text:
Secondary Research Questions in a Master Thesis, where to answer?
My question concerns the placement of secondary research questions (SRQ) within a Master Thesis for a Software Engineering program.
Currently I describe my primary research question in a chapter on the Methodology of my Thesis. In the same chapter I describe 6 SRQs as auxiliary questions.
In the next chapter I describe my Experimental Design, and I answer 4 of the SRQs as they relate to the design and how it can properly test my hypothesis.
However, my supervisor suggested I cut the amount of SRQs to < 5 and that I answer the SRQs in my Introduction. I find that to be an odd place for SRQs since I would have to describe and answer them in the first chapter of my Thesis.
To be fair, the first 4 questions concern the Software framework to use, which dependent variables should be measured, which independent variables should be manipulated and how to guarantee reproducibility of the experiments (this is a big issue in Software Engineering and particularly for my subject). So I understand his issue with the questions. However, I feel that answering them in the chapter concerning my Experimental Design is actually quite fair and avoids a cluttered introduction.
Here is my current structure:

Introduction <- Supervisor suggests describing and answering 4 SRQs here, or to remove them
Use-case
Related Work
Methodology <- Currently describing PRQ and SRQs here
Experimental Design <- Answering 4 SRQs here
Results
Conclusion <- Answering PRQ and 2 SRQs here

I tried finding some literature on SRQs but I couldn't find anything on their placement, only what type of question they should be.
Any suggestions are appreciated.

I agree with your supervisor about the positions for the questions: Those should be in chapter 1. Answering the question about the position of the other questions is difficult because we now neither your work nor the questions.
But the answer in chapter 1 as well seems to be odd - I would assume that those could be a result of a state-of-the-art analysis (in your case chapter 3) or of the "Results".
But maybe those questions are not really research questions but sub-tasks you have to do in order to achieve your goal. Then the "Methodology"-chapter would be appropriate, but I would not list them as SRQs but as "tasks".
In the end, readability should be considered, too.
Finally, your advisor is grading you - and if (s)he strongly suggests one option, I would follow the suggestion. But I would show my "optimal" solution, first.

I agree. Since the first 4 SRQ's primarily address the structure of the experimental design I'll just provide the answers as a given, add the appropriate reasoning behind them and remove the questions entirely.
I'll describe the PRQ and the remaining 2 SRQ's in the introduction, expand on them in the Methodology chapter then answer them in the conclusion. Does that seem reasonable?

@Byebye sounds good!

great :D! Thanks for the answer! I'll mark it as accepted.


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Can i copy a slide from another presentation or is it plagiarism?
For my seminar work i want to use a slide which i found in a presentation available on the internet. Now i wonder whether it is considered plagiarism if i copy the slide into my presentation while citing it.
If copying is okay, do I have to quote it on the slide itself or in the references at the end?

Standards for attribution are a lot lower in presentations than in formal papers. There is simply not enough time and space for it. It is unlikely that you will be accused of plagiarism for copying slides.
However, to be safe, you could add a small note to the slide or verbally say something stating where you got it from. Perhaps the creator put a lot of effort into the slides and wants to be credited.
Standards vary from field to field and country to country, so ask someone in your department to be sure.

Just an additional note: is someone finds out that a slide is copied, they may assume that the whole presentation is made up of copied slides, so it is always better to provide footnotes.

@rg_software You should expand upon your comment and provide it as an answer.

I would make the statement stronger: not just "to be safe", but always: if he got the slide from somewhere else, cite it. Simple as that, and there will be no problems.

Let me repeat the definition of plagiarism as "the representation of other people's words and/or ideas as your own". In particular, in means that it is not just a technical issue (how to cite), it is equally a matter of impression that your work makes on your readers or listeners. So if they see a slide and believe that it is your own text, well, it's plagiarism.
For example, I used the definition of plagiarism above without citing it source, but it should be clear from the context that this is not my personal definition, so I think I am not plagiarising right here :)
Personally I even think you can simply acknowledge the source verbally, but in this case you have to be sure that the presentation will never be used apart from your talk (which is hard), so I wouldn't recommend it. I agree that in case of presentation you probably won't get into trouble, but if I see one "borrowed" slide without acknowledgement, I might presume that the whole presentation is "borrowed" from different sources, so it's not in your interest.
The particular way of citing is not important: it might be just a question of your page layout. If you don't have enough space, make a footnote "taken from [1]" and expand it in the last slide. If you have space, provide a URL right on the slide — it's fine, too.

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Leave quotations in original (bad) English or edit?
I am editing a thesis and the writer has quoted from many interviews with non-native English speakers. I'm wondering whether it is correct practice to leave the quotations as is, or perhaps use (sic), or to edit them in correct English? Thanks in advance.

I would use (sic). If there is a need to quote interviews, than it should be what the interviewed person said. Moreover, using the original material add context.

That depends on the type of interview. Ideally, interview quotations can go from newspaper-like editing that smoothes all edges while preserving the meaning to very fine-grained reproduction of what has been said, down to the level of individual inflections, pauses, interjections, etc. Best to leave the decision to the author.

@henning and there was me thinking that "newspaper"or "journalist version" was to loose the meaning... Given some examples of what we were shown:L two ships collided and the tonnages varied by a factor of 100, depending on which paper you looked at, the collision was in the Atlantic, Pacific or Antartic...

In qualitative social research, two main methods of transcription are applied: naturalized transcription and denaturalized transcription.

Naturalized transcription is a detailed and less filtered transcription. It is as detailed as possible and focuses on the details of the discourse, such as breaks in speech, laughter, mumbling, involuntary sounds, gestures, body language, etc. as well as content [...] Denaturalized transcription is flowing, presenting ‘laundered’ data which removes the slightest socio-cultural characteristics of the data or even information that could shed light on the results of the study. It accurately describes the discourse, but limits dealing with the description of accent or involuntary sounds (Mero-Jaffe 2011, 232, emphasis added).

To what extent interview transcriptions ("quotations") can be altered is a methodological choice, which must be informed by the purpose of the study, and which is sometimes controlled by explicit transcription rules. It should therefore be left to the author, not to the editor.
As editor, I would leave all quotations as they are, and point this out to the author.

Mero-Jaffe, I. (2011). ‘Is that what I Said?’ Interview Transcript Approval by Participants: An Aspect of Ethics in Qualitative Research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 231–247. https://doi.org/10.1177/160940691101000304

Quotes should be included verbatim, so don't edit. Instead, insert or alter words using square brackets. E.g., "I'm wondering whether it is [okay] to leave the quotations as is..." Alternatively, replace direct quotes with a summary of what was said. Finally, use "[sic]" sparingly: Using sic "may be defensive, but its overuse is offensive" and "[in] truly minor matters it's usually better [to quietly] correct the original" (source: The Columbia Guide to Standard American English).

And possibly use (sic) as Alchimista suggests in the comments on your question, so that people know it's not your writing that's at fault.

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How to get rid of excessive 'silly' mistakes?
While taking a test a student is bound to make some mistakes but I make excessive errors. It's not that I get a question conceptually wrong. I'll make a mistake in reading it or in simple arithmetic calculations.
This issue is not a new occurrence it's been haunting me since middle school. I've seeked advice from my teachers/parents/classmates they are always along the lines of:

Try to stay calm during the exam.
Practice more questions.
Read the questions properly.

I've done all of that. I try my level best not to make any mistakes but they just happen and it frustrates me to no end.
I distinctively remember my middle school math teacher  telling me that if I don't take care of my silly mistakes I'll pay the price later.
As a cocky preteen I brushed away her warning after all silly mistakes are just silly mistakes but she was correct. I did pay the price. I messed up an exam recently  and now  I won't be getting a  tier A university.
How do I stop making silly mistakes?

First, stop thinking about "Tier A" or "Tier B" or whatever "tiers" -- it's another kind of a silly mistake. You have the whole Internet in front of you, so gaining knowledge anywhere is not an issue.
Next, after supervising many different students, I tend to believe that some people are inherently unable to be meticulous. We indeed should discipline ourselves, and simple tricks do help. The best one is to write, put aside your writing, do something else, re-read later carefully and fix.
However, in general I think the best advice is to focus on your strong parts. Yes, perhaps, you won't win a medal for attention to details. So try to train yourself to the best of your abilities, but think what kind of future job/career would not be too demanding in this regard. Exams are quite artificial situations, hopefully in "normal" life you won't have to do often something quick and correct while the clock is ticking.

I had the same exact problem and I then later found out I have dyslexia and dyscalculia. I am not in anyway suggesting that you have the same issue, but I was diagnosed very late in life (18 yo) and I honestly see many colleagues having the same issues and never being diagnosed with that to then later found out they had some form of it.
Thing is, even if this problem of yours has a name, there is no cure for these type of learning disabilities. In some universities you can ask for a bit more time and a calculator but that's it. I decided not to ask for those because 1. it was a long process 2. I was too proud (and stupid) to ask for it.
Honestly, my tricks were the following:

If it is a math test, I did thousands of exercises, even of the same type... I just did them over and over and over again. This does not mean that I did not do any silly mistakes (as you call them) but still, the chances were pretty low.
In case it was not a math test, I would still approach the problem similarly. Studying more (and I mean a LOT more) made me more confident and also less prone to silly mistakes.
I drank passiflora tea (I still do it sometimes) that made me more attentive during exams and helped me focus during long study sessions. Passiflora is also called the "Student's tea" because it has important effect on concentration and stress. I very much advice it to all students that have similar issues. Just do not drink three liters of that in one shot (you could hallucinate).

While all these made me pretty stressed at times, I always studied more than necessary and ended up with a PhD. I think that all depends on you. For some, it is natural to commit 0 silly mistakes, for me, this was a big challenge (as you said, at uni they really cared about certain details and I would get very little points at exams for similar errors). However, there is always a way to solve these problems, and you can definitively achieve what you want in life despite these issues it is all a matter of finding what works for you.
Hope this helped.

Well, simple steps can be:
Slow down, many errors are due to rushing.
Read the question twice before starting , make notes or underline important info.
Return and re-read the question and answer checking the detail, make sure that numbers have not been changed - I managed to swap 293 deg C for 273 deg C as 273 wasmore common in the practice questions...

"Read the question properly" is really important.  Answering the wrong question isn't going to get you many marks.
Another strategy I have used is to run through the exam reasonably quickly.  Don't ponder too long while answering the questions.  This should result in your finishing early.
Now go back and do it all again.  Read the question again.  Check your working again.  See if you spot a mistake.

Practice more questions.  This is basic pedagogy.  Look at how people learn sports or music for instance.  We are not computers who just learn a concept and then can use it flawlessly any time in the future.  We have to be trained.  Similar to how a dog is trained.  We are animals also.
Check your answers.  If you made any mistake, even as simple as a sign error in math or the like, force yourself to do the ENTIRE problem over again.  Do this without looking at what you did before. Imagine it is a fresh problem.  Believe me, if you start training yourself this way...you will get better.
Give yourself some mental reward if you ever do all the assigned homework flawlessly.  It can be as silly as drawing a smiley face on the page.  And it will be hard to get to.  Especially given your current skill.  But when you eventually achieve it, you will know you did something well.
If you have a choice, emphasize books that have answers (detailed solutions not needed, but at least answers).  Make sure you check your work and force yourself through the training in 2 (and eventually 3).  If you don't have books like this, than try to buy the solution manual.  Or get a separate drill book (e.g. Schaum's Outline).  Note, you are always doing the problems FIRST.  The answers are for checking work and creating a feedback loop.  And especially to DRILL the mistakes away.

And I don't believe you on the "I've done all that" because in a different part of your question, you mention that you told your middle school teacher silly mistakes were no big deal.  So I don't trust you to have really arduously executed the advice you were given.
However, the good point is that if you do turn to, you will get the rewards.  It won't happen overnight.  But hard work pays off.  Same as sports or music.  You can't change the past.  But you can affect the future.
P.s. Work hard in the Tier 2 university.  Life is not about just getting a Harvard brand stamped on your butt.  Work, study, learn.  You will set yourself up for rewards after graduation from Cal State.  (The material isn't that different.  Learn it well.  Be like Good Will Hunting and show those Harvard boys.)

Allow me to repeat the comment I made here. Are all these accounts you?


text:
Thinking about leaving my PhD, thoughts?
I'm currently beginning my 2nd semester of a dual Msc/PhD in Physics in the top university of my home country, but lately I've been struggling with self-doubt and uncertainty about the job prospects and whether research is actually for me. Lately I don't feel the motivation to wake up early and work in my research 24 hours/day, and I know that if I keep like this I'll end up as a mediocre graduate student, so I've been really considering if research life is for me.
Some background
Since I was in high school wanted to do my undergraduate studies in high energy physics, but since the option wasn't available in my city and I didn't have the money to move to another place (student loans don't exist in my country) I enrolled in engineering physics at my state university. Being one of the top 5 students, I was invited to due a joint Bsc/MEng degree abroad in France, so I accepted since I was excited to try new things and get the chance to live in Europe for two years. I sucessfully completed my Master's courses abroad, came back to finish my Bsc, and graduated with the highest possible honors while publishing 3 scientific papers on the run (6.5 years). Therefore, doing a PhD in Physics seemed like the natural continuation of my career, and everyone was expecting me to go and become a renowned scientist in my discipline one day. I even got full support on recommendation letters to apply for studying abroad again.
While I got accepted to several joint Msc/PhD programs abroad (I discarded the US since I didn't have the money to pay for the GRE examinations at the time), due to delays from my university I wasn't able to apply for funding on time, thus instead of waiting another year I decided to enroll in one of the top programs in my country.
The doubts begin
However, over time I got more and more afraid of the potential job prospects of a career in Physics, after witnessing the vast amount talented PhD students and the lack of tenure positions (especially after the science budget took some cuts). I have met many PhD graduates who are still struggling to find a job in their late 30's, and even in an extreme case one who's literally homeless even after doing two post-docs abroad. Moreover, PhD graduates who go into the industry, at least in physics, had little to no advantage over those who have a Master's degree or a PhD in Engineering (in my country a PhD is rarely needed in the industry unless it's for the areas of Chemistry, Medicine, or Biology).
I do love Physics and do enjoy research, and I like to challenge myself with new ideas and engage in intellectual discussions with people here. Moreover, compared to entry-level jobs which are +60 hours/week here (which pay roughly the same as my scholarship), grad school is very flexible and allows me to take some time for my hobbies. Nevertheless, when I think that I'll finish my PhD when I'm 30 years old, plus 2-4 years of post-docs if I'm lucky, I'm afraid that if I don't manage to land an academic position I'll basically be applying for an entry-level job in the industry in my mid 30's, when I could apply now for an entry-level job (I've received several offers due to my MEng) and in 5 years move over the ladder or even find a job abroad back in Europe or the US. I'm not sure if my love for Physics is so strong as to sacrifice my 20's and early 30's in a career where there's no guarantee of success.
Could you give me your advice or opinions? It would be nice also to hear opinions of PhD students in Latin American countries.
My backup plan if I continue on my PhD would be to develop skills in Machine Learning and Data Science and eventually have my own startup by the time I finish my PhD, but again I won't be working on the field I originally aimed for, so I don't know if it would be worth it. My true vision for a PhD is to have the chance to work in the academia.

Sorry, we can't really make life decisions for you here.

Sorry for asking, since I saw others ask a similar question in this site I thought I could get some opinions. You can vote to close my question in that case.

Key factor is how long you have been doing this and how much longer before you finish.  Such a long text--can't find this.

Yes, such questions, conflicts, etc., are a large part of scientists/intellectuals' lives. No easy answers, especially about trade-offs between money and satisfaction, location, ...

I'm on my 2nd semester, so it will be between 4.5 to 5 years to finish.

Probably bail and get a job.

Maybe I didn't phrase it well, my dream would be to become an full-time professor in a university of my country, and hopefully having enough contacts to participate in national and international projects in my field. The startup is just a backup plan in case things fail (so I can have a personal business instead of applying for an entry-level job), but seeing that the chances for staying in the academia are low even for the very best, I question myself if it's worth trying it at the cost of sacrificing my finances, relationships, and stability.

It's good that you're thinking about this now, but unfortunately, only you know what you want with your life.
You've given a nice list of pros and cons of continuing to study. Let's summarize:
Work now

Longer work hours
Secure job
Better pay, or at least not worse than a future PhD graduate
Not exactly what you love doing

Keep studying

I love physics!
Nomadic lifestyle
No guarantee of job

One thing you didn't mention is whether you have a significant other. Nomadic lifestyles are bad if you intend to settle down, start a family, etc.
If you look at all this there's really only one thing that's in favour of "keep studying": your passion for physics. Is your passion for physics so great that you're willing to risk everything else for the chance to pursue an academic career? Unfortunately, only you will know the answer to this question.
Here're two things you can think of doing:

Keep studying, but emphasize picking up skills that are wanted in the industry in the event that you can't get an academic job. Look at the jobs available for physics graduates in your area, see what the requirements are, and make it a point to learn them during the PhD as a fallback plan.
Work for a few years, with the intention to go back to studying after having secured yourself financially.

Ultimately, only you can answer this question.

Thank you for taking the time to answer, and how you summarized everything. It's true, in the end it's a tradeoff between pursuing a dream with no guarantee of success, or compromising for something which is more stable in the long run but that I may not love as much. To be honest, I broke up with my best friend and almost girlfriend because I decided to keep studying (which implied a nomadic lifestyle), and while I thought I wouldn't care at the beginning, now that I think it better I don't think I'll be able to settle down and start a family with this lifestyle, at least until my mid 30's.

On the other hand, I like the idea of having a backup plan, especially since my specialisation is strong on programming. But also taking a break to secure myself financially could be a good idea too.

The trade off of working for a few years and then returning is the loss of passion as well as energy as well as future job prospects.


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Review time after third submission
We have submitted a manuscript in a Finance journal. Within 1.5 months, they gave us the comments of two reviewers. The Reviewers gave positive remarks but wanted some correction. We carefully scrutinized both reviewers suggestions and found that they have contradictory demand. Hence we follow the second reviewer's comments and made changes according to his suggestion. We also explained why we could not follow the first reviewer's suggestion. After resubmitting, within one-week editor again send us feedback ( or review) that since we did not follow the first reviewer's suggestion the first reviewer gave a suggestion to reject our paper. So the editor wants us to change our paper again. Again, we thoroughly explained why we fail to comply with the first reviewer's suggestion and resubmitted the manuscript (third time). After that, it has been 3 months there are no changes in status. Status shows "with review" Do you think taking three months after the third submission is natural? Should I mail the editor to speed up the process?

I think you need to address both reviewers' concerns if you want your paper accepted. This might require finding a compromise that doesn't result in contradiction. (Perhaps you can edit your question to explain why you consider their concerns contradictory.)

I do not see anything unusual or particularly alarming in this situation. Your first review arrived very quickly — compared to Mathematics, where a first review can take 15-18 months in some journals.
It is not unusual for reviewers to make remarks which appear contradictory. Sometimes it is possible to find a compromise to pacify both; sometimes (as in your case) it is necessary to rebut the criticism. Rebuttals are never easy and the suggestion of the first reviewer to reject a paper is not completely unexpected. Now the decision falls on the Editor, who has to either side with you (and potentially lose their Journal the Reviewer One) or side with Reviewer One and reject your paper. It is not an easy decision, and it requires for Editor to personally read the paper, or to invite another reviewer to join the fun. Whatever they are doing, three months does not seem overly long yet to me.
tl;dr: It's best to wait patiently.


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Post-graduate publication, adviser is not in my field
I finished my PhD degree last year. I had a bad experience with my adviser over the 4 years. He treated me like a technician. He used the data I collected and analyzed to publish with his post-doc in a top journal. They just put "personal communication" in the paper when they used my analytical method. Then, my name was under the acknowledgement section. I even never be communicated regarding of their manuscript producing process. I found it out based on randomly reading papers online.
In addition, he insulted me when I was in his lab. He tried to threat me for rescheduling my wedding date.
Now, my adviser pretend nothing happened in the past. He keeps chasing me for publishing one of my PhD chapters with him. I have a full-time job now. I just keep ignoring his emails. However, one of my committee member told me that he has been bugged by my adviser for my latest information. He wants me to talk to my adviser even I don't want to publish with him.
Could anyone give me advice?
Thanks.

My job is part of academia, and part of industry. My current supervisor knows my situation.

Option A:  Blow him off.  You did your Ph.D.  You're done.  Work for your current employer and to feed your family.  The academic rat race is not your concern.  And it's not even like this guy cares about the science being lost. He just wants another sticker on his helmet (pub count).
Option B:  Tell him "what's in it for me".  Maybe get something out of him, like inclusion as co-author on a review or the like.
Option C: Write it but tell him you will be the communicating author, you're in charge and not interested in edits from him and he can just ride along for a pub count (maybe a little gentler stated than that, but that is bottom line).

When I was in this situation, I went with option C.  But I actually cared about the science getting out and had the paper ready to go, no issues.  Also my advisor never messed with my text (I never had an edit from him on previous papers).  [And even in this case, it only came after a year or two of the guy, sitting, before he came back and agreed to my terms.]
I would probably go with C for you. But make it clear to him who is in charge.  Some of these professors are not used to grad students that take them on.
You probably will never get satisfaction on the previous slight, but if you tell the guy "I wasn't happy with how you handled X.  That is behind us.  But I have to evaluate if I can trust you going forward before doing any work on Y." maybe he toes the line.  He may not, so then put him in deep freeze.
I can't promise you a great outcome.  But I do know if you don't sometimes stand up for yourself people will take advantage.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I don't think Option C would be applied in my case. I am a foreigner, so I may need edit help from native speakers. Yes, I will stand up for myself.

If your job is taking all your time, you don't have to publish again - that is your choice.
Have you explained all the circumstances with your "committee member"? If not, that may, at least, explain to them the "real" or at least, your view of the situation.
If you do decide, after due deliberation, to collaborate and publish a further paper, then you need to set out a "cast iron" set of parameters such as you will be "first author", you will be the point of contact, etc etc AND have this agreed with the advisor and your friendly committee member. You will also need to include what happens if the advisor pulls the "change of direction" stunt on the paper to relegate you to a footnote while still using your data...
But, imho, is that all worth it?

Moral plus one (don't have the status to vote).  Liked the idea of sharing hesitation with committee member.  It is an easy way to bring it up.  Instead of running to complain, you are just saying "we had a problem before--don't want problem again."

I like this suggestion too.

@user3666823 give it a vote then, but best of luck anyway.


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Contacting a reference for verification as an editor
I am an assistant editor of a local health journal and recently an author submitted a paper on the psychometric property of a translated instrument.
I have requested for a proof of acknowledgement of the original developer allowing the translation, in which the authors were not able to find, citing the time lapse. Would it be fine if I email the owner myself and ask if this was true?
Thank you all.

This is a good question.

I think that since the authors are making a claim that will eventually be public if the paper is published, you can do this certainly.
If you have any suspicions of misconduct then due diligence might also require that you verify the accuracy of the translation, but that is a different issue.


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Is unpublished paper necessarily bad?
I am implementing a method from a research paper that was not published in any famous journal and authors didnt state them on their online research profiles. During my assessment, i gained opinion that the method itself is very promising and results section shows good results. I am interested in some opinions on the papers like these. Why is it not published in any famous journals, and was not cited by any other paper?

@roland using pirate websites, i checked authors references for validation

How old is this paper approximately?

Unpublished papers are not necessarily bad ones.
How can it happen that good papers remain unpublished? Good papers (or papers with good ideas/methods…) get rejected quite frequently. Reasons may be that the authors targeted the wrong audience or journal, or failed to get their main points across. Sometimes this also happens after a first improvement and second submission and then the "papers-get-old" effect kicks in: Some journals don't want to publish papers for which a two year old preprint exists (have read this from an editor).
Even if the paper is rejected only once, it may happen that the main author has left academia and can't/won't work on a revision and resubmission (and remaining coauthors lack some expertise or time). Even simpler: The authors do not care that much about publication of this specific paper anymore as other research projects got more interesting meanwhile.


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Is it necessary for a letter of recommendation to include the full name of the candidate?
I'm applying for Colleges for my MSc. But all of my letters of recommendation address me by my first name. is it okay, or should the complete name of the candidate be included?

Letters of recommendation are proper documents, and as such they must include candidate's full name at least once. It is often included in the first sentence, e.g.

It is my pleasure to write this letter of reference in support of Mr Ice Dune's application to the College of Crafts and Wizardry.

The following text can refer to the Candidate by the first name.

Agree and I used to include the Date of Birth as some names are common - never had a student query it either.

It's fine.  Just make them physical or electronic attachments and mail the stuff in.  Don't bug your references with this clerical pettiness.  Grad programs won't fuss.


text:
How closely is Electronics and communication engineering related to computer science?
I'm applying for my masters in the field of computer science. I observed that most universities in Europe ask for a degree in computer science or a related course. I want to change my field from Electronics to Computer Science. so are they closely related and can i apply these CS courses?

This depends very much on your electronics degree. Most universities will ask for a certain amount of credits of certain subject (e.g. programming, data bases etc).
With electronics you will most likely have the basis and low level parts (math, architecture of cpus etc) well covered but you might have a gap in the more computer related areas.
The best way is possibly to informally ask where you want to apply to (attaching a syllabus of the courses you have taken). Some universities might also offer additional courses in order to catch up if you are short on some prerequisites.


text:
Can we change our field of study for masters in canada?
I have a bachelors degree in electronics and communication engineering and am going for higher studies. I want to change my field to computer science for my masters. Is it possible to do that for masters in Canada? I've been working as a software developer for an year now.

Maybe contact some computer science masters courses in Canada and find out? Every uni is different and the subjects in your engineering course would be different too. We don't tend to give career advice in Academic SE as it is opinion based and the variability of the answers is too broad and too much. Most answers can be found on university or course websites too.

Yes definitely. Your master's field doesn't need to be in the same field as your bachelors degree in Canada. Although some programs may have specific requirements. Looking at the University of Toronto's website for graduate school in computer science (https://www.sgs.utoronto.ca/programs/computer-science/) the requirements are:
"An appropriate bachelor's degree with a standing equivalent to at least a University of Toronto B+. Preference given to applicants who have studied computer science or a closely related discipline."

Thanks for that. I wasn't sure how similar to the US is the undergrad  program in Canada. In the US this would be very possible for almost every field.


text:
How do I response "accept (minor edits)" without suggestions? (IEEE ACCESS)
I just received a decision letter from IEEE ACCESS. The recommendation of reviewer1 is "Accept (minor edits)" and the recommendation of reviewer2 is "Reject (update and resubmit encouraged)".
While reviewer1 did not give any suggestions need to be revised. Did I need to respond to him in the "response document"?
Thank you.

What did the editor say the final decision was? Contact the editor if you are still confused.

If the reviewer does not ask to do anything, say ‘we greatly appreciate the reviewer’s effort to carefully review the paper in the earlier round’.

@SolarMike Thank you for your reply. The finial decision is "We do encourage you to revise and resubmit your article once you have addressed the concerns and criticisms of the reviewers." and I plan to resubmit the paper after revision.

@Mithun Your help is much appreciated, and maybe I would also add some contents about what I had revised.

It is likely that the first reviewer was referring to minor issues of language and presentation, even spelling, typos, etc. Give the paper a careful read looking for issues and correct them. If you do this, it is unlikely that you really need a direct response to that reviewer, other than thanks. Many reviewers don't want to take on the role of "copy editors" and so will just point to that things can be improved without giving detail.
If your first language is other than the language of the paper, then it might be good to have a colleague make some comments on presentation - someone who is fluent in the language in question.
The other reviewer needs to be taken seriously, of course, and your acceptance will depend on how you respond, primarily in your edits of the paper. But that is the usual situation, of course.

Congratulations! it means your article was accepted. If there were any comments from the reviewers, you need to incorporate them before uploading final files. Otherwise, review one more time for grammar and spelling and then upload your final version of the article.

The "accept" was a recommendation from a reviewer, not a decision from the editor. The paper has almost certainly not yet been accepted.

I think this is too optimistic. Though I really hope the paper could be accepted, I think I should revise the paper carefully.


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i'm 23 years,high school dropout ,looking for a second chance
i'm from morocco,23 years old,dropped out of high school and i got into freelancing,but now i want to go back to school (school based in canada or europe "overseas"). which type of programs would suit my case ? any advice would be helpful

Sorry, undergraduate admissions is out of the scope of this site. Good luck!

With rare exceptions, you probably need to get a secondary education diploma by some means. In the US there are programs and exams for older students to complete their secondary education, called GED.
From there, the path is about like any other student. Apply for some educational program that meets your needs and make your best case for being a success at it.
To do this otherwise might be possible, but difficult. It would involve convincing some university, or at least some faculty member, that you have the necessary background without the usual diploma. Rare, but not impossible.

thank you for the answer
do you have any list of schools i can contact to check what i need to enroll for a GED ?


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what is the common academic way of linking a section of a paper to a previously published paper?
Assume you have a published paper in journal X. Now, you are writing a manuscript for journal Y. One section of this manuscript is very similar to what you published in X.
So how is the common academic way of referencing this section to that published paper?
I mean, it would probably look like this:
III. Method blah blah
This method has been previously addressed in this paper [ref].

Yes, you usually do it like you said. What's your question?

I mean is it common to reference the whole section to a paper? and leave it having only one or two sentences?

No, the paper needs to be self-contained. You can't just say "Method: see [1]" and be done with it. The sentence you mentioned is in addition to a suitable discussion of the method.

@xLeitix: I have severe doubts about the validity of the statement "the paper needs to be self-contained". While a brief description of the contents of a few key references may be given, it is usually very much expected that readers who are not familiar with a given method are not given a full description, but rather just a reference to another paper, where the description of the referenced method can be found.

@O.R.Mapper The rule of thumb in my community is "if I need to know something specific about the author's earlier work to understand a paper, it's a reject." That includes methods that are not at least somewhat common in the community. You don't need to include every specific about your method, but the gist that you need to know to understand the principle needs to be in the paper where you are using it.

@xLeitix: Interesting. Things seem to vary considerably between fields in that case.

The point of writing a scientific paper is to communicate what you have done and how. A key factor is to keep a clear trail of your sources. If you need to re-iterate an already published method you basically have two options:

Simply state that you use the method described in "so and so" (yyyy). If you have made any changes to the method originally described you do of course need to provide details on those changes.
If the method is somehow so key to your paper that you think it is worth re-iterating the method description then rewrite it in your own words and, perhaps, start out by saying. I have followed the method described in "so and so" (yyyy), what follows is a re-iteration of his/her/their description. You can of course include changes you have made to the method but then it has to be crystal clear to the reader what is from the older paper and what is new.

It is quite common, at least in some fields, to provide a abbreviated description, focussing on key aspects and ignoring parts that are more obvious. After all the reference to the original description should be given and the source for the information is there.
What you should totally avoid is to quote the section from the older paper. It is always better to provide your own version of whatever you are "quoting", since this may make clear your interpretation of what was originally said. Straight quotes hide such effects.

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


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Does software exist for supporting conducting SLRs
I'm conducting a (short) structured literature review to generate new hypotheses. Given the fact I'm on my own, I thought of writing a little scraper (reduces bias) to automatically download the papers for me based on given keywords and search engines (scopus, google scholar, etc.), combined with some visualisation for quickly judging the results for inclusion/exclusion.
But I can't shake the nagging feeling that this has to be a solved problem. It's not that hard and quite a generic issue. I can't find anything though, am I missing something?

I don't see why take time to write a scraper when the repositories will happily let you download the articles in bulk by default...

Does this answer your question? Is there a simple way to bulk download a large number of papers from a list of references

Most journals don't like people "scraping" papers, even if it's only a small-scale effort. Tread very carefully. Aaron Swartz was prosecuted (admittedly he did download over 4 million papers), and later committed suicide. Although a small-scale effort is perhaps unlikely to attract much scrutiny, it's still probably against the ToS, which is why no one has published software to automatically download papers. An exception is the arXiv, where you can indeed download everything, if you pay them for the bandwidth.
There are tools to help generate "networks" of papers - Web of Science, Paperscape (for arXiv papers), and ADS Labs (in case you're an astronomer) are some examples. There might be more field-specific repositories that have similar capabilities. But typically these tools will not just automatically download a whole folder full of PDFs for you.
In my experience (and especially if you're dealing with older, scanned articles), searching by keywords and citation maps only will lead you to miss some useful papers. You do need to actually put in some effort yourself in the search! A sound approach is to start by reading a few key literature reviews in the field. Read the useful-sounding papers those authors cite, as well as all of the highly-cited papers in the network. Rinse and repeat.

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


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Pros and cons of supervising master's students as a postdoc
I'm an American postdoc working at a university in the UK, working in a mathematics department. I am planning on applying to jobs in both the US and UK, including smaller places, and SLACs.
I have the opportunity to supervise a master's thesis. In the grand scheme of things, is it worth it? My suspicion is that nobody gets a job for having supervised an MSc thesis, but on the other hand, permanent job applications do seem to ask about such experience.
What are the pros and cons of supervising students? Would the time be better spent on doing my own research?

If you are planning a career in Academia that includes any non-trivial teaching component, it would probably do you good to get some experience with this. Whether it is enough to compensate for the time is a judgement call.
But, one thing that you need to learn as a teacher is that other people don't learn like you do. Every student is different and each has a unique way of learning. Things that are easy for you may not be for others. This is more pronounced at the undergraduate level, but even at the MS level you will get a sense of the kinds of struggles that students have by doing some supervision.
The experience may also give you some insight into coming up with the sort of problems that are appropriate for MS students. Problems that are hard enough so that something can be learned but not so hard as to require years of effort. Having a lot of problems at hand can serve your own research interests well.
A more remote advantage is that some of these students will continue to a doctorate. When they do, they will form part of your academic circle with you as a "senior" member. This can open possibilities for collaboration later.
I think there are a lot of pros for this and few cons as long as you don't take on too much initially. Since there is only one such offer currently, it might be worth it to dip your toe in that stream.

Thanks for the convincing comment. I think that I will give it a go, and hopefully will come up with a good problem!

The main pro is that you get to pass on your knowledge to a student and thus you serve science and academia. This is one of the key tasks of academia and is often a reward in itself.
Ask yourself: Do you want to do this? Do you have enough time/capacities for this? Are you able to interact with students? If yes, go for it -- regardless of whether or not this looks good on your CV.

Thanks for the advice. I agree that this sounds quite fun and rewarding. I did not mean to sound like someone who chases CV lines (I'm not); instead, it just recently occurred to me that I need to be a more strategic with my time if I want to ensure that I will have a permanent position at the end of my postdoc, so I thought I'd poll the academia public advice. In the end, my view is that it's probably worth taking this opportunity.

If you're unsure, I'd say give it a go. My observation is that interacting with students is something you either enjoy or not. Until you try you won't be able to tell, and you want to know before you commit to a career that involves teaching. Then, even if you don't enjoy teaching all that much, you may want to do a bit of it while you're in academia, as it will strengthen your bonds with faculty and teaching assistants. Also, extra money does not hurt.

Good point. May as well figure it out now. Thank you for the advice.


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PhD in Education - How competitive is it and what are admissions committees looking for?
I currently have applications into several top tier education programs.  I am a bit worried about my chances.  I have about 7 years working in education, a unrelated masters and a masters in education.  My GPA in undergraduate was a 3.8 and in graduate school a 3.9 from a top 25 university.  I did well on the GRE verbal but poorly on GRE math.
Does anyone have any insight as to what they are looking for and what my chances are?  I read in another post to look for brutal honesty, so bring it on.

People with GPA over 3.7 are excellent.

Thanks so much @kitty.  I am still VERY concerned about my quantitative score.  Although I studied, I am not math-incliend and have been out of school for a long while.

It sounds like, on the whole, you're in a pretty good place regarding your credentials. Have you checked out the Grad Cafe? The forums there are a fantastic resources for people in the process of applying.

I really appreciate your comment, Jacob. I have looked at Grad Cafe - thank you very much for that suggestion.  The unfortunate thing is that aren't too many people reporting on Education.

It sounds like you have good transcripts and a good GRA score (I'm doubting education majors need top math scores).
The brutal truth is admissions is a black box, and no one is assured a spot.  Grad Cafe is a good online research to vent anonymously.  You may want to ask around and see if there are others at your company who applied for grad school.  It can help tremendously to have a flesh-and-blood support group.

Thanks sevensevens!  I am definitely having a hard time grappling with lack of metrics and the "holistic process."


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Dress code for Thesis Discussion
Is there something like a "standard dress code" for a Ph.D thesis discussion? And, if there is - how important is it? Obviously, one should not (I think) dress too casually, but I do not know what is deemed appropriate.
I don't know how much this varies around the world; if it helps, I am from Europe.

"Europe" is a big place; at some European universities you'd be expected to dress like this.

I assume a "discussion" means a defense (hence, why I marked it as a duplicate). If not, please [edit] to clarify.

@ff524 it does, thank you! i tried looking around before asking, but couldn't find anything of the sort. i see i just choose the wrong wording for my search.

In my experience, different professors can have very different feelings about this. If you have any doubt, best to ask your primary adviser.

I think it varies across cultures. Being a stereotypical italian, I think it is important to dress smartly and with style. Most importantly, however you dress, you should do it for yourself, rather than for the committee.
Clearly, if you go with a t-shirt and jeans, there might be those who think that you are not taking it seriously. But it depends on who these people are. Are they those who go to world-leading conferences and give a talk wearing shorts and a regular shirt? If so, you might be in trouble if you wear a suit!
The way you dress might be important for the first 5 minutes, afterwards it will depend on the work you have done.


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Estimate of travel expenses for a Colloquium abroad - what does this include?
This summer I will (hopefully) be attending the Logic Colloquium 2015, as a Ph.D student in Logic. The organizers will make available Travel Awards for grad students, and I would like to apply. One of the requirements is an estimate of my travel expenses.
My question is: what does "travel expenses" usually include in this situation? I imagine airplane tickets and accommodation expenses are included. What else could reasonably be included in my estimate?
Thank you.

Tickets and accommodation are typically by far the largest items.  You can also include other transportation expenses, such as travel to/from airports (or parking fees if you drive your own car to the airport and leave it there).  You should generally choose the cheapest option that's not too inconvenient.  For example, an airport shuttle may cost much less than a taxi.
Meals can be handled in many different ways: sometimes there is a fixed per diem amount to cover such expenses, sometimes you can be reimbursed but need receipts, and sometimes meals aren't covered.  The per diem approach is generally easiest for everyone, but it depends on how much funding there is and where it came from.
Other forms of travel expenses are less common and may or may not be covered, but it can't hurt to ask.  Childcare is a particularly messy issue, because this can severely limit travel plans but conference organizers are not necessarily prepared to provide funding or local recommendations; still, it's worth asking about childcare if it's relevant.

So in your opinion it would be reasonable to include in my estimation a daily amount for meals?

@sylvia, yes. You can probably look up per diem rates by using government websites that publish them for their employees and use that as an estimate. I suspect that the lodging is on the low side, but that the allowance for food is about right. Get the lodging rate directly from the conference hotel or your preferred accommodation.


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As a referee, what should I do if I think the other reviewer of a paper is not objective?
I was recently asked to referee a paper for a "moderate" but perfectly acceptable Elsevier journal, with an impact factor of around 1. The article in question was very poorly written, had several significant misconceptions in the introduction, but looked potentially quite interesting: I submitted a recommendation of major revisions, and included a list of fifty points ranging from the essentially (mathematical) grammatical to several significant scientific points. Frankly, I felt I was, if anything, quite generous -- rather than submitting a 2500 word review with a large number of salient criticisms, I would probably have been justified in recommendation rejection on the grounds that it was difficult to discern what had actually been undertaken.
Recently, Elsevier made me aware that the other reviewer had submitted their comments on the paper. I was interested to see if they had agreed with my judgement -- and on which side of the accept/reject fence they had fallen. Much to my surprise, they had suggested outright acceptance, had written a very terse review which included details that were not originally in the paper, but could only be known to one of the authors [or their friends].
What should I do about this? I feel like having a badly-written one paragraph review recommending acceptance of a flawed article makes a whole mockery of the whole of peer review -- and additionally potentially means that Elsevier can't select reviewers appropriately.

Generally Elsevier journals are run with honest editors and an honest editor would never allow an author to be one of the referees.  However, it's not unreasonable that "friend" is a referee, given the smallness of fields.  So it's not so unusual that a referee is aware of the work in a paper beyond the actual paper (e.g., seminars or private discussions).

Also take this as a lesson or two: always make your referee reports as clear to the editor as possible, and know that the final decision lies with the editor(s), not you.

In the specific comments to the editor, I was quite clear -- "I had the impression that there is a novel algorithm hiding behind a screen of genuinely appalling writing". Some more context -- by "details that were not originally in the paper", the comment from the other reviewer was something like "[this method] is currently in use in [a site not mentioned in the paper]".

More clear: "There seems to be a novel algorithm here, but due to the extremely deficient exposition, this paper is not publishable without major revisions."

"I feel like having a badly-written one paragraph review recommending acceptance of a flawed article makes a whole mockery of the whole of peer review -- and additionally potentially means that Elsevier can't select reviewers appropriately."  I think this is pretty common, even at reputable journals.  I see quite a few incomprehensible reviews (too short, off topic, not gramatical...)  Elsevier does not set uniform editorial standards for its journals.  The (typically volunteer) editors do that.  Elsevier has been caught with corrupt editors before.  Can't tell who is at fault here.

this method] is currently in use in [a site not mentioned in the paper] -- This is perfectly innocent if you work in a field where preprints or conferences or workshops are the norm (like computer science).  Referees are not required to be ignorant of the results in any paper they agree to review.

My perspective as an Elsevier editor: This happens sometimes and is easy to see through. An outright "accept" on a first submission is so rare as to raise eyebrows in any case (at least, in my field). The editor has probably noticed the lack of thorough review by this referee and will give the review the appropriate weight (i.e. none). That said, I would not see any harm in emailing the editor if you are concerned, so long as you keep it polite and to the point.

I agree with the first part (+1), but I'm not sure that most editors want to get a bunch of emails from referees critiquing alternative referee reports.

Most papers I've reviewed for have a field in the online submission form for confidential comments to the editor.

@Kimball As an editor I'd much rather receive an email alerting me to a potential problem with the review process than put my name as editor on a paper that turns out to have serious flaws.

@gerrit yes, but you don't usually see the other reviewers' comments until after you have submitted your review on that form, so if you need to get in touch with the editor after seeing the other review, that won't work.

Transparency is key. If you suspect some kind of fraud, be open with the editor, and send an email to prove you acted proactively. If your suspicion is strong and you do not act clearly, you risk later appearing as an accomplice.
Probably the other reviewer is a friend and is also superficial (because he is riskying highly if discovered). This is a typical proof that the peer review system is, somewhat quoting Churchill's definition of democracy, the worst system to disseminate research findings but all the others which have been tried before.

I agree with the advice to notify the editor (but that should be done as factually as possible: do not accuse the editor of incompetence of manipulation, mention your doubt honestly) but I do not agree with the risk mentioned in the answer. I very much doubt the editor himself would be in much trouble if he did pick a referee too close to the authors, unless he does that repeatedly, and the other referee would certainly not be taken accountable for not going beyond what is asked in any part of academia I remotely know of.

Ultimately this is up to the action editor. The reviewer you speak of hasn't hidden his/her obvious affiliation with the authors, so hopefully that will be noticed. A good action editor has sole discretion, with the peer reviews as supporting evidence. A terse 'accept' review may carry no weight, but tough to say. Most likely, if you made great points, they will be passed along.

If your suspicions are true, you're describing peer review fraud. I think that this question is highly relevant, since it deals with the same core issues: Is it okay to report classmates cheating on exams?
Many editors have been on the lookout for this kind of fraud because of incidents such as this one. Still, it's easy to dismiss these incidents as happening to "someone else", and that "my/our journal" has no problems. As an editor, I would absolutely want to be told of this so I can investigate, as well as possibly blacklist the authors if fraud is confirmed.


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How to cite a website title with non-standard capitalization in APA style?
I am attempting to cite a website title with non-standard capitalization. I know that you would lowercase a website title that is presented completely in capital letters, but I am unsure as to how I would write a reference citation for a title with the format of something like "LightsWeekly", which has two words capitalized in title case and combined into one word. Can someone please give me assistance on how to do this?

Retaining the stylized capitalization seems sensible, and would follow the logic for brand names.

You should present the title of the website as it is officially styled, without modifying its capitalization or spacing, in exactly the same way as you would if the title was "Compleetlee Ronglee Spelt". The given title is the title!
In the case of something like LightsWeekly you are treating the word as a proper noun, just as you would a brand name such as RollaDoor (for roller garage doors).

Website names are actually case sensitive. I remember I cited a website in my article with wrong capitalization, and it was not accessible. My understanding is only the domain names are case-insensitive, everything that goes after the domain name is case-sensitive.

It seems you're mixing up the name of the website and the URL. APA style requires both. Part of the URL can indeed be case-sensitive.

@Anyon : I stand corrected. Looks like I misunderstood the term "website name". But I think it is important that web page names are case sensitive.


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Is this individual a second author?
I have a dilemma. I was asked to work with another individual, who was to be the second author, to update a book chapter that I authored in two previous editions of a textbook. The two of us unsuccessfully tried to meet multiple times to develop a plan to divide up the work.
The other individual submitted a list of some updated references (10 in all). I also complied my own list of updated literature. I read and reviewed all of the literature they submitted, as well as all of the updated literature I complied. The references were integrated into the chapter, but none were suitable to integrate into an "evidence table" which is a core element of the chapter. The other individual did no other work, including none of the writing for the chapter. The individual didn't review or make any final edits prior to submitting the work to the editor of the text.
Do I still list this individual as the second author? I have worked on a few other publications with other authors, but the work was more evenly divided. In these cases, each author made significant contributions to the work. The editor is aware of the situation, but said it's up to me whether to list the other individual as the second author. I don't want to slight the other individual, but their contributions were limited.

Is there a reason you don’t view this partner as a contributor you’d typically simply acknowledge? Is there career value, for either of you, to include him or her, as a second author?

Did they not make it into the evidence table because they put in little effort, or was it 100% genuine effort and the papers were just not suitable?

I suggest that you keep them as second author even if you think it is marginal. It will prevent bad feelings and open the possibility of a more productive joint effort in the future. It doesn't really cost you anything if you think long term.
I don't know, of course, why their contribution was minimal and it could be just inexperience or something more serious.
This also happens to be a good day for gift giving (25 December), though I don't really think of this as gift authorship. They made some effort to contribute at least.
FWIW, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gift_economy, though I wouldn't extend those ideas to gift authorship which is a sort of fraud.


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How can you change a bad course run by somebody else?
I am a (very) junior post doc in a prestigious university, and for the last three years I have taught a first-year undergraduate level course on statistics, designed to be taken by biochemists. By "teach", I mean "provide classes going over a set of problem sheets written by somebody else". My background is in particle physics, and I find that the course, written and lectured by a very senior academic, is exceptionally poor.
For example, the "standard tables" of numerically integrated distributions that he provides to the students differ to the values one gets in R, or using other modern numerical methods. Additionally, his model solutions include things such as assuming that radioactive decay is normally distributed (it isn't, it's a classic example of a Poisson process), cherry-picking data to fit a regression line to, and not making explicitly clear how the different types of expressions vary for the t-distribution when the samples are assumed to have equal or unequal variance. He treats parametric and non parametric tests as interchangeable in answering questions, and the style of the questions themselves boil down to "guess an expression and put numbers into it". There is no mention of Bayes's theorem anywhere, nor of modern statistics.
The students do not like the course at all, and I find that I spend a large portion of the time filling in gaps in their knowledge, and saying things like "The way  answers this question is as follows", even if I am relatively certain that in doing so he has made a tacit assumption that might not be correct. Whilst admittedly teaching statistics to biochemists is notoriously difficult, I feel that the course as stands does not prepare them for a research career (they can't pin-the-statistical-test-tail-on-the-donkey-of-experimental-design) and actively avoids adequately discussing several quite important subtle points.
I have made most of these points to the senior academic in charge several times. He does not respond to them. He recently discovered that the notation he uses is inconsistent with that of the rest of the literature on the subject, and wrote an email to the people who deliver his classes saying something along the lines of "I have been teaching this course for 20 years..." and then stating that would essentially ignore this fact. When he went on sabbatical for a year, another academic (less junior than I, but still junior) entirely re-wrote the course, and it received much better reviews. When the lead tutor came back, he ignored the changes, and reverted back to his stock material.
This is incredibly frustrating. I do not know how adequately change anything, without committing career suicide and going to person in charge over the lead's head. I do not wish to make a fuss, but I really feel that it isn't very professional of me to have to start every class essentially ranting about what the students have been taught, teaching them how to pass the exam, and then telling them "fun things" that I think they should know at the end if there is extra time. I want to teach a course that adequately prepares individuals for their future, not very much for the past.
What is the best way to go about getting out of this situation without either (a) getting me fired, (b) getting the senior academic fired or retired, or (c) creating a very public fuss and generally being a bother?

Possibly talk to someone in the biochemistry department. They're the ones who should care that their students are not being well-taught. They also may be willing to leave your name out of a complaint.

I commend you for caring about these issues. When you have a permanent position somewhere, I hope that you will push for the sorts of improvements you described.
For the moment, you are in a position of essentially no power, and it is unlikely that anyone will listen to you. You tried the only potential solution at your disposal: you raised your concern to the academic in charge, and you found he doesn't care.
As such I recommend that you do the best job possible within the limits of your authority, try not to make any enemies, and try not to worry about this much. If a similar situation occurs later in your career, when you are likely to have more clout and authority (and possibly less pressure to publish), you might push harder for change.

Well, that's depressing (and the course of action i was on already). Part of my fear that I didn't mention above is that I might end up being given the course to lecture if I complain too much, which would require really too much of my time.

@Landak I wanted to suggest offering to take over the course yourself, but you do not seem to like the idea. As you start discovering, the price of having the say in how something looks like is having to do the main job.

@Landak You mentioned that the instructor who taught the course during the usual teacher's sabbatical "entirely rewrote the course." Would those rewritten materials make it easier for you to teach the course without investing huge amounts of time?


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Typos in Statement of Purpose of PhD application.
I am an International student, I applied to universities in US for PhD in High Energy Physics (theory). I just realized that I have made a couple of typos in my statement of purpose/writing sample. To be more specific, I repeated a word (like "year year" instead of "year") in two places. Due to anxiety of waiting to hear from universities, I am worried about all the factors that come into play. How much of a negative impact will this have on my application ?
P.S. - I have done graduate level courses in quantum field theory and quantum electrodynamics. I have one publication in JHEP and decent GRE scores.

What is your TOEFL score?

TOEFL is quiet low - 92 (Ibt), GRE - 322, Physics GRE - 870/990.

I wouldn't be worried about typos in your application, as long as they are seldom and do not obfuscate anything. Worst case scenario: they thought you were lazy about grammar/spelling.

They are just mild careless mistakes of word repetition. I got worried because in many blogs they stressed deeply not to make any mistakes is SOP. Thank you very much.

Though I would worry, but it should not be a big problem in institutions which does work. You are not applying for English literature, are you?

How significant a typo is rests largely on the purpose and the level of competition. If you were being considered for a prestigious fellowship, typos in the statement of purpose could and have been used as reasons to screen people out of the competition (because there were too many strong candidates).
For traditional admissions, on the other hand, while such sloppiness cannot help you, it's not normally severe enough issue to disqualify you, unless the typos become so numerous that they interrupt the flow of the writing.

Even tough your reply has me a little worried again, it really makes sense. Thank you.


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Google Scholar: how to search for a close title match
I am trying to search Google Scholar for articles based on title, but where I may have only an approximate title. Usually what I have is very close, but may vary slightly in punctuation (hyphenation or not, different unicode representation of apostrophe, etc.) or may have or be missing a few extra words at the start or end of the title.
When I use intitle:"Sample Title Goes Here" it will only match exact matches.  I think when I do intitle:Sample Title Goes Here the intitle qualifier only applies to the first word.  When I try intitle:Sample intitle:Title intitle:Goes intitle:Here it only matches if all these words are in the title (so if I have a spurious word in my search string, it fails. (I've also noted some very strange behavior if I put a space between intitle: and my query.)
What is the best way to do what I'm trying to do?


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How can I recover (academically) from a significant (physical) injury?
I am a young academic – I accepted a permanent academic position at the start of this year. I wrote a very large number of grant applications, and got "my big break" with a large, multi-million-unit-of-currency competitively awarded fellowship that would enable me to hire my first proper postdoc, students, and do experiments – I was delighted. (I am an experimental medical physicist)
Unfortunately for me, I then basically immediately ended up in hospital as a patient rather than an employee, and had a minor spinal cord injury. I was catheterised (horrible), became incontinent (surprisingly, far less horrible), and have greatly reduced strength in one of my legs (annoying, but I am glad to be able to move it again) – it's been about six months later, and I've been operated on, poked, prodded and investigated, and am still not really better. For example, I'm walking with aids that aren't magnet safe, and my life requires access to high-field (3T, 7T, 9.4T, 12T) magnets.
The main conference deadlines in my field are coming up, and while I've tried to keep publishing, I worry that my funding body will look badly upon my complete lack of productivity. I'm also acutely aware that to train new students effectively really requires hands-on time with the instruments and I don't want to be a burden on my (new) colleagues – I mostly just "haven't arrived". The university will help with things like my physical requirements, but the thing I find really distressing is that I get exhausted, and can't concentrate well – at the moment I'm on sick leave.
I feel both tired, frustrated, and deeply nervous about not hitting the ground running. I worry that I'm going to get fired, or that my reputation in the field will decrease. Because some of my problems are unlikely to go away, I'm actually trying to become more interested in more mathematical or theoretical aspects of my work (which I can do – and have been doing – lying in bed, on opiates). But this all deeply, deeply worries me. Students, books, papers and grants all have timetables, and me getting sick doesn't stop the rest of the world from moving on. I feel like a burden on my loving partner – the last thing I want to do is feel like a burden on my colleagues and international collaborators either. Yet at the same time, I know that, deep down, I need help and am likely to continue to need physical help. I'm unsure about how to go about getting it, and how to communicate more broadly to my field that "it's not my fault" that they haven't seen the great things that I wanted to deliver.
How do I bounce back? I want to hit the ground running, but I'm aware that trying to do too much too soon is likely to be bad for my health, to put it mildly.

This is probably off topic here as it is primarily a medical, not academic, issue. Or even a general workplace issue.

I guess the thing that is different is that academic progress is tied so much to your ideas and your (group)'s place in the field – it is different to a general workplace in that the university doesn't have another "me" who can directly take my place and replicate my ideas; and similarly failing to publish a scientific story at the right time could lead to you getting scooped. I'd be interested in a discussion about these aspects, as well of the practical ones – I used to use a wet lab occasionally, for example; now I'm not sure I can safely.

Prioritize your health and recovery above all else. Make sure your superiors buy in to this plan. It should be an obvious win for them.

Contact your funding agency and discuss the issue with them. These things happen and they likely will be very supportive.

You have been dealt a bad hand. I offer this brief comment very humbly. At the heart of problems like this can be the issue of identity: who am I, what am I worth, what do I do? For many of us in academia, what we do and what we achieve are strong parts of who we think we are. Our jobs define personal identities and self-esteem far more than, say, serving in a bar for a while. When our job is imperiled it can feel like an attack on self. All I suggest (and this is only partial) is to think deeply about self as separate from job. Self will remain with you for ever; job is transitory.

I'm also in imaging - perhaps it will comfort you to know that the last time my PI(s) entered Zone 4 was probably years ago.

Could you update us on how you are doing?


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PhD Email and Deadlines in the US
I was considering writing Emails to professors in US universities regarding PhD opportunities at their departments, however I noticed there is a formal PhD application with deadlines in December to follow. So what is the point in contacting professors for placements in their team when there is already an application process similar to undergraduate programmes? Thank you

In many departments, when it comes to accepting students, it's good to have a professor put their hand up and say that they would want to work with you and put you on their funding. By the time it gets to accepting students, because there are so many good applicants, the pool has become mostly indistinguishable. Having someone advocating for you at these meetings can make all the difference in the world.

Note that this is largely field and school dependent. From what I've heard, everything from having previously contacted a specific professor who will vouch for you being a soft requirement to actively discouraging contacting professors beforehand is represented.

Agreed, thus "in many departments".

Thank you for the reply, my specialty is Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. If available, is there a list of known US universities who have all year long open applications for PhD?

@Omar The vast majority of PhD candidates apply during the standard cycle (apply around December/January, start school around August/September). I know that a few programs do off-cycle admissions, but it's very rare, often doesn't come with funding, and makes course scheduling difficult. You almost certainly want to go with the regular admissions cycle.

@RogerFan, for the record, I applied in August-ish and was admitted for the following January since I was a December graduate (UT-Austin in both cases). There are plenty of schools that do summer applications for spring admits, but I don't know of any that do open admissions.

@BillBarth Interesting. I knew that some schools did offer off-cycle admissions, but I don't think I've ever met someone who's actually used them. Is that a regular thing at UT-Austin are were you an anomaly? Was course scheduling or funding affected?

@RogerFan, I dunno. There might have been one more admit that spring in my department (ASE, smallish). I had already taken 1 grad course as finishing undergrad for which I reserved credit (Comp. Grids w/ my PhD super.), and I think I just jumped into mostly non-required courses until I caught up with the usual required sequence. My GRA was fully-funded by my boss's grants, so funding wasn't in question and wasn't from the department. I think I ended up with a small college-level fellowship the following fall that supplemented that. It's been since January '98, so my recollection is hazy.

From my experience, it depends on the type of school that you want to go to. If you are attending a physical school in person they tend to follow the traditional schedule and have deadlines. However, online universities (of which there are many), often have less stringent application deadlines, or they accept applications all year long.


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Manage communication with students (as advisor)
I feel a little unproductive in managing students as their advisor. I have both undergrads and graduate students, and especially with undergrads, it's hard to make them respect scheduled updates.
Right now, I am using online tools to track their progress (on GitHub), but communication is lacking. I hate using email for these regular updates, since many of them even take two days to a week (sometimes more!) to check their email account (using University's address), moreover, it would be probably cluttering my inbox.

What tools or communication services can I use to manage several students, communicating with them in a timely manner?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Maybe Slack? But I worry about how much you may be pestering your students if you are following their work via Git, I'd be put off by the big brotherishness. (using git is one thing; using it to 'spy' is another)

I am not spying, they are using git with GitHub (they are free to use even cards/issue, whatever they need without any requirements beyond the repo), but I would like to have a weekly report from all of them (asymptotically)... maybe I'm wrong but I wouldn't qualify a weekly report as pestering.

Can you have a weekly scheduled in-person meeting? I agree a weekly update is reasonable. I do wonder if you might be too demanding though and your students are avoiding you because of it; I usually hear about the opposite problem: students who are trying to contact their advisors and not able to.

I have seen many methods used, and none of them were great.  Have you tried weekly group meetings?  Have each student report their progress for the week and problems for the upcoming week.  I doubt you will find an excellent answer to your problem because each student is different.

I institute a lot of different things, but in my personal experience, the best thing is face-to-face meetings. Weekly meetings with the individuals, to talk about the problem and issues they may have with it. If it's undergraduates that are less committed to you you can settle for every other week. Things get lost in digital communication, and your students will feel a lot less comfortable with having nothing to discuss week after week. I find services like GitHub/Dropbox/Sourcetree to be the most effective, but people have their own pet software that they're used to. I suggest emphasizing personal interaction above all!

I agree with most of this answer, but I often find that undergrads need more meetings with me than grad students and postdocs do.

You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink...
You can use a multitude of systems to provide files / problems / updates, but you can’t make them log in... unless they want to - I find activities linked to grades get more attention than activities not graded...


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Does applying for a Masters at a school when also applying for a PhD look bad?
I want to go to graduate school for a PhD, but as a safety I'm also considering applying to master programs in the same or related field, if my undergraduate credentials are not strong enough for top programs. Would applying to the masters program where I am also applying for a PhD send the wrong message to the school though, that I'm not sure if I want to do this for a full PhD or not? Or do they understand that people apply to masters program as a back up for if someone's PhD applications don't go well?

Like an administrative person or a professor? I feel talking to a professor might make it seem like I don't have confidence in my application for the PhD and perhaps weight negatively on my admission.

Applying for multiple programs is common and unlikely to reflect badly upon  you. Application committees for different programs are usually made up of different members and it is highly unlikely that they will even know that you applied to both programs. The only time it might be revealed is when it goes to the administrators who send out the letters and, frankly, they couldn't care less.
Something to note, which affects both this issue and your overall considerations of a program, is that schools usually look for different things in a PhD program vs. an MA, and that affects how they conduct their admissions. At many schools, MAs are not just less-capable versions of PhD students, they are completely different type of student.
Terminal MA programs are usually unfunded, and include people who are less likely to conduct independent research. Some MA students will go on to a PhD program, but probably not at the institution where they get the MA. For this reason, MA programs at many schools are called 'cash cows' and admissions to those programs are less of a priority for the full faculty, with a lot of the sorting done by administration, focused on funding potential, and stricter considerations about things like GREs, etc.
PhD programs are research training to become academics, or at least independent researchers, and most PhDs are fully funded. Since the university is investing in you, and the faculty will be stuck with you in person for 5-10 years, and reputationally forever, the faculty care a great deal about this. Considerations like the ability to pay, and even strict measures of capacity like test scores, take a secondary role to creativity in the field, goodness of fit, and so on.
Simply put, in many schools you have to impress two different sets of people to get admitted, with overlapping but different priorities. There are idiosyncratic reasons why you may be admitted to one program and not the other, and sometimes it might even be that you get into a PhD and not an MA. (On balance, however, admissions to an MA program is more likely than a PhD, simply due to the volume of admissions.)


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Updating Paper Status after Applying to Graduate School
I heard back recently about my paper being accepted for publication. At the time of my applications to graduate schools I just wrote it was under review, should I attempt to update this status with some of the schools I applied to? If so, what would be the appropriate way to do this?

Yes, a paper acceptance may be worth updating a graduate school application.  It probably won't make a difference, and the update might not even get noticed at all if your application has already been read.  However, it's worth a try.
Updates to your application should be submitted sparingly.  Most people should not do it at all, and nobody should do it more than once.  It's inappropriate to submit an update that you could have included in the original application, since that would just be circumventing the application deadline.  However, it can occasionally make sense for external validation such as prizes or paper acceptances, because the timing is not under your control.

If so, what would be the appropriate way to do this?

First, you should check whether the online application system has a method for submitting updates after the deadline.  I would bet that it doesn't, because nobody wants to solicit or encourage updates, but if it does then you should submit the update this way.
Otherwise, you should look at the graduate admissions webpage for the department to try to find an e-mail address for inquiries.  Usually there's a special e-mail address for graduate admissions inquiries, which is handled by an administrative assistant.  One of your letter writers could write to that address and ask whether they could please add the paper acceptance to your file.  Whether they will actually do so probably depends on departmental policy, but this is your best shot.  (You could also write to them yourself, but having a letter writer do it avoids the issue of whether you can be trusted.)


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Will a certificate from my University Professor that I have worked under him can be shown as work experience for my graduate admission abroad?
I am planning  on working under a professor after my UG completes. However the professor has said that it would be an informal arrangement between the two of us, as the formal process is a bit complicated and would require intervention from the institute. So, the question is, could I take on this offer and get a certificate from the professor(of course signed by him) and state it as a work experience in my CV?

Why not just get that professor to write you a letter of recommendation?

Yes, I intend to get an LOR from him anyway. I just wanted to know if I can state that  as work experience also.

Your work with the professor is valid work experience and possible research experience, depending on what is involved. But a "certificate" is of less value to you than a LOR. The reason is that the letter comes direct from the professor and so has implied credibility, whereas something that you provide, even if honestly, is open to question. Even if it isn't disbelieved (and it probably won't be) it will be given less weight.
Let the professor know that you will, in the future (soon or later) be needing letters to continue your education. Some time to reflect will probably mean a better letter.
If some publication comes from your work, you may not qualify as a co-author, but try to get an acknowledgement in the paper if possible. Ask for it explicitly, I think. Even better to be a co-author, of course. But, make sure, in any case, that you have a record of the publication and that the prof is willing to say, in a LOR, that you contributed to the project.

Thanks for that. The reason I was emphasising on the certificate is that, how would my future employer know that I worked for the specified duration. I believe in that case the certificate helps I guess??


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Will my student insurance in US, as an international student cover my pre-existing ileostomy caused due to Crohn's disease?
I am planning on applying abroad for my further studies. But I have this disease called Crohn's, due to which currently I am having an ileostomy. Few of the costs associated with ileostomy are I need to buy accessories to maintain my ileostomy. And also I would need to take medication for my Crohn's, which I heard are quite costly abroad. So my question is:
1) Will the student insurance that the University collects help me with the accessories and the medications required?
2) Also, if at all I am eligible for the insurance, if something were to happen to me abroad(like an emergency surgery due to my pre-existing condition) would I have to pay for it from my pocket?
3) I heard that health care system in US is quite brutal. So is there any other country you would probably suggest for me to pursue my studies.
Correct me if I am wrong about the idea of health care. Thank you for your time.

Student insurance is not really that different from employer insurance so I am not sure that this is really a question related to academia. I am not sure there is a site where it is on topic (I don't think it fits at health.se).

I don't think any SE site can answer this, especially for your specific set of questions. What exactly is covered by your insurance will depend on your insurance. Since this is likely to be a substantial issue for you, you'll have to address it with universities you are interested in applying to. At public universities, insurance is often the same as the insurance that state employees get, which has historically been quite good for the US, but in some places (like my state) has gotten much worse lately.

Some insurances will not cover existing conditions so that may be an issue anyway...

The simplest answer is no, don't come to the US if you have a chronic health condition.

Health care for students is highly dependent on the institution. As one data point, my daughter's institution requires that she be covered by insurance herself or through us (her parents) - they have no insurance plan and no infirmary.

You will find that insurance in the US isn't nearly as comprehensive as that of many other countries. Neither is there any universal health system in the US. So, this is a question that you need to explore separately with each university you might attend.
My best guess, however, is that you will be disappointed most places. In the absence of clear statements from individual universities, assume the worst.
Europe, including some non EU countries have good coverage, but even there you need to know whether it is available to non-citizen residents and students. It will vary, but the chances there seem better.
But, to be clear, the health care system is quite good: doctors and such. It is the health insurance system that is brutal, and the two are quite distinct.