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Does a lecturer have the right to prevent students from making their notes public?
A lecturer does not make slides or lecture notes available (e.g. on the course website) in an effort to force students to show up at lectures.
However, many students learn the material just fine without attending each and every lecture. It also seems unethical to force us all to show up, even though the attendance is not a requirement because we may just choose to do something else and there is no rule against it.
As a response, some of us have decided to write extensive notes together and put them up on a filesharing website, and we've notified other students of this using the course websites' discussion forum. The lecturer has now messaged one of us (the one who made the post on the forum) and told him to stop doing this.
What should our response be? Does the lecturer have any say in this? Are we in the wrong?

Related, possibly duplicate: http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/56205/is-it-okay-to-publish-my-personal-notes-from-a-lecture?rq=1 http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/58257/why-do-professors-want-to-make-sure-that-their-notes-written-on-the-blackboard-w?rq=1

I don't think they can prevent students from sharing lecture notes. But once I was in a class, where the lecturer demanded that every student shows their lecture notes at the exam. Another point is that attending the classes may be actually mandatory. E.g., in the UK, overseas students must attend, otherwise they breach the visa conditions.

Students that can learn the material without attending lectures is one thing, but sometimes students don't attend lectures and then do badly.  If the lecturer gets criticism for this (which may affect promotions etc) then you can see why they might feel the need to enforce attendance.  The golden rule (do unto others) is a good guide for most problems of this nature, but you need to consider how both the students and the prof. may be affected by this.  The fact the prof. has this policy, suggests that there may have been engagement problems in the past.

I think it's time to speak to the student representatives, to the dean, or whoever is responsible of student-teacher relations in your university. Someone has to tell the teacher that s/he is in the wrong, officially.

"What should our response be?" is too open-ended and subjective.  "Are we in the wrong?" is also too vague and subjective.  Are you asking whether your actions violate the law?  whether your actions are ethical?  whether your actions violate campus policy?  whether your actions are a good idea?  Those are very different questions.  The Stack Exchange model works best when questions are focused on a single issue.  Can you edit your question to focus it on one of these aspects that you are unsure of, and that isn't already covered by another question on this site?

This feels like an XY question for the following issue, which I also experienced: many of you want the lecturer to separate out the prerequisites, boilerplate, boring bits, standard derivations etc. so you can study the easy stuff faster and know when you need to attend lectures. (It helps if you tell us what subject, level and year this is. Are there students from different backgrounds and ability levels there, e.g. OOP with Java 101?). The lecturer, for whatever reasons, doesn't (may include that the dept. wants to ensure high attendance). Seek a group meeting first with the lecturer.

If the teacher wants students to attend, make attendance mandatory.

I do not believe that this question is duplicate of the referred one. This one is asking if it is OK for a professor to prevent. Not if it is OK to publish. Voting to reopen.

@padawan - I'm not sure I agree; both questions are implicitly asking who owns the rights to lecture notes. Who is enforcing isn't really that relevant.

You don't say where in the world all this is taking place.  As usual, both the country and (in some cases) the specific university matter, as the laws vary and (probably more significantly) the academic culture varies.

A lecturer does not make slides or lecture notes available (e.g. on the course website) in an effort to force students to show up at lectures.

An instructor does not have to make slides or lecture notes available full stop.  Academic culture seems to be changing in the direction of lecturers giving slide presentations, and since you are showing your slides exactly as they are, not making them available to students seems a bit more conspicuous than not giving out your lecture notes.  But many instructors still do not use any special materials and feel that it is up to the student to get the content from the lectures.
It is a common sentiment among instructors to do business in a way that does not make it too easy or appealing for a student to skip class.

Some of us students feel this is a terrible policy: many students learn the material just fine without attending each and every lecture, so it is not a necessary policy, and it also seems unethical to force us all to show up, because what if we just happened to have something more important to deal with on some given day?

Unethical is very strong.  Again, your location probably strongly informs the academic culture, but e.g. I don't know of any American university where the instructor who claims that students should, in general, come to class would not be supported by the administration.  At my big state university, there is a blanket attendance policy, to the extent that there is a statement from the administration that students are expected to attend class.  This gives support for individual instructors to create their own specific attendance policies.  In my undergraduate classes I have often had mandatory attendance policies, to the point of factoring attendance into course grades and also to the point of (rarely, but it has happened) withdrawing students from my course for very poor attendance.  On the other hand, I was a postdoc in Montreal, and at Concordia University in particular it was expected that instructors would give students the option of a "100% final": that is, the entire course grade would be the final exam.  When I taught a course there, two students exercised this option: one got an A, the other an F.  If you don't know, ask the question "Can the instructor require attendance?" to an administrator or academic advisor.  You should get a clear answer.  If it's yes, then you have no leg to stand on about this policy.  (Yes, that does not stop it from being unethical, but if you really feel that way: don't attend that academic institution.)

As a response, some of us have decided to write extensive notes together and put them up on a filesharing website, and we've notified other students of this using the course websites' discussion forum. The lecturer has now messaged one of us (the one who made the post on the forum) and told him to stop doing this.

If the instructor wants or requires you to come to class, then look at from his perspective: he is not going to be pleased if he sees students brazenly making arrangements to avoid coming to class.  You are rubbing your lack of respect for his wishes in his face.  This is a bad idea.

What should our response be? Does the lecturer have any say in this? Are we in the wrong?

Well, first I want to say that you haven't actually given a good reason for not wanting to come to class.  You say "what if we just happened to have something more important to deal with on some given day" but...do you?  If most students attend, say, 90% of the lectures, I'm not sure why you need a filesharing program: you can just copy your friend's notes for the few lectures that you missed.  On the contrary, a filesharing program looks like a systematic plan for the students to avoid the lectures: again, you may have the right to do so, and you may have good reasons for doing so, but...do you actually or are you just being difficult about it?  I have taught at the university level for almost 20 years, and in my experience: there is a high correlation between coming to class and student success.  Even if you win a battle not to attend class, the victory seems rather pyrrhic to me.
However, if you feel strongly that it is in your best interest not to attend most or all of the lectures and your right to do so is supported on the institutional level, then: check to see whether there is any institutional policy against students sharing lecture notes.  I would highly expect there not to be such a policy.  Assuming that's the case: yes, you can share lecture notes.  I advise that you contrive to do it more quietly.  Giving your instructor even plausible deniability that you are not sharing your lecture notes should go a long way towards defusing the situation.

Even if one uses slides, I can see good reasons for not sharing these. For one thing it avoids terrible study habits of students who try to use them as the main means of reading up on things with resulting bad questions that could have been answered by looking in the book (being based on missing information which was spoken along with the presentation but not written in the slides).

+1. One suggestion: not using "powerpoint" as a generic term. Recommend "slideshow" or "presentation", others: http://ask.metafilter.com/22196/Synonyms-for-PowerPoint

@Tobias: Sure, I agree with that.  All I meant (and all I said, I hope) was that if you actually have slides then you have something very visible to decline to give.  Daniel R. Collins: I am not enough of a fan of slides for my synecdoche "powerpoint" to be very useful as a product endorsement.  But okay, I can change it.

+1 for "there is a high correlation between coming to class and student success"

@Ángel you know that correlation is not causation right?

@Ángel When I was there (UK, 1980s) my department's/university policy was fairly relaxed about both attendance and handing-in course-work, BUT, if at the end of the year you were borderline in exams those with good attendance / history of handing in course-work were looked on more favourably (allowed resits, given extra help) than those who'd rarely been seen and/or not handed in course-work ("if you can't be bothered to help yourself, we won't either").

@PeteL.Clark - A lot of universities have put attendance policies in place because mommy and daddy are paying tuition and it is the university's fault if their Johnny never showed up to class and flunked out.  Still an attendance policy has little to do with lecture notes.  The notes of a student is of their ownership.  They could even sell them.  Yes the school or teacher could punish but they would lose in US courts.   The attendance policy is a different thing for a different reason - and your answer seems to be clouding that.

@blankip: I wrote about the attendance policy because the OP mentioned it and went so far as to suggest that it is unethical: in many universities this position is a non-starter.  I also explained that a group of students doing something which seems to be motivated by a militant desire not to attend class could annoy the instructor, and in general annoying your instructor is best avoided.  Finally I said that the OP should check to see if the university permits students to exchange notes and that I expect the answer to be yes...

...If the university does not permit the student to exchange lecture notes, then in my opinion going to a different university is a much more reasonable option than bringing a lawsuit.  Finally I said that the students probably do have the right to exchange notes and should feel free to do so.  So I don't see what is "clouded" by my answer.

Not really.  Unless you have each student sign a non-disclosure then there is nothing that you can do.
To further this if you are in the US the non-disclosure laws are pretty loose.  Meaning even if you did have the students sign something the courts enforcing it is a whole different thing.  As a person who signs a non-disclosure is usually privy to either secret information or that person is getting a reward (paid).  Since a student paying a school is getting neither their first amendment rights - US based answer (but applicable in most countries) - would trump anything you make them sign.
And if the school steps in and authorizes this or has your back they would fall face to the same scrutiny.  On this path I do not see any institution that would ever push this as a university should be an atmosphere of sharing, not secrecy and inclusion.
To top it off... there is absolutely no way for you to enforce it.  If student A is dating student B what if student A didn't know that student B was looking at their notes.  Also if someone posts the sessions online without a clear profile are you going to go after their ISP information?   I think you need to rethink what you are looking at doing.  If people are passing your class without showing up, then why is their knowledge deemed less than those that went to your class?
On a side note:  There were many many classes in undergrad that I never saw unless there was a test.  It had nothing to do with the teacher or the teacher's ability.  It was that I knew the subject or I was able to clearly learn the subject (I found classrooms distracting and I often misremembered something maybe due to college hormones).  There were other classes that I went to class, asked the teacher for help, whatever.  I didn't go to classes with better teachers or better lectures, I went to classes that I needed help with.  Chaining students to a chair because you think they need to hear your voice for 50 hours when they already understand the class is a bit much.  Just know that them not showing up is a reflection on them not you.  Also if your notes and lecture slides are that good why is that not a good offering for some students?

Nothing the instructor can do?  Not sure I agree.  Example: http://copyright.cornell.edu/policies/course-materials.cfm.

@aparente001 that's about course materials (e.g. PDF files of notes and slides produced by a teacher) not about personal notes written by a student who attended the class and listened to an oral explanation. Now maybe eavesdropping laws apply, but that seems kinda difficult to analyze.

@AndreaLazzarotto - I went a little deeper and read their Guide to Academic Integrity, including "Taking someone’s work or using their ideas or words without acknowledgment is no different from stealing."  In this case, there would be acknowledgment; but there would be no seal of approval from the source (the instructor), stating that the published material is an accurate reflection of what the instructor presented in class.  Also, the published material may be less complete than the instructor would like.  Important bits of context might be missing.

@aparente001 assuming lectures are their original ideas (of the lecturer, very unlikely when speaking about science for instance) it is not a legal requirement to ask for approval when citing someone else's ideas unless maybe if said ideas are patented.

I don't know what country you're in, or what pedagogical approach is used at your institution.  When I look at your question in the context of the general university culture in the U.S., it's rather hard to relate to your point of view on this; note that it's not uncommon in the U.S. for a university to have a policy expressly forbidding what you are doing.
However, if I think back to my experience as an undergraduate in Mexico, I see your question in a completely different light.
I will describe my experience when I was studying in Mexico: each class met for 50 minutes, five days a week.  In the most extreme case, during the whole 50 minutes, day in, day out, the instructor dictated, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, from his notebook.  We all wrote in our notebooks, word for word what he dictated.  Occasionally someone would ask him to repeat a sentence or to go a little slower.  There was no discussion, no assigned reading (the department library was almost empty anyway), no homework, and no projects.  I aced every exam.  Towards the end of the semester, I would read the "notes" and make an outline of the contents.  When that was complete, I would make a second pass through the whole thing, working from my first outline, reducing it to a more condensed version; and then I would memorize the very condensed outline.  None of the exam questions required any thought or analysis.  The exam consisted of simple regurgitation.
If I think back to that experience, I can identify with your frustration.
However, if your educational experience is anything like what I described, then I would say that you are fighting the wrong fight.  A better one would be to improve the pedagogy at your institution.

“the instructor dictated, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, from his notebook” This sounds like elementary school in Italy.

@AndreaLazzarotto - I'm sad to hear this about the country that gave us Maria Montessori.

Well I know it sounds bad, however it changes a lot when switching to middle school and then high school or university. I think the idea is that the younger the students, the less likely to have critical thinking and autonomy to know what they need to study and or write on their notebooks. So children are suggested what to write and what pages they have to study for the next lecture.

@AndreaLazzarotto I'd like to point out that not all elementary schools are the same, in Italy; to be precise, this is the first time I hear someone talk in these terms of our elementary schools. While dictating may be common in the first, or at most second, year to teach students to write, no one I know of has experienced this in the other years. It's probably something that changes based on location.

@Odexios, of course not all lessons are like that, there are exercises and stuff. But when a teacher wanted to tell us something to remember precisely, it was either photocopies or dictation. Depending on the size of the text. Also, teachers don't just say "study" but they dictate exactly what pages must be studied.

As a former student let me assure you that there is no way a lecturer can actually stop people from sharing notes. A lecturer can pretend they have that ability or ask nicely, but that's about it.

Not sure I agree. Example: copyright.cornell.edu/policies/course-materials.cfm.

In this case, all professor can do is to say "don't do it, please." And it is completely up to you if you stop sharing notes or not. He cannot take disciplinary action, he cannot threaten you by giving an F.
In academic ethics, as long as you give reference, no one can prevent you sharing published material. For instance, you can attend a conference, take notes, and share your notes on your website by giving reference. As long as it is not verbatim, this is just like writing a technical report and publishing the literature review section on your personal website, or file sharing website.
You do not have to give a good reason for not coming to class. In fact, you do not have to give any reason for not attending if attendance is not mandatory. Attending class is your business. Teaching the subject is professor's business.
In case the professor insults, threathens or denounces you, that means he is bullying you and some action should be taken immideately. He is not a superior human being and no, his will may not be done. He is an employee of the faculty and is paid to do his job.
If one is able to pass the course by only studying the shared notes, there are three choices.

The notes are very extensive and beautifully prepared by a person who really mastered the subject
The course syllabus covers only superficial topics in the subject those can be learned by studying textbooks/slides/notes.
The instructor is not really adding something to the topics, but only giving simple examples and reading the slides.

When the third case is put into words, it is usually met by enormous anger in academia. But unfortunately based on your professor's behavior, it is highly likely. Usually, a scientist promotes collaboration (that is how science works) instead of trying to stop it. And those who are trying to stop it are tend to be not very good teachers.
All in all, everyone has a few "really bad" teachers in academia, but noone admits that one of those few ones are themselves or their colleagues.

-1: a lecture is not published material. Students attend class by entering in a contract with the university; a class is not necessarily an open event (and even then, that doesn't make it obvious that you are allowed to publish the material. Try going to a concert and then publish the music you heard).

you are always free to publish your own product as long as you give credit to the original creator of the material. also, the professor is teaching the subject via textbooks and papers etc. it is absurd to prevent people from sharing their notes while you are using someone else's material. i think that - 1 is not because of wrong information.

“attend class by entering in a contract with the university” This is only true in the context of private American universities, that's not how it works in most countries. If a post is based on a particular cultural context I think it should be stated so readers can get a better understanding. IMHO

I would stick to this link, although it is a bit old but the explanation is quite logical: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20091005/0207136420.shtml
So no, I see no legal right at all for a lecturer to claim a copyright on lecture content.
In my opinion there is also no moral right to claim copyright on lecture content and the behaviour of the lecturer is against academic spirit.
They are paid by the University (and some get paid a fortune) for presenting knowledge of a field, not making coin by any other means, which is often an intention. At my university there are some not offering any material for the lecture at all but adevrtising heavily their book which is then relevant for the exam - which means you have to buy it if you want to stand a chance. Of course if the book is shared in a public drive, the professors see some income loss.

That's not how copyright works.  As the link you cite says, "The professor's notes or slides arguably would qualify for copyright protection".  If the students are copying word-for-word from the lecturer's notes or slides or writing on the blackboard, copyright law might be applicable.  If the students are paraphrasing, there is likely no basis for a copyright claim.  The question does not provide enough information to distinguish between these cases.  Consequently, there's not enough information to confidently conclude that there is "no legal right at all" that might be applicable here.

@D.W. you are right, but also it should be noted that the link applies only to US law. What Bruder wrote might be very well applicable in other countries (in fact, it's basically the accepted standard in the EU).

Why do I get all these downvotes? I am the only one in this thread offering a reference to an external source which dealt legally with this matter.
My only fault was to assume OP's case happened in US, for the legal situation in my homeland (Austria) I can search sources if you want.

This answer has mischaracterized what the auxiliary source says and has drawn a conclusion that is not supported by the facts available to us.  It's not true that the only fault with this answer is that the OP's case is in the US.  If the OP's case is not in the US, then that link is irrelevant (as that link relates to US law) and the conclusion that there is "no legal right at all" is not supported in this answer by justification or evidence.  If you prefer to avoid downvotes, I encourage you to edit the answer to address the feedback you've received and correct any faults you are aware of.


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Does a present-day editor tend to sieve out submissions before sending them out for review?
Out of curiosity, I would like to get a feeling of what is the attitude in general for a present-day editor of a prestigious (not an objective modifier, of course) journal to deal with a new submission before sending it out for review.
I notice that some journals of high impact would state it as an editorial policy that an editor may desk-reject (so to speak) a submission without finding a reviewer if the submission is so-and-so. Then I think that, if I am an editor, I definitely do not want to waste any reviewing resources; hence I become a pre-reviewer in this sense. Does this line of thinking apply to most editors? If this is the case, then a submission passing over an editor's inspection means at least that the editor feels that the submission is potentially publishable; but to what extent this implication is true?

This differs enormously from journal to journal. At the high impact journals for which I serve as an editor, we desk reject the majority of submissions. Other journals may send almost everything out for review.

@Corvus Thank you; that reminds me of narrowing down the scope. :) It is my original intention to understand it for high-impact journals in general.

I fail to understand what your actual question is. Even with low-level journals, editors have to view the manuscript at least marginally before sending it to review, at least to select the reviewers. If they come to the conclusion that the submission is not even potentially publishable or reviewable, they would be stupid not to desk-reject it.

Also, your question’s title is broken.

@Wrzlprmft editors have to view the manuscript at least marginally before sending it to review, I think the question is "to what extent this implication is true?" for prestigious journals.

@scaaahu: My point is, that even for non-prestigious journals, the described effect exists. Thus I would not know how to answer this question other than with “it depends” (see also Corvus’ comment).

When you are running a journal, no matter how where it sits in the prestige rankings, all sorts of things wash up in the submission box.  One might think of these as roughly falling into four categories:

Clearly plausible and on-topic papers
Papers whose focus or quality is dubious, but are still worth sending to review
Papers that are clearly off-topic
Papers that are clearly below the journal's quality threshold

Until you actually see such a stream, you might not realize just how bizarre the material can be that shows up in the third and fourth categories.  I'm talking about likely-schizophrenic ramblings where the text changes color and font multiple times per paragraph, blatant plagiarism, or papers that don't even bother to connect themselves to the research field of the journal.  Heck, even as a graduate student I was once sent a videotape by a man who had decorated his trash can to look like a robot and explained in great length how the "robot" can would react to All in the Family episodes so that it could save humanity by terraforming the Sahara desert.
In a highly interconnected world with people working at all sorts of levels of quality, a lot of this type of junk shows up.  It's entirely appropriate for an editor to reject category #3 and #4 material, so as not to waste everybody's time.  I really don't want to ask people to review plagiarized or insane material.  I also don't want to waste time asking them to review things that are probably science of some sort, but still absolutely certain to be rejected.  It is thus the case that nearly every editor will be asked and find it justified to perform some degree of pre-evaluation and desk rejection.
Where it becomes difficult, however, is that different editors and different journals have different standards for determining where to draw the line.  When authors disagree with the journal, it can get rancorous, especially for the "glamour" journals that can be so high value for authors to publish in.  Thus, we hear primarily about the mistakes, the borderline cases, and the places where politics and prejudice hurt the scientific process.
The key questions are this:

What percentage of the time is the system going wrong?
What can be done to improve it?

I'm almost certain that #1 is a pretty small percentage, simply because there's a lot of detritus that nobody is likely to object to desk rejection on.  Despite that, the number may well be too high: study of this topic would be both useful and likely very difficult, given the subjective nature of the judgements.  There clearly are places where the system goes wrong, and reducing that fraction will likely be good for all of us.

Your answer is off-topic. Many researchers make great science matching the journal scope and rarely go beyond the editorial barrier. High impact journals have to be extremely selective, that's what make them valuable. The true question is how this selection is done.

Yes, because the pool of suitable and reliable reviewers is very limited. It's necessary to make sure that one doesn't burn out the good reviewers on evidently poorly reasoned or unclear articles.

Most journals exercise editorial prior-to-review rejections based on, allegedly, low urgency, significance and novelty.
While an editorial rejection due to a poorly written discussion can be clear, rejections due to the other above enumerated reasons constitute a contradictory practice since in this case a fairly small group of people (editors) decide which research topics/authors/institutions/viewpoints get represented in the high-impact journals and which do not.

This seems more of a complaint about rejection practices than an actual answer.

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How to translate "profesor auxiliar" from Spanish to English?
I am currently teaching computer-science courses in a Spanish-speaking country and I’m having trouble translating my academic rank into English.
Here in my country the position is called profesor auxiliar (auxiliary professor in a word-by-word translation) and it has this responsibilities:

You’re expected to have at least a master’s degree.
It is a part-time position. Several auxiliary professors teach one or two courses, and have also jobs in the industry.
There are no research responsibilities. The main job is to give lectures.

Initially I thought the best translation was simply professor, but I’ve been warned that the word implies much more on USA (like a PhD requirement and research duties). Is there an equivalent for this position in USA?

Related: What is an adjunct professor?

In the US, the usual title for such a position is Adjunct Professor.
See What are the roles and responsibilities of an adjunct faculty?

At many universities where the professors (even the adjuncts) desire to have that phrase restricted to those teachers who have earned a terminal degree, a more common title for non-tenure-track teaching positions would be Instructor or Lecturer.
NOTE: this distinction is more common in disciplines in which the terminal degree is considered more of an absolute prerequisite for a tenure-track position; in many, more "skill-oriented" disciplines (I'm thinking music performance, theater, art, and yes, often computer science), such an academic degree is indeed considered...well, "academic," and a master's-level teacher with a plentiful level of "real-world" experience can indeed be considered sufficiently "expert" to be granted the exact same level of professional courtesy.  Many schools can still be found to have (grandfathered in) veteran master's-level teachers who were in fact granted the luxury of a tenured position (whether dubbed Instructor or Professor).
P.S.  It also bears asking whether the "Master's" degree in your country is comparable to the Master's in the U.S., or whether there is a level beyond it in your country.  If there is no higher level than "Master" where you come from, then I would argue that your Auxiliary Prof. absolutely correlates with Assistant or Associate Professor here.

we do have a Doctorate degree in my country. To access a Doctorate, you need to own a Masters first

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What kind of video conference software do academics use?
I'm a new graduate student and my adviser asked me to set up a meeting with some out-of-state colleagues (whom I haven't met yet) to start working on a collaboration that I'll be playing a major role in. One of these colleagues suggested a "webinar" or video conference for the meeting. I was wondering what kinds of video conference software are appropriate for this kind of situation - I asked my adviser but he's a little older and not technologically savvy. Is Skype too informal for a video conference like this? Is there another software that is more accepted among academics? These collaborators are at various institutions across the US (where I am), and are all either academics or government employees.

Why did this get downvoted?

I'm not downvoting, but this sounds like an obvious case of boat programming to me. What are specific academic requirements on videoconferencing tools? I can't really think of any. So I'd say this would probably be better at Software Recommendations. Then again, judging from all the voting here, it seems like the community does not think so.

Boat videoconferencing :-) it's fair to ask "is there something specifically accepted amongst academics, but IME the answer to that is " no".

@StephanKolassa: My first gut told me that this is a boat programming case, but after some more thoughts I think this one is not exactly that (perhaps borderline) because it's not "What kind of video conference software do you use as an academic?" but rather asking for the habits/best practices in the academia. OP even asked "Is Skype too informal for a video conference like this?" which I think is on-topic.

"whom I haven't met yet"

To clarify: I'm asking about the etiquette of video conferencing software and what is considered appropriate for academia. I don't want to embarrass myself by suggesting a common software that I would use to chat with friends (such as Skype or Google Hangouts) if there is a better alternative that is more suitable for a professional environment. I don't think this is a "boat programming" case because I'm interested in making a good impression, not simply emulating my peers.

There's also Firefox Hello.

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is not specific to academia, but applies to any form of remote collaboration.

I think this is related to the now deleted (viewable by 10k+ users) question of mine: http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36533/how-to-screen-share-during-a-video-conference

Personal anecdote: I am not allowed to install Skype on my corporate machine, for security reasons. (I'm unclear whether the issues our IT people fear are that people might listen in on our secretsecretsecret Skype calls, or whether they fear Skype might be a vector for malicious software.) So don't be surprised if someone cannot do Skype.
My company has a (likely expensive) PGI subscription. This runs in browsers, so we have less security concerns. It allows the host a lot of options and will work for larger videoconferences (multiple hundreds of participants).
I realize that this is not academic use per se, so feel free to flame me ;-)

This might be even more likely in academia than in corporate settings; I have been urged to abstain from using Skype for any professional communication especially because we handle confidential data related to students.

Many scientific institutions clearly within greater academia have such restrictions, such as US National Laboratories.

Well, it did take six months for the first downvote. Funnily enough, in the meantime our company has switched to Skype for Business, replaced all landlines with it and is essentially phasing out PGI in favor of Skype conferencing.

I use Skype and Google Hangouts all the time. No stigma attached. Go for whatever is convenient for everyone.

Do you prefer one over the other? Would you say most people are likely to already have accounts with one versus the other?

Almost every person under 50 at a university today has a skype account. I like google hangout because it allows video conferences with more than 2 people.

Skype now offers multi-way calls too.  I'd ask the participants which they prefer to use, but in my experience Google Hangouts works better than Skype for this.  One particular feature of Google Hangouts that can be helpful is sharing documents on screen.

And Google Hangouts has hats!

Can you share your computer screen with Hangouts?

There is also Firefox Hello,  a new contender in the arena.

@CapeCode Yes, you can share screen with Hangouts.

+1 for Google Hangouts. The computer science department at my university was hiring new full-time faculty and they conducted the entire first round of interviews with Google Hangouts.

To be fair, "almost everyone under 50 at a university has a Skype account" is true also because it has become a standard way to keep in touch with friends when both you and them have to relocate internationally every few years during your postdoc stage.

As somebody who does a lot of remote collaboration, I find that there is a distinct tradeoff between link quality and software.

Google Hangouts is the worst for audio and video quality, but is more resilient to bad connections.  It will usually get something through.
Skype is great when there's a decent connection, but degrades badly when there is not.
Most paid software (e.g., WebEx, GoToMeeting) has less choppy video than Skype, but the audio is unreliable: some days it's great, some days it's crap.  The audio problems seem to have to do with the phone part of the connection, not the network.
Given good bandwidth, BlueJeans gives the best video and audio of any I've encountered, but will shamelessly dominate your machine's network connection and processors.

Your university may pay for a license for one of the major web conference software packages like WebEx, GotoMeeting, Adobe Connect, or ZoomMeeting. You should check. These may have better screen-sharing features for slides, shared whiteboards, and the like. They all pretty much have free clients as long as some party to the call has paid for the service.

I'll add BlueJeans to the list, which is the best connectivity that I personally have experienced.

And I'll add SeeVogh to the list of commercial softwares.

I have direct experience with Skype and WebEx.  Of these two, I have found Skype less reliable.  I like the WebEx technical support.
I find that if I use the computer for the audio, there is a bit of a delay, just enough to be annoying.  So I use the telephone for the audio.  WebEx allows you to choose how you will do your audio.
You should buy a microphone headset for whatever you decide to use (computer or phone).  Unfortunately the ones for the phone don't work with the computer, and vice versa.
Find some live webinars and the like to participate in so you can see a good moderator in action.  Then practice using the software, with a friend, colleague or relative.
You can feel good about reducing your carbon footprint!

The German research network DFN is running three Adobe Connect Servers for web conferencing (see https://www.vc.dfn.de/en/web-conferencing.html). Every member of a German research organization that is part of DFN should be able to use this service without further cost. In my case, I can simply log in with my University computer account and create sessions. I can also invite external attendees as guests.
Regarding features, I particularly like the different whiteboard options in Adobe Connect for discussing academic content. Also, as this runs over servers of the research network, there's not the issue with data security that some may have when using Skype or Google hangouts.

Based on over a decade experience of online collaboration for business and personal uses:

Google Hangout was the first major name to introduce group video chat [max 10 participants]. The main advantages of it is its smart codecs, which scale Up or Down the video quality dynamically based on the internet connection performance. By this way your connection remains connected and not goes on hold like Skype.
There are some options to record the chat without third party softwares (Hangout OnAir)
Along with this, it has got some 1 click enhancement options (e.g. brightness adjustment, auto enhance etc.)
Skype has also got the group video chat option now. It is recommended in case of strong and reliable connection ONLY.
GoTo meeting and GoTo Webinar are getting more popular for larger participants. Webinar is used for a larger audience, you can provide them the option to speak to all or write to you (organizer only).
GoTo meeting is more suitable when all the participants are expected to have active participation.
GoTo solutions provide the telephonic participation for audio also. I have shared a sample registration confirmation email on PasteBin. (The actual email is well formatted not just text based)

There is another aspect of this question. Nowadays institutes are having complete solution package from different providers i.e.
Google Apps for Education or Office 365
are the top most these days.
ALSO,
if the sensitivity of the meeting contents is high, at-least skype should not be your selection.
Zoho, WebEx, Voxeet are some other names to mention.
TeamViewer is a decent and very old screen sharing solution, it supports multiple users and the video result is very stable. It is free for non-commercial use. You can compliment it with some other audio option for best results.

I think the culture will vary pretty dramatically based on the university you're at.  Oregon State University's email accounts are through Google Apps for Education.  Because of this, Hangouts is the primary chat/video conferencing application on campus.
My recommendation would be to simply ask the people you're trying to conference with.  List a couple services and ask what they're most comfortable with, if the choice isn't obvious.

Our research collaboration uses Clickmeeting http://www.clickmeeting.co.uk/ . It is an online meeting tool which does not require installation of any software and runs entirely in the browser. We've used it successfully for meetings of around 30 participants. It supports voice, camera, chat and screen sharing. We don't tend to have any connection problems, but if we do it is quick to rejoin the session.


text:
How do you politely ask someone to be on your committee?
I'm a graduate student finishing up my first year, and I'm currently in the Master's program but am planning on switching to the PhD program at my university (which is located in the U.S.). I've chosen people I'm interested in asking and my adviser's okayed my selection, but I was wondering how to go about asking these individuals.
What format is appropriate to ask people to be on your committee? Should I email each person, or should I set up a physical meeting to discuss my goals and 'pop the question'?
What should I say in the email/meeting? Most of the potential committee members I'm planning on asking don't know me very well, but they at least know my name (I think). Do I need to discuss why I want them on my committee? How much do I tell them about my project (which is still in the beginning stages)?

I did mine by email. I included enough about my project to give them a sense of it, but not so much that it was overwhelming (about two sentences worked for my project). I didn't include why I wanted them on my committee, since it was pretty obvious from my project - YMMV. I also included a brief (again, about two sentences) summary of who I am. Worked well for everyone.

It's debatable if asking over email is "polite", but I assume you're more interested in getting them to say "yes" rather than being polite. If you're not sure they even know your name, it shouldn't be done purely over email.  Ask to meet with them, letting them know you are selecting your dissertation committee.

I suggest an in-person meeting with each of them, which you can initiate with a brief but explanatory email: "I would like to meet with you for an hour in your office to discuss the possibility of you joining my dissertation committee.  Based on your work and experience in X, Y, and Z, I think you might be a valuable committee member. ".
When you meet in person, you can treat it as a two-way interview.  They should be interviewing you to determine if this is a good match and if they believe in your research topic and approach.  Likewise, you should be interviewing them to determine that they will perform well on your particular committee.  Do they have enough time?  Do they get along with other committee members? How do they evaluate dissertations and the process of writing dissertations?  What sort of feedback or support are they capable of giving you outside of the official meetings? What do they dislike or seek to avoid in the process of evaluating dissertations or being on the dissertation committee?  And so on.  You should also ask questions regarding their future plans, including sabbaticals, possible changes in job or employer (esp. for non-tenured professors), or possible retirement.
These questions that you ask a prospective committee member can help you avoid many committee problems later on.

This sounds good, except: there may be faculty who are willing to serve on the OP's committee but not spend an hour discussing the prospect of it.

@PeteL.Clark  This may be the case sometimes, but I personally would rule out any potential committee member who was not willing to meet with me in person for one hour.  This is serious business for me (it's my life, my career) and I want to see some level of commitment and investment on the part of committee members.  Again, I think this will head off many problems later.

Maybe the meeting won't last an hour.  It may only take 15 or 30 minutes.  But scheduling an hour will provide sufficient time for each of you to ask and answer questions at length, when necessary. It also provides more time for gaining some personal familiarity, which frequently helps support productive work relationships.

@MrMeritology Perhaps this could vary depending on the research area? I'm not sure what your research area is, but in mathematics (which happens to be my and Pete L. Clark's) I find the situation he described quite plausible.

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


text:
When do you ask a professor if a visitor can sit in on class?
There's a prospective graduate student visiting my adviser and I was asked if the student could come with me to an undergraduate class I'm taking at another college within the university. Is it acceptable for me to just show up to this class with the prospective student or should I email the professor and ask if the visitor can sit in? The class is lecture-based and doesn't require student discussion, relatively large (~40 students at both the undergrad and graduate level), but the professor will likely notice that the visitor isn't in the class.
Edit: I'm in the US and the prospective student and I are both from here, but the professor is from the Netherlands.
Update: I ended up emailing the professor three days in advance to make sure it was fine.

I would let the professor know by email and make sure he's okay with it, just so he doesn't get offended or worried if the prospect needs to leave during the lecture. The amount of effort you need for the email is at most 5 minutes.

You should specify at least your country. For instance in Italy, as far as I know, anyone can just attend any public University class, regardless of being officially a student.

@o0'.: yes, pretty much in every European country I visited

40 people is large?!

E-mail a few days in advance.
Just showing up puts everyone on the spot, and could end poorly. It could also turn your visitor off.

This is certainly the safe route, but I'd imagine many professors would be okay with getting just a few hours' advance notice, and quite a few of those wouldn't really mind that much if you just show up and talk to them before class.

I try to check my email right before class, but often I am working on other things right up until I walk into the classroom.     Also it is good practice to not email faculty at the last minute.

@DavidZ - You're right, I don't need a few days to think about this. But, as Tommy said, there's no guarantee I'll see your email before class if you send it just a few hours in advance. Not everyone checks their inbox hourly.

I suspect the right answer to this question depends very much on the country you are studying in.
To give one example, in Finland it is determined by law that all university lectures are public and free for anyone to attend. Nobody would notice an extra attendee, unless there were normally only a couple of students in the class. Emailing the professor would just seem odd.

Yep, the same in Italy.

It will also depend on the size of the class. If you are attending a 500 student lecture course, it might be a bit silly to ask for permission as the visitor will surely blend into the crowd.

I sincerely doubt that all university lectures are "public and free for anyone to attend". Can anyone show up for a lecture in med school or a psychology class where confidential details about patients are being discussed?

@Sverre I am not a medical or psychology student, but surely they don't name any of the patients they discuss. Surely it is just the relevant information.

@Sverre: The names have been changed to protect the innocent.

@Sverre usually lectures are free, laboratories aren't. AFAIK.

And in private universities lectures may not be open to the public - at least not without university permission.

I have taught a lot of small classes where I know most all of the students.
I also host office hours for my local Python group in a conference room, where people are expected to come and go at will, and new faces show up all the time.
In the former case, a new student showing up out of nowhere would have definitely raised my eyebrows, and an email in advance would have been sufficient warning to avoid any awkwardness. But in either situation, I would greet the new face warmly and welcome them.
Some schools may have more restrictions on access than others, and what you mostly want to ensure is that your guest has permission to be on campus, usually registering their presence at a visitor center before going elsewhere.

... unless campus is a public place that does not have a visitor center, obviously.

obviously. ... :)

What even is a visitor center?!

Google and Wikipedia is your friend: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visitor_center


text:
Rights of funding data in research
I have used data of my colleague with her permission in my article while that data was funded by an external organization for her other project. Although my research is not funded by that organization, I made use of some data.
Is it okay to acknowledge my colleague and the other organization in my article, or do I have to provide funding details to answer the question 'Did the research in this article receive funding?'.
Thanks

You may need to know the acknowledgement policies of the organisation which funded the data collection. I work for a funder, and while we support data sharing and reuse we also insist on an acknowledgement of our funding using some specific phrasing.

I would write:
The research in this article did not receive third party funding. The research is (partially) based on data gathered within the project xyz which was funded by abc. We would like to thank uvw for the data acquisition and support.

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


text:
On Submitting to the Journal of Applied Mathematics Letters
On their "guide for authors," they state the following regarding referees:

(1) Please prepare a list of 8 (eight) proposed reviewers. You MUST
  include Full Names, Department, University, Country and Email
  Addresses for each proposed reviewer. It should be a globally
  geographically diverse list of potential reviewers; there should be no
  more than two suggested referees from any particular
  area/region/country. If you, or any of your co-authors, have submitted
  to our offices previously, please note that should not include
  reviewers on lists for your manuscripts in the last 2 years. All
  proposed reviewers MUST be fluent in English to ensure the integrity
  of each review and the correct processing of all manuscripts.
(2) Proposed reviewers MUST BE experienced, well published researchers
  who are knowledgeable in your area of research. The editor-in-chief
  depends heavily on your suggestions for the choice of reviewers and a
  list of weak reviewers can be the basis for rejecting a submission.
  (Also minimize the number of leaders in the field who are typically
  too busy to be reviewers.) In addition, proposed reviewers MUST NOT BE
  former co-authors, instructors, co-workers, advisors, students, nor
  have had any other personal/working/professional relationship with you
  or any of your co-authors.

Part of what drew me to the journal was the short article size and the quick publishing time, however I fail to see (1) how this process can allow for expedient publishing and (2) how to gather said referees. I am supposed to gather a list of referees from around the world that I do not know while also somehow making sure they are "not too busy" to act as a referee.
Is there any coherent way to accomplish a process such as this? How should I go about gathering said referees?

It seems this journal is relying too heavily on suggested referees... That said, a start would be to look over your bibliography. If you cite them (particularly if more than once) chances are that they satisfy at least the 'being knowledgeable' criterion.

(I'm expanding my comment into an answer.)
First of all, I think this journal is asking for too much. Asking for eight recommended reviewers is unusual in itself (I have heard of journals requiring 3-5 names, but in my field it's usually not mandatory), yet this journal is doing just that and making a lot of additional hard-to-meet demands. For example, in a narrow field it's going to be near impossible to find eight researchers that are both knowledgeable in said area, and who haven't had any professional relationship with you or your coauthors...
When used well, the practice of suggesting reviewers can help expand the reviewer pool, or clarify to editors what their reviewers are knowledgeable about. When used this way, however, it seems more like a weird test, or maybe a bad sign that the editors don't have any contacts themselves. But hey, I guess if you want to submit your work there, better play ball.

I fail to see (1) how this process can allow for expedient publishing

In theory: The journal has a limited pool of people who have refereed for them in the past, and they might be mostly booked already, so the journal starts asking authors to suggest more potential reviewers. In the best case scenario the author suggests n new, great names and they can ask 1-3 of them to review the paper. The more possible referees, the higher the chance that some of them can write a quick report, which provides the expedient publishing you're after. However, the big downside is that if editors trust the suggested names too much, the peer review process gets ripe for abuse. I think that's what they're trying to address somewhat with the additional requirements.

(2) how to gather said referees

Usually I have a take a more "free form" approach to this, but here's a potential algorithm:

Normally there will be a couple of people you just know would be interested, and be good reviewers. Start writing their names down in a list.
Go over the bibliography (mostly for the current paper, but possibly similar older ones) and pick out people you think could provide a constructive and in-depth critique. Write their names down in the same list.
Check the references highlighted in step 2 again, and ask yourself if you could include a coauthor of the person noticed in step 2. (This mostly is a way to select more early-career academics rather than the more obvious names of the leaders in the field. )
Think outside the box of the current paper. Do you know of any other people who have studied similar problems, or applied the same methods elsewhere? Who wrote books and papers you learned from, but didn't use directly in this work? If they seem suitable, write their names down too.
Next, go over the list, and try to come up with a motivation for each name. Remove names if they don't satisfy whatever requirements you might have. Also, in steps 1-4 you might have added authors that collaborate closely with each other. Try to reduce that if possible.
Ask your advisor, coauthors, mentors, ... for advice.
Repeat as necessary.

Now, my impression is that mathematics papers usually have shorter bibliographies than physics papers, and that there are fewer coauthored papers, so... good luck I suppose.

I would do as much as I can do and tell them what I cannot do. If you have no way of ascertaining whether a particular proposed reviewer is too busy, you could just tell them that you don't have the means to do that.
The way to find authorities may be to look for those who have published monographs and research papers on the topic of your paper.


text:
How important is the language of the bachelor thesis?
My university requires me to write my Bachelor thesis in my mother language. How detrimental and devastating is it to have your Bachelor thesis in non-English when it comes to applying for PhD positions and language requirements in other countries?
My thesis is on p-adics and my wish is to pursue a career in mathematical physics, so I'd be particularly interested in how mathematics faculty rank their candidates in this regard.

I'm not sure that anyone other than my advisor and myself ever read my undergraduate thesis. I take that back - a grad student did as well since they extended the work. The fact that you wrote a thesis is likely more important than what is in the thesis.

Is your bachelor's thesis original research, or is it a review/summary of what exists in the field?

@JonCuster: When doing PhD admissions, I definitely look at applicants’ bachelors/masters theses, when provided — not a thorough read, but I at least skim plenty of them — and I think that’s pretty normal in Europe?  A thesis that stands out as impressive can definitely boost my assessment of a candidate.  So if someone doesn’t provide their thesis (or a translation) in a language I understand, they’re missing out on the chance of that boost — certainly not “devastating”, but a slight disadvantage compared to if they did provide it.

@PLL - Fair enough. My bachelor thesis was long enough ago that getting a copy to somebody was painful. Further, from the US, it was not written until well after applications and actual admissions. But, in interviews the project was certainly a point of discussion. PhD submissions during Masters studies make that problem different.

It should have no effect, whatever on your future. You can fulfill all of the requirements of your university, but also, when you have the time, provide a translation of your thesis for others to peruse. You can, in theory, produce an English language publication based on the thesis in another language.
You need to demonstrate some English proficiency for study in some countries, but it needn't be through your official thesis. There are many other ways. In fact, a translation, done by yourself, might be an especially good way.
Yes, my doctorate is in mathematics, though I worked mostly in CS. Your mathematics will be much more important than whether the thesis is in one language or another.

It is very unlikely that someone will want to read your bachelor thesis as is. But if you think it may contain interesting results, you can try to publish these results in a paper in English. That will actually strengthen your cv. Talk to your thesis supervisor and mention that you want to do a PhD in another country. They may be able to help you with that.

My university requires me to write my Bachelor thesis in my mother language.

You might be able to circumvent this requirement simply by asking (which avoids any detriment of the thesis not being in English).


text:
How should I address other people in languages with a tu/vous distinction?
For some context:

In sociolinguistics, a T–V distinction (from the Latin pronouns tu and vos) is a contrast, within one language, between second-person pronouns that are specialized for varying levels of politeness, social distance, courtesy, familiarity, age or insult toward the addressee.

So for example in French there is "tu" and "vous", in Spanish there is "tú" and "usted", etc.
In general one uses "tu" (I'm going to use French as an example throughout) for peers or friends, and "vous" for strictly less or more senior people (so for example a professor would use "vous" with their students and vice versa). As a general rule of thumb, if you would call someone "madam/sir", you would use "vous".
In academia however, interactions are usually more relaxed: it's not unusual to call everyone by their first names, even as a PhD student addressing a professor. Similarly, I would expect that use of "tu" would be more prevalent in academia.
But as a new PhD student, it would have been unthinkable to use "tu" with a senior professor just three months ago, for example. And using someone's first name doesn't necessarily imply that I should use "tu" with them.

Should I use "tu" or "vous" to address more senior people? I guess it's probably safe to use "tu" with other grad students, postdocs or young faculty, but what about other people?
Does the answer change depending on if you see the person face-to-face or if you write them a letter/email?

PS: This is all probably language-dependent. I'm mostly interested for the answer in French, if it can prevent this question as being closed for being "too broad", but if it's possible to answer it in generality that would be great too.

In Spain, I use whatever they use to address me.

That is not always an option: writing an email to someone for the first time, speaking to someone for the first time and nobody said either "tu" or "vous" yet...

At least in German, there is the third option of not addressing the person at all. However, it usually requires years of practice, if you do not want it to stand out.

@Wrzlprmft: please give an example of that? I'm a German speaker but not sure what you're referring to.

@smci: I’ll refer you to this question on German Language SE. If this does not help, contact me in chat.

@Wrzlprmft: ok but that's using the passive tense, there's nothing especially German about it.

@smci: Let’s continue this discussion in chat.

@NajibIdrissi: T-V distinction in general is not restricted to French, and other cultures have developed their own convention. In Germany, Sie/du can be used for the same person in different contexts. But I'm not going to guess at Austria despite them speaking German as well - T/V is culture more than language.

Unfortunately, there is no general rule covering every situation (or every language).
However, a good rule of thumb is to just use the "vous" when you are not sure which one to use and then imitate the other person.
If you are more senior you probably can also offer using "tu", especially at the university, but with the rule from above you can be sure that you are not being considered rude.
The generally accepted way to address professors unfortunately differs from university to university (in my experience more than from country to country), so I suggest you use the rule from above.
With fellow graduate students and postdocs, you are right, you can in general use "tu".

Does the answer change depending on if you see the person face-to-face
  or if you write them a letter/email?

No.
(This might be specific to Germany and France, but I guess at least in Spain this behavior would also be fine.)
Addition: If you are on a first-name basis that usually means that you are allowed to use "tu" (at least in Germany this is generally accepted and from my observations this is also true in France).

My feeling is that Spain is, in general, a bit more relaxed; but this rule is definitely applicable. Younger people may get offended if you use "vous", as it would make them feel older, but they will mostly tongue in cheek (I was once told off by an 85 y.o. lady vehemently saying she was not that old).

Even when addressing professors by their first name you should use "vous". That is not uncommon. I'm not that familiar with French (I had it in high school), but in German that is described as "Hamburger Sie". In my experience, it is considered quite rude to address older unfamiliar people, let alone your supervisor with "tu". So, go with "vous"  regardless whether you are on first-name basis with the person. There is of course the exception when they insist on being addressed with "tu", but that is in the case of professors quite rare in my experience.
As for postdocs, students and young faculty I would consider it safe to use "tu", but would opt for the more "safe" option by addressing them with whatever they're addressing me. The once established addressing routine shouldn't wary when communicating face-to-face or via e-mail, unless for specific circumstances (e.g. the e-mail is very formal and is sent to many senior people)

I've heard many, many PhD students address their advisor as "tu" in French, and nobody seemed offended. So I guess that this settles the question for German, but not for other languages...

I have never encountered the "Hamburger Sie" outside of Hamburg, if someone offers to call him by his first name, then that implies (at least for me) to use "du/tu".

I am German and I know professors who do not want to be addressed with last name and Sie (vous) by anybody, including freshman students, as well as such who are even colleagues address with last name and Sie. And that’s all in one discipline and at one university. You really cannot make a general statement here.

@TheAlmightyBob I lived in Berlin and it was quite common, only recently has it come to my attention that this practice is called "Hamburger Sie". Also, in my experience people make the difference when they want to be addressed by first name and when they don't want you to use formal speech when addressing them. I have never deducted from someone insisting on first name basis to stop addressing them as "Sie/vous", unless they explicitly state that too. That might just be the upbringing and again my experience, as Wrzlprmft said, there can be no general statement here.

@Wrzlprmft: Indeed, but would any of the former group be offended if they had been addressed with last name and Sie (vous) in an initial message by a stranger? Conversely, would any of the latter group possibly be offended when a stranger initiates contact and addresses them with first name + du (tu)? I don't know the particular people you are referring to, but in general, using last name + Sie would definitely be the "safe way" to go.

If you are on a first-name basis, you should not be using vous in French!


text:
Is it better to give reference when I use the same sentence which state a fact or I must paraphrase it?
I am new to the concept of plagiarism and also how to give reference in an article. As my English is not very well, I may use some sentences borrowed from other papers. But they may just define a term which is common in the literature. For example, consider the following sentence:

Any procedure that aims at extracting information (structured data) from unstructured (free text) or semi-structured data source is called wrapper.

Or

Web Data Extraction has many applications in different areas including Business and Competitive Intelligence, crawling of Social Web platforms, Bio-Informatics and so on

I copied them from another publication, I did minor changes in their wordings, however, in the second sentence I may count other applications of the system.
I would like to know, should I use a reference for them? Because I thought reference is mostly for the related works or background of the research and they might be some facts or definitions!

My question may seem similar to this question, however the answer of this question solves my problem to some extent, but in this question I mainly asked about the role of citation. I think I shouldn't cite a fact or something that is very common. In such cases I can't understand the logic behind avoiding a similar definition or sentence! how do you explain that.

i strongly suggest that you consult an introductory book on scientific writing.

You must provide a reference to each and every of your sources. otherwise you are plagiarizing.
If you quote verbatim ("copy"), you must provide a reference and put the quote in quotation marks or indicate the quotation by indentation. otherwise you are plagiarizing.
You can provide references beyond that, for example if you feel they contain relevant background material.

I think you could add paraphrasing to this list, as it seems to be what the OP is asking about.


text:
Is it unethical for someone to proofread/edit your cover letter or CV?
Is it unethical for someone to proofread/edit your cover letter?
Because then it's not fully your work anymore. It could be helpful, but I am asking if it is ethical towards the hiring professional? You wouldn't state that someone improved your work, but you are acting as if it is all yours.

No, absolutely not. It is always helpful to have comments, suggestions, and corrections from somebody else. If you believe that it is unethical, than most journal articles aren't fully the authors' work anymore, since (good) journals will do some level of proofing and editing.

Is there some expectation in Academia that a CV is the person's own work? Certainly the work outlined within the CV needs to be the person's own work, but the CV itself? Is there any ethics violation if the entire thing was written by someone else?

Sorry for the confusion, I primarily meant a cover letter in terms of wording and style. See the response I gave to Pete L. Clark below.

Sorry, this info is coming not from my academical, but my professional work experience, this is why it is a comment. On my opinion, it is such a helpful thing which most of us never in life experience in a professional context. If you have a reason to think, the "editor" knows better the world as you (for example, if you are a beginner and (s)he is a prof since decades), you've got such a good-standing, helpful gift that most of us never experiences in his life.

Just make sure you can actually remember what the "edited and improved" version actually says. If you get as far as an interview, it might be embarrassing if you can't. (Believe it or not, in industry sometimes applicants don't "remember" things in their application that may not have been precisely "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth").

Just to add, the content of the cover letter is still completely your decision. Your choice to accept or reject suggestions by others is completely yours. I've accepted suggestions from colleagues in regards to my CV, but I've also rejected some.

Many careers centres and recruitment offices offer CV and cover letter workshops, where someone will go through them with you and offer advice on how to improve them.

Only if your CV was for a job for proofreading and editing CVs....

I see no ethical problems with this whatsoever.
One has to understand most academic ethical principles through the lens of academic society.  In particular the belief that academic writing should be solely that of the author unless otherwise scrupulously documented is not an absolute ethical principle but a belief and expectation of practicing academics throughout the world.  It applies to certain kinds of writing and not others (and there are edge cases that cause disagreement, as seen on this site).
I don't know any academics who view a CV as a piece of academic writing in the sense that issues of originality and plagiarism apply.  If you like the format of someone else's CV, you can copy it for yourself.  In fact, it is more efficient if you just ask them for the word / latex / whatever file they used to make their CV and adapt it directly.  I imagine most academic CVs are adapted in this way.
Cover letters are viewed differently by different parts of academia.  In my circles (mathematics, research university, US) cover letters are usually quite
perfunctory: within recent memory my colleagues and I discussed whether we even wanted to make a cover letter an official part of the job application.  In my field there is something called an "AMS Cover Sheet," which is a sort of form that you fill out that has the information of a cover letter, and some departments would happily accept this in lieu of a conventional cover letter.  Using an AMS Cover Sheet as a cover letter is the equivalent of adapting someone else's CV.  However, it is my understanding that in some other parts of US academia -- especially in liberal arts colleges and/or the humanities -- the cover letter is extremely important (I have heard someone say it is the most important part of the application).  If what you say to convince a hiring committee that you are a good fit for their institution is lifted from someone else's cover letter, then indeed that might be viewed as problematic.
The above covers the situation of literally cutting and pasting CVs and cover letters.  When it comes to proofreading: it is my understanding and view that unless specifically prohibited, getting your academic documents proofread is not only acceptable but usually highly encouraged.  When it comes to editing, some amount is probably okay but some amount is probably too much.  It also depends on who is doing the editing.  My PhD advisor gave me more extensive feedback on my employment materials than on any other single thing.  I took the implication that these materials are extremely important, and I have tried to "pay forward" his help by giving similar extensive help to students (including, but not limited to, my thesis advisees) on their employment materials, webpages and so forth.  I would not hesitate to circle a sentence and scrawl a suggested alternative in the margins of their draft.  I do hesitate (and never have, I believe) retyped any of my students' theses or employment materials: thus I am suggesting changes -- sometimes very specific changes, and sometimes with the clear intent that my suggestion will be implemented directly -- but I am not making the changes myself.
In general I have a hard time envisioning a proofreading or editing of a cover letter or CV that would be ethically problematic.  I think students and young academics should be much more concerned with having these and other application materials flawlessly literate and highly polished and should seek to err on the side of getting the help that they need to do so.  If such a person has a reason to think that some particular aid they are getting may cross the line, they should ask their advisor.

To specify, it is for the specific rewording of a cover letter that I ask this question, since it has occurred that a proofreader would reword a sentence or two, which often sounded more professional, but lost the voice and tonality of my writing. How I wrote it was in essence a standardized version of that sentence. Seeing that the cover letter is highly important in the humanities, in which I am referring to, I would like to showcase the most authentic side of myself, and whether they accept it or not is out of my control.

I would ask for grammar help if I need it, but since I don’t have an issue with that, I don’t feel like a proofreader would significantly contribute, and shouldn’t contribute, to my writing. Thoughts?

I encourage you to talk to your advisor to get specific advice.  I don't know you, I haven't see the letter, and I don't know the specific norms of your field.  However I would have to think that rewording just a few sentences would be unobjectionable.

@M.Haster I would like to showcase the most authentic side of myself, and whether they accept it or not is out of my control is a terrible misunderstanding of what you should be trying to do in a humanities job cover letter and why it is important. / Would you show up for the job interview dressed to go surfing just to highlight the most authentic side of yourself as well?

Tiny nitpick, but "academic writing i the sense" should probably be "academic writing in the sense". I hope I'm not academically unethical by pointing out this possibility of improvement to your writing. :-) (I would make the edit myself, but I don't have the necessary reputation to do so here.)

@virmaior thats true. I meant in terms of the voice in my writing. If there will be other times of correspondence between the employer, then it would be wise to be 'authentically yourself' when it comes to your writing, and not have it edited by someone 'more professional, bigger vocabulary', etc. They would see through that.

@MichaelKjörling hah good point, grammatically it is important to be spot on! But in terms of voice and style of writing.

I'd say that given a single typo is enough to get your resume thrown out, it would be extraordinarily unprofessional NOT to have your work proofread.
That said, after crazy numbers of people had commented on and proofread mine, I realized that I'd had "DBMS" written as "BDSM" for about two years. Nobody had caught it :(

Yes I see your point! Often times it is very helpful; it just seems that proofreading is so encouraged every time, so I feel as though 'haven't I learned how to check for errors? Why would I need a proofreader every time?'

@M.Haster Having others proofread is beneficial because you can miss things, though. When we know what we mean to communicate/write, our minds can fill in things we see/read such that we won't realize there's errors. But since only we know what we're aiming to communicate, others can see the mistakes we may not.

@M.Haster It's easy to see typos in other's work.  if it's your work, you know what should be written there, and often fill it in with your brain instead of what's really on the page.

The most recent edit to this answer is a strange one. The original (RMDBS instead of RDBMS) makes sense; it would be easy to gloss over that. But BDSM instead of DBMS? I can't believe that didn't get caught. Did OP's SE account get hacked?

No, I'm still me. It's just hopefully more memorable this way :P

I do not believe so. When I was preparing my own CV and cover letter, I received many useful recommedations and one of them was to have a friend or even a professor proofread it. Though I am not a professor or employer, I believe that it is more important to put facts and truth in these documents and avoid equivocations because these two types of documents are used to present you and you want it to be as flawless as possible. For a good reference, please visit the following link:
Resume & Letter Writing - Career Center of Berkeley University
The following link also provides some insights:
Five things to remember when emailing a professor - USA Today

Did anyone advise you that in North American English, advice is an uncountable noun?  It is "much useful advice" or "many useful recommendations".  Using the word in the plural, although idiomatic in other countries, immediately (and often unfairly) tags you in the US and Canada as a non-native English speaker.

The purpose of a CV / Cover Letter is to optimally represent your skills, motivations and interests in order to secure an interview for a particular position.  As long as the representation itself is honest, then whether or not you relied upon some assistance to create the document is irrelevant, I think.
I have had experience, though, of recruitment agencies attempting to force proof-reading and editing of my CV upon me.  Typically this would be for the purpose of hiding my address from an employer, and placing their own branding on the CV.
That, I would argue, is unethical.

No.  I don't believe that it is unethical at all.  Having said that there are several different aspects to this, which you may personally find to be a moral grey area.

Proofreading
Editing

In proofreading, if the person is just telling (or writing) a bit of feedback on what you've written with the expectation that you then rewrite your work, then the work is at all times still your work, written by you.
Many institutions, including universities, will offer free proofreading to their students; you should absolutely take advantage of this, if you can.
In editing, there could be a bit of a grey area.  If the person actually changes your words, then one could argue that perhaps it's not quite your work anymore.  That being said, you don't have to accept any edits made, if you don't feel comfortable.
In either case, the most important things to remember with cover letters and resumes is to be honest and promote your skill-set and accomplishments.

Why would editing a cover letter be a problem?

Thats exactly what I was thinking! In regards to your editing comment, I feel the same way. I've had instances where my style and tonality were completely changed. Thats true that I don't have to accept it, and it could improve some necessary aspects, but I just feel less confident when I ask someone to check my work. I think 'do I not feel good enough submitting something if I don't receive some sort of feedback for it'?

@virmaior The reason something might be a problem is if they add to or change your words.  If they add more to your document, then that document isn't only your work, it also has elements of this other persons work.  For example if they change "really important" to "critical" then that wasn't your decision, and therefore that change is a reflection of their choices not yours.

Why is it a problem if someone adds to or changes the words of your cover letter? It's not a publication, so there's no expectation that it's purely "your work."  Clearly, you shouldn't let people make the letter say things you don't think, but that's a different problem than "editing". There's no reason you can't accept edits.

@virmaior I have been taught that the cover letter itself is at the very least a reflection of your abilities (or a subset).  My understanding is that the cover letter can carry some expectation that it is purely "your work",  although obviously not to the same rigor as a publication.  For example, in the extreme where someone wrote (or rewrote) your entire cover letter for you, even if everything in the document is truthful, I would consider that unethical because none of it is my work. What Pete said: editing, some amount is probably okay but some amount is probably too much.

authors: סרגיי בוקייב


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Graduate schools with no test score cutoffs
I recently received my math subject gre scores and did extremely poor on it (620: 41 percentile). This was an absolute shock to me as I have been preparing for the test since summer but I want to make no excuses. At first I was planning to apply to a lot of top 25 pure math grad schools but now I am looking at schools at the lower end of top 50 as my top choice.
I would like to know if there are strong math schools that do not have any test scores cut off/ do not require math gre scores.
Some examples of such schools are:
Texas A&M and UC San Diego.
My current academic profile:
My math GPA is 3.8 and I have lots of research experience with 2 publications. I'm taking a grad course and complete 2 more before I graduate.

It is my understanding that 20-30 ranged schools are not outside such a percentage with a strong application otherwise.

It technically would depend on the major, would it not?

@Compass: I am planning for pure math grad schools

Could you clarify whether your score is on the GRE general exam or the math subject exam?

@PeteL.Clark: The score is on gre math subject exam

In that case: the score is by no means "extremely poor".  The exam is only taken by those seriously considering math grad school, and a lot of programs do not require it.  But I agree that the score is more typical of applicants in top 50 programs than top 20 programs.  In terms of where you should apply: the faculty at your own institution know much more about your profile than we do.  What do they say?

I agree with others that this score is not the end of the world (if you do not plan on going to a top 20 school just now). As an anecdote, my undergrad was a top 50 program. It doesn't even require the math GRE, and I know at least one person in the grad program now got a 1st percentile on hers. To be fair, I don't know a single thing about the rest of her application and she could be a math ed. grad student, but based on my conversations with professors in the department (including those on the admissions committee), no one cares about the math GRE there.


text:
Is offering to work for free a bad idea for an undergrad researcher?
I’ve read that PhDs are almost always funded, and being accepted into a PhD program without funding is equivalent to a polite rejection.
Is this also true for undergraduate research? For example, many universities have a fund for undergrads to do one or two semesters of paid research, but students must look for other funding sources after that.
Is it wise for undergrads to offer to do research work for free, or does it devalue the undergrad’s work in the eyes of a PI?
This question assumes the setting as an R1 university in the United States, for a student in a STEM field like computer science, mathematics, or electrical engineering.

The premise is country-dependant. Studying in a PhD programme by itself is not funded in my experience.

At least in theoretical fields, the undergraduate student may be getting more out of such an arrangement than the mentor. You say, "offer to work". But are you at this moment able to do work that would be truly useful to a research lab? You probably need to be trained and learn a lot first. In some other fields, the situation may be different. I can easily imagine a biology lab having enough drudge work available that requires relatively little training.

There is a certain type of people you will sooner or later in life run into who would sadly think of you as an easy-to-trick loser if you do that ("who the heck works for free?"). That being said, you may however learn things which will bring you happiness later in life.

If you are a student who is getting something of (educational) value out of your research, and don't need the money, it's not necessarily a bad idea to do undergrad research without getting paid for it. (If you weren't a student, this would probably be a very bad idea, though.)
Personally, however, I will only supervise students who are either getting paid or getting some kind of independent study credit. (I'm not the only supervisor I know with this policy.) I don't want to put time and effort into supervising a student who is only very loosely committed to the research project.
I encourage you to consider that option - independent study or thesis credit - for undergraduate research.

how would you mention this free work on curricilum vitae

It would have to really be worth it; here are some examples of what I think would be worth doing unpaid research work for a semester / summer / or even longer:
1) if the lab is prestigious and you otherwise couldn't join them because there's no funding for you,
2) the research goals coming from your advisor are clear, and you are really interested in achieving those goals,
3) your advisor's going to steer you in directions that you wouldn't be able to do on your own, and he / she could do that probably better than most other professors at your university, because perhaps you have heard from others that he's great at teaching, research, mentorship, etc
4) he hands you a research paper or two that much of your unpaid work will be based on, and there's little chance you would have known about this paper on your own, and this paper genuinely  excites you and is published in a good journal,
5) you get to join weekly group meetings that would otherwise be private from you, and in these meetings there are superstar researchers that you would likely otherwise never get a chance to even say hello to, let alone discuss research work with in a small, intimate, casual group meeting.
So ... be honest with yourself and do be careful about what you're getting into.  Don't be a monkey coder for a professor.  If much of what I listed above applies to your current R1 research setting, I would say go for it; it could be a life-changing experience, regardless of whether you stay in academia.
A meeting or two with your potential advisor will be a great chance for you to list the pros and cons of working for them for free.  You know what you are offering - free labor - now see what they are offering.
Lastly, you should be aware that the advisor is likely to be just as skeptical as you are; he/she would worry that you will quit in the middle of the project, or not be as committed as they are, and this wastes everyone's time.  It's your job to convince him / her to take you on as a student researcher.
(If you can't afford to do this, disregard all of the above and get something that is funded.)


text:
How many editors should a journal have?
I am contemplating creating a scientific journal. How many editors should I try to get on board?

I think your question is quite clear now which will hopefully sway the downvoters.

I don't mean to be overly harsh, but you shouldn't found a scientific journal at this point in your career if you don't have enough experience to judge how many editors would make sense.  There's too much of a risk that you won't do a good job, and a poorly run journal actually makes the world a worse place (even if you are honest and hard working, you can still hurt authors and make a mess of the literature).  On the other hand, the question of how people decide how many editors a journal needs is a reasonable and worthwhile question.

Apart from the points made by Stephan Kolassa, I would enter the number of articles to be processed as a variable in the equation.
If you start a journal you probably are aiming for a certain number of articles to be put through review per year. Note that the number of articles processed can be substantially higher than finally published since not every submitted article becomes accepted. Rejections rates vary but 50% is not unheard of and higher rates are not uncommon.
So you have a certain number of articles to handle. I then assume that your editors are working for free outside their normal work hours. You have to consider how much work load you want to put on these persons. In the journal I "run" I have set a goal of 4-5 articles per year for each editor and have tried to adapt the editorship to that number. I am not saying 4-5 is a norm but you have to judge what is reasonable. You can ask potential editors what they can consider. Obviously they need to put some effort in so one paper per year is perhaps not optimal. The work load I consider concerns finding reviewers, getting the reviews back and recommending reject/revisions/accept (and completing additional rounds of reviews) to a Chief Editor for final decision (the latter decision process can be done in different ways and reflects "my" journal).
The scope of your journal also plays a role in that with a wide scope you may need editors with very differing specialities. You then have to balance the number of reviews for each sub-topic so that editors will handle the flow without overworking any one editor. With a narrow scope, all editors can probably handle all manuscripts and the problem is then "just" to distribute work fairly.
You can expect there to be difficulties achieving a balance from the start and assessing the likelihood of attracting papers and maybe how many, although largely a guessing game, will be important. This is where the answer becomes closely related to the question of how to start a journal because many considerations involved in making sure people publish affects the editorship of the journal.

This will depend on your field and on how specific you want your journal to be. If you concentrate on one very narrow specialty, you will be able to work with very few editors. If you want to cover multiple specialties, you will need different editors with different areas of expertise so each submission can be assigned to an expert in the field.
You may be able to learn more by browsing the editorial boards of journals in your field, and noting whether anything is said about specialties of the different editors.