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Group-work course, part of the group failing
This question is based around a hypothetical, but realistic, scenario.

The situation revolves around a group-based course in which the main deliverable is a report. Every group member is responsible for the report. The report is graded as a whole and counts for the entire group but individual adjustments in grade can be made by the supervisor based on peer reviews and other considerations by the supervisor.
The issue arises when part of the group fails (due to the report grade) and another part passes the course. Let's assume the failing students did their part, just not enough to pass.

I am particularly wondering about the fairness or ethics of part of the group passing on contributions by the failing of the group.
I have taken part in many such courses and luckily the issue never arose in any of the groups I was part of. Thinking about it, I have mixed feelings about the situation the failing students (in this scenario) find themselves in.
On the one hand, you could say the failing students did not contribute enough to the report for them to pass the course. On the other hand, placing yourself in the failing students' shoes, their contributions are used to pass the other part of the group.
Concrete questions:

From a supervisor's point of view, should only those parts written by the passing students be considered to grade them so they don't fare on the work of the failing students?

This is almost impossible, you would first have to consider all the work (how else do your know some students won't pass?) then unconsider (if that's even a thing) part of it.
One option would be to either pass or fail the entire group, but that might be unfair on the hard-working group members (who do enough to pass if they were in a group of people who as hard as them).

From the failing students' points of view, it might seem unfair because their work is used to pass the others. Should those having received a failing grade be entitled to any compensation on the grounds that they did some work?

I'd compare it with starting a company, suppose three people build a company, two people do 40% of the work each, the other does the remaining 20%. While any two people in this case do over 50% of the work, I don't think they can just decide to dump the other person (this might depend on how the company was founded, but it seems unethical).
How this type of assignment works in my experience
A group of students is assigned a problem for which they need to write a report. The students get a list of requirements and it is up to them to divide the work and make sure everyone does their part.
If a student does very little work, the others can report that so a solution can be found (student has to make up for lack of work or quits the course). It's mostly encouraged to report bad group dynamics early so something can be done about it (that becomes harder as the project progresses).
The projects often have a tutor assigned to them, sometimes academic staff, sometimes a (more) senior student. Students also review their peers on how they felt the others participated. The tutor advises the one(s) responsible for grading the reports. Based on the report, the tutor's advice and the report itself, each student gets a grade (according to some rubric).
The courses I have in mind are mainly aimed at this report. The report will be the main deliverable and make up over 50% of the course's grade. The remaining part of the grade is made up by a combination of individual work and other group deliverables (e.g. presentations or computer code).

What's the old joke:  "When I die, I'd like the members of my group projects to lower me into the grave, so they can let me down one last time..."

Your question is very long. I tried to read it through and failed to understand exactly what you want to ask. Please shorten your question or provide a TL;DR so we know what you want to ask. For now, vote to close as "unclear what you're asking".

So much as I can make out what the questions are here, they are ethical ones along the lines of "should institutions do this thing?". That's almost orthogonal to what any given institution actually does, and is primarily opinion-based.
I think the problem might be the very fact that this is hypothetical - it's not written as an actual problem that somebody is having. I suspect that if it were, it would be a student who was having trouble with a group project, and would probably be off-topic as either "primarily an undergrad problem" or "specific to the rules of one institution".

I assume you're asking about a situation where different members of a group are given different amounts of credit for a report that they all worked on. (For a different assumption, see the next paragraph.) The only way I can see this happening is if the professor has, in addition to the report itself, some information about the individual students' contributions to the report, information that forms the basis of the variation in the grades. In such a case , the students who pass are not doing so on the basis of the work done by the failing students but rather on the basis of what the professor knows about their individual work.
Another possible (though less likely) interpretation of the question is that all the students in the group got the same grade on this report but their other work (other assignments, exams, class participation) were different, so that some passed the course and others failed. In this case the ones who passed didn't benefit any more from the failing students' work than the failing students benefited from the passing students' work. The difference would be only that this work was, for some but not all students, enough to bring their overall grade for the course up to the passing level.
(Contrary to what you might infer from this answer, I'm not a fan of group work, except insofar as it makes grading easier. But my concern about its fairness is not the concern raised in this question.)

Good answer to a very difficult to digest question! Thanks!

I run, with 5 other colleagues, a group project across 6 subjects.
The grading is part written project and part presentation with common parts such as introduction, quality of slides, effectiveness etc and subject specific parts such as referencing, tasks etc. The presentation is graded individually, looking for eye contact, professional language, delivery, enthusiasm, as well as individual questions.
There is also a peer evaluation element to get feedback from the group for each individual.
This works very well, as we have between 120 to 220 students depending on the semester and groups of 5 (we don't do groups of 6 as then the students do 1 student / subject and this does not contribute to all their subjects - they need all 6 subjects).
Some groups that do poorly on the written element, who then do poorly on the presentation as well can be borderline where some pass and some fail. This is influenced by the individual's personal performance in terms of peer, presentation and answering questions. The peer mark (as some will decry peer marking) is only 10% based on 3 contributing parts : the workshop, the hand-in and the presentation.


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Does social media and mainstream presence, through interviews and publishing in the "trade press", help one's chances at tenure?
One of our lab directors, on tenure track, has been active in the mainstream, e.g. doing science interviews on radio, tv, newpapers, and another researcher (post-doc, I think) has published in the "trade press" rather than in an academic journal.
Does promoting your work in the mainstream help one's career in academia?  Will a tenure / promotion committee look favorably at one's popularity in the mainstream?
I'm asking particularly about large research universities in the United States.

In which field?

@henning in the mathematical sciences; I also have a friend who's an assistant prof. in sociology and has also promoted himself a bit in the mainstream recently too (and seems pretty happy doing so).

Without any concrete data at hand, I would speculate that it would be a double edged sword; on one hand publicity is certainly good to distinguish yourself from the rest. But it's also easier to mess up somehow, and if people want to find some dirt on you it would be much easier if you have a "strong" social media presence.

In fact, in the absence of a large body of work published in quality academic journals and attracting loads of grant money, the strategy you mention will probably hurt your chances for tenure in large research universities in the US and probably elsewhere.
Tenure is granted in such places by committees of peers, who are mostly grant funded researchers who also teach. But it isn't your external reputation that will be examined in the meetings of the tenure committee but the quality of your research and the number of times it is cited in scholarly journals.
The above is not a universal and there may be exceptions, but not many. Your reputation outside academia is of little value in tenure discussions. However, once you are tenured (and funded), your visibility might be considered useful when it comes to salary negotiations and some expectations put on you (teaching, committees, ...).
Visibility within the community of scholars within your field via presentation of work at scholarly conferences is a bit different, but it is backed by the research, of course.
But if you want to be tenured at any research university, do a lot of research and get it funded outside the institution. The funding helps pay for graduate students who aid in the research, of course, and pay for labs, etc.

Mainstream media probably is easier to get published in than academic media.
A good public image certainly may help raise your standing with positive repercussions professionally.
Though it is best to seek peer approval and review in scientific media if tenure and career development is ones goal.

"Mainstream media probably is easier to get published in than academic media." - do you have anything to back that claim up? I publish in both places, and find it equally hard. The hardships are just different.

Isn't academic media more critical (and knowledgable) about auditing the paper based on its scientific foundation and merit?...It is more an assumption, hence the word "probably" in my answer (;

Yes, well... sometimes. It depends highly on the journal you are publishing in. In mainstream media you are vetted against requirements of traditional news criteria, as well as your ability to popularize in an understandable way.

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How far should you go in compromising your work to get it published?
To get my first paper published I carefully followed all reviewers’ instructions as I was convinced that reviewers are experienced researchers and reviewers. After major revision my first paper was smoothly accepted.
However, as I progressed in research I also grew to dislike my first publication. Following the reviewers’ instructions made the paper unbalanced and disrupted the line of reasoning. That is because many reviewers request additional changes reflecting their area of expertise, but not necessarily contribute to the original objective and scope of the paper.
I also learnt that ‘the academic standard’ is a broad interpretation depending on the reviewers’ experiences and preferences. Also reviewers make mistakes in their judgement. As I was quickly asked to review myself, this blog greatly helped me in identifying my own mistakes: https://sites.umiacs.umd.edu/elm/2016/02/01/mistakes-reviewers-make/
In following publications, supported by my experienced supervisors, I learned to refute more. Even if I want to compromise, my supervisors will object because it is also a matter of our long-term reputation. The flip-side of the coin is that reviewers get pissed-off because no one likes a rebuttal, no matter how politely and respectfully it is written. It just provokes a response in reviewers to legitimize their views and invites additional scrutiny of my work.
I do however fully agree with my supervisors. It is a balance between short term targets and long term success. It is in essence a matter of personal integrity. But it is also personally stressful and it takes a lot of additional time and effort on the expense of research. I often think, just let us compromise and get the work published smoothly.
How should I deal with this dilemma? Have others had similar experiences?

Sometimes you also obtain feedback from the editor indicating which of the reviewers suggestions are kind of essential for acceptance.

People sometimes insist on changes for no other reason than they want to feel like their review had a purpose. There's a technique in software development where you deliberately dangle some small thing that needs to be fixed so code reviewers will be less likely to insist on unnecessary stylistic changes to the rest of your work.

@TKK Interesting info! I have the impression reviewers more prone to feel like they have to change something are the beginners. Taking revenge on some past reviewer, showing their potential, etc. At least in peer review I am all the more happy if I can wrap it up with some (optional) suggestion, and a compliment.

@TKK Are you talking about a duck?

@user4052054 Yes. I couldn't remember the name.

All interesting! Didn’t know about that software. It shows some of the underlying problems. Second, I also suspect some reviewers take revenge. I can imagine if your are (constantly) treated bad by the system, it pays forward. I agree that a compliment and (optionall) suggestions are wonderful. As a receiver once, it motivated me more and I put great effort in the optional suggestion. A compliment gives wings.

The ideal outcome of a negotiation is neither victory nor compromise: aim for a win-win.

@Alice "a compliment and (optionall) suggestions are wonderful" -- Alas, yet I am sorry to say that this is seldom the case!.. Most manuscripts I reviewed had obvious fundamental flaws, and I have rejected so many, outright. Still, there are always some that are essentially ready to go.

I was never submissive to reviewer's comments. I do not think this has negatively affected my career or publication record. [Disclosure: I have not published in the top journals.]
My first paper was heavily criticised by committee members, and reviewers from 2 different journals. I could immediately perceive the ups and downs of our project, helped by constructive criticism. Also I could see where a reviewer wasn't being fair. From my first Response to Reviews I have been cold, objective, and responsive to every comment according with our impressions. I have refuted the views of reviewers and editors alike, with the help of my supervisor. That paper was heavily modified and rewritten times over from its draft version down to publication [= ca. 1 year].  I am quite happy with the result and it remains one of my most cited and read papers.
I have encountered co-authors who would tell me to be sweeter towards reviewers, horrified at how casually I approach my Response to Reviews. On the other hand I have seen too many authors vilifying anonymous reviewers who had made fair comments and suggestions on their work.
Thus my answer to you is that you should be willing to make any amount of modification on your manuscripts towards making it easier to understand. Do not get emotionally attached to your papers as a piece of artistic creation. Good reviewers are there to help you produce clear, concise scientific literature, where your style and taste have no taste. And finally, do not focus on just getting papers accepted for publication, because this is where you empower bad reviewers and ultimately journal mafias. First try to neutralise a bad reviewer, and if unsuccessful just publish your piece elsewhere.

Yes, if reviewer says "The figure X is too small", then the appropriate response is "Figure X has been made larger". One reserves sweetness for the truly helpful insights, like "Your method is basically an improvement of X, so please cite X" (where X is something that is generally accepted as good). In that case you would thank the reviewer for the piece of information (which is good news).

What strikes (and inspires) me in your message is initially it may take additional time but in the end it benefits you more. Thank you.

@xmp125a As you say, I don't see why anyone should go beyond professional interaction with their reviewers or editors. Overt reverence may be taken as some implied 'illegal' dealing, whilst emotional responses may communicate that the author's logic is biased. Both stances are beneficial for manipulators, and I believe we all know how many cheaters exploit the privacy of peer review.

@Alice Glad it helps! Fear no reviewer. In the end, you're among them.

When I started writing papers, my supervisors advised me that I should consider the reviewers' comments and suggestions but not be bound by them. When revising papers after reviewer feedback I would write a response letter addressing each point, whether I had incorporated the reviewer feedback or not, and importantly - why (or why not). In most cases I found that the editor considered a justification for not amending (a portion of) the paper to be acceptable.
In one case a reviewer wanted what amounted to a literature review of possible alternative solutions, which we considered to be far beyond the scope of what we were reporting in the paper and we ultimately withdrew the paper and submitted it to a different journal.

In one case a reviewer wanted what amounted to a literature review of possible alternative solutions... - surely you could have addressed this with the editor?

Thank you. Good point. You stress the importance of including motivations in your response letter. And sometimes you just have to take another route.

You can politely write the editor to replace a reviewer  or at least choose an additional reviewer (with better expertise for arbitration) if you are not convinced of the expertise of a reviewer. Then the rebuttal has to be also well written in a manner that will not be directed at their feelings. You must appreciate that good reviewers would also like to put in their best to properly shape your paper.
Another point (and this is worth pondering over) is that most times, good reviewers and good feedback would project to you how the audience (or some of them) would perceive your work (if it is published that way). That may be one of the reasons why it is not surprising to see very good papers in esteemed journals without a citation!
When we write, we do for others to understand. Sometimes there may be a gap between what we wish to pass across and how the reader views it. In ideal cases, this could be well understood from the feedback of the reviewers. Remember it is might be difficult to get feedback from others (especially when they are far away) when the paper gets published.
Also, the 'creativity' of experts chosen by the journal's Editor would add some 'flavour' to your skill and presentation.
Another point is that, when your paper is published so many kinds of people (and researchers) would likely read through your document. The reviewers comments would give you an idea of how effectively your message is conveyed to this wide audience.
So most times (except for instance if the reviewer is technically wrong or he did a bad job), it is mainly a question of the level of your objectivity to the feedback you get.

The catch with reviewers (if properly chosen) is that they ARE the sample of your audience. If they think that the paper needs changes, the audience will perhaps think your paper is not very good as well (and subsequently the paper will be less read and less cited).
There are of course situations when reviewers totally miss the point of the paper, or even worse, get diametrically opposing ideas and in such cases satisfying the reviewers can be real pain.
But nevertheless, they are still sample of your audience. Maybe your paper was not clear enough (perhaps it is clear to you and your coworkers, but you are perhaps all biased).
So generally, it is not such a bad idea to satisfy reviewers, but, of course there may be cases of incompetent or lazy reviewers as well. But more often than not, it is author's fault.

Thank you. You are right. Reviewers are samples of your audience.

As per xmp125a's answer, reviewer suggestions should be taken very seriously, as the article is written for its audience, not for its authors. When a reviewer do not understand something, it often means that the article is not clear enough.
Still it happens that reviewers conspire with the journal to make a paper worse. (In particular, journals have obnoxious formatting requirements.) Preprint archives provide a solution to this problem too: you can have your preferred version on the archive, and do whatever it takes to get the paper published in the journal. Beware of potential reader confusion though: the differences between the versions should be clearly stated somewhere.

As assistant editor, I need to tell you that finding a reviewer that will accept, reply and evaluate in a timely manner someone's manuscript, extremely hard.
What you should understand, is that peer review is not there for suggestions, it is for critical evaluation. They don't collaborate with you on the work, and you should be able to argumentatively and factually dismiss those claims if you think they are not in the place.
we receive 10 pages of long reply on major revision decision. When articles have 4 or 5 pages.
However, specific culture (now everything is internationalised) understand peer-review as "God-wisdom", not so uncommon, they are discouraged to resubmit even after the final decision for only minor changes (in which referee suggested a repetition of the experiment).

for ex, one reviewer found odd that mouses (lab rats) don't have the 37-degree body, poor Eastern Asia scientist repeated the whole thing again, something that can be explained as seasonal characteristic of some mammals.

Also, peer review is voluntary, free and most of the time anonymous work done by peers, that can be more or less better in the field than you, or in some cases only slightly related.

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Writing a Personal Statement (Mathematics Ph.D Programs)
I am beginning to plan for graduate school. I will be applying to many Ph.D programs and a few Masters programs as a backup plan (all pure mathematics).
I am starting to think about how to write my personal statement. I am seeking advice regarding the process of writing a personal statement . I am mostly curious about what people usually talk about in these things. I obviously want to convey my interest and potential in mathematics research. But my problem is: I do not have the mathematical background to have an idea what I want to specialize in. I know that this hurts my chances at being competitive. My undergraduate degree has simply not exposed me to enough mathematics.
I appreciate any advice - relevant to my concerns or just advice in general.
Thank you.

Possible duplicate of How does the admissions process work for Ph.D. programs in the US, particularly for weak or borderline students?

Questions seeking general personal advice are considered as shopping questions, so your question is subject to be closed. In the linked question you can find some good advice on your problem, if not you can easily ignore this little help and search for more advice on other questions.

OK. I thought introducing that question may help you. If you think it is irrelevant, just ignore the link. This is a community with many experts trying to help people. Any member who can and have something to help you, will do it by posting comments, answers or links. I wish you the best.

@EnthusiasticEngineer Actually, the SOP section of that question is actively harmful in math. Following the advice there would make you come off some mixture of pretentious and crazy.

Please don't vandalize your question. If you like, there is a process to disassociate this question from your account.

Honestly, it seems like you are worrying more than you should about not having chosen a specialization.  I wouldn't worry about that: that's not something which is expected of students finishing a BA in the US.  Even if you think you have, changing your mind about it is something which is normal and expected.  So, it's very reasonable to worry about having less background than other students, but more in the context of general preparedness, rather than your personal statement.
So what should you write in your personal statement?  Generally it's for things that the person considering your application would like to know, but which aren't clear from the other parts of your application. Things like: explaining about something unusual in your career path, like taking time off after finishing your degree; what your ultimate career plans are; how you became interested in mathematics; how your undergraduate research projects went and what you did in them; any work you did outside of courses (which is relevant to math! No one cares about your great success in the marching band). I have to admit, generally these personal statements contain no useful information, and a lot more attention is paid to transcripts and letters.  I generally only read them carefully if there's something I'm confused about with the application they should explain.

I'll tell you how my experience went, maybe you'll have some ideas. I'm from Brazil, got a master's degree here, and I'm starting my PhD in the US next month (in a big state university, with a nice scholarship, in my opinion).
From what I saw, it is more about what you have accomplished so far, then what you want to specialize in, since there are programs on which you don't even choose an advisor until the end of your first year. This means you will have the time to get to know people and maybe change your mind along the way. Although, it can't hurt to look up the CVs and publications of professors you might want to work with, before choosing the universities to apply.
Anyway, I structured my SOP in four parts:

first: I started briefly telling my life history and how did I end up in mathematics. For example, during high school I took a two years technician course in Edifications/Civil Engineering, ended up screwing the entrance exams in the good universities here (because I focused only on the final project, which took 6 months), and was only accepted in a Licenciate course in mathematics (focused only in teaching). I ended up disliking working in Engineering, and disliking that math course. I was 18 at the time (I'm 24 now), and I wasn't aware that pure mathematics courses even existed (silly me, right?). But when I found out? Oh boy!
second: now I'm pursuing my B.Sc. degree. I had a fat scholarship, and I did a very long undergraduate thesis. My supervisor (which became my master's advisor later) suggested that we should revise it all, rewrite some things, add a topic or two, and throw in some exercises. Bottom line? I didn't even start my PhD, and our 560 pages book on introductory Lorentz Geometry (curves and surfaces) was accepted this month for publication with the Brazillian Mathematical Society. Go me! I went and finished my master's thesis in the same time we were finishing the book, ok.
third: if things were going so well, why did I want to leave? Basically, because the political and economical situation here in Brazil is crap (it definitely went downhill after the coup). I talked a bit about the budget cuts in science and education, and how I'd probably have to give up on mathematics if I stayed here.
fourth: if I decided to try going to the US, why did I choose to apply to this particular university? I concluded the essay with a personalized paragraph for each university.

Of course, what worked for me might not work for you, YMMV. You also have to consider other things in your application. I had a bad result in the GRE, but I got nice letters of recomendation (which were taken in consideration, despite my references not being world-class researchers). Also, even if the book (my main accomplishment so far) looks like a nuke, I only got accepted in one of the five universities I applied to.
I think that what you should take from my answer is the way that each part of the essay is connected with the previous one. That makes the text very fluid and the reading easier. I hope this is helpful and I wish you the best of luck.


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Alternatives to rushing to start with a bachelor thesis before my favourite advisor leaves the university?
I wish to write my bachelor thesis with a particular professor, who is looking for a new job. He will be there for another semester, but might leave afterwards (depending on the outcome of his job search). Due to other courses and constraints, I would prefer to do my bachelor’s thesis not in the next semester but the one afterwards, when my favorite professor may already be gone.
According to my university’s rules, the primary supervisor of my bachelor thesis needs to be at my university, so even if my favorite professor agrees to supervise me, I would have to find a primary supervisor from my university, who will be responsible for my final grade. Unfortunately, the only other professor doing my favorite topic has a very bad reputation.
As far as I see it, I have two options with three possible outcomes:

I do my thesis in the next semester, having to cope with a tight schedule due to other courses.
I do coursework in the next semester and my thesis in the semester after that. This bears the risk that my favorite professor is gone.

Do you see any other ways to solve this dilemma?

There may be another alternative.
Faculty change positions, sometimes even in the middle of an academic year, so there are often situations where students might get caught in the middle. The university is not likely to “punish” students because the advisor had to leave and usually make exceptions whereby the old advisor can finish the supervision of the student after their departure. I know I have done this for PhD students even after I made a similar move, so a bachelor’s or master’s thesis should be comparatively easy. The key would be to make sure the Betreuung (supervision agreement) is in place before the faculty member departs.
You should check with the office in charge of registering theses in your program before making a decision, as they will have more specific information relative to your school’s requirements and what is allowed.

So your suggestion would be to agree upon a supervision asap, allthough I dont have to write my b.t. right now. I would ask my professor to supervise me in a year, so summer 19, regardless if he is still at my University or not. Is that whay you propose?

actually, I would also want to start to write it now, rather than deferring. You will probably get the best advice earlier in a situation like this as the supervisor will have other concerns later. You don't, likely, need to work intensively on it, but a series of drafts will make it a better work in any case.

Almost. I’d start by contacting the potential advisor to see if he’s willing to supervise, then ask the registration office (or whoever is in charge of the bachelor’s thesis and ask “what happens if my supervisor leaves for another position?” And then do the Betreuung.

I think this is much less likely to work for a bachelor thesis than for a PhD thesis, as there is less reason why the student can't be supervised by someone else, but it's worth asking


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Can principal investigators use leftover grant money to take a vacation with their families?
Can one use leftover grant funding to take a vacation?
Or does leftover funding get returned to the funding agency?
For reference, I am asking about research labs in American universities.

It is possible to use some grant money to pay yourself summer salary, which you could then of course spend on anything you wish.  However, this is not "leftover" money; it must be allocated for salary already in the proposal.

Without knowing the actual laws or seeing the grant proposal, I think I can pretty definitively say no, you can't do that. If it is noticed, it would likely generate an audit of the entire grant. In an extreme case (NSF funding) it could result in jail time as fraud or embezzlement.
However, if the grant is from some private party, the rules might be very loose, though I doubt it.
However, if the topic of study in the grant were somehow related to leisure time or such then what seems like a vacation might actually be research. (We should all be so lucky.)
What happens with unused funds is likely spelled out in the grant itself or in the regulations of the funding agency. They might go back to that agency, or perhaps remain with some other institution.
But vacations? No. Pizza night for the research team, maybe. Unlikely.

My experience is only with National Science Foundation grant. Unspent money from these goes back to the NSF. They've been very good about giving"no-cost time extensions" so that I can spend left-over money on research even after the end-date of the original grant. (I think it makes the Foundation look better if the money eventually produces research than if it goes unspent.) But they certainly wouldn't allow spending it on a vacation.

Now, if there is a bit of money left over and the PI decides to use some of it to cover his summer salary (usually legal under NSF grants), and goes on a vacation, it might look like the grant is paying for the vacation. But only to those who don't see the financial reports...

@JonCuster From that point of view, the question makes a lot more sense. Totally fair and legal to use the money to finally take the well earned, paid holidays you never had the time for during the original grant period

@Karl, I think you misread the comment. If the grant pays the salary it may be ok, but that assumes that the work somehow continues over the period covered by the salary. If the grant pays the airline and hotel costs, you likely have a big problem. Money is fungible, of course, so you may be able to finesse it, but don't leave a paper trail that leads to a lawsuit.

@Buffy I think you are misunderstanding mine. Where do you read anything about flight and accomodation in my comment? :-)

The standard procedure is to extend the grant by a few months, until the money has been spent for purposes that are within the original purpose of the grant. Usually paychecks for people who are writing an additional paper, or grant proposals for a follow-up project (and perhaps take the remaining paid free days from their original contract, if that was what your question aimed at).
Agencies usually have no use for returned money, and would often have to return it to their funding partner(s). Otherwise the agency would have to find someone new to spend the money on, which they don't have resources for.
If the agencies would not simply extend the grant time, that would lead PIs to try to spend the money last minute, possibly by stretching a few rules. They would have to make extra effort to control those last minute expenses. Even if your scientists stay far for stealing the money for a private holiday, legal quabble would often ensue.
But of course, if you don't ask for extension, there will surely be a clause in the grant that says the money falls back to whoever provided it.


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Where do English/History or Humanities professors post their research publications?
What's the search engine for research papers that professors of English,History or Humanities wrote? I looked up my english professors on google and couldn't find any of their dissertations or papers. Google scholar fails.

I disagree that this is a "shopping" question (and also that it should be closed).  First of all, the OP has done the obvious internet research.  Second of all, the OP is not asking for a list of online repositories of papers used by scholars in various fields; rather s/he is pointing out that in some academic fields there do not seem to be such repositories.  This is a good question.

@RichardErickson why is this shopping question?

The question in the title is different from what's in the body of the posting.  I assume that the OP would like to see answers to both questions.

@BrianBorchers I think the disparity is actually signalling that the OP doesn't understand what is a search engine and how they work. This lies at the heart of the issue here.

It's possible that this question will be closed as a "shopping" question, but I'll try to provide some general information.
In the humanities and social sciences, scholars have been slow to adopt the practice of putting preprints of articles up on the web for other scholars to read.  There are some preprint servers for various areas in the humanities and social sciences, but these are not nearly as heavily used as (for example) ArXiV is used in many areas of science and mathematics.
A further issue is that much of the scholarship in these disciplines is published in the form of books rather than articles.  For example, a typical expectation of an assistant professor in these disciplines is that they publish one book out of their dissertation within the first few years after the Ph.D. and have a second book published before the end of the tenure period.  Publishers of scholarly books in the humanities are mostly unwilling to allow the authors to make versions of the books freely available.
In my experience, Google Scholar does often include journal articles in the humanities and social sciences.  Furthermore, it's quite common for the web pages of faculty members in these disciplines to list their publications.  Thus I'm surprised that you say you can't determine what they've published.  Are you saying that you can't find any information about what they've published, or are you asking why you can't find freely accessible copies of this material?

Try a name search at the JSTOR Advanced Search web page. You may have to use more than one name variation (i.e. using "John" and "Smith" may not pick up "J. Smith"), unless the last name is fairly unique (in which case just use that and maybe use an appropriate additional search word such as "European" or "history" or "philosophy", etc.). This will not give you access to the papers, unless you have university (or other) JSTOR access, but it is an example of a "search engine for research papers" that can be used for humanities fields. I think this only gives you papers published 5 or more years ago, but for most humanities fields this is not much of a restriction. Besides, in recent years pretty much everyone has their more recent work mentioned somewhere on their web pages. Also, googling their name along with "CV" or "Curriculum Vita" will sometimes give you what you want if you can't find it on their web pages --- I've sometimes found CV's that you would not have known existed from only searching that person's web pages.


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Are translators of mathematical texts into English in demand?
Are translators of mathematical texts (books or articles or whatever) from a foreign language into English in demand today? Specifically, I'm interested in German and Russian. If they are, then what kind of organizations (or what specific organizations) are interested in such translators? Do people working for those organizations usually combine the translation job with a teaching and/or research job?

An historical note. There was a time when translations of German and French papers weren't especially important as English language PhD programs in maths had language as a specific requirement, often both French and German. Russian as a requirement or option was initially less common because of the Cold War, which actually gave impetus to Russian math since communication between Russia and "the West" was discouraged. Some important work was done simultaneously on both sides of the divide without reference to the work of the other.

Just a short remark: When I find a paper that is only available in a different language (I had a Russian one some time ago, for example), I upload it to google translate. The result is bad, of course, but still good enough for me to understand the basic ideas and proofs, if I know what I'm looking for. As I think that many authors don't want to read the paper word by word but just search for a specific result to quote, I think that is enough and a full translation, although nice to have, is not that important.

Another relevant question here: Are translation journals still a thing?

Well, I needed one about three years ago and ended up translating the book mostly myself.

It is hard to tell if they are really in demand today. I have no statistics at hand but I guess that the demand is (slightly) declining since most books are written in English these days. But there are of course counterexamples to this statement. There has been a popular German book on functional analysis, being first released in 1985. In 2016 it has been translated into English, see below.  I studied at a German university and the recommended books in my undergraduates were mostly German books, only a few being translated into English. It is hard to tell whether it is worth it to translate them because there are already a bunch of English books on "basic" subjects.
What kind of organization is interested: Probably the authors are interested, but not for monetary reasons, but so that more researchers in the whole world can read their books. The publisher should also be interested, selling more copies. And of course the researchers. I'd wish there would be an English copy of "Quelques méthodes de résolution des problèmes aux limites non linéaires" by J.-L. Lions.
In general, the translators are not working directly for the publisher. They are active mathematicians in research and/or teaching at a university. Most of them are no regular translators (see my examples below), having translated only one book so far. But you can look up Richard A. Silverman, who translated a dozen Russian books for Dover.
From German into English:

-"Linear Functional Analysis" (2016) by H.W. Alt:
"The present book is the English translation of a previous German edition, also published by Springer Verlag. The translation was carried out by Robert Nürnberg, who also did a marvelous job at detecting errors and mistakes in the original version."
Robert Nürnberg is a mathematician at the Imperial College London.
-"Vector Analysis" (2001) by K. Jänich:
"Speaking of translation, I would like to acknowledge the excellent work of Leslie Kay in translating the German text into English. We have exchanged detailed e-mail messages throughout the translation process, discussing mathematics and subtleties of language."
Leslie Kay is a mathematician at Virginia Tech.

From Russian into English:

-"Lectures on Partial Differential Equations" by V.I. Arnold:
Translated by Roger Cooke, University of Vermont.
-"Mathematical Aspects of Classical and Celestial Mechanics" by V.I. Arnold et al.: Translated by A. Iacob, Brandeis University
-"Mathematical Methods of Classical Mechanics" by V.I. Arnold:
Translated by K. Vogtmann, Cornell University, and A. Weinstein, University of California at Berkeley

Marvin's answered about demand of translations fueled by potential readers in English speaking countries, but there is another (maybe larger) source of demand: authors from non English speaking countries.
Most researchers all over the world are required to publish articles in international journals, nearly always written in English, and not all of them have the ability to write in English. I've seen offers of professional services marketed to these researchers.
However, keep in mind that that marked could be dwindling in the next decades, since the level of English of young grad students is way better than those of older faculty on their forties or fifties.

I suspect that "could be dwindling in the next decades" will be more like "will not be an issue in the next decades". I bet that in 30-40 years at the most, and maybe within 15-20 years, we'll be able to write a document in any language and then easily digitally convert it to any specified other language, in much the same way you can now convert a Microsoft Word document to a .pdf document.


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I am curious about applying my coursework from Masters program towards Doctoral in Economics in the US
I earned a Master's degree in Analytics (one of the newer and popular graduate school majors) and am considering going back to school for Ph.D. in Economics. I am curious if Universities in the US with doctoral programs in Economics accept coursework from Master's degree to be applied towards Ph.D. program? It probably varies by universities as they set their own policies, so if anyone with experience can share specific cases that would be helpful.
I am planning on applying to the top tier as well other schools with Econ program in the United States and maybe Oxford or LSE in the U.K.
There's some overlap with the courses, especially the stats courses and time series, econometrics which is the focus that I intend to pursue my Ph.D.

I think this is specific enough to answer. I like how @aeismail has dealt with it. The question could perhaps be rephrased to ask how much policies vary or how to find out this information.

The question has been rephrased. I am looking for instances for when people have successfully transferred coursework.

There is no uniform policy in the US. You must check with each program you are interested in.
Graduate departments are generally give broad latitude in accepting coursework from other schools. Some may choose to give either credit or merely placement; some may offer both or neither. Some may require what they consider “core” courses to be retaken but allow electives to count. Other schools may have a limit on the number of transfer credits they will accept. There are simply too many variations, so direct questions to the graduate admissions officer or director of graduate studies (or the equivalent( is your best option.
As @Dawn has suggested in the comments below, it is indeed worth noting that one should likely not ignore the possibility of taking the core classes required to pass the department's qualification examinations, and most advisors will encourage you to do exactly that.

Yes, this is technically correct. However, you should also note that most top Economics programs will have qualifying exams at the end of the first year. It is likely more difficult to pass these exams if you have not taken a recent course in the topic or even if the course you took as a Master's student uses a different book. The qualifying exam really limits the practicality of transferring in courses and I would rarely recommend the strategy.


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Methodology Question: How to deal with others having written about similar topic?
Basically, I am wondering how one is to deal with other scholars that have written about a similar topic or have covered similar/the same phenomenon (my field are the social sciences/humanities). What I will obviously do at the beginning of a chapter is to discuss the literature that has previously covered the events I wish to write about and explain how I will discuss/interpret these events differently in the article/chapter. But I am wondering whether in the unfolding of my argument that follows, I have to cite these works again for every minor point that others might have made about this topic?
I guess it is difficult to give an example of such minor points, but if I discuss the same phenomenon or historical events that others have covered before, I am bound to make certain minor obvious points that others have made before, even though my overall argument/interpretation is different. The same goes for such minor obvious points that are made in the literature that is only distantly related (thus not necessarily appearing in my literature review).
The Turabian says the following:

"7.9.3 Usually Cite a Source for Ideas Not Your Own. This rule is more
  complicated than it seems, because most of our own ideas are based on
  or derived from identifiable sources somewhere in history. Readers
  don't expect you to findevery distant source for every familiar idea,
  but they do expect you to cite the source for an idea when (1) the
  idea is associated with a specific person and (2) it's new enough not
  to be part of a field's common knowledge."

However, there is of course a large grey area to this. I would not say that the minor points I mean are in any way tied to a specific person, but whether that would mean I do not have to provide a footnote every time there is even a slight parallel point that I make. I understand that I could still simply always provide a footnote in such cases, but in practice that looks rather silly and it does not seem to be the case that other scholars in my field provide such citations for such minor points.
Thanks for your help.

There are a number of issues here, including the purpose of your writing and who you see as the audience.
Don't however, lose sight of the fact that copyright applies to words (etc.) but not to ideas and concepts. History is full of examples of people coming to the same (or quite different) conclusions independently based on the same evidence - especially when that evidence is common knowledge.
If you are writing for (potential) scholars it is probably better to give a lot of citations so that others can follow up and expand their knowledge of the field. I would prefer end-notes to foot-notes, however, as they are less disruptive of the page flow.
If you are writing for popular consumption (a la Carl Sagan) you don't need to reference everything and your description of an introduction seems about right. You could, when writing, also have an appendix in which you point to the work of others who have discussed similar themes whether they come to similar conclusions or not.
However, if you have to err, it is probably better to err (a bit or a lot) on the side of referencing related work that you know about. The fact that you know about it means that it may have had an effect on your own thinking and you should honor that in general.
I think that when you are coming to different conclusions than others it might be especially useful to you to cite the work of others. Again, this is more important in scientific/professional writing than in the popular press. If nothing else this gives you the aura of fairness and leaves no one with a misconception that you were trying to mislead them.
So, what is required to say and what is useful to say may not be quite the same.

Thanks, that is very helpful, especially the point about the difference between words and ideas. I am primarily writing for a scholarly audience, so providing ample references is expected. However, what I am wondering about is whether it is necessary to cite the same author/work again and again in an article / chapter for minor points, if I have already acknowledged that he/she has done work on this on the topic at hand in the introduction. Also, if you say there is a difference between ideas and words, would one not be in danger of being accused of stealing ideas?

I think the granularity depends on your topic and can't be specified in general. It may be enough to just cite the relevant papers once. You might want to sometimes write "here I disagree with AZ"... which may be enough if there is only one AZ paper cited. But if you have to err, likely better to say more than less.

Don't however, lose sight of the fact that copyright applies to words — Copyright is irrelevant; this is a question about scholarly ethics. If the ideas have been published, and you (can be reasonably expected to) know they've been published, you cannot ethically present them as if you discovered them independently. Cite the earlier authors.

Sorry, only saw this comment now. As I said, at the beginning of each chapter , I make abundantly clear who has written on the topic before and how my argument is different. Still, when I discuss a similar topic or event, it can happen that in the body of the chapter I discuss some minor aspect of this topic/event (providing my own evidence for it) that others might have covered. So my question is whether I need to point out such similarities for every minor point. Tbh, my main fear is that I simply overlook at a minor point has been made in a somewhat similar fashion by someone else.


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Raising money on the Kickstarter or GoFundMe websites
Let's say a student is not funded during the summer months but has a cool research idea that even their advisor thinks is tractable and important to the scientific community, and this student wishes to devote an entire summer pursuing research on this topic and forgoing a summer job / internship.
Can the student attempt to raise money on the Kickstarter or GoFundMe websites?
Are there any obvious restrictions or academic violations for doing so?
To me, it seems like a creative way to raise money, and I feel people would back the project too.

Try asking your university. They should be in a position to say yes or no definitively.

Overhead expenses and accounting may be a tricky question

You will find that there are many easier ways to get money.

There have been a number of successfully crowdfunded research projects already, see e.g. this write-up. Specific crowdfunding websites have even been set up for research projects, such as Experiment and Petridish. As you might guess from all this activity there is no general issue with crowdfunding research. However, your particular university might have specific policies or restrictions to be aware of. (Your advisor should know the right people to get in touch with to find out for sure.) I've heard that a common roadblock is that the university's accounting offices might not know how to (or want to) handle this kind of projects, where the funding comes from many small donations, rather than a central funding agency. In any case, there are no obvious global restrictions that apply.
There have been some other crowdfunding questions on this website you might be interested in as well: What are some tips for crowdfunding science off websites like PetriDish?, and Can a PhD be crowdfunded?.


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Is it a mistake to talk about hobbies in a job application?
According to Sean Carroll, a famous cosmologist and tenured professor,

Don’t be too well known outside the field. I hate to say this, but the evidence is there: if you have too high of a public profile, people look at you suspiciously. Actual quote: “I’m glad we didn’t hire Dr. X; he spends too much time in the New York Times and not enough time in the lab.” And that’s the point — it’s not that people are jealous that you are popular, it’s that they are suspicious you care about publicity more than you do about research. Remember the Overriding Principle.

According to an opinion piece by Manil Suri published in the New York Times, in science it is also not appropriate to talk about hobbies. Manil Suri is a famous scholar, his description of the situation in academia is worrying, and gives the impression that behavior is constrained and under close scrutiny. Being too expressive of personal identity can be viewed as running counter to scientific neutrality. In competitive venues, where complete immersion in one’s field might be the promoted ideal, the mention of an extracurricular pursuit can even be seized upon as a lack of commitment. I remember a young mathematician at a prestigious research institute sharing his love for piano playing after hearing I wrote fiction. “Don’t tell anyone in my department I own a piano,” he requested in the next breath. This is a shock to me because I perceived the STEM field as most openminded.
Am I hurting my chances by answering honestly about hobbies and extracurricular and social engagement activities? I work in a STEM field.

Note that answers on this site may (or may not) be biased. Firstly, people here tend to be very open-minded (and totally in favor of having hobbies). Secondly, and more importantly, many people here are easily identified (have their real name here and links to their institution) - they may choose not to answer when their institution "disallows" hobbies.

@Udank these two professors are first who openly talk about this.

I do not want to say that nobody talks about this. Luckily, there are some. However, it's completely understandable if someone does not want to reveal the negative aspects of their institution to protect themselves - thus answers here may be skewed.

(Moreover, people who are not "allowed" to have hobbies outside of work are probably not here as Ac. St. Exch. is also a kind of hobby.)

@Udank can I actually add this in application? Stack exchange contributor?

Contribution in Stack Exchange is contribution to the community (more if it is in sites like Math.StEx, Physics.StEx, probably less in Interpersonal.StEx or Lifehacks.StEx). I would hope that many institutions encourage it. Probably a link to your profile would be good, of course you have to find the right place for this on your application.

But don't include your profile if it contains a lot of bad-received or undergratuate-level questions.

Spending time in the New York Times is not what I think of as a hobby.

@Thomas I dont understand?

@Stefan A hobby is something like coin collecting, cycling, rock climbing, or model trains. I would think that being in the media is a professional activity. So I'm confused by your quote. Honestly, you may not want to get a job in a department that objects to what you like doing.

@Thomas yes I agree, please take a look on edit, bcs that quote was butchered by editors, and now look silly, but it is not whole quote

There is a time and a place for everything. When evaluating your application to determine if you’re going to be one of the half dozen or so people who might get on the short list, your hobbies aren’t going to rate very high in the decision-making process, unless they suggest that they’re going to pull you away from your work too much.
But I’d also rather not work with a potential colleague who is so focused on their careers that they give up being someone you want to work with. Having hobbies and interests that have nothing to do with your daily job make you a better person, and it’s something you can talk about during a phone or in-person interview.
In the specific case you’re asked, then that means it’s something they decided they do want to know about and you should answer candidly.

in most of the applications, they gave as pre-screening questionnaires. Two questions are about hobbies and interestest not related to academia. Do you suggest not answer to this questions?

If asked, answer. You just don’t have to start the conversation of your own volition.

It is like a form they give you to fill in before interview.

I cannot imagine that people which are asking for hobbies discriminate because people with hobbies. However, avoid mentioning hobbies which could be perceived as "silly" or "childish" even if they aren't, like playing Pokémon.

It’s not the hobbies—just the amount of commitment to them.

@aeismail what about social engagement part?

+1. Likely a mistake to describe in detail how piano (or whatever) is all consuming and interferes with your work and life, etc. But fine to describe how it relieves stress and sometimes bring insight to your (mathematics, ...).

@Stefan Same advice.

@Buffy this is good answer!!!

I seem to be the only mathematician I know who has absolutely no ability in music. None, zip, nada. Some kinds of math and music are synergistic, I think. Patterns, abstraction, ... I use Tai Chi for stress and health.

@Buffy: In the last days, I read a lot on the site of people using Tai Chi. Either there are many people who do so, ir it was all you.

@Udank, maybe just me. You might want to explore it. It requires a good teacher, though. It can't be learned from books and videos. It is a mind-body synergistic (there I go again) practice that uses the mind to focus qi (life force - energy). Good for balance, flexibility, stress reduction. Lots of positives. A life long avocation.

Thank you @Buffy. You make me smile and your thoughts are inspiring to me.

@Buffy If it too have no musical talent; in fact I am tone deaf and unable to clap in unison with a group. I also focus my energy on physical pursuits, in my case rock climbing.

@StellaBiderman, you would probably enjoy the place where I live. Anonymity prevents me from revealing it, however. But you'd never get any work done if you were here permanently. Somewhere on the East Coast of US. Actually, I think I can clap, at least.

To address the question in the title (in line with other answers) I would say that if your Publications section is significantly longer than Hobbies and Interests, chances are nobody will read the latter (I admit I was never on any hiring committee, but I honestly cannot imagine any mathematician I know caring for hobbies in your resume or holding them against you in any situations). This of course must be field-, country-, and position-dependent, and I would only dare to comment that of the maths students I know, those overtly pursuing time consuming hobbies (piano or acting, for example) were often the first to drop off or in any case didn't apply for the grad school - but this is a matter of statistics, not attitude of my faculty.
That being said, I'd like to leave here a link to Matthias Kreck's cello videos. Apart from being a celebrated mathematician he apparently does have time for other activities. Admittedly, he already has tenure, but I will also mention that once in MRI Oberwolfach I attended an impromptu concert by junior topologists - played on instruments that are there for the guests to use. Clearly the ability to play music is not frowned upon among mathematicians (as @Buffy and @Stella noticed), on the contrary - such an interesting hobby can help you to become identifiable and remembered. It will make an interesting topic of conversation and will probably make the whole academia experience more pleasant. However, at the end of the day it's your research that matters.
EDIT: I think that all the answers, including mine, framed themselves around the playing piano or (at extreme) playing Pokemon, save for @Thomas comment to the question itself. On the high public profile problem, I would add that there is a great difference between occasional science popularisation in radio or press (I have a colleague who is greatly respected precisely for that), between being a regular pundit in a newspaper, between writing a column on not-science-related topics, and then between commenting current issues on national TV daily. If you mention on your resume you have a couple of articles in New York Times on top of a solid scientific publication record, that shows you are good with pen. If you mention that in your spare time you run a mayoral campaign in your town and speak at the rallies, that is a different thing altogether - and that may raise eyebrows. Disregarding the possible differences in political opinions, this would be mainly because you need to be truly exceptional to pursue two careers, scientific and public, at the same time. It can be done, but it is not very common.

I think the point here is, that if you are at a level comparable above videos, it's worthwhile putting the hobby in the CV. The ability stands on its own. As for dropouts, my own "statistics" is just the opposite: those who pursued hobbies to high level were the ones who ended up with an academic position.

but the people you describe is in Europe, Germany. In Germany, we allow people that go back to industry to return to academia very easily. The position described in those two articles is in US. Haveing hobbies in europe is considered norm, nothing unusual and worth to ask?

I think that at the same meeting in Oberwolfach there was a participant from US (I may be confused about the venue but not his affiliation) who juggled and was keen to teach juggling to anyone who wanted - and rightly proud to be able to. Group yoga recently became popular during some number theory conferences held all over the world. I think that having hobbies is preferable, as is having interesting talking points with people you try to connect with. I regret there is no-one at my faculty to teach juggling, but having such a hobby should in the end neither help nor hinder your application.

Dear @lemon314 why do you think for academians is not common to pursue the public career?

@SSimon, because I don't see great many scientists doing that. It must differ between fields, communities, and career stages. FWIW I feel that at least in mathematics there are very few notable exceptions from restricting oneself just to the academia, I am also far less surprised seeing a politically active, say, PhD student in history than in mathematics, but this is just my experience and mileage may vary. I do however stand by the conviction that the link concerns a truly exceptional man:)

It can definitely go both ways and will depend on the culture of the place.
People can mention that, with such an intensely run hobby, there is no worry you have a job if you fail academically (this is paraphrased from a true incident), or the other way round, it shows that you are a well-rounded human and it can open doors where otherwise you would be just one out of many nondescript gray mass of people.
You will have to find out what your target institution/group values more: single-mindedness or broad-mindedness.

what is in general opinion on the STEM? are they more single or braod minded?

There is no general opinion in my experience. I've seen both, and quite taken to extremes. Perhaps a tendency of less practical, more theoretical topics to be in favour of broad-mindedness, and more practical ones to favour single-mindedness (perhaps because of the sheer amount of work required to get things done whereas progress in theoretical topics cannot be forced by increasing the amount of work invested). But this is not a general rule, and you'll always find exceptions.

@CaptainEmacs Isnt Sean Caroll theoretician?

@SSimon "Perhaps a tendency of ... to be in favour"/"...and you'll always find exceptions" - narrow-mindedness (in a neutral sense) is not a prerogative of one or the other. I know so many extremely talented people, most of which have an intense hobby, but some don't. I think the only safe statement here is: Anyone who tries to make a general rule here, is wrong...

@CaptainEmacs I agree with you


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À la carte graduate courses
I can get a small raise if I earn 7 more graduate units from an accredited school. I have no intention of earning another degree, and I could be happy with either online or in-person work. How to go about it?
I could apply to some Master's program, get accepted, enroll, and then not finish the degree, but this seems dishonest, plus I might have to take their introductory courses instead of my own choices. Would some other approach do better? Do accredited universities ever offer graduate courses à la carte?

I think that only in a very few fields would it be unethical to enter a degree program with no intention of finishing. Medicine is one of these and the reason is that "seats" in a class are expensive for the institution to maintain because of labs and other needed resources to support a student. On the other hand, acceptance into such a program is almost equivalent to graduation since the school has such a strong commitment to keeping you so the resources don't get wasted. That is not typical, of course. A seat in Mathematics is just a seat, though leaving a research group may cause problems.

I believe the term you might be looking for is a "non-degree seeking student". Many colleges - at least in the US - allow students to pay per credit-hour of course they take, with the explicit arrangement that they will not count towards a degree. Exact requirements, costs, and arrangements vary by University, but here is some info about the options at Michigan for example. Michigan's School of Education has its own page on this, with additional options.
The 'catch' is mostly money, whether or not you can get classes that interest you (Universities might reserve some classes for their own degree-seeking students first), and whether or not courses taken in such a way will count according to your employer (you'll have to check with them on that).
As for the money, non-degree seeking students generally receive no form of financial aid or tuition assistance, and in the US I would be surprised if you could take even 1 course for less than $1000, but the exact cost will vary wildly by University and program.

Often there are legally independent professional education institutions associated to a university which offer courses but the credits are given by the university (in our university we are having such a model).
You are enrolled in dedicated courses and you'll have to pay for it, the professors are giving their courses as sideline job.
The benefit is, that you are just paying what you need and you'll get a certificate. The downside is, it might be more expensive (at least in Germany).

Does a professional (for instance: 8-week) degree offer something to CV? Where does it help such kind of degree?


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How is the career path of a full-time Research Associate different from that of a tenure-track / full-time professor?
Recently, I saw that a post-doc, "assistant professor", converted to become a full-time Research Associate at their school, moving all of their online content out of the department faculty page and onto their own, personal website.  I am guessing that they are no longer in the running for tenure-track jobs and are happy being full-time researchers.  It seems they are still publishing and doing what they love.
What is the difference between becoming a full-time Research Associate and staying on tenure-track and waiting / hoping to become a professor?  Do you give up something substantial by taking yourself out of the tenure-track race?
(To me, it seems that all they gave up was a faculty homepage.)
For reference, it's a large U.S. research university.

Tenure in the US, and I assume most other places, implies a lifetime commitment to employment. You can't be fired for any but egregious misbehavior. The research associate probably doesn't get that guarantee and may work on a fixed term (but renewable) contract.
The very idea of tenure is to make it possible for tenured faculty to explore unconventional and even controversial ideas without fear of retaliation. Sometimes that is abused, but mostly it seems to work. Academic Freedom is based on tenure.
Tenured faculty have different responsibilities than (only) research. Most teach. Most advise graduate, and maybe undergraduate, students. Most have committee responsibilities - for the governance of the department and the university.
When General Eisenhower was made president of Columbia University it is said that in his inaugural speech he spoke at length about all the great things "the University" would do for "the Faculty". After he finished, one of the top faculty members, I don't know who, perhaps a dean, rose and said something like "With all due respect, General, the University can't 'do' anything for the Faculty. The Faculty IS the University." That is an old tradition - the governance of the university lies in its faculty. It is going out of style nowadays, but remains a dearly held tradition. Tenured faculty (some at least) take that responsibility very seriously.
The research of tenured faculty and that of research assistants (or associates or ...) are likely funded in the same way. That would mean grants at most large places and internal funding, perhaps, at small colleges though small places don't typically have pure research positions.
It may be that the transition of the person you "saw" was caused by information that he/she was unlikely to achieve tenure and took the research option. Tenure is far from automatic and in many places is very difficult to get and lacks rationality. Some are "denied" tenure for no better reason than that the university is reducing the size of some department due to falling student enrollments. A person can even get a positive vote/recommendation from the tenure committee and department but be denied tenure for financial reasons.
On the other hand, the person may have decided that the non-research responsibilities of tenured faculty simply weren't appealing and wants to devote him/herself solely to research, though without the lifetime employment guarantee.
Complicating the decision is the fact that in most places, if you actually apply for tenure, go through the process, but are denied, you are usually asked to leave. There may be exceptions for some, but that is pretty typical. So, reading the handwriting on the wall may be wise for anyone who is borderline in any way or in a situation in which tenure is unlikely for any reason.

The position could be on 'soft money', so the researcher needs to produce to get the next grant. And, often, since they aren't full faculty, they can't be the PI on the grant application(s) that would fund them.


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How to overcome feelings of incompetence/failure in a PhD programme?
I've recently quit my job as a maths teacher after doing it for 3 years and I have been incredibly lucky to be offered a fully funded doctoral training course at a top university. This is an extraordinary opportunity for me, especially given that I previously withdrew from a PhD, and this time I really want to make it work.
I am quite rusty on some things that many other starting students will not be, not because I can't do them but because it's been a very long time since I needed to apply them. I am currently a bit worried that I may be the weakest in the cohort or that it'll take me a very long time to understand simple things and that I may feel incompetent and like I don't deserve to be there.
What are some good ways to overcome these feelings of idiocy?

Practice until you brush the rust away and get back up to speed. A PhD is not meant to be easy even for the best, but it is a combined mental training + acquiring research skills. Learning to deal efficiently with self-doubt will do you extremely good later in life no matter where you end up and what's expected of you there.

You have to accept that you are rusty and need to brush up on things. It is what it is, but there are others, myself included, who started a PhD after a few unproductive years.
The number one thing to do is not to take more classes than you're required to. If you are in the US system, there will be tons of homeworks and class work, so you need to make sure you will not fall too far behind. Your first objective is to pass the qualifier exam if your university has one.
But, you will also need to get an adviser, who will want you to do research. You need to pick wisely. Your adviser must be able to support you, especially if you are not allowed to teach. It is better to find someone who is a good planner and doesn't expect a student who takes classes and probably teaches to also do 60+ hours of research work. Not that it wouldn't be beneficial.
If teaching is included in the time balancing act, you have to be careful that your students do not abuse your time. Be strict with office hours, and be hard to find especially when preparing for your own exams.
The part with getting up to speed is harder, but be open and let people help you. If you have questions, do not be shy to ask your younger peers, or the course instructors. Also, participate in group study, especially if you feel it helps you and check homework results and discuss them with colleagues. You will learn a lot, but it will also help you understand more accurately where you stand in terms of knowledge compared to your colleagues. Even if you are more of an introvert and work a lot better alone, you still need the interaction with your peers.
Another thing is to plan alone time far from work. You have to have a more relaxed day, at least, when you don't have any work planned or you will end up burnt out and depressed. Also, if you have a family already, you have to understand that the PhD will take you from them more than a normal job would. Make sure you have a discussion with them where you set the expectations, and also try to leave the work at work as much as you can.

This is a very US-centric answer and while the OP doesn't state a country I suspect they are in the UK, hence the advice about classes, exams and choosing a supervisor does not apply.

@astronat I did a PhD in US. I cannot in good faith provide an answer that is fully applicable for UK. But, please provide an answer of your own, if you think you can help OP.

For starters you aren't an idiot. The evidence is against that hypothesis. However, there is a phenomenon called Imposter Syndrome that is fairly common among even well accomplished people. "I can't possibly be good enough to work with these people."
Well, yes you can.
But being rusty on lots of details is also common, but I'll guess that you know how to deal with that so that it doesn't become an issue. Working groups of like-minded folks is a good way. Just throwing ideas around can help. But so can re-doing old exercises.
From my experience, asking a lot of questions is the best way. I've said similar things here in answer to other questions. Don't be too cautious in asking questions in class, if the class size is reasonable. Very often if you have a question about something in lecture or otherwise, others will have the same or similar issue, but be afraid to ask.
Also, it is ok to start out slow. Don't be concerned that others are faster. That is always the case.
Work with others. Ask questions. Take advantage of office hours or tutors. Solve small problems on the way to bigger ones. Take a lot of notes (by hand). Never. Give. Up.

The 4-th paragraph is good advise, in my opinion. Sharing an office with 5 other people turned out to be a great advantage for me for exactly that reason, despite the noise and distractions.

I am currently a bit worried that I may be the weakest in the cohort
  or that it'll take me a very long time to understand simple things and
  that I may feel incompetent and like I don't deserve to be there.

If this is the mindset you're carrying into the doctoral study you're going to have a very bad time. Because even evidence is not pointing to that direction, you can still be subconsciously looking too hard into clues that match your expectation. I think you may have some introspection to do.
While competitions exist, doctoral study is closer to an individual backpacking than a 5k race. You chart your route, pack your stuff, get onto the track, deal with contingencies, take rest, enjoy, get lost, find new way, and perhaps enjoy again. Your supervisor would be like that shop keeper at a travel gear store giving you different levels of advice/service, or be like your GPS; most of the time, you're responsible for yourself.
But what of those horror stories about adviser pitching their students to fight over resources? About those shaming experiences for those who didn't get student grants? Or corridor gossips about so and so being dumb? Yes, they may happen as well, but these are largely out of your control. What I found useful to deal with most of the adversity are two things: the will to grind and move forward, and a set of internal personal values.
Familiarize yourself with the school/program expectations. Attend workshops and read up about opportunities. Build professional networks. Work with your advisor, lay out plans and milestones, and work towards completing them. If things go wrong, come up with some suggestions and consult the advisor.
Don't outsource all your sense of success or accomplishment to others. Think larger goals: focus on what career you'd like to craft, what kind of students you'd like to produce; not if you're the top pick of the faculty among your peers. Draft and keep working on a personal mission statement, and be very clear to base them on your own values: leave the world a healthier place, make education more equitable, etc. And not "people would think that I am the best this or that..." I can't give a whole introduction here, but do search online on how to craft a personal mission statement. Do that soon if you don't have one; it's super useful as a personal compass.
Up play your strength: e.g. as you have worked as an educator, you may also consider applying for teaching assistantship. Being a TA would allow you a great chance to review the materials, pocketing some money, and enriching your post-graduate teaching portfolio.
There will be stellar candidates, and plenty of people brighter than you (which, is exactly the reason you should be there to begin with.) If they are nice, befriend them and perhaps you just made the first step of a life-long research collaboration; if they are not nice, learn from their strengths and move on. Be aware that the playing field will be unfair: some will have more experience, more resources, more popularity; and that's exactly how the rest of the system works. You worked before, you'd understand.
While I don't want to trivialize your worry, the fact is that this move opens a lot more opportunities to development, expansion, enrichment as it does disappointment, anxiety, and frustration. In other words, you have a lot more important things to plan and be prepared for. Take your head out of the birdbath, stop drowning yourself, because if you turn around, you'll see that you have a sea to chart.
I'd recommend a couple titles that you may find useful:
"The Professor Is In" by Karen Kelsky: This title discusses many things on how to be academically marketable. Kelsky, a seasoned admission director, shares a lot about getting ready to be a professional scholar.
"F*ck Feelings" by Michael Bennett and Sarah Bennett: This, or any other similar title that had recently conquered the Self-help book shelves, sometimes provides useful approach to deal with feelings. While it did not change my life, I did find seeing feelings through a comedic lens soothing.
"The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen Covey: Classic oldies that you can probably get a used one for 25 cents. It serves to give a good framework of seeing what success is. It's also one of the earlier titles (that I know of) which mentions the idea of "personal mission statement".
"Networking for People Who Hate Networking" by Devora Zack: I hate networking or pitching myself. This book puts much of my anxiety into perspective.
I wish you best of luck. Take the dive and really enjoy the time. Move forward.

Congratulations on your great offer but...
... for starters, you should try to stop using/thinking the bit in bold (quote yours, emphasis mine):

"I have been incredibly lucky to be offered a fully funded doctoral training course at a top university".

Someone (multiple people) looked at your application and chose to offer you a place. Your name was not drawn at random; someone with experience in admitting worthy students thought you would be a good fit for the program and you will have that in common with your fellow students :)

Another thing you can do that might help convince you you belong there is be clear about what you are interested in. Be able to tell people why you picked this program, what you hope to get out of it, what you plan to do research on. There are bound to be brilliant people in your cohort and you don't have to do better than them - that's not really a Ph.D. mentality since your aim is to contribute to knowledge rather than to come top of a course. It may help you to feel like their equal if you can speak with confidence about what your research interests are.
There's no quick-fix for being rusty. I guess you already know that you'll have to put in the necessary hours to brush up on things you've forgotten so certain projects might take a little longer at first. Don't let it isolate you - graduate projects are much more manageable if you talk to other people in your cohort / attend office hours (for courses) and talk to your supervisor frequently (for thesis work). Don't let the fear of appearing silly stop you from asking for help (this advice comes from recent experience in my own Ph.D.)!


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Can I put a tuition fee remission on my CV under scholarships?
My scholarship entails an annual stipend for 3.5 years and a fee remission (its quite significant because the fee is 39,000$ per semester) for 4 years. Should I include the fee remission on my CV as well? If so, should I couple them or state them separately? Citizens receive them as two different scholarships but internationals receive them both under one name. In addition, would you put the total amount or amount/year?

In general, I wouldn't put scholarships in a CV, but maybe in some corner of the world they are considered significant.

Why would you put the amount? Name the scholarship, if it's competitive, but other information should not be on your CV.

@MassimoOrtolano 'some corners of the world' like the UK. Until recently getting a scholarship in the UK was relatively rare.

@JessicaB This kind of differences make it hard to compare CVs of people coming from different countries (another example is that of the awards). By the way, how are PhD students usually supported in the UK?

Well very few students end up with scholarships in Australia and they're quite competitive for international students. It isn't like the US where grad school automatically means that you're funded. Which is why it makes sense for me to include it. Or do you mean that you don't include scholarships at all? I also wanted to know specifically about how to present it, as one or two.

You wouldn't put the amount? I've seen CVs where the scholarships and bursaries have listed with amounts when they're significant.

@MassimoOrtolano UK students would usually be advised not to complete a science PhD unless they can get one of the funded positions. Arts students are more likely to self-fund. International students mostly bring funding from their home country in some form.

Ph.D. studies are fully funded in many countries such as the US and Canada. If you receievd a merit-based scholarship/fellowship then you can certainly put it under the "honors/awards" section of your CV. However, if this scholarship was not awarded on a competitive or merit-based basis, and it was merely the standard package received by most Ph.D. students, it probably does not warrant a line in the CV.
(This answer assumes you are talking about Ph.D. studies based on the number of years mentioned in the question)

Yes it was a merit based scholarship. Especially competitive for international students. So can I put the fee remission as well?

And yes, I'm talking about a PhD. Sorry I didn't mention that.

@DivyanganaRakesh In that case I would put its name under "honors/awards" but I would still leave out the amount. I've only seen amount mentioned for grants, and even then, its usually for large amounts rounded down to the nearest million or quarter of a million.


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Is there an aggregated up to date list of published articles?
I'm thinking of an efficient way to stay up to date with recent news from given field (especially in mathematics and its subfields, but it perhaps does not matter for the question itself). Since there are hundreds or thousands of journals, then there are preprint archives such as arxiv.org, it seems quite inefficient to keep checking all of these separately.
So my question is, is there some aggregated service that would allow one to follow up new articels in given field(s)? This question How to 'stay up to date' in your field? seems to be related, and it mentions Google scholars. It just does not seem to allow much of a filtering, so I was interested in some alternatives. I was considering creating a service that would fetch data from different sites for such purpose, but I don't want to do anything that already exists...

Are you aware of zbMATH and MathSciNet?

@quid Not really, I think I have heard about MathSciNet, but not zbMATH. Going to check that out!

It looks good at least from what I am allowed, unfortunately for full access it requires institution subscription/affiliation, and I am not affiliated with university for quite a long time, do I need to get back to studies? :)

zbMATH provides limited access for free. It is the same model as MathSciNet; actually it's the 'original' in  away. There is/was also a Russian analogue. But I don't know much about that. // Besides the subscription issue, it should also be noted that  there is some delay incurred by the processing. .

This is really field-dependent.


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Ethics in putting my co-supervisor's name in a conference talk: his name did not appear in the book of abstracts
I am a PhD student who gave a talk in a conference three weeks ago. The conference had this condition that only three names will appear in their "synthetic program" with the speaker's name as the first author. The names of other authors will appear only in the book of abstracts. So when submitting the abstract (4-5 months ago) I first added my name, then my principal supervisor, then my industry partner (who covered all costs for me attending this conference). I believe that I entered my co-supervisor's name as the fourth author. The book of abstracts was published three weeks ago but I did not check whether my co-supervisor's name is appeared in the book because I was certain that I entered his name while submitting the abstract. Unfortunately, one week ago I realized that his name was missing from the book.
About the conference
It was a prestigious conference that was held abroad. However, we did not submit a conference paper. All we submitted was just a one paragraph (7-8 sentences) abstract that included only general aspects of the problem we studied without giving any results.
About my supervisors
I really like my principal supervisor. He is very kind and supportive. Each time we have a meeting I learn something new from him. My co-supervisor is a post-doc in our department and not a faculty member. I chose him as my co-supervisor around one year ago. I ask him to become my co-supervisor after my previous co-supervisor left our university. I mainly considered him as a friend not a co-supervisor and that is the main reason why I asked him to be my co-supervisor (he does not really help with my studies). I am a relatively independent student and I never expected him (or my principal supervisor) to contribute. However, I expected him to know that I will never remove his name from the list of authors intentionally. I am mature enough to know such basic principles and based on our conversations I think he must have realized this after 2-3 years being friends.
How did I realize that his name is missing?
Around 10 days ago right after my flight, my principal supervisor sent an email to me and asked for a meeting. I went to the meeting with my co-supervisor and after I explained my works my principal supervisor told me: "what were you thinking you did not include X's name in the paper?". Then I told them that the conference had that condition and his name should appear in the book of abstracts. Then my principal supervisor told my co-supervisor that "we should have checked the conference website first". My principal supervisor is the head of school and he is very busy. He is very famous and he does not care about his name being appeared in the conference talk. This is true especially because his field of study is different from what I do in my studies. So I am sure that my co-supervisor had told him about this. After the meeting my co-supervisor sent us an email attaching the book of abstracts proving that his name is not in the list of authors. He asked me for a reference to his name. Then I realized that his name was missing and I explained that it could be an error from the conference side. It might also be that I did a mistake when submitting the abstract. Anyways, I apologized for the inconvenience from this error.
My question
This situation taught me a lesson I already knew, the hard way. I already have a number of good journal papers and at least in this respect I know what is right and what is wrong. I have not seen or heard from my supervisors after I sent that email. We may have a meeting in 1-2 weeks.

What do you think I should I tell them in the following meeting?
Is my co-supervisor's way of handling this situation considered professional conduct? I am really sad as I expected him to tell me first. We were friends and I expected him to know I am not that stupid to intentionally remove his name. With regard to this situation, how should I behave from now on?

I would think that most people would understand if you explain it just as you did here. You listed four names and the conference removed the fourth. I think it is common, even reasonable, for your supervisor to want to advance the interests of your co-supervisor, but it is too late for any correction.
However, in the future you would be wise to check such things with everyone before you submit anything, especially when the conference or journal imposes rules that you think are not optimal. I would then try very hard to follow the advice given.
The fact that the co-supervisor didn't contribute shouldn't be raised in your meeting as there is nothing to gain from it - for anyone. While in the best of all possible worlds it should mean something, you can only lose by seeming to speak against your supervisor at this moment.
Whether your supervisor and/or co-supervisor is behaving well or not is also not a consideration for you at this point. If you can't make a change in the situation, work on the relationships so that everyone can move forward and work effectively. In poker terms, play the hand you are dealt, not the hand you wished for.

Thanks Buffy. Your answer is quite wise but I think I need to learn what is considered professional conduct in this situation. How should I deal with this person when I don't know his purpose? Do you think my co-supervisor had a professional conduct? Would you do the same?

@Opt, you can't control the actions or reactions of others. Whether it is professional or not matters very little to you at this point. What matters much more is your good relationship with people who matter.  It sounds like you did the right thing (behaved professionally) and that is all you can control. Even if you are forced by circumstances to "apologize" for something you didn't do, keep faith in yourself. Some people simply react emotionally in such situations. Some had expectations not met and lash out. Not your fault.