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Distance learning: taken seriously?
I'm currently in the first year of a six year bachelor's degree aiming for astrophysics. The course is a home/distance learning setup run by the Open University. While I am enjoying it thoroughly, I am aware of the academic politics that can dog professional science. So my question is thus: Upon soldiering on with the degree, then masters, and then PhD, will I be taken seriously within a professional setting given my inability to reference a leading university for my education? Will the format for my studying be "pitied"?
Edit: I suppose a bit more info may help. I'm 27,wife, 2 children, and I currently work as a full time chef, and self employed part time IT technician. I flunked my GCSEs, with no further education. The past 3 years have been a revelation for me, and I have discovered a before unexperienced love for academia; specifically, physics and astronomy. Last year I completed a 1 year OU maths brush up course, which at the time I really struggled with. This year I had a bout of madness and took the plunge for a BSc degree in astronomy. I am now loving the math within the physics so far (yet to hit calculus though!)
PhD, and even masters, is a long way off.  Also, since this original post I've improved my understanding of what a PhD actually entails. So I realise that if I get there, it may well not have anything to do with the OU!

It occurs to me that a lot of my initial queries could have been avoided with a better understanding of the educational and qualification system itself. I now have a greater appreciation as to what a PhD actually is, realising that its a long way off and not necessarily needed for a fulfilling career in research.
I think trying to repair my broken education and fight my way into a worthwhile (and productive!) career is enough of challenge at the moment. There will be plenty of time later for worries concerning doctorates.
It is good to hear that there is at least an open mind towards distance educated professionals.
As has been said, if you've got it, you've got it - you just have to be ready to prove it.

I suppose there's a questionsI'd ask here which might help you get better answers: Would you be planning on staying on at the Open University into graduate studies? I ask, because it'd be a different set of answers if you were planning on staying with OU for graduate studies vs. moving to a more traditional institution.

The OU is a leading university. It is not Oxbridge, but most universities are not. It tends not to be ranked in league tables due to missing data from part time students, but performs well on both the NSS and RAE which are big factors in league table rankings.

Distance-learning students report retaining and applying less than face-to-face students
Students overwhelmingly report retaining and applying less from online courses versus face-to-face courses.
http://74.220.215.89/~businfm5/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/2012-ABC-Waner.pdf

However, this may be due to a difference in factors other than distance learning.
Irrespective of why, there is an overall perception of lower value created.
Distance learning creates value, and may still be the best option for many students
Some students live far from institutions that offer degrees in their desired fields. Sometimes the closest institution of higher learning may be 100's of miles away. Even if there is an institution nearby, it may not be well suited to the students' abilities. Distance learning provides students with options they would not otherwise have.
Is distance learning taken seriously?
Distance learning is not as respected as face-to-face learning. However, it may provide credentials that otherwise would not be available to successful people who carry gravitas that they have earned through means other than that education.
If you want your education to be taken as seriously as possible, you should prefer getting your degree at a brick-and-mortar institution and attending classes in person.
If the institutional gravitas is of less importance than going through the course of study and earning the degree itself, perhaps if you require the knowledge gained or the credential on your resume to advance in your job, then the distance learning aspect is of lesser importance.
But should distance learning be taken seriously?
Some distance learners may prefer distance learning because of an inability to stick to the deadlines required in face-to-face classes, and perhaps they perceive the classes as easier to succeed in than a local school.
Others might not have local options available, or their lifestyle (perhaps as caretakers or providers) requires the flexibility that distance learning offers.
It is best not to paint all distance-learners with a broad brush. There is a great deal of heterogeneity in the distance-learning population, and although they have chosen to earn a degree that is known to carry less weight than a face-to-face, each should be evaluated on an individual basis, taking into consideration the reasons and circumstances under which the degree was earned.

"Some distance learners may prefer distance learning because of an inability to stick to the deadlines required in face-to-face classes" most on-line courses still have deadlines, in fact, people who have difficulty with time-management will have a more difficult time with on-line courses.

My own experience of having an open university degree (computer science) is that "it depends on who you talk to".  Some people value the degree highly, others put it at the bottom of the pile.  I've found that the longer I've held it (ten years now!) the more value it seems to have accrued.  This could be to the fact it becomes less and less relevant where your studied the more experience you build or the fact that it's become a more accepted route of study since I gained it.
Disclaimer: I work in academia, but am not an academic.  I currently work for a big academic institution and they perfectly happy with my degree.

Makes sense, when you're a new grad it has less status but 10 years into your career all the HR drone is interested in doing is ticking the box "University degree in subject X:"
Also open university is one of the most respected distance learning institutions.

It is true that open universities / distance learning institutions are not taken equally seriously, even if sometimes the work is harder due to the vast number of exercises. Still, in research it is mainly what you publish (and where) and what you are really capable of doing. In this sense, the sky is always the only limit a) if you have the ability and b) work extremely hard regardless of initial studies.
You are also too young to worry about PHDs, MSCs, since you do not know if spending your time studying is more fun to you than working and getting some real money from some real job (after graduating). So, do the best you can for now, keep your grades up and your eyes open and towards the end of your study you will know what you want to do. If you are really good, you will find your way.

I think the Open University is taken pretty seriously in the UK (see also Daniel Shub's comment). People outside the UK may be less likely to have heard of it, but then that also goes for a lot of pretty excellent UK universities.


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Why do universities require official confirmation of scores before admission?
Why do American universities want official GRE/TOEFL scores before admission? It seems to be a waste of time and money for prospective applicants. They can easily use the scores claimed by students in first stages and ask them official scores after admission.
On the other hand ETS can send official scores directly to universities electrically via Internet without additional cost.

I'm not sure I get your question. The admission is based on these grades. How can they admit w/o the official scores?

I think I understand the question. Let's say the student has score 980. He can put in 980 in the application form by himself. If the school decides to accept him, then he notifies ETS to send the official score. The student can save a lot money this way. It could be a big deal for the students from undevelopped countries. I remember I had to spend my three month salary to buy USD$ to send request to ETS just to send TOFEL/GRE official scores four decades ago.

You have to pay money to apply to a university?!

Randomly selected from Google results. The Graduate School application fee is $60 (U.S. dollars) for domestic applicants and $75 (U.S. dollars) for international applicants.

Also, for GRE scores, Your test fee entitles you to send up to four free score reports to graduate institutions  and Additional score reports (ASRs) can be ordered for a fee of US$25 per score recipient. This is from ETS link

I can't help myself but this question is more a lament than a question, and can hardly be answered objectively. This is IMHO primarily opinion-based... However, I do understand your pain, and I would agree that it's stupid. OTOH, they schools make it simple for themselves, they presumably just don't care about your money, and likely don't care about students who might not have the money. That's my feeling. God bless America ;)

As someone applying to graduate school in Canada, currently:
I have been asked to send my "unofficial transcript" by almost every professor I have encountered. I believe to get a copy of an official one would take more time and would cost me around $10 a piece. That being said, to even APPLY to university it's around $90-100 per application, and I believe my university charges to send transcripts as well.
I guess they all need to make money somehow... again the students get shafted.

It would be more efficient if ETS can have system like IELTS which allows anyone to verify the score online. Process is as follows: 1. You get your score card which include its unique id
2. You send a copy or pdf of your score card to universities that you apply
3. They verify your score if they like via IELTS offical website using score id. For God's sake, is it really so hard to make it? or money is so sweet. Today, sending a score to an institution cost 27$. If I decide to send my score to 10 university after exam, it will cost more than the exam itself which is ridiculously expensive

The problem is that many students will resort to cheating, if necessary, to secure admission to graduate school. Just about any method or loophole that can be exploited will be. For instance, when I was an undergraduate in the 90's, one of the graduate departments stopped admitting students from China for several years because they had multiple instances where applicants had stand-ins for interviews to determine their English skills. Similarly, at my current school, we have recently had a rash of applications come in with faked English competency certificates.
Therefore, American graduate schools (and programs in other countries which ask for test scores) are increasingly (although not exclusively) relying on officially submitted documents. Scores reported directly from the College Board would presumably be less likely to be subject to manipulation.
As far as why not just ask for a paper copy: American departments usually only have one admissions cycle per year. Therefore, admitting someone who is ineligible because of fraudulent documents usually means denying someone else who is qualified the ability to be admitted. Therefore, schools want to know that the students are officially eligible before they are admitted, and will not hold up the process until later. Schools that do rolling admissions likely do not have this problem, and could perhaps use the method you have suggested.

It would not, in the long term, save any money. ETS funds its operations by charging for various aspects of testing, and they have found out how much money they can charge, on average, per student for various types of tests.
If the average number of test reports requested per student dropped, they would increase one or both of the base cost of the test or the cost per additional report to compensate.

You suggest that your grade-reporting method is better.

They can easily use the scores claimed by students in first stages and
  ask them official scores after admission.

It is true that you will save your money by self-report the score. And some univeristy, say Iowa state U, adopt such policy. However, it will cause trouble for the university because some students may report wrong score due to various reasons. If the university find out an admitted students have reported wrong score, they face a dilemma: continue to admit him? or admit others?

I disagree with this reason. The school can ask the student to submit the official score before they officially admit him. They could put a statement in the acceptance letter, say contigent upon receiving official score by certain date.

Which sentence in the reason do you disagree?

they face a dilemma can be easily prevented.

It would make much more sense if you could allow the university to check the score on the official web-page, using some password unique to you. But then GRE would earn less money, right? This is not going to happen :D

@tohecz I absolutely agree with you. Or ETS can electrically send the score for universities that students wants.

But the number of offers is typically limited, isn't it? By available fellowships/TA-ships and such. It's risky for schools to go with this method and possibly end up with too little financial aid to go around.

Almost all universities have admission process for Fall/spring every year. Considering the fact that thousands of NON-US students apply to Universities; It is practically impossible for individual university to ask for student's GRE/TOEFL score directly to ETS or take from it.  Let us consider cases to understand it in totality.
Case (A) Student sends his/her score [No involvement of ETS]
Student can send Whatever Score He/She wishes. Suppose that Score got accepted and is Fake. If the same University receives 100 such applications then it would be tedious task not only for the universities but also for the ETS management. 100 applications is small number for that particular University but What about ETS??? ETS is the only authority that issues official score. There are 100 more such university in US. If ETS starts replying to 100*100 such fake request; we can easily imagine the man power that could be needed. The most important point here to remember is TIME. Every university has a time limit for considering applications. If ETS Starts evaluating all such Queries;it will be a chaos.
Case (B) Student sends his/her score [ involvement of ETS]
As ETS is already involved right from the first step then there is no chance of fake score getting reported to university and the whole Process is transparent and efficient.

Finally Why will ETS not send the Score Electronically to respective University ?

Suppose you request to send the Score Electronically to University of your choice. If ETS allows this for free then there are 100% chance that you or anyone will send it all universities as the cost is NULL. In order to avoid Denial of Service to the students that really deserve admission this becomes necessary to keep such a system that currently Exists

" Suppose you request to send the Score Electronically to University of your choice. If ETS allows this for free then there are 100% chance that you or anyone will send it all universities as the cost is NULL." Why would anybody send the scores to a university to which they are not applying to? Individual application fees, typically around $80-$100, also serve as barriers to entry.

You would think that it will save you a lot of money if the school ask for official school only if they have intention to admit you, and it shouldn't be difficult to do for the grad schools.
Well, indeed this can be done, and is being done by a lot of programs.  However there are complications and many programs don't do it that way.
First of all, you get four scores to be sent out for free when you take the test.  Even if you apply to as many as 10 schools, that may be enough to cover all the schools that do ask for official GRE/TOEFL scores upfront.  This is intended to be a primary channel through which you are reporting your scores.  It will be a significant cost if you apply for 30 schools, but I don't really see the point of doing that.   Of course, that would require you to do your homework early and figure out which school to send your scores to.
Second, that adds one more phase of admission process.  You have to understand that by easing your financial burden (which isn't even the main cost of application anyways.  just think about how much application fees and tests would cost you.), schools have to put in more work, with no apparent gain on their part.
If your financial constraints are preventing you sending the scores, you can always write a letter to the program you are applying for.  As an international graduate student, I can tell you that many institutions did give me waiver for official scores before admission, and some even waived application fees entirely.
At last, in some universities, there are two separate entities that are processing these applications:  the graduate school and the department.  Sometimes the graduate school have minimum requirement policies for GRE or TOEFL scores and until you can prove your eligibility, your application cannot even be transferred to the department, where the decision is actually made.  If that is the case, it would be impossible to waive unofficial score until admission.

As all of us know this is only a game to gather money from poor applicant. The application fee of American universities are high enough to prevent non-serious applicant from sending application.
ETS can provide for each student a secret key. The student enters such key in application system. The university can use the key to retrieve the authentic scores of each applicant, if it is necessary. This is just one possible solution among a lot of other practical hassle-free approachs.

The cost of processing applications is very high. The policy of asking applicants to pay something for applying may sound inequitable, but it ensures that nobody will apply "just for fun".
In a private university where I worked years ago, the simple fact of asking for the payment of the stamps (roughly 5 euros) used to send the results of the process lowered the number of applications by more than 20%, without lowering the quality of the top applications. This is a huge saving on the cost of the process.

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Statistics PhD - Sending the math GRE score
mGRE is only recommended when applying for a Ph.D in statistics.
But obviously sometimes it's better not to send a score than to report a bad score.
Stanford, which is the only place that actually requires mGRE, post that their average is the 82% quantile. But this also includes graduate students in probability, with much higher level in mathematics.
How would you cut the threshold between send/not send/indifferent?

Does the website provide any other statistical data, like maximum, minimum, or standard deviation?

Nope, just that it's 82%. And stanford program is way above all the other statistics programs in the world.
https://statistics.stanford.edu/academics/admissions-frequently-asked-questions#avgGRE

If they require it, they do not leave you a choice though so you should send it.

If you do not have the required math background, you should not attempt the program that would be way over your head, and that you will drop out of having failed the qualifying exams one or two years later. *Way above * is an overstatement, although of course most meaningful rankings will put Stanford on the 1st place in the US. However, if you want to do social science statistics, you would be better off at UWashington or UCLA, and if you want to do something Bayesian, at Duke or Harvard. It may be difficult to get through in these programs, too, if you math is not so strong, either,  though.

It really depends. Obviously if the score is required you need to send it. If you are applying to top programs, a 68% at anything is not going to help your case so I would not send it if it wasn't required. At lower ranked schools, a 68% might be okay, but again it is probably not going to impress anyone. I would probably draw the line at the 90th percentile for providing something that is not required.

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Addressing research of faculty members in statement of purpose
Is it recommended to refer to research done by specific faculty members in a department in the SOP for graduate school admissions?
Does it not imply that you are interested in their research ONLY and thereby reduce your chances in case they don't have funding or had already other applicants/students who wanted to work with them?
If it can be beneficial, how can one address specific faculty research without limiting the audience of their application to them? (More specifically, consider physics PhD programs in US).

See my answer to a related question.

Thanks @JeffE. I read your answer once again. Please correct me if I misconstrue your answer. Is it recommended to explicitly mention the faculty members' papers which I have read before or I am currently reading?

I don't think just mentioning papers is particularly useful; anyone can use Google to get a list of titles.  But including a few sentences about why a particular faculty member's papers or research program is relevant to your own research interests is definitely worthwhile.

Invaluable +1 @JeffE


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Chances at funded cs PhD with high GPA and GRE scores but no research experience or professor connections?
I see a lot of questions about grad school prospects with poor grades and/or gre but what about the prospects of getting into a funded PhD program with no research experience or professor connections but good grades and gre quant (3.9 and 165 respectively)?
I graduate in December (BS CompEng from 2nd tier US college) and don't really have time to get interested in undergrad research (though i'd love to but I can't afford to quit my job).  If I just blanket applied to the top 20 CS PhD programs do I have a good chance at picking up decent funding (say $18k+)?
Also is there an online resource to profile what kind of applicants get accepted to which schools?
Edit: I received some good advice but no one has responded to my original question: can I get into a decent funded cs PhD program with good grades and gre while lacking research experience.  I can certainly ask my professors to write letters of recommendation and 'top 20' is a somewhat arbitrary number.  I would really be happy in any school that is actively outputting interesting machine learning or combinatorial optimization research.

A 365 GRE score doesn't make sense. Do you mean Q = 165? And were you working part-time or full-time?

Yes Q:165.  I've been working at an IT internship 16 hr/wk for a 1 1/2 years.

"No professor connections"?  What about your professors from college?

what I meant is I don't really know my professors beyond the classroom since I haven't done any kind of research.

@anthonybell you could always approach three professors in whose classes you performed exceptionally well. You could even ask for a letter from your internship manager, as they can speak of your work ethic.

Do you think that 3 letters from professors I only know from class would help my chances at getting into a decent funded phD program (I was thinking machine learning or combinatorial optimization)?

Your big challenge—and this would be true regardless of the field—is that you have no "professor connections." This is a major challenge for you, because one of the most important parts of a graduate application is the letters of recommendation. If you don't have people who know you and can vouch for your capability to be a successful graduate student, you're going to have a tough time getting admitted to a graduate school, and especially top-20 programs.
The good news is that in most science and engineering graduate programs, if you do get into a reputable program, you should be able to get a guarantee of funding (either as an RA or TA) for the length of your graduate career (assuming you make "normal progress" and are a good departmental citizen, etc.). I would be leery of accepting an offer from a school that doesn't make such a commitment!

Do you think it is better than to enter into a masters degree part-time and foster research experience and connections then to try to jump straight into a phD program?

I don't think I can give you an informed answer on the wisdom of a part-time CS master's; I come from a field (engineering) where it's pretty much full-time or not at all. I hope one of the CS people on the board can pitch in on this.

At least in the CS departments I'm familiar with, there's no such thing as a part-time research masters degree.  There are part-time professional masters programs, but those won't help you get into a strong PhD program.

Can I get into a decent funded CS PhD program with good grades and GRE while lacking research experience.

Yes

Will I get into a decent funded CS PhD program with good grades and GRE while lacking research experience.

Apply and find out.
Graduate school applications at the highest level are strongly biased random processes. For the good programs, there are always many more qualified applicants than available positions. Many times it boils down to which professors are looking for candidates who are strong in certain subfields, and that changes on a yearly basis.
If you want to go to graduate school in your field, put together the best application package you can (great letters of recommendation, well-written research statement, etc.), and apply to a range of schools that meet your criteria for "school[s] that [are] actively outputting interesting machine learning or combinatorial optimization research." Don't be silly and apply to only the top schools (no one is guaranteed acceptance), but don't feel shy about applying with excellent grades, scores, and letters.
If you're concerned that you'll be throwing money away by applying, there are times in life where you do have to take risks in order to proceed, and spending application money may be one of those times. However, this: "If I just blanket applied to the top 20 CS PhD programs" is a bad idea and almost certainly a waste of money.
If your concern is more "should I spend another semester/year getting some research experience to be more competitive," well, that's a bit more nuanced. It can't hurt, especially if you do well in that research (either publish something, and/or demonstrate to a professor that you have good research potential). Are you the perfect candidate now? No. Will you be competing against other students who don't have research experience? Yes. Do students with quality research experience have a better chance of being accepted? Yes.

authors: محمد العبدلي


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Is there a difference between an "update" to a scientific paper vs. a "new" paper in a scientific journal?
I have been doing research with a professor of mine pertaining to the topic of a well-received paper he wrote several years ago. The original paper discussed a computer program that the professor wrote. The research I am doing consists of adding new features to the computer program and broadening the scope of what the program does. The work does not change the basic premise of the paper, but rather expounds upon it and adds new applied programming concepts that have broader implications for the field. The professor wishes to publish the results of our research as an "update" to his previous paper, using the same format and information as the original paper, but with new information discussing the features being added.
Is this a common practice in academia? How are "updates" to scientific papers handled when submitting to journals? Will the paper be considered the same paper but only  republished with a new title and date or will it be considered a "brand new" paper of which I will have co-authorship?

Pure updates are not a common practise in academia, it may be common to specific fields. If there are signficant improvements to the science it may warrant a "follow-up" publication that should provide something significantly new to be published.


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What do I do if a university does not inform me of my masters application status?
I have applied to a Canadian university to study a Masters degree starting Fall 2013, and they didn't accept or reject me, the online application clearly states that I will get notified by an email of their decision and I am pretty sure I didn't receive any emails from them (yes, I check my spam folder everyday).
Do I have any recourse for recouping my application fee? Whom do I contact for this information?

you can start by trying to contact them and ask what happened with your application, and why they haven't contacted you despite the application states otherwise.

The application states is still "UNDER REVIEW IN DEPARTMENT" I will try to contact them, but the idea is that they did not fulfill their part of the deal (That is replying to me by an email) so I want to know if anyone faced such a situation and did he/she take any measures to get refunds and what happened?!

You probably can take them to small claims court and sue for your application fee to be returned. You might even "win" and get the $100 or so back. I doubt they have caused any damages to you.

@ Daniel E. Shub well other than sever headaches caused by application filling and recommendation letters acquisition and postal services to send them my transcripts, TOEFL and GRE report cards, no they didn't cause much damage.

Surely this could have been cleared up if you had sent them an email months ago and politely asked about your status.  A court might say that's what you should have done, it's called mitigating damages.

Whatever you do, don't start by threatening them with a lawsuit.  You could try asking for a refund of the application fee, and maybe they'll give it to you.  However, you'll probably have to explain why you didn't ask them about it while there was still time to fix the problem.

One possibility is that they have the wrong e-mail address on record.

@Joel Reyes Noche I have received emails from them confirming recipient of application fees and for starting the online application.

Do you live in Canada? If so, how close to that university?

Also, did you actually remind them - by phone and/or in writing - about your application? Maybe "the dog ate the letter" which they were about to send you?

There are multiple questions that remain unanswered here:

Did you meet all of the deadlines for the admissions process?
Did the people who wrote your letters of recommendation send in their references on time?
Did the school promise you a reply-by date?
If so, why did you not contact them at that time?
Did you get an email confirming that the application was complete?

If any of those were missing, then it's entirely possible that you didn't have a complete application—in which case, the school is not necessarily required to do anything, because they don't have a complete record to consider.
Moreover, a lawsuit is a horrifically bad idea under the circumstances—it's far more time-consuming and expensive than anything you're going to get back from the school. It's a waste of your time and money (unless they rather unlikely made written promises of admission, in which case they may be in bigger legal troubles than just having to return an admission fee).

I will answer your questions one by one (1)Yes I meet all their deadlines (2) Yes the reference letters reached the university on time (3) No they didn't give me an exact date, they said that they will inform me with the decision they make by email (logically before the semester starts) (4) I was patiently waiting for their email (5) I got an email that confirms my application fees payment and the online application status tracker says that my application is complete, and currently being reviewed by the department.


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Using color in figures for economics journals
Is it common for economics journals to publish figures in color online and black and white in print? If so, would it be best to submit the color version? And, in the color version, should I differentiate lines in ways other than color (making the color differentiation helpful but redundant) so that the differentiation is still clear if the reviewer prints the article in black and white?

Related question: Does careful selection of graph colors in a manuscript have any positive impact on reviewers?.

Another closely related question: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/44640/monochrome-vs-grayscale-in-scientific-journals/44642#44642  And to quote my answer in that question: "[CENSORED] monochrome. That is so 20th century."

OK--I see how all of those are related, but it's clearly not a duplicate question as I'm asking specifically about submission norms for economics journals, not general best practices on color usage in papers (though obviously I find that interesting also). If you think it's too specific of a question or not appropriate for academia.se, that's fair enough. But it's not a duplicate.

Read the author guidelines for the journal you intend to submit to.  Within any field there is variety.
But always assume the paper will be read in B&W, and make it fall back gracefully.  This may be by the reviewer, or it may be by a reader who prefers to work on paper and has easier access to B&W printing.  This also goes quite a long way towards making it accessible for colour-blind readers.
"Helpful but redundant" is a good description of what the colours should be.  Note that if there is a print version with monochrome figures, the journal will probably require that it's useful n that format; I've never come across journals that will accept two versions of the same figure (but I'm in a different field)


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Visiting professor opportunities for PhD candidates
In my field, economics, I occasionally see opportunities for ABD PhD Candidates to apply for one- or two-semester visiting professor positions (presumably as sabbatical cover). I have only ever heard of two such opportunities, and each was through an email forwarded by our graduate adviser. Are these positions advertised centrally anywhere?


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Quotations and references in introductions to novels
I am writing an introduction of about three to five thousand words for a translation of a novel. In this introduction, my goal is to explain some of the context of the novel and briefly introduce the key themes within. There have been a couple of doctoral theses about the text and some other relevant work that provides a lot of useful information, so my temptation would be to use these in the introduction and include a list of 3-5 references with the introduction. Then again, it's an introduction, not an academic paper, and I also worry whether including quotations and references might be just a bit clunky for a short introduction. I could just ask the publisher directly what they would prefer, but I wanted to get a general, community sense of best practices first.
Should I include quotations and references in an introduction?

It's "not an academic paper" in that I'm not submitting it to a journal. But I would still classify it as academic. The translation is being published by an academic press. I did the translation as an academic pursuit, with no financial remuneration. Similarly for the introduction, it is an academic introduction to a text that will be included in university coursework. All of this to say that your contention that this is off-topic is non-obvious to me. Could you point me to a guideline or a meta post that would support your contention?

I would recommend thinking about the prefatory material like the introduction to a journal special issue: it's entirely reasonable for such a work to have its own meaningful content and own set of references, even though the work as a whole is strongly dependent on the larger work to which it is attached.
I would thus recommend writing up the introduction just as you usually would, with ordinary references , etc.  You can consult with the publisher to see if they want you to use a special style for references.  If, for example, an explicit references section is deemed ugly by the publisher, they may still be happy with footnote-style references or abbreviated references inline with the text.
Ultimately, remember that one of your key responsibilities as an academic writer is to make sure that your reader has pointers to all of the material that they need in order to be able to interpret a work in context, whether that be through standard references (i.e., "[Whirlygig, 1987a]") or even the narrative itself (i.e., "as Whirlygig noted in their article 'On becoming very dizzy' in 1987, ...").

Thanks -- I agree that those responsibilities are primary and must win out in any battle with aesthetic considerations. I'll write it as you suggest and see what the publisher has to say about it.


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Can one of your letters of recommendation come from a professor in a department unrelated to your field of study?
I took a research writing course at my university (which is required of most students) and did extremely well in the course, winning a writing award for the work I did in that class and having it published in the school's textbook for their introductory English courses. I went on to be a TA for that professor for two semesters afterward and did extremely well, and I think his recommendation would be nothing but glowing.
However, I am an Electrical Engineering major applying for an MS in Computer Science, and while his recommendation shows my ability to write and teach, the work I did was entirely non-technical. Would it still be worthwhile to ask for a recommendation from him, or should I focus on getting more letters from my EE/CS professors instead? I currently have one excellent letter from my employer (a small company that I worked for a little over a year during school, was able to lead development on a few projects and teach some people, mostly industry), but sadly don't have a good enough relationship with enough of my other professors beyond "got an A / did well on some projects".

You say that you "currently have one excellent letter from my employer". Can you clarify what type of employer this is, academic or industry?

As long as it's not your own only professor, I don't see any problem. Writing is an important skill even in the hard sciences. No good being able to program if you can't really communicate or explain it, in text or otherwise. It's easy to sell yourself as a programmer to a CSEE person, but to sell yourself as a writer while focusing on CSEE is rare.

And another thing that I just remembered. A big selling point for people is "playing well with others." Stereotypically, all the CS people hang out with other CS people as part of a group. English is definitely being outside of the traditional IT bubble, and a plus in my book.

@SantiagoCanez They're mostly industry – I added a small blurb to the post about it.

And yeah @Compass, that was my hope in asking him for one. Glad to see I'm not too out of line :D

I can't think of how an excellent letter of recommendation from a professor in an unrelated field of study could hurt you. Perhaps if it was the only (excellent) letter of recommendation, maybe then. But you mentioned you have an excellent letter from your employer and can (I assume) get at least one more good letter from someone else, so I think you are in a good position.
You are right, his letter of recommendation would not be about your technical skills related to EE, but it would mention your characteristics, work ethics, teamwork ability in a very good light. Research writing course is also not that far away from EE. It shows you are more diverse than the stereotypical programmer or engineer. You worked with this specific professor for 2 semesters, he could give you an outstanding letter of recommendation. I think his letter will give you more than any single average/solid letter from other professors.

It is always a good thing to have letters from faculty who are wholly enthusiastic about your performance.  However, if the performance is in a different subject from the one in which you're applying for graduate study, their relevance will be at least somewhat lessened compared to letters from faculty in that subject.  One reason that this is true is that the admissions faculty are more likely to know faculty in the same subject personally.  Even if they don't, they have a lifetime of training at evaluating people in the same subject: e.g, when I read a striking letter from someone I don't know, I often look them up to find out their research profile.
It may be that my field -- mathematics -- is snobbier than most when it comes to discounting letters from those in adjacent fields.  But with the exception of physics, statistics and computer science, if I get a letter from someone in a different academic field, they simply can't directly convince me that the candidate they're writing for will be successful in my PhD program because I can't be confident that they know what it takes to be successful in a (let alone my) PhD program in mathematics.  They can convince me that the candidate is a very strong / talented / accomplished student in general, which is certainly a good thing, and what they tell me about their skills in Subject X might make a positive impression on me.  I would be delighted to hear that a candidate was an award-winning writer.  But this would not be a good substitute for a letter from a mathematician telling me that the candidate has what it takes to succeed in my math PhD program.  (And you don't need a faculty letter to list the awards you've won; that information should be included elsewhere in your application.)
So I would say: sure, get the letter from this faculty member in a different subject.  But use it in addition to other letters from faculty in your subject, not as replacements for it.  (In most programs I know, you can freely turn in more letters than are asked for.)   If you really can't find more than two strong letters from faculty in your field -- that's a separate issue, by the way -- then it would probably be better to use this letter in place of a letter from someone who is not going to rate you highly.  In my opinion you should not use the letter to replace a letter from a faculty member who will say you are strong even though they don't know you well enough to say anything really insightful about you.  We don't need deep insight from every letter: merely being vouched for by someone that we know (at least, by reputation) and respect may be good enough.  "Got an A / did well on some projects" is not actually a bad letter from the right person.

The two relevant points are: 1) you took the course and 2) you had the professor. And may I add a third, you may well get your best recommendation from this professor.
"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth." That is, don't overlook the opportunity to get a very good recommendation from somebody. It's better if it is in a related field, "all other things being equal," but all other things AREN'T equal.
In a graduate school situation, it is quite important that you can (and did) excel "somewhere." That it is in an area close to your field is certainly of some importance, but it's not the only thing. And good writing skills are relevant in engineering, science, or ANY technical skill.
It's hard enough to get good/great recommendations as it is. Don't pass this one by.
Then, of course, try to get good recommendations in your field as well in order to produce a strong, all-around package.

"In a graduate school situation, the most important thing is that you can (and did) excel 'somewhere.'" Having done graduate admissions, I can say with some authority that this is not the case.  The most important thing is to convince the faculty reading your application that you are more likely to complete the program and go on to a successful career than the other applicants.  Excelling in a different academic field is a good thing rather than a bad thing, but -- crudely put -- I'd certainly take an A- math student over a B+ math student who had A's in other subjects.


text:
Is it ethical to give (paid) private tutorials for a student in a module I am TA'ing?
My TAing mostly involves helping students working on their programming assignments during classes.
A student asked me to give him private, paid, tutorials for the module, being concerned that all 'usual' resources to which he has access for free (book, classes, a bit of time outside of classes with me) won't be enough to cover his starting gap in this course.
Is this ethical? In particular, is it ethical from the point of view of other students in the course? They might think he is getting a privileged treatment, if he doesn't tell them I am being paid for that time. Should I ask him to notify them? Worse, they could think I am giving out solutions to him (I won't, but they might not think that's the case).
Should I speak with the professor of the course myself about this? Or could I ask the student to discuss his difficulties with the professor first, and eventually ask the professor himself if I can private-tutoring him?

Closely related: http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/58187/is-there-any-appropriate-way-to-offer-cash-to-a-lecturer-or-ta-for-private-tutor

Did you TA the same course the last year or do you have contact with somebody who did? Maybe some of the students from the past year were good enough to make a good tutor. And maybe some of them would be interested to earn some money in this way. As a TA, you are in a good position to judge who understood the topics well enough to be able to do this.

To clarify, the TA only requires me to attend classes and help students in class. I take no part in grading

Often not; it depends strongly on what your university regulations say; there's a clear potential conflict of interest for watering down the quality of the TA classes. At my university several postgrads got suspended for doing this.

Agreed, no.  You have an inherent power relationship with this student, however minor.  Receiving money as a result of this relationship on top of what's already been paid is unethical.  Last semester's TA is a great suggestion, or you can tutor this student next semester.

Should I speak with the professor of the course myself about this?

I'd recommend telling the student you can't do it, and mentioning to the professor that you were asked but turned it down (to avoid any rumors).  There are massive issues here:

Being paid extra compromises your ability to grade the student's work.  It looks too much like a bribe, and the fact that the student will presumably stop paying you if the tutoring is ineffective (as measured by grades) creates an ongoing incentive to grade leniently or supply inappropriate degrees of help.  Even if you feel you can avoid bias, the apparent conflict of interest is so strong that other students will almost certainly be upset.  Think about it this way.  If the extra money doesn't matter to you and you have enough time, why not help the student for free?  The fact that money is changing hands at all indicates that the money matters to you (as it would for most people), and that is evidence of dangerous incentives.
It could look like you are extorting money from your students.  This is the flip side of the first point: in addition to your incentive to offer too much to those who pay extra, you now have an incentive to offer too little to those who don't hire you as a tutor.  Some students always grumble about how unhelpful their TA is (regardless of the facts), and you really don't want them speculating that your supposed unhelpfulness is intended to pressure them into paying for extra tutoring.
I'd bet this is a major violation of university rules.  Of course you'd have to look into your own case, but I'd be shocked if any university allowed course staff to accept paid tutoring from their students.

I'd be wary of asking the professor whether this is acceptable.  For most questions, asking can't hurt, but here the ethically questionable aspects are so strong that asking whether it is OK could look bad.  If you ask, you should be sure to make your understanding of the ethical issues clear, to avoid giving the impression that you think it's fine and just want to check whether the professor has any objections.
If the student needs a tutor, I'd recommend pointing him towards official university channels.  For example, perhaps your department maintains a list of students who would be willing to offer tutoring.  The important thing is to avoid any appearance of conflicts of interest.  Recommending hiring your friend instead of you is better than accepting the job yourself, but it could still look awkward.  (Students might wonder whether you were receiving a commission or kickback from your friend, or whether securing jobs for friends was enough of an incentive to influence your behavior.)

+1 You could also refer the student to one of your peers who knows the material well and is not TAing for this class or any class the student currently takes.

I also had the feeling that talking to the professor about this required some extra care. Thanks for spelling all possible issues out.

It's too much of a risk of a conflict of interests - even when trying not to, as an insider you might give undue advantages to the student, or, even if not, other students might argue you did. You probably have qualified friends though who could help your student, and you could consider referring your student to one of them (they, too, need to of course check if this is ok under the terms of whatever contracts they are employed by by your university, if any).
Whatever you choose to do, it's a good idea to discuss it with the professor you TA for. Always be transparent, and avoid to be wrongly perceived as trying to hide your actions from your superiors.

I don't think it matters if you aren't grading, this is a big conflict of interest still. It is your job to help the students, so you shouldn't accept money to help some students more than others.
Make an effort to point him to a tutor who is not involved in the instruction of the course in any way.  You don't want to look bad in the eyes of the other students, and you certainly don't want to jeopardize your TA-ship for a few bucks.  You can always tutor students who aren't  in your class if you need extra money.

Yeah my comment above was just to calrify. It looks like this has serious ethical. drawbacks. Also to further clarify I was asked for it by the student.

This came up where I teach, and I was also told that this would be an ethical violation, even for students who aren't in my own classes. As others point out, it raises the possibility that you're giving preferential treatment to the student in question (maybe giving advance tips if you know the form of the exams?). Or the other way around: potentially a person could intentionally sandbag their own classes or TA sessions to generate extra business tutoring on the side later on.
I've heard this come up numerous times in other instructors' classes, and every time the inquiring student gets weirdly argumentative when told that it would be an ethical violation on the part of the instructor. If someone has a good way to de-escalate when that happens, I'd like to know.

"If someone has a good way to de-escalate when that happens": When a student becomes argumentative about something that cannot be argued, like something so unethical, simply cut them off.

and every time the inquiring student gets weirdly argumentative when told that it would be an ethical violation. Well, there's an obvious selection bias here: the students who ask this question are precisely the ones who don't understand/care about the ethical issue. Anyway, if you want to avoid arguments you can just say you're not interested in the tutoring gig. You are not obligated to give a reason.

"student gets weirdly argumentative" -- it's not that weird, you've just accused them of attempting to bribe you to show unethical favouritism! People tend to get defensive when accused of wrong-doing and try to justify what they're doing as not wrong (whether they agree it's wrong or not). Even if you do your best to make clear that they were not to know and won't be held to have done anything wrong in asking, I'm sure there will be many whose instinct is to argue the call.

Perhaps the formula, "I'm sorry, that would put me in a conflict of interest" would be more successful than, "I'm sorry, that would be an ethical violation on my part". I'm just guessing though.

@Steve Jessop: Great comment, thanks. Only point I would make is that our students may not know what "conflict of interest" means and then ask for further explanation. The primary tactic that I've seen somewhat work is to make it clear that the policy is not up to the instructor (and therefore attempting to persuade the instructor is pointless).

@DanielR.Collins: Yes, saying "Sorry, but I'm not allowed to" emphasises that you don't make the rules, and hence there's no point arguing - whereas saying "That would be an ethical violation" can be interpreted as giving an opinion that is open to debate...

I believe for student it might not be immediatly obvious why this is an issue (it wasn't for me, even though I had a hunch and came here). I took the easier path and explained that University policy prevent me from private tutoring. I saw no benefit in actually explaining twisted incentives or ethical issues.

As psmears and Three Diag put it, it is best to refer the students to the official policies, not only because it gives a completely objective solution but also because those who are actually trying to get unfair advantage through money will be given a very clear signal that it is considered wrong by the university (even if they didn't know before).

I see this as ludicrous-- why are you being so overly righteous and saintly?
When close to 80 percent of all faculty are hired as part-time or contingent with little or no benefits, and must cobble together assignments to make a liveable wage, do administrators hold back on this unethical financial exploitation? No, not even a blink! The question should be-- do instructors need to have more ethical or so-called 'conflict of interest' considerations than their administrators? Of course not! Teaching is our profession and obligation (even though we are not treated professionally by many of our employers.)
Secondly, at at least one university where I have taught, the renowned University of Southern California, even publishes faculty members' private tutoring contact information and along with prices on the main university website: http://ali.usc.edu/find-an-english-tutor/
Of course educators are ethical, and tutoring is definitely an ethical enterprise.


text:
How to deal with fear of failure as a PhD student?
I am working on a mathematical topic  that is basically my own concoction. I have days where even the simplest thing takes ages to do and I realize that's because, deep down, I am terrified that things might not work out. This is in different way: I am scared my topic might not be novel enough, appreciated etc. ; I am also scared that checking parts of proofs will reveal catastrophic mistakes.
I rationally realize that this is part of the game and I do my best to take mistakes I find as good news that my work is improving, but at times I am just paralyzed and unable to do things.
I am also bothered by the presence of colleagues in my office, afraid they might judge my work (and at the same time going to a hidden place in the library helps a little but is also very annoying and uncomfortable).
I am sure this must be, to a different degree, experienced by many PhD students.
What are some strategies to fight fear as you work?
Note that I realize there really is a deeper confidence issue and I am already seeking help for that. I'd be happy to hear considerations on the possibility of therapy or counseling and how it worked for you as well as day to day tips and strategies.

See @JeffE's response to this question -- what you're talking about (I think) is imposter syndrome. It's a well-known problem in academia, and you aren't alone.

Thanks, although I'm not sure that's the right thing. I am not scared to be found out as incompetent, I think I am afraid of failing. I can see the two things might be related and will look into that too.

I'll add this -- whatever you're feeling, if it's affecting your work/mental health, I urge you to consider contacting your university's counseling center (if you're in the U.S., there almost certainly is one that's free for students). They have licensed professionals who are trained to help you work through these fears and develop mechanisms for dealing with them on your own even after you graduate.

Thanks, this is a good suggestion, I am in contact with my center and it does help.

What does your supervisor think about the direction of your work and your performance so far? It's their job to support you and guide your work.

"I am working on a mathematical topic that is basically my own concoction" This seems like an unusual situation for a PhD student and may be part of the cause of the uncertainty.

I left the topic out of the question on purpose because that would have required to go into too much detail. Best I can say is: okish

@tobias not in my field which is interdisciplinary and close to economics and students are expected to design and drive their own topics. Albeit, in term of effects I believe you are right.

Failing completing a PhD is still better than never starting one.

To some degree or another, the feelings you describe are common in graduate students (and other people). Here are some comments from around the Internet, for example:

FEAR !!
I self diagnosed this of myself just this week to explain my behaviour for the last 6 months . I called it boredom, annoying , painful etc but actully I am afraid to progress because someone might say”not good enough”.  I am engaged in a systematic review and all I have to do now is read (albeit systematically) but simle right ?
I just applied for some funding and as I drew out my timeline for the project I thought “will I or can I actually do this”? The answer of course is I can but if my will is left up to me I am fearful I’ll self destruct !!!! There I go again fearing!!

(Marese kelly on Thesis Whisperer)

I just can't do it. I've spent the last month rewriting the first paragraph over and over. Yet, it is still not good enough. When I sit in front of my computer I usually feel paralyzed with fear. This might sound bizarre, but it is true. Yesterday I felt more courage than the average day. I worked on my thesis for hours. Yet, at the end of the day, I was still in the first paragraph. I didn't used to be like this. Believe it or not I was an outstanding student. Now I don't even dare to discuss science with my colleagues, I might say something stupid.

(jesuisperdu on reddit)

I have sweated in the fear of failure, and all I can say is that this fear continues even after you have passed the doctorate. In fact, that’s when the fear of failure can be worst! Because now you have to take your research and creative work out of the sheltered workshop of the academy and impress not just a couple of examiners, your supervisor and an academic panel, but people who will put down money (hopefully) into your ideas and research.

(On 100 days to the doctorate & beyond)
Many of the fears described by you and the people I quoted above, are about how you may be perceived by others. One thing that people with this kind of fear sometimes find helpful is to identify when they are feeling fear of being judged, then remind themselves about the realistic standards by which people in their position are judged. In your particular situation:

Nobody* expects you or others in your position to never say or write something that is mistaken or uninformed.
Nobody* expects you or others in your position to have a thesis topic that revolutionizes the field, to win a Nobel prize for your thesis.
Nobody* expects you or others in your position to constantly dazzle with your brilliance.
Nobody* expects you or others in your position to win every award you are put up for, to rack up hundreds of citations on your published work, to get the highest possible scores on student evaluations of your teaching... you see where I'm going with this.

You may also find some of the material in this Perspectives on Perfectionism series helpful. (Even if your fears are not exactly perfectionism, they are similar in many ways and similar strategies may help you.) In particular, the exercises in Challenging my Perfectionistic Thinking (such as the "Thought Diaries") and Adjusting Unhelpful Rules & Assumptions (especially worksheet on Page 8) may be useful.

* Nobody reasonably expects this. There may be some people with unreasonable expectations, but it's really not worth concerning yourself with what they think :)

What you experience is essentially what all grad students feel, though few of them talk about it. I would bet that 3/4 of the full professors on this list felt like that at times when they were grad students, and may still do. I can certainly say that for the first few years of being a professor, I periodically had the thought that I'm just a normal human and that the world would end if my department ever found out -- all while doing, what I believe, good work.
So you're not alone in having these feelings, though you may feel them more severely than others if you find that it occasionally paralyzes your ability to move forward. (Though, even there, I would say that all of us had weeks where we got to work, opened a browser and studied the world wide web for most of the time until it was time to go home.)
The best way to get over it is by talking to others, both your peers and your advisers (including the department's graduate adviser) about these issues. You will find that everyone, even those you think must be sooo much better than you, has these issues. I think it will help you put yourself in perspective. They may also share their own strategies to deal with things.
My strategy if I get stuck on something is to do something else -- work out the part of your thesis for which you already have results, write them up, do the copy editing -- and come back to the open questions when you're in a better place again.

In researcher life there is no word like "Research failure". My supervisor told me that if you try to do something with some methods and you become competent in doing so then you can say that:

This thing can be done in this way

but if you can't accomplish it despite using sound methods, then you can say that

This thing cannot be done in this way, most likely due to these reasons.

In both cases, there is good and bad research and but there is no research failure. In both cases you create knowledge and point out the possibilities and results which are worth considering and approving. You should support your findings in both cases, defend them, accept them and own them. This is an easy way to accept "failure" which is actually your part of your learning and success path.

I realize there really is a deeper confidence issue and I am already seeking help for that.

Glad to hear it!

At times I am just paralyzed and unable to do things. I am also bothered by the presence of colleagues in my office, afraid they might judge my work (and at the same time going to a hidden place in the library helps a little but is also very annoying and uncomfortable).

What you are describing sounds reminiscent of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).  It might be worthwhile to do an evaluation, if you haven't done one yet.  Filling out a symptom checklist to take along to the evaluation can be helpful.  Here is one from Tourette Canada that my family has found helpful: http://www.gapacademy.ca/files/checklist_ocd.pdf
Not all mental health professionals are trained to evaluate for OCD.  The International OCD Foundation can help you find someone with the right training.  Try the "Find Help" section of their website; you can phone them if you get stuck.
As the Tourette Canada factsheet about OCD says:

Possible treatments include behavior therapy like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and exposure and response prevention (ERP), and medication.

For a description of my experience coaching my son in ERP therapy, you may be interested to read this answer.  It's just a small example intended to provide encouragement.
And now for something completely different:
It is sometimes surprising what type of activity can boost a particular person's self-confidence, in a general way.  It's just a matter of trying things out to see what works for you.  Here is some brainstorming of possibilities:

martial arts
theater
being a volunteer tutor
sports
dance
Eurogames
sharing your expertise about something in an online forum
political activism
volunteering for community building projects

The sky's the limit, really.
And finally, the academic side of your question:
Some projects are more cutting edge than others.  You and your advisor may want to think about whether this particular project provides the right level of objective confidence that it will give you a PhD within some reasonable number of years.  It is allowed to postpone a particular project if it feels a little too risky for the particular juncture you are at in your life.
I'll give you an analogy.  If a medical student knows he is bipolar, and knows that being short on sleep tends to trigger a manic phase, he might decide to choose some other medical specialty than, say, emergency medicine, where he may be expected to work at a 24 hours on, 24 hours off rhythm.
Edit:
As requested in a comment, some quotes from the above references:

Obsessions are unwanted thoughts that happen over and over again
  causing a lot of stress or anxiety and ultimately resulting in attempts to
  either ignore the thoughts or to make them go away (fact sheet).

Is unable to get started.
Continues to “doubt” answer.
Reassurance Seeking.

(checklist)

I must stress that the checklist is not designed to be used for self-diagnosis.  It's a tool that can be helpful in an evaluation process.
Having watched my son go through the evaluation process, and from reading about OCD, I learned that one of the things evaluators are looking at is the degree to which the person feels impaired.  For example, a good writer edits and polishes his writing.  But if one is getting stuck often, for long periods -- then the perfectionism might be an impairment, rather than just being an asset.

@Three Diag In addition to aparente001's wonderful answer, you may also want to get inspiration from people who rose from much worse situation than the one you are facing. For that, I'd recommend you David Brook's The Road to Character.

What are some strategies to fight fear as you work?
Answer: I'm an engineer.  Engineers frequently experience concern about performing calculations correctly because death to innocent(s) could literally result from a bad design. Learning how to deal with your fear is in order, either by yourself or with the help of another. You must study your fear and truly find out what the cause is and then evaluate whether or not the fear is rational. What is probable? What is improbable? If you don't find a way to direct and attenuate your fear for constructive purposes, it will eat you alive and perpetual unhappiness will be the end result.

This is probably not an answer to your question, because I am no expert and just want to share some personal experience. Its a little bit long to fit in a comment, so I put it here.
First, let me just say your situation is far better than mine back in my phd years. I was constantly worried about possible failure in my research (and occasionally had panic attack) during my phd study, for multiple reasons: my supervisor did not supervise, but despised me instead (I guessed he expected me to quit soon); my only colleague was one of those entitled top students and despised the idea of working with me; my research direction is decades old and I was supposed to make progress with modern mathematics (I am a mechanical engineer); even my parents expected me to fail. And just because my supervisor despised me, almost all the students in the class I TAed despised me. So you see, all the more worse than your situation.
In China, we have a phrase 众叛亲离, which roughly means you are forsaken by everyone. And this was how I felt for all those years during my phd study. This inevitably had a huge impact on my confidence which was already pathetically low after I was devastated by an extremely low quality undergraduate education. And in China, we don't really have counseling center in universities back then.
I guess I even went crazy for a while, stopped working and started hiking hundreds of miles in the mountains, just hoping to pull myself together. I thought about quitting, and I told this to a much kinder professor than my own supervisor. He told the (maybe one of) most important lie in my life: Come on, you are doing just fine.
What worked for me: After that, I slowly recovered and started working persistently. Its just one sentence of approval (most probably out of kindness), and it worked for me. Now as I look back, hiking also helped a lot: it's not only for having a momentary peace by staying away from the people that have negative influence on you, but also for cultivating persistence (hiking on your blisters is a blessing...just kidding). IMHO, doing phd, for people without talent (like me), is all about persistence. Besides, I may also benefit from lowering myself to a point that does not allow myself to have any excuse of not working hard and persistently. And alas...I also benefited from massaging my supervisor's self-ego, and consequently starting to receive supervision and approval (this might not relate to your case since you didn't say anything about your supervisor).
The story for me ended like this: I got my phd degree using almost six years, from a 2nd/3rd class Chinese university. I didn't get to publish on top journals in my field (in fact I submitted one but it was rejected). I published something on one of the top journals in my field 6 years after I got my phd degree. So I guess persistence does pay off.

Thank you for sharing this with me. It helps to put thing in perspective.

@ThreeDiag No problem 8-)


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Petitioning to leave PhD program with terminal masters due to illness in family - how should I expect my request to be handled?
I'm currently debating whether or not to stay in a PhD program. My mother  was diagnosed with a potentially terminal cancer last week. While I'm waiting to hear back from further analysis/prognosis, has anyone had any experience with this type of situation.
I'm currently in my second year and would very much like to leave with my masters. In my department, you have to "petition" to the department to receive it and its pretty much up to the sole discretion of the faculty members. Are they likely to give my masters, considering I have been in the department for 2 years? What type of information can they ask me for? Can they ask for certification of my mothers illness? When should I tell them?
Thanks.

Have you completed the necessary coursework that you would in any other case have completed a non-thesis masters minus the comprehensive examination? Mind you your committee are still people, they will understand if you must lengthen your PhD studies for such reasons. In other words make sure to talk to someone.

I've completed all my necessary coursework and have passed my comprehensive written defense (the equivalent of the comprehensive exams).

I'm guessing they will probably grant it to you given the circumstances. However; should you be interested, it's quite possible that you'd be able to get an extended leave of absence as well which would allow you to come back and complete your PhD later.

How could you even start on a PhD without having finished an MSc?

Many departments accept students without MSc - usually these students have extensive research experience or are  naturally gifted.

I would do the following:

Talk to supervisor: First of all, you need to talk to your supervisor about this, and see how much leave you can get. Very unfortunately, I see this every year many students have the similar situation.
Aim for 6 months leave first: You shouldn't just drop the whole thing. I would suggest you to take a leave for 6 month, and then extend it if necessary.
Don't Lose Touch: I know it is a hard time, but do not just drop the whole thing completely. You can still read about the subject you are working on. Through university's VPN, you can still read research publications and be up to date.

Little Note on Big Picture: We all go through these sort of issues somewhere in our life time. We shouldn't make career suicide, or get into hard medication through drugs because one of our family members is passing away. We need to be strong, somewhere in our life time our parents pass away; and even though it is sad and hearth breaking we need to carry on and keep fighting.

In addition, there will be someone in the department who does the administrative work for the graduate students. That person will know the rules, and the right paperwork to file for exceptions to them.

@PatriciaShanahan The person you mentioned, is better to be contacted by the supervisor for the authenticity issues and reaching a faster resolution overall.


text:
Which preprint repositories assign DOIs for free?
ArXiv.org does not assign DOIs to its preprints, but ResearchGate does. Are there other preprint repositories that assign DOIs for free?

@TheGuy Yes, I've assigned them to my own preprints. See: ResearchGate DOIs. Try adding a preprint here; it should let you assign a DOI.

Why do you want a DOI on sth. that is not 100% final? They are unique and permanent, so you're supposed to keep the target available in perpetuity.

@Karl According to ResearchGate, "DOIs help you: • Make your research citable. • Put a date on your discovery." Also, RG's "DOIs can be generated for most of your unpublished work."

@NajibIdrissi I was thinking of asking: "Which preprint repositories assign DOIs for free?", but then I thought it might be closed for being a request for "lists".

I suggest editing the question to essentially "where to obtain a DOI for a preprint for free?"

Although meant for data, the Zenodo repository assigns free DOIs. Nothing hinders one from uploading PDFs there.

Biorxiv (the main life sciences preprint server) gives DOIs.

arXiv assigns doi automatically since January 2022. And, all earlier articles have been assigned dois.
New arXiv articles are now automatically assigned DOIs

No preprint server should be charging authors any fees for DOIs? I would also +1 for BioRxiv or the Open Science Foundation has 18 different subject-based preprint repositories that might fit yours.

Zenodo is a repository that assigns DOIs for free. You can access it via your GitHub account or ORCID ID.

There is a community-curated list of preprint servers, and it takes note of which identifier is assigned to content - you can filter those by DOI.

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


text:
Top 10 largest private physics research centers in U.S.?
What are the top 10 private companies with the largest (in terms of number of researchers) R&D departments that do research in physics similar to what could be found at a Research 1 university?
For example, IBM has a Physical Sciences Department of their Research Division, located at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center.

What's your field?

@scaaahu: physics, mathematics

There is a related question on Math Overflow about Math.

I have been wondering the same thing about private companies that do CS theory research.

This is very much like asking "what are some schools that have good research efforts in physics or mathematics". Any answer is going to be incomplete, ephemeral, subject to opinion, subject to interpretation, subject to exactly which corner(s) of those fields you are asking about...

I am torn on this question. The answer here will likely be just a long list of private research centres or departments, which neither fits the SE model very well, nor would the answers necessarily be overly interesting.

@Geremia, I think this has ended up on hold because there are a lot more of these institutions than you think there are.  What is the underlying that you are trying to answer by asking this question?

@keshlam: I'm not asking which ones are "good," but just which the major ones are.

I doubt that anyone knows which "the major ones" are. Businesses, unlike academia, don't publish everything they're researching. And "physics, mathematics" covers a HUGE range. What question are you really trying to get an answer to here -- which ones might hire an academic? That will depend on what problems they're trying to solve this month.

It really depends by field and what you are asking about.  There are entire companies just devoted to R&D.  I work at one, BBN Technologies, which has about 700 employees, the vast majority of whom are active researchers. SRI, out on the West coast, is similar and about three times our size.  If you count Batelle, the numbers go up by an order of magnitude, but it's unclear where to draw the line, and that's not even touching biotechs.

So: what do you mean by "major"?  What counts?  Why do you want to know?  I can list off big private R&D groups whose work includes R1-level math and physics all day, but I'm not sure that I could tell you which are the biggest or whether it would actually give you the information that you are really looking for.  There's a lot in the US alone, and that's even before you start considering quasi-private organizations in other nations like TNO and Fraunhofer.

Echo to @jakebeal. What do you mean by largest? In terms of number of research staffs? In terms of money invested? Research output? Also, you need to narrow the question down to locations. North America? Europe? Asia? Or just the whole world? And, does government sponsored org count ? Is NASA one of your candidates (NASA has contrctors)? etc. Without further info, your question is too broad (I am not one of the close voters).

I just voted to re-open because you narrow it down to a reasonable extent. Now it's left to the community to decide. Good luck!


text:
Must one use the © symbol on a book's copyright page when using a CC license?
Most books I've seen released under a Creative Commons license also have the copyright symbol (e.g., "© 2016 by me") plus, sometimes, "some/all rights reserved" listed on the copyright page.
Is it necessary to say copyright on the "copyright" page when using a Creative Commons (CC) license?

The CC BY 4.0 legal-code, for example, mentions copyright in several places, such as:

Our licenses grant only permissions under copyright and certain other rights that a licensor has authority to grant.

and

Section 3 – License Conditions.
Your exercise of the Licensed Rights* is expressly made subject to the
  following conditions.

Attribution.

If You Share the Licensed Material (including in modified form), You must:

retain the following if it is supplied by the Licensor with the Licensed Material:

identification of the creator(s) of the Licensed Material and any others designated to receive attribution, in any
  reasonable manner requested by the Licensor (including by pseudonym if
  designated);
a copyright notice;
a notice that refers to this Public License;
a notice that refers to the disclaimer of warranties;
a URI or hyperlink to the Licensed Material to the extent reasonably practicable;

indicate if You modified the Licensed Material and retain an indication of any previous modifications; and
indicate the Licensed Material is licensed under this Public License, and include the text of, or the URI or hyperlink to,
  this Public License.

*Licensed Rights means the rights granted to You subject to the terms and conditions of this Public License, which are limited to all Copyright and Similar Rights that apply to Your use of the Licensed Material and that the Licensor has authority to license.

Thus, CC licenses themselves require an explicit copyright notice.

Actually, what that sentence says is "If you use someone else's CC material  and if they included a copyright notice, then you can't remove it". Nothing prevents you from releasing your own CC work without the © symbol.

Is it necessary to say copyright on the "copyright" page when using a Creative Commons (CC) license?

It's not "necessary" but it is a good idea. This communicates the information that there is a copyright holder for the work and the copyright holder is licensing the copyright under the terms of the CC license. Using the CC license does not negate the existence of a copyright on the work; in fact, it is only by virtue of having a copyright on a work in the first place that you can license it to others under the CC license if you so wish.
In most jurisdictions (Berne convention), copyright is "automatic" and it is not required to claim a copyright in any particular form. However, people who might otherwise use your work as permitted by the CC license may be put off if your legalese is missing or unconventional.

So, it's "a good idea" for protecting the CC license, because copyright is usually presumed ("copyright is 'automatic'") if it is not explicitly mentioned? Could a "presumed" copyright ever override the CC license?

You're missing the difference between a copyright and a license. You only have the authority to license to others that which you have a copyright on. This is what prevents you, for example, from licensing Windows 10 to others under CC. When you create a work, you automatically own the copyright. That allows you to license the work under CC. If anyone doubts you owned the copyright at the time you licensed it under CC, they might not want to use your work due to the uncertain legal status.

So it is best to include all the pertinent facts: you are the author, you have a copyright, and you are licensing the work under CC. Also, it pays to check that all these are accurate: did you cut-and-paste anything into your project or did others do work on it (uncertain authorship)? were you under contract to produce the work as a work-for-hire (uncertain copyright)? That's what people want to know from a copyright statement, that you've thought about all these issues and the legal status is clear.

@geremia Copyright and licensing are orthogonal. You own the copyright unless you have signed it away. You then choose to license people to use it. So there's no question of one overriding the other. Stating who owns the copyright is useful for (a) reminding people of this, (b) on case there are some jurisdictions where you do have to claim, and (c) to tell somebody who to contact if they want to license a use not covered by whichever CC license you have selected.

@DepressedDaniel Who says "You only have the authority to license to others that which you have a copyright on."? The CC license? Civil copyright law? Both?

@Geremia You'd have to ask on the Law SE for real citations. Most likely in such a situation copyright law would be the least of your problems - in most jurisdictions, you'd be prosecutable for fraud if you licensed intellectual property that you don't actually own.


text:
Interdisciplinary Problem Session hosted by Mathematics Department: Advice
I work in a Department of Mathematics in the Irish Institute of Technology sector.
Funding for mathematics research has been reduced by the Higher Education Authority and between this, a heavy teaching load and other reasons, staff are either not very active or completely inactive in research. There are a number of departments who are very active in their research.
I am interested in exploring the idea of setting up a problem session in the institute where the research community would be invited to present problems they are having in their research that they feel mathematics department staff might be able to shed light on.
At the moment questions I have include:

has this been done in other institutions?
if yes, has it been beneficial to both communities?
will researchers share their problems; will the sessions sustain themselves?
how regularly should such a problem session take place?
should problems be presented at the session and solved in the next session or presented prior to the session?

I feel there are a number of obvious benefits that could come from such an endeavour and I am looking for help in seeing potential problems, etc.
I hope this question, although quite open-ended, is appropriate for this site.
Edit: Regarding the comments below
Thank you all for your help. These sessions would be primarily focussed on staff in the institute and incubated industry. I wouldn't envisage them being of the duration of a workshop: rather just a single afternoons. I am looking at something a lot less formal than the workshops ye survive. I have heard of the ESGI thank you Ruadhaí.

As a non-mathematician, would something like UCLA IPAM Workshops be what you are asking about?

It sounds like a smaller-scale version of Oxford's Study groups with industry, a very successful program that has run dozens (hundreds?) of events all over the world; see http://miis.maths.ox.ac.uk/past/ for a partial list.

You might be interested in ESGI, in Limerick, which seems to do exactly what you ask.

Thank you all for your help. These sessions would be primarily focussed on staff in the institute and incubated industry. I wouldn't envisage them being of the duration of a workshop: rather just a single afternoons. I am looking at something a lot less formal than the workshops ye survive. I have heard of the ESGI thank you Ruadhaí.

From my experience (mostly on the interface of biology): unless you are thinking about something like theoretical physicists, you need to consider that most researchers will not have a good understanding of what mathematicians actually do, and will not be able to recognize an interesting mathematical problem.
This means you essentially bring the mathematicians to a state in which they will be able to identify good problems (with help of the other researchers). This is not easy, but I think it is a more sensible strategy than trying to bring the non-mathematicians to a state in which they can identify good mathematical problems (though you can nudge them in this direction).
Thus, you need to set reasonable expectations with realistic goals. I suggest the following approach:

At the first stage, I would focus on introducing the mathematicians to the field, so they can start understanding the terms and what tools are being used. This will probably get the mathematicians thinking about how to introduce formality and so on. This step is also very important in order to establish a common language for discussion.
Next, I would let the researchers introduce important open problems in the field. These problems don't need to be mathematically interesting - because the researchers will probably not be able to tell what is mathematically interesting anyway. This helps avoid a common issue of theorists focusing on problems that are useless for practitioners.
After these are done, the participants should have the minimal set of tools to explore problems that are interesting for both sides. This should be mainly based on open discussion.

Realistically, if you are able to achieve the first 2 steps and get the people to start thinking about point 3 (as it can take some time to process all this new information) and possible establish some pre-collaborations, I would call it a success. While I strongly believe that many fields can benefit from mathematical insights, it can be very challenging to find a problem that is interesting for both sides.
BTW it may also help to invite some people which are doing active research at the interface of the two communities.

Your first and second paragraphs are very insightful thank you and make point 1. key. Perhaps in point 2 I am thinking "problems in their research". Your final remark is very helpful too thank you.

I was going to answer along these lines. I am a mathematician working in social sciences and public health. I recommend that you get on the seminar mailing lists of other departments and find out what they are doing and ask questions about where they are stuck. Non-mathematicians rarely understand where mathematics (or even just mathematical thinking) would be valuable.

You could set up something like a help desk or a clinic. Have a website to advertise the services to the other departments and give some examples of things you could help with. An uncomplicated way to meet is important to reduce the barrier for others to contact you. A short meeting should be enough for you to asses if this is any thing the maths department could help with.
The University of Bristol has a statistics clinic working along this way. They have a drop in sessions every other week, where researchers form other departments can present a short summary of their problem. This is not sessions where you solve problems in front of others but it is a way to facilitate collaborations.

Very interesting thank you. That is more towards what I am thinking about.

Engineers won't look for academics (let alone mathematicians) as "too theoretical". You'd first have to lay groundwork, like @Bitwise's answer suggests.


text:
What is the correct manner to make it clear that your passage is paraphrasing a reference, that itself is refering to another reference?
I'm sure that this must come up a lot when writing papers.
Reference A1 gives a lit review of a field. A passage talks about paper B1, and I summerise B1 also. How do you make it clear in your writing that reference B1 was found through reference A1 (after all does A1 not deserve credit for bringing this to your attention??)
And furthermore that if you are paraphrasing A1, who has made reference to B1, you ensure that the paraphrasing is made crystal clear. (For the record lets assume that one has read reference B1 as every good academic should! And that you agree with A1's summary of the work.)

does A1 not deserve credit for bringing this to your attention??

Not really, however it is often beneficial to the reader to include a reference to a review paper, as it may be a good aid to their own understanding, as presumably it was for you.
e.g. "A good overview of the field can be found in A1".

ensure that the paraphrasing is made crystal clear.

State it explicitly.
e.g. Author A1 (2017) gives a good review of recent research into ...., they note that in B1 ....

I think the best guide to what to cite or not is the truth: if you became aware of X due to reading Y, mention Y (and X, of course). To do otherwise misleads your readers about what you actually did.

I employed a strategy similar to this when writing my thesis and dissertation:
Author, A (2000) provides a nice explanation of theory B1 originally presented by Researcher, B (1990). Author, A clearly identified and succinctly summarized the main finding which was the chicken crossed the road to get to the other side. Interestingly, this summarization left out the one point in the seminal work by Researcher, B. It was suggested that the egg came before the chicken. It is possible that Author, A was not interested in that finding but current research interests warrant further investigation.
The following is a summary based largely on findings presented by Author, A (2000). Blah blah blah
To further comprehend the current issues being addressed we should take one step further and present our interpretation of the data presented by Researcher, B (1990). Blah blah blah
Hope this gives you some sort of idea or at least another plausible way to solve your issue.