text:
What is expected in a 5 minute postdoc interview presentation?
I have been invited to interview for a postdoc position at a good university. They asked me a different question to most of my other interviews. For the presentation they want me make a 5 minute (maximum) PowerPoint presentation on the following topic "How does your previous experience in vascular biology equip you to fulfill this post?".
How do I go about answering their question? I assume it would be: one very brief slide showing an overview of my career, then techniques so histology and why that’s useful to them. Do I show any of my own data?

With only 5 min maximum, keep it to the point and interesting to them. They made clear what matters to them in their question

How does your previous experience in vascular biology equip you to fulfil this post?

Find out about the post as much as you can and also the department (what do they specialize in). Find out what and who they want. Understand what your role will be, what their goals for this position are, in what direction to head. For example, research topics, but maybe also teaching duties etc.
Then use the presentation to show them why you are the perfect candidate for the post. Tailor it to their needs, no unnecessary information (you only have 5 min). This really depends on the requirements, but could be experience with relevant methods, openness to learn and use new methods / technologies (examples?), tutoring students etc. All the relevant experience for this post.

Typically a postdoc interview presentation is for giving the members of the group you are interviewing with an idea about:

who you are
what you know (education)
what have you done before, in terms research experience
how you work
etc

I have had presentations varying from 45 min lunch seminars that went over an hour with questions, down to 20 min presentation followed by 1-on-1s with the group members.
I have never heard of a 5 min presentation for an interview and I would generally say it's way too short to be meaningful. But that's besides the point...
I wouldn't worry much about showing any data, or complicated figures that will take too long to explain. It really does take longer than you'd imagine. Keep it to a maximum of 7-8 slides, and keep them very roomy... Don't cram too much into the slides, and don't try to say too many things. Any details they might be interested in will come afterwards in terms of questions. Oh and I would recommend starting with a meta-statement, saying something like "For this presentation, I have skipped all hard data and complex figures, due to time restrictions. But I would be happy to answer your questions about the nitty-gritty details afterwards"
A 5 min presentation will ultimately be more like an elevator pitch than a scientific presentation. A verbal cover letter, if you will. Focus on the reasons that made you apply for this position, and the parallels between your previous research and this position. What gave you the impression/confidence that you can do what they will ask you to do. If you can answer that question in 5 minutes I think you have done a good job.
Best of luck in any case :)

This kind of 5 minutes presentations are completely unfit to challenge the scientific background of the candidate but are perfect to evaluate other skills. Depending on your actual background, I would advise you to try to learn more about the team you intend to work with. Then use these 5 minutes to show how your scientific skills, personality and knowledge complete the ones of the team and how both the team and the project could actually be improved with you.
Note that if they specifically mentioned the slides, you have to choose before following the order and showing respect to rules or dropping the slides and showing your ability at taking initiatives.

If you have only five minutes don't use Powerpoint unless you absolutely must display some visual aid. If you put up images on a screen they will look at those images. But you want them (or ought to want them) to focus on YOU. Concentrate on what you are going to SAY as @posdef has helpfully suggested.
If you feel it necessary to put up PP images, whatever you do do not look at them, turning your back on the interview panel. The temptation to do so with PP is almost irresistible. That's why I say avoid it if you possibly can.

Whether they intended it or not, they've posed you with an "elevator pitch" problem, namely, that you are supposed to explain something within a time limit that is wildly unreasonable. (Like "pitching" something in an elevator to someone, between floors...)
Figuring out how to do this is a challenge in itself, and not necessarily strongly connected to actually doing other things.
But it is a plausible-sounding filter to impose, if they figure that they'll have waaaay more otherwise-qualified applicants than they need... so they can impose further, if irrelevant, requirements to reduce the number of viable candidates.
I'd use at most one or two PPT slides, with no walls-of-text, and be absolutely sure that you get to the punchline, which is your qualification for and interest in the position. It is absolutely essential to get to that punchline, whether or not you feel you've "adequately covered" your personal history, publications, this-and-that. :)

This sounds very much like lightning talks that are becoming popular at some conferences. You might look around for some examples in your field and see if these kinds of talks are becoming a thing in your field and try to follow the trend and fit your talk to what the conferences are offering and what the group has asked you to cover. Hit the latter part exactly (no more, no less).
I can't imagine that a 5-minute talk would be all that useful to me as an interviewer for a postdoc position, but if that's what they want, give them your best 5 minutes that meet the brief they've outlined. Practice it until you can nail the time and content without your slides (if you even elect to have slides).


text:
Are there any measures to ensure "academic honesty"?
I have been reading some reflections on research and academia lately, and it has gotten me to think more critically towards what we do, and what the life we are pursuing has in store for us.
Some of you might remember another recent question of mine, where I was inquiring about the right way to set up projects based on an open-letter I read  about how academia is not what it claims to be. Now I have stumbled upon this blog entry which focuses on the shortcomings of the single-blind peer review process overwhelmingly used in biomedical research publication.
Now it all brings me back to a disturbing idea that I had some time ago; that the quality of the research and the truth to all we do is essentially hanging on a rather fragile virtue, what one could call "academic honesty". We count on the reviewers and editors objectivity, we count on publishers and researchers naive and good intentions with their work, we count on people not putting their personal benefits before that of the society.
As anyone out on the streets will tell you, we do not live in an ideal world and [call me a pessimist if you will] thus I don't believe in the inherent good of the people (at least I do not rely or count on it). I don't see how academics should be exempt from a degeneration in the society that affects everyone else.
That brings me to my question; what measures exist to ensure this "academic honesty" we seem to rely so heavily on? How do we know/ensure:

that the reviewers do not lose their objectivity, for instance when looking at a manuscript of a competitor
that there's no collusion between high-profile PIs and editors of "high-impact" journals?
that academics (at varying stages of their career) do not consider/prioritize "pushing up" the numbers (e.g. "h-index" or "impact factor" etc) when they set out with their research projects?
that grants/prizes/titles are actually given to the better projects/people from the perspective of the greater good, and not based on how well-connected the applicants are? (after all such committees need to have or be composed of other researchers, who else is going to be able to judge the impact and importance of cutting edge research than other researchers?)

I realize that it's a broad question, but I have tried to give a thorough background story to give you an idea about how I got to this idea. Likewise I tried to narrow my concern to one over-arching question (rather than to seek discussion), with a couple of example follow-up questions to make my point clear. I can ask them separately if-need-be, but I think they sit better together, as is.

@VahidShirbisheh of course, I figured it would be implicitly implied, but yes it definitely applies for positions

Let me throw in a few points in addition to @Peter Janssons great answer:
There are "tools" that help with some of your concerns

that the reviewers do not lose their objectivity, for instance when looking at a manuscript of a competitor

For one thing, most journals I know not only ask for suggested reviewers, but you can also ask that particular persons are not asked to review your paper.
The journals I know have at least 2, usually 3 reviews. So a firm "reject" means that several reviewers did agree that the paper is bad. While one may have a biased opinion, with 3 rejects it is maybe time to stop and think whether the paper really is good or not.
Bias in peer-review is one thing, but variance is another. And, from my experience, variance is high. IIRC there are studies about marks on texts by different school teachers which were found to vary between good and barely passed for one and the same text. My guess is that peer review is similar.
Personally, I'd prefer if peer-reviews were done openly (both sides named, some journals do, though none in my field) as opposed to one side more-or-less blind.

that grants/prizes/titles are actually given to the better projects/people from the perspective of the greater good, and not based on how well-connected the applicants are? (after all such committees need to have or be composed of other researchers, who else is going to be able to judge the impact and importance of cutting edge research than other researchers?)

I think this is fundamentally impossible, because that would imply that it is possible to know which project will be a good project beforehand*. This may be possible for very applied projects, but those would typically be industry projects, not basic research.
The "interesting" projects always imply a risk that the thing doesn't work out, no solution is found. Otherwise no research would be needed on the topic.
Sometimes, the huge importance of projects is clear only years (or even decades) after they are finished.
* On the other hand, I think it is possible to find out in advance that a project is poorly designed, so it should not be funded.

that there's no collusion between high-profile PIs and editors of "high-impact" journals?

Of course that can happen. Corruption exists, and I don't think science is fundamentally different from other fields of human professions.
(see below for my thoughts on how to deal with that)

that academics (at varying stages of their career) do not consider/prioritize "pushing up" the numbers (e.g. "h-index" or "impact factor" etc) when they set out with their research projects?

In a way we cannot, and IMHO it has to be expected that scientists are intellectually quite able to understand how to optimize a given measure. Thus, the assumption that e.g. bibliometric measures do not influence the measured system will not hold.
Whether they actually do it, is another question.
There is one very important point: the papers are not kept secretly, you can read them. As a scientist, you can, should and do judge the quality of the papers. IMHO peer review does not allow you to switch off your brain when reading paper - I think peer review is meant to be a sieve that gets the "failed" papers out of the system - while what I want to read are not "barely passed" but "excellent" papers. However, there is a tradeoff, and if you push up the rigour of peer review you'll inevitably throw out also good papers, or papers whose importance will become apparent only later on. That is, too strict peer-review may pose a restriction on the publishing system that disfavors really new ideas, and allows to pass only predictable results.
However, you won't be able to help realizing who publishes by salami-slicing and who publishes lots of studies with e.g. very low numbers of patients, poorly designed experiments, and OTOH, which groups take the effort to get meaningful numbers of patients, publish on relevant controls, do their homework validating their findings and so on.
Also the authors are of a paper are named clearly. And taking together your judgemen of the quality of papers and maybe some citation network tool, you can get an idea  who optimizes e.g. citations.
Attending conferences and workshops and talking to people you'll get to know people personally so you can judge their character. In addition, you'll hear a fair amount not only of "rumours" and "stories" which also tell about people.

All in all, I think this works as "real life" does: how do you know a company is honest you consider dealing with? You put some advance trust in them, and you use your judgment, including what you hear by your peers about them: e.g. were they recommended by someone you consider reliable.

"from my experience, variance [in peer review] is high": On the other hand, it occurred multiple times to me that three or more reviewers gave grades varying by only one point on a scale of about 10 points.

@silvado: good to know

I will start by stating, that we probably cannot ensure that any of these problems cannot occur. Doing so will probably mean enforcing structures that are far from democratic and open, it is the downside of the sort of openness we are used to and so we need to learn to live with the system. That, however, does not mean we are without means to work against bad, unethical, behaviour.
Reviewers: The vast majority of reviewers do a good job. Some may be socially challenged to provide criticism in polite ways but have the knowledge to provide critical views. Journal editors will play a vital role in not only selecting reviewers but also screen and evaluate the reviews and provide authors with a balanced view based on the two or more reviews that typically are gathered for each manuscript. The same also applies to foundations evaluating proposals. The review process has two levels where things must go wrong to severely affect a manuscript and the role of editors should not be underestimated.
"Collusion": This problem may be more difficult to spot if the issue originates at "top level". I am not sure I see a patented solution in this case but am convinced that publishers will not  support such behaviour and the scientific community will most likely pick up on the problem quickly. There is in other words a social control that will sooner or later make an impact on such problems. This does not prevent them from occurring and since the research community consists of humans we have all the human fallacies found elsewhere in society as well. Removing the illusion that we are of equal moral views and chivalry is a good start.
"inflation": There are good services that calculate, for example, the h-index for you and in a way that others can double check them. I use Researcher ID but such calculations can be done directly in Web of Science and elsewhere. The main point is that by using such a service, the calculation is open and reproducible and it is possible to trace what has been entered. Hence the indicator indices used should preferably be of this kind so that one can double check the value without any effort.
grants: This is similar to the *"Collution" point above. I cannot see any simple solution that would not involve significant costs for the funding agencies (and hence less money given to research. Social control is probably the strongest point here but it also involves openness so that the public has insights into who gets money and why (I am assuming we are talking governmental funding in one way or another; industry and private sources are different)
So I understand and can share some of your pessimism but the alternatives to our current system are in my opinion worse and likely heavier from, for example, bureaucracy. Openness and good guidelines for and continued discussions on ethical behaviour among all are necessary. It is what occurs behind closed doors that starts rumours and may also initiate the problems you describe.

Great answer, the only thing I would add is the benefits from being unethical in these ways is pretty small. For example, I unfairly vote for someone who knows influential people to win a prize in the hopes that either my vote, or the person I voted of, influences the influential people in the future to vote for me for something I am not deserving of.

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sort: votes


text:
Is MSc the way to go?
I've been a software developer for about three years now (making custom ERP software), I love programming and also other areas in CS like AI, but I really don't like the fact that you have to learn a lot of business related topics (accounting, finance, so on) and also having to deal with end-users and managers.
I've been thinking about starting an MSc degree in computer science and turning my career more onto academia. I think it's best to do a MSc and not directly a PhD because I feel that I can go back to industry if I don't like academia.
Is the move to academia over industry the way to go or I'll face similar problems there?
Here is some more data: I am still somewhat young (28 yrs) and with a B.Sc Degree in Information Systems with 4.1 out of 5 GPA from a small college.

Sound like your problem is ERP(Enterprise resource planning) - business related topics and deal with end-users and managers. Have you considered changing your application domain? Getting MSc in CS is always a good idea. You should do it because you like to do it, not  because you want to escape from something you don't like.

I have a small query here - 4.1 GPA out of? To my knowledge, the max GPA is 4 - I'm not sure if there are schools which award > 4 GPA!

shan23: To quote from this wiki page: In a handful of states, within the United States, GPA scales can go above 4.0.

GPA is 4.1 out of 5, sorry for that.

@shan23: It isn't a state policy, each school sets its own system.  For example, here at Cornell University, a grade of A is worth 4.0 grade points, and A+ is worth 4.3.

A Master's isn't "where you go". It's a road, not a destination.

Many M.Sc degrees in the US are not research oriented (try Canada, they seem to be more common here), and you should be wary of this. If you want to gain experience in research to see "if it is for you" then you need to find a thesis bases Masters, and not a course based one. A good sanity check to see if your potential Masters program will involve real research is to see who is paying who. If you are paying them, then this is not where you want to be. If they are paying you, then it is much more likely that you are in a research based masters.
In general, a Master's degree is a good way to test the waters. It is also a good way to shore up on any knowledge you might lack after being out of university for 7 years, and make sure you have all the necessary foundations (sometimes Information Systems degrees don't teach these). If you change schools between your M.Sc and Ph.D it also offers you a chance to work with more people and if you don't change schools you can often fast-track before graduationg as if you had been in a Ph.D program all along.
However, getting an M.Sc degree does have potential downsides:

it can take longer to finish the whole process (B.Sc + M.Sc + Ph.D tends to be longer than just B.Sc + Ph.D)
Ph.D programs tend to have more stringent requirements for applicants that already have a Masters degree.
Some funding opportunities (such as NSF) might end up unachievable.

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text:
Does an author have to submit an article to Math databases once it has been published in a journal?
Let us suppose one publishes an article in a peer-reviewed journal that is archived, indexed, etc. in databases such as Zentralblatt, ResearchBib, etc. Does the author have to manually submit his/her information and his/her journal article to those databases, or this is done automatically by the journal or by such databases?

For Zentralblatt or MathSciNet, which are by far the most important databases in mathematics, there's no need to manually submit anything.  I would assume the same is true for any comprehensive database (if you depend on author submissions, you won't get anywhere near complete coverage), but I suppose it could depend on the particular case.  I've never heard of ResearchBib, so I can't say anything there.


text:
Does copying the book's figure for my dissertation fit the copyright?
I'm writing my dissertation and I have drawn a diagram explaining how a algorithm works. Recently, I've found an ebook, legally obtained, illustrating the same algorithm, but with more details and better drawing.
Is it ok to use their figure instead of mine if I properly give the source?
Here is the copyright rules (highlight is mine):

The Author(s) 2014
  This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. Exempted from this legal reservation are brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis or material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the Copyright Law of the Publisher’s location, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Permissions for use may be obtained through RightsLink at the Copyright Clearance Center. Violations are liable to prosecution under the respective Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein.

I'm asking because of the highlighted excerpt:

Exempted from this legal reservation are brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis or material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.

I think my dissertation fits the "reviews or scholarly analysis" rule, so is it ok? This juridical part is very delicate.
Update
I have contacted the book's author; he was really nice and said that there are no problems of using his illustration. But, he advised me to contact the publisher (he even pointed me a page to do that). As the page was not working well, I sent an email to the publisher's staff to which they answered asking me some information:

your name, address, and email address;
ISBN of the book requested or journal title, volume and issue number, author/editor,   year of publication of book or journal;
which material you would like to use indicating page numbers and figures numbers;
will your publication be open access?
purpose of using Springer-Verlag's material;
number of copies of your publication to be printed;
name of your publisher or the company/institute.

Now, I'm just waiting for their answer.
Update 2
The publisher gave me permission and I added the image to my dissertation. Here are the conditions that I had to follow:

Thank you for getting back to me. With reference to your request to
  reuse material in which Springer Science+Business Media controls the
  copyright, our permission is granted free of charge under the
  following conditions:
Springer material

represents original material which does not carry references to other sources (if material in question refers with a credit to another
  source, authorization from that source is required as well);
requires full credit (book title, year of publication, page, chapter title, name(s) of author(s), original copyright notice) is
  given to the publication in which the material was originally
  published by adding: "With kind permission of Springer
  Science+Business Media";
may not be altered in any manner. Any other abbreviations, additions, deletions and/or any other alterations shall be made only
  with prior written authorization of the author and/or Springer
  Science+Business Media.

This permission

is non-exclusive;
is valid for one-time use only for the purpose of defending your thesis and with a maximum of 100 extra copies in paper.
includes use in an electronic form, provided it is an author-created version of the thesis on his/her own website and his/her university’s repository,  including UMI (according to the definition on the Sherpa website: http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/);
is subject to courtesy information to the corresponding author;
is personal to you and may not be sublicensed, assigned, or transferred by you to any other person without Springer's written permission;
is valid only when the conditions noted above are met.

Permission free of charge does not prejudice any rights we might have to charge for reproduction of our copyrighted material in the future.

Why not ask th publisher? If they send you a quote you can decide whether you are better off with your own drawing - if they send you the immediate OK, you know for sure you are fine.

Good idea, I will ask him.

Update, please?

@EllenSpertus thank you for the reminder! I've added an update.

In fact, I think that your proposed use would not fall under "fair use", in the sense that you are not addressing the other authors' work, but merely (!) using some of their stuff. The fruits of their labors... which is what various reasonable notions of intellectual property are meant to protect.
Of course, if you write the copyright owners and they say "go ahead", you are legally fine...
However, legal correctness and moral/ethical correctness are not the same.
Might be better to take the trouble to make your own graphic that is good enough. At the very least, in addition to investigating literal copyright issues, you might contact the people who made the graphic and ask their permission. If everyone says "go ahead", out of generosity or whatever, then you are truly fine.

That makes sense. It's not fair usage because I'm not expanding or reviewing what the figure refers to in the book. The book's figure is part of a review of an algorithm--which I'm reviewing too. On the other hand, it was interesting to get this nuance that, if the book was about the algorithm and I was reviewing it, then it would be ok to use their figure. The ethical correctness was another question that was bugging me. I'm going to ask the authors if I can use the image. Thanks!

You can still use the data in the figure, as long as you cite the book as a resource, so you can redo the figure yourself. That's comparison of your results with theirs, which is completely fine.

If you are critiquing the image or expanding on what was said then technically you are in the clear. In the real world it comes down to what Springer decides and the country that you are in. The exemption there is not really an exemption in the US. That is copyright law, the part called fair use. How the courts see it if you were sued is a different issue and Springer has the deep pockets here and could make your suffer no matter what. Whether it is worth it to Springer depends on the circulation of your thesis. If you can reproduce the graphic yourself you will obviously be better off.

These are good points. I think mine isn't a "fair use" because I'm reviewing the same algorithm that the authors of the book reviwed. I'll keep improving my graphic, maybe the authors answer me. There is only one point remaining. As I'm from a different country and the circulation of my dissertation probably wouldn't reach farther, technically I think it wouldn't be a problem. The real problem would be the ethical side, as this could reflect badly on the community. Just sharing these thoughts in case someone faces the same dilemma. Thanks!

I think the more relevant part of the rules is this:

Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the Copyright Law of the Publisher’s location, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer.

If you use the figure, you are duplicating a part of the text. The relevant copyright law is that of where the publisher is located, not your country. Finally, regardless of this, they say "permission for use must always be obtained from Springer", which seems pretty clear. This doesn't necessarily mean you will need to pay to use the figure, but you do need the publisher's permission.
"Brief excerpts" in your bolded text probably refers to a short quotation, which of course would need to be indicated as a quotation and referenced.

Just because they say you need their permission doesn't mean that you actually do (either legally or ethically).

No one seems to have mentioned this: of course legally you should contact the publisher, which in most probability is the copyright holder, but surely you should also ask the author how he or she feels about it. I would not like seeing my work being used without having been contacted.

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text:
Etiquette for whether to send a follow-up email to a professor who will not have a reliable internet connection?
I am writing this post regarding how to approach a situation I am currently in.  First, I am an undergraduate student in math who started working under a professor last Fall.  Prior to the start of Spring term, he let me know that he will be going on Sabbatical until early-to-mid April.  Additionally, they would not have a reliable internet connection.  During January I sent him an email with a question though I did not expect a response until he got back.  Given that he has presumably been back for 2 weeks, is it appropriate for me to send him another email with a follow-up or should I wait for a response.  I am sorry if this is a ridiculous question.

First, I am an undergraduate student in math who started working under a professor last Fall.

Congratulations!

During January I sent him an email with a question though I did not expect a response until he got back. Given that he has presumably been back for 2 weeks, is it appropriate for me to send him another email with a follow-up or should I wait for a response.

That is a long time to wait for a response to an email! Definitely you should send a follow-up.
Old emails often get lost in professors' email inboxes. In general, anything that has been sent at least 2 weeks ago is probably lost forever unless you send it again (and in this case it sounds like it was 3 months ago).
I usually send follow-ups 1 week later.

I am sorry if this is a ridiculous question.

Not a ridiculous question, but you are overthinking it :) Professors are just human; they aren't usually sitting around cursing anyone who sends them an email. Any question or concern you have you should go ahead and send -- as long as you can keep it polite and try to make it as easy as possible for them to understand and respond.
And since they are your advisor for your research, you need their feedback in order to progress successfully. Therefore, it is especially important to email them often (or connect through other means if email is not the best way with this individual).

Thank you for the helpful response.  I was just not sure about how to proceed since I am an undergraduate student and not a graduate student.

@Motig5753 If you like, you can ask the professor directly: how often would you like to receive email from me about this project? And is email the best way to discuss things or is another medium better? No better way to get clarity than ask. As you are doing research with him you would generally be the same as a graduate student, unless he has delegated someone else (one of his grad students) to supervise you.

There is no harm in sending an e-mail again under the pretext that the e-mail you sent in January may not have gone because of poor internet connection.

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text:
Withdrawing paper from competition track of a conference due to the fee?
A few months back, I came across a competition page which asked for a solution approach for a new and tricky dataset in the domain (I will keep all the details anonymous).
Now, it was a new area of research for me, so I felt curious; interestingly I wrote a solution and submitted it. They also asked for a paper alongside the solution (the solution will be ranked based on some performance metrics) explaining the solution.
I also submitted the paper. I got acceptance email a few days back mentioning it will be added to a book series.
After the competition period, I uploaded my solution (Github) and the accepted manuscript to research-gate too (now I feel it was a mistake).
Yesterday, I got an email asking me to register for the conference with a registration fee. Now, kindly forgive my ignorance, but I was not expecting the registration fee in the competition track where the competition itself didn't have any monetary prize.
It's not that I can't pay the registration fee, but I left my lab a few years ago and currently work at a private company, now at best I'm an independent researcher without any funding. I don't feel like spending the registration fee from my own pocket for a paper that I'm not proud of and when I can not even attend the conference (due to COVID-19 situation the presentation will be online).
I applied for a grant to the committee, I'm not sure if it'll be accepted or not.
Now, should I withdraw my paper if the grant is not accepted?
Another problem I created is by uploading my accepted pre-print to the research-gate, the paper is already indexed to my google scholar profile too.
What should I do in this situation?

I do not see any reason why you would pay the fee.

Are you sure this is an academic conference?

@AnonymousPhysicist Yes, the main conference is a trusted one. They launched a competition track under the main conference, in which I submitted the paper.

Did the competition advert make it clear that a fee would need to be paid? You may just have to write this off to experience. Or consult a lawyer.

No, nothing regarding a registration fee was mentioned. But from my experience, usually, a registration fee is needed to register a paper in a conference (minimum one author registration who'll present the paper). But this is a confusing scenario that's why I can't decide. 1. I solely focused on the competition and my code, the paper only complemented it. 2. They are somewhat right on their point as paper registration requires a fee but here it was not mentioned in the competition page and also now I can't even attend. 3. I really don't want to go the hard way, something minimal from my side.

You say you are not proud of the paper - is that just so you can withdraw it? But you have gone and made it public with research gate and your scholar profile... What are you doing?

I guess you misinterpreted it. It's still valid work, but as I told I more focused on the coding part (the solution tricks) rather than a clean, detailed academic paper. (competition papers are short, less theoretical especially in my field (machine learning)) I made it public because the source code and the paper will be definitely helpful but I don't want to pay for that (that's what I meant). I had the thought I didn't have to pay any fee or anything so I can make the work public as the work is accepted. I hope you understand.

Adding accepted pre-prints to arxiv/research-gate is a common trend, google scholar indexed it automatically. If let's say, they decline my grant, I withdraw the paper, but the paper stays on the researchgate, google scholar will that be an issue for me? I'm kind of worried about that.

A competition track is like a regular track or workshop track of a conference. Of course, there are typically registration fees, although, post-Covid, they should be smaller or could be entirely waived due to being online. So, the question is why you expected (pre-Covid) to not have to pay registration. Someone has to organise location, computers, setup etc. But yes, you can withdraw.

@CaptainEmacs yes, I know. I agree it was my ignorance and fault on my side, that's why I don't blame them but it was my first time participating on a competition track so I should have emailed them asking if a fee is needed (there were no details about the fee on the competition page). But if I attended the conference, I probably wouldn't hesitate that much. Now, the situation is different. Thanks for the suggestion.

If the competition is held like a workshop in CS conferences, there may be a separate workshop-only registration option that is much cheaper.

If you do not wish to attend the conference, request that the paper be withdrawn. I doubt you can undo posting of the content on the internet. In the future, do ask if all presenters must pay registration fees, even those in the competition. This is often the case and may be stated somewhere in the information about the conference.


text:
Feeling burnt out
I’ve been working from home for the last few months and it’s gradually started to wear me down. I don’t have a particularly strenuous job but I still live with my parents so things are quite tense at times when I want my own space.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve really started to feel worn down and a lot of the things that once gave me pleasure now leave me feeling unfulfilled. I’m struggling to see the positive side of life and I’m beginning to question if I’m depressed

It's best to speak to a counsellor, that's what they are for. Most universities provide counselling services for staff and students. Besides this advice there is not much that we can do to help you, so I am voting to close the question.

that's a statement, not a question.

Louic is correct, a counsellor will be your best option for facing your current challenges.
Before the question gets eventually closed, however, I would like to remind you that it is extremely common for PhD candidates to feel burned out, even when there is no pandemic. Here are some quick points that can help you a little bit, until you can find a meeting with a counsellor:
(1) Divide each day into roughly 4 parts: one part for sleeping properly, another for taking care of your bodily health (walking, swimming, cycling, etc.), another for taking care of your mental health (make yourself laugh as much as possible for all sorts of silly reasons, socialize with your friends as much as possible), and another part for doing work. Of course, this is a rough division: it is fine to sometimes mix the "mental health" part with work (it is believed that walking in a relaxed green environment, or doing exercise, walking with a friend while talking about your research, etc. can stimulate your research creativity and bring forth new ideas)
(2) Talking about your research with friends or with a supervisor can help to keep you motivated about your research (so long as they attempt to provide constructive criticism!). Also, try to help your colleagues with their own work, and try to provide ideas for them to get out of their own holes.
(3) Try to spend a little bit of your time being of service to others, for example by answering questions on academia.stack exchange, etc. (of course, without jeopardizing your own workflow!)
(4) Reduce the amount of time that you are exposed to negative media such as harsh news programs or even comedy programs that are trying to make you feel outraged against someone or something. It might help to watch news only once a week, or listen to news only by radio (avoiding visual media), or stick to sites such as AllSides, Associated Press or Reuters, which tend to have a less combative take on the news.
(5) Prepare in writing a weekly schedule for getting your work done, and stick to it! Mark down all of your achievements and progress in order to encourage you. Set up a series of hours in which you completely turn down your phone, and turn off all notifications, write your dissertation without distractions. It is probably best to commit to a schedule where you go to bed early, wake up early around 5 or 6 am and you start writing, when everyone else is likely asleep (adjust this time according to your personal family situation).
(6) Try to be understanding with your parents and family, they are just as stressed as you are, and you are all in the same boat trying to pull through this pandemic. Maintain your sense of humor at all times.
That's it, take care and stay strong.
Also, check my answer to this previously-closed question:
Mature PhD maths student going through a crisis and feeling pretty anxious and depressed about future - advice needed


text:
Asking my supervisor a potentially dumb question
So I recently did my PhD project approval which is the process where I agree my objectives with my supervisor and present a short overview to a review panel.
All that went well and my project has been approved and I can finally make a start on the work I need to do. I'm feeling a bit swamped and unsure about how to proceed tackling the objectives we need to achieve and this has left me feeling quite overwhelmed and overworked.
My supervisor sent me a one line email last week basically saying "do objective 1 now" but I wanted to spend some time with them discussing the theory and devising a suitable way to do this objective.
I know it's all about independent work but I feel I could benefit from a short meeting just to straighten up my work plan and ensure we're both on the same page. To clarify, the problem isn't that I don't understand the theory- I just need to clarify what my workplan should look like.
Would I be dumb if I asked for a sit down to talk through the objectives and clarify what I should be working on? I feel very out of my depth

https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/51631/how-to-ask-dumb-questions

No, it would not be dumb: it is absolutely crucial for you and your supervisor to have clear expectations about each other, as early as possible. It is well-known that the majority of problems during a PhD result from miscommunications between student and supervisor.
So send your supervisor an email as soon as possible, saying something to the effect of (note: check transitionsynthesis' comment below this post):
"I apologize if this is burdensome, but I sincerely feel like I need to have a short meeting with you in this early phase to help clarify my workplan, because I've been struggling with it recently".
I'm very confident that your supervisor will be 100% fine (unless they are the kind of people who abandon their students from day one, in which case you should not have selected them as supervisors in the first place).
I also strongly recommend you to read as soon as possible the book "How to get a PhD: A Handbook for Students and their Supervisors" by Estelle Phillips, which will be of great help to you.

I'd advise taking out the apologetic angle on the email. This is your advisor, it is their duty to advise you. Do not apologize for asking what you need. Take out also all adverbs ("sincerely") and hints that this arises from a struggle. Just say, "In preparing to tackle objective 1, I would benefit from a short meeting with you to discuss the specifics of the workplan. Would [suggest x specific time (including start and end time, to signal that this won't be an interminable meeting) and place for meeting] work for you?"

@Roland Fair point!

In a worst-case scenario, your choice is between

asking your question and looking dumb now or
not asking your question and looking much dumber later, after you've wasted time going in and out of dead-ends

I would always opt for the first choice, except for one catch: It's a good idea to spend some time trying to figure out a questions by yourself. Not so much to avoid looking bad in front of your supervisor (best to leave behind such a debilitating attitude), but because every interesting question is a learning opportunity.
However, here's a more realistic scenario:
Your particular question seems to be one where you need high-level guidance by someone with practical research experience. You can't possibly acquire that kind of knowledge on your own by a few weeks of reading and poking. That is why you have a supervisor.
Also, your supervisor is an adult, and "no" is a full sentence. If they think your question is not for them to answer, they will (should at least) simply tell you, without thinking badly of you. That's how you learn which questions to ask and which ones to solve alone.


text:
Is it normal for a reviewer to comment about suitability for publication after addressing their comments?
I have a paper submission that now is going through the second round of revisions.
Reviewer #1 suggested publishing after some minor changes, while reviewer #2 has been more critical of the piece. Anyway, I submitted the revised paper and reviewer #2 now requested some minor changes, which editors agree with and asked me to address.
The reviewer wrote:

If the author can addresses these comments then the paper would be suitable for publication. (sic)

Is such a tone normal/usual for reviewers to use? I mean it is the editor who decides whether a paper is suitable for publication or not; what reviewers are expected to share their comments on the paper.
I have sensed a kind of gatekeeper attitude with that tone. Am I being too sensitive or has the reviewer indeed gone a bit too far?

Only a comment because I think other answers address this, but to state explicitly: if the editor wants to assert their final authority, and doesn't want reviewers stating as fact "would be suitable if fixed" rather than "it is my advice/opinion that this would be suitable if fixed", then that's a fight for the editor. As far the author is concerned, the reviewer is there to help the editor make that decision, and the editor somewhat delegates. Rarely will an editor say, "no, I think the reviewer is wrong, don't address their comments", because why keep a dog and bark yourself?

I mean, obviously because the policy of the journal and good practice is that the editor must appoint reviewers. But, given it's the journal's policy to have a dog, it's kind of also the journal's policy to trust (most of the time, and unless there's good reasons to the contrary) that it knows what it's barking about.

@SteveJessop: Exactly. A referee should have  received a precise question and should try to give a precise answer. In this case the answer is not precise enough. I tend to blame the Editor for that. In "my" journals this would mean either a follow up question from the  Editor or rejection.

In journals for which I have reviewed, the reviewer instructions explicitly ask for a recommendation for whether the article should be published in the journal.  Yes, ultimately, the editor decides, but it is the reviewers' job to help them do so.

@markvs It isn't precise enough? OP didn't copy the entire list of comments, but I'm not sure how much more precise you could be.

It is a precise answer to a precise question

Is everyone involved a native English speaker? If not, then the perceived tone is probably not related to the actual intention of the reviewer.

I'm not a native English speaker, so please forgive me if my question sounds dumb. Isn't a gatekeeper exactly what reviewers job actually is about?

IMO it's the reviewers job to decide whether a paper is suitable for publication, and the editors job to decide when/whether it will acutally be published, taking into account the recommendations as well as other factors (number of recommended papers, number of papers that can be accepted, upcoming "special issues" on trending topics, ...)

Yep, this strikes me as perfectly normal. They delivered their opinion in a clear way that also suggests what their recommendation would be on the next revision. Frankly, I don't even see what you would take issue with. It is indeed a reviewer's job to gate-keep.

Yes, you are being too sensitive.
It's perfectly normal for a reviewer to give their recommendation; the editor may even ask them explicitly for this. It doesn't matter if the editor ultimately decides.
You can interpret:

If the author can addresses these comments then the paper would be suitable for publication.

as:

If the author can addresses these comments then I think the paper would be suitable for publication.

I cannot see how this is inappropriate at all, it is entirely in a reviewer's role to make this recommendation.

it is entirely in a reviewer's role to make this recommendation --- Indeed, many times the review requests I have gotten explicitly ask me whether I recommend publication in their journal, and I think I've always (or at least almost always) let the first sentence of my review be my recommendation, followed either by reasons I recommend not to (rare, but happens) or suggested changes/additions.

and I think I've always (or at least almost always) --- In case anyone is wondering, this part is for all reviews I've written, and not just for those in which the review request explicitly asked me to say whether or not I recommend publication in their journal.

They are not trying to be a gatekeeper. They are actually being helpful to you. They are saying that if you deal with these comments, they won't make any more comments - they will just tell the editor that they recommend the paper for publication.

Yes! @Daweise, I would recommend you celebrate receiving such a remark, since it typically means: "accepted, conditional on this TODO list" (as long as addressing the comments is reasonable)

To add to this, I read that comment from the reviewer to be directed as much to the you @Daweise as it is to the editor. That is to say, please do not email me, I am happy for this to be dealt with at the editorial level.

Although gatekeeping often has a negative connotation, it is the entire purpose of the peer-review process - for someone else to determine whether your work should or should not be published. Even though the editor ultimately makes the decision, a reviewer usually has a role as a gatekeeper by recommending acceptance, revisions, or rejection. I'd say the reviewer is trying to be a gatekeeper, but in a totally appropriate and expected manner which the OP should not be offended by. Peer review without gatekeeping would be to publish everything as submitted, and would be no review at all.

@NuclearHoagie I know what you mean, but I know what OP meant too when he or she used "gatekeeper". I was using the word in OP's sense, to say the reviewer was acting as though it was up to them (not the editor) whether the paper gets published.

I have both had this language used by reviewers on my papers, and used this language myself on papers I've reviewed. It's completely acceptable. And it is the job of the reviewer to assess suitability of your paper for publication. While it is the editor's prerogative whether to accept that assessment, editors tend to go with their reviewer's judgements far more often than not.

You Are Accurately Sensitive: The Reviewer is Gatekeeping. But You Are Also Inaccurately Sensitive: The Gatekeeping is Legitimate.
The comments do reflect the reviewer's sense of gatekeeping. Meanwhile, your own tone suggests that you think that reviewers do not–or should not–act as gatekeepers. However, gatekeeping is, in essence, the singular purpose of the reviewer: gatekeeping, in the context of review, is quality-assurance. The entire point of a journal's peer-review is quality-assurance. So peer-review, itself, is precisely gatekeeping.

Not only as a quality assurance - we also want editors and reviewers to consider the desired topic scope of the publication and (gate)keep out good papers that are not aligned with the topics this venue intends to prioritize.

True. But the necessity–and even utility–of that clarification proceeds only from the most narrow reading of "quality" as good versus bad. Meanwhile, if a paper qualitatively differs from the venue's intended scope, then preventing that paper's publication, in that journal, would be the fundamental purview of quality-assurance. An extreme and obvious example could be a well-written cookbook submitted to a journal about architecture. There, a key goal would be to publish good articles about architecture–but a more fundamental goal would be to publish articles about architecture.

s/Gatekeeping/legitimately gatekeeping/ in your title, I think.

Hi @einpoklum, I'm not familiar with the syntax of your comment.

@Floyd: This is sed syntax. It means: "substitute the regular expression between the first slashes with the expression between the second and third slashes".

@einpoklum: Thanks a lot. I'm out of the loop, so it's been a decade or two since I've seen that syntax. But I do recognize it, thanks to your clarification.

The goal of the referee is to decide whether the paper is suitable for publication in a specific journal. So the phrase of the referee is normal except the name of the journal is missing. It could be Editor's error of not explaining the requirements of the specific journal.

@Trunk: The standard phrase in a referee report: "the paper is (un-)suitable for publication in X where X is the name of the journal. " The standard question by an editor: "Our journal X has the following standards (say, the best journal in the field). Could you please check if the paper is suitable for publication in X?"

Presumably everybody involved in the process already knows which journal it is for, so adding the name seems not really necessary.

Also one can interpret the reviewer's comments as suitable for publication in general, irrespective of the journal. That may be the case due to technical issues that the reviewer thinks need to be addressed before the paper should be published irrespective of the scope / requirements of the specific journal.

Many journals specifically instruct referees to not communicate any opinions regarding suitability for publication in anything the authors can see.  The decision about publication, of course, is not the referees' to make -- that responsibility lies with (usually) the section editor, and it can get awkward if the messages from the editor and the referees do not match.
Because some journals specifically instruct this way, my personal policy is to not mention suitability for publication in anything the authors can see.  There's always a way to clearly say what I mean without using such language.
However, barring instructions to the contrary, it's not that big a deal to use such language (though if you tick off an editor, you may get dumped from the potential referee list).  Even if the instructions are to not use such language, I believe it's less important for a revision, where the editor has already made a determination that it's possible the paper can become publishable.

Interesting. I've never heard of such an instruction. What field is that common in?

Neurosciences, Neurology ....


text:
Can my co-advisor be from another institution?
I started my PhD program and have finished qualifiers already. I had a discussion about topics with my research advisor. However, my advisor admitted he does not know so much about the topic of my PhD.
Thus I had the following questions:

Can my co-advisor be from another institution?
If so, will this impact my thesis committee?

I am voting to close because we don't know the rules at your institution, and that is what it matters. Why don't you ask your advisor?

@Davidmh most questions here can be answered by ask your institution and your advisor. Not sure this is enough to close a question, especially the second one.

@Emilie: The problem is that the only relevant answer to these questions can be given by the institution. There is really nothing much we can answer except: “it depends”.

Yes, it's common in the institutions that I know. Where I graduated, at least one member of the committee even had to be an 'external'.
That doesn't mean the same applies to your institution. Read your local examination rules and check with your first supervisor if external (co)supervision is possible in your institution and what the implications are.

Can you publish papers/conference with your co-advisor ?

@WizardProgramming Why not? You mean perhaps whether that counts towards your dissertation? Only your supervisor and the statutes of your institution can answer this question.

I will check with my institution.

The only ones who can answer the first question are your school officials.  Different schools, different rules.  Start with your department, and if you don't get an answer, move up to the Dean's office.
Outside committee members (not necessarily co-advisers) are fairly common, and in many cases, required.  Their function ranges from fully involved committee members to someone that gets the dissertation a few week in advance and then appears at the defense.   The latter can really turn into a rubber stamp, where the person doesn't feel like they can provide substantial input without taking the train off the rails, as its too late.  I don't care for those situations.
If you plan to have an outside coadvisor, and its within your institutions rules, I advise frequent communications to your whole committee, with a carefully planned meeting schedule.  So -- basically the same as with a fully internal committee.

As other answers suggest, the answer is typically "yes"; but you should also consider whether it is a good idea to carry out research in an environment in which you can't find a potential advisor who's familiar with your research. Will your current university be the best place for you to grow as an academic in your field? If you find a (co-)advisor elsewhere, you should also be open to the possibility of switching universities altogether. (Obviously there are pros and cons to that - but you should actually weight them.)


text:
Is a Master of Research qualificaton appreciated in Australia?
I feel like they are fairly unknown. Are they considered worthwhile in academic contexts? What about in the health sector etc?

I don't know what this is. Could you give us more details about what it involves?

Well, the general perception is that MRes is conferred on those who started a PhD but weren't able to finish it

In the Australian context a Masters by Research is typically a 2 year research project. I.e., it is intended to be smaller in scale and scope than a PhD (which is notionally 3 years, although often takes more).
The degree to which students do Masters versus PhD research degrees varies quite a bit across disciplines. I have a casual impression that a masters by research might be more common in engineering/computing disciplines, but I could be wrong. In contrast, in my discipline of psychology, almost all research students do a PhD (or start a masters with the intention of upgrading to a PhD).
A few points

Some people do a masters by research if they want to do a PhD but did not do an undergraduate thesis (e.g., an honours thesis). Thus, the masters gives them the research experience that they need to then enrol in a PhD.
Some people enrol in a masters by research with the intention of upgrading to a PhD. This can be a requirement where the student does not meet the entry requirements for a PhD (e.g., grades not high enough). If the student demonstrates good progress in the early period of candidature, they may be permitted to upgrade.
A third group of people start a PhD, but decide part way through that they are unable to complete a project at the scale of a PhD. They then may apply to submit a Masters thesis. Similarly, one outcome of submitting a PhD thesis for evaluation is that the PhD is not awarded but a masters is (this is clearly an undesirable outcome).
Other people simply want to get some research experience, but they do not wish to do a project as big as a PhD.

If you are wishing to get an academic position, a PhD is usually required.


text:
Why do some fields care so much more about citation styles?
On this website, there are 120 questions tagged citation-style, and probably many more without the tag (a search for APA returns 244 results).
I work in applied mathematics, and among my colleagues the general approach to citation styles varies between "it doesn't matter as long as it's consistent" and "I use Bibtex and that's it; frankly I don't even know how this style is called".
Why is citation style considered important in other fields and receives so much interest? What is it that I am missing?

You clearly have never had an article administratively rejected based on incorrect citations.

@StrongBad, but, I think,  "why do journals, confereces, or other publication venues really care?" is the real question.

Many of the questions with this tag are about broader academic writing issues than the actual citation style, and most of the questions with this tag have few upvotes and few answers.  I wouldn't say that the readership considers this to be a particularly important topic.

I think many of the people who ask questions in this tag are students who are being asked to use formal citations for the first time, often for a paper in their coursework or something. Not experienced academics.

@ff524 Then the question is why their teachers have an inexplicable obsession with citation styles and demand a specific one in their assignments.

You can ask the same question for clothing styles. No big deal to you and many of us. But big deal to some. As for the students asking about styles, if you're inexperienced, it may not be too surprising if you get worried about really minor stuff simply because you don't know it doesn't matter to many.

This is also why automated styling systems which are good at obeying the rules (BibTeX, EndNote, etc.) are popular. You put the cite in a location, and it formats the in-text or footnote portion, and it formats the bibliography or endnote portion.

When I started writing my first academic text (master thesis), my advisor e-mailed me a bibtex stylesheet and told me how to use it, and that was that.

@StrongBad I don't even know anyone (in real life) that has ever had an article rejected based on incorrect citations.  That would be utterly unthinkable in my field.

@JeffE happens all the time in my field. If the citations style is wrong, or if the figures are not at the end with the captions in a table of figures, or if you deviate from the instructions in any number of ways.  It is generally not a big deal, the "rejection" comes within 24 hours (usually) and you just fix it.

It's not really a rejection if you can just fix it.

The purpose of a citation style is to provide the reader with references in a standard and legible way. Using a certain style within a research field makes reading and skimming through citations within the field's publications more efficient.
Uniform citation style within a unit of certain field makes the unit's publications look uniform and adds to the quality of the publication, just as good grammar and otherwise good appearance does.
Arguably, a big fuss is when students are learning the correct ways of citation.

There are styles because otherwise it would be a complete mess. I speculate that it has to do with the way archiving and indexing of publications are done in a given library/institution/society, and the type of publications in the field (peer-reviewed articles vs book chapters): in some fields you may retrieve a publication with Journal + Volume + Page, whereas in other ones, you need Authors + Title +  Year + Publisher. So different needs, different styles.

I don't think it's field-specific, but it is related to the type of the publication that you wish to cite: to identify an article, you need journal+volume+page, and to identify a book, you need title+year+publisher.


text:
Do tenure-track search committees using mathjobs.org receive revisions to job applications after the initial submission date?
this is a somewhat specific question aimed especially at people who have experienced in serving in tenure-track search committees that use Mathjobs.Org.
Many of the job descriptions say something in the lines of "Review of applications will start on 1 November" (or any other date) or "For full consideration please apply before November 1", etc.
The question is: I am waiting for a couple of papers to be accepted (already have reviews, but no official acceptance since the editorial process sometimes takes longer). I know that applications can be updated in Mathjobs. Do the committees print all the Mathjobs application on November 1, or they look at them online? I'm asking because if I update it, say, on November 15 (suppose a paper is accepted by then), then maybe the won't even look at the updated version and only at the old one. On the other hand, if I don't apply now and wait until Nov 15, maybe it will also be ignored since it will be too late.
Do you have any particular recommendations?

If you already "have reviews" then you're further along than "submitted" even though "not accepted". Be sure to indicate that in your application.

But how would you word this? It can happen, and it does happens from time to time, that even with positive reviews, the managing editor decides to reject the paper. It can happen even after several months.

Wording would depend on the actual reviews. Perhaps you could quote them (pretty sure that doesn't violate the process). You might say they're favorable and you await the editor's opinion.Are there requests for changes? If not then it strikes me as a little odd that the editor didn't decide when s/he sent the reviews to you.

If you haven't done so already, put your paper on the arxiv. This is good evidence that you consider this work "finished," even if it is not yet fully refereed. People do also occasionally skim the papers of good candidates, after all!

Perhaps say "submitted to journal X: in revision".

I have not seen anyone print any files from MathJobs.org, but only look at them on-line, so certainly any updates will be seen.
Also, even when deadlines are relatively early, it's not the case that the relevant committee or other people are so eager to start looking at files. It's just that when people do start looking, they'd want files to be as complete as possible, rather than there being a reason to have to do another pass, or two, through the whole "pile".
Seeing that papers are "submitted (to X?)" is worth something, though obviously "not as good as" "accepted", status-points-wise.

In our last search the human resources office allowed us to use mathjobs.org but required us to print out copies of all of the applications for their files.

@BrianBorchers, ... amazing, in a kinda bad way.

It's relatively easy to download a set of applications from mathjobs.org as a huge .pdf file.  In our last search, the committee members looked at the applications in that way rather than looking at them online.  Thus in our first round of evaluations we would have missed any updates that were submitted after the deadline.  For candidates that made it to the phone interview stage, we did keep track of updates to the application, but in most cases the applicant sent us an email saying "...  Also, my paper XXXX was just accepted for publication in YYYY..."
Thus I wouldn't count on any update to your mathjobs application that comes after the deadline being seen by the search committee.  If you do update the appliction, you should probably send an email to the search committee chair.


text:
Who exactly is a pseudo professor?
I was recently in a meeting with other university professors and one of them introduced himself as a "pseudo professor". The other, when introducing themselves reiterated that they understand what it means to be a pseudo professor as they have to raise more than 60% of their salary (or loosely pay themselves?). My question then is, who is a pseudo and a 'real' professor? This is in reference to the US higher education system.

Is it possible you misunderstood, or that the person was using the term in a tongue-in-cheek manner? I would be surprised if that term was used as anything resembling official usage.

Does this answer your question? What is a soft-money research position?

This is unlikely to be a formal term anywhere, but a person who does what professors normally do (research, teaching, ...) but without a formal position/job/salary, might well describe themself as a pseudo professor.
Without a formal relationship to a university, they are probably less bound by university regulations, except, perhaps in treatment of students, if any.
Charles Darwin, for example, might be described as a pseudo professor. He had the skills and did the research but wasn't formally related to a university (if I remember correctly).
Industry researchers probably wouldn't so self-describe unless they had some sort of volunteer relationship with a university. "Think of me like a professor, but I'm really not."


text:
How to decode a difficult citation in Wikipedia with "Historical Library"?

Historical Library, V,39,1.

-- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligures#cite_note-89
I came across this (bad?) citation while reading Wikipedia and I don't know how to follow it. Can someone please point me in the right direction?

Note that the text refers to Diodorus who wrote a multi-volume work called Bibliotheca historica, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliotheca_historica.

I've added a link to that reference, crediting this comment. I also redirected "Historical Library" to Bibliotheca historica, added a disambiguation hatnote to the latter, and created a disambiguation page or other uses of the term.

It may help to look at the text that was added along with that footnote, in Sept. 2019:
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ligures&diff=prev&oldid=914851412
You might wish to ask the user who added it, Shack76, by leaving a note on the bottom of their talk page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Shack76&action=edit&section=new
This user was active on this article within the last month, so I'd guess your chance of getting an answer is fairly good.
Yes, by the way, it is indeed a less than helpful citation; it would be good to improve it with more thorough information. I'd urge you to do so, once you've figured out what it is supposed to refer to. You will find the code for the footnote near the bottom of this edit window:
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ligures&action=edit&section=22
If you add any bibliographic information between the <ref> tag and the </ref> tag, and then click the "publish changes" button, it will be a big help to the next person who has a similar question. Don't worry too much about logging in, or about proper formatting; it's relatively easy for an experienced Wikipedian to tidy up the formatting, the hard part is tracking down the information you're seeking.
(Also note a helpful comment from @mkennedy in the comments section.)


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I successfully completed degree called Aspirantura from Russia. is it equal to PhD in Europe and US?
I completed a four-year Aspirant course and successfully defended my Aspirant thesis

By defending "Aspirant thesis" – do you mean that you got the "Kandidat Nauk" qualification?

"equal" in what sense? For whom? In which country?

Related: US equivalents of Russian academic titles

Apparently you don't have a Kandidat Nauk degree (otherwise you should have written about it), so by no means it is equivalent to PhD. Aspirantura without a Kandidat Nauk is not valued even in Russia.

Traditionally, Kandidat Nauk dissertation and degree was almost the only outcome of study in aspirantura. However, completion of aspirantura by itself did not automatically result in dissertation defence and awarding a degree. There were, and there are, a lot of people who do not submit and defend a dissertation while in aspirantura, so they would complete aspirantura without getting a degree. In this case they usually would not even get any diploma. (Some of them would defend a dissertation later, some would outright drop.) There were no final exams in aspirantura, and often no advanced curriculum; and in this sense, aspirantura was more kind of a bureaucratic device that allowed to get funding, give 'legal status' to aspirantura students, not an education institute itself. The main aim of aspirantura was not to give education to students, but to allow them to do research.
However, in recent years, the Russian government (Ministry of Education, I suppose) decided to fit aspirantura into the main framework of Russian Federal Law on Education. In particular, AFAIK, aspirantura students are now awarded some diploma on successful completion of aspirantura. It is not tied to Kandidat Nauk dissertation, and has much fewer requirements, and mainly signifies that some person has indeed studied in aspirantura, and completed some aspirantura courses, and maybe some simple final exam. Even some thesis may be required, but I guess that requirements for such thesis are much lower than for a candidate dissertation.
This aspirantura diploma is not really valued in Russia. (On the contrary, it can be a somewhat negative signal, because successful aspirantura students will defend a Kandidat dissertation and thus will have Kandidat Nauk status, so if somebody has only aspirantura diploma and not a Kandidat Nauk one, this means that they tried and failed). The only use case of aspirantura diploma that I have heard of is when one has to prove that he had received a specific number of years of education, usually when they apply to some position in another country. For example, I've heard it used when one applies to European medical PhD programs. They require that applicants have, e.g., 8 years of medical education (the figures are approximate), while Russian medical universities only provide e.g. 6 years, so additional 3-4 aspirantura years make for the difference.
So, if you only have an aspirantura diploma (and defended some thesis required for this diploma), then it is not a Kandidat Nauk degree, and thus absolutely not a PhD equivalent.
Disclaimer: I do not have any direct relation to Russian science in recent years, so my knowledge is based on rumors and information from my friends, many of whom are still working in scientific institutes, and some study in aspirantura, and so the information above may be not exactly correct.

I am not sure why you think the OP does not hold a Kandidat Nauk title.

@DmitrySavostyanov, I think that if he had Kandidat Nauk degree, he would explicitly mention it. As the question is stated now, I guess that it is much more probable that it is only an aspirantura diploma. Though this is only me guess, of course.

The OP states that she/he has successfully defended my Aspirant thesis. A successful defence means that the Kandidat Nauk title is awarded.

@DmitrySavostyanov, this may be just the final aspirantura thesis defence (I understand that this is a rather recent thing). See, e.g., Приказ Министерства образования и науки Российской Федерации № 227 от 18.03.2016 «Об утверждении Порядка проведения государственной итоговой аттестации по образовательным программам высшего образования — программам подготовки научно-педагогических кадров в аспирантуре (адъюнктуре), программам ординатуры, программам ассистентуры-стажировки», п. 9...

@DmitrySavostyanov, ... Final state attestation (Государственная итоговая аттестация) in aspirantura may be held in form of "defence of graduatory qualification work". But it is not Kandidat nauk defence at all.

@DmitrySavostyanov, for example, I've googled some random aspirantura (of Kazan State Medical University): https://kazangmu.ru/aspirantura/gia , and they indeed require students to do some scientific talk based on their research as a part of final examination, but it is not required that is has anything to do with their Kandidat disseration.

As soon as you defended the Dissertation, the Dissertation Panel awards you the Kandidat Nauk title. It shall be later vetted by VAK (the Higher Attestation Committee), which actually issues the Diploma to confirm your Kandidat Nauk title, but technically speaking you bear the title from the moment the successful defence is announced.
Anyway, as soon as you have a Kandidate Nauk diploma, you can apply to PhD-level jobs in Russia and abroad (including USA). As with any PhD and any graduate degree in general, some people pay a lot of attention to which institution has awarded this degree (e.g. some would seriously consider only applicants with PhD from top-10 universities in the world), and some people/organisations do not have any preferences and are happy to accept any candidate with PhD from a University of Obscure Neverland. Some USA universities may require your Diploma to be notarised and officially recognised, some may accept it with translation you made yourself. You need to check with each University what the rules and expectations are.

In short, the answer is YES. Your "Kandidat" dissertation will be accepted as an equivalent to PhD thesis.
However, if you decide to apply for government service (including jobs at government labs), then the rules may vary from country to country. E.g. if you apply for a permanent (so-called `GS') position in the US, you will have to have your degree evaluated by one of the evaluation services, like e.g. WES. Moreover, you may also be required to have your academic credits evaluated (академические часы из зачётки).
This requirement also applies to contractors and postdocs hired directly by US government labs, but not necessarily to those hired through intermediary private companies (on this, policies may vary from agency to agency).
Some non-government organizations, too, may require official evaluation. They usually will be satisfied with an evaluation of your degree only, and will seldom demand that you also evaluate your credits.
Also be mindful that evaluation of a PhD degree does not always entitle you to a professional license. For example, if you hold (and evaluate) a foreign degree in medicine or psychology, in some countries it still may be insufficient to practice, and you may be required to take a certain number of additional courses and/or pass some exams.

I'm curious how https://www.wes.org/ assesses Russian/Soviet candidate degrees. Specifically, does anybody know even one case when "Kandidat" is equivalent to PhD.?

@KonstantinBurlachenko While it’s not an official evaluation, WES does say on their site that the degree is equivalent to a US doctorate (https://www.wes.org/advisor-blog/credential-evaluations-russian-students/)

It depends.
You can check the requirements of the universities which can provide such PhD degrees. At Stanford (right now and 10 years ago) you need to obtain 135 units (45 courses or research work roughly speaking, 3 credits at Stanford are the 3-month load with 15h/week load.)
Stanford requirements: https://wgetsnaps.github.io/cs.stanford.edu--calendar-2016-01/academics/phd/phd-requirements.html

Typically, in the USA KSA, and China mentality to get PhD you need:

create 3-12 papers in a group of 2-3 people. How much is needed in your field — the best way is to open the website of world-recognized professors in your field check the list of their students check the number of papers
complete 3-10 special courses
write PhD proposal (3-6 credits)
finish qualification exams in the middle PhD and pass it.
make PhD proposal defense and defend it. It will allow obtaining the status of PhD candidate.
of course, all your work should be peer-reviewed (there can be exceptions — you should discuss with your advisor)
of course, some of them should be in the top world journals with A* ranking. (However, how important it is may vary from professor to professor)
what is even more important is to satisfy the requirements of your advisor.
demonstrate that you can work independently in the future, increase the frontier of knowledge, and contribute to research and science. This is a goal of my PhD.
finally, write a thesis.

This is what is called PhD in Saudi Arabia, China, USA at least. The list is mostly informal, and for formal requirements check the university websites of the country PhD equivalent you are interested in. However, as I mentioned Stanford has 135 units. And in USA culture 3 units = 20h/week X 3 months load.
It takes 4-5-6 years to finish a PhD with 60 hours/week of work. If you are extremely talented (on a worldwide scale) maybe you can finish in 3 years. This is from my experience (https://burlachenkok.github.io/) as be PhD student at KAUST - the number 1 university by academic ranking in the Middle East. (Support link: https://www.kaust.edu.sa/en/news/kaust-ranked-1-in-times-higher-education-arab-university-rankings-2023)
If what you did is close to this load — it is a PhD...
The next step if you want to obtain PhD status provide proof and evaluate it with an evaluation organization (In the USA one of them is WES.ORG).
This evaluation organization makes essentially programs match in terms of load.

No, without  a "кандидат...наук" diploma, all this is not enough for a PhD equivalent.

12-15 papers? What field are you basing this on?

"create 12-15 papers" To which field does this refer? For instance, this is most certainly not expected from a PhD student in most parts of mathematics.

As I said it depends on the field. In some fields it is enough to have 3 papers that you did during 5 years of PhD (this means you create a paper every 1.5 - 2 years). In some fields you can create a paper every 6 months - and at a moment of PhD you will have 10 papers

@JochenGlueck I have 11 papers and I am still a PhD student — https://burlachenkok.github.io/cv_kburlachenko.pdf & my field is math optimization mixed with machine learning.  I do not think it depends on the field, but on advisor and research style.

@MoisheKohan I have a practice converting Russian Diplomas to US equivalent (MS degree) via wes.org. What is important is not vision of politics and media, but it’s actual load…At least this is how it works in USA. I do not think PhD matching is something different.

Check for instance students of Stephen Boyd (https://stanford.edu/~boyd/people.html) or Peter Richtarik (https://richtarik.org/i_team.html) or students of Trevor Hastie ( https://hastie.su.domains/index.html ) Number of papers is debatable. I recommend take your field of interest — pick top professor and check profiles of students.

@KonstantinBurlachenko you don't think it depends on a field? Find me a single person with pure math PhD and 15 published papers.

@Mihail I have tried to highlight "How much is needed in your field — the best way open the website of professors in your field and check the list of their students." It depends really on a lot of things -- (1) in some fields (and I have friends in Chemistry(, you need to carry out a complete experiment and it may require 1 year, and for some reasons Simulators are either bad or not complete. (2) Second is that some advisor may allow you to work on long-term projects like 12 months (3) Another thing is if you split work in a good way -- and if you have 3-4 authors you can really progress fast.

@Mihail I had no experience with asking WES.ORG to convert a PhD equivalent. The situation can be complicated because, beyond the academic load, there is a committee member with world-recognized scientists...So it can be more complex with academic ranking conversion...The purpose of this post is only to highlight that PhD is a long full-time job of 4-5-6 years...A large number of publications is the trend of the recent two decades as far as I know...I don't think it's bad or good, it is happening in some fields, and some [world level] scientists as far as I know do not like it...


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Recognition of my diplom degree which is equivalent to masters by Trnava University Slovakia
I graduated from Trnava University Slovakia with a diplom(mgr) in public health which is equivalent to a masters in public health. However I want to equate the same qualification in my country Kenya but the university is is refusing and they don't even want to acknowledge that we studied there. This was long time ago - between 1999-2002 - and it was done through distance learning through a project that the university was operating in Kenya. After 5 year study 14 of us graduated.
How can I compel the university to acknowledge and write a letter to recognise us that we were students there? We have our Diploma and evidence but the university is really ignoring us. Can we sue? I am asking for guidance. It is painful to study hard and get rejected. Even the Slovak embassy here is not helpful after writing many mails they have not followed up to confirm. One of our supervisors wrote to in support and acknowledgement.

Are they still operating in Kenya? International suits are difficult. But local political pressure might be useful.

And why do you need this diploma? Does it affect your employment or educational opportunities?

Dear Buffy, thanks for your question,after our lot graduated,a different university took over and entered as partnership with a local university called Catholic university, the graduates there get the local university degree award,even the course changed.

Can you work it out with Catholic University? An in-person visit with a dean might be the best way.

Thanks Butty for your advice. On your question yes it affects our employment in that in Kenya if you have a foreign degree, there is a recently formed authority on recognition's of foreign degree that have to certify and equate your degree by enquiring with the university and a supervisor of your thesis. In these case the supervisor who is no longer working there responded to the commission well bit the university blatantly refused even to recognise our Diploma..for my case the my Slovak language Diploma had issues with no university seal and stamp compared to my other colleges got.

Butty, the catholic university in charge told us that she work with a different university and can't help on an issue of a different one..

How about going directly to the "authority" and laying out the problem for them?

Are you sure that you this was a real university and you weren't just scammed?


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How much does an undergraduate degree matter for an academic career?
I'm a PhD student, in medical physics at a very good collegiate university in the UK. I did a four-year undergraduate masters' (in physics), and I'm just finishing a four year PhD. I'm now at the awkward stage of applying for grants, junior research fellowships and postdoctoral fellowships -- and I'm experiencing an awful lot of rejection letters, often after being shortlisted and interviewed.
My question is this: how much does my undergraduate degree actually matter at this point in my career? I wrote two articles (on computational biology) as an undergraduate  that were published in  good (impact factor ~5) journals, and by now my publications list has eight items on it (excluding conference proceedings), including a PNAAS article (albeit not first author) and several articles in the main journal in my field. I've won prizes, lectured, and got a teaching qualification. Yet I still keep being rejected for positions that are 'appropriate' for me to apply for.
When I speak to older (successful) colleagues about their experiences, they often drop things like "Of course, coming first in the year at [Cambridge/Oxford] helped me get my Junior Research Fellowship, and even the Tutorial Fellowship later" into conversation, and the vast majority have a very good degree. I didn't do fantastically in my undergrad degree -- I narrowly missed out on a first class degree (69.96%), largely due to one bad exam. I really can't help but think that the reason I'm finding it so hard to get funding is because I didn't come first in my year -- but I'm up against people who presumably have successful publication histories and did.
If there are a large group of equivalent, good, candidates for one position, do funding bodies and interviewing committees look at what's different between everyone? Is the fact that I'm objectively a second-class physicist holding me back? If so, what can I do about it? Or is it the case that these funding bodies do some sort of crazy weighted sum, whereby one-tenth-of-a-nature-paper is equivalent to being first-in-year? How much of a hinderance is it being -- as I was -- in the top 20% of your year, as opposed to the top 10%? Does the importance of your first degree erode over time?
I realise that I should feel pleased to be shortlisted where -- to give an example -- 283 people apply for one position, and I was in the final six. Yet 'feeling pleased' won't pay the rent next year, and I'm really starting to despair. Should I accept that this limitation is always going to hold me back in my chosen career path, and therefore just go and change it?
Aside: I'm also concerned that, being an interdisciplinary person -- an MRI physicist -- I'm going to come across as being "too medical" for a physics position, and "too physical" for a post in a biochemistry department. In practice, my research ranges from Schrödinger equations to talking to cardiologists, and I believe that either location would be appropriate. This, however, is a whole other kettle of fish!

Keep in mind that success rates for academic job applications are usually tiny.  I don't know about your field, but for mathematics candidates in the U.S., you're doing impressively well if you get offers from ten percent of the universities you apply to.  Getting turned down is the default, even for positions that are truly appropriate and a good fit, so you should try not to take it personally.

There are many, many reasons why you could be rejected, but the most important thing to understand is that because anyone with a PhD and a computer printer can easily apply to 100 positions, most reasonably attractive positions get many (dozens to hundreds) of applicants.  One question: You that you have gotten interviews.  How did those interviews go?  Perhaps there is something about the way that you present yourself in the interview that is hurting your chances.

anyone with a PhD and a computer printer — What is this "printer" of which you speak? I haven't seen a paper application in at least a decade.

@JeffE You need a printer to print e-tickets for travelling to on-site interviews ;-)

I doubt it's your undergrad degree, especially given that you're getting interviews.  As mentioned above, it's a competitive field.  Most applicants will have decent publications and teaching experience.  Keep applying, improve your interview technique, make new contacts, do more research, build a more compelling case to get hired.  Good luck!

Can you provide more details about which fellowships you are applying for. There is a big difference between a Welcome Trust fellowship and a departmental fellowship.

I will give some answers from an American point of view (in math), but probably this is widely applicable.  The answer in short is that your undergrad degree means essentially nothing at this point.  It's only role was to get you where you are now.
Now, for some of your secondary questions.

If there are a large group of equivalent, good, candidates for one position, do funding bodies and interviewing committees look at what's different between everyone?

Yes, but your undergrad degree is weighted almost nothing in these considerations.  About the only case where it can help is if someone on the committee knows you from undergrad and has a positive impression from then.  The primary consideration is your research (both how good it is and how good of a fit it is) and expert opinions of your work (e.g., recommendation letters).  Secondary considerations may be where you've published, how active you are in giving talks/going to conferences, impressions of committee members who know you, previous awards you've gotten, and other professional activities.  (I'm assuming the things you're applying to don't involve any teaching.)  Once you've gotten to the interview stage, other things like how good you are at communicating, how enthusiastic you are and how you get along with others come into play, but no one will care about your undergrad degree there.

Is the fact that I'm objectively a second-class physicist holding me back?

If people think you're objectively second-class, it's not because of your undergrad.  Maybe you are, maybe you're not, but it's all about your research and maturity now.

Should I accept that this limitation is always going to hold me back in my chosen career path, and therefore just go and change it?

Only if you want to.  Right now, funding is scarce, there's a lot of competition, and it is hard to get fellowships/grants.  The difficulty varies by situation--some fields have more opportunities than others, and for people who are in between established fields, like you may be, it can take time to find your place.  Almost everyone has to struggle, and it's easy to get discouraged.  It's how you decide to deal with it that's important.  If you want to fight for your place in academia, then do it--your undergrad is not holding you back.  If you want to look for an "easier" career, that's your choice.
PS If you're worried about how fit you are for academia, and it sounds like you are, you should talk to your advisors/mentors.

This answer was just accepted today.  I can only assume that this is because it was so profound and prophetic that it took 5 years of digesting it to truly appreciate it.

There are obviously a range of UK fellowships. But if you are talking about the big ones (e.g., Welcome and MRC), then getting to the interview stage is a huge deal. Don't take this the wrong way, but if you have had multiple interviews and have not gotten any fellowships, you are blowing the interview. For example, from my understanding, the Welcome Trust is willing and able to fund ever fellowship application that they interview people for. While the success rate at interview is not 100%, it is much higher than the initial stages. I am confident that rejections that happen at the interview level have nothing to do with your undergraduate education. Realistically it has nothing to do with your post graduate education either.
Again, it depends on what you are applying for, but many of these fellowships have 5+ year eligibility windows, so you have 5 years less experience than other people. I am curious as too how much your current supervisor has helped with the applications. I would be concerned that the reason that you are not doing well at interview is that you really do not own the project.


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Should I correct a single trivial typo in a submitted manuscript after they rejected the first submission for having too many typos?
I sent a paper to a journal and they replied that there were many typos that needed to be corrected. I tried my best to fix these errors, and, after reading the paper numerous times, I resubmitted the paper. Now, however, I found a trivial typo in a comment. My question is : should I wait for their response or tell them about this typo now?

I found a trivial typo in a comment. Did that typo introduce a new typo in your paper?

@scaaahu No it is an old one which I didn't notice.

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text:
Citing statistical information presented in a table using data from a variety of sources?
How do I cite information that I am presenting in a table (i.e. that I have created), when the statistics I have compiled are from different sources?

As it stands, the question is a bit unclear. Could you make an example table?

Questions about formatting of statistics are off-topic on Academia.SE.

When it comes to citations with reference to a table, I often see it implemented in the APA-style, that is:

table heading above the table

in the table text, there are small letters in superscript (a, b, c...)

the references are named below the table, again with the small letters in superscript, but all in one line

I found this example in the APA Style Blog:

In addition, that blog post offers a different example in which the respective references are placed in their own column: