text:
Can lewd pictures and videos that non-consensually ended up on porn sites hurt my career in academia/industry?
I was involved in some not-safe-for-work (NSFW) photoshoots and amateur videos with a photographer in my undergrad (in the US) when I was going through a rough time. The media include my face in them (yes, stupid decision), and since I signed a model release he owns the pictures and videos.
He then set up a Tumblr account and posted the pictures and videos there (which I knew of and didn't mind at the time). However I recently realized that people had been stealing them and posting them on porn sites, and they've been up there for around 3-4 years now. There's no identifying information in them other than my face, so you wouldn't be able to just find them if you searched my name; you have to put in somewhat obscure terms or just happen to come across them to find them, really. Nevertheless I was shocked to see myself there. I'm trying to take them down but the videos are just on so many random porn sites that it'll be impossible to remove all of them. On top of that I don't technically own the media so there's that.
Anyway, I'm wondering how much of an impact this might have on my career? I'm currently doing a PhD in the EU and will apply to both industry and academia jobs in a few years.
I've seen Can leaked nude pictures damage one's academic career?, but decided to post a separate question since the other poster was able to take down the pics and their media was not as widely proliferated as mine are (from what I could tell), plus mine are on porn sites.
I've managed to have the images/videos removed from (what I'd consider) one of the two major websites they were on; hopefully I can get them removed from the other one too and then it'll be even more unlikely that people will find them?

there is something called "personal life".. I don't think people judge you for something you have done long ago... Good luck with your future..

The main question is whether the pictures come up when someone googles your name. If they don't, relax; no one is going to know. If they do, IMHO the most efficient thing you could do is chase them off the first page of the google results by getting a website, an ORCID page, a blog and signing up at various forums (like the stackexchange network). It's very hard to get a file off the internet if it has been widely shared.

@PraphullaKoushik: "People" maybe not, but "students";)

Hi, thanks for your reply; I looked at that thread but it seems that they were able to take down the pics and they were not so widely proliferated as mine are, plus mine are on pornsites; that's why I decided to make a new question.

@secretkeepcup I see that your situation is different in that respect. But then, the top-rated answers to that question addressed the OP's hypothetical concern that the pictures might eventually be widely proliferated. So maybe there's something helpful for you in there.

Yes, thank you! Some of the responses were helpful :) I'm just kind of freaking out and need some clarification.

Could you claim it is just a look-alike? Or are there features in the pictures that would be difficult to deny like a tattoo or a mole?

Fortunately they were taken before I got my tattoos :P But even so I'm not sure if I can claim that; the situation has never come up before but I'd say I have quite distinctive features.

@darijgrinberg thanks for your reply. I've tried searching for the videos/pics/a combo of terms with my name attached and nothing comes up, so that's good.

@secretkeepcup: No reason to worry then. Lots of people look like one another. I'd be more worried about sending takedown requests actually -- they might themselves get posted and show up when someone googles you.

@darijgrinberg oh is that so? Do they publicize who requested the content removal? I've already requested content removal on a couple of sites and reported a couple of tweets (most likely bot accounts) that were sharing photos.

@secretkeepcup: Some places do publicize content removal requests.

Apart from the very low probability that anybody would stumble upon this material, and bring it to the attention of the hiring committee, if I was on the committee, I would not see the relevance of this to your suitability for the job. To me, this is about as relevant as if it came to light that you like deep fried mars bars, which is to say, completely irrelevant.

@AlexB. That's good to hear, thanks for your comment :)

There are probably very large regional differences here. If you apply for jobs in very conservative areas, you might potentially face a larger back-reaction. That is, if it comes up.
I would say that I am from a quite liberal area of the world. I have been on several hiring committees, both in academia, and before that, in industry. I have never been on a hiring committee that searched through porn sites for pictures of a candidate. And frankly, I would be surprised if a member, who would have come across such pictures on their own time, would bring it to the attention of the committee.
And a personal perspective: Try not to worry too much about it. Everybody has a past. I can tell you that I also have naked pictures of myself online, not from porn, but from a reality-docu that aired on national television many years ago. Once I have had students mention it, and I simply said "yes, how did you like it?". And nothing more came of that.

Thanks so much, that's such a relief to hear actually. Won't be moving to any conservative areas tbh.

@nabla Haha that is a fantastic answer that you give to students in your last paragraph.

This is a rough situation for you, and you have my sympathy. However, I think it is also one that you cannot control: regardless of what actions you take now, the pictures are in circulation and will likely remain so. As such, there is little to be gained by worrying about it.
Unfortunately, there is always the chance that some student or colleague will stumble across the photos, recognise you, and then attempt to use this to embarrass you or otherwise gain advantage. Is this a bigger risk in academia/industry than any other career? I think this could be argued either way.
Bear in mind that while photos of yourself are instantly recognisable to you, it’s not always so clear cut to a casual observer - especially one who only sees you for a few hours a week. Even if someone thinks they recognise you, there will be room for doubt, and this only increases as you get older (and hence further from the photos).
I think it is prudent to think in advance about how you will react if someone ever brings the photos up: do you cheerfully admit it? Deny it? Tell them to grow up? Forewarned is forearmed. However, I don’t think you should let this influence your career path going forward.

Thanks for your reply. I'm not that bothered about students or even necessarily colleagues who are not my superiors stumbling across it (and the search terms under which these photos and vids are posted are pretty random/unlikely to be used by most people); I wouldn't have a problem dealing with their reactions. I'm just concerned about the hiring process for example, if this will have any impact on it, and also if someone (a random person perhaps) connects any professional photos I have with the nsfw ones and starts to harass me or send links to my employers, etc.

Sorry, I might seem really paranoid at the moment! So far it hasn't caused me any problems of course, as I got into my master's and PhD, and have had an online presence while these vids were floating around, but now that I know about them I feel more worried.

@secretkeepcup Certainly it is possible that someone discovers a photo and uses it against you. However, I think it is relatively unlikely that someone stumbles across a photo at just the time they happen to be on a hiring committee. Even if they did, it seems unlikely that they would want to admit to it in public, although it might colour their personal views.

Presumably a modelling release grants copyright to the photographer. There's probably a load of boilerplate legal text in the release too. There might be some clauses regarding responsibilities. Such clauses may hold parties responsible for enforcement, which could define legal responsibilities regarding restriction of distribution (i.e., enforcing copyright).
You did not (knowingly) grant the photographer rights to distribute material on porn sites. They have not taken adequate action to restrict distribution. Surely they must accept liability.
Read the release, see if there's anything that puts the photographer, or ideally a large company, on the hook for policing. Even if there isn't, have a quick chat with a lawyer, see what they can do. (I wonder whether there's a legal fund that can help, should you need to hire a lawyer.) Perhaps - and it's a big perhaps - you can force someone to quash distribution or at least limit it. I don't even know whether that's plausible, but it's surely worth a few hours to look into.
I appreciate that I haven't answered your actual question and I apologise if you've already considered all of this. I just figured that getting rid of material on porn sites would eliminate the need to consider whether they'll cause harm. Personally, I don't think they would nor should they.
Academic abilities compliment modelling/acting abilities, I see no ethical nor moral conflict either.
That said, dinosaurs may be morally outraged, hold deluded opinions, etc. You're above those people though.

Thanks a lot for your reply; I don't have the release anymore. I've been trawling the internet looking for where the pics have been posted, and it seems they're all over on random sites and even on random twitter bot accounts. Seems like they've just been spreading via downloaders or something. I'm going to try and fill out Google's right to being forgotten form as well.

IANAL, but I don't think the photographer has any liability of the photos are stolen and republished. Copyright holder has a right to enforce copyright but not an obligation to do so.

@DmitrySavostyanov The photographer is absolutely liable if the release says so. A fair release would give and take; a thorough release would include provisions around enforcement. So, it is plausible for a fair, thorough release to place reasonable liability on the photographer, whether the OP's release does, we don't know, it all depends on the legal wording.

So, the photographer asks a young unprofessional model to sign a release which makes the photographer liable if photos are leaked. Next we know, the photographer puts photos on the internet where anyone can download them. Hmmm... did you use the word plausible?

@DmitrySavostyanov makes the photographer liable if photos are leaked. Not at all: The release has legal mumbo jumbo that reads just fine and seems innocuous, but, when you dig into the details it has loads of consequences that neither the photographer nor the model had anticipated, only the lawyer did. I've found many legal documents to be incredibly cunning, when written by a good lawyer. Of course,the lawyer is looking after the client. But, let's be honest, we didn't expect the Internet to turn out how it has. So, mutually beneficially clauses at the outset, may harm the photographer now

There are many great responses here. I agree them mostly. I want to point out few things. First thing is not to panic. Although your employer has any right to do anything about your private life we can resonably assume that at least some admin people might be worried about "public image" or "parents complaining". Which of course may cause them to "deprioritizing" you unofficially. Although I think there is a chance that this can come out, I think you should be just fine in most cases.
Currently, most image searches do not use facial recognition. However yandex do use facial recognition. Here is a Vox article about it. Although this tools are still at infancy, if we consider how invasive data driven online tools have been in the past years and the lax nature of data protection laws, one can only image reverse image searches will get only better.
Now, I reiterate, this is quite unlikely. First of all who would reverse image search you? Definitely not an employer. A creep, maybe. And I can not image a creep student going to his/her friend saying "look I have been stalking prof. secretkeepcup, and found these nude pictures that looks like her/him.". Imagine how big of a weirdo this would make the creep look like. Stalking cut the both ways. I don't think anyone would be comfortable to discuss his/her findings stalking you. Especially because of the following.
There are currently may technologies that can fake pornographic content. Photo editing has been around even in Stalin's time, there is something called deepfake which can fake videos, including audio. Now, if someone were to find your NSFW media, there is no reason to believe this media is not fabricated. It would be ackward to bring it up with other people (say students or colleagues). It would be inappropriate for someone to ask you directly. And even if you were asked, you can easily deny it and claim it is either a look alike or a fabrication. Now, I leave you alone with the ethics of denying (as it is lying) but it seems somewhat unlikely that it will every be needed.

Thank you! I'm slowly panicking less but it's hard for me not to since I have anxiety problems anyway. I agree that it's very unlikely anyone would ever come across it and recognize me. Claiming it was faked is an interesting suggestion!

@secretkeepcup if you don't have problem with lying, it is a very reasonable explaination. Even today, it is hard to tell apart if a video is fabricated via deepfake. Imagine how it will be in 5-10 years.

I don't have a problem lying about this in particular haha. Hopefully it never comes to this!

I think it is social acceptable to tell one's friends that you googled the teacher and found funny things. That this will not be acceptable once you can search for videos I canmot believe.

Sadly, the answer is yes, it can hurt you. But you can also assure that it hurts you very seldom and very little, assuming you want to remain in a relatively "liberal" society and not one dominated by fundamentally misogynistic principles.
First, you have to assume that, no matter how hard you try, you won't be able to completely remove the images. The web is too dispersed to make it even possible. And things, once removed, can pop up again in the future. It is still worth the effort, I think, to try to get them removed and to use what laws and other pressures are open to you to do so, but the efforts are too likely to fail.
But, you can still be proactive in lessening the damage if you just admit, as you did here, that you made mistakes when you were younger and less mature. People mess up. It makes us human. We can't claim perfection. Many people, starting out, are embarrassed by their past behavior. But they learn from it and move on. Some of the past behavior was public enough that it can come up again in the future. Admit to it. "Sadly, I messed up. But I needed the money and had no other resources. I've moved on." You don't even need to be ashamed of your past actions. You were in some ways, perhaps many ways, a victim. More people, I predict, will commiserate with you than condemn you. But most people won't ever know in the first place.
I certainly don't recommend bringing it up yourself in any context. I don't recommend lying about it if someone asks. That might result in greater harm to your career than the images themselves. The past is the past. It can't be changed so there is no option but to own it. Only the future can be affected by our actions. But none of your professional work will be marked with an asterisk and a footnote.
But do what you can to stomp it down if the images start to reappear.

+1, for the general message, but, do you believe the OP has something to admit? That they made a mistake? Messed up?

@user2768, that is a subtle point. Thanks. Victims, don't, of course, need to admit error, but I can't really comment on the OP's details. They may have done, or not.

Thanks for your advice. I'm trying to remove the images and vids from as many places as possible, but because there are so many bots/automatic uploads, I don't think I'll be able to get all of them. The man whom I was 'seeing' was fairly older than me (I was a sophomore in college) and was clearly manipulative in ways, but I do feel like this is largely my fault too, for being with him at all.

I can't agree with admitting to mistakes here.  First off, having risque photos of yourself taken isn't inherently a mistake, but more importantly, if there's nothing to connect you to these photos besides a loose "that looks a bit like her..." then a far better answer is to just deny it's you and move on.

@Jeff, the issue of admitting mistakes is discussed in these comments and I don't disagree. But it is hard for me to accept that suggest straight up lying or denying facts is good advice to any academic. Your practice may differ, I suppose.


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What do postdoc advisors/hiring committee typically look for in a potential theoretical high energy physics postdoc candidate?
I want to get a rough idea of how much post-doc advisors/hiring committee give weightage to the following factors in a potential postdoc hire. If I have missed out some factor(s), please mention them also.

Recommendations: Typically how many recommendations, does "the more the better" hold true here? Also does it matter if referees give okayish recommendations but are well recognised versus strong recommendations but not-so-well recognised?
Papers: Is there a threshold to the number of papers published, and typically how many? Also are preprints on ArXiv taken into consideration, if not published in a journal? Are few but mostly single-authored papers (1-3) given more preference than multiple-authored but many (>5), assuming the quality is same?
Statement of purpose: How important is demonstrating here that the candidate has a well defined career plan ahead? Any other relevant factors?

Apart from this, did I miss any other factors?
This is my first post here, please give feedback in case you think the question can be improved.

Likely depends a lot on the institution and the specific opening.

@JonCuster Good point. However there must be some common factors according to which I would like to prepare and design my application. I can customize the application to be institute/opening specific afterwards.

Have you talked to your supervisor? They have likely hired postdocs before and would be able to give you much more specific advice than we can.

Typically how many recommendations, does "the more the better" hold true here?

The job advert will usually tell you how many references to provide. I'd be wary of exceeding the number they ask for -- you want to demonstrate basic competency by following the instructions about the application. The same goes for any formatting of CV, cover letter or research statement that they require.

Also does it matter if referees give okayish recommendations but are well recognised versus strong recommendations but not-so-well recognised?

An okayish letter from a well-known researcher is a waste of a letter. You want (at least) three strong letters, ideally from people who have worked closely with you, and on different topics if possible.

Is there a threshold to the number of papers published, and typically how many?

Individual people doing the hiring may have their own prejudices, but there is no community-agreed upon minimum number. One high quality first author paper trumps five weak papers where you're in the middle of the author list.

Also are preprints on ArXiv taken into consideration, if not published in a journal?

If you've submitted the paper to a journal you're probably fine. I can't answer your question about single-authored papers as they are extremely rare in my field (cosmology).

How important is demonstrating here that the candidate has a well defined career plan ahead?

Writing about your long-term career plans is less important than writing about the research you plan to do in the job you're applying for, and how working at that particular institute, with the particular person who's hiring will enable you to do that research better than if you went anywhere else. (This obviously depends a bit on the job being advertised; some postdoc positions already have a well-defined research plan laid out in the advert, in which case you need to emphasise how your skills and previous experience make you the ideal person to work on that project.)
You may be asked about your longer-term (2-5 year) career plans at interview. This is another opportunity to emphasise how doing this particular job will get you to where you want to be in that time frame.

Any other relevant factors?

Above all, people want to hire strong researchers, who they know will get the job done. Your strengths are best demonstrated by your published research, but there are other skills which are important for academic success. These are things like verbal presentation skills, the quality of your written English, networking ability (particularly if you can build a network distinct from your PhD supervisor's), organisation and committee experience, teaching and supervision experience (this becomes far more important as you progress in your career)... the list goes on. You need to consider if you have evidence for each one of these points that you can highlight in the appropriate place (CV, research statement, cover letter or interview).
However, I reiterate my comment: talk to your supervisor. They are the person best placed to evaluate your application before you send it off and help you to improve it.

Great points, thank you for the answer.

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What are the basic things to keep in mind in order to write a good looking paper?
Recently my advisor told me to write a paper up on a problem I have been working on, on my own. Since I have never written one before, I wanted to ask what are the essential ingredients one needs to keep in mind in order to write a good paper. Till now I understand that the following things are important:

Reducing typos and grammatical mistakes.
Proper references.
A good introduction which describes the work's justification and relevance, and its connection to existing ideas in literature.
Catchy but not cheesy title.
Nice writing style. I like to describe one idea per sentence/point, which sequentially connect to each other.
An adequate mixture of words and equations such that the content is easy to follow. Basically not too many words in the same place, and not too many equations either.
Asking some people to review the drafts.

Apart from this, are there some obvious things which I am missing which are very essential?

I think you may be looking for https://persagen.com/files/misc/bearnensquash2010gestalt.pdf and https://arxiv.org/pdf/1812.08775.pdf.

Your list so far is great. I think this question is maybe a bit too broad though.

@StuartGolodetz Thanks for the links.

First of all, you want to clearly present the problem you are tackling and the approach that lead you to the success (or failure). This is the meat of the paper that most of the time should be spent on.
It is common to write papers starting from the core that later naturally expands into sections like Introduction, Conclusion, and Abstract. There are certainly other approaches, but based on the list you outlined, I would certainly stress that the clear and correct presentation of the paper essence (which is usually not in the introduction, title, or proper references) is the most important thing.
After a good content-wise version of the paper is finished, then the time of the items in your list come into the play: typos, grammar, references, title choice, appropriate writing style, paper flow.
Several things I would point to be important (in addition to your list), but not necessarily essential:

Look into how the papers in your field are usually written. That will help in getting the basics right. Avoid uncommon abbreviations and notation, unless justified. If you have a journal/conference in mind for submission, take a close look into the guidelines for the template, paper organization, editorial & referencing style.
Look into the flow of the paper. Ideally, most sentences logically flow from the previous one, every paragraph logically follows and is expected after the previous one, and so on.
Consider adding quality figures or diagrams that help to illustrate your problem/idea/approach/results (if any of that is relevant to your field).
Since you mentioned equations, consider double- and triple-checking your typed equations and derivations, maybe even using a symbolic math processing engine.

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How to explain a missing grade card in unofficial transcript for online graduate application?
I'm an international pre-final year undergraduate student. My undergraduate degree consists of 8 semesters and I'm currently in the 6th semester. I'm hoping to apply to US mathematics graduate schools this Nov-Dec, for Fall 2021. I missed a final exam in the 4th semester due to medical reasons and was supposed to re-appear for it in May 2020. However, now that re-test will probably be scheduled in December due to COVID and I won't get the results before the US application deadlines this year.  Moreover, I was not issued any grade card for that 4th semester.
Now several US math graduate programs say that they only require unofficial transcripts in the online application and that hard copy official transcripts can be submitted later. So would it make sense to apply anyway with only my 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 6th semester grade cards, and with the 4th semester grade card missing? Would I have to explain that one missing grade card in the online application? If yes, how? Say, would a letter from my head of department, explaining the situation be helpful? I will hopefully get my 4th semester results by March 2021 though, so I think I will later be able to send the official hard copy transcripts in time, in case I get an admit.

What about the other courses from that semester?

If your department head is able to see your grades, perhaps they could provide a letter, since all you need now is "unofficial" data. People may be willing to accept it given the current pandemic and its disruption. But it is up to the recipient to accept it or not.

You could email the graduate admissions office for the universities you are interested in applying to, and ask them what you should do.

I would expect that the mathematics faculty who will evaluate your application will have no problem with your situation. If there is a problem at all, it would be with bureaucrats in the central administration.

If you don't apply, you don't get in. Simple. If you do, then there may be some difficulties, but many of them can probably be overcome in the eyes of most institutions. Given the current pandemic, people are going to have to be flexible.
I'd suggest that you have someone, maybe the department head, provide an unofficial listing of your courses and grades for that semester. Perhaps they are allowed access to grades, but they can also contact your professors to verify the grades if necessary. Explaining the grading process at your university would also be useful in such a note.
A note from you explaining the situation might be helpful, since the reason was medical and the delay is well explained.
I can't guarantee that anyone would necessarily accept this, but suspect that most will, especially since they only need official transcripts later.
But, again, you have little (almost nothing) to lose by making a good faith attempt and putting together the best record you can for admission. People will be looking for evidence that you will succeed. Provide that.


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The complication of not inviting my ex-supervisor to a podcast dedicated to our sub-field?
I am hosting a podcast related to our field where we invite the stars of our field, the podcast has grabbed an audience from different demographic regions and it becomes very well know in the community. Before that, my ex-supervisor who is in the field and somehow is well known in the field was trying to destroy my career, it was a long story and s(he) was abusive. Now, no one knows about that, I feel sometimes it may sound unethical as I somehow invited everyone the field except him/her. The podcast also got an award from the events organized by the leaders of the field. I don't know how to be neutral, should I invite him/her at some point? because it becomes blatant I am trying to avoid inviting him/her, I know s(he) destroyed me literally, but now we have an audience and at least I have to be inclusive, do you think I have to invite him/her?

Are they very good and worth listening to? [independently of your personal problems]

@CaptainEmacs, you mean the podcast episodes?

Your ex-supervisor's talks.

No, he had never been in any talks. Only at workshops, but it not that interesting, of course technically he knows, but he isnot inspiring and toxic unfortunately.

If you own the podcast, do what ever you feel like.  This is dubiously relevant to academia.  Academia doesn't care about podcasts.

@AnonymousPhysicist, who said that academia doesnot care about podcast, it is a public service and even the academician I am interviewing think it is a good to connect the fieldandexposing ideas , I am sorry, but indeed maybe you are an old school.The reality is scicommunication/podcast is much more interesting t] than nonproducible papers, I dont underestimate the value of papers/books, but I think technical podcast IMHO helped me and others toknow more ideas and think as each guest was inspiring.

@AnonymousPhysicist, and if you are right, why we have more than 100 episodes?

Invite him/her to record an episode and do so. Afterwards, inform him/her that unfortunately, there was a technical problem with the recording and you will not be able to publish the episode.

I suggest to forget the fact that they are "toxic" on the emotional level, that's between you and them.
You say they are not that inspiring. As organiser of your podcasts, if you consistently invite good speakers, you do not need to invite mediocre ones; and that includes your ex-supervisor.
On the other hand, if you do invite speakers across the board in terms of speaking quality, there is one more thing for you to probe.
You should contemplate whether this ex-supervisor could harm your career if you invite them. For instance, by entering back into your life, by getting influence over you again or by trying to usurp your podcast platform (I have no idea whether this is a possible scenario, but just for you to get the idea what I mean). If that is the case, nobody can expect from you to sacrifice your career just to be magnanimous.
If that is not the case either, it ends up being your decision and you have to absorb the moral dilemma that emerges from it of it. It is a difficult one to make, since you can not just declare "conflict-of-interest" like a reviewer and know that the paper will still be fairly handled by someone else. However, in the end of the day, it is, as CJL says, your podcast.
It would be magnanimous to host them; but do not do this if there is any danger to your career by doing that. And, if you end up inviting that person, keep your interaction with them highly professional, but as distant as you can. You're the boss in this part of town.

Answer's too ambiguous to be useful.

@AnonymousPhysicist It's an algorithm. He explains that he felt it's unethical, and I explain under which circumstances it is not. Saying "it's fine not to invite him" is not really true. I do not see how you can expect an entirely unambiguous response in an ethical dilemma. That's the nature of the problem. Sometimes, life requires subtle responses.

Using your position as an organizer to not invite the people you don't like to your thing is the only real reason anyone in academia ever organizes anything. They might retaliate but it doesn't really sound like your relationship is worth anything anyway. Just make sure not to actually say what you're doing, if anyone asks you about it just make up a generic excuse about scheduling.

-1. Your first sentence strikes me as an unfair generalization. Further, "do something and then lie about it" is rarely an ethical position; I don't think you've justified why it would be appropriate here.

What's that supposed to mean? I got the part about lying about the reasons. But is it "Invite or not"?

It's very clearly "do whatever you want if you're the one organizing".

@CJR Not "very clearly", at least to me, especially with this double-speak and crossed-out statements, but thanks for clarifying now.

"Using your position...to not invite the people...is the only real reason..." - no. There may be some people for whom this is the case, but many people know that if they do not organise something, nobody will.


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Asking for a recommendation letter (Post-Doc) when you have Bipolar Disorder
I'll be defending my PhD soon and I want to ask two professors for a letter of recommendation. They both know that I've been responsible with my work lately and I've made an impressive progress. The problem is: I behaved in an embarrassing way during most of my years in grad school. I'm so ashamed that I now avoid social contact with people in my department.
My problems during grad school were serious: suicide attempts, several hospitalizations, manic delusions and substance abuse (marijuana). Last Summer I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder (after dealing with years of misdiagnoses). I was then put on a mood stabilizer, got better and started working every day to compensate for the time I lost. I finished my dissertation and I submitted two papers for publication.
Considering all the problems I had during most of my years in grad school, do you think anyone would ever write me a letter of recommendation? How should I ask for it? Should I explain the professors why I'm now stable?
Thank you!

Depending on the level of trust you have, you might consider revealing some of your medical history along with assurance that the issues are under control and won't result in future problems. But you also need to let them know whether it is ok or not for them to pass on details in letters. This is probably not advised. A LoR saying you had previous medical issues, now resolved, that affected performance is about as far as anyone should go. But make sure you set the limits.
However, also consider whether your recent performance, especially with letter writers, is good enough that they will discount/ignore the earlier problems altogether, and only write about your current performance and your likelihood of success.
And, even if you decide to tell some people, it might be best to limit the details. The important message is really only "medical condition", "now resolved". Beyond that may be more personal than you are comfortable with.
You might even consider asking them, provided your relationship is strong enough, whether your past performance would color their recommendation. If they hesitate to say no, then it might be more useful to give them the key message - medical, resolved.


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Advisor wants first author. Do I have any leverage?
I'm doing undergrad research with a team, advised by a professor. I have a good relationship with this professor, but told us after the research started that he would be first author. I was at first just excited to do research, but the more I think about it, the more I think this isn't right.

His contribution was the original idea- not a fleshed out idea that we just implemented, but a very general "try this approach," a push in the right direction. Taking this approach, mind you, would be obvious to anyone well versed in the field (as I have learned), and within this approach, there are thousands of different avenues we could go to try achieving the results we want.
We have spent months doing research, and we have weekly-ish meetings, in which he asks us questions about what we're doing (we explain how our work, because it is our own creation) and he reminds us to write down everything we do. This has been his contribution for the duration of the project.
We are expected to write the entire paper ourselves- which he will then edit.

I have a meeting with him (one on one) in the near future and I would really like to bring this up, because first authorship would be huge for me or anyone on my team, whereas he already has an academic career. But I am only a first year, and he has expressed interest in doing future research with me.
My question is: do I have any leverage in this argument? Can I present this as a deal breaker for me for future projects? Is there any other way to denote who actually did the work that I can push for here? I'm not sure if he wants to make it seem like he did the work or if that's just "what we do" in my department for undergrad research. I don't want to ruin my relationship with this professor, but I also don't want to feel like my team and I are being taken advantage of.
Responses to questions:

My field is applied computer science
I think it would make sense for either my friend or me to be first author (I don't think having to make this choice would lead to problems)
I have no objection to co-first-authorship, but it would have to be me and my friend, not one of us plus the professor.

The idea of a joint contribution may vary across fields. It is usually marked by a footnote on the title page of the paper (such as an asterisk mark) which says something on the lines of "these authors contributed equally to the work". I would think getting a joint authorship would be better than being a second or third author but its very field specific

Why does it matter that the professor already has an academic career? Shouldn't this depend on contribution not on career stage?

@NathanS. I agree with you, but his position of power is the reason he will be first author. The argument I was trying to make in comparing our career stages is that while being first author might help his CV, it would make mine

@BryanKrause: See my answer; IMHO the model to adopt is removing all significance from the order of author listing.

@einpoklum That method  is held as an ideal by some, but I think it would be a terrible idea for my field.

@BryanKrause: How so?

@einpoklum Because contributions are not anywhere near equal and there are often many authors on a given paper. If you don't have some way to track the primary contributors it would be very difficult to make any measure of peoples' individual productivity. I think it would result in a lot of currently "middle authors" being excluded from author lists as well as give incentive to work on many different projects at the expense of penalizing narrow focus.

@BryanKrause: Papers should not inform readers about the measure of contribution of the different authors. Once people adopt this outlook, it is no longer much of an issue where your name is, nor whether there are more or less names.

@einpoklum Good luck designing another system that does allow you to measure contribution of different authors without all the problems that authorship order surfaces.

@BryanKrause: The point is to confound this "quantification of contribution".

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

Perhaps the prof has a policy of always putting himself first on papers written by undergrad teams to avoid conflict in figuring out which one of the undergrads deserves first authorship. Maybe you can settle that conflict with your teammates first and then talk to the prof. Who knows, maybe he will be happy with being last author, as is customary for PIs in many fields.

@Joooeey: That's a weird and unethical policy. Such professors might adopt a policy to throw coins in case of conflicts.

Although Buffy's advice to let this go is practical, and I agree that would be perfectly fine, I think you have a second option here. Namely, if you are careful, you can bring up your concern with the advisor. However, if you do this, you shouldn't phrase it as an accusation or a claim that someone else should be first author; that would be unnecessarily antagonistic and probably would not help your case.
Instead, you could phrase it as a question. Say that you would like to understand how authorship order is determined better. Although you assume that the author order has already been agreed upon for this particular paper, as a starting researcher you are curious about the etiquette of authorship. You can ask if it is common for the PI to be first author in your area. Depending on how receptive he is, you can ask other questions.
If you follow this approach, then probably one of two things will happen:

First, he could become defensive and dismissive. This is more likely if he is really being unethical. In this case, Buffy is probably right that your best bet is to let this go for now. Sadly, these things happen; author order isn't always determined correctly, and that can be either due to honest error or due to dishonesty. You could always talk to another professor or mentor for moral support and to assess how to proceed (particularly for future projects), but probably for this one accepting the order is not such a big deal in the grand scheme of things.
Second, he could be helpful and receptive. Maybe he will explain that he is usually first author on his papers. Perhaps he has a good reason for this. For example, in some fields, that is accepted, while in others that is pretty condemned (I don't know what is the case for your field). But he could also have some personal justification for why to go against the convention. I would not agree with him, but perhaps if he explains this then it would make it easier for you to understand.

Whatever you decide, try to see the bigger picture that authorship is not always obvious, and this professor will be judged for his own actions by colleagues and the community in the future; it's to some extent out of your hands. Good luck.

Also the question is: how important was identifying the direction in the first place? Sometimes the weeks of productive student work (the part that OP sees) is preceded by years of hard struggle with the question at hand to boil it down to manageable chunks. This is not always visible to the students doing the groundwork.

@CaptainEmacs I totally agree that PI's contribution is often underestimated. However, isn't it usually more a matter of convention than comparing the exact contribution between student and PI? For instance, in many fields although it is assumed PIs are actually the lead intellectual contribution, they still get put last out of convention. In other fields, alphabetical order is standard regardless of contribution.

I agree, but sometimes the PI may really want to demonstrate their primacy in developing the idea (rather than supervising a student's work), for instance for grants etc. I personally found these author ordering issues in non-biological/-medical fields quite irrelevant in the end. I know that in biology/medicine, that's a different issue. So one may consider the field here.

Note that the PI may have already known the basic approach and solution to the problem - and just gave it to the students to give them the experience in working it out.

@CaptainEmacs The PI here actually is not my advisor. He comes from a different engineering field and our research is aimed at creating a tool which solves a specific problem he faces in his research.

If, after having an open and honest conversation with the advisor about this, you ultimately decide that it is exploitative on the part of the advisor, I suggest that you immediately cut your losses, discontinue any work on the paper, and find more ethical people to work with. This is my suggestion based on personal experience.

@bean Losing a paper on the question of the ordering of the author? I would not advice such a thing. You may think of avoiding future collaborations, but that would burn bridges.

@usr1234567 Are you saying not working on future projects together would burn bridges, or dropping our current paper would burn bridges (or both)? I think declining to work on future projects with professor X and then turning around and doing research with professor Y (whom professor X may have worked with for 15 years-- you never know) is just asking for trouble.

@CaptainEmacs: Isn't that always the case in research "on the shoulders of giants"?

@user111388 Quite so. It almost never comes out of thin air, but some are giants are taller than others. BTW, the "shoulders of giants" is actually not as modest as it sounds, rather a dig that Newton took at Hooke. They were professional rivals, yea, enemies, and Hooke kept accusing Newton of plagiarism who himself thought Hooke was weak at math and therefore attaching his own informal intuitions to results of technically stronger people (i.e. himself). Now, Hooke was not exactly a tall man. You'll get the gist. [Aside: Today's historical research has revised the negative view on Hooke]

@usr1234567 It's certainly a value judgement that has to be made. However, I feel that people should stand up to the exploiters. As far as bridges, I've found that the ones connecting with unethical people are not worth keeping. Also, if you've made significant contributions to the paper, they can't ethically take you off even if you skip out before it's fully complete. In short, you won't "lose" the paper, and you don't need that bridge anyway (if you're actually on the right side of things).

@bean: Agreed but one point: Leaving a paper to people you don't trust ist dangerous. Than you loose control but your name still sticks to it.

The idea was his. He guided you throughout, giving ideas ("try this"). He seems to clearly have been the "team leader" from what you say. In the absence of any dramatically different information or analysis, I suggest that you let this go. You get a publication. It isn't a doctoral thesis. You gained knowledge that will help you later. Lots of good things here.
And, in general, fighting with advisors is a poor career move.
But, in future projects, especially when the idea for the research comes from you, settle the question of first authorship at the start. Or, just decline to participate, citing other commitments.
In fact, even in this case, it was settled at (or near) the start. And if there were many participants, it may not be clear that anyone else has a better claim.
Depending you your field, this is a typical thing. Even when the PI is listed last on a paper, many (not all) people assume that it was the PI that "really" did the work.

Is it common to go for something of a "joint PI" in a paper?

PI is Principal Investigator, @arbitraryusername, which normally means someone funding a project or with authority over it. It doesn't normally or automatically mean "equal contribution". For that, listing authors alphabetically with an acknowledgement footnote indicating the fact is often used.

“many […] people assume it was the PI that really did the work” — agreed, but also contrariwise, many other people will assume that the PI did not contribute concretely beyond lab/group leadership, and will assume that most of the actual work came from the less senior authors.  (Field-dependent, of course, but I’ve heard this from people in a wide range of fields, including both experimental sciences and theoretical computer science.)

In this case it's going to look like the student was essentially being told what to do by the supervisor and was not being independent, the tide is changing in academia to favour people who can work independently, this is why it's highly desirable to try and publish your own papers where you are the only author.

I think this is bad advice. If you did most of the work, you deserve to be the first author. Your advisor's behavior is not only selfish, it is also borderline unethical. My suggestion, whatever you end up doing, is to get away from this person as soon as possible.

@Gabriel, while I agree with you in principle, fighting with your advisor, even when you are in the right can be a career destroying move. If they are unethical in large as well as small ways, it is the student that suffers. Throwing yourself on your sword for a principle is seldom a optimal strategy in life. But, in this case it isn't actually obvious that the advisor doesn't have a valid claim. Especially in a team project environment. But, yes, some advisors should be quickly left behind. But try to leave without knives embedded in your back.

I agree with @Buffy that you should let this go and not bring it up.  Even in a veiled-yet-transparent way, as @6005 suggested (I don't see any way you could bring that up, now, in a way that doesn't create needless conflict with the person helping you through your early career).
I'm fortunate to be in a field (econ) where the order of authorship is always alphabetical, so this doesn't come up.  But even here, there's a fairly famous story of a firmly-established, well-known professor telling one of his grad students something like: "This is great work, and will for sure get published.  It was sufficiently your own that you can publish it with yourself as the only author.  If you do so, it will go to a good journal.  Now, if you want to put my name on it also, then it will surely be published by the best journal in the field.  The choice is entirely yours."
The story goes that the student opted to put his advisers name on, and sure enough, was published in the top journal.
My point here is that, rightly or wrongly, you shouldn't think of authorship as strictly merit based.  Right now, despite everything you wrote, it strikes me as utterly normal that the professor overseeing undergraduate researchers would be the first author.  Instead of fretting over it, be very happy that you're getting authorship as an undergrad (maybe that's normal in your field; in my that's incredibly rare), and then think toward the future.
Regardless, congrats on having a professor who is this interested in doing research with someone who is still early in their undergraduate career!  It certainly speaks well to your work so far.

I think in computer science it's somewhat normal. He has multiple undergrad research groups working on their own projects, and I'm assuming they're all going to be authors on their own work.
As far as my approach to talking to him about it, I think I'm going to just wait until after we publish this paper, when there are no material stakes in the discussion of his authorship policies (he wont get defensive for fear of "losing" first authorship on this paper over a disagreement). If I strongly disagree with his policy, I will have a much easier time telling him so then.

I think that's a great plan.  Asking a question about how authorship in your field works, as an undergrad, when there is no pending authorship, makes perfect sense and shouldn't be inherently confrontational at all.  Especially if you can do it in a class or group setting, where it's part of a lesson.

"it strikes me as utterly normal that the professor overseeing undergraduate researchers would be the first author." In my field it's abusive.

@AnonymousPhysicist Can you elaborate on how it's not at all normal for the senior person who knows how to conduct research, in a lab of undergrads, being the first author in your field?

In my field, the first author is the student who did the grunt work.  The last author is the supervisor.  Being last author is more prestigious.  If the supervisor puts themselves first, they are taking credit away from the student and taking credit away from themselves. It's both abusive and illogical.

https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/535/what-does-author-order-indicate/537#537

You state that you are an undergraduate, and that you have a good relationship with the professor. Based on these points, I'd urge you to regard this as an opportunity to learn, and maybe to deepen a relationship with somebody more senior in your field, instead of viewing it as an opportunity to build your resume.
I would advise that you do discuss it with your adviser. Not as a negotiation, but with an inquisitive approach. Be upfront that in an ideal world, you would like to be the first author. Make the case, as you have here -- but don't dwell on it overly -- (a) why you think that would be fair, and (b) why it would be advantageous.
But spend more energy on asking questions (which I'll pull and reframe from your question). Keep your mind as open as you can to the answers.

How would he describe the contribution he, you, and others have made to the project? How significant does he feel his expertise is? How does he perceive the quantity and quality of work of the various participants?
How might it be helpful to him, in his career, to be listed as first author?
What will the editing process look like, and how will it add value to the final product? Does he expect to be just tweaking grammar and spelling, or will he also be looking for substantive critique of how you present the project?
What might a negotiation look like at this point? Is he open to arguments that somebody else should be listed as first author? If so, what kinds of arguments would be persuasive? What might he consider irrelevant?
How does he view the ethics of the decision, considering these points -- and presumably other points that you haven't brought up?
As your career moves forward, how would he advise you to approach first authorship in future situations?

If you can get some good answers to questions like this from somebody in your field, it might help your career more than simply getting first authorship on this paper.

I have ultimately decided to take this approach, but I will wait until after our current paper is published. Our relationship is already probably the most valuable tool I have in my "career development toolbox," so for now, while I'm still just doing "schoolboy papers," at least, I can continue learning and gaining experience and not lose too much sleep about author ordering. Thank you for these great questions though, I will definitely be asking some of these when the time comes.

Yes, this is an opportunity to learn - learn how senior faculty very often "live" off the backs of their juniors.

@einpoklum I don't have enough information to agree or disagree with you, and it seems to me that the original poster probably doesn't either. As has been described in other threads, there are a lot of factors involved in who deserves the kudos. It's possible that the professor is being unfair; it's possible that the professor has contributed to the paper's success in ways the poster is unaware of; and it's also possible (likely, I'd say) that multiple people could make a reasonable case for first author, in which case there is indeed nuance to learn about.

You should consider the following:
-The importance of the paper to your professor may be dependent on their appointment. For instance, if they are an assistant professor and tenure track, this may be beneficial for their tenure package (in addition to grant money, teaching load, teaching scores...). You may be unaware that if a professor is tenure track, they have typically 7 years to obtain tenure to promote to an associate professor, or tenured professor. If that does not occur, then they will be released from their job. If they are an associate professor, this is less important, as at least their appointment is not on the line.
-Don't underestimate the amount of time that it will take for your advisor to perform the editing, which can take longer than just writing the paper themselves. In addition, you will need the expertise of your advisor to help craft a paper that will make it through peer review successfully, with hopefully minimal editing.
If you do not feel like there is a good return on your time in writing the paper, then you have done enough work to legitimately be included on the paper (and get a good recommendation if things are left on good terms). However, there is a reasonable chance that the paper may never be written, depending on how busy your advisor is. Alternatively, you could write the paper as a second author, and relay to your advisor that you really enjoyed this project and would like to be primary on the next project. This would be the ideal scenario if you are looking at graduate school, as the relationship between you and the advisor would have been mutually beneficial and would result in a presumably strong letter of recommendation.

This professor is tenured

You might not realize it but your supervisor might have known in advance what will work and how it will work. When he says "try this" this is frequently a way to pretend that he doesn't know so as to stimulate the undergrads to work (it's is very discouraging to work on something that is sure to work out, there is no excitement then). However the "try this" is often built on years of experience, and he might know very well how this project is going to go, what works and what doesn't. It might have looked like he didn't do much work, but there might be a lot experience behind it that you are discounting. Generally speaking imagine that your supervisor did not exist, would that project be possible, would it surface at all? Imagine now that you never contributed to that project, would it exist? If the answer is NO and YES then clearly he should be first author.

Also to add to this : wait for his edits before you even start the conversation. After seeing the edit you might realize that he is extremely experience in this.

I agree with all of the answer except: "he should be first author." This last conclusion is very field-dependent. In many fields by convention advisors do not put their name first, but last.

If that is qualified then I would give this +1.

@6005 I have heart of fields (mechanical engineering subfield) where it is common to put the advisor or chair of department first.

@6005, from a purely utilitarian POV starting a fight with your supervisor is not a good idea, if you get the reputation of somebody stingy with credit people will be unwilling to work with you. I have a two-strikes philosophy : I start working with somebody with an open mind not expecting anything ,if it goes bad and the person was useless then I don't work with them again until they give me something (e.g a lead on a new project or something like that). Also once you are big in the field in ten years from now and have tenure you can start exacting your revenge on everybody that crossed you.

@Anon That sounds like a good argument that is very different from the one in your answer. Besides, I agree that you don't want to start a fight, I never said anything about starting a fight. But some advisors are actually good people and willing to explain themselves. Academia is not just full of corrupt selfish A-holes.

Make a play for alphabetically/arbitrarily listed names.
I agree with @Buffy's answer and mostly-agree with @AnonymousPhysicist's supplement: The advisor's conduct is inappropriate: If you were his equal(s), he would be in the right to expect first authorship; but as an advisor, he should take the step back. But the bottom line is that he has a legitimate claim to first-authorship, and circumstances are not such that you can or should apply leverage.
Having said that... I have a potential practical suggestion. The chances of it working depend on the field you're in, but it most probably will not be perceived as antagonistic.
If you can secure the agreement of all other named authors, approach the advisor together, and tell him that you would like author naming to be alphabetical, rather than by supposed order of contribution, with a footnote to that effect.
There are several (sub)fields in academia where this is actually the norm - and I believe other fields should adopt this as well. If you agree - use this opportunity. It has the positive byproduct of your advisor not being "meaningfully first".

The advisor's name is probably Dr Don Aaron, and he is always the first author, that's we he haven't bothered to talk to his students about being the first author...

@usr1234567: If a footnote says "authors are listed in alphabetical order", then that's not an issue.

I was kind of joking. But still, I have never seen such a footnote. Even on papers where I was one of the authors and we had alphabetical order (and no, I wasn't the first).

@usr1234567: You will see these when the author naming order is not the common choice for naming order in the field.

I have experience with both possibilities at two different occasions, with two different people:

I came up for my rights. This started a conflict. It ruined our working relationship.
I did not come up for my rights. Several years later this still hurts: the paper was mine and the person stole it.

With hindsight I prefer option 2: ask yourself the question what you have to gain with conflict. The more senior person almost certainly has thought about the order of authors and has already made a decision. If you fight it, you will always risk more than you will gain.
One really helpful thing for me was to investigate what I could gain: in the first situation I did not gain anything. In the second situation I gained a lot: I learned very rapidly whom I could trust. I will always be careful with that person, but I did not invest emotionally in the conflict. If you want to fight back: write a solo-authored paper.
One lesson learned: before I start researching and writing a paper, I ask all people involved what their view on authorship is. That view can be changed during the writing process, but that way I create some safety.
I know there are already good answers to this question, but I wanted to throw this out there in case anyone needed to hear it.

I agree with the other answers that you don't have much leverage to negotiate authorship with your advisor and should not try.  But I wanted to answer this part of the question:

Can I present this as a deal breaker for me for future projects?

The deal is already broken.  No presenting is required.  Assuming you work in a field where author order is important, the supervisor's behaviour is exploitative.  You should not work with them on future projects if you have an alternative.

I think it's very bold to go off the evidence in the OP all the way to "abusive."

Let me say this differently: Presenting this as a deal-breaker is needlessly confrontational; just let it be a deal-breaker and walk away.

@KevinCarlson In my field the supervisor is last author.  If the supervisor puts themselves first, it is always abuse.  It is also self-harm as last author is more prestigious than first author.  Exception:  all authors are supervisors.

More on author order.  https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/537/13240

Abusive is slightly too strong a word, but "exploitative" fits IMHO. Other than that, agree with this answer.

@einpoklum I don't really see the difference in strength, but I made the edit.

Some Elsevier journals are using the CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) author statement. It clarifies what the authors did, but does not help with the order of the author names.
Maybe you can add such a section near the acknowledgment section. If you like the idea, talk to your advisor about it. Be aware, that it's a new approach and might be unknown to your advisor.
Citing from the CRediT homepage:

CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy) was introduced with the intention
  of recognizing individual author contributions, reducing authorship
  disputes and facilitating collaboration. The idea came about following
  a 2012 collaborative workshop led by Harvard University and the
  Wellcome Trust, with input from researchers, the International
  Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and publishers, including
  Elsevier, represented by Cell Press.
CRediT offers authors the opportunity to share an accurate and
  detailed description of their diverse contributions to the published
  work.
The corresponding author is responsible for ensuring that the
  descriptions are accurate and agreed by all authors. The role(s) of
  all authors should be listed, using the relevant above categories.
  Authors may have contributed in multiple roles. CRediT in no way
  changes the journal’s criteria to qualify for authorship. CRediT
  statements should be provided during the submission process and will
  appear above the acknowledgement section of the published paper as
  shown further below.

[list of potential roles]

Sample CRediT author statement
Zhang San: Conceptualization,
  Methodology, Software Priya Singh.: Data curation, Writing- Original
  draft preparation. Wang Wu: Visualization, Investigation. Jan Jansen:
  Supervision.: Ajay Kumar: Software, Validation.: Sun Qi: Writing-
  Reviewing and Editing,

I'm flat out against that. Alphabetic authorship is the way to go.

@einpoklum It's not about the order. Its about to make the actual contribution more transparent. Alphabetic order sounds ridiculous to me, but that's just our fields. With the credit system, you can determine the contributions without knowing the customs of a field.

The contribution should not be more transparent. It should be entirely opaque, since papers should not be vehicles for self-aggrandizement. You're publishing a result in math/philosophy/biology/sociology/whatever, not in the gazette of academic gossip.

This is flat out horrible, useless and distracting to the reader. I couldn't care less if Priya Singh or Ajay Kumar did the writing. I care about the results, not about the individual contributions. It's like kindergarten "but I did more than this guy!!!"

Moreover, if this contribution list has any meaning for hiring etc., this system unevitably leads to the same problems. Somebody contributed a little bit to Writing or Software -- they will insist to be mentioned there while the big Software and Writing guy disagrees.

And moreover, how does this answer the question? Do you mean to say that OP should convince the prof to write in such a journal?

@user111388 as I wrote "it helps clarify[ing] what the authors did" not more and not less. You could add a CRediT section next to the acknowledgments.

@use1234567: Please make this more explicit that the questioner should ask the advisor if it is ok to add such a statement. From your answer it is not clear to me what the OP should do with the fact that some journals act like this.


text:
Asking about how to minimize the effect of a not so good thesis due to abandoning by supervisor without even telling in Phd Application Form

A bit of background of the problem->

I am a masters 2nd year student( 4 th semester)in mathematics .During my masters degree I self studied 3 books of number theory because I was really interested in learning it and no faculty in my Institute is specialized in it( most people in my Institute are specialized in Applied Mathematics) . I am in an 3rd world country.
I want to do phd in number theory in Europe. So, for my Masters thesis I wrote to one of professors in a top Institute in my country and she said yes.I visited her Institute in January,2020 for 8 days but she abandoned me and didn't even bothered to tell as she didn't replied my e - mails and despite the fact that she gave me a research paper in January to study and after completing it I e-mail her on 20 Feb asking her to tell me which paper to study now/ problem to work and when should I visit her Institute again . I e mailed her on 29 Feb, 7 March, 25 March, 4April.
In between I began studying papers myself and complleted 2 papers while waiting for her reply. In April I realized she would not reply.

The situation in my country is miraculously better than other countries in terms of Covid 19  and I am sure she is not suffering from it because I also contacted her PhD student and then her PhD student said that she is in campus in her office . Now, I have studied another research paper and now I will study another research paper if time permits.

Also I am 100% sure that she is not suffering from covid as when I asked her Phd student about her she said she was in office. ( it happended in March) .Then I asked her PhD student to give me her contact number the student refused furiously without giving any proper reason and straightly told me i am not her spokesperson or secretary.

My Question is -> I am filling phd application forms of various Institutes in Europe so in what way I can tell the admission committee that it's not my fault and I have worked hard on project ( as much as I could) . I had  no guidence. How to present this situation in my CV's thesis part so that bad effect of it is minimized. I was hopeful of writing a really good thesis and ready to work hard, had necessary background but all of it has been nullified by that self centered and shameless professor. Clearly, it was not my fault and she could have told me when she decided to change her mind. Can anyone please tell how to write about it in a manner so that chances of my admission are not further hampered.

Whatever you do, don't write that your professor is self centred and shameless in your applications! Name-calling won't get you far in any career, no matter how much it may be true.

@astronat I know ,I will never write it!!

@astronat just want to ask this because it comes to my mind now a days repetitively : Does the way that  professor didn't replied to any of my e-mail and left me in middle of thesis a normal thing ? How can anyone justify it?

Three things:
1) Your angle should be that due to local institutional factors such as expertise availability in your sub-specialist field you have had to pursue your strong interest in number theory with intermittent supervision. Therefore the work you submit largely represents your own drive to pursue this sub-specialty and is the product of your own self-discipline and self-taught knowledge without the high level supervisory input afforded to some other students. This is one of the reasons why you are applying to department x, because the expertise aligns with your passion and you do not have access to it at home. You could even consider saying that you would be very interested to receive feedback on your work as well as being considered for the application.
2) You should also seek feedback anyway on your work beforehand if possible. It does not necessarily have to be a professor and does not have to be face to face locally. I don't know if this is the done thing in maths, but perhaps approach an academic (who you know has done similar work) with a specific question based on your work. You might get a positive response and who knows where it will lead.
3) You seem quite upset about whatever was going on. Relax and let it go, because these sorts of behaviours are encountered all the time (and a lot worse actually). Don't take it personally, you just have to find a work-around. It is what it is, let it go and work around it.


text:
How do I mitigate my group project members plagiarizing off me and taking advantage of me?
In a Statistics related class, Whenever I do a group project, my group members don't know how to do anything as much as I do, and if it's a big group such a 5 person group, one person may help me write. The other person doesn't have any original ideas and will do some small tasks I tell them to do, and the rest don't know how to program.
I end up doing most of the work because I don't want to receive a bad grade, and I put everything in the project report. The professor doesn't really care about a fair division of labor, and on the day before presentations everyone ends up reading my project report, and especially the two people who did nothing just memorize what I said, then since the professor says everyone has to speak during the presentation, they end up stealing my lines, and I end up divide my work and sharing credit for it and throw it to charity.
How do I mitigate my group members plagiarizing off me and taking advantage of me?
This doesn't happen when I work with people who actually understand what they're doing in class, and it's not a big deal when a project isn't worth 40 percent of the grade.
The only benefit is that I know how to code everything, and they don't but the professor doesn't check who coded what or care. They don't seem to care or they don't know how to code and can't help themselves help me.
The problem is in an introductory freshman graduate course, I don't know who's capable of doing good work, and I can only seek the "smart" people as I gain knowledge of who's capable and not capable.
The professor is clueless and expects that everyone is capable of either coding well or having original Innovative ideas. But that isn't true. Some people neither are original nor code well. He expects us to play nice with each other.
Since I end up doing all the work, by presentation day, I'm also too exhausted to present well, and I can't shake things up, and I thought about quitting the group and doing things on my own, but should I do that? The people in my group are close and might conspire against me.
Option one: send the professor an e-mail privately telling him I did everything but per his instructions we have to split up the presentation and everyone pretends they did a fair amount.

What is a "freshman graduate course"?

First semester graduate course?

Have you brought up this issue with your group members?

See this related question: https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/147860/75368

May I suggest an alternate point of view? Is it possible that you are grabbing the reins of the project and trying to control it too tightly?
I bring this up because you mention a couple of times that you are the only one who knows how to program. From my own experience I know that when experienced programmers are compelled to work with inexperienced programmers there is a strong temptation to seize control of the project in order to make sure it is done well. You have to keep in mind though that this is an educational exercise. The goal is not the completion of the project per se, but that the students learn the material by participating in the project. You may be assuring a higher quality result by taking control of the project, but you may be interfering with your fellow students learning the material. It may be time for them to learn how to program.
This may be doubly difficult because it sounds like you are more motivated than your fellow students. I expect that you knew exactly what needed to be done and wanted to come to grips with it, while your fellow students may have been "Yeah sure, whatever". Consider this an opportunity to learn how to engage and motivate your co-workers. You are going to be working on "group projects" most of the rest of your career, so this is an important skill to cultivate.
Of course on top of this is your natural concern about the project grade. I don't know how to ensure that your desire for a top grade doesn't conflict with the needs of your fellow students to get hands on experience or vice versa. I can only suggest that in the worst cases where one of your fellows is simply sitting back with folded arms, you may need to discuss the situation with the professor.

If you got to choose your own group and it's late into the term then you might be out of luck because the professor will likely say that you should have addressed this problem earlier.
If you were put into a group or chose to be with unfamiliar students early on you should talk to the professor and bring logs showing that you are pulling more than your share of the workload. You can ask to be graded on an individual basis because of the lack of contribution by your peers. Some professors are terrible at their job and may tell you that they grade the group as a whole as a life lesson or some crap because really they do not want to be troubled with separate grading schemes. In that case you may want to escalate this problem further, but I wouldn't. As someone in your exact shoes in undergrad that didn't know anyone going in, I can tell you that your group members are entirely content with getting crappy passing grades and there's nothing you can do about that. You should just work through it and make sure to rest well and have stricter time management. Choosing to present on your own will reflect poorly on you because you will appear to not be able to work in a group. The professor and your peers may look at you in a bad light.
I did the entire projects myself until I was fortunate enough to meet other hard-working students in later years. That not only prepared me extremely well for my exams, but helped with multi-tasking and time management skills. As a bonus your clueless peers will miss out on those benefits.

I did choose my group members and I tried to avoid people who were obviously not going to do well including those people who never went to class, but there's a limit to how much I can dodge trouble.


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What is expected in a masters thesis for Phd admission in Europe by admission committee in Number Theory

Background of question ( Background is somewhat related to this question Asking about how to minimize the effect of a not so good thesis due to abandoning by supervisor without even telling in Phd Application Form  but question is entirely different)

I am a masters 2nd year student( 4 th semester)in mathematics .During my masters degree I self studied 3 books of number theory ( 1 elementary,2 analytic)because I was really interested in learning it and no faculty in my Institute is specialized in it( most people in my Institute are specialized in Applied Mathematics) . I am in an 3rd world country.
I want to do phd in number theory in Europe. So, for my Masters thesis I wrote to one of professors in a top Institute in my country and she said yes.I visited her Institute in January,2020 for 8 days but she abandoned me and didn't even bothered to tell as she didn't replied my e - mails and despite the fact that she gave me a research paper in January to study and after completing it I e-mail her on 20 Feb asking her to tell me which paper to study now/ problem to work and when should I visit her Institute again . I e mailed her on 29 Feb, 7 March, 25 March, 4April.( in between I read 2  papers to know a bit more about the work in the area).
Also I am 100% sure that she is not suffering from covid. So, I  talked to a professor in my institute and he took absolutely no interest in helping me and send prepare a report from the paper what you have studied and hung up.

I have read 4 papers in analytic number theory till now( all are related to 1st paper given by professor) . And i am thinking of reading another research paper in analytic number theory but it's related to a different problem if time permits. But i have not done any original work like writing a research paper or proving a theorem.
My questions are 1.what kind of work is expected in a Masters thesis by the Admission committees of European Institutes ?

2.Is is necessary to have a publication or original work like proving some results for applying to European Institutes  .
Please guide. I have no other sources of help. I wanted to work really nicely for the thesis but things changed completely due to negligence of that professor. Even the professor of my Institute didn't bothered.

I am in desperate need of guidence.

You're asking a lot in one post. Please try to break your post down into only asking one question. Also, your questions are mostly specific to you, the universities you're applying to, and you're specific situation, which makes them off topic to this site.

@Richard Erickson I am editing it. But how it's off topic ? Others can also face similar type of situation!!

From a Finnish perspective (the department was focused on analysis, not number theory):

No, it is not expected for you to have original publications from your master studies, but if you have them, great! I am not sure how a publication in a predatory or very low quality journal would be taken; in the spirit of being careful, I suggest not publishing unless you are certain it is a decent result and a decent journal. Or maybe only publish a preprint.
A good master's thesis need not include original research, but it might. It shows a clear grasp of mathematical thinking and good and non-trivial proofs. An excellent thesis has original work, or does the same as a good one in a very demanding subject.


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How to ask for a letter of rec from a first semester professor in a masters' program?
How to ask for a letter of rec to apply for PhD prospectively from a first semester professor in a masters' program who I won't take any future courses with?
Assume I receive an A but I'll never take classes with them again, and they'll probably forget about me. I won't apply to PhD programs as a masters student until I graduate.
Option 1: Ask for an informal letter of rec, sent to me, and I keep it for references/jobs that don't require confidential letters withheld from me.
Option 2: Don't ask at all.
Option 3: Have them write something pretending that I'm already graduated from the masters program, and archive it on some disk. Trust that they won't lose it or "write it" or have them sent it to some other professor who is the department head.
Option 4: Risk asking them later when they forget about me.

Another option is to let them know that you will probably want to ask them for a LOR in a few years. Maybe they won't forget you. Maybe they will write and file a letter (or notes for a letter). Maybe they will suggest something else.

After you complete the course and receive an A, you email your professor along the following lines.

"Dear Prof X, I was a student in your class Z. I found it very
  interesting and really enjoyed learning about the subject (don't say
  this if you didn't). Next year, I am thinking about applying for W.
  Would you see yourself in a position to write a letter of
  recommendation for me for those applications? If you want, I'm happy
  to discuss my plans in person. Sincerely, Q"

Note that letter of recommendation that simply state "Student Q took my class Z, and they got an A" will not be particularly valuable for PhD applications. I would make sure to interact with the professor beyond just passively taking the class and really stand out. Don't do this just for the sake of getting a LOR (they can tell). Only if you're actually interested in the material!
Also, use those interactions to discuss your academic career plans with the professor! Maybe they know someone in your specific field of interest, maybe they are looking for PhD students themselves etc. That could become more useful than the LOR!

Although, as you said, "Student Q took my class Z and got an A" isn't very useful,  it could be the beginning of a useful letter even from a professor who has forgotten the student. The professor's records could remind him of information like "I gave only K A's for a class of N students. The class covered X material at level L, using textbook B."


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Making an offhand note in a citation
I noticed that a PDF link from a university course I used as a URL to cite doesn't open, unless it's opened from the course portal itself. Within my referencing of the source, I note which link to click to find the correct PDF, and the URL I use is the course portal where the link is.
However, I've never given instructions on how to open a PDF from the right website before within a citation itself, let alone make any kind of offhand note in a citation before. Is it bad prose to do this, and instead just link the course portal URL? If not, how am I meant to properly cite this?

Not exactly an answer, but a lot of links on news aggregation sites back to the original articles will be marked (paywalled) to indicate that clicking might not work for a given user. What you suggest isn't far off from that.

Can you craft a URL that opens the PDF?


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Are theses done in industry (French CIFRE) a disadvantage in academia?
France has a mechanism, named CIFRE, by which a PhD student can be employed by a private company while working on their thesis. This is done in relation with a university or institute, which awards the degree. This is interesting for the student, as they are paid as a junior engineer and have an almost guaranteed industry position at the end.
I may have such an opportunity in the next year or two, in the field of machine learning/computer vision. I work well with my potential advisor and current team, and it's even more interesting in my case, as my past grades and school would not look very good on a PhD application.
If I choose to stay in that company at the end, I'm sure there won't be a problem. But I am not sure of what I will want a few years from now. I would like to keep the door to an academic career open, in case the thesis goes well, and I definitely want to keep good career options in the rest of Europe as well.
Problem
I have sometimes read that this kind of theses is only a good option if one wants to get better career prospects in the same company, and that CIFRE PhD students don't publish enough to be competitive in academia. I have also read that this could be compensated later by doing a good post-doc. These are just random opinions from forum posts, so I don't know what to make of them.
Part of the problem is that the company is small (though successful), the R&D team is very small (though they do interesting research), and I don't know if I would spend most of my time at the company or how many opportunities I would have of collaborating with people at the institute (a quite good one in France, known abroad).
Note that I might be able to get good recommendations, both from researchers who advised a small research project of mine, and from another in my current company. My grades also improved quite a lot near in my last semester, and I have a good justifications for the older ones. I could thus try to apply to "regular" PhD programs abroad, though I'm not sure how much these recommendations can compensate for old bad results.
Question
How should I decide if an industry thesis is the right fit for me? If someone knows about this specific kind of industry theses and their career prospects, I would like to hear about it too.

Have you asked your prospective boss about the expectations regarding papers? Indeed, in most fields, to get a tenure-track job or even a good post-doc (that would give you the opportunity to get strong papers), you need at least an average publication profile from your PhD.

@lighthousekeeper I will discuss it more in detail with the company at some point. I asked this in part to have outside opinions from people in academia when I do.

OK. I think it's absolutely important to get a clear agreement. Anecdotally, I know a researcher who does an "industrial post-doc" in France, but has a hard time publishing anything, because "that's not something their team does". I call that career suicide.

From personal experience, and from an academic perspective, CIFRE theses are a mixed bag. In some cases the company is essentially not involved at all in the thesis (e.g., they have no clue how to get involved, and are just doing it for tax optimization purposes, to keep a link with the university/school, or even out of courtesy to them or in exchange for other favors) and then the CIFRE thesis is basically funding for a normal PhD thesis with a company involved on paper (and then you'd better have good supervision on the academic side, like for a normal thesis). In other cases, the company sees the CIFRE mechanism as a way to get access to cheap qualified labor, and overload the student with work which is not always in their best interest (e.g., not publishable), at the expense of their doctoral work.
The expectations around the mechanism are also very different from student to student. Sometimes the student really wants to work at a company, and just wants a PhD to improve their career prospects. Sometimes the student really wants to do academic research, and this is mostly a way to secure funding (which might even be proposed by the academic advisor in they are collaborating already with the company). Sometimes there's real scientific value in a mixed project involving both academia and a company: that's the ideal case, but pretty rare. Sometimes the student is someone from industry which is already used to a high (aka, non-academic) salary and a corresponding cost of living, and the CIFRE mechanism is one way for them to do a PhD without giving up on their current salary. And of course sometimes the reason is that the student is not ready to choose between an academic or industrial career and wants to do something "in the middle" to keep as many options open as possible.
I don't know so much about this mechanism but from what I've heard, I would recommend:

Discussing with the academic advisor and company advisor to clarify expectations: are they thinking that they would work together with you, or that you would spend your time between them, which kind of ratio, does the company have precise tasks for you that would be useful to them, which role would they take, etc.?
Being wary about PhD topics that crucially require input from the company (e.g., if your PhD is about analyzing company data, but the company isn't really committed to working with you on this, you could be stuck)
Probably making sure that you like what the company is doing and would like working with them, even for non-research stuff; or at least clarifying that you won't have to spend too much time on this if you don't want to.
Choosing your academic advisor and topic carefully, unless you really plan to do most of your work at the company and don't intend to continue in academia afterwards.

Good luck!

I guess it would depend on your field but I don't think it hurts your chances. I know at least three people who did a CIFRE PhD and who then got a permanent faculty position a few years after their PhD (this was in applied math and physics). Given how bad the academic job market has been recently, I'd say that this is a pretty good indicator that they were competitive.
On a different note, many French companies have a bad tendency of assuming that applicants with a PhD are out of touch with reality and not fit for "actual jobs" (although this is slowly evolving), so having done your PhD in a "real company" would give an advantage should you choose to not continue in academia after your PhD. You don't have to stay in the company where you did your PhD.
How much of your time you spend at the company and how much time at the research institute will be part of your contract. Usually it's around 50-50. You will definitely work with the researchers of the research institute; that's the whole point.
There is also the obvious question of money. You can easily get a 30-40% higher salary as a CIFRE PhD student than as a non-CIFRE one. For some people it does not matter, for some people it does. I guess it's something to keep in mind, at least.

In addition to a3nm's otherwise complete answer, the more likely problem for an academic career after a CIFRE PhD would be a lack of teaching experience.
Academic research positions in France fall broadly into two categories, non-teaching at CNRS and research organizations (CEA, INRIA etc.) and teaching at universities/schools. If you fail to do any teaching at all during your PhD, you will have a very hard time being recruited for the latter. (I would assume your prospects for the former are not changed, and will mostly depend on your publications.)
Most academic PhD positions (in France) include some teaching for a yearly average of about half a day per week (your mileage may vary depending on the time you spend preparing classes, grading assignments etc.). CIFRE positions do not. Some companies may frown upon CIFRE students performing teaching; it may be harder to get in contact with the admin staff at the university to get assignments; but more importantly the practical details can be harder to arrange. In my case, the CIFRE company required on-premise presence from 9:30 to 16:30 (4:30 pm), and was located 45min away from the closest university where I could have taught anything; it would have been near-impossible to arrange for a teaching slot in those conditions.
If you care about keeping the teaching positions route open (I did not), you should discuss with your prospective PhD advisors about how to arrange such a teaching assignment upfront.

What about positions abroad? I’m not especially keen on staying in France.

Abroad there are also some teaching and some non-teaching positions, but I cannot tell how much a lack of teaching experience