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Is it ethical for a PI to tell university to pay out intern's salary for an extra month after internship ends, and keep the money?
There is an intern sharing the office with me. Once day his PI came to talk to him. Since there were only 3 of us in the office, although I didn't pay attention, their conversation just automatically went into my mind.
The story is like this: the intern had worked for 2 months, and he was going to leave. However, he would not let the university know that he was leaving. Instead, the PI would tell the university that the intern would work for another month. When the intern received the paycheck of the last month, he would send it to the PI.
At first, I think this was not right, the PI was stealing project money for personal use, and I needed to do something. However, in second thought, I think he might be the best one to deserve that money.
After all, he is the sole PI of the project, and there is no co-PI. The funding of the project comes from a (very competitive) external grant that he has spent a lot of effort to write proposal etc.
I think it is not very fair for the intern, since he has worked really hard, even in the weekend, so that the project can be shorten. He is going to start his PhD, and has promised to continue to work on that project in his free time.
Although it is not very fair for him, he will not benefit at all if I take any action. In contrast, he may still really want to continue the collaboration that way. This PI is friend of my boss (PI), I haven't talked much to him, but he appeared to be a nice guy. This is surely none of my business.
TL;DR: I know the PI cheats the system, but is it still right ethically given the fact that he has to fight really hard for this grant money? What should I do in this situation?

I don't think very many people will agree that "it's hard to get grant money" is a valid justification for misusing it.  The contrary, in fact.

Also, the intern would be complicit, by accepting pay for time he didn't actually work (regardless of whom he gives the money to afterward).  If he's caught, besides possible civil or criminal consequences, I could imagine this sort of behavior resulting in debarment by the funding agency, making him ineligible to receive grant funding, potentially for life.  That's a career killer for sure.  I don't think you are doing him any favors by letting him go through with this.

In contrast, the PI might be able to pin all the blame on the intern.  "He signed a time card saying he worked for that time.  I had no way of knowing that he didn't.  I thought the check from him was just a nice gift to support my research."

"Fraud" is the word we're looking for here...

I am not sure it is none of your business. Suppose your department is caught misusing grant money. That could affect your PI's ability to get grants.

Think like this, what if everyone on this planet start doing the same. Would it be fair? Would you get funding next time? If answer is no then this situation is morally wrong.

I know the PI cheats the system Don't write things like that from account that is not disposable. If the scheme goes belly-up (like, intern keeps the paycheck and PI starts the stink) and some legal proceedings start then you may be questioned as a witness. Things may end up looking like you were covering up those fellows, and this question may be an evidence against you.I suggest deleting it and reposting through disposable account. \ Also, paycheck for which month is requested? If that's for last month intern had actually worked then maybe PI is not really going to fraud the sytem.

@Daerdemandt That may not help, depending on if the original answer and profile are cached in SE's servers (and who may have archived the answer in the meantime).

What does PI stand for? Principal investigator?

Call me dumb, but do we even know what is going to be done with that paycheck? What if the PI isn't even going to cash it, but instead e.g. return it or give it to another intern who deserves it later? It seems to me we're jumping to conclusions here...

And this is why wages are normally paid in arrears.

@RichardHardy virtually certainly yes, this is a commonly used abbreviation and perfectly fits in the context.

@Mehrdad I agree. I had a comment in the same direction (asking about the technicalities of the situation, such as what specifically is meant by "the paycheck"). Unfortunately it did not get answered (even though OP was still present then). Thus, I deleted it eventually.

Are you sure you heard correctly? You said that you weren't really paying attention but that the "conversation went to your mind". The situation doesn't really make sense -- why would the intern agree to this fraud when there's no upside for him? Be sure that you heard correctly before you report the situation.

The person who owns the money for a project is not the PI, nor even the university, but the funder who has supplied the money.  The university, and through that organization the PI, is essentially granted custody of the money, and it is their responsibility to ensure that it is disbursed to the appropriate persons in compliance with their contract and the rules of the funder and university.
What you have described is pure and simple embezzlement, and needs to be reported to a responsible authority.  It's possible you misheard, but if you're certain about it, you have a duty to report, or else you are aiding and abetting the embezzlement.
Now, how to report safely is a potentially difficult issue.  If there are people in the university administration that you can trust to take action, that would be one route.  In the United States, you can also often report directly to the funder, often including through an anonymous hotline designed for just such occasions.

There is an element of "fraud" in addition to element of "embezzlement", at least in the U.S. sense (though I'm not a lawyer...), I think. In any case, it's not ok. Beyond "unethical" to "criminal" in the U.S., I'd think.

@paulgarrett Oh, absolutely criminal.  In the US, this would be a federal criminal offense, and possibly a felony (I didn't put that in my answer since I'm not certain of the threshold for felony offenses here).

In fact, OP knowing and doing nothing may expose him to potential legal difficulties as well, although short of Stack Exchange giving him up I doubt they could prove he knew.

Are you sure about that first paragraph? It seems very strange to argue that money in the university's bank accounts actually belongs to somebody else and that they merely "have custody" of it. Are you sure that it's not the case that the money belongs to the university and the university has certain contractual obligations to the funding provider (e.g., to use that money for the intended purpose, to keep proper accounts and so on)?

Also, IANAL but I don't think this is embezzlement. Embezzlement is taking money that you were trusted to look after (e.g., a shop worker taking money from the till or somebody in the accounts office transfering money to their own account). Here, nobody is being trusted to look after money: the intern is being paid for work they didn't do and is giving that money to somebody else. That's fraud (obtaining money by deception), not embezzlement.

I am deeply uncomfortable labeling someone who does not report the issue as "aiding and abetting". While I agree that the most moral course of action would be to report it, I'd stop well short of calling it a moral obligation. "Aiding and abetting" is a legal term, and "aiding and abetting" a crime is a (legally punishable) crime itself. Unless it is a "mandatory reporting" situation, where there is indeed a legal obligation to report, using the phrase "aiding and abetting" is unjustly pejorative.

@R.M. In the United States, FAR imposes mandatory reporting on government contractors.  I'm not certain whether that passes all the way down to a student (they are often in grey zones or considered exceptions), but it certainly hits employees.

@R.M. In the US, having "knowledge of the actual commission of a felony" and "not as soon as possible make known" to "some judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States" is a crime. See 18 U.S. Code § 4 - Misprision of felony. Note: IMO, based on OP's description: the OP does not have knowledge of the actual commission of the fraud. However, he/she does have knowledge of the actual conspiracy to commit fraud (a separate crime). As to the fraud being a felony: that may require knowing the amount of money involved.

@Makyen, the statue you cite includes an element of affirmative concealment—in other words, lying to authorities or otherwise helping to cover up the crime. http://definitions.uslegal.com/m/misprision-of-a-felony/ (I am not an attorney, and this is not legal advice).

@1006a, That is a good point. I would want to take a look at the case law again (did so many years ago) to see what was successfully prosecuted with respect to concealment vs. what was not. What I'm remembering, from quite some time ago, is that the acts which have been considered concealment were significantly more broad than most people would assume. (I also am not an attorney. This is not legal advice.)

A bit of a tangent, but how do hotlines actually keep you anonymous? Wouldn't your caller ID give you away? Or are you expected to go find a public payphone?

You might also mention that many universities' internal audit functions have hot lines for fraud and abuse. They would appreciate this call.

In your shoes, I would talk to a lawyer. That's what I did when a similar thing happened to me about twenty years ago.
What my lawyer told me was that "overheard" didn't make me an accessory to the crime, and that I should only "speak when spoken to," (I'm assuming that neither the PI nor the intern addressed you directly about this matter.) "Overheard" things can be too easily misunderstood, miscontrued, etc., presumably you didn't get to see facial expressions and perhaps not body language that would support or weaken your belief.
My own lawyer said that what I heard would be treated as "hearsay" in a court of law, and not allowed as evidence. He did say that if an investigator made the rounds, that would be the time to step forward, basically to guide the investigator, as opposed to providing "solid" evidence.
There is one difference between your situation and mine; that is, you actually work for the same university as the people you overheard, (In my case, the conversation from employees of another company took place in a common area.) Because of that fact, you might want to report it through your own "chain of command," that is, your own boss. Perhaps, the lawyer will tell you differently, e.g. to use Human Resources. One thing you do want avoid at your place is reporting this to someone who is sympathetic to the PI, and possibly being "frozen" out as a result. A good lawyer will tell you how to avoid this.
What you probably don't want to do, is to talk to the intern, at least not without "help." Then you would be a party to something, without the means to resolve it. Let higher authorities handle this, unless they want you as a witness during the likely confrontation. That's the time to step forward.

This is good advice, regardless of the moral side, which jakebeal addresses (Imo correctly), this is a practical way of approaching the problem taking into account OP's "safety", which none of the other answers seem to consider.

Regarding only step forward if investigated: Would this case make any difference if it were not about one paycheck (probably not that much money), but about, e.g., scientific misconduct (e.g., falsification/fabrication)? But I agree that it's easy to misunderstand things.

@DanielWessel: No, according to my lawyer, the issue was "overheard," because that's not solid evidence. I appended the advice by saying that you should report it through "back channels," such as your own boss, not keep silent altogether. In "military" terms, if you're leading a patrol that discovers a superior enemy force, you should not "engage," (and possibly get wiped out), but rather return to your own lines and report it to a superior officer.

I'm not saying this is bad advice, but you cannot just talk to a lawyer for free, can you? If you expect the lawyer to tell you to do nothing and intend to follow that advice, why not just do nothing?

@Stefan: In my case, I could. He was my tenant while attending law school, and this was a 5-10 minute question for him. Many (not all) people have a lawyer friend that they can consult. There are law clinics that will help people pro bono. Some lawyers will offer 15-30 minutes of "free" consultation just to determine whether your case is worth hearing. And my answer has allowed the OP to "see a lawyer" in a "vicarious" way.

Given that your lawyer said what you heard was hearsay, the situations are probably different. Hearsay is "I heard Mary say 'Tom was in town.'". That can't be used to prove Tom was in town. However, you can testify about what you hear directly. What the OP describes is his overhearing two people conspiring to commit fraud. IMO, the OP could not testify as to the actual commission of fraud. But, the OP could testify as to the commission of conspiracy to commit fraud.

I think it should be either prevented or reported. It is quite likely that the intern assumes that anything the PI says to do is OK, and yet could be the one who gets all the blame for accepting pay for time not worked.
I suggest discussing the matter with the intern, making sure you understood the conversation and, if so, warning him of wrongness of what he is being asked to do.


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Do STEM PhD admissions committees check a candidate's Statement of Purpose for plagiarism?
Or is that not really possible, given the high volume of applications?  Do professors have a plagiarism-detecting application to launch investigations, if necessary?
What if, for instance, a successful math PhD applicant to University X gives his Statement of Purpose to his friend for him to apply next year at a similar PhD program at University Y?
I am just asking out of curiosity - I have no intentions of plagiarizing :)
Also, there are plenty of admissions-consulting businesses that are around, particularly for business school applications, so I wonder if such services are offered for PhD applications and whether PhD admissions committees have a way to say, "this Statement of Purpose was definitely not written by Candidate Z."

It doesn't make much sense. Because it is not going to be posted online or reused for some other reason. it's just a write up.

At my institution there is no such practice and I haven't heard of it at other institutions.

What if, for instance, a successful math PhD applicant to University X gives his Statement of Purpose to his friend for him to apply next year at a similar PhD program at University Y?

It is quite common for people do consult other's statements as a reference, that is why you can find many of those (besides teaching statements, research statements, etc.) on various academic web sites. However, a blatant plagiarism would probably hurt your application more, no matter how good the original statement is. The reason for that is that such documents are usually personally tailored. They are written to highlight the writer's ambitions, goals and plans and make them compatible with the school's (or adviser's) vision. It is very hard to find statements that can fit multiple students, except if they are very generic and thus rather bad. Also, don't forget that the statement is a part of a larger package, which is also tailored to tell a convincing story why a student should be admitted. Part of that package are also face-to-face interviews. All of that taken together makes it undesirable to have one document sticking out, and it will stick out at some point of the process.
Personally, even if I found a student that has plagiarized another's statement, I wouldn't call it plagiarism but rather a disappointing lack of dedication. If you can't be bothered to put together a few paragraphs on what is important to in your future and also find it easy to blend into another's view of theirs, it's a way more serious problem then plagiarism.
Finally, as said before, the statement is only one part of the application, it is by no means the most crucial one. So, even if you "get away" with plagiarizing it, it won't guarantee your acceptance.

+1 At my last institution, we didn't pass the SoP through plagiarism checkers for the reasons listed above, but we did pass the secondary materials (writing sample, etc) through. Note: social sciences.

I am aware of at least one institution that does check SOPs for plagiarism, and I myself have caught plagiarism in SOPs.  Such SOPs are, in my experience, usually also bad for other reasons (e.g. not very well-tailored). Some of the types of plagiarism I have seen, which can be caught with a plagiarism detector, include:

Reusing boilerplate praise of the institution from books or websites with SOP advice.  Such text is usually pointless attempts at flattery that undermine an application anyway.
Copying descriptions of research topics from online sources (e.g. an SOP professing interest in a problem in distributed systems copying text from Wikipedia to explain the problem area).

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Do math PhDs - post-doctoral researchers have an advisor?
Typically, well-prepared undergrad math students have summer REU advisors, masters and PhD students have thesis advisors.
What do new math PhDs - postdoctoral researchers have at the university they land at?  Do they also have a research advisor, or are they pretty much on their own, while they teach classes, publish papers and apply to tenure-track positions, before their post-doc contract expires?

There is usually a supervisor. Think of a postdoc as an internship.... (Disclaimer: applied math/CS)

This varies greatly, depending on the type of postdoctoral position.  Some postdocs are funded by a specific grant.  Then they have a supervisor, namely the PI on the grant.  How formal the supervision is can vary, but someone is at least nominally in charge of the postdoc, and there's an expectation that the postdoc will do something relevant to the grant.
Other postdocs are hired by the department or a mathematics institute, rather than a particular PI (this is especially common in pure mathematics).  Often the postdoc is assigned a mentor, but what's involved in the mentoring relationship can vary.  It could consist of collaborative research, serious professional guidance, or just chatting occasionally.

In mathematics, "visiting assistant professor" positions in which the new PhD is responsible only for teaching courses are quite common.  Some people refer to these as post-docs even though they're very different from the traditional model of a post-doc in which a new PhD does research within a specific research group under the supervision of a PI.   Someone in this type of position might have a mentor, but they might also be completely on their own in terms of research.

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Would participating in student politics as a PhD student without an advisor create a bad impression?
When I had joined the program last year, I was assigned an advisor who was the one I'd wanted to work with. However, due to things not working out (because she thinks I lack the background), I have had to start looking for a new one, and that's what I was working on all summer. I'm still in the process of finding someone by working on small projects with some faculty (in order to show them I can do the kind of research they do). This kind of puts me a bit behind my cohort. In my department, most PhD students have an advisor within two quarters. While a lot of other students I spoke with told me that it is perfectly normal to be finding an advisor a bit later than year 1, I'm very much embarrassed about being at this stage.
So anyway, my department's academic advisor just sent out an email saying she needed someone to take up the role of President of the grad student organization of the department, and I really want to go for it. In the past, I've enjoyed working with people and organizing stuff; I really enjoy talking to people and putting forward people's problems and finding solutions to them, especially the seemingly small ones that actually do make a difference.
My question is, would faculty members consider it strange on my part if I ended up as President when I don't even have an advisor and a research project going for me? I mean, would it look like I don't have my priorities set straight? I wouldn't want to do it if there's even the slightest chance of it creating a bad impression.

It very much depends on the quality of your PhD work. If that looks good, it can be a boost to your CV. However, if your work is middling, this may appear like escapism (or perhaps a political career is what you should pursue instead of a PhD).
This is always, as @user3209815 said, your decision. What is unlikely to work well is to take up this job and getting even further behind on your PhD work.

Totally agree. It's OK to be behind if you can show you're trying your hardest. It's less OK if you are doing all sorts of voluntary activities on the side as well. I don't at all think this is 'fair' - but that's just the reality of the situation you're in.

would faculty members consider it strange on my part if I ended up as President when I don't even have an advisor and a research project going for me?

I think the better question would be whether or not the faculty would care to correlate those things. And the answer is, probably not. Faculty members, especially senior ones, are used to balancing multiple roles (PI, adviser, various department positions, etc.), so your's wouldn't stick out.
Further, in my experience as an undergrad and grad student, students that take on such responsibilities usually fall into one of two categories:

they are a kind of superhuman, and while fully being dedicated to their president role, they also find the time and energy to not let their studies suffer
they fully dedicate themselves to their role and are unable to focus enough on their studies

Interestingly, though again as my observation, the lower administrative roles (e.g. a member of the student parliament) tend to to "favor" the second category while higher roles (e.g. a student union president) fall in the first category more often. This obviously depends on the person, but persons who are elected to functions tend to be motivated (like you are) and also tend to exhibit political qualities, like being charismatic, communicative, "good with people". So, if you get elected, you could find yourself with more contacts and opportunities to talk with people (faculty and students). It could get easier for you getting to know faculty members, as you would be obliged to meet with them on "organization business". If you are good at those things, you could probably even help yourself find a more suitable adviser.
The other side of the story is, that you would probably also take longer to graduate. But again that is a sacrifice you should be prepared to make, when you apply for the experience. And also, no one would blame you for taking a bit longer to graduate if you held such a position.

would it look like I don't have my priorities set straight?

It could also look like you were an ambitious student who is capable of battling on two fronts. There will always be people who will think that you don't have your priorities set straight and others that think that you are ambitious and capable, and also a whole spectrum of opinions in-between. That shouldn't matter if you are passionate about something. But, it is always advisable to ask for advice from some faculty member who you trust. However, keep in mind that their opinion falls somewhere in the above spectrum and it is ultimately up to you to make your decision.

It's my impression that how activities that don't directly pertain to your PhD research are perceived depends entirely on the individual.
My adviser often "tsks" and shakes his head when my job comes up.  I'm sure he understands that I need to work to support myself now that my stipend support period is over, but he's still always reminding me to focus on my research.  One of my other committee members, however, is nothing but supportive and thinks my job is great experience.
What does this mean to you?  In my opinion it means you absolutely avoid taking student government activities on.  You don't yet have an adviser, and you need one soon.  There's a chance this could be an obstacle, so don't do it.  Justified or not, some people will judge it as a lack of comittement on your part to your PhD work.  They'll think undergrad is the time for this sort of thing, and now you have to show you're serious about your research.
Again, I'm not making a judgment claim here, but the chance that some people in the department will seems like a near-certainty to me.

This is a question about politics so I would approach it "politically?"
The academic adviser is someone to take notice of, so a big question is, will she take notice of you? Maybe she will help you resolve your personal adviser problem if you do this for her. Will others take notice in a negative way? (Perhaps not.)
Who do you stand to impress by taking the student body profession? Who do you stand to turn off? Which group will likely have the greater impact on your program?
In high school, I was a Student Council officer who had a chance to run for class president as a "favorite." I turned down the opportunity in favor of my studies, and deeply regret it even today, over 40 years later.


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What would be the most appropriate measure I should take if I feel that I am failing to submit my MSc thesis within deadline?
In February-2016, I have undertaken my thesis. That was the topic proposed by my supervisor on my request. I started to work on the project and finding that I am actually short of various topics/knowledge(theoretical and practical). I still contacted the supervisor and he passed me in my lab and told me to continue the work.
The last date of my thesis submission is 2016–09–15.
I have been started to have a feeling that I wouldn’t be able to complete the thesis. Coz, my previous knowledge is not sufficient to complete the lab-project and hence the thesis.
What would be the consequence if I am unable to submit the thesis?
What would be the most appropriate measure I should take to save my thesis/career/semester/grade and so on?

Work harder and request for an extension of the deadline. That's pretty much all there is to it.

Talk to your advisor.  Today.

@JeffE, OK. Should I tell him everything?

Yes; you should.

The key question that you need to answer is "why".
If there are serious, unforeseeable circumstances that have effected your ability to progress with your research and/or submit on time (such as illness),  then you should refer to your institution's policy and guidance on applying for an extension, mitigating circumstances etc.  Hopefully these will be considered and you will be granted an extension or a late submission will be accepted without penalty.
Some institutions also accept work-related circumstances as mitigating.
If it's down to poor planning, failing to adhere to your supervisor's advice or meet key milestones, bad luck etc, then, alas, it's unlikely that you will be granted any kind of dispensation to submit late.  Nonetheless, I'd advise you contact your supervisor to let them know the situation in the hope that they will help you unpick the situation.
In all circumstances, I'd suggest you talk to your supervisor as soon as possible or another adviser who might be able to help.
EDIT: Let this be a lesson to future readers - always ask for help sooner rather than later if you find yourself running into trouble and fear missing a deadline.  Two weeks before due date isn't going to cut it.

In February-2016, I have undertaken my thesis. That was the topic proposed by my supervisor on my request. I started to work on the project and finding that I am actually short of various topics/knowledge(theoretical and practical). I still contacted the supervisor and he passed me in my lab and told me to continue the work.

I sympathize with your situation, there is too much scope for students to get a raw deal with the supervisor they are assigned.  Although, didn't you have any tutorials with your supervisor?  If not, then they're not much of a supervisor, in which case I would bring this to the attention of one of the department administrators (assuming that they have not fulfilled the duties required of their role).

I just finished my master thesis. Let me put in my two cents.
Usually the first thing you should do is to talk to your supervisor. Before the commencement of supervision there is usually a signed contract that ensures supervisors to commit to supervise you and help you finish your thesis before the deadline. He has responsibility to help you. Of course, you should still take the responsibility to try your best and communicate with your supervisor because it is your thesis.
I met the same situation two months before my deadline, and fortunately my supervisor crafted the research topic broad enough, so I can lower my goals and still fulfill the requirement of the initial project proposal. Certainly it made me a little bit frustrated.
Secondly, if you can't finish your thesis on time due to some pardonable reasons, you usually can extend the deadline for a few more weeks. (check the regulation in your department)
In the worst scenario when you failed to communicate with your supervisor, there is usually a proof reader who you can turn to, or you can report to the committee board of your department to intervene the case.


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Suffering boredom in proofreading own paper
For two years I've been working on drafts of a paper. I'm happy to keep incorporating new sources and improving the paper, because the topic is fascinating, and I'm confident that my work is worth publishing. However, when I print the current draft out to look over after making edits, I can barely read a paragraph before my eyes glaze over and I lose interest. Earlier in the project, when my paper was worse but the subject was fresher in my mind, I was able to calmly read my own writing. Now I find it very difficult.
I wouldn't expect anyone else to read something that I can't, which makes me reluctant to seek feedback -- I don't want to waste people's time. Still, I'm pretty sure the writing itself isn't a total catastrophe, and that I am just "sick" of working on this paper. That's hardly a useful diagnosis. What should I do?

A similar problem was a minor part of this question: http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/46586/how-can-i-proof-read-my-own-work-more-effectively

How do you reconcile "I'm confident that my work is worth publishing" and "I wouldn't expect anyone else to read something that I can't"? I'm not trying to be mean of course, but there's something weird here...

To ask the obvious question, are you ready to submit the paper? Having the end in sight is good motivation to do whatever it takes to finish.

@NajibIdrissi, there's a difference between the result being interesting or important, and the proof of the result being fascinating to read.

@Dilworth Even if the result is interesting or important, if the paper is unreadable I don't believe it's publishable... An editor has to glance at it, reviewers have to read it, and of course the goal of publication is to get other people to read your paper... Of course I don't really believe OP's paper is unreadable (read the answers to the question).

Just a few conceptual points:

For two years I've been working on drafts of a paper. I'm happy to
  keep incorporating new sources and improving the paper, because the
  topic is fascinating

This is a debatable action because it can delays your publication rhythm. For every paper, lay out the hypotheses, research questions, or objectives clearly and then work on the piece. Once the conclusion answers the questions, either seek feedback or submit it. New findings are going to emerge constantly and if one "keeps incorporating" new sources the paper will never leave.
In very rare occasions, one may want to add some new thing. For instance, by chance a very relevant paper was published during the composition of the final draft. To improve the relevance of the paper it'd be good to include that new work in the right section. Otherwise, there needs to be an end date in sight.

However, when I print the current draft out to look over after making
  edits, I can barely read a paragraph before my eyes glaze over and I
  lose interest

This is not abnormal because you have read this multiple times and no new stimulation is coming out. Here are some ways to work through it:

Circulate it among peers for a round of proof reading. Pay them with something: pizza, chocolate, a favor, etc. Consider forming a writing club, in which everyone can circulate works in different stages of development.
Hire an editor, preferably knowledgeable in your area, to proof read it.
Put this project down and work on some others, return to it again when you're ready.
Read it out loud. It's actually very helpful because reading out loud lets you hear the rhythm of the words and this helps isolating clunky parts in the paper.
Read it from the back. Start from the paragraph, and can also consider start from the last sentence and working its way up. This technique breaks the contextual flow and allows you pay more attention to missing words or typos, etc.

I wouldn't expect anyone else to read something that I can't, which
  makes me reluctant to seek feedback

Why not? This is one of the mind blocks that scares a lot of writers. You don't need to share only perfect works. When you circulate the piece, just be sure to:

State what this article is for and what stage it is in: is this a draft, a revised and resubmit version, a grant proposal, etc.
Be very specific on what kind of advice you seek: for more drafty work you can ask for comments on overall big picture and structure. For more developed work you can ask for comments on prose clarity and wording. For final draft you can ask for proof reading level comments.

Overall, as a comment has pointed out there are some conflicting thoughts within your question and I'd just humbly advise you to let the security issue go and be open to criticism and comments. Your writing is not the entire you; no need to shy away from people's criticism. After all, writing is about communicating ideas and it's better to get early and frank inputs from peers and friends now than from the reviewers with the rejection letter.

Penguin_Knight, this is great. I've been trying to save my reviewers for "when the time is right" and finding a steady stream of relevant material makes that date farther away. This problem crosses a number of fields and eras, but the most damning thing is what you said: I haven't addressed the initial question and called it done. I'm going to use your proofreading and reviewing advice. Thanks!


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Can I withdraw my accepted journal paper due to data confidentiality issues?
My question actually is complicated. A company provided me data for my thesis. They allowed me to use the data in my thesis. But I need get their permission if I want to publish my thesis. The thing is, my thesis can be googled at school's database. So I am not sure if this means "publish."
I thought I do not need to get their permission since my thesis is already online and everyone can download it. Therefore, I submitted the paper (not cover everything in my thesis) to a journal and get accepted.
Recently I found out that the company refuses to let the paper be published. So I want to withdraw my paper from the journal.
I am the first author of the paper, and another person is the second author. I am not sure if I can decide the withdraw thing or I should let the second author know first? Also, how should I email the editor?

Why don't you first find out if it's OK to publish, and then pursue withdrawal only if you find out that it isn't?

The company refused to let the paper published. That's why I struggle about this.

That all should have been hashed out a long time ago. You made some big, wrong assumptions. The company can have the journal pull the paper should you (foolishly) proceed.

Have you already signed a copyright transfer or publishing agreement with the journal?  If not, you can certainly withdraw (though it might annoy the editors and/or hurt your relationship with your coauthor).  If yes, it is a lot more complicated.

I have signed a copyright agreement.

I realized the mistake. That's why I am here for asking help.

Just email the editor explaining the situation and asking to withdraw the paper, then. I don't really understand what you mean by "how should I email the editor." (And of course you should tell the other author what's going on...)

Is the actual data presented in your thesis, or just the results obtained from it? If it's the former, then the data are in the public domain and so anyone can use them. Though it might be polite to discuss their use with the company first, in that situation you are not under obligation to do so.

@user2390246 - no, no, no, the data are not in the public domain. The data may be have been made public, but that does not put it in the public domain.

The basic problem here is communication. You failed to do the necessary communication up-front. Now you are going to have to do it, and do it much better than your first attempt.
Firstly, you need to talk with your coauthor and your supervisor. Expect them to be unhappy that you are only now reaching out to them, and that the proprietary nature of the data wasn't fully explained.
Secondly, you need to talk with your school's research administrators. What is their policy on externally sourced data?  Is there a common form of agreement?  Is there a term sheet listing what are acceptable and unacceptable terms?  What are the ethical expectations for dealing with commercial and with third-party data? It's very unusual for a student to negotiate directly with a company about the provision of data without some formality being required by the university. The aim being to avoid your current predicament. As a result the administrators may not be best pleased that whatever process exists wasn't followed.
Thirdly, you need to have a formal meeting with the company. Do some homework to ensure that you are speaking with the right people. Take copies of your paper -- I am assuming they have seen it, but maybe they haven't looked into it. Explore with the company what the cause of their objection to publication is. Maybe you implied a confidentiality they now feel you have betrayed, so you may need to make some deep apologies. Once you know the cause of their concern you can both explore if there are ways which meet both your wishes. It may not be possible to do all of this in one meeting. A negotiated agreement will almost certainly mean a rewrite a substantial portion of the paper.
Since you have already displayed poor communication, negotiation and business skills I strongly suggest you engage with the university and see if they can provide a senior person to do most of the heavy lifting with the company.

If you signed over copyright then the paper is not really legally yours anymore.   What you should do is let the journal know, really the publisher not the editor, what has happened.  Look up the term vicarious liability
At the same time have the same conversation with your university

and keep co-authors in loop.


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What can be done about a professor who leaves lectures too early?
If a professor is scheduled to teach two hours, only one day a week, but instead he only teaches one hour, one day a week - in an extremely rushed manner - and tells his students he has to leave, is there anything that students can do about this behavior, if the professor continues in this way?
Let's assume this professor also doesn't post any supplementary notes at all, doesn't require a textbook, doesn't assign suggested background reading, but assigns a few hard homework problems per week.
Let's also assume that he is tenured.

Complain with the head of department or with whoever has the responsibility of the courses.

Based on existing answers, the correct approach is going to vary by academic culture.  What country are you in?

Did the professor offer some explanation? Does this happen consistently? For one course or for various courses?

While I sympathise with the OP, there are many factors which could affect how one views the phenomena in the 2nd para. Some of the best lecturers I had did all of those things; so did some of the worst. I am therefore downvoting the question purely to encourage the OP to provide more context, e.g. what is set out in the course syllabus, or in some kind of "Undergraduate Handbook" assuming one exists

There is an opposite question... what to do if the instructor often runs far beyond the allotted time...

As @Nate Eldredge this, how this is received is going to vary widely based on academic culture.
Let me assume that this is a course at a US university, and that it is an "official" course: that is, one that students register for, receive a grade for at the end, and the instructor gets some credit for teaching.  In this context, the practice would probably not be acceptable to many key people in the university.  At most US universities there is a notion of credit hours: there is a positive number of "credits" a student gets for a course (most frequently 1-4) and also a number of hours per week that the course meets.  Now (by widely agreed upon convention rather than cosmic truth, of course) there is a fixed conversion factor for this: at my university, 50 minutes of class time per week = 1 credit.
An instructor who only meets for one hour out of a scheduled two hours is risking the disapproval of the registrar, other departmental faculty including the head, and the students of the course. The registrar is probably going to be unhappy because it looks like the course is trying to cheat the system: if everyone decided to claim twice the number of credit hours that they actually met, it would cause absolute chaos for (especially undergraduate) programs. The departmental faculty are also going to be unhappy (to say the least) about this, on the one hand because the number of credit hours usually figures into the teaching load -- the standard departmental teaching load basically amounts to faculty teaching so-and-so many hours per week (on average; loads can vary from one semester to the next).  Claiming twice as much as you're doing is certainly not okay.  And of course, most faculty want courses to be taught well, and it is hard for me to think of clearer evidence that my colleague is not doing a good job with his teaching than that he is only meeting for half the scheduled time.  Finally, it is likely that the students are going to feel shortchanged ("halfchanged"?), and in light of all the stuff above, I don't see a satisfactory rejoinder to a student who feels that way: on the contrary, I think they're right.
So what to do?  I would suggest beginning by bringing it up to a departmental faculty member.  Good places to start are: (i) the instructor of the course, if you feel comfortable, (ii) the department head, (iii) whichever faculty member you feel closest to in the department (e.g. your academic advisor).  For such conversations, it is important to stay calm and factual.  Be willing to proceed in several steps.  Definitely indicate an awareness that there seems to be some kind of real mismatch here, and if necessary you might want to mention that university administrators like the registrar might be concerned about it as well.  (Again, I honestly think they would, and departmental faculty should know that they would.  So this is more like a reality check than a threat of escalation.)
Another idea: can you ask some other faculty member (or person in a position of authority) to visit the course?  Anyone who shows up is certainly going to notice a two hour course ending after only one hour.  On the other hand, they may well talk to the instructor before they show up, which might result in the instructor's taking the full class time.  Which is what you want, of course.  If that happens once and then he goes back to halftime, then it gives you an easy opening to speak to him about what's going on.
I want to end by saying that this really is cultural.  What you're describing sounds like quite an extreme case, but there is variation between US universities and personnel at those universities on the practice of ending early.  It is not unheard of for instructors and students to feel that they have done all they need to do in a certain course meeting and thus end early: they may even feel great about doing so.  For me personally, over the course of almost two decades of instruction at US universities, I have moved steadily in the direction of thinking that for a three credit course, the very least I owe the students is 150 minutes a week of me in the classroom. I remember though that I taught one undergraduate course at my institution, pretty soon after I got there, and for various reasons I decided to cancel three of the 50 minute class meetings, including the last one (excluding the final exam and review sessions for the final), because I was interested in presentations given by graduate students in a different course that met at the same time.  The present me finds the past me's behavior slightly outrageous...So indeed, some variation on how this is perceived exists!

Another group that would be unhappy about this would be the university's accreditation body.  A single case would probably not rise to their attention, but if this happened a lot, it could be a concern the next time the university's accreditation is up for renewal.  So this would be additional motivation for The Powers That Be to get it fixed.

Couple of nitpicks. In my experience credits are not always integers (e.g., labs are often 1.5 credits). Some professors use class time for group work or writing. I think you have to look at the teaching as a whole and not just when students are allowed to leave.

@Nate: Agree.  I had another sentence expanding on "absolute chaos" in that direction, but I took it out for brevity (believe it or not).  StrongBad: sure, I removed "integer".  And sure, class time can be used for other stuff, as you say.  But giving only lectures and ending early looks bad.

Many accrediting bodies specify a minimum ratio of (wall clock) contact hours per term to semester (or quarter) credit hours. I think that 750 contact minutes (AKA 12.5 contact hours) to the semester credit hour is not atypical for lecture and discussion type classes.

You're paying tuition fees (either personally, through a sponsor, scholarship, government taxes etc.) and not getting all of the education those fees should pay for.
Make a complaint to the appropriate body.  If you feel at risk of irking the prof's wrath then do so via student union/representative; alternatively, go to the Head of Department and tell them it's confidential.
In your complaint be specific: one what exact dates did lectures end early, at what time.  Ask other students to support complaint as well - though in my view keep it to one or two students you trust, you don't want it snowballing into something messy.
Good luck.

Why does tuition enter into the equation at all? If a student has a scholarship and thus doesn't pay tuition, or if the tuition at that university is free, wouldn't they be able to complain too?

I upvoted, but agree with @NajibIdrissi: I think this answer stands regardless of the question of tuition fees, and that the first sentence should be changed accordingly.

By 'paying tuition fees' I meant that to include scholarships (as they are monies you have won and or been given).  Thanks for pointing this out, edited accordingly.

In may parts of Europe, undergraduate education is free and universities are paid from the government (taxpayers' money). But even then, the professor is not giving the students the education they deserve.

For US universities, there is typically no "student representative / union" that would be able to intervene in a situation like this.  The department head would be the best option.

The modified version of the first paragraph still misses the point, and might not apply. It is not unheard of that courses are taught benevolently.

-1 purely for the first paragraph, for reasons pointed out by Najib Idrissi and by @quid. I'd be happy to undo the -1 if the first para is amended

@jakebeal Most students don't pay taxes either. Really, I don't see the point of mentioning tuition at all.

@NateEldredge: The ombudsman may not be the same as a union in a collective bargaining sense, but they certainly are there to represent student interests in all sorts of situations, not excluding this one.

@BenVoigt: Assuming of course the university has an ombudsman.  As far as I can tell, mine does not.

Crucially missing:  Out of how many class meetings, how many times has this happened and what exactly did your instructor offer as the reasons at the time?  Is it possible he actually does have a good reason, even if it's not one he's willing to disclose to the entire class?  Similarly re: the textbook, etc., what does the syllabus say?
Were I in your shoes, I can appreciate why you might feel uncomfortable directly confronting your instructor about his short lectures, which seems to be your main complaint.  I don't think you should talk to other students and I don't think you should discuss your concerns with other instructors.  It's not really their business to get involved in students' complaints about how other instructors run their courses and doing so can easily cause hard feelings and may even draw a rebuke from their chair.
I think you should speak to your department chair, preferably in his or her office, not by email.  Do not oversell your case.  If he cut his lecture short exactly twice out of 6 lectures and one time was only short by 15 minutes, don't get caught overselling this as somehow "an hour short all the time".  Try to avoid subjective complaints like "seemed rushed" unless you can explain what you mean with an example, e.g., "he cut off questions on DeMorgan's Theorem, saying he didn't have time".  Avoid claims that "everyone" is upset that seem to imply you're out there rabble-rousing.  This is your observation and that's all matters.
Be specific: This is what happened on these dates, you're offering what you intend as constructive criticism you hope can lead to some improvement.  But you're uncomfortable directly confronting your instructor and you're asking for some confidential help.
I can pretty much promise you that your department chair will have a conversation with your instructor, your name will not be disclosed and that if there is some genuine substance to your complaint, the problem will get fixed.   But be prepared to learn there could be a pretty good reason for his behavior you don't know about, e.g., a family crisis.  Also be aware:  if your chair finds you've made a frivolous or exaggerated complaint or that there's another side to this you failed to mention, that might also attract his or her attention.  These things can boomerang.

Gosh, when the OP says that the instructor ends the class one hour early, I certainly took that to mean "all the time", not "two of our six times".  You're right that that makes a big difference!

Thanks so much, @NicoleHamilton - I sought out more advanced students, who all reported similar experiences with this prof, so I think it's essentially a "take it or leave it" kind of deal.  I'll stick with the course and will try to adapt to his teaching style, which I've rationalized to be "contemporary" :)

In university education, the goal is not to spend a certain number of hours in a classroom. Courses and university degrees have certain learning objectives, and if there is a way to reach the learning objectives more efficiently without spending so much time sitting in the lecture hall, this is usually a good thing. It is perfectly possible to have a very good course with 0 hours of lectures and plenty of homework.
However, if the course arrangements are not helping you to reach the learning objectives, then you can simply give feedback on the course. Most universities have implemented some form of a course feedback system. If this is not the case at your university, then this is a much bigger and a more important issue.

Philosophically this may be true.  But for US universities, there actually usually is a requirement for a course to have a certain number of "contact hours", depending on the type of course and credits earned.  It would be possible to have a course with 0 lectures and all homework, but it would have to be listed (in transcript and catalog) as "correspondence" or "independent study" or something similar; describing it as a "lecture course" would be incorrect.  This is something that accreditation bodies check rather carefully, for instance.

Also, in my experience, course feedback usually isn't collected until the end of the course.  Leaving feedback there might help prevent the professor doing this in the future, but it wouldn't help the OP personally.  Issues that need to be fixed during the course need to be raised through other channels.

@NateEldredge: "Contact hours" could mean very many things besides sitting in a lecture hall. It might be e.g. sessions in which the course staff helps students with their assignments.

Potentially, but these sessions would have to be scheduled and set on the syllabus.  The OP didn't offer any suggestion that this is the case.

Right, if there is no support for students with their homework, then this is of course a problem in itself, and again I would suggest giving some course feedback. As the OP mentioned homework, I assumed implicitly that there would be also some kind of exercise sessions or equivalent (or at the very least an online forum), with TAs and/or lecturer providing help or feedback related to homework.

I don't see any basis for assuming that.


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Is having five letters of recommendation for STEM PhD programs (math, specifically) ok?
I know the minimum number of reference letters required at many U.S. PhD programs in the STEM fields is three -- and that it is also not uncommon for someone to submit a fourth letter.
What about a fifth letter?  Would a fifth letter of recommendation be perceived as "too many"?

Have you considered the instructions on the application? Failure to follow simple instructions can be a big problem (even with egg-heads living a life of the mind).

This can depend on the specific university department. Some may welcome it as supplemental material to your application whereas some may discourage excess letters and tell you to choose the ones that will best showcase your abilities as a student. Don't add things to your application that the department doesn't welcome.
I've generally heard and been told that an additional good recommendation letter will boost your chances of admission,
but an additional generic recommendation letter that does not add anything unique to the other (assuming) 4 letters will only hurt it.
So for a general answer, make sure each recommendation letter is able to showcase different areas of skill rather than them overlapping with each other. Also, make sure to contact each department to make sure that they are okay with having more than 3 recommendation letters.
Hope this helps, good luck!

Send exactly what was requested in the application instructions, and nothing else.  Admissions committees suffer through reading all the application information, and do not appreciate getting extra things to read.

I want to disagree vehemently, having worked on admissions committees. Admissions committees like to accept the best students, and to do that, it helps to have as much information as possible. If a student is clearly going to be rejected, one additional letter of recommendation is not going to make the file take very much longer to read. If a student is under consideration for acceptance, and the additional letter provides relevant information not found in the other letters, the admissions committees I have been on would welcome it.

Having said that, let me add that for many students, one of the three required letters of recommendation is generic and not useful for the admission committee. So I expect that it's quite rare for a student to have five recommenders who can all write a non-generic letter. But if you're that student, go ahead and submit five letters if it's allowed.

@PeterShor Do your application instructions say "send at least three letters" or "send three letters"?  Why?

The online form has three slots for recommenders. It also says "If you want more than 3 recommenders, please enter information for the first 3, save it, and return to this form." I have no idea if there's an upper limit. I also know that there have been applications where students didn't send in a letter from one of their research advisers, and we would have liked to see a letter from them.

The admissions process at most universities is now online. If a departments really wants people to list only three recommenders, they can make it impossible to submit more. And if what you want to convey in your answer is "don't send more than three letters if the instructions say "send exactly three," that's just common sense.

"that's just common sense. "  I agree.


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In a math talk, is it better to display the number of slides left?
In a math talk (at a seminar or a conference, not teaching) that uses projected slides, is it better to display the number of slides left or not? What are the pros and cons? Some people tell me they like it, others prefer when it doesn't appear. I'd like to have some objective comments about this.
For some context, talks in math are typically one hour long, so the number of slides can be large. I like to cut talks into a few short sections. Right now I'm using the following layout, displayed at the top of every slide (from the "Frankfurt" beamer theme):

The current slide in the current section is highlighted, as well as the title of the current section.

The total can be misleading if you have backup slides after your "final" slide.  You may be interested in a related discussion at tex.se if this is something you do.

One reason why slide counts don't make sense, is that I often break animations or complex slides down into multiple slides (usually so that it is easier for me to edit), even though to the viewer it will appear as a single slide with animations.

@AustinHenley: Well then, do not count those animation-slides as individual slides. LaTeX Beamer, for instance, takes care of that automatically when creating slides with multiple steps.

@O.R.Mapper In that case, my last talk would only consist of 3 slides. I don't think that is very useful information. My point is that we are beyond the era of physical slides.

@AustinHenley: But we are not beyond the era of asking questions that refer to specific things that were shown in the presentation. Hence, reasonably fine-grained reference points distributed across the presentation are indispensable. A convenient manner of providing such reference points is by consecutively numbering discrete units in the presentation (the total number of which is then trivial to determine and display). If you can find only three of these, your presentation is probably not yet sufficiently structured.

@AustinHenley And as you can see, mine has 21 standalone slides (not counting the title etc), not three; and almost all of them are broken up into several actual slides and I obviously don't count them as independent. I don't think I've ever seen an hour-long math presentation with only three slides... Are you in math and are your talks one-hour long?

Note: Animations or other "fast material" can lead to many extra slides in certain sections--This theme can then give the illusion that your sections are tremendously unbalanced when in fact they are actually not.

@AegisCruiser: If you have read the above comments, you have learned that there are ways to ensure exactly this is not the case despite using animations.

Just for fun, how about the 'slides remaining' display be a random number? Perhaps even change as the slide is shown? See if anybody notices...

@O.R.Mapper I'm sure this is the case for common commands like \visible, but does it work with less popular things like \multiinclude?  I also sometimes build my own "animations" by maintaining certain items over several slides while changing text colors, replacing words, etc.  Is it possible to accommodate these sorts of situations?

@AegisCruiser: I don't know \multiinclude, so I can't tell - but I have been using \only<> quite a bit, and it works for that one. \only<> can, for instance, be used for what you propose concerning the change of text colours. But even when it is not included, then it is just not as convenient to create - my general point was that this is not a reason to hide the total slide count, but instead the total slide count should be computed in a sensible way that may be more sophisticated than just taking the number of "pages" in the presentation document.

@AegisCruiser: that should be a question on TeX.se

Whatever you do, please don't rely on the LaTeX beamer defaults to make that sort of design decision about your talk; instead, make it a conscious choice about what is best for you particular situation. However good they might be for whatever situation those defaults were cooked for, they're not for everyone, and keeping those defaults (like the ugly navigation buttons) is one of the biggest sources of bad design in scientific talks.

Yes, but it should be shown as a function of whatever the topic of your lecture is to keep the clock-watchers on their toes...

As a side comment, it is always useful to add the number of the current slide. Otherwise, when discussing with your audience about your talk, they will not be able to easily refer to a certain slide (I mean, it is easier to say "In slide 28 you said..." than "There is one slide at the end of the second section where you said...".

Halmos advises that in preparing a talk you should have a block of material that you can omit if you are running short of time.  But if the slides show number of pages left, you cannot do that invisibly.  For example: in an hour lecture, if you are 5 minutes from the end of the hour, but your numbering shows you are only halfway through your slides, the audience will be getting restless.

Interestingly, I have been taught that bringing slides that you end up not showing is a sign of a bad preparation and should be avoided at all cost. The fact that you have to drop an otherwise possibly helpful piece of information for exactly this reason seems to confirm this stance. In any case, when we're talking about a lecture (about the only kind of talk where I really see why exact planning of the duration might not be desirable), the slide number refers to the chapter, without any guarantee that the chapter will be finished within the current lesson rather than continued next time.

I think if you expect to only get to half the talk, there are better things to focus on than on displaying the numbers. For a few slides, I usually expect "extra slides" to address some possible questions, and that would account for the missing numbers.

A mathematics talk may allow questions and discussion to occur during the lecture.   But Halmos' ideal lecturer would finish on time anyway, and the audience would not know something had been omitted.

@Davidmh: You bring up a good point, so as an amendment to my above comment: What I said about slides not shown applies only to slides that are included in the general "story" of the talk and then skipped, not to "detached" slides that will be shown if the respective questions are asked.

@O.R.Mapper - on the other hand, I've had good success with having 'extra' slides that answer the most obvious 'follow-up' questions. I do not mean intentionally leaving out things in the story I'm telling, but having an answer for the 'sequel' so to speak - what happens next. If the audience takes things in a different direction, well clearly I didn't think it through properly, and won't show them.

@JonCuster: Yes, see my more recent comment where I retroactively excluded this kind of additional slides from my above statements.

@O.R.Mapper - I think we were typing at the same time... I think the discussion goes to show clearly that different people in the audience want a variety of different information, and the slides should be as useful as possible for the range that will be encountered. (I'm still not enamored with a 'count-down' timer - an outline and periodic reminders of where you are in the talk suffice for me, but, well, that is for me and not everyone.)

Sorry, but I don't get this. If you think that you want to jump over something in your talk, just say what part you skip and then jump over it. People will notice that you jump over some slides anyway, and the fact that the page number jumps will not distract anymore than the fact that some slides are skipped. (As a side note, the advice of Halmos is some decades old. I find most of it still very helpful, but since technology has advances and presentation style has changed, it should be perceived as anywhere near authoritative…)

Also, the fact that the people in the audience get restless if you have too many slides on the clock is a feature not a bug…

@O.R.Mapper: "should be avoided at all cost" so many lecturers have tragically perished in fires for this exact reason ;-)

This is not a good enough reason to base this decision on. It's perfectly fine if you tell your audience that you're skipping some slides for time. Nobody will hate you for it.

This is the wrong fix for the problem "running out of time". The correct fix is to better plan and structure your presentation so that you don't run out of time.

A method to please both probably exists. Just tug a #/## at the lower corner, with the first number being the current slide number and the second one being the total slide number. People who have question on a certain slide can jot down the number quickly and come back (rather than "Can you go back to the third dot under 'The Model?'"); people who find a large bar intrusive will be less likely bothered by some small numbers at the corner.
I personally don't have problem with how beamer displays the time-line; it looks elegant. (I sometimes use it just to be that "lone kid in the department who uses LaTeX.") However, it requires some skills to be truly effective. Too many times I have seen very long section names used in this device, which clutter up the time-line badly.
And to be honest, I'd rather save the area on the slide to arrange information beautifully for those who pay attention then to give up 10-20% to set up a device for those who doze off and want to hop back in. Even I do care about them, major section signposts do not need to be on the screen all the time, the speaker (or a transition slide, or a small phrase next to the #/## index) can also deliver the transition.
Disclaimer: I don't give math talks, I work in biomedical field.

The navigation thing takes up less than 5% of the slide, I don't cram them with so much information that I need that space to arrange it better, I think... Besides, I actually wasn't really thinking about people who dozed off but rather so that people know approximately where I am in my talk. Would you say that this kind of aid doesn't actually help? I've added a link in my question if you want to see how a full slide looks.

The need to arrange information does not necessarily mean it's crammed; white space is a powerful design factor as well. Everything on the screen is signal or noise. If that timeline bar may sometimes become noise, I'd rather not use it. I'd strive (totally not there yet) to work on a talk that people wouldn't want to wonder how long it'd last or which section I am at, but rather being engaged with my contents. That bar acts like a reminder (to me) that this talk is just another process to go through. Anyhow, it's a matter of style and I'd say do what you feel right. We can't please all. :)

@Penguin_Knight: It's a common misconception that the only purpose of a timeline bar (or any indicator that shows "how many slides there are to yet to come") is to know how much more time the talk will go on for. I always find the information about the total slide number/progress within the talk to be crucial because it helps me have some orientation within the topic. Based upon the relative position, it is much easier for me to sort the currently presented information (that I may be very engaged in) into my mental model of the subject. I consider a desire to do so a positive sign for a talk.

I would always use a
current page/last page
setting. Additionally, you should have an outline of the talk the help the audience to navigate through your talk (but not to spend five minutes of the talk to read out your outline).
This helps the audience to keep track of where they are, and also help the chairperson of the session to see where you are going with your talk. When I am a chairman, I usually get nervous when a speaker has no outline and no page numbers and his time is running short. I then keep asking myself, when I should interrupt the speaker and it usually turns out for the worse of the speaker…
But you need to keep a few things in mind:

The number last page should really be the number of the page that you want to display last. If you have any back-up slides after that, insert the correct number manually, e.g. by \renewcommand{\inserttotalframenumber}{22}. You may or may not restart the frame counter after that last official slide.
Make sure that each counted frame/page is really one page. I've seen a talk that had ~100 "official frames" but more than 80 of them showed a single image that was part of a movie.
Train you talk such that you don't have to omit something. It's a matter of preparation and can be done. Put in time, effort and also practice your talk to get the right timing. While you plan, keep in mind that you may have questions during the talk.

if someone has a question, (s)he can start it with "On slide 18, you said that…", which is really handy (as opposed to both nothing, and to "on Section 3.4").

@Clément How is "18" better than "3.4"? If someone asks me about "3.4" I know it's the "thingamagig" section and have an idea of what the question is about while rifling through the presentation. If someone says "18"...

@NajibIdrissi Well, 18 refers to slide 18 - pretty easy to jump there. 3.4 refers to some slide - could be anywhere between the first and the last…

@Clément Good point!

@Dirk I can just click on the fourth dot under the third section header and jump there instantly...

Oh, you understood that Section 3.4 equals to the forth slide of section three. Agreed, then this is pretty easy. But as a matter of fact, most people in the audience do not memorize which dot is which slide but do memorize page number easily (On a different note, most presenters are not aware that the dots are actually links (as many other things in beamer are actually links but no one seem to use these).)

@NajibIdrissi People wanting to point to a specific part of your talk want to be accurate, and don't necessarily remember the structure of your talk. General questions don't need to point to a specific part of your talk ("Why is this approach sensible?"), detail-oriented questions ("why is this equation valid?") are more likely to be understood if there is a specific slide to support them ("On slide 18, why is the equation in the middle of the slide valid?" seems preferable to "Somewhere in Section 3.4, you had an equation, could you justify it?").

@Clément and Dirk: I still don't understand how jotting down "18" is noticeably quicker than jotting down "3.4", nor do I understand how referring to "slide 3.4" is less specific than referring to "slide 18".

@NajibIdrissi Sections and slides might not be in a one-to-one correspondence. A section can spread over several slides, whereas the opposite is less likely. Hence, "3.4" can refer to slides 18 to 25, and you could have to go over them all to find what the question is about.

I think we are getting toward extended discussion here… One last thing: When I see a slide I notice the page number instantaneously without thinking. When I get the impulse to note down that slide I can just write down its number without any thinking. If there are only dots and section titles, my brain has to do some additional work to get the number. Anyway, since you design your slides to make them as accessible to the audience as possible (do you?), then you should take the habits of your audience into account and most people are familiar with page numbers.

@Clément Okay, I don't think we're calling the same thing "section".

I would omit the slide count altogether; what is important is which topics you have covered and have yet to cover. For example, you might periodically show a slide that looks something like
x Topic 1
x Topic 2
  x Topic 2a
  * Topic 2b
* Topic 3

at which point you would indicate that you have completed talking about Topic 2a and will proceed to discuss Topic 2b. The fact that Topic 1 was already covered, and that Topic 3 is still to come, is implied.
Your audience already knows how much time you have been allotted for the entire talk; they don't need constant reminders about how much longer you will be talking. The purpose of the topic lists is not to let them know how much longer you will be talking, but to remind them how each section of your talk fits into the whole.
The point @Penguin_Knight raises about the slide numbers providing a point of reference for a question is valid. You can provide a slide number, though, without providing a slide count.

"You can provide a slide number, though, without providing a slide count." - but then, the slide number is only a point of reference for a question, not a point of reference for how "deeply" we are inside the core subject of the talk; so-to-speak, where we are with respect to the whole talk. Apparently, you do consider this information somewhat interesting for the audience, which is why you suggest to show the complete outline. I would argue that the slide count is a more convenient (due to permanent availability) way of knowing "how each section of your talk fits into the whole".

There isn't necessarily any correlation between how long it takes to discuss a topic and how many slides are used for that topic. Topic 1 might be 3 slides that take 20 minutes; Topic 2 might be 30 slides that take 5 minutes. I considered the idea that slide titles might be a sufficient point of reference for an audience member, but acknowledge that a slide number is probably easier to note for later reference.

I also concede that my idea of "30 slides that take 5 minutes" consists of a series of overlays such that you might only "number" a few of them.

Well, I do not claim that knowing about the slide count is useful for knowing about how many minutes the talk is still going to last. I do not expect slides to take equally long to explain. What I have found to be somewhat reliable, though, is that - based upon the space available on each slide - presenters generally try to give each slide a certain focus and accommodate a certain number of key takeaways on each slide. The density/frequency of these varies, but is usually somewhat balanced within one presentation. With this in mind, the slide count helps determine the approximate ...

... overall information gain about the subject of the talk already covered.

tl;dr: Show it. In the beginning, the audience will be "warned" if your slide cadence will be fast or relaxed. And both you and audience will know how fast your progress is. If you have two slides pending chairmen are usually well-disposed when you are running short on time. If they don't know they will more likely interrupt you and ask you for speeding up. If you add extra slides for discussion - tables, reference citations, more details, etc. do not count them to the pages counter. It is awkward to have "Thank you" slide with number 10/15.
For short talks (10-20 min) I ommit the outline part, because it is always Introduction - Experimental - Results - Conclusion setup. I believe that every field has its "typical pattern". And it also cost time I would like to spend elsewhere (Results).
I have modified the crane layout. Above the header there is the title of the speech and in the footer there is my affiliation, conference name and date and the page numbering.
For longer talks (>30 min) like plenary lectures, I would divide the talk into parts and adress them in outline. In that case I would also show th page numbering (page/pages) and small "progress bar".
Regarding GEdgar's point, having half of the slides pending when having 5 minutes left during 1 hour lecture is utterly poor timing and displaying page numbering is of lesser issue.

"because it is always Introduction - Experimental - Results - Conclusion setup" - indeed, and it is one of my pet peeves to try and make students recognize the sheer pointlessness of saying things like "I will start with an introduction." or "My talk will close with a conclusion."

My answer takes the queston in general; my field is material science, therefore the experimental part. You, as a mathematician, face slightly different "typical pattern".

@NajibIdrissi Whether the subject is or is not math is irrelevant, I think. You also stated that the talk might be moderated and the moderator, aka chairman, can decide whether to speed you up or not.

@NajibIdrissi I have read the braced text "seminar or conference, not teaching" as indicator of (probably) moderated talk. According to these commens I think your question was inteded to adress preferrably the length of the speech than the field. I got it wrong, sorry.

In general user experience (human computer interaction, human factors, psychology) research, progress indicators are to let people know how long they need to wait or work to get a job done, and to allow them to determine if something has gone wrong, or if they thus need to conduct themselves differently (speed up, slow down). You already have a natural progress indicator built into your talk: the time. If your talk is one hour and there is 30 minutes left, the audience need only check the clock to see just how close you are to being done. The concern would be if you are suddenly going to be done early (and I don't recall ever being worried that any speaker was going to finish talking too soon), or too late (a very real concern), so a progress indicator would really only be useful to determine "on time, going over time, will finish early".
There is a second type of progress indicator available to you during a talk, which is...well, you. You can simply say things like "let me check the time...ah yes, we are right on schedule!", or "in the interests of time I'll omit some less interesting details here...", etc. You are providing the audience useful information they want to know, namely "will I need to prepare to walk out on this joker while he is still talking to get to the next talk on time", or at worst "can I possibly survive until the end of this talk...". Again, the time is the natural progress indicator here, so everything is likely to be judged relative to that.
In your proposed method of slide progress indicator, my question would be "what does this progress indicator add that the time and you as the speaker are not already providing?" What does your system provide to the audience, which they can not already determine trivially by context?
Other things your system could do is serve as a kind of mental map, allowing the audience to see how what you are saying fits into the talk as a whole. In most academic talks I'm use to, this is already provided both by the introduction/overview and the natural structure of talks. Unlike in website navigation, it is not assumed that your audience will get mentally lost, such as by getting up and walking off to get lunch and then expecting to pick up from where they left off (a big reason for such a progress indicator on a web presentation/form).
The biggest use I can imagine in this is actually not for the audience, but for you the presenter. At a glance you can see how you are pacing each section, and with some previously calculated mental math you can see if you need to speed up or slow down. The status indicator can also serve as a reminder to you of what is next, which can help you talk about the right thing at the right time and segway smoothly into the next slide and section. I know I personally regularly rearrange my talks as I revise them, and its easy to remember the order of the slides as it originally was and forget your last revision.
So in the end, based on my understanding of related research domains and personal experience giving talks and listening to them, I don't think the progress indicator of slides left/slide numbers is going to be a significant benefit to your audience. However, I do see how the system might be useful to you, and if it helps you give a better, more organized, more confident, smooth, useful talk, then that is of tremendous benefit to your audience indirectly and you should go for it! So long as you don't provide false indication, such as making it seem like you are going way too fast or too slow to make appropriate use of your time slot, then I don't think there is any real concern in choosing the system if you feel it helps you.

"In general user experience (...) research, progress indicators are to let people know how long they need to wait or work to get a job done" - yes, but those are progress indicators that are displayed while the progress indicator observer has to wait. The only goal of the observer is for the progress indicator to reach the end of the busy phase, and the only (non-interrupting) decision for the observer is between remaining completely inactive or remaining inactive just for the task at hand and doing something else meanwhile. Isn't a progress indicator in a presentation a completely ...

... different situation? After all, it is not telling the observer to remain inactive, and the goal is not reaching the end of the progress; it is providing an additional hint about the current state of the task (that the observer is very actively performing, by attentively listening to the presenter), and the goal is successfully concluding this activity - listening and finally having a complete overview of the subject and knowing whether or not something is missing - before the progress bar reaches 100%.

"What does your system provide to the audience, which they can not already determine trivially by context?" - quite obviously, an explicit indication of the current semantic progress in the presentation topic, rather than having the audience resort to guesswork or even distracting calculations based upon the current time, the unannounced and somewhat irregular time the current talk started, both with respect to the total actual (delayed?) start of the current session comprising n individual presentations, mapped back to the expected contents distribution of the talk?

@O.R.Mapper Progress indicators are actually a bit more general, and include things like on the top of forms when it says "step 2 of 4", timelines on the bottom of videos (which don't always support other uses, like scrubbing), etc, and are not always in strictly blocking situations. But the general rule is they provide useful feedback to guide a user's action - whereas an audience has a far more limited range of interaction options that are based on where a person is in their talk generally. It could be that the indicator...

...gives the audience morale support for continuing to be engaged with the material, by showing progress and context of the talk. On the other hand, it violates the general guidelines of minimizing what is on a slide, and could increase cognitive load and distraction from the main content. Some situations could of course make the indicator more useful in a presentation, especially in a situation where people can't easily keep track of time - though I'm not great with time and still haven't really ever had a problem in a 1 hour talk, and imagine this could be a bigger help on longer sessions.

Still, if a positive effect could be found in research, I'd tend to predict it would be very small at best, if it were detectable. I could of course be wrong, but that is my opinion based on my own personal experience and intuition - YMMV.

I am not fond of the obsession with minimizing what is on a slide. A slide shouldn't be too crammed to recognize a structure, and the font should be large enough for reading. But every time I attend conferences, I am really annoyed by presenters that fail to show basic information e.g. in the footer, such as the title of the talk (sending me off to read the program booklet during the talk), or - as is the topic - the total number of slides. In an interesting talk, this has nothing to do with "morale support for continuing to be engaged"; I want to be engaged, I just don't want to feel lost.

Would you like, in an exciting movie, to have a counter at the bottom of the screen, saying: "50 out of 90 minutes"? There may be movies that profit from this as a suspense build-up, but most of the time, this would be quite a distractor and very counterproductive.
No, tell a good story, build suspense, and develop your argument stringently, don't bore your audience with structure which may make sense post-hoc, but not pre-hoc. Ideally, make them ache for the next slide.
Of course, you yourself should ensure to be well on time, though, but take care of not turning this into the worry of your audience.
And, if you conclude a few minutes before the expected time, when expectation is still high, and people have not yet remembered to look at their watches, you've done it the right way (TM).

"Build suspense"? I've always been given the advice that people don't want suspense in scientific presentations. "Tell them what you're going to tell them, then tell them, then tell them what you've told them." I'm curious to hear a different perspective.

'Would you like, in an exciting movie, to have a counter at the bottom of the screen, saying: "50 out of 90 minutes"?' - no, because in a movie, a surprising twist that shifts the focus, turns things into a new direction, or unexpectedly opens up a new adventure is a positive thing. In a presentation that is meant to convey information, I would consider this to be very negative.

Of course, talks are about conveying information. But the very best talks I have ever attended, the one that I never forgot, were of this make; they reached from mathematics to biology or philosophy (so, the field doesn't really matter), and given by top representatives of the field. I should think that this is an ideal to aspire to. Of course, a "bookkeeping" talk is also doable, but in my opinion, unless it is about specific new methods, in which technical details matter (I discuss elsewhere), a talk should just be a enticing showcase of your work, inviting them to read your work in detail.

@CaptainEmacs: I find presentations following that style quite unbearable. They usually make me wonder why the presenter does not simply tell the audience what they have found, and instead acts as if there were big secrets that are then suddenly revealed. I feel that each of these "surprising twists" kicks me out of my current thought flow and makes the mental model I had built until then crumble. On various occasions, such talks were a great encouragement to start the coffee break early. It is interesting to know some people actually seem to enjoy that presentation style, though.

@O.R.Mapper Fair enough. It is important, of course, for such talks, to develop the "story" throughout towards the main message. It is not about misleading the audience. I find many (not all) structure-oriented talks quite pedantic, and find the style plodding through swathes of e.g. experimental results quite tiring - in the latter case, I would agree that mapping out what is going to be discussed can help, but, really, I think moving systematically through a matrix of all combinations of experimental conditions in a live talk is, even with map, only justifiable if it provides a big picture.

I've created a new question inspired by this discussion, since I think it is an interesting one. http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/76919/should-a-research-presentation-make-use-of-suspense-to-engage-the-audience

The response gets a lot of downvotes. I suggested the response because it tallies with my own experience, taste & style and I regularly get very positive feedback on my talks in person - however, since the downvotes are quite massive, and clearly many people here on SE strongly disagree with my response, I am tempted to delete it. I do not want to let advice stand that people clearly believe to be destructive, as good experience I've had myself with it and as little as I like numbered slides myself. I'd like to know what's the general practice on SE in such situations?

Part of a good talk is good time management. If you have prepared well, including trying out your talk before it gets serious, you should have a good idea of how much time you will need and can adjust accordingly. You will even be able to get an idea how long you can engage with audience comments and questions. For the purpose of this answer, I will assume that your time management is good. If itisn't, you might as well just inslt your audience by swearing at them.
If your time management is spot on, you have two reasons for why you might want to display the number of slides left.

You may want to make it easier for the audience to refer to some slide of yours. In that case, precise slide titles will serve this function better. I think it is easier to ask for the slide that gives the equivalents of the definition of a woolladuh than asking for slide 7.
You may want to signal that our talk is on time. I think this is indeed legitimate in many contexts. In a conference where only short presentations are allowed, worrying that the speaker before you steals all your time might prevent you from paying attention. In a setting where people running out of time is a real possibility, I think the (number of current slide)/(number of total slides) works well, it gives the relevant information while minimizing the increase in noise. For a long seminar presentation, providing a roadmap of your talk will do more to ease your audience.

"I think it is easier to ask for the slide that gives the equivalents of the definition of a woolladuh than asking for slide 7." - it is definitely easier to jot down 7 than Definition of a woolladuh, for later reference during the Q&A part. And once written down, asking for slide 7 is trivial. Directly jumping to slide 7 again is, of course, trivial for the presenter, as well, while they might not immediately remember the exact position of the slide whose title is Definition of a woolladuh.

To address your first point, it is enough to display "slide 7" rather than "slide 7/42", so I think it answers a different question.

I would not display number of slides left when a) you have good reputation or goodwill with an audience (very interesting topic, you have been invited, people already heard your other talks) or b) your presentation will be approximately at a constant pace.
However, I would display number of slides left, if you are c) in the environment where many people (try to) go over their allocated time (e.g. conference) or if d) you have a slide for which you know will spend disproportionate amount of time on. But d) is best handled otherwise (e.g. split it into multiple slides), as you may get the opposite effect, depending where in the presentation such slide stands.
Number of slides left is to assure the auditorium "I know what I am doing, bear with me, I am aware of the time constraints", and if you then go over your allotted time it will look a bit silly.


text:
How are office hours for PhD classes different from office hours for undergraduate classes?
I plan on attending office hours this week for a PhD class (in math, to be specific).  This would be at a U.S. university, at a strong math department.
My question is:  are the expectations different from undergraduate (and masters) class office hours, when the time is mostly spent on HW questions?
If you're a professor for PhD courses, what do you expect to talk about with your PhD students during office hours, if you indeed have different expectations and rather not discuss homework?

At every level of education, the purpose of office hours is to give students an open-ended opportunity to discuss the material that they are learning with their instructors, and particularly to get help and clarification in their understanding.
As an instructor, I found it greatly frustrating when students (or any level) reduce this opportunity into simply asking for help on homework questions.  I believe there are many other instructors who feel the same. In fact, I felt so strongly about this that I personally had a policy of refusing to help with homework questions per se, and would instead offer to work a related but different problem in order to try to get the student to learn the material rather than just solve the problem.
I find this attitude most widespread amongst undergraduates, but many graduate students have it to.  Hopefully, you are actually interested in the material that you are learning, rather than just your grade.  That attitude, then, can easily translate into requests for help that are about the material, rather than the problems.  For example, consider:

"Can you help me with problem 5?" vs.
"Problem 5 made me realize I don't really understand Urysohn's Lemma.  Can you help me understand that better?"

Whether graduate or undergraduate, if you ask questions of the second sort, any good instructor who cares about their students' learning is likely to appreciate it.

I have no problem with students asking for help with their homework, as long as they don't expect me to either (a) essentially tell them the solution, or (b) check their completed homework before they turn it in.