text:
Not getting along with Spanish professor. Professor is condescending, and picks favorites. I feel I have enough evidence to do something
I am in a Spanish Translation class at a good public university.
Background: I am a white male and a Spanish/Chemistry double major. I plan to pursue a PhD in Chemistry or teach at the high school level, and Spanish is pure enjoyment. I am engaged in this class. I do every single reading, and try really hard to participate. I do not give her any "sass" (and if I did, that still doesn't justify taking points off in direct contradiction of her assigned readings). I have asked her already how to be more polite, and she tells me I am fine.
Early in the class, there were some strange vibes. Since then, there have been numerous instances, so for brevity I will only mention the ones that stick out most.
1: She marks me off two points for using the word "Filipina" in a journalism translation, claiming it's not an english word. I find it in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as well as in hundreds of New York Times (reliable english journalism source). She awards me only one of two points back for this, and when I question it she says it is "non-negotiable."
2: One day, she asks our opinion about a "translation tidbit". I said I liked it and thought it was poetic, and she proceeds to laugh out loud assuming I'm joking. She then says in an incredibly exaggerated and melodramatic way "I admire your courage for speaking up in class but that is incorrect." Some awkward silence passes and she says, again loudly to the whole class, "Are you embarrassed?" in an incredibly condescending manner.
3: On a quiz, I translated the phrase "Diagnosticar un niño es separar la familia" or something similar as "To diagnose a child is to separate the family." She marks me off two points, claiming she "wanted the gerund" and cited certain textbook pages. On these same pages, the book clearly reads "the infinitive in Spanish can be translated as the gerund or as the infinitive in english." I present her with this direct evidence and again she says "I wanted the gerund. Non-negotiable."
4: During our most recent quiz, our task is to translate an idiom. She writes an idiom on the board, relating to January 6th which is apparently a holiday in the Spanish-speaking world. I very politely ask her for the meaning of this holiday, and she says condescendingly to the class "I would expect an advanced to student to know what this cultural day is. I can't just give you the answer." Several other students raise their hands and admit to not knowing the cultural reference. She then tells us what it is, and angrily says "You're welcome for the answer. Have a good spring break."
5: While reassuring one of her favorites about a missed assignment, she talks about the "class participation" part of our grade (10%). She openly says "this is where I can give my favorite students a little bit of a boost." She makes direct eye contact with me during this. That's what spurred me to write this.
Beyond these instances, other students have commented to me that they also notice her favoritism and hostility toward me. She has a general air of condescension toward everyone, but it's worse with me. I don't know what to do. I am giving my all, and objectively earning A's according to her rubrics. I have an A in the class right now, but I can just sense that she's going to screw me with this "Participation grade", which is not valid because I participate more than almost everyone else in class.
Is there anything I can do? I feel like I have decent evidence and can bring in a fellow classmate to vouch for me if need be. I have no doubts they would take my side.
Update: She gave me no feedback on my final paper draft and then proceed to make 80 edits to my revision, and then gave me a lower grade on the revision. I decided this lack of feedback was sufficient enough to go over her head.

What is your objective here,  exactly?

I don't understand what being a white male has anything to do with your question.

Are you sure it is a good idea to post this publicly under your (presumably) real name?

@mdiener I assume that name & pic are fake, and that the real Derek Fulton is going to be rather embarrassed by the content that is being posted in his name.

Yeah I thought about it and I don't really see a reason why I should try to hide this post, this is my real name.

Going over her head now is asking for trouble. You have an A as it stands. Play the rest of the game patiently. None of what you posted strikes me as alarming. I dislike the "non-negotiable remarks" ... she ought to have explained why her approach is the favored one.  The teacher possibly sounds petty and condescending. I would keep your head down and let her cool off, then diffuse the situation with kindness. Be polite. Cater to her a bit. All you want is your A.

That's not true though, she is negatively encroaching on the academic experience of not only me, but many other students. I genuinely care more about that than my A.

@MassimoOrtolano I said I was a white male because this teacher behaves in clear observance of traditional gender dynamics, and acts significantly differently toward her male and female students. That is relevant to frame the context of the rest of my description.

Can somebody please explain why this was closed as an undergraduate-only question?

Spanish is pure enjoyment — Then why are you concerned about losing points?

Others may disagree, but I think you should go over her head. When she's outright admitting that she plays favorites with the participation grade, her department should know. What they do with that information is hard to predict, but if such complaints become a pattern with this teacher, they (hopefully) have to do something about it. Plus, complaining now could put you on slightly firmer ground if she gives you a grade for the course that's low enough for you to want to challenge it.
If there's someone with a title like "Director of the Undergraduate Spanish Program," that's the person to complain to.

Going over the head is absolutely fine if he's already attempted to resolve the issue without success.

@guifa: The open statement to the class about the participation portion of the grade is sufficient grounds to go outside of the class.

@aeismail I agree, it wasn't that type of if statement :-)


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How much of a paper does a reviewer fact-check?
I'm mainly interested in the level of fact-checking of computer science conference papers. Do reviewers normally read the entire paper and exhaustively check the correctness of proofs, algorithms and claims?
I have read papers at top conferences where implementation details are sketchy and conceptual claims are inaccurate.
My guess is that an exhaustive level of fact-checking is often not done particularly in cases where the reviewer might not be familiar with all the concepts in the paper. Is this true? If this is so, then it seems unfair that the merit of a paper is essentially just based on how well the paper is pitched in the first one or two pages.

What area of CS is this? Papers about formal methods will differ vastly from computer architecture in terms of the things that can actually be fact-checked.

I'm afraid there is no one-fits-all answer to your question. It highly depends on the tier of the conference. There are some that examine more into the work than others.
However, the level of scrutiny in CS conferences are generally less than that of a journal of comparable reputation. This is because, such journals go through multistage reviews and edits before the final print is published. Most conferences look only into the conceptual matter and usually have insufficient time to exhaustively implement and test the proofs of each of its candidate papers with limited reviewers.
Having said the above, there are some journals that scrutinize lesser than some conferences. Like I stated before, it all depends on the tier and reputation of the publisher.

As always, it depends on the reviewer. And better conferences tend to have better reviewers, or more conscientious ones, if only because they are in sight of line of reputable committees.

It's worth noting that conferences run on a tight schedule, whereas journals can take as long as they need to review a paper. This means conference reviewers often don't have time to properly check all of the papers they are given.

It's also worth noting that conferences tend to have a strict page limit per paper. Many submissions are necessarily sketchy, just because there is not enough space for all the technical details. (Even if authors put the details into a technical report or an appendix, reviewers are usually not expected to check these in addition to the submitted paper.)

I review papers in CS and I would say that it depends on the conference.  If you submit to a very specialized conference, you have more chance that the reviewer will be very familiar with your topic. Thus he might check your paper carefully. But it always depend on the reviewer. Some reviewers will read a paper very quickly because they are busy (even for top CS conferences sometimes) or because they are less familiar with your topic. And some other reviewers will actually spent a good amount of time to understand your paper. So there is not general answer to this question. It depends on the conference and the reviewer. Besides, often a reviewer will first check your paper and if it is not good enough based on the introduction, conclusion and experiments or some other criteria, the reviewer may reject it without further checking the other sections. So this may  also be a reason for not checking the details of you paper.

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How to review a paper that is not related to my field, when my advisor has asked me to review it for him and I can't refuse?
I am an M.Sc. student in computer science, working on machine learning.
Recently my supervisor assigned me a paper on biomedical signals field to review. The review task is assigned to my advisor who is a referee of a journal and he assigned it to me to do it for him (I am sure he will not check my review and will submit it directly).
However, the paper is weakly (if not at all) related to my field; I don't even have an idea about its title. What should be my approach? Particularly in judging if the paper has properly covered background works and if it's novelty when I am not familiar with the field at all?
The best option is to decline but I have not that opportunity. That is a "must" to do work for me if I don't want to ruin my relation with my advisor.
I should mention that this is the first time I was assigned to review a paper.

What do you mean by "review" here?  Is this a paper that's been submitted to a peer-reviewed journal or conference, and you are to review it to decide whether it should be published? Normally such a review assignment would come from the editor or the conference organizers, not from your supervisor.  So I am not sure I understand the situation.  Or is your advisor just asking you to read and review it for your own education?

If this really is a peer-review situation, and you don't have the necessary expertise to properly assess the paper, then you should decline to review it.

@NateEldredge the review task is assigned to my advisor who is a referrer of a journal and he assigned it to me to do it for him (I am sure he will not check my review and will submit it directly)

also you right that the best option is to decline but I have not that opportunity. that is a "must" to do work for me if I don't want to ruin my relation with my advisor.

If your advisor insists on this, he is acting very badly.  It is not ethical for you to submit a review that you know you are not qualified to write.  It is also not appropriate for your advisor to have you "ghostwrite" the review without the consent of the editor.  At this point I would start to question whether it is a good idea to be working with this advisor at all.

@CoderInNetwork how do you know you can't refuse? Has he told you explicitly? Is it a condition for your graduation? Are you just guessing?

@Davidmh fairly explicit. i will go according to Pete answer to see what happens. thank you

@CoderInNetwork, this is the 2nd question of yours at SE that seems to project a ~mysterious~ knowledge of what your advisor is thinking. Here you say "I am sure he will not check my review and will submit it directly" and in your other question you say "It is obvious that the main reason for this action is to be confident that I didn't manipulate the diagrams, etc." I think you need to take a hard look at why you are so very fearful of your advisor and address that issue immediately.

I agree with all of @Nate Eldredge's comments.  If you have a good relationship with your advisor, you should be able to say "This paper lies outside of my field of expertise.  I don't feel qualified to review it; in fact, even to understand it at a basic level would require me to spend substantial time familiarizing myself with the terminology of a different academic field."
According to your comments, you do not feel comfortable saying this to your advisor.  So here is what I would suggest instead: do the reviewing together with your advisor, in person.  So for instance you could begin by saying "I started reading the paper you assigned me, and I have some questions I'd like to discuss with you.  When can we meet to talk about it?"  Then when you meet you can begin to engage with all the unfamiliar stuff and see for yourself how far away it really is from your interests and those of your advisor.  If it turns out that your advisor doesn't understand the paper either, I would try to subtly lead him to the conclusion that neither of you should be reviewing it.  If he tries to shove it onto you, reiterate that you are doing it but that you want to get his input.  If necessary, ask a question of the form "How would you handle this review job if you were in my place?" The point being that the advisor is in your place since he is the one who has been asked to do the reviewing.  To pull this off properly may require some verbal aikido.
The worst case scenario is that after all this your advisor makes clear to you that he doesn't care that neither of your have the expertise to review this paper; he wants you to do it anyway.  At that point he is asking you to commit academic dishonesty, and you will be in a tough spot: you will have to decide whether turning in a noncommittal review of a paper that you don't understand is the least evil.

... and then find a new advisor, if possible. One who you can say "I can't review this paper because it's outside my area of expertise" to without fear of repercussions.

@ff524: I agree, and if it were me I would certainly try to find a new advisor.  I have noticed though that we say that a lot on this site to students who are having difficulties with their advisors; since the OP is a master's student, it could be that riding out the crappy advisor is the best route for him (e.g. if he does not plan on continuing in academia).

yeah you are right but I need just 3 month for graduation and also need him for PhD recommendation letter.

thanks for answer too. I reconsider the situation again.

Unfortunately, this happens all the time, This is quite normal, and your priority as a student is to graduate, not to try and fix the utterly broken peer review system.
In this situation, if discussing with your advisor is going to cause stress, read the paper, and review to the best of your ability without spending forever on it, or pretending you know things you don't. If it's title is incomprehensible, then this is frankly a comment that could go in the review - since the purpose of a paper is to make your results intelligible to the academic community - at least what they are about even if not every detail. This alone would be a more constructive review than many.
I really wouldn't worry about reviewing for novelty - nobody knows every single piece of literature out there, and a reviewers job is to give an opinion, at least on whether the paper makes sense - not to do a vast literature search for the editor of the journal.
On the flip side of the coin, have this out with your advisor, and the most likely result is that the student who wrote the paper will have their publication delayed through no fault of their own.

I fear that, in my experience/world, this answer is misleading on several counts. No, this doesn't happen all the time. No, it's not normal. No, a title incomprehensible to beginning grad students is not any sort of problem. No, the peer-review game is (for what it's worth) not about making results intelligible to the (general?) academic community. No, it would not be ok to ignore the issue of whether results are new or not: an expert would know, while unqualified outsiders obviously will not. No literature search should be necessary.

I agree that your professor's act is not ethical (if his purpose is for you to ghostwrite the review) and you should politely decline to review it. However, I have seen this happens a lot. Not just with peer-review papers, but with MS and PhD dissertations, book chapters, proposal etc.
If it was to up to me, I would do the following. Read the paper, try to do a short research and see if you can understand its concept and/or purpose. Since it is outside your field, most likely it will be very challenging and you won't get it, but that is totally fine. Remember, maybe your adviser wants to see how you would handle such task, or if you willing to dig outside your comfort zone and come up with solutions (in this case, a review!). Remember, some professors like that.
Also, I would like to point out, that even if you ghostwrite a review to your adviser, that does not mean that he is going to submit the EXACT document you prepared. I have witnessed many cases in which the professor uses such document as a base or blue-print and then add/edit as necessary after s/he reviews the paper. This is exactly what my advisers used to do. They would give me a paper, I will review it then they would discuss my review (while I'm in the office with them) to teach me how to and/or not to think, review, write and analyze.
Finally, you might find this tip useful. If you couldn't review the paper because it is very hard, outside your field, too complicated or any other reason. All you can do is to go over the language, editorials, referencing, citations, formatting and base you review around such observations. Maybe doing this would send a message to your adviser that you could not review paper because (as you might have told him), it was outside your field. At least doing so can be interpreted in way that shows that you tried and did your best (although it can also be interpreted in a way that you were lazy, [let's hope not!!]).

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How do I refer to a picture I added in my essay?
I'm trying to write an essay about the elements and principles of design in Michelangelo's Pieta. The essay must be in MLA format and I need to include a picture to visualize a central point I'm trying to make in one of my paragraphs.

There is clearly a hierarchy here too, with the Virgin Mary at the
  top, and Jesus at the bottom, and they seem to form the shape of a
  triangle. (figure one or something)

How do I refer to a picture in this context, and furthermore, how I include pictures in an MLA formatted essay? Should there be any? This professor is pretty lenient about how it's formatted, so I'm just sticking with what most people know.
These are her instructions.

Cite all work using APA or MLA
Double space, font size 12, Times Roman font
A good paper will be 3 pages, not including photos (place your photos at the end)
No heading or title whatsoever! iLearn does that for you already

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

A good guide to MLA figures and tables may be found here.
In short, you simply say "Figure 1" for the first figure, "Figure 2" for the second, and so on.


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Can students bargain over admission date?
Currently, I am a history student (MA) from Europe. I plan to pursue further education in Asia.
Initially, I applied to university X (a 2-year research program (MA) with full funding). I also applied for a 1-year language acquisition program (also with full funding). I was shortlisted by uni X and accepted for the language program. I, then, wanted to withdraw from the uni x's shortlist, but my potential supervisor encouraged me to stay on the list and wait for a final decision.
However, after some thinking I realised that I look out to take that language program for academic (learn an extra language), personal (get some time off) and financial reasons (save some money)
My question is the following: do I, as a (potential) admitted student, have certain bargaining power to delay my possible admission for a year for example?
I'm not a potential employee, post-doc or whatsoever. I'm just a potential research student and I'm definitely not the only candidate on the waiting list
Which points do I have to consider prior to send an e-mail to uni X when dealing with such an issue?
Thanks

This is called "deferring enrollment" or "deferring admission", and just ask them what their policy is. No need to worry about bargaining power yet, when they may have a standard policy that allows deferment.

Is the language you'll acquire from the 1-year language acquisition program the same as the local language Uni X is using?

Thanks for the comments. I will look for any rules regarding "deferring enrollment"
The medium at Uni X is English; the language I will learn is Chinese, but it will be certainly a plus for research

it will be certainly a plus for research Then mentioning the language program in your e-mail will help you to get the deferring enrollment.

I have no idea about what you do, or what you know, but do you think you can learn enough Chinese in one year to be useful in your research?

Ohio State had a full-time summer program plus a 2/3rd time course during the rest of year which gave the equivalent of 3 years within 1 year. This program may be more rigorous. If the OP will be immersed as well...

@Davidmh I certainly agree; but I have been learning Chinese already for a while, and I'm focussing more on reading/speaking

delay my possible admission for a year

In theory, yes, you can delay the admission for up to a year but you need to know the rules.
As mentioned in the comments, this is called deferring. Each university/institute has certain rules regarding the deferment. At some places, you may not be able to defer the offer so long. While others, which allow the deferments for up to a term or two, it might be easier to delay for one semester/term (4 to 6 months) by providing a reasonable excuse. However, this can be extended for one more term (3 to 6 months) but in special cases and may require the agreement of the prospective supervisor, HoD etc.

Which points do I have to consider prior to send an e-mail to uni X when dealing with such an issue?

Try to know their rules through the website or by email.
See what is the maximum period (P) they can allow you? 4+3=7 or 6+6=12 or ...
Does (P) satisfy you?
If yes, then what would be the special conditions for the extension?
Would you be able to manage to deal with those special conditions?

"In general, you can easily delay for one semester/term" Note that this is definitely university / country specific. Here in Switzerland you may easily be out when you try to defer by more than one or two months (we hire students usually for specific grants / projects, and those cannot easily be delayed by half a year or a year).

If you propose to start the program at one of the standard entry times, such as the beginning of the first semester one year from now, then such a delay is a common request and is often granted.  The term is "deferment".  Typical reasons include misalignment of the academic calendars between countries, military service, and medical problems.
From the point of view of the institution, by granting a deferment they lose a small amount of predictability in filling their class this year and gain a similar amount of predictability in filling the next class.  If they received too many acceptances of their admission offers this year, then you might be doing them a favor by deferring.
Game-theoretically you lose nothing, and might gain something, by asking about the possibility of deferment before making a final decision.
The school may require an enrollment deposit now to reduce the possibility that you apply elsewhere in the deferment year.  It might provide them with some (very slight) further reassurance if you state that that you don't intend to apply for admission to other programs, or provide reasons that make it clear you do want to attend their program one year from the original date.

The funding is probably tied up in some project's results, if you don't show up to do the work on time it is very likely that it will be given to somebody else. You can still attend, sure; but no funding.

Which points do I have to consider prior to send an e-mail to uni X when dealing with such an issue?

If possible, it can be useful to try to phrase things in terms of their interests and goals, rather than just yours.  For example, in U.S. mathematics departments my impression is that it's easy to get a deferral to do something that will make you a better-prepared or more successful graduate student, such as spending a year on Part III of the Tripos in Cambridge, while it can be harder to get a deferral for personal reasons (volunteering, taking time off, earning money, pursuing other interests, etc.).  You might still get one, or you might not, in which case you would need to apply again next year and risk not getting in.
In particular:

If spending a year studying Chinese would provide important preparation for your MA at University X, you should emphasize this.  They might prefer the deferral, actually, if insufficient Chinese language skills was one reason you are on the waiting list.
If it is not crucial for the MA but important for related professional goals (such as your future PhD project), that's also worth mentioning.

Of course all this depends on how the department handles deferrals.  Whether a deferral would even make sense depends a lot on the circumstances, but it can't hurt to ask.

"You might still get one, but you might be told you would need to apply again next year and risk not getting in." That sounds pretty odd to me. How is that different from not getting a deferral and just being told to cancel and apply again when you have actually time to start the programme?

@xLeitix: That's when I mean (I'll edit to clarify).


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What are the diffrence between the quality of top 20 universities PhD programs over top 70s for USA?
I  am a Computer Science M.Sc. Student in a university in a developing country. I am planning to apply for PhD this year. Actually my main reasons to not continue my PhD here, are the issues related to my country economics and infrastructures. Poor dorm conditions, no funded PhD, unstable internet, no proper study place in university are some of them where decrease the quality and contributions of a PhD student and I think that those issues will be solved by the migration to USA itself and is not related to the rank of the destination university. to make my question clear, actually I want to know what are the benefits of a top 20 university in USA saying, Caltech over a top 70 university saying, Oregon State University .please note that I am not asking about the after-graduation job perspective, I mean What are the effects on the quality and contributions of a PhD student that studies in a top-20 instead of a top-70 university.
P.S: if it matters ranks are according to the US News portal.

The US News rankings are meaningless because (IIRC) they compare entire universities with one another, rather than trying to compare individual departments. Those two things come apart, often dramatically. Rutgers University in NJ isn't a particularly distinguished university in general, but it's perhaps the best philosophy department in the world, and certainly the best for some particular areas of philosophy.  It's good to go to a better-ranked department, and better-ranked places will have better infrastructure, as you mention, but look at departments, not universities.

@shane: There are more US News rankings than are dreamt of in your philosophy: http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/computer-science-rankings.  I can't specifically speak for CS, but I am familiar with the math rankings and know they are compiled by asking a lot of mathematicians which departments have the best reputation.  In my opinion and experience, this is meaningful and in fact the best way to determine the rough classification of departments...according to their reputation.

You asked a virtually identical question earlier, which was closed as a duplicate. If you think this is not a dupe, please comment as to why not, but please refrain from simply reposting the question without change.

@PeteL.Clark Thanks for the tip, I didn't realize US News had started doing this. The methodology looks sound. To be clear, I'm not opposed to rankings, just bad rankings.

@eykanal Actually I have changed that post, i.e. that question is edited, but unfortunately SO has very weak process in reopening a duplicated question. so I asked a new question which is a preserved right for me as I know.

I can't ever believe that some one has read this paragraph:  ".please note that I am not asking about the after-graduation job perspective...." and then marked my question as duplication! Ha ha :D

I see your comment now. In that case, though, what are you asking? US News published the factors they use when ranking schools; reading through that will tell you what's different between high- and low-ranked universities. That's all public info; what else are you looking for?

The metrics expressed them may not directly effect the quality of a PhD student researches(or just simple quantify it as the quality of his papers!). factors like Student selectivity,  Retention, Undergraduate academic reputation or Graduation rate performance are nonsense to my question.


text:
In choosing between MD-PhD and PhD, how should I factor in the expected age at which I'll start my career as a professor?
My ideal career is to be lead a lab at a university as a professor.
If I completed a residency and fellowship after an MD-PhD, which I think I'd love because of the 80/20 split that fits my interests, I'd be in my mid to late 30s by the time I was ready to start an independent career, as opposed to a Ph.D., which I'd complete, with fellowship, around age 30.
I've heard the adage about scientists who don't contribute their biggest success before 30, and I'm concerned that close to 40 is far too late to start as an assistant professor.
Would I be better off going into a Ph.D.?

Which country is this? This is somewhat of relevance.

The average age of obtaining a PhD is past 30 in the US.

This is already generally addressed in Are old (>35) faculty candidates discriminated against all over the world and Am I likely to be perceived as less successful if I start as an assistant professor at age 40?. The only potential difference in your situation is that you can choose between two doctoral degrees with different average completion times, which is why I've edited the post to highlight that difference.

I'm in the USA. How old is the data on that average? Most PhD students I know are much younger.

2014, released every few years by the NSF.

Okay, thank you ff524. I searched, but must have missed those.

Not only US. It is somewhat rare to see phds with less than 30.... then you add some postdoc years...

@AnnaLippincott: note that the combination MD + PhD is pretty common in Medicine, so your case doesn't even compare to, for example, a biologist.

@AnnaLippincott the >30 number is for when they obtain their PhD not when they start it. More importantly, you might want to look at placement rates for the two programs into positions you would like and talk to faculty to understand these things better.

According to the NSF's report, the median age of a PhD recipient is 31.6 years old. That means you'll only be a little older than a typical graduate.
This age shouldn't be shocking considering in the US it often takes 10 or more years of college to obtain a PhD, so that means that most people will be late 20s or early 30s if they never went to industry or didn't graduate early.


text:
If a PhD student is bad in interpersonal communications, would he find trouble doing his PhD?
As far as I know, some research involves group-work.
If a PhD student is either introverted, bad at interpersonal communications or both.
What difficulties might they encounter?

Most nerds of any type do have interpersonal communication problems, and are the ones doing PhDs.

The problem is not only group work, but communication with mentor/advisor, thesis committee members (who themselves may have "communication issues"). It's not "ok" to simply proceed without addressing the issue, because, if it's not addressed or consistently compensated-for, there will be various negative side-effects, misunderstandings, frustrations.

Being socially awkward and introverted is fine, and much more acceptable in academia than in other settings. But if you have a hard time communicating clearly about your subject, please try to improve! Even if it doesn't affect your research (I'm sure that depends on your field), almost all Ph.D. students teach in some form or another. It's very important to be able to teach well: that's what the university is paying you to do!

@vonbrand I hope your remarks were intended as a joke. Otherwise they seem at best a gross generalization and at worst abjectly ignorant of what PhD students are really like in many areas of the natural and physical sciences.

@vonbrand PhDs are done by all sort of people, from those who have interpersonal communication problems to those who don't.

@Corvus I don't think anybody uses the word nerd anymore outside the context of a joke or term of endearment...

This is much too broad to have a specific answer. It depends on all sorts of circumstances, e.g., whether the student is doing the PhD in a large collaboration (like a lot of particle physics experiments).

Introversion and social skills are not necessarily set in stone either. If they're an actual impediment, or present a reason to worry they might become one, said PhD student should consider therapy and/or medication - they won't make one less introverted, but should help with the anxiety that follows from that. (Assuming the student has access to those services, but universities might be easier for that even in countries without public healthcare.)

Suppose, a PhD student is either introvert or bad in interpersonal
  communications or both.
Would he find any trouble?

All of us, in academia and outside of it, are better at some things and less good at other things. People who are very poor at interpersonal relationships are often astonishingly good at many things. To be successful, one tries to exploit one's talents while at the same time overcoming or learning to work around one's deficiencies, or even turning one's worst liabilities into assets in some surprising way (e.g., a comedian making a career out of making fun of themselves for being a neurotic slob with bad habits). Some people have even become famous for completely overcoming a significant adversity in the form of a physical or mental disability that stood in their way of becoming successful at something. The case of Oscar Pistorius is one example from sports that comes to mind (notwithstanding his later downfall into infamy by being convicted of the murder of his girlfriend), and there are many other examples.
In the context of academia, unquestionably the most famous person who can be cited as an example in connection with your question is Temple Grandin. I saw her speak a few years ago when she came to my university, and she is a remarkable and awe-inspiring woman. I couldn't begin to give a good description of how amazing she is, so I recommend checking out her books, or watching the movie (starring Claire Danes) made about her. Suffice it to say that she grew up with autism, and having a fairly extreme case of being "either introvert or bad in interpersonal communications or both", and yet became a stunningly successful animal scientist (her main job is as a professor at Colorado State University). She is a great inspiration to many people who are either on the autism spectrum or are just extremely introverted or different from what is thought to be "normal" in some other way, and part of her advocacy is in convincing such people and their families that they are often capable of achieving a lot more than the society around them assumes.
Bottom line: if Temple Grandin could succeed, so can the PhD student you are asking about. And besides, many other less famous people in academia are both introverted and not especially good at interpersonal communications, and become very successful anyway. I'm not saying it's necessarily a good thing to be, and it may make sense for your friend to work on getting better at those things, but I absolutely wouldn't assume that it will be a career-killing problem.

"if Temple Grandin could succeed, so can the PhD student you are asking about" - I don't think the second thing necessarily follows from the first. (Also see: faulty generalization)

@ff524 you are free to disagree of course, but perhaps you shouldn't interpret the statement so literally. Imagine that I'm actually saying "if a person with such extreme introverted tendencies as Temple Grandin can succeed, then so can the PhD student you are asking about, whose introversion is likely less extreme, all other things being equal." (I could write that in the answer, but then I'd have a logically more precise but soul-crushingly boring answer, which doesn't sound like an improvement to me. I chose to go with a more inspirational tone here, sorry you disapprove.)

@ff524 besides, it's a general principle in education that when you're trying to convince someone that they can achieve something they don't think they can achieve, you need to lie a little bit and say things like "yes, you can do it, look at that other person who succeeded despite facing worse obstacles". There is a magically motivating power to such statements, even if they are technically based on a faulty generalization. My answer is an informal text on the internet, not an academic paper, so I think it's reasonable to take mild liberties with logic to achieve a more effective message.

... But now that I've had to write a lengthy explanation to justify myself, probably the effect will be ruined... ;-(

If one wants to be logically pedantic about it, one can take Temple Grandin as a disproof by counterexample of the assertion that extreme introverted tendencies prevent a person from completing a PhD (or, from becoming a professor, or so on).

@DanRomik Answers here should strive to be as objective as possible. I don't think "motivation" is the main purpose.

@user8001 thank you for your opinion. I try to write the best answers I can, and that is what I did here, and don't think there's anything unobjective about it. Since there are many readers here, invariably some of them will have a different vision from me of what an answer "should" be, or would prefer if some sentences were phrased differently. Clearly one cannot please everyone, but know that I did my best, and also I happen to think that if my answer motivates someone reading it then that is actually a worthy thing to strive for (though I might agree with you it's not "the main purpose").

Of course interpersonal skills are important in completing a PhD. As you note, a PhD some fields involves working in small to very large teams, where interpersonal skills are essential. Even in the few fields were individuals typically work alone, interpersonal skills are necessary to navigate relationships with peers, graduate advisors, other members of the community, etc.
This is not to say that with poor interpersonal skills one is doomed. Such skills can be learned, and one can improve substantially with effort. It may even be true that in some areas of science, interpersonal skills are less important than in other jobs. But to say that they are not needed would be a gross misrepresentation of what it is like to get a PhD or work in academic science at any level.

The answer is simple: Yes, someone who is heavily introverted, has bad interpersonal skills or both will have trouble doing his PhD.
Someone who has these social issues will have trouble doing anything in life. Even the simple act of existing in modern society requires at least some modicum of interpersonal skills.
This doesn't mean it's impossible at all! In fact, although I have no data to support my claim, I would estimate that the chances come out about equal for such a student to complete their PhD compared to the average student. It will simply require more effort from them. Every student has their weak points and strong points, most weak points can be strengthened and some can be partially or even entirely covered for with their strengths. The most important thing is to have the will to succeed.

I'm 28 and in my early twenties I was quite introverted and bad at communicating a lot of the time, even though that was much less so than it had been at certain times in my teens. I'm now right at the end of my 4.5 years as a PhD student and I would definitely say my communication skills have improved.
I've had to discuss/explain/question plenty of things both in person with my supervisor and over the internet in group skype calls with powerpoint slides, as well as countless emails and and the occasional presentation, poster or formal write-up. And I've been to conferences, summer schools, extended stays at labs etc. across the world that have involved plenty of interaction. Then there's the fellow students and other staff that you see often and get to know and be friendly with.
So yeah, I definitely have an introverted side to me but being comfortably communicative feels a lot more natural to me now, not something I feel apprehensive about anymore. And I'll bet it's been the gentler option compared to working a job in the 'real world' (even though it felt like a normal job anyway at times). Looking back the entire undergraduate & postgraduate experience has felt like a comfortable way to develop. My own narrow experience is no guarantee it'd be a good place for you, but what I can now say is this would have been an unjustified reason for me not to go for the PhD. And it's quite possibly a thought that did cross my mind at the time.

First of all, being an introvert is not a problem, except when dealing with some people with poor interpersonal skills. People in the academia are used to dealing with people with vastly different personalities and cultural backgrounds. They generally don't assume that everyone should behave according to the social norms in where they grew up.
Working in the academia requires some interpersonal skills, but less than in most other fields. Researchers in particular interact with less people than those working in most other fields. The interactions are often long-term, and the other people tend to assume that you have something worthwhile to say, reducing the need for interpersonal skills. Even people with relatively poor interpersonal skills get along just fine, as long as they make an honest effort and respect the others.
It's important to realize that successful working relationships are everyone's responsibility. In particular, having good interpersonal skills implies that you can work effectively with people with less good skills. As long as everyone makes an honest effort, the differences in degrees of interpersonal skills aren't such a big deal.

I am now in the final few months of my 7 year PhD adventure. My five cents are that a) interpersonal skills are helpful but will not get you your phd...only working your a** off will. And b) academic excellence alone will not get you a tenure track job, and interpersonal skills DO seem to play a large role further up the ladder (past your phd).
When you're a grad student schmoozing won't really help you much, since your task is to get from undergrad level to being able to analyze data and produce journal papers. However, past that, you do see a noticeable group of people that are good schmoozers/politicians/collaborators, etc, who end up excelling....sometimes ahead of those with better 'hard' technical skills.


text:
What should I do, as my submitted paper is still under review after 1 year?
I'd just submitted a manuscript to Robotics & Autonomous Systems Journal on Mar. 1st, 2015. Right after 1 month, its status changed to Under Review. I just waited up to Jan. 2016 and send a letter to editor-in-chief to clear the status of the paper and any potential problem due to this delay. He did say this after that 10 months!:

you are right with your criticism. However your paper deals with
  research topics, where only a few of roboticist are familiar with.
  Hopefully we can get now the final required review. Sorry for the
  inconvenience.

Now, 2 extra months are passed, yet the paper's status is still Under Review.
They should have considered responsibility regarding the case. They could easily announce us about their inability to find any interested reviewer for the manuscript, and we would find the other journal. I'm frustrated a little bit. As a matter of fact, I am reluctant to withdraw the submission as they have wasted my time, NOTICEABLY, over the last year. I wonder if they have completely neglected it.
Is there any way to handle this case, and ask them POLITELY and REASONABLY, leading to the finalization of this manuscript's situation?
Thanks
Edit: After 2 weeks from sending an email to the editor about the manuscript, he has not still replied.

Having been on both sides of the bench, it can be very difficult to find reviewers. Do you have an alternative journal in mind where you can hope to find specialised reader/reviewership? Unless that's the case, your chances of negotiating a speedup are limited, but you could do a bit of polite inquiry to find out whether actually the required number of reviewers has agreed and is active in carrying out the review (as opposed to the editors still looking for reviewers).

It might be very very difficult, but the editor should not have insisted on the stuff, she can't afford it. It is the typical situation, within which an early rejection DOES WORK! I might ask them for a clarification.

Yes, I agree, but perhaps they didn't realise it would be so difficult. Your best bet is to ask for a clarification. Trust me, I have seen much worse than merely "dormant" papers; keeping that in mind will help you write a neutral and polite query.

I'm a curious fish.  You just edited this question.  What's the Paul Harvey rest of the story?  Has it been in review for 4 years?  Or did you pull it?  Rejected?  Published?

@guest: I pulled it out after an extra 2-month period of dormancy.

I'm in a different field, but had a similar situation. I got a paper published in a journal in a matter of 6 months (submission to publication), then followed with another paper a month later. That paper was in review without notice for 6 months. After two unanswered emails, I politely asked for a decision on publication such that I might submit elsewhere if publication wasn't likely. This prompted them to respond that they were having trouble locating reviewers and asked for a list of potential reviewers. I received my reviews for the paper about 2 months later. It seems that if you suggest you might pull the paper and submit elsewhere, it may open a more honest conversation!

I'm in the same boat in view of not receiving any answer on behalf of my emails! After above advice from Captain Emacs, I did send as email to ask about the situation, but one, considering the withdraw option and talking about that, is another options, as you made it...

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
How long does it take before an academic article can no longer be kept behind a paywall?
Just a curiosity: after how many years does publications become public (cannot be kept behind a paywall anymore)?

Strictly speaking, the answer to your question is Never.  Even after the copyright has expired, there is nothing to prevent a journal from keeping articles behind a paywall.  Many journals will make articles open access after a certain amount of time, and after the copyright has expired, other people may freely distribute public domain articles.  However, there are some journals that nonetheless have paywalled archives going back to the nineteenth century.

Even after the copyright has expired In the US at least, there is effectively no such thing as copyright expiration anymore. Every time the 1923 copyrights come up for expiration, Congress extends the terms.

@BenCrowell the EU is the same or occasionally worse.

@BenCrowell in the Cech Republic (part of EU) the 70 years after the death is still in effect and interesting works had become public domain recently. Sadly, many of the authors were victims of nazism.

@BenCrowell Your comment is misleading, since "every time" actually means "just once". The 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act added 20 years to the copyright term, meaning that 75-year copyrights that were due to expire in 1998 were extended to 2018.

@DavidRicherby Yes, in case the country's copyright law knows such a thing as copyright transfer (our doesn't). Which country's laws are applicable when the publisher resides elsewhere as the author I don't know, I am not a lawyer.

@DavidRicherby This is actually not true in a lot of cases at least in Europe. I don't know the intricacies, but I have often used online public domain calculators and they ask a LOT of questions and 'whether the author owns the copyright' is not one of them.

@DavidMulder I think you're right. I was confusing works of corporate authorship with works where a corporation owns the copyright. In cases of corporate authorship, copyright duration is from date of publication; in cases where the author is an actual person (or people) but the copyright is transferred to a corporation, it still seems to be based on the  death of the authors. I've deleted my comment.

Some journals have in their copyright transfer some text regarding when the article becomes open access.
When that is not the case, I would expect that copyright laws apply, and the articles might become public domain after a certain period defined in law, see e.g.: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries%27_copyright_lengths

This is somewhat tangential to the question, but it's becoming increasingly common that governments, universities, and funding agencies require research to be published in an open access journal from the beginning.
Such policies are not retroactive – but paywalls are (very) slowly but surely becoming obsolete.

IMHO, not fast enough.

Unless I grossly misunderstand, no one is entitled to anything right off the bat.
A work might be 'in the public domain', but if I have the only copy I could probably still make money off selling access to it (private museum showcasing a manuscript?) or copies of it. An actual or digital copy could, I suspect, be deemed the property of an individual even if the contents are public domain. It seems likely that the step of providing access or making copies is not guaranteed even if being in the public domain means the public owns them.
Also, the following webpage suggests that the compilation or collection of something could be copyright even if the individual parts are public domain. The example given is a compilation of poetry. Taken as a whole, then, the database/system containing the collected articles wouldn't be public domain and it's hard to imagine how you'd b able to argue that the company in question should provide access/copies for free
http://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/public-domain/welcome/
Taken as whole, if the definition of public here also conveys the premise of being freely accessible, available, then I'd say it could be as long as never.

This appears to be speculation about the meaning of copyright law, not an answer to the question. It is also substantially wrong. Sure, if the copyright has expired and you have the only copy, you can charge people to read it. However, once you start selling it to people, they can produce copies and sell those, since the work is now in the public domain.

I'm not trying to be speculative here. Perhaps I've gone off on too much of a tangent, but the point I'm trying to make is for in the public domain and cannot be kept inside a paywall the former does not appear to necessarily imply the latter. In other words, something being in the public domain does not keep it from being inside a paywall as I understand it. -- Do note the question itself. It seems the title was modified to clarify the question after I posted the above.

It depends on the funder and their rules, but a one year period is typical.
If research is funded by the American NIH, some version of it needs to be accessible within twelve months of the publication date. This can either be achieved by publishing in an Open Access journal or by submitting a preprint version to BioMedCentral. Here is the NIH's Open Access Policy.
The (also American) NSF has adopted a similar policy, as has NASA and the Department of Agriculture. The Department of Energy has a long public access plan that is supposed to provide access to DOE work and data, but I'm not sure how much has been implemented.  The Department of Defense mantains the Defense Technical Information Center, which provides access to unclassified DoD-funded research papers and some data sets, again with a 1-year embargo period for non-open access publications.
All of these initiatives seem to flow from a February 2013 memo by John P. Holdren entitled "Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Scientific Research."
Meanwhile, in Canada, the Tri-Agency council (NSERC, CIHR, and SSHRC, which together fund most Canadian research) have adopted a similar open access policy that also requires authors to either publish in open-access venues or deposit the final peer-reviewed manuscript in an appropriate repository, again within 12 months. These rules were effective starting in 2008 for CIHR and May 2015 for NSERC and SSHRC. Like the NIH policy, this also covers things like gene sequences.

authors: Vladimir F Героям слава


text:
Do any British universities still offer degree registration from afar to those who study alone, without tuition?
Forty years ago, London University was still offering degree registration to "external" students, who might be living anywhere in the world. To prepare themselves for the London exams, many studied at local institutions; but it was also acceptable for external students not to study at any institution but to study "privately". Some of these "private" students had private tutors, while others studied wholly on their own, without any tuition, and after being registered for the required period of time they presented themselves in a London or London-accredited examination room and sat the exam papers. Fees were paid both for registration and examination. For many decades, the availability of degree examinations to private students was considered one of the special features of London University.
I am not asking for recommendations, but are there any British universities nowadays that register and examine students who study wholly on their own?
Note that I am not asking about degrees by "distance learning" in which coursework is required and tuition bought from and given by the degree-awarding institution, or by an institution accredited by it, although it is possible that the kind of degree registration I am asking about might be considered a sub-category of distance learning.

I would also like to ask whether any "reputable" universities outside of Britain offer degrees to such students, with "reputable" meaning "not a degree mill that anyone can buy a degree certificate from by mail order", but I suspect that that question would fall foul of the "don't solicit opinions" rule. In Britain, however, since "university" is a protected term it is clear which institutions are universities and which aren't.

I don't know about now, but certainly the University of London was still doing this within the last ten years.

It might be a good idea to add this link to the question: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_London_International_Programmes

There is no such thing as "London University". There's the "University of London" which currently consists of 17 Colleges and 9 Institutes. Do you means that ? As far as I know, there are no central exams for the University of London, they are all administered by the individual Colleges. (I have a degree from one of them, which has since left the University of London.)

@Marianne013 - Yes, "London University" is a common term for the University of London. Apologies if it caused you any confusion. I didn't say exams were run centrally. If you got a degree at Imperial (the Imperial College of Science and Technology, or later, the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) between 1907 and 2003, then it was awarded by the University of London, as the certificate will confirm.

@ruffle: There are plenty of slightly dodgy institutions out there which trade on some kind of riff on the words "University" and "London". I have never heard anyone calling the "University of London" "London University", hence my question.

I have a degree from there too, and "London University" is what I have always called it in conversation. Although admittedly when asked where I did my first degree I usually name the college (which has since merged with another college at the university). I was close to Senate House and what was then called ULU (now called "Student Central" I think), so the central University felt more present as an institution than maybe it would for people at most other colleges.

I used to work at Bitkbeck, University of London and vaguely remember there being an external programme a number of years ago. Try them possibly.

@ruffle, please could you clarify if the main focus of your question is 1. about registering with a degree-awarding higher education institution that provides not tuition, i.e. no teaching, and you are meant to do all the learning by yourself without support from that institution, or 2. about degree-awarding institutions that award degrees without tuition fees?

this question is not clear! and strange

The University of London still offers self study courses for international students. The list of courses includes both undergraduate and post graduate degrees in a range of subjects. While these courses are self study and do not include tuition, they are not cheap. For example, the fees for the Accounting and Finance (BSc) are:

Academic year 2016-2017
Application fee (non-refundable)  £ 84
Initial registration fee  £ 760
Examination entry fee (per full course)   £ 224
Examination entry fee (per half course)   £ 112
Continuing registration fee   £ 380
Total for BSc degree  £ 4,292
Other fees (as applicable)
Additional registration fee for students taking law courses (per course)  £ 51
Application fee for consideration of accreditation of prior learning (per full course)    £ 89

The fees are a little confusing since they are using course in two different ways. I think £224 fee is for a full year module.
At a total cost of £4,292, this is considerably cheaper than the £9,000 per year (£27,000 per for a degree) that most UK universities are charging. That said while program includes study materials, it does not include teaching.

Considering how cash-strapped and/or financially savvy British higher education institutions tend to be nowadays, you are extremely unlikely to find such a programme set available anywhere in the British isles.
In the days of online distance learning and MOOCs (massive open online courses), there is probably no valid reason for an institution to grant degrees for free.
The rationale for charging fees for distance learning is that registering with a degree programme, you precisely do not 'study wholly on your own', but you benefit from a wide range of resources, not the least digital, to have access to the latest scholarship, in addition to the expertise the local staff 'holds' themselves.
If you are based outside the UK, your natural first port of call to find an answer for a question of this nature would be the British Council; they are the experts to advise globally about UK educational and cultural opportunities.

The scheme the OP is talking about where an international student pays to take the exam seems like a potential money maker.

so, would anyone explain how the answer above 'is not useful', and how it could improve and become so? Many thanks!

I thought my previous comment did. your answer is essentially NO be a use it does not make financial sense. In the OP''s model there is no teaching. The OP simply wants to pay to take the exams and if they pass get a degree. That seems to male good financial sense.

You mean OU, as in The Open University? The OU model is definitely not one where 'there is no teaching'. See this brief quote from the OU's website: 'You get regular support from your tutor on both a one-to-one basis and as part of group tutorials, which can be face to face or online.'

For once I typed what I meant. I was not talking about the OU, but the OP (original poster) of the question.

The obvious answer is the Open University, which exists to offer such degrees.
They have a huge range of qualifications from undergraduate to PhD level and allow study from home full- or part-time (70% of OU students are in full time employment, so most students are involved part-time).
I haven't had anything to do with them myself, but know people who've studied chemistry and computer science, in both cases to degree level as part-time study while working.  While these individuals were based in the UK, the programmes (or at least many of them) are offered internationally.

Does the OU offer any courses for free or are there fellowships for international students?

Additionally the OP is not interested in traditional distance learning.

I don't know the details of the financial arrangements for foreign students, but the question mentions fees, so there was no need to search for something free. (@strongbad)

question was: 'are there any British universities nowadays that register and examine students who study wholly on their own?' There is no way the OU 'exists to offer such degrees', unless we don't understand studying on one's own in the same way. The OU provides study material, there are books published by the OU to support study, and there are tutors who are there to help with the learning experience of students. Doesn't sound like 'studying on one's own' to me.

@G-E I think we do understand self-study in different ways.  While the OU adds tuition, I took from the question that the London courses must have provided study materials (e.g. lecture notes).

@ChrisH no, the Univ of London allowed people to pay to take the exams without ever studying or going to class. If they passed, they got the degree.

I looked at the OU and it looks like it offers what are now traditional "distance learning" courses, with weekly readings, discussion boards, etc. The OP was talking about exam only tracks, where one would not be required to complete (or even pay for) the actual coursework, only the end-of course exams. Does the OU offer that, or does everyone have to pay for and slog through the online courses?


text:
How does a suspended student deal with an unprofessional university counselor?
I am a suspended student and I have been getting counseling for three months. During those three months, I have noticed extremely unprofessional behavior from my counselor.
When I started counseling, he was late each time. The first time he was late 10 minutes, the next 20 minutes and the third time 30 minutes.
Last week I had a counseling appointment and I drove 35 minutes to get on campus only to find out that the counselor was absent. He didn't email me or tell me not to come, nothing.
After my suspension period ends, the counselor has to decide whether I am fit to come back to the university or not, and many times I get literally threatened with not coming back - if for example I do this or that behavior. I literally get told "then, you're not coming back to the university".
Often, I see the counselor is eating while with me and he has no respect for the appointments for other students as well. Phone calls aren't answered. Emails aren't often answered except some few after three or four days.
There was couple of times when our counseling session was about literally 5 minutes. I came in, he asked me what I did in the week, then he said "Okay, I'll see you next time". And, he went on to work on the computer.
Additional Information: My counseling session was in the morning around 9:00AM every Tuesday. Suddenly, once day, without even taking my opinion, he says that someone else took the appointment at 9:00AM. He switched my appointment till 5:00PM. I objected. He said he had an emergency and it was more important than me. He said he had no other time than this time, at 5:00PM. I found out later that the person who took my appoitment was a customer for him, who is not a student.
What should I do? On one side, I can't ditch the counselor since that would jeopardize my coming to the university. On another side, I do not want a counselor to help me deal with another counselor.
For those who are asking, my suspension is behavioral suspension and not academic suspension, and the counselor stated that I suffer from depression based on tests that I took.

Eating while in session — by client or therapist — is never appropriate (it’s therapy, not mealtime). And asking, “Do you mind if I finish my lunch while we get started?” is inappropriate — clients don’t always feel comfortable enough with expressing their true feelings. http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2009/03/08/12-most-annoying-bad-habits-of-therapists/

Out of curiosity: Why does one get suspended from university? Please don't get me wrong: I just never heard of that possibility, probably because of different cultural background. Are you from US? Please excuse if my question is too personal; feel free to ignore it if it is.

Is this part of the university's counseling service?  In most cases, these services have many counselors on staff - have you considered simply asking the counseling service if you can switch to a different counselor?

@NateEldredge: Yes it is. Asking for a different one  could be counterproductive. The answer below says to "suck it up" and is most likely the smartest thing to do.

I disagree that eating "is never appropriate". This is a cultural thing. In some cultures it is appropriate. I think it is an exaggeration to complain about this. If the OP can't stand this because of some personal reason, I would suggest to talk about this with the counselor himself/herself.

@DanielJour, MadJack: The cases I've come across have been students who are disruptive because they are ill, and are sufficiently ill that they won't make the decision to take a break for themselves. If we were talking about someone who was simply being obnoxious, I'd be surprised to find the uni paying for counseling.

Can you elaborate on what exactly was the behavior that got you suspended? It might be relevant to this question.

If your appointments were at 9am, then the counselor being late at 9am may mean that this person isn't showing up to work on time (a bad idea in most jobs). Is that true, or are you just made to wait while the counselor is "busy"? If they're not even in the office, then you should be asking the [head secretary / "the boss"] where your counselor is. Mentioning that they've been late on dates x,y,z and asking for another counselor right then may be a good idea too - if you think a different counselor will help, is their goal to get you off suspension, or something else?

It is not unreasonable for a counselor to at short notice cancel or move you appointment for something more important; in an emergancy. Its is very likely something like one of his other patients threatening (or already having done) self-harm or suicide etc. (Depending on the kind of counselor, since counselors vary from course advisors, to actual psychologists)

I suggest getting another counselor, not to help you cope with the first one, but to help you with the issues that got you suspended in the first place.
The combination of counselor and gatekeeper for your return to the university seems to me to be an inherent problem. It would be difficult to be really frank with the gatekeeper.

That sounds like a very reasonable suggestion to me.

Great point. they may call this guy a counsellor, but his position is closer to a parole officer. If you get lucky a parole officer may be nice and genuinely try to help you. You did not get lucky. So try as best you can to show this guy that you have a handle on whatever behaviour got you suspended, and seek a proper counsellor you trust somewhere else.

@Peter Yes, in my answer below I was also assuming that this guys isn't really on the OP's side. The parole officer was also an analogy that I had in mind.

@xLeitix I don't think the college counselor's intentions matter. They could be the most wonderful counselor in the world, dedicated to helping the OP. The very fact of being the gatekeeper would prevent frank and open communication.

To be completely honest, the most productive tip you can likely get in this situation is to, well, suck it up. On the one hand, you say that the counselor is ultimately responsible for deciding whether you can go back or remain suspended. On the other hand, while his behavior is certainly annoying and unprofessional, is it really damaging enough to you that you would want to get into a fight with him about it that can very easily end with you remaining suspended? Is the counselor's unprofessional behavior really a hill that you wish to (academically) die on?
Considering these two points, it seems to me that the rational answer to

What should I do?

would be to hold still and wait until your suspension is over, and then being happy to (presumably) never having to deal with the obnoxious counselor again.

It may help to identify what the suspension is for. Rubbing in that others are unprofessional is, at the least, diplomatically unwise. However (without knowing where the OP's situation arose from) I experienced more often than not that it was those students that complained about other people's unprofessionality who themselves had quite some major shortcomings to answer for. The rule of thumb is, one gets out of a system what one puts into it. Of course, it's not always true, mileage can vary. But, if you count late minutes for the counsellor, your behaviour'd better be absolutely flawless.

I disagree. Unprofessional service that risks the OP's academic career is not part of his suspension. The OP should document these events and present them as evidence of unfair and unprofessional treatment by the councilor if the councilor says the OP cant come back for an  egregious reason

@DavidGrinberg If by "documenting" you mean anything that the counselor would be aware of, then I think this is a horrible idea that can backfire so much more easily than do the OP any good. Also, I have a super hard time imagining a scenario where the OP is negatively evaluated, he counters with "But I can document that the counselor was often late and ate in my sessions!", and the decision is then reverted.

Look, I understand the urge to fight the good fight and don't let the obnoxious counselor get away, but I feel it is important to recognize that the OP is not exactly in a good position to begin with. We don't know what he got suspended for, but it is fair to assume that accusations from his side, ones that will almost certainly end in a "he-said-she-said" discussion without any hard proof either way, would likely be met with a certain level of suspicion.

@xLeitix Documenting obviously shouldn't be getting a written signed statement from the councilor saying he was late. If you take a picture of yourself in his waiting room 30 minutes after he was suppose to show up its pretty clear whats going on without rubbing it in the councilors face. If you show a consistent pattern of this and show it to admins at the end, it becomes much easier to say 'I was not fairly evaluated'

I have added more information.

Perhaps @DavidGrinberg could turn his comment here into an answer.

@DanielR.Collins Honestly I tried but this site only half works on my work computer and I was unable to submit the answer :).

I agree that any action now would be too risky. But I suggest, also for the sake of others in the future, to document all of this. Then, after the counselor "ruled" you can go back to university, I would complain to his superiors. There is no reason why you should lie to them, after you got what you want from the counselor and it might help others like you in the future.

His behaviour does seem to be unprofessional. However, like some of the other answers, I would advise you to just keep your head down. Why?
If you are on suspension, you must have done something wrong. Therefore, whatever you say now - especially if it is criticising an university employee's work ethic - will have, at best, very little value to whomever you talk to. At worst, this might work against you ("This student even has trouble getting along with his counselor").
Again, I'm not saying you are wrong but with your current status, it is more likely than someone with authority will side with a fellow university employee than a suspended student.

I must oppose the just keep your head down point of view.
This is the same coping mechanism battered wives and hostages resort to.  It's not healthy.
You are not in a position of authority but that doesn't mean you are powerless.  You will lose what little power you have if you respond by acting unprofessional yourself.
The counselor has a supervisor and peers.  They are the checks on his power.  It's up to them to decide if the counselor is acting unprofessional.  It's up to you to convince them to either do something about him or at least find another accommodation for you.

he has no respect for the appointments for other students

Then talk to the other students.  Go complain together.  A mass of complaints is more convincing than one disgruntled student.
Lets look at your complaints:

late
absent
eats during sessions
often unresponsive when contacted
slow to respond
changes appointments unilaterally

The problem here is even if every one of these were provably true there isn't much here to say it's shockingly bad.  It's really how much each is done that makes them truly bad.  Consider: how many have you ever been guilty of?
That means you have to document this.  You can't just show what.  You have to show how much.  How often.
Start taking notes on it.  Get other students to corroborate your notes.  Dates, times, everything.
Armed with that you can go talk to other counselors and ask them if they can help you.  You can make a formal complaint to his supervisor.
Go to them with one simple question.  Is this behavior acceptable?
That is, if your goal is to get him in trouble.
If you just want to get a different counselor go ask for one.

For those who are asking, my suspension is behavioral suspension and not academic suspension, and the counselor stated that I suffer from depression based on tests that I took.

School counselors can't treat you for clinical depression.  Talk to a real doctor.  Other than that don't let them use it as an excuse to dismiss you.  Don't let anyone with an adversarial relationship with you try to talk you through it.  Talk to someone who's only goal is to help you.  Depressed students have rights too.
If this works out and you get your way, I do hope you are kind.

One criticism of your battered wife / hostage analogy: the person asking the question here is in this situation for a limited duration of time, and is in this situation as a (somewhat) righteous punishment for their actions. None of those apply for hostages. With this in mind I'd say an analogy with e.g. being in prison for three months is much closer. Yes, the prison guards might be a**holes, but as long as they're not causing you serious physical or mental harm, complaining is unlikely to help you.

Staying quiet is more likely to make you a victim than any other behavior.  It's extremely dangerous to recommend keeping quiet to anyone.  It's the reason 2 year olds tell you everything.  It keeps them safe.  He may be overreacting.  He may not.  It is much safer if someone else judges that.  We certainly don't have enough information here to judge so I'm recommending he gather enough information and take it to someone who can do something. If nothing comes of it fine.  But the potential blow back is completely outweighed by the possible abuse. Just staying quiet is not safe. Talk to people.

-1: the analogy to battered spouses is inapt to the point of being disrespectful both to the OP and victims of domestic abuse.  I find your suggestion that a counselor who sometimes arrives late, eats during sessions and cancels appointments with no notice makes the OP "not safe" rather addle-pated: you need to make a distinction between "unprofessional" and "abusive" in order to be helpful to anyone.

"If you just want to get a different counselor go ask for one." Much better advice.  It is very reasonable for the OP to ask for a different counselor.  If they ask why, he should say  "Because my current one sometimes arrives late and sometimes misses our appointments."  That's what the OP needs most of all: to fix the situation and get back on academic track.  If after he has gotten the best revenge (i.e., living well as a student in good standing) he still wants to pursue a complaint, he can do so then.

@PeteL.Clark you're right of course but the school may refuse to provide another one.  So it's wise to be prepared to make a case against him.  Plan for the worst.  Hope for the best.

@PeteL.Clark though I must say, the analogy is perfectly correct on the point I was trying to make.  This is a matter of judgement.  Enduring a situation impacts your judgement.  That's exactly why you must talk to other people.  Keeping quiet and thinking it's something wrong with you invites one form of abuse to turn into another.  Talk to people.

Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. I for one am not surprised that a counselor, with power over his clients, could behave unprofessionally.
That being said, be careful as to the stories you tell yourself about this guy.

Additional Information: My counseling session was in the morning
  around 9:00AM every Tuesday. Suddenly, once day, without even taking
  my opinion, he says that someone else took the appointment at 9:00AM.
  He switched my appointment till 5:00PM. I objected. He said he had an
  emergency and it was more important than me. He said she had no other
  time than this time, at 5:00PM. I found out later that the person who
  took my appointment was a customer for him, who is not a student.

It doesn't matter if the customer was a student or not, if that customer had new suicidal thoughts, or dealing with a relative who was at risk of killing himself/herself, or at risk of hurting others, the counselor would be obligated to talk to that person.
And unless you're a mind-reader, there is no way you could know for sure why that person was given your slot since your counselor is under the strict ethical and legal obligation not to share private information about his other patients with you.

Phone calls
  aren't answered. Emails aren't often answered except some few after
  three or four days.

This can be especially tricky, because I don't know the full story.
It could be that he's incompetent, or that he doesn't care, but it could also be that some patients expect counseling sessions over the phone and over email, and that he doesn't get paid for doing that. Chances are, the first thing his voice mail says is to hang up and call 911 if it's in an emergency, because his University clinic probably doesn't have the extra staff, the extra budget, or the extra insurance in place to handle emergency calls and emergency emails 24 hours a day or 7 days a week.

Often, I see the counselor is eating while with me and he has no
  respect for the appointments for other students as well.

This part, I agree. Because he has power over you (and over other students), he probably doesn't care about eating in front of you (or in front of those other students).
The same goes for his absence and late arrivals. Unfortunately, most of your sessions seem to be at 9 AM, so you're one of his patients who's probably the most affected when he's late.
In these cases, I do hope that you're already asking other staff members what is going on when you've showed up and the counselor is nowhere to be found. And this is also the time to ask if there is any other counselor you could be transferring to in the future because of his repeated actions.
That should be your primary objective, either to change counselors, or to schedule a time slot in which he is more likely to show up in. Focus on feasible and concrete outcomes for yourself. You could try getting your counselor in trouble for the purpose of retribution, or you could try getting your counselor in trouble to make sure he is never late for any other patient/student (not just for yourself), but if you ever feel that is your motivation, stop yourself before you overextend yourself.
Try to switch counselors, do not try to change him. If switching is not possible. Learn to let go of the things that you don't control. It's really not the end of the world if he ends up eating during your sessions, or if you miss a counseling session (as long as you're not the one who gets blamed for it). And I'd recommend you listen to audiobooks or youtube videos from Byron Katie. She is very good and all of her work is about the topic of letting go.

Just realized that being late at 9am probably means that this person isn't showing up to work on time at all in the morning. That's a pretty serious error in any job where you're supposed to actually show up on time.

The counselor's conduct here is egregious. For a counselor, being 10-30 min late to appointments, ENDING SESSIONS AFTER 5 MINUTES, and regularly eating during appointments is completely unacceptable. He is taking advantage of a vulnerable patient. He should be providing you with mental health care and instead he's taking a paid lunch break.
I'm not sure what your particular situation is, but when universities require suspended students undergo counseling and then get cleared by the therapist, they often offer—but not require—a school therapist. If you use an independent therapist, their focus is what's best for you. They will advocate for you. If you use a school therapist, especially one that works closely with admin, they are often also concerned with what's best for the school. For example, occasional marijuana use is not going to concern a normal therapist re: your ability to return to school (unless they've been specifically asked to evaluate your drug use). A school therapist might feel differently.
And sometimes stuff like this happens. Ugh.
If you have the option to switch to an independent therapist and have enough time left (at least a few months), do that. You were flagged for depression, and you owe it to yourself to take that seriously. This guy is not providing you with actual mental health care.
If you can switch, I wouldn't consider it jeopardizing your return. There's some risk, but getting someone that will actually advocate for you is worth it.
Finding the right therapist involves finding someone you get along with. This is true for everyone. It is completely normal to switch therapists because it's just not a good fit. If you need to talk to the admin about switching, I would just say that it's not a good fit. You could elaborate by saying that he is often late or cuts appointments off early and you would like to find someone who can spend more time with you. Until you're reinstated, you don't want to come off as though you're blaming him, but you can explain why you'd like to switch without being blameful.

Completely disagree. The counseling is probably mandatory for the OP. The OP's interest is not to get psychological help from the counseling but to simply attend these meetings so to "punch a card" and return to his university program as quickly as possible. Having a five minute session is then optimal in this sense. Unless of course the OP is sincerely interested in a thorough psychological treatment (but we have no indication this is the case).

OP obviously does not consider this situation optimal. I think I was clear about why I think switching is in OP's interest.
To add to that, though, if the requirement is to get cleared as mentally healthy enough to return to school, a normal therapist will have no problem doing that unless OP is having a mental health crisis. None of this "you're not coming back if you don't do X" he's currently getting. If OP is having a mental health crisis, he needs mental health care, not this guy.

Also, if he just needs to meet with a counselor however often is recommended by the counselor, someone independent is unlikely to recommend meeting weekly unless he's having an acute issue.

I did not get the impression that the OP searches for psychological treatment. He seems to complain about "extreme unprofessionalism" of the counselor but did not indicate in any way what is his, that is, the OP, interest. Though he did say that he is forced to do the counseling, indicating that his interest is to meet this (or any other) counselor as less as possible.

If he just wants to check the box, going to an independent therapist is the better way to check it. If he wants therapy, going to an independent therapist is the better way to get that too.
I would recommend OP take his mental health seriously and take advantage of the required counseling, but the recommendation is the same either way.

No. Because the OP is FORCED by his school to go to the counselor in order to be able to get back on his academic track. His interest is thus to check the box and minimize his time with the counselor. My impression is that the OP is just pissed at his counselor and wants, sorry to say so, "get even" with him.

As I said, OP is likely required to go to a counselor, not this specific one.

Good. So we agree that the OP doesn't have any special interest in the counseling. He is forced to go there. Thus, making fuss and complaining about late appointments and changing a counselor can only make his situation worse. He should stick with this counselor and by that also minimize the time he is forced to go to counseling before going back to school.

I have explained, repeatedly, what I see as the benefits of changing counselors. None of what I have said depends on him having a special interest in counseling. Since you're not remotely engaging with what I'm saying, I'm done here.

Hungry, Actually your arguments involved explicitly the claim that the OP is interested, or even should be interested, in taking up therapy (e.g., "You were flagged for depression, and you owe it to yourself to take that seriously.") Since there is no real indication that the OP is indeed interested in anything else than just returning quickly to school, changing a counselor is not a good option in my opinion.

I think it is in his interest to take it seriously, and I advised him to take an interest in it, regardless of whether he currently is. But I also made multiple other points completely independent of that, which you for some reason insist on ignoring: He's more likely to get cleared by someone else. They will advocate for him to the school. It will not be an unpleasant experience. He would probably have to see them less often.

I suspect otherwise: sticking with the same counselor will take him faster back on track, and since the counselor doesn't take his job very seriously the counselor would probably let the student return to the faculty. Changing a counselor is risk. Anyway, this is my opinion. And we can only speculate what steps will yield the best outcome.

Document everything and give it to their supervisor once the decision about your suspension is made.

Perhaps you could expand a bit and give your reasoning and justification?

@jakebeal feedback and accountability? Seemed axiomatic to me.

I'm going to slightly disagree with the OP, and others here. I also understand that not everyone will agree with me.
Basically, I don't see the "extremely unprofessional" behavior you describe as completely horrific, or even actually unprofessional. It's annoying or a bit selfish, at most, but I wouldn't even call it "unprofessional". Being late a couple of times is annoying, it's only very mildly unprofessional, but we don't know precisely the situation. Maybe the counselor had some justification. Eating in the session---well, that's actually legitimate in many cases. This is not a psychotherapy session, this is university counseling (you can't expect 5 stars hotel standards if you go to a 1 star hotel!).
Overall, the counselor didn't, e.g., ask you for money, or god forbid sexually harassed you, or cursed you, or done things that are grossly unprofessional. He is being informal, not unprofessional. There's a fine line here between informality and unprofessionalism, but it is not clear that he/she crossed the line.

Let me explain again: I argue that "extreme unprofessional" behavior, as you describe it, should be stated only for behaviors that interfere critically with the cause of the profession (in this case counseling). Eating in a a meeting does not interfere in the counseling process. The same with being late.
I believe that complaining about "extreme unprofessional behavior" when someone eats in a meeting is a bit petty. I would agree if you say that e.g. "the counselor is a bit clumsy and slightly unprofessional". But to actually complain about this, and describe it as "extreme" unprofessional behavior, is not correct, in my opinion.

What industry do you work in that not showing up to an appointment (or even being 30 minutes late) with no effort to communicate that is acceptable? No, it's not horrific, but it is unprofessional in my opinion, and I don't think the fact he works in academia should excuse that type of behavior.

Eating during a counselling appointment with someone is rude and unprofessional, not informal.

@Massimo, I disagree. Eating is not rude at all. It is a matter of culture whether it is in bad taste or not. But to categorically and universally say it is rude is false.

@Sam, I do not work in industry. I'm a university professor. Almost all of us have been late to some meetings, and had been waiting to someone who was late. This certainly does not qualify as being "extremely unprofessional". See above my argument.

@Dilworth A counseling appointment is not comparable with a research group meeting. It is not friends meeting up. It's more like saying your doctor or bank manager started eating in your meeting. At the absolute least they should ask permission first. Showing up late without any acknowledgement that this this is not good is also very poor behaviour in such a context. It is not just being rude, it is failing to do their job.

While I'm very aware that in some cultures, it's perfectly acceptable to be 30 minutes late for a meeting or to switch an appointment with  no notice given whatsoever, from OP's post, we can clearly see that we are not dealing with such a culture, therefore I give -1 vote to this answer. I am also extremely unhappy that I am not allowed by the rules of this site to give another -1 for the following section of the answer:ask you for money, or god forbid sexually harassed you.  Is it really too much to expect that interactions with the staff should be legal by default?

@AndrejaKo, it is not too much to ask. It's just that the description of the OP does not qualify as "extremely unprofessional". Only mildly unprofessional, if at all. And the complain seems exaggerated.

@JessicaB, indeed. I would argue that a research group meeting is more important than a cover-up counseling meeting, that is only a formality in any case. A counselor in a university is not a psychotherapist and is only rarely going to help a student.

@Dilworth Thank you for your constructive response. I personally disagree with you. Furthermore, after reading your answer, I did not get the feeling that your opinion is that the complaint is exaggerated. If you do believe that to be the case, perhaps you should make that a bit more obvious.

@Dilworth I would say that if someone is not able to help the student then they shouldn't be meeting in that context at all, and they would not be able to judge whether a student is fit to return to their studies. Neither should such a person be dealing with an emergency case. Moreover, why would someone like that have private clients?

@JessicaB, indeed I agree with you. But the whole counseling system is not helpful. As I say, it is more like a cover up, and a bureaucratic surplus. Therefore, I think the student should take it lightly, just as the counselor does.

Ending sessions after 5 minutes and sometimes not showing up at all obviously interferes critically with the cause of his profession, which is providing counseling services. No one in the industry would consider this acceptable.

@Hungry, and that is why there's a difference between an educational institute and the industry. In the industry the OP would not have gotten a suspension plus a counselor, but would simply be shown the way out, very quickly.

In the mental health industry. No, this is not any more acceptable for therapists who work for universities.

It's a mandatory evaluation session; it's not psychotherapy. There's a difference as far as I understand and as far as the OP described his situation. And as such a five minute talk is acceptable.

You got suspended for a reason, you need to focus on that and make adjustments to never put yourself in this situation.
It is your responsibility to keep yourself out of trouble, take it as a life lesson and avoid this type of situation.
He's unprofessional with you but you are dealing with a suspension so it is not in your favor.
You put yourself in this situation.
They have lost some respect for you.
To earn respect you have to give respect.
If you have to be angry, be angry at yourself.
Take this anger and turn it into positivity.
Be accountable and just focus on making positive changes.

I disagree. First the OP didn't specify why they have been suspended. Based on needing to see a councilor it seems likely to be a mental health event, which if managed as well as possible is 100% not the OP's "fault". For whatever reason, the OP could not perform their duties, but they were given a chance to work with a councilor to get to the point of coming back. The councilor's unprofessional behavior towards someone who's future depends on them (and may have a mental health problem) is frankly inexcusable. They are there to get better, unreliability and dismissiveness do not help at all.

To add to what @kleineg said (not in the same content sense, but in the sense of questioning the suggestions), I think "They have lost some respect for you" is likely to be a bit of a stretch unless this is a VERY SMALL college/university. In every college/university I've been associated with, either as student or faculty (a total of 9), it would be ludicrous to identify all the various stakeholders (faculty adviser, professors for courses taken, department chair, college Dean, counseling center, admissions staff, etc.) as having a unified "they" voice.

There is a psychology at play here.  Banks exploit it all the time.  'You've done something wrong, now you have to make us happy'.  Every time you pay a fee out of guilt rather than thinking of it as the cost of a service rendered you're falling into it.  Do not let guilt drive you.  The university exists to help students.


text:
Is there any obligation for authors of a paper to provide the dataset used in their research, upon request?
I've recently read a curious article on machine learning where the author used a very interesting dataset, which would normally take thousands of man-hours to recreate. Now, assuming I would like to either:

Recreate the author's results, or
Improve upon them

Does the author have any obligation to provide me with said dataset?
N.B. In this particular situation the author has declined my request

Did the author mention why he declined?

@mdiener his rationale was that building the dataset on my own would help me with research, which kind of makes sense, but would take up thousands of man-hours.

Perhaps he wants to make further publications? If, as you say, it takes thousands of hours to recreate, you cannot blame them for wanting to get further publications out of this before they give up this competitive edge. Some teams release the data after they run their course and this is indeed the preferred path, but I do not think they are even ethically required to give up their hard-earned advantage that early in the game. Particularly, since some people have curiously sloppy in acknowledging non-paper inputs (e.g. software) to their work.

Related: Requesting raw data from previously published research. I certainly understand the authors' reluctance to simply give away data that were expensive to collect. They very probably want to use it for future publications. It might be possible to collaborate with them if you have an idea and they have the data. For such a collaboration, you'd ideally already have some kind of relationship with mutual trust.

@CaptainEmacs well, the latest article on that particular dataset was published all the way back in 2011. I'm not sure if I would consider that an 'edge',

Inherently? No. While it might be good for science generally, they're under no obligation to do so.
That being said, some funding agencies require data be made available as a condition of their support, and some journals require it as a condition of publication. Absent that though, there's no obligation to do so.