the prof already recognizes the possibility.
Second, if you have a contractual obligation to the student you need to honor it. I doubt that is the case here since you were turned down. But you can't, ethically, act against the interests of your clients. You can, of course, back out of a client relationship if you think the client is abusing it or otherwise acting unethically.
Don't interpret the above to imply that you must do what the client wants you to do if it is unethical. Some relationships are governed by law, but those laws, i think, just try to codify what good ethics suggests. Lawyer-client relationships for example have legal constraints.
But even in the case you have such an obligation, you still could inform the prof that you have some evidence that such cheating is being contemplated. If asked by who, you may need to decline to answer. In particular, naming a student may well be very unfair as the student might just have been expressing frustration out loud, with no intent to break the rules.
If the prof is a bit naive, you can inform him/her about the likely web-sites that enable such things. But it is the professors responsibility to "police" the class.

No, you shouldn't tell the professor about this student. He hasn't done anything except telling you that some other students cheat.
Instead, you could approach the university and report that you have second-hand knowledge about students cheating by hiring freelancers to do their work. However, don't expect that anyone will be thankful for your service. It's safe to assume that this is no well-kept secret. There are probably plenty of students - not only your potential customer - who know at least as much as you do. If they choose to stay silent, why should you interfere? They are the victims who have to work more, while others obtain undeservedly good marks.

Interesting perspective, however, do consider that not alerting the professor may be harmful to the honest students (they are indeed victims of this fraud) who might not dare to alert the professor due to the risk to their image.

@Jaheruddin: Yes, that's why I would leave the choice of action at the discretion of the OP. Ultimately, I think that the professors would be alerted quickly - at least anonymously - of the cheating, once it is perceived as a major issue. At first, other students wouldn't do anything because of friendships, perceived breach of confidentiality, pity etc., even if they disapprove.

I would probably forward the email on to the professor and let him make the judgement call. It sounds like this particular student doesn't want to cheat and may do the work on their own but does appear to know that cheating is taking place (potentially on a pretty wide scale) in the class. I think it would be good for the professor to know this. If the professor applies a stricter measure of analysis to all projects to detect cheating, it is still fair to those who didn't cheat. If you really don't think the student should be mentioned explicitly, it may be appropriate to anonymize the email, but I don't really think that is necessary.


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PhD application: Writing summary of accomplishments
[I am too much afraid to ask this question becuase I think most of you will say that I am too stupid to understand meaning of "Summary of Accomplishments".]
So, I am applying for a PhD position which is asking for "Summary of Accomplishments" letter. What things should be included in it?
Is it about my accomplishments other than my research work or research work itself is an accomplishment? I was teacher assistant in many courses, it is an accomplishment? Should it be written in a list form or in a paragraph form?
In short, what does "accomplishments" mean when PhD hiring committee ask for it?
I am asking this question here becuase I could not find any appropriate answer from Google.

I would advocate writing in proper sentences rather than a bullet point list in any formal writing.

In making any kind of application, applicants typically know what they want and why, whether the application is for admission to a
program, for research support, or for a job.
However, in making this application (or others later), you should consider
the reasons the program (funding agency, or employer) would want to select
you. Then, within the bounds of reasonable modesty, you must go about the task of
satisfying them as much as possible as to each of those reasons.
Specifically, what reasons might the PhD program to which you are applying
have for accepting an applicant? Here are a few fairly obvious items. You
may have information about your field or the specific program that would
generate more items. But it is crucial for you to think about this application from
their point of view.
(1) They want to be sure you have the necessary native ability, background
in the field, and perseverance to do the work to finish your PhD in a reasonable
length of time. Of course, they are allowed hope you will do important publishable research that will enhance the reputation of their program. So you should mention anything that involves success in your previous studies
or allied intellectual pursuits. (@JaganMohan has listed some items.)
(2) Possibly they will be guaranteeing you some financial support. This may
involve your being a teaching assistant (eventually possibly lecturer) or a
research assistant. So you should mention any work you have done reading student
homework or exams, any work helping students (US 'tutoring'), any proficiencies
for literature searches for research projects, experience using relevant lab equipment, and anything that gives evidence of relevant computer or programming skills.
(3) Work toward a PhD is not for everyone who does reasonably well as a BS or MS
student. Not everyone stays with it. They are limited as to how many people
they can admit, and they'd prefer to admit people who can stand stiff competition, can successfully manage a demanding workload, and who do not
get panicky or discouraged the first time things go wrong. So, mention of
nonacademic jobs you did to help with expenses, and any long term projects you have finished (even if not exactly in your field).
It is probably best not to speak directly to their motivations. They know what
they are looking for without your instruction. Simply give them information that will allow them to be satisfied on each point. Just lists of facts, don't exaggerate or psychoanalyze
yourself. If something seems too much like bragging (especially something difficult to document), maybe one of your references can do the bragging for you.

Accomplishments that most potential employees, guides, student application reviewers, etc are looking for are positions, rewards, recognitions, etc that indicate achievements and are demonstrative of work culture, personal capability of setting and achieving goals, intellectual level, skill development, attitude and knowledge, specialization, tenacity, continuity, etc.
The rough rule of thumb is that 'anything won in a competition is an accomplishment'.
Accomplishment is also attainment of certain position or degree or diploma or certification gained through some labour, study, test or recognition.
Hope this helps.


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What are potential PhD funding sources for international students in UK?
There are several answers available on Academia but all of them are 4 to 5 years old. That is why I am re-asking this question.
I was looking for a PhD in UK and contacted a professor of my interest. He's agree to take me but he said he doesn't have funding.
I searched over internet for potential funding sources but I could not find the one which is completely covering all of the expenses. There is one studentship available but it will only cover fee at home/EU rates, which are much less than international rates. Moreover, I can't apply for commonwealth scholarship.
What are other potential PhD funding sources?
Edit:
The field of study is physical sciences, physics to be exact.

Most universities in the Russell Group provide a scholarship for PhD students in natural and mathematical sciences. Nevertheless, they tend to be very competitive, and, for obvious reasons, there is preference to UK and EU students. Usually, a professor/lecturer writes a project, and if it is approved by the department, a PhD student can be fully funded. It may be the case that your potential supervisor does not want to do this as it is time demanding or the project is not a priority in his/her agenda.

Another way of finding a fully funded PhD studentship is to look for projects that fund an international PhD student. These tend to be less restrictive in terms of your nationality. You can find hundreds of opportunities at https://www.findaphd.com/

In the UK, PhD students in sciences are largely supported via EPSRC CDT scheme. Many Universities have Centers for Doctoral Training, providing scholarships for PhD students in a specific area of research. You can check the list of centers on the website and contact Universities directly. You can also take a look at PhD posts advertises on jobs.ac.uk website.

While it is true that the CDT programmes do accept international students as well, it is worth noting that typically (well, at least in the CDT run at my Uni), the number of international positions is substantially smaller (making those positions more competitive) than the number of positions for home students.


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Academic prizes and awards vs academic achievements
What do PhD scholarship application forms mean by "Details of academic prizes and awards" and "Details of academic achievements"?
Are not academic prizes and academic achievements same things?

Have a look at https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/120874/72855

First note that "achievement" isn't an exactly-defined term and is at least somewhat subjective.

Academic achievement: An act or process which, when concluded, expands human knowledge or understanding of some subject by means of (academic) research; or alternatively, disseminates or improves in the dissemination of such knowledge in an academic context (e.g. via teaching). In some context this may also mean achievements in studying some academic subject matter yourself.
Academic awards: Awards given in academia or by academia, for academic activity (supposedly).

There is obviously some overlap between the two terms ("achievements" vs "prizes and awards"); awards are usually given to recognize or encourage academic achievements, or to compensate for the travail of making those achievements.
Example:

Presenting a research paper in a well-regarded conference is an achievement.
Your paper being recognized as the "best paper" for that conference is a borderline-achievement.
The "best paper" is an award (possibly including some money, gift or other perk).


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I am so stuck in the second year of my PhD. Should I leave?
I started my Ph.D. in September 2019 from University-X under the supervision of Prof-A. The sole reason for me to start a Ph.D. under the supervision of this professor was that I was (still am) very excited to work in this research field.
In August 2019, when I had rejected all the other Ph.D. offers, Prof-A told me that he's planning to leave University-X in June 2020. He said he's not sure if he will leave or not, but he's just planning. He said that even if he leaves University-X, we will find a way to work together. I decided to join University-X because I really wanted to work with this professor, and also I thought maybe Prof-A will not leave this university.
In December 2019, Prof-A went to another university on sabbatical. In March (or April) 2020, he told me that there is a good chance that he will not come back to University-X. He gave me three choices,

I find any other supervisor at University-X
I work with him remotely (Skype/Zoom)
I apply for any other Ph.D. position (including to his new university)

Option (1) is a clear no-go zone for me because there is no one else working on something related to my interests. I didn't choose Option (3) because I didn't want to leave this professor given that I had Option (2). I tried to find funding for a Ph.D. position at his new university but we couldn't find any appropriate source. All in all, Prof-A and I talked with another professor (Prof-B) at University-X and told him to take me as his student in official papers, however, my research supervisor will be Prof-A. Now, I am an official student of Prof-B but I do research under the supervision of Prof-A. (Pretty messed up!)
For the one last year, I am working remotely with Prof-A. We used to have one Skype meeting every 2 weeks until December 2020. Then I went on vacation for one month (yearly leave). Since my return in January 2021, I had only two meetings with Prof-A.  The last meeting was on 19 March 2021. My work is completely stopped. I sent him some results but no reply to my emails. I am not able to find any help from any other professor at this university. I feel like I am just wasting my time here.
In my perspective, this guy, Prof-A is a really very nice person but I guess he's just too busy with his own projects and students at his new university. I don't blame him for anything
Now, finally, I am planning to leave this university and this professor, and search for another Ph.D. position. Is it a good plan? If yes, how should I tell everything to Prof-A and Prof-B? Of course, I will need recommendation letters from Prof-A and Prof-B. Also, I will have to give a justification for leaving this Ph.D. to find a new Ph.D. How should I write all this in my motivation letter/SOP for a new Ph.D.? Is it even possible to find a new Ph.D. after leaving one? Is not it a very bad point that the student could not complete what he was offered? I am so much confused.
(I am 27Y old now. My father really wanted me to get my Ph.D. before my 30, but I think now that's not possible.)
Update:
After @Lewian answer, I sent another email to Prof-A asking for more time. He said that he's willing to give more time but it's just that he's currently very busy with his kids (due to covid, schools are giving online classes and Prof-A helps his kids), and the new research projects that he started at his new University. It has been two weeks since I got this reply from him. And 3 months since I got any comments about my research update. The more days are passing, the more I am disliking myself and this University-X. I am expected to defend my PhD proposal by the end of this Summer semester (July 2021). I have put everything together, but I am not sure if the things that I am proposing are worth trying or doable.
(my field of study is theoretical/computational condensed matter physics. my focus is on transport properties of exotic magnetic phases)

Did you explicitly tell your Prof-A that you need more meetings and feel stuck? Why is your "work completely stopped"? Don't you have anything reasonable to do without regular input from your professor? Working on a PhD requires some ability to work independently.

@Lewian No. I have not told him explicitly that I need more meetings. However, I have told him that I feel like I'm going very slow and that it works great with me if I get time to time assurance that I am going in the right direction. Yes, I've started a new project all by myself, but I am not sure if I am going in the right direction or not. I am not sure if the idea is worth trying or not, I had plans to discuss it but I don't get more time with Prof-A.

What field is this. In some, option 2 is fine. In others, not so much.

Regarding your final sentence, what do you want to do?

So is there a weekly meeting on the calendar with the professor or not? He said he was willing... did you get it booked? Did you suggest dates/times and ask which is best for him?

"Now, I am an official student of Prof-B but I do research under the supervision of Prof-A. (Pretty messed up!)"  Why is this messed up?  I know several people who have done that and had it go well.

I suggest first to ask your Prof-A explicitly for more meetings, particularly also for a time and date for the next one at the end of the previous meeting. Maybe Prof-A doesn't realise that you are in some kind of "crisis". You should also tell them clearly that you feel stuck and that something needs to happen to get you back on track. All else I'd let depend on how that goes.
As a supervisor I'll normally do meetings with students when they ask. If I haven't heard from them for some time I will try to find out what's going on, however professors are usually busy and may not necessarily chase up students who don't care for themselves. Your Prof-A may just believe, somewhat conveniently for them, that all is fine, unless you tell them explicitly otherwise.

I agree with this answer, and I'd even suggest asking Prof. A to set up a regularly scheduled skype/zoom meeting (rather than scheduling everything one meeting at a time). I usually meet with my Ph.D. students once a week unless there's a specific reason not to. You might not need to meet that often, but try to set up regular meetings at a reasonable frequency.

Thank you for your time. I will talk with my professor explicitly and see how things unfold

@Lewian I have written the update of my problem in question. Could you please have a look at it and give your suggestions what should I do?

Have you explicitly asked for a meeting (maybe even regular ones as suggested in another comment)? Have you explicitly told him that you feel that you are stuck and need some input and feedback urgently? Obviously sending emails back and forth isn't any good as long as you don't fix a meeting, so you have to write your email in such a way that this happens. You can even propose a meeting time (or better, a range of possible meeting times) and see what he says.


text:
Does performing a statistical analysis for a biologist warrant authorship?
I have a question, regarding authorship in a publication.
A colleague of mine who is a biologist (from a different group) received the second revision of her/his paper and in the revision it's been asked to do Anova in order to illustrate the significant change between 4 groups.
I'm saying a colleague not a friend! and also they may come more and more in the future.
I don't want to sound like a cheeky person, but have no idea whether if I do it I should be included in the paper or I should just do it as if I'm doing it for a so called friend!
Should I be at least included in the acknowledgement, or?
I have no access to my boss to consult this with him. I would appreciate your help to make this point clear to me.
Thanks!

No, the other one is about statistical consultant. I have to do analysis although small one. but they have no clue about Anova, just the reviewer asked for it.

but thanks anyway, it was a helpful comment!

You are acting as a statistical consultant for your friend. Your motivations (being paid for it, or doing out of kindness towards your friend) are, in my opinion, irrelevant when deciding authorship.

Ok, you are right, then I do it for my friend.

What is relevant is the importance of the creative work that went into the paper. Just doing an ANOVA analysis of existing data isn't, helping to design the experiments and analysing the results might be. In any case, we here aren't privy to the detailed knowledge of your contribution to say one way or the other, that is up to the main author(s) to decide.

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


text:
Is it legal/possible to apply for a patent based on an already published/submitted journal article?
I want to apply for two patents.
The first one is based on a journal article (obviously written by me) which is published a few months before.
My first question is: Is it legal/possible to apply for a patent based on an already published journal article? Is it a kind of self-plagiarism?
The second patent application which I am currently writing is based on a manuscript which I am planning to submit to a journal soon.
So, my second question is: Will it be a problem if I submit both the patent application and the manuscript to a journal at the same time? Should I write this to the journal editor?
My third question is: Is it unethical to keep the diagrams in the paper and patent almost the same?

You need to talk to a patent lawyer quickly.  In many countries, you have to get (or at least apply for) your patent before publishing anything about it, so it may already be too late for the first one.  In the US I believe you can get your patent up to one year after publishing, so that clock is ticking.

Self-plagiarism is not the issue. The patent documents an invention. It is not a creative work itself. You could just stick a cover letter on your paper and submit that, in theory (as a provisional patent anyway). In practice, everyone says a patent that is not carefully written by a lawyer will be worthless. Lawyers especially tend to say this. However, different countries have different rules regarding copyright on the images used. So you may not want to reuse them if you transferred the copyright to a journal.
Patents are required to be both non-obvious and novel. Your own publication can count as "prior art" proving your patent is no longer novel. This is also called a public disclosure, which usually means publishing or offering it for sale to others. Different countries have different laws regarding when you can patent something that has been publicly disclosed. The US gives you a year after publication. Many other countries give you no time; the idea can't be patented there after disclosure. Applying and submitting at the same time may work but you're right on the line there, so need to be careful in other countries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_disclosure

also, patent laws vary by the country you invented and/or the country you are filing in. there are different patent law jurisdictions: national, PCT etc. The issue of filing for a patent starts with a priority date. Without knowing what country you want to focus on, it would be pretty difficult to give suggestions. But, why not engage a patent attorney in your country at this moment without any further delay?
In the U.S., a provisional patent gives you 12 months of time before a patent application is required, and you can abandon the process before you incur the large expense of the patent application if you think it will not work out. But you also have 12 months of time to claim priority providing some criteria are met.

This is why you don't write all the clever implementation details you have come up with in the paper you submit. If no new "inventive step" is added in patent then a previous publication describing everything in the patent counts as "prior art" which would reject the application.

You would usually not have enough space in a paper (at least not a page-limited conference paper anyway) to describe all the clever implementation details you come up with on the journey. The patent is the right place for those clever details.


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Hostile interview process feedback-- what should I have done?
I applied to a TT faculty job and got interviewed for a joint position between Computer Science and Education departments. The on campus interview started off well, with the CS people being very welcoming. However, when I went to meet with the Education department, everyone was too busy to meet and I waited in an empty room. Afterwards, I went to talk to the Dean, who was very nice but wanted to ask if I'd teach introductory CS classes and talk about course load. I said I'd teach that, but I'd prefer to teach CS design classes.  In any case, that seemed to go okay.
When I got home, I got 3 emails that said I was out of the running (from the search committee head and through his assistant). However, when I sent an email saying thank you for the consideration, I got an email back from him that said I was still in the running and that the consolation email was sent in error.  It just sounded like the Education department didn't want me, and they had some rogue person who was sabotaging my candidacy.  I bowed out of the running-- it seemed hostile.
Should I have tried to stay in the running, despite feeling like half of the hiring department did not want me?

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

You said it was a joint appointment. Not because of the email but because of the lack of people at the Education department meeting-- I don't think you would have gotten the job no matter what you did.
In future, you could have waited it out, but I don't think you harmed anything by leaving the process early.  It sounds like half the hiring people wanted you, but the other half didn't. The email was probably just a mistake.
To sum up, you couldn't have done anything to change the people not showing up or the email mistake.  Sending nice emails to people you did meet with might improve your chances for a future appointment.

Thank you for the feedback.  I have since met some of the interviewers and they are cordial.  I think they still respect me and the CS department is still a potential employer.


text:
What career can a master student take?
So I normally see master graduate student apply for a position as a lecturer.
Is there any other career that is available for a master (science) student asides from lecturer? Which is for computer science students

In what area? A lot of my Master colleagues in Computer Science are working in software development companies of all types: private, public, government, etc... So, I would say that "go to the industry" is always a viable option, whatever area you are referring.

For a career in academia you basically need a doctorate. There are jobs for secondary school teachers and low level jobs at university. The secondary school positions are actually better than the low-level university positions, in most cases, however. Many places require additional certification for high school jobs, of course.
Most people who earn an MS/MA either go on for more learning or head to industry/government where there are positions available. If you want to do research but without a doctorate, the best place is in some industry lab or (for CS) a software development company. The research will be pretty applied, however.

Go to your local jobs portal and search for "master" + "[insert name of your field]". You'll find more answers there than you can here, and those results are tailored for you as well.
For example, suppose I'm in Indiana, USA and have a Masters in computer science. Performing this search on Indeed.com yields jobs like this one. Look through the list and see what's out there for you.


text:
Recommendation Letters with Research Professors
I've been working on a research project this past few months under a professor's lab, but I've been mostly working with the professor's PhD students and other research assistants. I don't really meet the professor and have only talked to him basically once (at the start of the entire project). Is it a good idea to ask for a letter of recommendation from that professor? He's familiar with the overall output of our work, but he doesn't really know me on a personal level.

You can and should ask, but you could first ask them if they know you and your work well enough to write you a good letter. If not, ask them for advice.
I assume that the prof will probably ask the RAs who know you best for advice on the letter, so make sure you have a solid reputation with them, as well.
It isn't especially important that they know you on a personal level, but they need to be able to speak positively about your work and your likelihood of success.


text:
What if you can't publish in very high impact journal or top conference during your PhD?
I am a year 2 PhD student doing my research in the area of time series analysis. Since year 1, I'm always aiming to publish in high impact factor journal (Impact factor >= 7) or top conferences, maybe due to the fact that my university is not a top 10 university in the world and I do not want anyone to belittle what I have done for my PhD.
Not sure if its stress, I got to the point where I'm kinda paranoid thinking if I can't publish in such top venues then my PhD is practically a fail. I want to ask if this kind of thinking is correct? How will my PhD be valued if I cannot publish in top conferences or high impact factor journal?
Sorry for any grammar mistakes, and I really appreciate any advice given.

Closely related: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11765/ive-somehow-convinced-everyone-that-im-actually-good-at-this-how-to-effect

Impact factors are a hugely flawed metric. Some people still pay attention to them, which can't be helped, but it's best to focus on doing good, worthwhile, research, and then publishing in the most appropriate venue for that work.

The goal of a Ph.D. is to learn to be an effective scientific researcher.  If you accomplish that during your Ph.D., then you will have been successful.
Moreover, early in one's career, high-rank publications don't actually correlate strongly with being an effective researcher.  They're much more about happening to be in the right research group at the right time with the right guidance.
Now, if things line up for you and it happens that your Ph.D. also generates some high-rank publications during that time, it will make your next stage easier, but it is by no means necessary.
Remember:

Most post-Ph.D. careers do not require high-rank publications.  Highly focused fields, industry, teaching-centric colleges, and many other areas will care about the solidity of your work much more than its glamour.
Interesting work often takes a long time to mature, and important work often shows up in high-rank venues only after it has been incubating in multiple publications in "bread and butter" venues over the course of years.
If you do want a career that will be boosted by high-rank publications, one or more postdocs are an excellent period to obtain such. They also let you demonstrate that you are the important factor, and that it's not just that you happened to get lucky in your Ph.D. subject and advisor.

In short: stop worrying and instead just focus on doing something interesting and worthwhile with the work you're doing now.

"high-rank publications don't actually correlate strongly with being an effective researcher." - citation needed. I get the idea, but in my experience this is not correct.

@Behacad There's likely some field dependence, and I didn't say it's not correlated, just that it's not strongly correlated.

@Behacad jakebeal used enough hedge words that the statement must be true - not necessarily useful, actionable, or meaningful - but it must be true.  No citation needed.

@jakebeal "high-rank publications don't actually correlate strongly with being an effective researcher" - citation needed. Or at least some support for this. Or get rid of it. It is useless, wrong, or unsupported.

@Behacad You seem to be overlooking the key phrase "early in one's career." For somebody who's 10 years into their career, absolutely publications are indicative.  For a new Ph.D., all I really know is that you aren't incompetent: but are you actually really good, or is it just your advisor and your timing?

@jakebeal To publish in a top-tier journal you need to be intelligent, organized, not a perfectionist or a procrastinator. In addition, you need to excel enough to join a lab that has money and heavy hitters in the first place. Very few people publish in high-end journals. I think it is silly to say those things are not correlated with being an effective researcher. We can't say the magnitude of the effect, but you're commenting on that without any evidence.

I said "not correlated" but meant "not strongly correlated". Doesn't matter in the end. Both statements are without evidence.

Publications are important but not essential. Yes, peer-reviewed articles in higher ranking journals in your field matters in many fields. However, publications should not be seen as the only worthy outcome of your PhD. Many PhDs do not lead to publications but are still very worthwhile. Many fields do not focus on high impact journals, especially fields that are new  with no established journal structures. Having a PhD in an up and coming field likely lead to high ranking articles later on. It may be harder to produce work in a parent field that may not be as supportive but persisting with the PhD to develop the field is still very worthwhile. A PhD will play an important role in establishing you in a moving field.
To see yourself as a failure without a high-impact article is setting yourself up for depression and ongoing anxiety. Fields such as the creative fields do not produce journal articles for example. Fields such as performing arts or fine arts where expression and setting fits better than traditional biblometric measures in other fields. Your environment and networks matter too. So if your institution does not have a track-record of producing research in high impact journals, then you have an unreasonable expectation. Your expectation and pressure to publish may not have the infrastructure during your time during your PhD. However, you have a longer term plan, you can set yourself up well for future collaboration that can lead to such publications.
Consider also whether your PhD is vocationally focused, ie. training you for a profession rather than just being research focused. Many PhDs are an entry way into various professions. For example, a PhD in data science would be highly valued in the current job market, even if you do not produce high impact articles. To expect a high-impact article from a PhD that is focused on professional training would unnecessarily discount the worthiness of your PhD.

"Many PhDs do not lead to publications and are still very worthwhile." I what fields would that be. In the fields I know not getting any publications normally equals not getting your PhD.

You are right. In many fields publications are just about a requirement for a PhD. But many fields it is not, as I said in my answer, the creative fields, new fields where there are no established journals can make it harder to publish. But a strong PhD can help establish an area of investigation.

In the UK, at least in physics, there is no requirement for a publication in order to be awarded a PhD. That is pretty consistent across all universities. This needs a country tag.

Publication requirements do not relate to countries but rather to disciplines or broader fields. I can't think of any case where countries regulate or have an opinion about publications. Country tags therefore may overgeneralize and may lead to stigmatization as well.

@Poidah What are "the creative fields"?

@jakebeal - there was a link to a website that discusses this - https://www.chronicle.com/article/Which-Publications-Matter-at/247192  - so the fine and performing arts do not have high-impact journal articles at their measure of status. That would be inappropriate.

@Poidah Can you please edit your answer to make it clear that these are the fields that you are referring to?  Most fields consider themselves "creative" in some sense.  Your comment above about "new fields" also doesn't make sense to me, as in my experience new fields don't emerge from nowhere, but have "parent fields" whose venues they can publish in.

Good point jakebeal. Sorry I didn't realise the distinction and have just been focused on the article. I have been discussing Manya's article on Facebook and other forums so I didn't really appreciate the perspective in this SE.

tl;dr: Disseminating results is a long process which you're pursuing.

I can't publish in such top venues then my PhD is practically a fail.

You should think of publication in these venues as means, not an end, nor a criterion for success. Your success would be partly inherent - having achieved objectively-significant result (well, of course there's the question of what's objectively significant, but let's assume you're self-criticial enough to judge that); and partly through the dissemination and impact of your results on other researchers and in practical applications. It is your job as a researcher - and forget about that stupid Ph.D. - to disseminate your work. If you got it into respectable and well-attended/followed conferences or journals - you've gone a long way in that direction; if not, you'll need to work harder to interest other people in it. That could be by: Talking to other researchers about your work; publishing follow-up work that links your results to something fashionable, or is just another go at a decent publication venue; looking for collaboration opportunities on implementing your results; writing software, or a book, or creating a physical model or what-not, of your work - and exhibiting that somehow; giving non-official talks  (e.g. at colloquia) when visiting research groups and institutions, about your results; and so on.

TL;DR - your PhD is a means, not an end, so it's a fail only depending on what you aim to achieve by it. Focus on the research, the rest will follow.

if I can't publish in such top venues then my PhD is practically a fail.

This really depends on what you're trying to get out of it. If you are seeking to land a position in a top university then yes - you will most likely not be able to achieve this goal if you don't publish in top venues. That does not mean that your PhD will be a 'fail'. From a strict academic perspective - hiring committees/potential postdoc advisors look for your potential to make an impact. The main signal for that is publications. But how many and what kind varies widely. I have seen hiring committees prefer a candidate with one or two big publications over one with 4-5 mediocre ones (which to me makes sense, but to others it may not).

How will my PhD be valued if I cannot publish in top conferences or high impact factor journal?

The honest truth is that if you are not able to show capacity for publishing in good venues, it will not reflect well on you. However it is not the end of the world. You can still successfully graduate if you publish in other venues and your manuscripts are interesting. However, the burden of proof will be on you - you'll need to show how your work matters and why it is good. This is much harder to show than simply neatly stating your top-tier publications.

The first question that you need to ask yourself is ‘What do I want to do with my PhD when I get it?’ In general, there are three grand schemes that you might want to fall into:

Get a PhD for prestige.
In that case, you want to make sure that you actually keep it (i.e. don’t follow the example of quite a number of German politicians); everything else doesn’t matter.
Get a PhD to enter certain industry positions.
In this case, while the contents of your PhD will matter (at least in part), the more important aspect for getting hired and salary negotiation is what you can actually do. You might have spent five years exhausting experimental options that didn’t lead to anything publishable because the hypotheses turned out wrong or unhelpful. But you still have your five years of experimentation, research, data analysis and so on.
I keep getting told that hiring departments don’t care about a publication list at all, they only care about skills, tasks and a quick description of results in your CV.
Get a PhD to pursue an academic career.
This is the only area where no publications during PhD may cause issues – if they even do. For example, a number of (if not all) postdoctoral funding programmes will require a list of publications and sometimes a set of key publications. However, a thesis is a publication by default, so that can be entered and in the absence of other publications the thesis will be evaluated accordingly.
During your postdoctoral research phase, you will most likely change group and have a chance to work on new projects that might give a better output. Or you might find that your successors in your PhD group complete a project after you left so that can be submitted as a publication with (also) your name on it after your departure. Thus, no publications during PhD does not mean you’ve lost the game – yet. If your postdoctoral period also remains low on publications it might be time to start considering alternative career paths. (It should be pointed out that the vast majority of PhD’s will never be able to successfully pursue an academic career as there are far fewer professor positions available than PhD positions.)

Disclaimer: this answer was written by someone on their second postdoc position with no publications (although a total of three from previous groups are ‘in preparation’).

Disagree with this outlook. The title should not be the object of attention; the work should. The title should be considered merely as a formal recognition of you having conducted worthy research.

@einpoklum If you’re planning on going into academia, sure. The other two options he mentioned might have other criteria for a successful PhD.

@einpoklum I agree with you on what should be the case but I also note that especially in Germany a number of politicians have submitted very academically uninteresting dissertations to receive the prestigeous Dr in front of their name. At the beginning of this decade, these came under scrutiny by various wiki projects beginning with the possibly most prominent case of Guttenberg. It led to the curiosity of a former federal minister for research losing their PhD and because she never completed her diploma she was without title.


text:
Are non-computer science PhD students using ML/AI techniques expected to publish in top CS conferences like NIPS/ICML?
I am a second-year Ph.D. student where my topic is focus in the domain of civil engineering. However, I am also utilizing several machine learning/artificial intelligence in my application to achieve my end goals. While I understand that publishing in top computer science conferences such as NIPS, ICML is definitely a plus to my resume and achievement, I'm wondering will it be out of my research focus? From what I understand those paper submitted there are focused on producing theoretical contribution in the computer science domain and it would take quite some time to produce such contribution and I feel like I will drift away from my research topic. I'm asking this as I'm sort of being forced to submit there (aka supervisor pressure).
Any suggestion?

Not contributing to the actual issue (which is a mismatch between expectations), but "Applications" (in contrast to theoretical contributions) is an explicitly stated subject area at NeurIPS.

Most conferences in any field are looking to present advances in that field. This is usually called novelty. If you are using standard techniques in AI/ML in your work then it may not be seen as very interesting to CS folk, unless the application is, itself, somehow, novel. The standard for that will be fairly high.
So, ask yourself where is the novelty in your work and publish/present in journals/conferences in that field.
But the bar for submission is low and it will be reviewers who make the judgement about suitability. So, if you want to do a trial submission, to see how your work is judged, you are free to do so, making your advisor happy. But, I agree that your general research trajectory is more important.


text:
Post doc position but requirement in notification states masters
I recently interviewed for a post-doc position from a European country. The interview was a result of a cold mail I sent many months back to a professor. They replied back stating that a position is available and would I like to interview. After the interview, I was told that I am the preferred candidate and I would have to apply on the official portal.
Once the official notification came I was intrigued by the title of the advertisement as "Post Master's degree to carry research activities". The annexure too mentioned that I need to supply my MTech (Masters) degree. However, the application asks to enclose my PhD degree too. On inquiring from the professor about this, the reply was that Masters is the minimum required for the application process, and I will be awarded extra points for the PhD.
My question is, is this practice normal? If I take up this position, will the certificate post completion of this term equivalent to a post-doctoral experience?

Two possibilities (of many): (1) the funding is not specific to a "post doctoral" applicant, but the professor wants someone with a PhD who will get more done. (2) the professor has found that their HR department throws out post-doctoral applicants who have not yet gotten their PhD awarded (but will before signing on) because the applicants "don't meet requirements" (that is, HR doesn't understand).

And, I've never heard of getting a "certificate" for completion of a postdoc, and have never given one to one of my postdocs. The "certificate" is they get a real job...

@JonCuster Another "certificate" is your letter of recommendation.

@AndreasBlass - perhaps a regional language variation, but I've never seen that equivalence in American English.

I never heard one getting post doc solely on the basis of masters. Can you share the link where you found such information?

What is an "annexure," and do you have a PhD?

This situation seems "normal" insofar as there is usually a gap between the actual academic hiring criteria and the official university hiring process.
For example, one of my former university employers couldn't legally hire anyone who didn't meet the minimum job requirements, so that section would often be very basic ("speaks a language, has a degree in a semi-related field") to avoid losing applicants on a technicality. The formal job adverts were based on a HR template for legal reasons, which is why there could be a pretty steep tonal dissonance between the scientific project sections and everything else. I wouldn't read too much into the formal job title, or the exact phrasing of specific document requests.
It is normal for them to ask for all of your relevant degrees and work experience. Those impact both your qualifications for the job, and later on your actual postdoc salary (assuming your new country has some collective bargaining/standardized salary scale for postdocs, which is common).
I have no idea what a "certificate" for a postdoc is- for legal/cultural/language reasons, your job title might be slightly different than just "postdoc" (e.g. "post-doctoral research assistant", "scientific project worker (with doctoral degree)"). This depends on the country, but should be considered equivalent in the proper context.


text:
“Tables 1 and 2” or “Table 1 and 2”
In an academic thesis would you rather use "tables 1 and table 2" than "table 1 and 2"?

"Tables" because there are two of them.

English Language Learners SE is better for this question. VTC.

Either “tables 1 and 2” or “table 1 and table 2” would be correct.


text:
Is it considered normal to publish job offers inviting candidates to apply based on their gender and/or race in academia?
I was browsing PhD position offers in Europe on different websites and I was quite surprised to find that several offers contained sentences such as

University of X value equality and diversity. We strongly encourage women and BAME applicants for this position.

where BAME stands for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnicities; or

The research group aims to increase the number of women in scientific positions. Female candidates are therefore encouraged to apply.

Is it considered normal in the academic environment to discriminate between  candidates according to their race and/or gender for "egalitarian" reasons?
How is the choice of a candidate based on their gender and/or race considered "egalitarian"?

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat. Further comments are subject to deletion.

These statements, in many variations are quite common. But they are not discriminatory, as you suggest (universities do not "discriminate against white males"). All the statement is saying -- and that is true in actual practice in the discussions of hiring committees -- is that women and other minorities are specifically encouraged to apply. This does not imply that they get special treatment or preference. It is simply a reaction to the fact (statistically proven by research) that women rarely apply for jobs that they do not perceive as a "perfect fit" whereas men do. So if a committee has a bunch of applicants where none is a perfect fit, more often than not a man is hired because there simply are not enough women in the pool.
See: Why Women Don’t Apply for Jobs Unless They’re 100% Qualified.

I do want to also comment on one of your comments while we're here. You state

I think job offers should only focus on the candidate's skills regardless of his background and gender.

That is true, but how do you define "skills"? Let's use "qualification" instead. If you're, say, a typical math department where 50% of undergraduates are women, 35% of graduate students are women, but only 20% of tenure-track faculty are women, wouldn't part of the qualifications you are looking for in an applicant be that that person is a good mentor to many of the students in your department? Does it not diminish the quality of the department in its ability to teach and mentor if every single faculty was a white male? It is important to recognize that the role of the faculty extends beyond just writing papers in obscure journals; "qualification" is a term that ought to be understood much more broadly than you may think.
(I think it's important to say that the role of women in math departments is not to be there as mentors. All I want to say is that I want diversity to be part of the many considerations when deciding who is "best qualified" for a job.)

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat. Further comments are subject to deletion.

The chat page has a fair number of comments that claim that males are discriminated against in academia. Here is a counterpoint with actual evidence: https://www.wired.com/story/why-men-dont-believe-the-data-on-gender-bias-in-science/

You have asked three very distinct questions (one in the title of the question and two in the body). I have done my best to answer them in the most factual and literal way possible.
Disclaimer: I am commenting about your questions regarding whether certain things are "normal". None of what I write below should be interpreted as an expression of opinion about whether such activities are moral or immoral, ethical or unethical, good or bad for society, etc.

Is it considered normal to publish job offers inviting candidates to apply based on their gender and / or race in academia?

Yes, in the US this is fairly normal these days. For example, the University of California, one of the largest (if not the largest) public university systems in the US, has a policy document titled University of California Affirmative Action Guidelines for Recruitment and Retention of Faculty. In the section titled "Best Practices for Faculty Recruitment" (pages 4-5) one finds the statement:

[...] It also is consistent with University policy and obligations as a Federal contractor for advertisements to state that “all qualified applicants are encouraged to apply, including minorities and women.”

In my personal experience, such statements in job advertisements, at the University of California and elsewhere, are fairly common in the US these days.
See also this webpage for more details and context on related University of California policies.

Is it considered normal in the academic environment to discriminate candidates according to their race and / or gender for "egalitarian" reasons?

No, discrimination of candidates based on race and gender is not considered normal. It is also illegal in the US as far as I know, so even to the extent that such discrimination is practiced (which I am not aware is the case), you are unlikely to find anyone who will openly admit to it being normal.
I should note that your question is formulated as a loaded question, making it difficult to answer in a straightforward manner. In the title you are asking about the practice of inserting a statement encouraging women and underrepresented minorities to apply in a job advertisement; the followup question in the body of the post asks about "discriminat[ing] candidates", creating the impression that the practice described in the title of the question is the discrimination you are referring to. However, as far as I know such statements in job advertisements are not legally considered to be "discrimination", despite your insinuation that that's what they are.

How is the choice of a candidate based on his or her gender and / or race considered "egalitarian"?

Again, this is a loaded question based on the (almost entirely incorrect, as far as I know) premise that candidates are being selected based on their gender and/or race and that this practice is justified by the people making the selection on the grounds that it is "egalitarian". This premise is quite far from what is actually happening. At the very least, as I said, since the practice would be illegal, anyone engaging in it would not be as open about their behavior as your question seems to be suggesting; rather, in the scenario where actual discrimination was occurring, the discriminators would simply pretend that the less qualified female candidate they selected is more qualified than the male candidate they passed over even though she wasn't, and not be talking very much about egalitarianism. And that is even assuming that this sort of discrimination is actually taking place, which as I said I have no evidence is the case.

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As I mentioned in a separate comment, discrimination is in fact legal (and I believe not rare) in a number of European countries at least if the candidates are otherwise equally suitable for a role.

It is legal, possibly considered normal but ultimately plays against these "positively discriminated" groups.
The data point I can provide are two large international organizations which initiated diversity programs and advertised it heavily. A female close friend of mine who was brilliant got a job in one of them and was then routinely perceived as "having got in thanks to the diversity program".
It was truly heart breaking to see how many women (these were the '00 so the diversity programs were more targeted towards women) were now labelled as "it was easier for her to get there than for us". It was sometimes labelled as the new third promotion ladder (use to be managerial, technical and bed, now also "diversity").
My friend finally left the organization to join a small company.
I am a man in tech and see this way of thinking all the time. Maybe less now that our culture (western Europe) becomes less patriarchal but still. Stressing in job openings that women are preferred to men (as mentioned in another answer) is doing them a huge disfavour.

So basically she was harassed by her teammates and left. And we wonder why there aren't more women in IT. :(

@RoboKaren: "harassed" is probably too much of a word, and it is even worse. It was rather rumors, second degree remarks etc. - things which make your life miserable. It was also exclusively targeted on the diversity program, somehow she was a collateral victim of the impression the program was giving.

Rumors and gossip are harassment.

@RoboKaren: yes, but one has the obvious harassment (the ones easier to deal with, because they are visible) and the hidden ones - as I mentioned more vicious because they are dispersed, intangible. Anyway, it was a pity to watch her take this.

It is [...] normal but ultimately plays against these "positively discriminated" groups. Yes, stories like these are one of the standard arguments against affirmative action. I'm not denying that this can happen, but in the name of fairness it should be pointed out that: 1. The job ad language being discussed here is not an example of "positive discrimination", so the "diversity programs" you are referring to are actually something different. 2. Even if diversity programs of various sorts had some negative effects, it doesn't mean that "ultimately" their overall effect is negative. ...

... A reasoned debate on the subject would acknowledge both positive and negative effects and try to reach a conclusion about whether the overall, net effect is positive or negative. It seems to me that one of the reasons affirmative action and various related diversity efforts are so controversial is that different people tend to focus on different effects - some see the negative effects as being predominant and others focus on the positives. The debate would move forward a lot if both sides would acknowledge that the other side's arguments have some merit.

@DanRomik: I would argue that The research group aims to increase the number of women in scientific positions. Female candidates are therefore encouraged to apply. is not positive discrimination. If one wants to increase  this number, special efforts will be made so that it happens (which I read, maybe incorrectly, as "we will make it easy for you to join"). As for point 2. -- I am part of a diversity program where I am trying to counter-balance the trend and I completely agree with the last line of your comment.

@DanRomik "A reasoned debate on the subject...whether the overall, net effect is positive or negative" Would start from understanding that the other side doesn't care about the effect(it also thinks that it's negative but that's beside the point). Discriminating people in the present because their "group" might be overrepresented because of historic reasons is completely and utterly unacceptable.

@Oleg I haven't taken any sides here, so please don't assume that I'm on the same side as you, or that I'm on "the other side" (whatever you mean by that). In fact I think a discussion of discrimination is beyond the scope of the question, which is about a specific practice that is not regarded, at least legally, as a form of discrimination. Anyway, thanks for your opinion.

@DanRomik I don't assume anything about you I only respond to your arguments. You did take the other side, that would be the side that thinks it's okay to discriminate people based on their skin color and gender if it's white and male. And yes it's beyond the scope of the question but you are the one who brought up diversity programs.

@Oleg once again, I didn't take sides. Nowhere did I say or imply that "it's okay to discriminate people [etc.]". Frankly I don't understand how you could possibly reach such a conclusion, especially since I didn't even say it was "okay" to insert the language mentioned in the question into the job ad (I clearly stated that I am not expressing any opinions about what is okay or not okay -- please read the disclaimer in the answer I posted). So I would appreciate if you delete the comment where you made this erroneous claim, to avoid misleading future readers of this thread.

@DanRomik You did take a side, I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you are being naive and not purposefully deceiving. My response was to your comment that starts with " 2. Even if diversity programs..." my claims are in no way erroneous, they directly follow from it.

"Stressing in job openings that women are preferred to men (as mentioned in another answer) is doing them a huge disfavour.". Yep, you're right since it seems to be inviting them into a group of good old boys who seem to like finding excuses to harass and bully any women who does manage get hired. You don't run your life trying to make sure you don't do anything that might give a bully an excuse to bully people, you stand up to bullies. What was stopping them from seeing her brilliance other than their own prejudice?

Adding a data point, this sort of language is also fairly common for positions in Australian academia and public service. As other commenters have noted, "Group X are encouraged to apply" is not the same thing as discriminating against non-X people who do apply.

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I think you're making the mistake of reading job ads too literally.  They are written with an eye toward legal requirements and under serious supervision from legal and HR departments.  Thus they don't necessarily reflect the private thoughts of the people actually making the decision about the jobs in any particularly serious way.  I mean, in many cases (including mine) they actually do, but even if a department were full of misogynists who had no interest in hiring women, their jobs ads would probably still have a sentence like this.

@LeonMeier I'm not even sure I understand what that's supposed to mean. Perception of what by whom?  Societies don't perceive anything; individual people do.

@LeonMeier Only a tiny proportion of the people in "society" read advertisements for positions in academic research groups - and they are probably not the best people to change anything (that's what politicians do, not academics!)

EDIT: Sure, but, in the long run, such announcements change the perception of the academic community regarding which groups are discriminated.

@LeonMeier I don't think that's really true, since as soon as they see such a search from the inside, they realize that the phrasing of a job ads is completely meaningless (except when it actually legally constrains what you can do).  The interaction of gender with academic hiring is very complicated, but what matters is the opinions of the various stakeholders in the university, and the words in the job ad essentially have nothing to do with that.

@BenWebster Sure, but many never get to see the process from inside. In particular, the search engines don't. People reading the job ads, by default (!), also don't.

The answer is - it depends :)
There are actually some countries were you are more likely to get the position (job, phd spot, etc...) if you are a man and less likely if you are a woman.
Despite this sounding like something you might expect from some undeveloped societies, the problem is actually in the big old western countries like France and Germany (see sources at the end). I've also heard this is a problem in the US despite them being loudest screamers in the diversity megaphone.
In such countries it is quite appropriate to give the disclaimer "we will not discriminate you because of gender or race" and the sentences you quoted are a bit cringy way to say it. Of course the aim of a research group should be the research not to increase diversity, it seems they just are trying to be polite a bit too much.
On the other hand, I live in a country were women has no such disadvantages getting PhD or scientific positions (see the sources if in doubt). And thus I find it inappropriate when someone hears from the West that this diversity thing is a huge problem and starts to scream "we need to give women more chances". In that way I am personally as annoyed as you are by these texts.
Sources:
https://ec.europa.eu/research/swafs/pdf/pub_gender_equality/she_figures_2015-final.pdf
See page 63 to see how bad (diversity-wise) is Germany and France (and how good Latvia is).
http://www.csb.gov.lv/sites/default/files/nr_13_sievietes_un_viriesi_latvija_2016_16_00_lv_en_0.pdf
See page 18 that shows women having no problems getting the PhD positions here - 2.6% of relevant-age women enrol in PhD studies vs 1.6% of men.

"In such countries [like France and Germany] it is quite appropriate to give the disclaimer 'we will not discriminate you because of gender or race'" - at least in Germany, it is actually also legal to announce that female applicants will be preferred over male applicants if they are equally qualified, if that serves to ultimately compensate for the gender imbalance in the workplace (based on a law on affirmative action).

@O.R.Mapper I feel like we should have such policies regarding people of near-retirement age...

(1/2) 'In [France], it is quite appropriate to give the disclaimer "we will not discriminate you because of gender or race"'. Do you have an example of that? Since the first article of the French constitution asserts the equality of citizens regardless of their origin, race, or religion, job offers assume implicitly that they wouldn't discriminate candidates (though in practice, discrimination unfortunately do exist). The same article also claims that "The law promotes equal acces to women and men to [...] professional and social responsibilities",

(2/2) so actions in favor of women employment would not be against the law and is not unseen.

I disagree (in particular for Germany) with your statement that it would be more likely to get a job as a male. I know for a fact that some universities greatly prefer applications for PhD student positions by female applicants, even if the skills are significantly less. Also the situation is 'bad' in terms of proportion which does not imply less chances for a given female applicant. In my experience, and I'm an active researcher in CS, women are greatly appreciated and mostly always hired. The only problem there is, is that they often don't apply. In my opinion, this is the problem to address

Sentences like these are usual in public service job offers. As most PhD openings follow the rules of public service, these sentences occur there, too. It is a formal "must write" that is there for political reasons.
It has nothing to do with discrimination as the application will usually be reviewed by research professionals who look for bright colleagues, not for their minority or gender status. It's still the scientific output that contributes to the reputation of their institution, not the skin colour or the genitals of staff members. In fact, the European Court of Justice has forbidden German laws from the 90s that said "equally qualified women will be preferred to men if women are underrepresented" (see here for further reading).
In fact, these sentences say nothing about the chances of success for any of such group. So while the political intention may have been to rise the statistical share of population group X among staff by summoning more applicants of group X --which is considered politically good--, the effect may be as well to rise the statistical chance of applicants from group X to be rejected --which may politically feel like discrimination again.
However, as you don't send a PhD application representative for your ethnic etc. group but for your own, you just don't have to bother about such sentences.
(There is only one exception: Sometimes it is announced that among equally qualified applicants the handicapped ones would be preferred. Then think about how many people are actually equally qualified for a specific PhD position ...)

The most upvoted answers discuss this question quite extensively already. While I want to add one point to here which might not be necessarily true but perhaps make sense to some discussion above. The statement cited by OP is a possible way to compensate for implicit bias women are often faced with. Such a statement is normally followed by a sentence like that -  women are preferred when candidates are equally qualified for the position if women are underrepresented. Literally, there are two conditions on this preference to be actualized: 1. equally qualified; 2. women are underrepresented in the department. When someone perceives it as discriminating against males, they're probably thinking in no case candidates would be 100% equally qualified, that means if, as a male, I was evaluated a little bit slightly higher than another female candidate - for example, 0.1 points higher in a total of 20 points of an assessment - as this point gap is too little to contribute to the decision, another female candidate will be selected because of this statement. Let's look at two links below. Just as an example of the implicit bias I'm going to talk.
Best Way for Professors to Get Good Student Evaluations? Be Male.
Student evaluations of teaching are probably biased. Does it matter?
100% equally qualified is almost no way to happen. But slight deviation are always existing because we're human beings. In interviews, we cannot 100% avoid any subjectivity in judging the candidates. Women tend to be more often under-evaluated and underconfident and this is probably particularly true in a field/department where women are heavily underrepresented. Consequently, when you receive the same score as do a female candidate in the case of the existence of subjectivity, she is likely to be actually a little bit better than you. This statement is not a discriminatory behavior under the guise of egalitarianism that you're trying to insinuate but is one of the best ways to remove the statement per se in the future.

The practice of particularly encouraging candidates from under-represented groups to apply is common in physics. I have also seen jobs advertised that are  available to only female applicants, see e.g., this opening in Australia. This practice, however, isn't that common internationally (and may require special exemptions/measures), and I haven't seen it applied to other minority groups.

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


text:
Can I cross-reference thesis chapters in my thesis literature review?
I am currently editing and updating my thesis literature review before submitting my thesis next year.
In reviewing the relevant literature, I find that two of my results chapters published as journal articles are within the scope of the literature review and I would normally cite them in a review article on the same topic.
Is it appropriate to cross-reference these two chapters in the thesis literature review and mention the results that are presented later on in the thesis? In other words, is it more important that the review is up-to date and includes all published data (including my own), or should it rather reflect the knowledge in the field prior to my thesis?

The literature review of your thesis should set the scene that your own research will be taking place in, and should contribute towards motivating the work you do. However, it sounds like you're considering your literature review to be just that, a review of the literature. You really want the reader to reach the end of your literature review feeling that there's a gap waiting to be filled, which you then do.
There may be a small minority of cases where for some reason it makes sense to cite a paper containing thesis work in the literature review, but generally speaking it should describe the literature without the contribution of your thesis.* If you discuss your work in the literature review, then the reader may not feel there is a gap in the literature to fill (or at least, if there is you won't be filling it in the remainder of the thesis).
It's the later discussion/conclusion sections and chapters where you want to fit your work into the existing literature.
* I worded this carefully because the option you describe, reflecting knowledge in the field prior to your thesis, isn't necessarily correct either. There may be relevant work which follows your own work in time, but not necessarily in substance, which you may also want to describe.

Your question sounds like you might possibly be confusing your literature review chapter in your thesis (what you call "my thesis literature review") with a standalone literature review (that is, a journal article whose main contribution is a review of the literature, what you call "a review article on the same topic"). Here's how I see these two distinct works as related to your thesis:

The literature review chapter in your thesis should most certainly not include work that you are about to present later in the thesis. Although it is indeed "important that the review is up-to date and includes all published data (including my own)", the "my own" work does not include new work to be presented in the thesis. It means everything else not in the thesis. The purpose of the thesis lit review is to frame the thesis, especially to frame your new work. It is not meant to stand on its own apart from the thesis. It is always the case that a thesis lit review could be extended by adding the rest of the thesis, but it defeats the purpose of the thesis to do so.
After you've completed the thesis and you want to publish your lit review chapter as a standalone literature review journal article, then it is altogether appropriate to then add a summary of your thesis results. That is the "up-to date [review that] includes all published data (including my own)" that you sense the need for. I affirm that this would be very good, but this is distinct from your thesis and comes after its completion.


text:
How can I organise my own proctor in South America for a foreign university exam?
I am taking an online accredited course at Illinois and I need to have someone in South America proctor a test (preferably Bolivia, Argentina, or Chile).
Anyone have any suggestions for how to accomplish this? I've looked on many websites  (including universities and libraries) and struggling to find a resource. Maybe it's more informal? This test will need to be a physical test.
My course specifically puts these requirements for a proctor. There may be wiggle room with some communication.

Principal or Superintendent of Educational Service Region, School, or District
Dean, Academic Department Head, Extension or Correspondence Administrator, Registrar, or Official Testing Service of an Accredited University or College
Education Officer (Armed Services Personnel Only)
Full-Time High School or College Instructor
Librarian at your local community library

Specific details on proctor information is here.

I don't understand why you need someone proctoring a test when you're the one taking the course. Could you please clarify?

The point of the proctor is to validate there is no cheating. While I will be taking the test they need to assure the university that the test was taken fairly.

Yes, but it's a university's duty to organize the proctoring.

@MassimoOrtolano Please see Illinois Online program web page: It is your responsibility to arrange for an approved proctor to supervise any off-campus examinations

@scaaahu Thanks! But what a dubious practice! Apart from the fact that one pays and has also to organize their exams, such a practice certainly leaves a lot of room for organizing cheating at a local level with proctor's consesus.

Can you please [edit] your question to quote or summarise the course’s criteria for a proctor? Otherwise your question is not really answerable.

Look into ProctorU.com.

Embassy is usual.

@Wrzlprmft: I've added the proctor requirements.@LeonMeier, I'll call the embassy on Monday to see if they would be able to do it.

@MassimoOrtolano: I agree the practice of scheduling your own proctoring is not ideal. I ran into issues with it when I moved and now again when I'm traveling.

In case of an embassy: I've never used this service myself, but I did see that certain countries offered this service in their embassies or even consulates.

The last two bullets look like the most practical options.  Just start asking people if they'll proctor for you.  Show them the instructions.  I don't think this needs to be a big deal.

I'm going to go ahead and close the question -- now that you've listed the options, I don't think this is an academic question anymore, you just need to ask (or hire) a librarian or teacher to proctor you.


text:
Research interests Vs Statement of Purpose(SOP)
I am not sure if this question is too specific. Please feel free to mark it as such if it is.
I have come across a PhD advertisement that says "upload a curriculum vitae including a brief description of your research interests".
Does 'brief description of your research interests' means SOP? I can see that research interests and research experiences are different. Is 'brief description of your research interests' different from SOP?

You might want to clarify what is an SOP for non-native English speakers. Statement of Purpose?

It's important to note any other materials they are asking for. In isolation, the quoted sentence indicates a standard CV and probably no more than a small paragraph (3-4 sentences) stating your research interest. A typical statement of purpose is usually at least a page, sometimes 2. But each place tends to ask for a different mix of things with different words, so what else they ask for can help clarify what they are looking for with each individual item.

@BrianDHall : "upload a CV including a brief description of your research interests and have the email addresses of at least two referents ready, who are willing to send a letter of recommendation on your behalf." This is what it says. Should 'my research interest' be a part of CV?

The intent of both types of response is similar enough to be identical, but there's perhaps a more important distinction here: this is part of a job application. The audience for this application is interested in what you have already researched, why you studied it, what you plan to research next (ideally as your PhD research), and how your past experience will aid your research plans. It's an opportunity to connect some of the material already listed on your CV, especially as CV's generally don't include much detail about the future.
This previous question ("Unclear terms: Statement of Purpose, Academic Statement and Personal Statement") touches on similar issues though it appears that the poster never received an answer they liked.

In my field (social sciences/economics) this would mean you need to include a section on your CV with some subject area keywords ("applied microeconomics, education, development" or similar). Typically this would be one of the first sections. In the case of a faculty search, this allows the search committee to see if you fit the department needs. In the case of a PhD applicant, it might match you with potential advisors.
If you are not sure if this is the case in your field, you might try looking at CVs from people at your prospective rank in the department.