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Advice on getting a Ph.D with scholarship in Australia (Neuroscience)
I intend to write to potential supervisors soon and I had a few questions.
I am currently in my second year of Masters of Neuroscience (In France, I'm Indian) and won’t finish until June 2018. I see some positions open that I really want and I don’t want to miss out on them but I also don’t want to write to them too soon.
When is the right time to write to them? What should the first email contain? I guess one should attach a CV but should I also send letters of recommendation?
Any tips on the scholarships and funding and what that requires?
Any other tips?

As long you make it professional and not use some template for spamming people, you should be fine.

Usually, there is no specific timeline for applying for a PhD in Australia, unless you are thinking about particular advertised PhD positions or scholarships which of course have deadlines. After all, because you are an international student, you'd better find a good way to pay your tuition fees unless you are able to finance your project independently.
Approaching a potential supervisor, you will be asked to provide a research proposal and your CV. You can also include your referees' names and contacts in your CV.  I suggest you introduce yourself and talk briefly about your academic background. Then you can talk about your proposed project and how the professor is suitable for it. Finally, you invite him/her to consider your attached CV and proposal.
You can use below template for emailing potential supervisors:
Dear Professor XX,
I have graduated (or I will be graduated) from XX with an M.A. degree in XX.
I am interested in carrying out a project, title of your project,
Based on your research focus on XXX, I am keen to join your research team as a Ph.D. student.
Please find attached proposal concerning the proposed project and my CV for your perusal.
I look forward to your reply,
With Kind regards,
XXXX

Be sure to say why you are interested in the particular project.
Also, Indian nationals who want to study in Australia would be wise to allow 6 months for visa processing.
In my field, if you have a publication you are likely to get a scholarship with a stipend.

Universities have different criteria to assess scholarship applications, but to the best of my knowledge, if you have a one peer-review publication and a conference presentation, then you have a good chance of securing a scholarship (albeit in my field, psychology). Thus, try your best to write a good journal or conference article. Personally, I have been taken more seriously when I attached a proposal in the first contacts.


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I want to do an independent dissertation type research project, not being part of a uni, how can I find out if my Question has already been answered?
I wish to live with an indigenous tribe or 3 months, to study their culture and answer an almost independent dissertation question, under said cultural Anthropology. I would like to know the best way to find out if my research question has been answered, how can I do that without an advisor from a university? Is there a database, or what routes could I go down to find out/which is best.
Thanks for your time to answer.

Do you have any experience in doing research yet?

Perhaps, start with a search in the university library, use google scholar etc. Or to put it differently: Do a literature review of the state of the art in your field of study and find out what they did...

Does your research involve human subjects? If so, please see the question Can I do experiments on humans without a degree?

You need an advisor. Not only will (s)he help you answer questions such as the one you are asking, but you will also need somebody to actually grade your project once it is done. One cannot just do research and then show up at a university and demand a degree.

This plan sounds like it's highly unethical.

Very much appreciated, and I will try to figure it out using online sources, was just trying to gauge if there is a database I could access.

it is a cultural experiment and would involve questionnaires with much of the data gathered through observation and interviews, but within the local community that I would be staying with. It is more of an investigation rather than an experiment, though having the parameters of the latter, which as-long as I stay with a host family set up by an agency or organisation who understands the community and such, is fine, they gain a set of hands, I gain data, field researching.

Of course, this is for my own knowledge but to be published in a book which need field data about different cultures, an idea which I am not putting out publically thought irrelevant to this, but when studies like this are intuitive, they can be interesting and bring things to the field's metaphorical table, I only said Dissertation, as the structure of this, without the means of using it within a course, is similar to what one is, I should have re-phrased it.

How is an independent research trip unethical? It is an independent scientific investigation that will come under the scientific method as means of peer to peer assessment? People live with indigenous tribes, and it has been done thousands of times, how in any way is that unethical, obviously, it will only happen with a tribe that is thankful to have a foreigner come and live with them, and that would only be found through an agency or other means.

The key is not about experiment or not. The key is if your research involves with human subjects, you must obtain IRB, otherwise it's considered unethical. This is what @NoahSnyder meant.

Lots of harm has been done to indigenous people by visitors, sometimes by researchers.  Yes it's been done thousands of times, but lots of those were also unethical.  To do this right you should have training, you should talk to people who have experience and knowledge about how to do this research without causing harm, and you should go through an IRB process.

Do not assume that techniques described in books are necessarily considered acceptable today.

To directly answer your core question, "how can I make sure my research question hasn't already been addressed/answered by previous researchers", the only real answer is a thorough literature review and an associated deep understanding of your research area. This is universally true of all research disciplines; knowing what others have done and learned before is a fundamental part of conducting research that advances human knowledge. If you just want to investigate something for your own personal interest, then this is not completely necessary, of course. But rediscovering something already known within a field may mean your research is not of interest or able to be academically published.
There are other dangers of not knowing background before you start, of course. The simplest is that you go about things wrong, and previous researchers have established that your approach is fundamentally flawed, dangerous, harmful, or otherwise inappropriate. It may be that others have done almost exactly what you intend to do, and you may simply be setting about to replicate a previous study. Replication is fine, but replicating something already found out to be flawed or insufficient to answer the key research questions may just be an exercise in futility.
As mentioned in the comments, there are major ethical issues if your proposed research involves human participants, such as doing sociological/anthropological work. This includes activities such as asking questions, giving surveys, and reporting on naturalistic observations. At best, not observing certain precautions and methods can mean no legitimate academic publisher will touch your work, and others in the field will reject it entirely as unreliable or unethical. At worst, you can do real harm to others and get yourself into serious trouble. Understanding and applying principles like informed consent, protection of privacy, respect of autonomy, etc, are important no matter what your goals are. Working with "at risk populations" (which can include indigenous tribes) requires an extra level of care, and may even have legal requirements of registration and authorization to be acquired in advance to avoid criminal proceedings, fines, or more.
But back to the core question, there is no simple, fast, or easy way to see if a question has been asked and/or answered before. It simply requires intimate familiarity with your field and line of research, preferably assisted by speaking with a network of fellow experts familiar in the field, and a lot of searching and reading through work on your own to determine what is and is not an open, interesting, and potentially answerable question. If your field has "survey papers" that explicitly call out a certain area as an "open area of inquiry" or an important question for future research, that's certainly a great place to start! But how exactly to conduct a good literature review is beyond the scope of this forum, and requires intimate knowledge of your particular field. You can start with Google Scholar and some clever search terms, but even knowing what terms to use is often a highly field-dependent issue. It is not insurmountable, but you should at very least be aware that this stage of research is both very important, very time consuming, and will require a great deal of work if you are not already deeply well versed in your field of inquiry.

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Is it professionally viable to leave an American math PhD program for a Master's in Germany?
Background
I'm an American who will be starting a pure math PhD at a relatively prestigious US public university later this month (I realize that it might seem pointless ask a question about a program I haven't yet begun; however, I think that my question is basically independent of these concerns.)
Moving to Europe is one of my goals in life (just to clarify, it has been since before 2016), and while applying to grad schools I seriously contemplated studying in Germany. However, friends and former professors, as well as professors from my current PhD program, with whom I spoke while visiting, advised me that it would likely be much easier to find a research job if I completed a PhD from an American university. Based on this advice, I accepted the offer from my current program.
It seems to me now, however, that this advice is likely false—while I have heard that German academia is considered to be quite closed to outsiders, it seems that there are quite a few mathematicians with PhDs from German universities who have acquired desirable research positions outside of Germany, and my impression is that a PhD from a well-regarded German university is quite competitive on the international and the European job market. Moreover, it seems questionable to me that a PhD from a moderately/relatively prestigious American university would give one an edge in the academic job market outside the US (perhaps I'm wrong, here, though).
Given this situation, I am considering applying to a Master's program at a certain German university which is quite strong in my area of interest, and
 which also seems to have some connections with my current program (in terms of research collaboration), with the intention of completing a PhD at the same university afterward. In terms of personal preference, I would (based on prior experience) much prefer to be residing in Germany, so continuing on at my current program doesn't seem appealing if it's not likely to be more advantageous in terms of finding a job in Europe after finishing my PhD.
Questions

Is it likely that leaving my PhD program for a Master's in Germany after a year would damage my career prospects?
In this or a similar set of circumstances, is it possible to leave one's PhD program without burning bridges completely?

Have you ever visited Germany before? It might be a good idea to go on holiday there (to the town/ city where your preferred university is) to get an idea of what it's like, before committing to live there for ~2 years.

you are ready to make a life-changing decision based on what you heard? To leave a prestigious US PhD program for a German MSc? One thing is certain though: if you are committed to be in Germany, for whatever reasons, one way or another, then yes, it might make sense to abandon your program and start from scratch everything. A warning though: even a mildly prestigious PhD from an American university is considered highly reputable in maths in Europe (except maybe in Paris/France which has an unbelievably rich tradition in maths)

@astronat I have visited Germany for about a month, though I haven't yet been to the city where the university is—I've heard it's relatively affordable for students, though, which is a nice thought. Another factor is that the location of my current program is, well, decidedly unappealing, so that the prospect of sending five years there seems rather bleak, in a way.

@PsySp Part of the appeal of the university to which I am contemplating transferring is that (as far as I can tell) the research group in my area of interest seems to be quite well-regarded internationally—that, roughly, was my reasoning. Thank you for the warning; I will certainly take that into consideration.

@PsySp "even a mildly prestigious PhD from an American university is considered highly reputable in maths in Europe" Why so? Can you please tell the reasons?

At least in Europe PhD students quit/ change their plans reasonably often, so it is something professors are used to to some extent. If you explain it, I doubt there would be serious ill feelings. However, it probably hurts your chances for positions in that department in the near future/mid-term.
At least in Europe, PhDs from nations with respected education systems are largely looked at as similar by many employers with a bonus for it being from internationally known universities (sometimes even if the particular subject is not the university's strength). A PhD from a known US university would certainly give you options for coming to Germany later (depending on your language skills at large multinational companies that operate in English or smaller companies that may work predominantly in German). In case out matters to you: German mathematics departments have a reputation as quite theoretical, even for more applied flavours of mathematics (e.g. statistics). Many course will be solely in German, so check that, if it matters for you.

"In case out matters to you: German mathematics departments have a reputation as quite theoretical, even for more applied flavours of mathematics (e.g. statistics)." Actually, this seems appealing to me, given my interests. And the language concerns would likely not be a problem. I am wondering whether leaving my current department might give me a bad reputation within my field, or damage my chances for positions in other departments as well, though.

As I said, my impression is that most people see leaving a PhD (particularly a research-based one that would take many years) in one place as one of those things that happens, but of course it is hard to be certain about how people would take it. I don't know how well-linked up your field is, but I am not sure a professor at another university would even notice a PhD student quitting somewhere else. Perhaps someone might infer something negative when they see it in your CV(e.g. "X does not seem to finish things"). However, how unhappy are you? Is finishing the PhD and then moving an option?

Yes, finishing my PhD and then moving would certainly be possible—my concern with that option is that the location of my current program is, well, rather dreary, so that the prospect of staying there really doesn't seem appealing, unless it would be significantly more advantageous with regard to my long-term goals. But thank you—I think I will try to resolve the question by weighing the placement records and relative levels of prestige of my current department and the department to which I am considering moving vis-à-vis exactly how much I would prefer to be somewhere else.

@PynchonRiemannRoch "my concern with that option is that the location of my current program is, well, rather dreary, so that the prospect of staying there really doesn't seem appealing, unless it would be significantly more advantageous with regard to my long-term goals" > I don't know where you're currently based, but if you think where you currently are is dreary compared to Germany, be aware that many "famous" German universities are in small towns full of only students and pensioners... and nearly all students leave on Friday afternoon to go back to their parents' for the weekend.

Yes, true that might be a surprise for people from education systems, where university students are concentrated on a campus with dormatories etc., which tends to lead to a more active social life. Since a lot of German universities are not regarded as all that different at the Bachelor/Master level, many students choose to stay close to home and those that move to a new town often have to find private accomodation (with one common model being a flat, in which each student has a single room and the kitchen & bathroom are communal).

@Björn This is very dependend on the university. There are small city/town univerisities with lots of local students that do have a very active student community (in the city). The big cultural difference I'd see is that the social activities are less focussed around the university (with less active student unions etc.). But yes, one should checkout the university and the city to make sure it fits ones preferences if social activity is a major point of interest. (And indeed, there are some small universities and especially FHs where the next town is "dead" on the weekends).

Is it likely that leaving my PhD program for a Master's in Germany after a year would damage my career prospects?

Yes: A Master's degree in Germany is considered by many people
 (and pretty much everyone over 50 or so) to be baseline education: In other words, it's the bare minimum you can have and expect to get a job in a relevant field. Yes, the times, they are a-changin', especially in e.g. software development, but "only" having a Bachelor's is still something of an anomaly: The Bologna Process has changed the structure of German university education but has not (yet) changed German culture and expectations.
Therefore, you'd be going from a culture with relatively lower educational expectations (the US, where a Master's degree hold a lot of weight and a PhD even more so) to a country with higher expectations and you're going down one educational level.
Likewise, it's possible that a well-known PhD program will be acknowledged in Germany in relevant field(s), but there are fewer German universities that are so amazingly well-known that they're acknowledged in the US. After all, the US is about the size of all of Europe, so it makes a bit of sense that the US is more insular than Germany is.

In this or a similar set of circumstances, is it possible to leave one's PhD program without burning bridges completely?

It isn't exactly the same as leaving to get a Master's somewhere else, but it is possible that you could work on building a relationship and rapport with groups in Germany which do work similar to what you do and then ask them if you could spend some time there as a visiting researcher. This way you'd not burn bridges at your current department while still allowing you to experience how it is to live and do research in Germany. Also, you'd end up with a PhD in the end rather than just a Master's, which would make it much easier to move to Germany after the program should you wish to do so.

" A Master's degree in Germany is considered by many people (and pretty much everyone over 50 or so) to be baseline education: In other words, it's the bare minimum you can have and expect to get a job in a relevant field. " I do not believe that this is the case for pure math masters which aim to prepare you for an upcoming PhD. On top of that, from what I've heard, some universities have very tense programmes, for example learning derivatives on a Banach space in year 1 and measure theory and topology in the 2nd year of undergrad.

@errantlinguist Regarding your response to my first question: My apologies, I thought it was implicit in my post that I was considering completing a Master's and then a PhD in Germany—I will update the original post to make this more explicit. I've actually considered the option of attempting to spend time as a visiting researcher at the German university which I have in mind rather than leaving my current program—however, my concern is that it might be more practically advantageous for me to simply earn a degree from said university, in order to build more local connections.

The OP title is even "Is it professionally viable to leave an American math PhD program for a Master's in Germany?"; I don't know how more misleading this question can be. Also, please note that a "Master's program in Germany" has absolutely no formal connection to a "PhD program in Germany": it's possible that if your professors like you and they have money that they may offer you a PhD position afterwards but this is in no way guaranteed and you will have to formally apply for admission to the PhD program.

Looking back at my question, I do agree that my intention was less clearly expressed than I had thought. Depending on the details of the situation (the relative levels of prestige of the two universities, their placement records, the likelihood of finding a desirable PhD position if I left my current program for a Master's program, etc.), I may decide to follow your advice and earn a degree at my current university while attempting to secure a "visiting scholar" position at the German university which I have been considering. Thanks for your advice.

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Physics masters with undergraduate in computer science
I am currently entering my third year of undergraduate. When I entered college I was torn between physics and computer science and ultimately chose computer science. I like cs, but I'd like to apply it towards physics applications. I've spent the past two summers working at software companies as an intern, so I have no research experience as of now. I need to start applying for research positions soon if I am to get into graduate school I've heard.
I am wondering if it is possible to get into a masters program for physics with my undergraduate in cs?  My school offers a minor program for physics which covers mechanics, E & M, light/waves/heat, and quantum which I am currently working towards as well. For the research, is it even worth applying to physics labs if my major is computer science or should I stick to applying to cs labs? In a physics lab maybe I could aid in preparing apparatus that involve programming or electronics?

I can post a full answer tomorrow if you like, but as someone with a fairly fresh Ph.D in physics, you will flounder in Masters coursework without the proper physics prep.

@user1717828 Even if it is, say, computational physics?

There is a concept in some fields of a research programmer or research software engineer, where you work in an interdisciplinary team using your computing skills for non-CS applications. I am not sure if this is true in physics, but you may want to find some physics labs and see if they have computing staff and then talk to those staff about their job to see if it's what you want.

By the way, which region of the world are you asking about?

@MarkoKarbevski Midwest United States of America

When my daughter went to college she was undecided about what to study. You could choose late in certain majors, but not all. Physics was the only major at the college at the time that you had to declare on entry. There were just too many required courses and too much depends on the earlier ones.

@RohanWagle what a coincidence. I know you from umich.

You will probably be fine if you take 3-4 undergrad courses. But I personally wouldn't do a physics MS, it doesn't really give you any additional qualifications or practical skills over an engineering MS,

I would vote to close, but can't given the bounty: is [it] possible to get into a masters program for physics with my undergraduate in cs? is it even worth applying to physics labs if my major is computer science...? Yes, it is possible, but it varies between institutes, hence, I'd vote to close, if I could. (maybe I could aid in preparing apparatus that involve programming or electronics? Yes.)

https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/94456/physics-masters-with-undergraduate-in-computer-science

I would say you would absolutely be able to get in to a physics masters program as long as you have taken the pre-requisites for the specific program.  Most programs have a list of courses that must be taken to be considered for admission.
I got my undergraduate degree in Geology and Geophysics, but I became more interested in engineering towards the later part of my undergraduate.  So I was sure to take all of the requisite engineering courses that I needed to get into an engineering masters program.  Now I'm actually working on a PhD in Civil Engineering.
Moral of the story... It is absolutely possible, but be sure to check out the program requirements for the physics programs you are interested in applying.

A few years ago I hired a post-doc with a non-traditional background. They had gone to one of the 'great books' colleges and did well, but eventually decided they wanted to go into physics. That is pretty hard to do at a great books institute in a fashion amenable to grad school applications. So, after graduation he went to a physics masters program (I won't name it since that would be a shopping question) specifically aimed at being a bridge from not-physics-enough undergraduate degrees to a PhD program. Clearly, since I hired them as a post-doc they succeeded.

I've never heard of the "great books" designation, and the list I found at Wikipedia seems quite eclectic and probably not what you had in mind: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_books#Universities Everything from Michigan to Baylor to Iona.

The canonical (US) one is St John's College (https://www.sjc.edu/), but there are others. The paragraph in your Wiki link starting with "There are only a few true "Great Books Programs" still in operation." is the shorter, more realistic set of them.

is possible to get into a masters program for physics with my
undergraduate in cs?

In principle yes, but it will depend on the University and program. Also, you might be obliged to take some additional classes to catch up with the basics in physics. The best way is to directly ask their respective program administrator attaching your undergrad syllabus.

For the research, is it even worth applying to physics labs if my
major is computer science or should I stick to applying to cs labs?

For research it should not matter very much at all which degree you have as long as you manage to convince the person in charge of the research group (group leader / professor) that you will be of value for his research. From my point of view this will certainly be the case with CS (e.g. I did my undergrad in CS and then worked at a medical university for many years including doing a PhD there and eventually becoming assistant professor there as well).

I am wondering if it is possible to get into a masters program for physics with my undergraduate in cs?

Absolutely! Especially if it's for quantum computing, computational physics, or physics of information.

My school offers a minor program for physics which covers mechanics, E & M, light/waves/heat, and quantum which I am currently working towards as well.

Good idea. This will not hurt!

For the research, is it even worth applying to physics labs if my major is computer science or should I stick to applying to cs labs?

Yes it is absolutely worth it! You may wish to contact some professors in the physics department where you're applying (especially ones who you might wish to work with as a research student), to get a feel for the situation, because while I say it's in general absolutely worth it to apply, specific universities/departments can have their own unique quirks.

In a physics lab maybe I could aid in preparing apparatus that involve programming or electronics?

That is completely true, especially if you're going into computational physics, theoretical physics, or mathematical physics (which tend to involve a lot of programming), or experimental physics involving a lot of electronics (assuming you took some electronics or hardware courses in your CS degree).

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Advice on acquiring letters of recommendation and from whom
I am currently doing my Masters in Neuroscience and applying for a PhD in neuroscience and had a research project component (50%) but my supervisor is close to retirement and sort of unaware of the system of LORs and how strong they need to be/how they need to be written. I have a really good one from one of my academic professors and I have asked my supervisor and she said yes, but she's been sitting on it and hasn't done it yet. I do however have really good recommendations from my undergrad - college principal/head of department and a professor. Could I use those? Or should I submit an above average one from my supervisor (if she gives it to me, I know she'll just say that I did good work and finished the project - no personal references etc). Or should I try getting another academic one from one of my masters professors?

Surely your supervisor read your recommendation letters when he admitted you? I doubt it's possible for him to be completely ignorant of the process (and it's not exactly complicated to explain)...

So, in France, letters of recommendation aren't really a thing. So no, she didn't read any before taking me on a research intern. But yeah, she's "aware" of the process but not how crucial they can be and how much in detail they need to be (anecdotal etc.). I've even offered to write up a draft if required but she hasn't gotten back to me for a month! I'm feeling quite lost :/

What do you mean LORs arent a thing in France? I needed them for both the undergrad admission and a scholarship for the masters. They are also asked for admission at the Master 2 level [math].

You're the first person I've heard say that. I live there and most of my friends are French and in academia (masters and PhDs) and haven't bothered securing any.

I doubt that your supervisor has managed to work through their entire academic career without developing knowledge of how to write a letter of recommendation. The best thing you can do is to get in touch with them again and re-iterate that you would like them to write you one. If they still hold off from doing it then definitely use your fallbacks.

It's not that she's unfamiliar with the concept. It's just that in France it's not common at all and that English isn't her first language. So it's a combination of those two things which makes me believe I'll get a so-so recommendation despite having done a good job. For instance, in French, saying someone is above average is a good thing, because you're saying they're better than most but we know it has a bad connotation in English. So it's just stuff like that. I'm just worried :(.


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Is there such a thing as a "general semester"?
I’m an MSc student and write my thesis about academy retention.
So far the only model I know is that a student enrolls to a certain faculty and begins his studies there.
I’m trying to find models in which the students start their studies in a global semester or year and only after finishing it, choose their desired faculty.
Are there universities or colleges with such a model?
Also, is there a formal name to such a “global semester/year”? I haven’t been able to find anything on the net.

In the U.S., it is common to start at a university as an "undeclared major". This gives students an opportunity to take courses in a variety of areas to figure out what interests them. Typically, after a year they must choose a major.

In Germany, there exists something called Studium Generale¹, which is essentially what you describe.
Its specifics vary between universities, but in most cases you can freely attend introductory courses from all faculties and take exams if you like.

¹ I can only link to the German Wikipedia for this. As of now, the English page does not contain this aspect at all.

I wouldn't quite say it is "essentially what you describe". Yes, it can be used that way. However, the typical use case for that offer is for people who do not want to start full-fledged studies (pensionists/employees with spare time) to get the opportunity of getting to know some in-depth factoids about a variety of subjects. But maybe I'm thinking of something else, as I'm not familiar with exams during a Studium Generale (as you cannot earn any degree, it is not clear what exams would be useful for other than a warm feeling and maybe a self-printed diploma for your living room wall).


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Correcting a thesis after publication
I defended my PhD thesis over 5 years ago and obtained my PhD, but I was not happy with the thesis (a classic saying of many an academic, I know), but felt pressured to submit and move on to new things. Whilst I still like the thesis idea, what I wrote, the references, and the results, I now know I should have used a totally different mathematical theory to describe the proposed system/algorithm. Would a University allow someone to update a thesis after it has been "published" in the sense it's in the library and departmental library? Is there any point in asking the University or will this just be thrown out?

If I correctly understand the question, your 5-year-old thesis isn't actually wrong (unlike the situation in the "duplicate" question) but you now have a much better approach to the same topic. I would not expect the university to allow you to change the thesis after this much time. You can write up the new approach as a paper (referring to your thesis). If it's new enough, that paper could be published, but even if it's deemed too similar to your thesis for publication, you could make it available on the internet with an indication that the new version supersedes your thesis (or part of it).

Thanks for your comment. I do remember emailing my supervisor around 4-5 years ago to explain this, but he ignored my email. But since my mathematical abilities have improved so much this still niggles at me. From your comment and answers in the duplicate I see one option is to make available online my thesis update, and a hard copy of an "update" manuscript to coincide with the original thesis.

No. Published is published unless you want to retract the thesis, which is most likely very difficult. This sounds like a case where you should write another paper, where you show the advantages of the other method

I think im going to go for the accompanying document route, and/or put the updated thesis online.


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Is it wise to mention any personal struggle in a statement of purpose (for doctrate program)?
If there is a gap in my CV, or perhaps an anomaly due to some personal struggle, is it worth explaining the situation? Or just not saying anything in the SOP?
If one was perhaps wrongfully accused or terrorism/murder or suffered depression? which forced them to take a year out.
On one hand it can demonstrate resilience on the other hand it might be negative.

Please specify where you are applying, as the answers to this will vary a lot according to country and local academic (or national) culture.

I think a quick examination of human psychology suggests that being specific about this stuff is a terrible idea.  Even people who want to be neutral would associate you with murder (unfairly, of course).  Better to never put the idea in their head.

I think you could hint at it, but I believe it would be misguided (hurt your application) to include (too many) details. It is irrelevant information and only distracts; your SOP should focus on reasons why to take you, and not on reasons why one shouldn't take you.


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Temporary job etiquette
My current appointment will be over in about 1.5 months, and I have been approached by a faculty member asking wether I would be interested in working (paid) on a different project for a couple of months more. After sending them my CV and relevant material, how long should I wait before asking if the opportunity exists or not? I need to arrange the practical details (housing, ...)

I don't completely understand the situation--this is a paid position?--but I don't see any reason to delay asking about practicalities if you're interested in doing it.

Yes it is a paid position.

Then yes, it's very reasonable to ask now when you'll hear a decision on it.


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White supremacists marching at the University of Virginia – does this reflect the university’s attitude?
White supremacist groups have been marching down in Charlottesville, Virginia, at the University of Virginia (article).
Does this also in some ways reflect on the university itself for allowing the march to happen (see the disturbing photos in the linked NY Times article) and for all the subsequent violence to occur?

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This question is not about academia. The question could just as easily be about a demonstration at a grocery store, a gas station, or any other place, and it would be the exact same question.

@Aaron The distinguishing factor is that UVA is a public university, and thus the first amendment is binding on it. A private university has more leeway in deciding what sort of demonstrations can happen on its campus.

White supremacists marching at the University of Virginia – does this reflect the university’s attitude?

No, absolutely not.  Here's the President of UVA's statement from before the earlier rally (there were two) as published on the university's official website:

University of Virginia President Teresa A. Sullivan on Tuesday issued the following message to the University community regarding a scheduled Ku Klux Klan rally on July 8 in Charlottesville:
To the University community:
Members of the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, based in North Carolina, plan to hold a rally in Charlottesville on July 8. The stated purpose of their rally is to protest the removal of the Robert E. Lee statue in Emancipation Park, formerly Lee Park.
The KKK represents ideologies of hatred and exclusion that run directly counter to the principles of mutual respect, diversity, and inclusion that we espouse and uphold at our University. The KKK has a long history of racial violence and murder. As a unified community, we condemn the detestable beliefs of the KKK as well as the group’s message of intolerance and hate.
We also support the First Amendment and the principle of free speech, and we know that the members of this group have the right to assemble and speak. We abhor their beliefs, yet we recognize their right to express those beliefs in a public forum, and the City of Charlottesville plans to protect their right to do so.
I urge UVA community members to avoid the rally and avoid confrontation on July 8. To listen and respond to these outsiders would only call more attention to their viewpoint and create the publicity that they crave. Instead, I encourage you to support the alternative events that Charlottesville leaders are planning. These tentatively include a program at the Jefferson School African-American Center and a community picnic at Ix Art Park. Details are available here. The Albemarle-Charlottesville chapter of the NAACP and other organizations are planning additional events for the community.
There is irony in the timing of the KKK rally, which falls only four days after Independence Day, when we celebrate our nation’s hard-won freedom and our founding belief that all people are created equal and entitled to unalienable human rights. As a community, let’s remain confident that the voice of justice and equality will drown out the voice of hatred in the end.
Teresa A. Sullivan
  President
-"UVA President Issues Statement Regarding Planned KKK Rally", UVAToday (2017-06-27)

To summarize that, they allowed the rally on free speech grounds, but explicitly condemned its message.  They're a public university in a country where free speech is a central right, so it seems unlikely that they could've blocked it.
For a more recent posting, here's a Q&A with the President of UVA in the aftermath of the second rally, issued yesterday: "In Aftermath of Violence, Sullivan Reflects on Challenging Weekend", UVAToday (2017-08-13).  It's too long to quote in full here, but:

Q. Traumatic and emotional events have occurred in the last 48 hours. People have been killed and many in our University community remain frightened, angry, confused, frustrated. What is on your mind right now?
A. The first thing I have to say is how indescribably sad it is that three lives were cut short. There were 35 or more people who were injured. And that was needless. The University is about freedom of speech, but free speech is not the same as violence. We strongly condemn this kind of abhorrent and intimidating behavior whose purpose is only to create fear and cause divisions in the community.
[...]
Q. You often talk about how the messages of the alt-right and others who were affiliated with this rally and demonstrations do not reflect the values that the University embraces. Simply, what are those core values?
A. I’ve just spoken at length on diversity. And another way we talk about that is inclusion. For a lot of the University’s history, there were specific demographic groups who were excluded. Well, we’re not about that. We’re seeking to include them. We believe in mutual respect. And that means that you can discuss a variety of issues with one another, including with disagreements, but you still respect the other person. Disagreement is not the same as saying, ‘I disagree with you, so, therefore, you must die.’ That’s some of what we were hearing yesterday. That’s a really objectionable message.
-"In Aftermath of Violence, Sullivan Reflects on Challenging Weekend", UVAToday (2017-08-13)

Very good. Thanks for the quote. I tried feebly to find it, but had not succeeded.

The march, and even more so the violence, were strongly condemned by UVA. Here are some statements from the President of the university to that effect.
The mayor of Charlottesville condemned the march in even stronger terms, calling it “a cowardly parade of hatred, bigotry, racism, and intolerance.” Note that the protestors came from out of town; they chose Charlottesville because it was in the process of removing and renaming monuments to the city's white supremacist past.
The US has a very strong tradition of free speech; generally speaking, if some people want to march, it is difficult or impossible to stop them, even if you oppose the cause for which they stand.
In my opinion the violence reflects badly on the US as a whole, but not on Charlottesville or UVA in particular. Whether or not things get worse, no one can say. I certainly hope not.

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I know almost nothing about academia but as someone who is familiar with the area, I think we need to set a few things straight.  There are some implications in the question that suggest basic misunderstanding of the situation.
The white supremacists were, from all accounts I have seen, primarily or wholly from outside the area.  The gathering was declared unlawful by local police in accordance with State law during the event. The governor and the local government have no qualms about condemning the 'unite the right' protesters and white supremacists in general.  Charlottesville is considered a progressive town.  Something like 80% of the votes went for Hillary Clinton in 2016. Charlottesville is less 200km from the nation's capital.  Describing it as 'down south' seems odd to me.  UVA is located in Charlottesville but the protests had nothing to do with UVA directly.  You could argue that the liberal influence of the university and it's dominance over the city lead to decision to remove the Lee statue and rename Lee park.
In particular, I think it's important to note that the man charged with murder and potentially federal civil rights charges is from Ohio.  It's not clear whether you are from the US but let's be quite clear, Ohio is not the south.  The reason this happened there is not because the town condones this.  It's quite the opposite.  It was chosen as a place for white nationalists to push back against liberalism because the city is moving forward with a plan to remove symbols of bigotry from a public park.
One of the things that caught my eye/ear about this incident is that the 'unite the right' crowd had been harassing church-goers.  It's a pretty clear sign that they were not local.  Messing with people going to church, regardless of the person's color, is inconceivable in small-town Virginia.  It's this kind of thing that led to the decline of the KKK in the south many decades ago.
Will these people return to Charlottesville again?  I guess it's possible but I think it's more likely they will want to make their presence known in other locations.  Another key point here is that this is not the middle of the 20th century.  There has been a very significant migration of people to the 'sun belt' over the last 5 decades or so.  The US is fairly homogenized on a national level.  North-South doesn't matter that much anymore.  It's rural vs. urban and Charlottesville, like many college towns in the US, is like an urban colony.

"The gathering was unlawful." Objectively wrong as a matter of fact.

@chrylis "Using megaphones, police then declared an unlawful assembly and gave a five-minute warning to leave Emancipation Park."

The original demonstration had a permit, even though it took intervention by a federal court. The "unlawful assembly" didn't happen until after the counter-demonstrators arrived, the police neglected to separate the parties, and violence ensued. Your answer overtly states that the demonstration as such was unlawful.

@chrylis I've clarified the answer but I contend your assertion that it was objectively wrong is objectively wrong.

@JimmyJames Your clarified version still reads like the police declared the march unlawful before the event.  Adding "in accordance with state law" doesn't actually clarify things.  In fact it wasn't the march itself that was declared unlawful, it was the confluence of the marchers and the counter-demonstrators.

@MartinBonner Not sure why this one point is such a big deal.  It was declared unlawful.  There's nothing factually incorrect about it.  I've added more detail but if people want a super-precise understanding of the events they should read one or more of many articles available.  The point of this is that the people of Charlottesville and UVA (in general) did not want this or ask for it.

My answer may come out to be unpopular, but it might help the person asking the question so I'll throw it out there. Then I'll add a story at the end.
You can look at it from two perspectives, a noble one and a rewarding one.
The noble perspective is to believe that university has nothing to do with it. Apply, join, fight for the right thing, maybe change the people out there, maybe they will change you, maybe get beaten up in the process. At the end you will get to say that at least you tried and did the "right thing".
The rewarding perspective is to cross that place out and apply to universities in areas without such problems. Avoid the problem, minimize risk, stay safe, and focus on studies. That's very rewarding for you but that's not very noble because if everyone else does that, then University of Virginia will quickly become a dismal place.

TLDR;
Now if you feel like reading a bit, here is my story. A few years ago I was working on my PhD and worked at a university in southeastern Ukraine. It was the year 2014. Unfortunately for me that is when Russia decided to spark a civil war in eastern Ukraine. I found myself working in a pro-Ukrainian, pro-European, pro-democracy (all the good things) university, which was located in marginally pro-Russian town. The work environment became unbearable quickly. Most students and faculty were 'on the good side'. But many, who were local, shared political views of general population in that area. They had a different idea of what 'the good side' is. Conversations about political topics became taboo because they would end in confrontations. Everyone quickly caught on who is on which side and avoided conversations with each other altogether. Stink eye became a routine greeting. There were no riots and no one got killed, but it was pretty grim. Eventually, people started giving up and just leaving. Luckily, that's when I got my PhD and had no reason to stay either. I chose the rewarding path and don't regret it for a moment. Sometimes I check the Facebook of my colleagues who stayed there to fight for 'the right thing'. They don't look too happy.
This week marked 70th anniversary of India-Pakistan partition which segregated Muslims and Hindus of the former British colony into two countries. I read with horror about what happened to those who stayed and tried to work it out in spite of segregation that was happening. Historically, choosing the rewarding path is selfish, but the best decision from an individualistic perspective. Yet, for some, being a hero is priceless. Make sure you think it through.

I think that might be the longest TLDR I've ever read!

I added this question to Favorite because I want to read this answer when I feel I want to give up again. Thanks.

-1: The question is whether and to what extent UVA was involved and/or culpable in the recent events in Charlottesville.  Your answer contains no information about this whatsoever.  It also presents a false dichotomy: the third option -- and the one taken by most UVA faculty, staff, administration and students -- is to be affiliated by UVA but not directly involved in the counter-protesting.  To imply that attending UVA places one at a greater risk of getting "maybe beaten up" seems...well, unwarranted, certainly.

Also: "The rewarding perspective is to cross that place out and apply to universities in areas without such problems." In that case, the "place" to avoid is the United States.  Which is, I am very sorry to say, a tenable position to take, but it seems overly facile to label it as "the rewarding" one: the United States is a land of many opportunities and also some serious problems.

As others have pointed out, the people did not necessarily belong to the university, they were just looking for a place to protest where they would get noticed. Whatever university you go to there will be people with left wing, right wing and extremist ideas. There might be less in one place or another, but they will exist somewhere. Also, if people took your second stance, the white supremesists (or any similar group) could systematically go around every university protesting outside in an attempt to stop people attending the universities of their choosing.

-1.  UVA's been heavily against the white supremacists, who essentially invaded Charlottesville.  The mayor of Charlottesville even got on TV and told the white supremacists to go away; that they're not wanted here.  Despite this, this answer still suggests penalizing the university for being attacked.  If applied generally, this tactic would mean that white supremacists could threaten universities and towns for concessions, ultimately giving them a say in how both academia and towns operate lest they become the next target.

-1 for the improper use of tldr

@FábioDias Well, it makes sense if you change the "D" from meaning "didn't" to "don't".

This doesn't answer the question.  The question was "do the initial protests represent the views of UVA?".  While this is interesting, it answers a different question.

@MartinBonner The question was edited since then. The original question was explicitely "Should I take this as a warning not to apply there for graduate school?"

@plannapus Ah.  It does answer that question.  Damn!  I can't remove my downvote :-(

There are many things to consider:

If the university is a place where free speech is a right, then it must have been an unpredictable confusion between 'what is free speech'  and what is not, and I think violence and hate are just the opposite of freedom.
You need to check if the university 'permitted' what happened, or if what happened was something they were not aware of, i.e., they did not give permission. However, they need to address the issue and take the stand against such things, otherwise, it indicates that they support such and such behaviors.
You can email the press department at the university or any particular institute asking what are their official position about the issue if you cannot find it on their page first.
I think it is unlikely that a university would defend such demonstration of hate, but there may be someone with power over there that thinks differently, what is another matter.
Lastly, you need to make sure the university will support you and the students, regardless of their background. Any other attitude from the university's side would only indicate to you that you should pursue your scholarly dreams elsewhere.

Minor-ish nitpick with point one. If you are not free to hate then you are not free. In the US we have freedom of speech which necessitates the freedom of thought.

@Matt one is free to hate, but one must not be free if they use their hate as violence.  Hate is a problem for free speech itself if it generates violence. A better exposition of this can be found in Plato's Republic.


text:
Implementation of a journal article in a Graduate research
My supervisor told me to select an article so that I implement that as my graduate research undertaking. After a year, I am in a deadlock now. Reasons:

the article is abstractly written (apparently, the writer didn't write the article very clearly in order to stop it from being replicated).
my supervisor is prepared to do nothing. His opinion is it's my job, and I am the only one who should come up with the solution.

Now, I have several questions:

Is there any other alternative way to undertake a graduate research rather than implementing a published research article (this form of research seems to be very rigid in nature, as I need to replicate the exact result which has been talked about in the article)?
What precautions could have I taken in order to avoid any more deadlock in future (as I am planning to change my graduate school due to livelihood-related issues)?

What degree are you doing? What field is this in?

My supervisor told me to select an article so that I implement that as my graduate research undertaking. After a year, I am in a deadlock now. Reasons:
the article is abstractly written (apparently, the writer didn't write the article very clearly in order to stop it from being replicated).

After spending a year, you found an article which is not be replicated. Why didn't you choose an article which is written in simple English and lesser complexity, and easy to implement. Many won't agree with your statement on apparently, the writer didn't write the article very clearly in order to stop it from being replicated -- This is a strong statement. What if the other way "You lack serious fundamentals of the methods to understand the article.".

my supervisor is prepared to do nothing. His opinion is it's my job, and I am the only one who should come up with the solution.

Yes, he is right. It is your job to understand the article fully and then present in front of him. Then, ask for advice on further research or possible extension. Or, working on the demerit part of the article. Even, you better take advice on the article itself "whether should you change it now, as it is difficult to follow through?"

Is there any other alternative way to undertake a graduate research rather than implementing a published research article (this form of research seems to be very rigid in nature, as I need to replicate the exact result which has been talked about in the article)?

Different supervisors have different styles of working. From your comment, it seems that you are doing MSc. I feel this kind of research is pretty reasonable, as you would not be knowing a lot of things to continue independently on a modeling. If you have idea, then defend this situation with that idea and start working on the idea. But, be careful! You might fail and at that time your supervisor might step back.

What precautions could have I taken in order to avoid any more deadlock in future (as I am planning to change my graduate school due to livelihood-related issues)?

Just don't follow yourself all the time. Supervisors are rude, selfish and strong at times, but they are there to help the students. Analyzing your present situation, I see that your supervisor is a decent person. "What precautions ... issues)?" -- This is a separate question itself. Ask another question instead.


text:
Withdraw submission due to lack of referees
I have submitted a mathematical-physics manuscript to Journal of Mathematical Physics, and I am in a situation similar to the one described here: It has been two months since I submitted, and the editor still cannot find reviewers. I have asked the editor what happens if he/she keeps trying and will still be unable find any reviewer, but he/she refuses to answer me.
The manuscript is in the field of celestial mechanics and is quite specific. However, two months seems a pretty long time to me, and I am incline to think that this is the journal's fault, i.e., the journal or editor is not known enough, he/she does not have a good network of referees, and I feel that I am wasting my time and should withdraw my submission and submit it to another journal.
Do you concur with this? According to your experience, what is the best decision to make sure that the manuscript is published in a reasonable time in this journal, or in another journal with similar impact?

In Pure mathematics two months seems pretty short. Are you sure you will get a faster review to another journal?

I agree with John Ma, two months is not exceptionally long in mathematics. In particular in sommer it also plays a role that many people are either travelling or on vacation, which makes things move a bit slower.

What would be the alternative to waiting? If you withdraw the paper, what will you do with it afterwards? Just withdrawing it and having it sitting idly on your desk instead of the editors desk wouldn't solve anything.

The alternative would be to submit it elsewhere, I edited the question to clarify this.

I think one important question to ask is if the editor doesn't contact any referees or if they all decline. In the first case, you might consider another journal, in the second case you might want to find out why everyone declines. Maybe the paper is really hard to read or you should add/change some things to better address your desired audience?

If the field is so narrow, I feel it should be asked: have other papers in that niche been published in that journal in the last few years?

If it takes three weeks for an editor to figure out who to ask to referee it and for the referee to decide they don't want to deal with it (this is not unusually slow), and the first four referees the editor asks say no, that's two months already. Wait another few months; if something hasn't happened after six months, start worrying.

Summer is a vacation time - I am myself being asked to review a paper, but cannot answer due to limited internet where I am traveling (China + GMail ...)

There seems to be the nucleus of an answerable question here, but "Do you concur with this? Or you think that I should wait longer?" is pretty much a matter of opinion.  I've voted to close on those grounds, but I'll certainly reconsider if the question is edited.

Two months, especially two summer months, is not that long. You should wait for some weeks after the end of summer before making a final decision.

David Richerby, I revised the question based on your comment.

I'm having a very similar issue with JMP. My paper has gone out for review and several referees have been MIA. It's been 3 months and I'm pretty over it. I'm on the supersymmetry side of things, which I would think JMP would have enough background in to get it out to relevant referees in a timely manner.

Some reviewers reply to invitations slowly or not at all.  Worse, some reviewers initially promise to review, then later change their mind (there can be good¹ or bad reasons for this).  Worst, some initially promise to review but are then never heard from again.  The job of the (associate) editor is to somehow handle all of this, and since reviews are voluntary there's very little the editor can do.
I was recently a reviewer on a paper that was slow.  The review of my co-reviewer never materialised, and other invitees either ignored the invitation or declined.  After several months, the editor, fed up, sent out 17 invitations in a single day.  6 declined the same day.  6 declined up to 2 weeks later.  4 never replied.  1 accepted and delivered the review.  Ultimately, the discussion phase was extended almost 3 months beyond what was originally planned.
Bottom line: don't read too much into the review being slow.  Although some publishers communicate some details to authors, most don't.  Just wait.  Solving this problem is the editor's responsibility, not yours.

¹A colleague agreed to review a paper (his first) based on the abstract.  When he received it it was almost 100 pages long.  I think he sent it back with a short note along the lines of I can't review this, please shorten it or write a book instead.  I don't know what happened to the paper in the end.

Dear gerrit, thank you for your answer. I agree that I should 'just wait', but the question is: how long? There is a limit beyond which it is no longer worth waiting, and my question is what is this limit. It has been more than four months now.

@James You can ask the editor.  If one or more reviewers are already working on it they may end up quite annoyed if you withdraw it now.  If the editor has failed to chase up potential reviewers and no reviewers have even been assigned yet, you could consider resubmitting to a journal where editors are faster to find reviewers.

@gerrit I'm having the same issue OP was having with the same journal - totally different field though. I can't help but wonder if JMP is having issues with referees committing to review.

After soliciting the editor, they finally found some one who agreed to review. This does not guarantee that he/she will do it, but it still good news.


text:
How can I quickly prepare an application for a tenure-track assistant-professor position?
I am a postdoc applying for a research-level tenure-track assistant-professor position in 1st-world English-speaking or German-speaking countries. The area is Computer Science. The Web is full of recommendations on how to write an good job application of this type. Now, I'm spending about a week on a single application. I have my templates, which I adapt to the institution in question, but the adaptation process and the submission process takes really long, since the processes of the institutions differ. It ranges from different web sites for submission and ends with different names of documents (e.g., Reseach Plan vs. Reseach Statement vs. Research Objectives, ...) and their lengths. Sometimes, the references letters should satisfy particular requirements (such as on letterhead, signed, and scanned), and this should be  properly communicated, too. You know how bad it can get, even if the types of all institutions are the same (e.g., CS departments at R1 universities). I'm not the strongest person in my subfield, so, I have to apply a lot (200+ applications) and widely to get a chance of, say, 50%. Therefore, I'd like to reduce the time from 1 week to, say, 1 hour.

What strategy could you propose to reduce the time while maintaining the quality?
If you have gone through this process already, what was your personal way of reducing the application effort?

Partial answers specifying, e.g., the time you take for different stages of the process, are also accepted:

adapting the cover letter,
adapting the CV,
adapting the teaching statement,
adapting the research statement,
adapting the publication list,
filling the forms on the Web page of the prospective employer,
getting informed about the prospective employer,
asking questions via e-mail or phone and receiving answers regarding the advertised position,
requesting reference letters,
...

Once you have three or four applications filed at different types of schools (research university vs. small liberal arts college; different types of departments) I am unclear why it would continue to take more than 3-4 hours per application to tailor. I'm not sure what we can tell you about how to remove these inefficiencies from your process.

Not trying to cry wolf here, but at the point you got that job, you will have to divide your time between research, teaching and a lot more paperwork for grant applications and the like. Adopting formal requirements should not take you hours with a reasonable template. If the needs of the institutions are so different that you have to adapt your application this extensively, are you sure all of these jobs are a good fit for you?

"in 1st-world English-speaking or German-speaking countries"---what does 1st world mean? I didn't know there was a linear order of counties in the world. I'm asking sincerely. Does, e.g., Singapore, Nanyang University, is in 1st World, comparing to, e.g.,  Amherst university in the USA, which is in the 3rd world (due to its ranking)?

My answer is that there's no shortcuts. You have to spend hours on each application. This is how you increase your chances.

@Dilworth First world is terminology left over from the cold war.  Both the US and West Germany would have been first world, so it is not a linear ordering of countries.  Today it has devolve into a very vague term.  Roughly it translates to being rich.

@TerryLoring, I see. So the OP is relevant to Singapore, a clearly 1st world rich English-speaking country.

For context, let me first answer a question raised by RoboKaren in one of the comments:

Once you have three or four applications filed at different types of schools (research university vs. small liberal arts college; different types of departments) I am unclear why it would continue to take more than 3-4 hours per application to tailor.

This is probably true in the US, but in Europe, where OP is apparently also applying, universities often have weird standard CV layouts to use (see bottom of the page) or specific templates for all application material.
The rest of my answer really only relates to applying in Europe. I think for the US, you should be able to just send your standard package anyway.

What strategy could you propose to reduce the time while maintaining the quality?
  If you have gone through this process already, what was your personal way of reducing the application effort?

I have gone through the process, and I don't think there is a silver bullet. In reality, I have, for every application, made a conscious decision of whether my predicted chances or my preferences for this position warrant spending however time I expected to need. That is, if they university used a sane, standard application process, I would apply to everything where I saw a sliver of hope or which I thought I might like even a little bit. Conversely, in the few cases where I thought I would need to basically re-write the material from ground up, I generally decided not just to apply.
That being said, a full week absolutely seems excessive just for adapting your material. The most I was ever willing to spend was one or two days per application for reformatting / rewriting (not taking into account when I originally put together my application package). Obviously, we can't remotely tell what you are doing wrong, but maybe you are focusing on the wrong things here? My basic principle has always been that these formatting requirements usually come from administrators who are not deeply involved in the actual decision making process, so as long as you are not obviously violating explicit rules (e.g., if they ask for a 5-page CV, don't send them 18 pages), I have always taken a lot of liberty in interpreting the rules so that it fitted my standard package as closely as possible.
As for how long different stages took:

adapting the cover letter,

About 1 hour. The cover letter was usually fairly geared towards the university, but it needs to be short anyway. And in reality, after a few applications, I had a number of standard phrases that I mixed and matched as suitable.

adapting the CV,

Between 0 and 1 day.

adapting the teaching statement

About 2 hours. My general teaching statement remained the same, but I usually looked through their current curricula to figure out how to best position my teaching.

adapting the research statement,

About 2 hours. My general research statement remained the same as well, but I tried to familiarize myself with the relevant faculty at the institution and I had a dedicated section that explained potential for collaboration that I sw.

adapting the publication list,

Was part of my CV, nothing to adapt.

filling the forms on the Web page of the prospective employer,

Very much depends on the position, but even in the worst cases this should not be more than an hour or two.

getting informed about the prospective employer,

This really is the most time-consuming part, as university web pages are often horrific, and this part I think actually matters to some people on the hiring committees.

asking questions via e-mail or phone and receiving answers regarding the advertised position,

0 hours. I know some people are big on getting in touch with the committee in advance, but I never did it and my personal impression from observing people who do it regularly is that it gives you little new information and no competitive advantage. The story is different if you know a person in the committee well personally, but I am assuming this is not what you mean here.

requesting reference letters,

0 hours. I told my references I am on the job market and they should not be surprised if requests come in. For the positions that require you to upload the letters yourself (yes, those exist in Europe), I had generic versions of the letters available.

I have to apply a lot (200+ applications) and widely to get a chance of, say, 50%.

If you do the math, you will learn that it is unlikely that you will actually be applying to 200+ positions. Frankly, if your scope is Germany, Austria, Switzerland, UK, Canada, and the US, you are not going to find 200 suitable positions to apply to. I am all for not putting too many eggs into one basket, but you probably need to be realistic here. Your field may be small and competitive, but other fields are also competitive, and if you are currently working in a different field and you yourself judge yourself to be a somewhat middling candidate and you are unwilling to spend any time on your application package, your chances are so low that you should evaluate alternatives.
I would propose that you write serious applications for the, say, 30 to 50 most suitable positions you can find, and then figure out what to do if none of them pans out.

@AxeI I think finding 200+ suitable positions is ambitious even if you search worldwide.

@Axel Avoid wasting time with such kind of calculations: it doesn't work like that and can lead to unrealistic estimations, as xLeitix pointed out.

@Axel That math is flawed on two levels. (a) chances are so far from uniform that your calculation makes little sense, even as an approximation; good candidates will often find themselves with multiple offers, while even for a medium candidate the chances are probably wildly below 1/nr_candidates; (b) nr of applications vary a lot, but the mean will almost certainly be lower than 300 in CS; in Switzerland we would often get 150+ applications, but for instance here in Sweden this is almost unheard of.

@MassimoOrtolano It also leads to poorly targeted applications, in my experience.

@Axel If you want to approach this mathematically, I would do it the other way around. Figure out how much time it takes you to prep an application, define how much time in the next X months you are willing and able to invest, and then apply for the best positions that you can apply to with your time budget. Granted, you don't know if your chances to get something are 5% or 50% or 95%, but it gives you the best shot with the time you have, which to me seems like the more useful information anyway.

@Axel My point is that you should not do any kind of calculations. Instead, as others have said, target your applications as much as possible.

@Abra I don't understand. Obviously the letters I have are on letterhead, signed, and scanned. But you don't do this fresh for every application, do you?

@xLeitix This is only for postdocs in my field, but to me it seems that a few American places request a letter via mathjobs.org, and pretty much all others ask the writers to send them to a given email address. I've seen only one job ad where they only ask for the contact info of the writers.

According to the project management triangle, if you want a project done well quickly, you need to pay someone a lot of money to help you do it.  Otherwise, you must sacrifice quality or time.


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Can I use less-known (but defined) abbreviations in section titles to get rid of very long expanded titles?
I'm in trouble with long section titles in my thesis. For example:
I have defined the following abbreviations in a special section before the table of content, i.e., all abbreviations have been already defined before their usage in the table of content:

CRS: Centralized Reconfiguration Supervisor
DRS: Decentralized Reconfiguration Supervisor
FP: Forcible Path

A section's title is supposed to be something like:
expanded form: Functional commutativity of centralized reconfiguration supervisor, decentralized reconfiguration supervisor, and forcible path
abbreviated form: Functional commutativity of CRS, DRS, and FP
Obviously, the expanded form is so clumsy, however, these abbreviations are not frequently used in the text as @aeismail noted here:

In general, the only abbreviations that should be used in "headlines" and titles are "standard" ones that are normally (or at least very frequently) written in their abbreviated form.

Put differently, these abbreviations are parts of my contribution, with which research community are not familiar.
Which option is the best practice?

Would simply "Functional Commutativity" not be an acceptable section title? (This isn't meant to be a criticism, but a question meant to probe parameters of possible options.)

Is there anything stopping you from using something like: "Functional commutativity of centralized reconfiguration supervisor (CRS), decentralized reconfiguration supervisor (DRS), and forcible path (FP)", which would allow people to both read the entirety (when they are not yet familiar your abbreviations) and easily scan for the terms in the section titles (once they are familiar with your abbreviations)? In other words, what is your usage issue that makes you feel the long section titles are "so clumsy"?

@BenHocking brings up a very good point. Would the context of just "Functional Commutativity" be understood? Is this a sub-section of a larger CRS, DRS, and FP discussion? Would it be better to have a "Functional Commutativity" section and then sub-sections for each of "Centralized reconfiguration supervisor (CRS)", "Decentralized reconfiguration supervisor (DRS)" and "Forcible path (FP)"? Long section titles are often an indicator of a lack of sufficient structure.

@BenHocking: I don't think so, because "Functional Commutativity" is by itself an abstract mathematical tool, and what I need to say is how this tool makes some bridge between CRS, DRS, and FP. Thus, If I say only "Functional Commutativity", it is not only vague but also imprecise in some sense.

@Makyen: Many titles of my thesis are like this one, and if I use all expanded forms, the result is pretty clumsy. In our ECE department, faculty members and thesis committee like brevity, and as I attended some other defense sessions, they have a criticizing viewpoint about such things. This section is a subsection, however, as I explained in the previous comment, "Functional Commutativity" does not reflect the relationship that I should illustrate in this context.

@Roboticist, Yes, but if you at least define them the first time you use them within the titles, then people can look back there without having to refer to a definitions section which is (unusually) placed prior to the table of contents. Ultimately, this is a usability issue which will be heavily dependent upon the surrounding titles and certainly subject to norms used by the target audience.

As the author of the comment you cited, let me offer the following distinction: a thesis generally has a much smaller "reach" than a journal. I would let a graduate student get away with some things in a thesis that I wouldn't normally do in a journal article.
If you need to use the abbreviations to prevent things from getting unwieldy (many multiple-line section titles is getting unwieldy, in my opinion), then I would go ahead and do so. If any of the reviewers of your thesis has a philosophical objection to such a practice, you'll be sure to hear about it.

If you have a choice, my advice would be to use the whole title and don't abbreviate. A typical reader would have to look it up anyway since they are likely to see it for the first time in the title. Even if they know what it means, they would probably want to make sure it means what they think it means. This adds extra work for the reader. It would probably take the reader 10 seconds to do so. Maybe even longer if it is not on the same page and they have to look for it. That is still 10 seconds of their productive time. 10 seconds of their life that you can save, even if only one reader reads your work. Generally, I have more respect for any reader who actually reads the content of my work than bureaucrats who want it to look tidy (from their perspective) and conform to their specifications.


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what is the research strategy to adopt to compile my notes into a scientific article for a conference?
Suppose I read multiple scientific articles related to a specific topic, what are the kind and the research strategy to adopt in order to compile my note-taken into a scientific article for a conference ?

it is related to "audio forensics" ... so "survey article" may be the one ?

survey article is one possibility , is there other please  ?

A conference is likely looking for a contribution with new research. If you have read articles and taken notes, that is not the same thing at all.

I know :) maybe I didn"t express myself well, by taking note and reading specific articles related to the field, I am wondering if there is an alternative articles such as "review article" in the field ...

It sounds like what you really require is general advice and guidance on how to begin writing and publishing in your field.  This is the sort of thing which can be much better given by an individual mentor who knows you personally — e.g. your supervisor, if you’re a student.

I am actually an independent researcher... Newbie level

Conferences generally publish novel research: papers that present new findings, ideas or techniques. Research in academia does not mean the same thing as in high school. So if all you have is notes on other papers, that's not publishable.
The only real exception to this is survey papers, where you give an extremely comprehensive overview and framing of  research in a given topic. But these tend to be long, so they're usually in journals, and are usually written by experts who have been involved with the developments they're writing about.


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Peer-reviewing for a prestigious journal as a Master's student
I am currently a final year Master's student and have been asked to review for a very pretigious journal in my field, possibly the most prestigious one apart from Nature/Science. I have a fairly good research portfolio and have published a handful of papers in good journals as first author, but I've never been a reviewer.
While I have already accepted the request, I would like to know if I should have declined the request given that I am still a Master's student or if I should contact the editor to let him know that I am a Master's student.
If the fact that I am a Master's student is not an issue, I will be applying to a Ph.D. program soon (USA/Europe). How can/should I mention that I have reviewed for this specific journal and will it be viewed positively if I do?
P.S.: I do think I can offer an informed review to the authors of the manuscript I've been asked to review.

I don't think your status should play any role here. You've published a few papers yourself, and have a reputation of your own based on your work. It is off of that reputation that you've been asked to peer review, the same as most other peer reviewers. So, I wouldn't even mention it unless asked, in which case be truthful but don't show doubt. Editors are also usually pretty aware that you are junior, and often they select a mixture of reviewers, eg. one junior and one senior.
If the situation makes you feel a little insecure as to whether you're able to deliver as good a review as someone more senior, then you can also ask others for input, but this mustn't reveal the paper you are reviewing to outside parties. For instance you could ask your advisor "I'm reviewing a paper for journal X, the author wrote that ...., do you think it is appropriate for me to say that they should do this and that?" (it can be delicate to try not to reveal too much here, but it depends a little on how much trust there is between your advisor and you). It's also perfectly fine to query the editor in charge: when I reviewed my first paper I was unsure whether it was OK to bring up a specific issue and how to bring it up without sounding like I'm overly negative, so I emailed the editor and he gave me some good advice. Good thing is in that case you don't have to try and keep the paper under review a mystery. You can also ask the editor to have a look over your final draft of the review before handing it in, maybe mentioning that it was one of the first reviews you've done and if he thinks it could be improved before handing in the final thing.
In your PhD application this should go on your CV, under the Service heading. This can be task oriented, eg a sub point like this :

Service
Peer review: Journal X, Journal Y, JZ
Committees: ...
  ...

Or it could be chronological:

Service
2017 - Reviewer for Journal X
2016 - YZ Committee member
  ...

The point of these kinds of entries is twofold: they work as esteem indicators (they show that other people respect you enough to ask you to do certain things that require trust/ability), and they show that you're willing to pull your weight in the academic machine (something commonly known as "collecting cookie points" or "brownie points").

I would not put the year in my CV -- it may be enough information for the authors to identify you, together with your field of study. Just a list of the journals you have reviewed for is OK.

That's a good point and the first format might be preferable and safer in that case. Ultimately I think it will depend on what's typical in your field in this regard and whether or not such situations might arise. The non-chronological format also starts looking better the farther you advance in your career (it sometimes looks a little odd to have lots of sections with just one entry rather than combining them when compatible, splitting makes more sense the more items there are).

Being asked for a review means that you are trusted. My approach would be to raise my status further along the following lines: "Look, as an MSc student I'm not completely independent. Ask my advisor Prof. Smith, and, if he/she decides to redirect the request to me, I'd be overly glad to review the paper!"


text:
Reviewer asking to include an analysis that has been submitted as another paper
I am about to submit a manuscript for publication that is useful for solving a certain class of problems in my field. The technique is clearly applicable to a certain longstanding problem in the field, which is why I started developing the method in the first place.
My initial intent was to publish the technique and present it as a solution to the problem all in the same paper. However, after writing it up, I have noticed that it is more general than I expected and that it can be useful to tackle other problems in the field. I have then decided to write the paper entirely on it and how it can be extrapolated to solve other issues. The manuscript is quite long and I and my advisor think that the manuscript would become overly complicated if the solution to the major problem was included (some modification of this methodology would be needed, plus additional discussion).
Therefore, I am currently preparing a second manuscript which adapts the methodology to the major problem and demonstrates that it can effectively solve it. I expect this second manuscript to have a much larger impact than the first one.
However, I am concerned that the reviewers of the first manuscript will detect that the methodology can be used to solve the major issue (it is really obvious that it was designed for that, plus I suggest that it can in the conclusion) and suggest that it be included in the manuscript. While I could write a rebuttal disclosing that we are submitting their suggestion elsewhere, I am concerned that they won't accept that for an answer.
While we have considered submitting the papers as Part I and Part II, we wanted to submit the second paper to a more prestigious venue, given that we believe the second one has a much greater chance of being accepted.
What are my options? Should I submit the papers to the same venue (i.e., Part I and Part II) and/or cram everything into a single paper? Am I overthinking this issue?

Can you submit the more general (second) paper first, and publish the first manuscript afterwards?

@Mark I suppose we could with a brief description of the technique, but then the reviewers could instead ask for a more thorough description of the technique, which we could include, but that might jeopardize the novelty of the first paper and make it difficult to publish the methodology by itself, which we believe is useful due to the fact that it can possibly be modified to solve other problems. But your suggestion is interesting, and I will think about how I could reframe the first paper for it to be published afterwards.

One solution would be to hold off a little until you have the second paper written. You could then submit Part II (or the relevant parts thereof) as confidential supporting information to the journal when you submit what you call Part I. This would satisfy any potential reviewer concerns, while you can submit both papers simultaneously and preserve any first-to-publish claims (no scooping if Part II is already submitted elsewhere!).

Also, you can put the preprint of part II on arxiv if allowed, which can be cited.

Even if the arxiv isn't available to you, can't you cite the forthcoming paper as "in preparation" and give some indication of what's in it.


text:
Etiquette for sending another email after the first one went unreplied
I applied for study abroad program and so far, now it has been a week after the expected decision date. Whether I get admitted or not also affects my class schedule for Fall semester which will start in the coming week, so I need to get the decision by this Friday. I sent an email to study abroad office, which is the only contact information available, on Monday to ask for an update but did not get any reply. So, my question is: If I choose to send another email, how to make it sound not rude (since my first email was sent just two days ago)?

Where did you send the email, a professor, a specific person in administration, a general email address (such as apply@studyabroad.com) ? - depending on your answer, you may find some answers among the "related" questions to the right.

@Mark I sent an email to study abroad office because that is the only contact information they provide on official website. I am editing my question to reflect this information. Thank you!

I have the same experience when I applied to study abroad. But, in my case, it was announced that I was admitted and received the scholarship around 2 months before the class starts. However, the problem is my documents arrived very late and got no update since the announcement and I'm worried I can't make it on time of the registration. What I did is I emailed my approved supervisor about the case, told her honestly the case and the implications of delays. What happened next is she emailed the 'in-charge' of the program to get things sorted.

The important question is the interval between the time you applied and the time you expect an answer.
If you applied on the day before the decision were announced it is quite possible there was not time to assess your file and sending another email will not help.
If on the other hand your documents were received months ago then another email or better yet a phone call if possible is not inappropriate.
Be mindful that applicants are often optimistic to expect academic decisions to be made within a few days of reception of documents.  Admissions officers may have to deal with 100s of files each containing multiple documents to be scanned so the information can be properly stored and distributed to appropriate faculty for later evaluation, and every link in the chain takes time.

If I choose to send another email, how to make it sound not rude (since my first email was sent just two days ago)?

I usually wait a week before sending a follow-up e-mail.  I would forward the original e-mail and preface it with
"[name of recipient], I am resending the e-mail below in case you were not able to receive it.  Thank you for your time, and I will be waiting for your reply.  [your name]".


text:
Why do some universities not provide marking schemes for mock exams?
When I was a maths undergrad, I did some mock papers. However the lecturers did not provide the marking scheme for us to learn from model answers. The reason given at the time was a mumbled 'university policy'.
My question is, why would a university have a policy of not providing the marking scheme/model answers for a mock paper?

The null hypothesis is that no extra material/work by instructors will be provided. That is, the burden of proof rests on the side arguing that such should be provided. What arguments exist in its favor?

You might want to say in your question "Making Scheme or Worked Solutions or unworked solutions." if that is what you mean.

"...why would a university have a policy of not providing the marking scheme/model answers for a mock paper?" Because it may be too much additional work for too little gain.

Here is a related question of mine which may be of interest https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/55520/reasons-for-not-releasing-mark-schemes-for-past-exams

We had this in undergrad engineering. Solution was to set up google doc pages for people to post their answers in basically a collaborative discussion based 'crowd-solve' format (almost like SE!). Consensus was found pretty soon. The pages were linked from the subject's facebook group (another good idea). I see that the pages I set up are still being accessed years later, and by a completely different cohort.

You could probably usefully turn your question around and ask "what is the value of doing mock exams when there is no marking scheme given" to get a different perspective. Also, for the benefit of this non-mathematics American, could someone very kindly explain what a marking scheme is? Is it like what I would call an answer key or a rubric?

The materials provided to students should benefit their learning. It is not clear, how the marking scheme would help student to understand the actual material. Knowing the marking scheme can help a student to prepare to a particular exam without learning all the curriculum (e.g. by focusing on what is assessed). This is known as surface learning, and is often considered as bad practice.

Marking schemes can help you identify which parts you understand incorrectly.

@immibis: Yes, I think most teachers agree that marking schemes certainly can be genuinely useful to students in some good ways, as you say.  The problem is, as this answer says, that they also encourage bad learning habits at the same time.  So overall, they are not very helpful — and certainly not as helpful as other kinds of materials (e.g. study guides, extra practice exercises) that an instructor can spend their time on producing instead.

@immibis You probably mean "model answers", not "marking scheme".

All material has a cost/benefit ratio.
Writing a marking scheme suitable for distributing to students can take quite a while (normally mark schemes are designed for lecturers, so some parts can be quite brief). Students will query cases where they feel they were one or two marks too low, even though the exam was only a mock paper so the result is not really important.
So then the question is, what is the benefit?

In addition to the other excellent answers, there will always be some students who will assume that the marking scheme for the final exam is similar to the one for the mock exam no matter how often you told them that this is not the case.
But since the questions in the final exam will obviously be different, the marking scheme there will most likely be different, as different errors can be made by the students and must be taken into account in the scheme. Also, some parts of some questions may be trivial in the final exam, and you may want to assign a fewer fraction of the points for those.
So you will have to convince some students who will try to argue that they should get more points using old marking scheme and claiming that it would be unfair if the marking schemes differ substantially.
As a lecturer, you don't want to spend you time with such discussions.

I just wanted to add this point, when I saw your answer. While there are many students who actually try to understand, there are always some who consider any detailed marking scheme as a sort of check-list of things they need to write down in the exam, without understanding why they need to write them.

My university also does not provide marking schemes. They give one main reason.
They expect students to discuss their answers collaboratively and come to a consensus on what can be considered a correct answer. This is a much better learning experience than working from a marking scheme.

This is what we did. I'd suggest that the university came up with this 'reason' retroactively after seeing it happen...  (at least in the case of my alma mater)

@LamarLatrell almost definately! However they don't give any other reasons so I don't want to speculate :)


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Publishers' request on linking their copy of a paper
Continuing How to satisfy the publisher when making an article available on a personal web page? :
Copyright agreements of certain publishers such as Springer and IEEE request that if an author archives a published paper on his/her web page, then a link to the publisher's site must be provided, e.g., "The final publication is available at [Web site of the publisher]". Is this request a legally valid one according to German / US legislation? Why / why not?
An aside: this is probably a very standard question, and someone in the community is very likely to have already seeked legal advice on that. I would expect that at least the legal departments of huge universities know the answer.

@NateEldredge What happens if you die within those 20 years? Can Springer pursue damages against your estate?

@JAB: Contract law generally has a doctrine of impossibility, saying that you are excused from any requirements that are literally impossible, e.g. dancing while dead.  Of course, Springer would then be released from their corresonding requirements.  The contract could also specify that something else happens if you die, e.g. liquidated damages are owed, and those could be collected from the estate.

I think my previous comments may have come out more impolite than I intended.  I guess I would ask this: (1) since contract terms are usually legal by default, do you have any particular reason to suspect that these terms might not be legal? (2) Are you just asking out of curiosity, or is it really important to you to avoid complying with these terms?  (3) If the latter, is there something special about your situation that makes the requirement especially onerous?

The other point I was trying to make is one always has the following options: (a) comply with the requirement (b) publish somewhere else.  I'm having trouble imagining circumstances in which both options would be so unacceptable that one would instead go for (c) seek legal counsel at $$$/hour to investigate whether the requirement might actually be illegal, so that you could publish with Springer yet avoid complying.