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How Best To Put The Fact Jigsaw Together In Research
The title to this question is the best way I can think offhand of phrasing it - but to anyone with a more widely accepted phrasing, please feel free to edit it.
Basically it's about a common experience in research where we have had all the requisite facts for some time (in some cases for years) but nonetheless miss viable conclusions that could yield opportunities to advance our work. As frustrating as the usual struggles of research are, the self-reproach felt after finally realizing something we could easily have obtained earlier is so much worse.
After one such occasion in my life, I had to ask myself hard questions about my research methodologies. I wondered if I had been unwise to ignore other research students' practice of keeping an index-card file. The index-card system was not simply a memory aid - it also allowed one to make multiple cross-associations between items of interest. Although perhaps 95% of the effort of maintaining an index-card system for one's research was in vain, the final 5% effort could save one's blushes.
More recently, reflecting on a research topic from earlier in my life, I came to a superficially counterintuitive but rationally interesting conclusion after putting 4 long-known facts together. Putting aside the suggestion of neglectful supervision of my research - I know few PhDs with genuinely adequate supervisors let alone ones who would constructively criticize the researcher - I have to wonder what would have been if newbee PhD candidates were first taught some means of collating their research facts and logically/sensibly constructing conclusions or exclusions from these.
May I ask PhD researchers here if today's academia provides any 'bootcamp' or practical methodologies for research reasoning prior to formally beginning their work ?
The methodologies I have in mind might be things like:

Writing out facts as premisses and trying to link them logically together
Sketching out concept associations or 'mind-maps' of facts or ideas
Speaking aloud some conclusions in the hope that, on hearing them, implications may be stimulated
Dialogues on blocking issues with a knowledgable colleague
Dialogues with common-sense people without expertise in one's research domain

Don't neglect non-technical things like taking breaks, getting enough sleep, exercise, and such. Insights often come when you don't force the mind to work with detail.

You havin' me on, Buffy ?

Not at all. It is based on learning/brain research.

Talking with knowledgable people. It's easy to missing something big or small when just mulling over alone. Also, without being an expert on the philosophy of science, "putting together simple facts to arrive at conclusions" sounds very much like the Baconian approach to science which has been abandoned in favor of more hypothesis-driven approaches.

@Cheersmate All right but for a doctoral student or a fellow this is basically either getting another member of the research group or less frequently someone from another organization to pick lice from your hair. And some knowledgeable people are research rivals of course. Is there a computerized version of index-cards that might be useful ? Have they started to apply AI techniques to research projects yet ? Have you found mindmaps or solitary vocalization any use ? BTW, I mean situations where the standard hypothesis was being pursued - by all in the field! - but quite hopelessly.

"... pick lice ... research rivals ..." - Collaboration is an immensely important part of research. If you don't trust (any?) other people enough to discuss ideas or even the state of the art with them, you're probably not gonna have a good time. Of course there are rivals, but you can't rule out everyone or you'll never have insightful discussions and miss out on a lot of ideas. If the standard approaches fail, discussions with people from outside the field might help.

Which general area is your research? Physics vs sociology for example, which probably have very different approaches.

@puppetsock The goofers I made were when working in materials science. cheersmate: I did correspond with other PhDs and spent many a tea-time exchanging concerns on techniques of common interest with them. Off and on, one of us would play listener to the other guy's hassle. On technique related stuff it would be useful. But on actual research approaches, I never presumed to amend what they were doing: it would be outside my capability to do so and as they were foreigners in UK, they felt they had to negotiate things with their supervisors. No one here ever used index-cards usefully, I take it.

Most responses ignore the main point of the OP: when we have facts on some research topic, what uinversal tools do we use to extract the logical & sensible conclusions from them ? Naturally illogical people (I am one such) have no trouble hatching concepts. But logical analysis is something I had to learn methodically when I started to test my own software. Maybe a lot of the "missed connections" in physical sciences/engineering could be avoided - and expensive experiments saved - if suitable conclusion/eliminations were made by some logical analysis tool applied on the existing knowledge.

That sherlock holmes trope where discoveries are made through some dispassionate application of pure crystalline logic is nonsense. If you want to do that you should be a protagonist in a fiction novel.
Turning disconnected facts into knowledge is creativity. If there was a universal tool for creativity we would all use it.

I don't know what your field is. But if your own research is all about creativity then you are in a very fortunate situation. For most of the rest of us, our research is mostly monotonous though necessary data-gathering, reading the work of others and validating/invalidating concepts hypothesized on the phenomena involved. Creativity - if we encounter it - is the final result of our efforts, not an ongoing endeavor.

It sounds like you're in the "frustrated" stage of research. And you're asking if there's some kind of surefire algorithm for gaining insight. I think it's fairly obvious that there is not, otherwise it would be used and those using it would have a crushing competitive advantage in almost anything they do.
That said, I think we can do a bit better than just saying "be creative". Creativity can be helped along. You've actually already mentioned some of them.

Teach what you know. The act of putting together a lesson that others will understand, requires you to structure your raw disconnected knowledge. Teaching can be teaching a class, writing a tutorial for novice users in your field, or a popular science blog explaining what you're doing to lay people.

Present your work to colleagues who are somewhat into your field. Or even other people in your institution who aren't exactly in your field, but smart enough to ask good questions. Let them ask questions about stuff that seems fuzzy. Even poke holes into your ideas. And return the favor for their work. This doesn't have to be a mammoth undertaking - lunch seminars are a good venue for this.

Teach about your work to children. This forces you to come up with examples and analogies to explain what you're doing that are completely different from what you would normally use for educated adults. (Side benefit: you'll be prepared next time you have to explain what exactly you do during a family party.)

Get a big blackboard, or a notebook, or mindmap or whatever. Not every tool inspires everyone. Try out stuff to see if it inspires you. Don't feel childish for enjoying a particular style notepad or whatnot.

Apply your work in smaller projects and prototypes. Build something that uses some of the techniques and knowledge from your research, but that's free-standing from your core experiments. Seeing the principles in action may spark new ideas.

Get enough rest. Go easy on the caffeine. An actual rested, relaxed mind has got something going for it.

Have some hobbies outside of research. Sports or something physical like going for works. Only trying to focus on research can just make you more frustrated and blocked. Taking a step back and coming back with a fresh view later on can help.

Thanks for your list. Yet what was overlooked here was something known and rationally connectable to the primary research drive. I can envisage someone doing all the above healthy practices, then coming back to their lab and continuing to fail to question a foundation assumption in this research effort. Widely shared assumptions are much harder to challenge. And all researchers tend to to get bogged down in experimental problems (moreover after mini-triumphs in overcoming them!) only to lose sight of the main goal of a research programme - which is always technique indifferent.

After looking around, it seems that the best tool to assemble research facts logically would be an expert system using a language like Prolog.
This would allow facts to be entered and queries to be made so as to make deductions from them.
Care would have to be taken in how facts are entered into the system. Primary or "core" facts, i.e. basic tenets of the research programme, would have to be classified differently to subsidiary and extraneous facts. So one would have to structure facts so their level of importance (i.e. their advance from the primary objective towards it realization) is recorded: this might also allow a fact hierarchy view to be constructed to help the researcher form overview and inviews of the project to that point. All queries would have to reference the importance level related to the query - otherwise one would have the classic researcher's problem of getting bogged down in details that may be irrelevant to the project's ultimate objective.
The expert system must have a capacity to amend an erroneous or incomplete "fact" (e.g. an assumption based on a common understanding of some phenomenon) whenever a new fact combines with others to bring it into question. Core facts would naturally be as contradictable and correctable as subsidiary facts. The impact of such corrections may have dramatic effects on the fact hierarchy and may indicate a whole new direction for the project.
But the problem here is the same as that without such a resource. If we consciously knew the assumptions we (and all others in that field of investigation) were making, we would already be half-way towards making a serious leap forward.


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A disagreement with coauthor/boss about funding
Some time ago, I wrote a paper with a coathor, who is the head of the lab I am currently working at and, essentially, my boss. We sent the paper to one of the best journals in our field, got overall positive reviews, revised the paper, and recently the paper was accepted for publication.
My lab got a substantial funding this year and my coauthor wants to include the funding information into our paper. However, there is a complication. The acceptance date of the paper is earlier than the date when we recieved the funding. As a result, the paper will not be accepted by the funder (we asked the funder about that). My coauthor decided that we should do something to change the acceptance date. We asked the journal about it, and the journal replied that the acceptance date, basically, cannot be altered. The only way to alter the acceptance date is to withdraw the paper on the basis that we have found some crucial mistake in our findings, then resubmit a revised version of the paper and undergo a new round of peer-review, which, I am afraid, might take a long time (it usually takes at least a year for this journal to make a decision). My coauthor insists that we should try to do that and he even asked me to try to find some flaws in our paper or something that can be improved in such a way that the need for improvement can be justified.
Frankly, I feel dishonest, weird and even somewhat dirty for being involved in this situation. I want to publish the paper as it is, without including the new funding information and altering the acceptance date. Moreover, I find the whole matter unethical.
I told my coauthor about my concerns and my opinion that it is reasonable to not include the new funding source. But he wouldn't listen. What's worse, is that I am the corresponding author and I have to negotiate all the matters with the journal.
I'm not really asking for advice. I just want to know your opinion about the situation.
Edit-1: I should probably clarify that my coauthor did not ask the funder a direct question about the paper, and he wrote a rather clevel e-mail to the journal (which I sent under his supervision) asking whether it is possible to make some changes in the paper and whether it will affect the acceptance date.
Edit-2: I would like to thank everybody for the comments. Your feedback was very helpful to me. I managed to persuade my coauthor to change his mind and do the right thing.

I think most people would agree that you are right: it would be a lie (and unethical) to pretend that the research described in the paper was done using the funding. If you are the corresponding author, what is it that prevents you from using a "VETO" to not include the funding information?

Louic, thank you for the comment. I probably will use my "VETO". I wrote this post simply because the whole matter makes me feel uneasy. I live in a country where my current situation is not that unsual.

It's really dumb to pull an accepted paper from a good journal because you want to try to attach it to a different funding source. Bad stuff could happen to it. Its unethical to be that dumb IMO.

The paper is accepted. Presumably, you can just let it go and it will get published.

By posting this question in your own name you are creating a possibility for people to find the identity of your unethical coauthor. I’m not saying that’s necessarily either good or bad, but definitely something you should think about. You may want to change to an anonymous user handle to avoid such awkwardness (and potential accusations of slander and legal risk).

Will the funder accept papers after the funding has been all used? It would make sense, and it would leave time for another good paper, in N years.

Not only does this sound unethical, it sounds like it could easily fit the legal definition of fraud, depending on the exact circumstances and exactly what you and your coauthor do or say. Stick to just being honest. Don't try to change the past.

You're communicating author, you've communicated to request the fraudulent timestamp, and they've said no. If your colleague wanted to be communicator, he (it's a he, right) should have said so. If one extra inherited publication makes the difference, your boss/coauthor is fully expecting to under-deliver for this funder! It's obviously normal to reap some pre-prepared papers into the beginning of funding, and miss some in-progress ones on the other end... Not like the funder is going to think "wow I pay you and a week later you publish in Nature thanks to me!"

I'm confused. Why does your co-author want to do this? It can't be to include this paper in a report to the funder as part of what was done with the funds, because the funder already knows about this and won't accept the paper. So what does your co-author hope to get out of this?

I don't think Leon Shutikoff is the OP's real name.

@Louic I should think when junior authors fail to deploy their "VETO" against more senior coauthors it is absolutely obvious why. There is the principle and then there is the harsh reality here

@benxyzzy - Harsh reality is that you will allow yourself to be guilty of fraud and misconduct if you were to proceed as suggested by the co-author. Although you would most likely not be prosecuted or charged, this would not change the fact that you are guilty. This is worth a fight with a senior. It is still your paper and not theirs.

@Louic what you are really demanding of course is that the junior place themselves in career jeopardy for your principles. The harsh reality is that superiors leaning on their juniors to behave unethically is common; furthermore the consequences of refusal are fast and material. Nobody wins any prizes for honesty in academia

In case the ethics argument fails, here is another argument against pulling the paper.  If you withdraw the paper for any reason, you run the risk that the resubmitted paper will be rejected.  The refereeing process is partly a random process.
The worst case is it takes a year for the journal to decide to reject your paper, and science moves on and your paper is now out-of-date and will not be publishable anywhere reputable.
In addition, the editor and others involved will now associate you all with making errors.  A good reputation is worth a lot in academia.

I agree, in one way or this other this is likely going to spoil your reputation with the editor.

Given how ridiculously hard it is to get good reviewers, as everybody is overworked and paper production keeps increasing, the editor dealing with your paper will truly detest you; you retract and resubmit without any good reason?? Actually you've already communicated your fraudulent reason to them... Bottom-drawer time.  Expect to be scooped if possible, so it becomes unpublishable.  This will absolutely reflect bad on you, and the same reviewers review for other journals, and they know each otehr professionally and personally.

And not only that. If I would be the editor I would probably reject the second submission at desk, at least unless the paper meantime became a very different one. While the strategy of the boss would be understandable without date issue, it is really awkward given the circumstances.

One of the few cases where the ethical right thing is also advantageous.

I agree with you that this is unethical. There may be some gray area around assigning paper credit to certain funding sources, but it pretty clearly exceeds that gray area to tweak an acceptance date without an independently valid reason merely to attach it to newer funding.
It seems especially foolish to do this when both the funder and journal are aware you'd like to do this and when you've been informed it's not allowed.
It would be like trying to cash a check addressed to you and another person, being rejected by the bank, then trying to white out their name and walk back into the bank with it. The first ask is clearly a potential honest mistake - you didn't know you can't do that. When you come back with a workaround, it's clear you're cheating the system (and in the scenario I describe you've made pretty good evidence for intentional fraud).

Thank you for the reply! I should probably clarify that my coauthor did not ask the funder a direct question about the paper and he wrote a rather clevel e-mail to the journal (which I sent under his supervision) asking whether it is possible to make some changes in the paper and  whether it will affect the acceptance date. So, I am not entirely sure that both the funder and the journal are aware of what he wants to do. I am not trying to justify his actions. I find them unethical and dishonest. I just wanted to point out that the situation is a little less clear-cut than it might seem.

@LeonShutikoff I do think that makes it less likely that one would be "caught", but doesn't really change the ethics of the situation. I was hoping maybe the threat of the ruse being identified would help you in your argument, but alas, you may be stuck with mere integrity. As Libor implies in a comment on your post, you have a thing of value to you right now in an accepted paper in a good journal; it seems silly to me to put it in jeopardy for this reason. It's not like this attribution will guarantee future funding or cost it.

Your coauthor is asking you to commit academic misconduct bordering on fraud. It’s unethical and pathetic, would mislead the scientific community and funding agency, and would waste the journal’s resources without any justification. And now that you’ve posted the question apparently using your own name, your coauthor’s intentions are publicly stated, which makes the behavior very risky to both your reputations if carried out.
The only way to achieve what your coauthor is trying to do in an ethical way is if your coauthor gets approval from the funding agency to acknowledge it as a funding source despite the acceptance date being earlier than the date of the grant. This actually seems to me like a reasonable thing to ask for, considering the fact that articles typically still undergo minor revisions after being accepted, and that working on such revisions requires time and effort. So my suggestion is to make such a request — it may not work, but seems worth trying.

Funding can be offered after the fact, but such funding is typically framed as a either a grant for future work (moot since OP was already given funding) or an award for past work.  OP has already indicated that funder will not accept OP's paper if the submission date predates the funding date.  I can't say I blame the funder; being identified as a funder of research that took place without using your funds may open up the funder to fraud (i.e., because the funder is indirectly lying to their donors by dishonestly claiming that their money is what allowed the paper to exist).

In computer science, very few people dares to retract and resubmit a paper.
The risk is so high. When your paper is accepted, it is because your method is faster, more precise, etc than state-of-the-art approaches. But after one year, things may change rapidly, your awesome experiments can become inadequate. You risk never publishing that paper again.
Of course, this is unethical, but people do it all the time, I'm afraid.

My ethics says I would have to take my name off the paper.
You might also run the risk of retaliation by your boss and getting fired.
Could you change the wording to say you were promised consideration by group x and hope to be getting funding?
You could tell the editor  your dilemma and ask him to remove the funding sentence when published.
Sorry but sometimes in life doing what is right will cost you.

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Asking about how to apply to 2 open positions in same department in same group
I am applying to some phd positions in Australian university in Mathematics in Pure maths Dept in same working group ( Number Theory) and 2 professors work in the Field I want to work in and the method of applying is that they have  link of " Apply Now" in the website.
So, There are 2 columns after apply now 1 in which CV is to be uploaded and 1 in which Motivation Letter is to be uploaded.  CV is to be uploaded will be same(obviously).

But Should motivation/ Cover Letter be same or not?

Let's call professors as Mr. X and Mr. Y. My interest area completely align with Mr.X and there are some regions in which  my Interest doesn't aligns with Prof. Y. But the regions in which Interest aligns with Prof. Y are same as regions in which interest aligns with X.
Kindly Guide me what should I do in this case!
Thank You!

I can only guess that it should be the same. It seems likely that the two will talk to one another about candidates, as they do about other things. But it is only a guess.

At Australian universities, there are always selection criteria.  If the selection criteria are identical, you can submit identical applications.  If they are not identical, customize your applications to match the selection criteria.
Do address your letter to the correct professor.
If it is true, it would be fine to say in your application that you are equally interested in both positions.  It is quite likely X and Y know each other and are coordinating already.
$ $

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Is a letter of recommendation from a suicide line worth anything in academic career in STEM?
I'm finishing grad school in STEM. I have a postdoc offer already, but will be applying for more. During grad school I volunteered at a suicide line taking phone calls. If you volunteer a certain number of hours (I have) they will write you a letter of recommendation.
I chose to volunteer just to volunteer. It has been helpful training in other areas though. Learning how to listen, empathize, etc. has been really helpful and surprisingly relevant to other areas of life.
Is there anything I can use that letter for as I go from grad school/postdoc to TT and beyond? If not that's fine, I was just volunteering to volunteer.

If you have to write a diversity statement or some other such non-academic statement, then you might want to mention this experience, but even then an actual letter from where you worked taking phone calls will likely seem strange. And even if you have to write such a statement, I think mentioning this experience would be more appropriate for a teaching position than for a postdoc. In any event, if you're not sure, then I would go with what @Anonymous Physicist said and not mention it.

@DaveLRenfro Some postdocs have teaching components

Some universities/colleges have roles that naturally include a welfare/pastoral component: e.g. see https://www.new.ox.ac.uk/cox-and-salvesen-fellows. If applying for those kind of roles, I could imagine this kind of experience being relevant. For a more generic academic post, it's not as relevant.

Let me thank you for your service. What you did there is probably more important than most of us academics do in our research.

@Dave - please consider converting your comment into a proper answer; answers-in-comments may be deleted.

@Azor Ahai -him: Some postdocs have teaching components --- In fact, a postdoc I applied to in 1996 had a 2-classes per semester teaching component. (I was one of the 3 finalists, and I was told later by the person advocating for me there that it was a toss-up between me and another candidate. I lost the toss, however.)

If you have a PhD, a letter that does not describe your teaching and research ability is not helpful for applying for academic jobs.
So no.

Thanks for the direct answer, that is what I was looking for. I already have enough letters that describe those. I will accept in a few minutes when it lets me.

If you have to write a diversity statement or some other such non-academic statement, then you might want to mention this experience in it, but I would advise against including an actual letter from where you worked, as this will likely seem a bit strange and probably also goes beyond the intended application materials you are requested to submit. Moreover, even if you have to write such a statement, I think mentioning this experience would be more appropriate when the position involves some teaching. In any event, if you're not sure, then I would go with what @Anonymous Physicist said and not mention it.
Incidentally, certain subfields of psychology are considered STEM, I think, and probably for psychology such a letter would seem a lot less strange and perhaps even helpful. Indeed, in some research areas not restricted to STEM (e.g. suicide prevention research), such a letter would be very appropriate.


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May I use my former-yet-active email address of an institute as a contact channel in my current CV?
Since I was a master student in (the North American) X university, my email roboticist@x.edu has been still active, even though it is a couple of years that I have left that university. Now, I'm about to finish my Ph.D. in (the European) Y university, and Y will be immediately closing my current roboticist@y.edu upon my graduation. I have heard that writing an unprofessional email address, e.g., roboticist@gmail.com, in the contact information section of an academic CV does not make a good impression on readers. So, I am wondering whether I may use the still-active email of mine corresponding to X in my CV for that purpose. My main concern is two fold: whether or not I am allowed to do that in view of X, and whether or not it is ethically a sound decision because it can mislead readers thinking that I am currently affiliated with X.
PS. My question relatively resembles what are discussed here and here, but the difference is that those questions' contexts are paper affiliation and contacting professors, respectively. However, mine is about the contact information section of a CV.

Immediately? Not even forwarding

@AzorAhai-him-: They keep the email alive for about a month, but after that it will be deleted without providing any forwarding services.

Wow that's the harshest email policy I've heard of

@AzorAhai-him- Industry will close your account the day you leave (if not sooner).

@user2768: My "industry" email and security badge were deactivated late morning on my last day (finally got all last-minute things taken care of and actually left around 4:30 PM that day in Sept. 2017), and all 5 of my university emails where I had previously taught were deactivated from a few weeks to several months after my last day, although in those cases we're talking about last days from 1996 to 2005 (so maybe the situation would be different now). Also, my Ph.D. degree granting university's email was probably deactivated soon after I left (late July 1993), although I had no way to know.

When people say they dislike an "unprofessional" email address, they do not refer to roboticist@gmail.com, which seems fine, but to catlover123@gmail.com or superman@gmail.com. Those would look unprofessional on a CV.

If those are real email addresses, you may want to replace the @s with ats to prevent spam

My undergrad university has a mail forwarding service for alumni, providing a academic (*.edu) address and sending to whatever email address you actually look at. Not all places do, of course. But, roboticist@gmail.com is not unprofessional at all.

@RedwolfPrograms Surely the bots have figured that one out by now

@RedwolfPrograms: They are not indeed!

@Louic Technically, if you're a veterinarian or someone who runs a cat shelter the former is fine. And maybe the latter is fine if you're affiliated with the DC "Universe". :)

@AzorAhai-him- I actually asked about that on information security stack exchange, if I remember correctly the response was that most bots don't care enough to try anything more sophisticated :p

Do you have any way of knowing the email policy of X University?  Everything is moot if they also decide that a couple of years is long enough.

It is not always just username.  There are some domains where I would be taken aback to find a roboticist hosting email there: aol.com and hotmail.com for example.  Unfair of me, sure, but that's the truth.

"My question relatively resembles what are discussed here and here, but the difference is"... I disagree; I think these are just variations of a generic "How do I provide persistent contact details for professonal use?" question that comes up a lot. These days I can envision a CV with only links to Facebook or Linkedin profiles rather than any email address.

I can see no legal or ethical problem with using an email address from a former institution, as long as you are clear about your current affiliations in your communications.
That said, there may be better options:

Professional societies often offer an option of an email address. As a roboticist, for example, you can almost certainly affiliate with the IEEE, whose excellent email service I use myself.
One of your former institutions may offer an alumni email address (or at least forwarding service). I believe this is more common in the US than Europe, but it's fairly arbitrary which institutions do and do not offer this.

Both of these can typically be set up very quickly and also have the advantage of being permanent, even when you change institutions.

Aren't you required to be an IEEE member to apply for an IEEE email address?

@Opifex Yes, that's the "affiliate with the IEEE" bit of my answer.

Part of the enrollment process with the previous university would have included agreeing to the IT policies, which would almost certainly have included a clause about only using the services while enrolled with the university. Universities do not typically provide free email services for former students. The fact that the email is still active is most likely just an adminstration oversight. It could be removed at any time without warning.

@user1751825 That is only the case for some universities. My own alma mater, for example, has long had a fairly long, generous, and flexible approach to transitioning students off of its email.

@user1751825: Typically, universities which disallow using their email servers after you graduate will enforce this policy by disabling your email address.

I'm with @jakebeal : I have email addresses at MIT and ANU based purely on being an alum. Several universities provide an on-going email address to keep in touch with their alumni.

"required to be an IEEE member"... on the one hand, joining a suitable professional organisation will cost money; on the other it suggests a commitment to staying in the field that might play well in a job application...

@LouKnee IEEE also tends to encourage membership by giving member discounts to their conferences that are equal to the cost of membership. So for researchers who attend at least one IEEE conference annually, it's often effectively free.

@ jakebeal To me that sounds strange, as I pay dues personally but expect my employer to cover conference fees so I wouldn't benefit from the discount. OTOH for IoP at least the rate is hugely reduced if unemployed.

@LouKnee This will vary by employer. Many (including my own) will be happy to pay for a membership.

I don't think the premise holds. I have been on the hiring committee for many post docs, and I have never heard anyone mentioning the email address of a candidate. I could just as well cook up an imaginary argument saying that a hiring committee will find it unprofessional that you use your work email to apply for a job (that also does not hold). I would probably not go for wildly inappropriate handles, but normal ones are not a problem.
If you don't like using your gmail in professional settings, set up an alternative. I use firstname@lastname.com (which just happened to be available), and it is easy to set it up to forward to gmail. So you don't even need a mail server of your own.

@Roboticist. Plus 1. I corroborate the answer. Nothing wrong on using your Gmail address in this scenario. Just avoid "crazyname at Gmail.com" and that's it. Or keep using the old one if you're sure it won't be suspended soon. Your current affiliation/status is in the cv body.

@Alchimista Yes; avoid both crazyname@gmail or name@crazydomain.

You're overthinking this.
roboticist@gmail.com is just fine as a professional email address.
When people talk about unprofessional emails it's the bit before the domain that causes issues, not the domain itself (unless you've deliberately gone out of your way to pick an unprofessional one).
If you're unsure, you can always go with firstname.lastname @ CommonlyUsedDomain

Leaving asside the issue of unprofessional looking free email services, the worst type of email to provide to a prospective employer, is an address which may stop working at any time.
It's likely the email address is still active simply because the system administrators haven't gotten around to removing it. If someone decided to do an audit of the email addresses, they would very likely delete all of the old addresses, without any warning.
You won't get in any trouble for continuing to use the email address, but it seems very risky to put it on a CV, since you have no way to know how long it will continue to be accessible.
it would be a bad look if an employer attempted to contact you, only to receive a bounce message stating that there is nobody at the university matching that address.

TL;DR: Yes, you can, but, why not setup a permanent address. E.g.,
robot@icist.com

You've already discovered that institutional email addresses don't serve you long-term, find yourself a long-term solution.

I have heard that writing an unprofessional email address, e.g., roboticist@gmail.com, in the contact information section of an academic CV does not make a good impression on readers.

I disagree -- having an @gmail.com email address is no issue at all if this is the most up-to-date way to reach you.

So, I am wondering whether I may use the still-active email of mine corresponding to X in my CV for that purpose.

I think the drawbacks outweigh the benefits. The benefit is that if X is a super prestigious university, roboticist@X.edu carries some "weight" to it and sounds impressive. But the drawback is that this is very confusing because you aren't currently at X. Anyone reading this would assume you are still working at X, or at least recently graduated, whereas this is actually an institution that you left a long time ago.

My main concern is two fold: whether or not I am allowed to do that in view of X, and whether or not it is ethically a sound decision because it can mislead readers thinking that I am currently affiliated with X.

Ethically, I think there is no issue, but I think it is not in your interest to use the old email address as I (and others) have argued.

Get Your Own Domain
The ultimate solution to this problem is to have your own domain. It does not have to cost a lot. For really good hosting, on the order of $60 to $100 per year. If you don't need much in the way of hosting - i.e., a really basic domain with very little storage because you just set it up with one email address that forwards everything to your gmail address - then it can cost much less.
Some people think you can only do that if you have a web site. That is not at all the case, but if you want to have a web site (a virtual CV) you can do that too.
Depending on the domain you get (e.g., lastname.com), you may be able to share it with family as well. Most full hosting includes (effectively) unlimited email accounts, subject to storage limits (which don't apply if you are forwarding everything).
While it is pretty obvious that "real University accounts" are at the whim of the University and could change at any time, even "alumni accounts" that have a fundraising reason to exist (and therefore are not likely to disappear suddenly in the name of cost-cutting) could have problems. Plus some hosting platforms (free or paid) can change over time (e.g., Verizon moved their "free" accounts to AOL's system). If you own your own domain, you can always move it to a different host if you don't like the original host.

You can get a 10 bucks per year domain from Google with an easy integration into your private gmail.

To add to this, you can get a .com domain for about $8-10 per year, then use the free tier from ImprovMX to alias your custom email with your gmail account, allowing you to send emails from within gmail, and receive them there too.

@DavidWheatley There are a ton of different options, with costs varying depending on whether you need/want actual web server or just email, directly hosted email or just forwarding, quality of email spam filtering, etc. But whether it is $8 or $100, it is a relative drop in the bucket to have total control over your email and not be tied to a free account that may disappear.

I would say it's more unprofessional to receive an important email at roboticist@x.edu but never see it because they've either shut down your account or you grow distant from it and stop checking.
An email bounceback is not guaranteed in the event your email becomes disabled.

You are overthinking this here. All you actually need is to present yourself as a reliable candidate. The contact in CV should work for them for longer time.
Using domain you are no more affiliated with may be frown upon. And noone can grant you will get the emails they wil send you anyway. You can read the email address average.joe@X.edu as "Average Joe is working/studying At X".
Using public domain is not badly seen unless it is pinky.panther@something, dragonslayer@something or name@ki11a11n00bs.com. Reasonable private address is as sufficient as the university one. if you cannot affiliate yourself with any university (because your studies are ending) there is no need to stress about that.
What you can actually do is using two contacts - one using Y.edu while you are still there  and private one when your studies end. The hint what one to use is in your CV anyway, or they will answer to both.


text:
My application is declined because of covid - true or false?
I am looking for an master's internship in Berlin in biology. (background in short: I am a student in another city's university, but because the lectures are online and I have a relative here, I moved to Berlin.)
I am cold-emailing professors and ask them if I could do an internship at their lab. Some don't answer, some simply decline my application with that because of corona restrictions, they can't accept students.
Can it be possible or is it just a nice excuse? As far as I know, people can go to work in Berlin. Also, this would be an laboratory internship, so I would have to attend in person.

It is more likely that they are telling you the truth than otherwise, but only they know. Ask them. But cold emailing isn't normally very effective.

Just speculating here, but what they could mean is the following: "When working with a new student, I prefer regular face-to-face meetings, which are conducive to having a productive internship. That's currently not possible."

@lighthousekeeper this would be a laboratory internship, so it would be necessary to be there in person. (I will incorporate this in the question)

Many German universities operate their labs under strict COVID-19 related regulations now. So the hassle of training an intern on top of that is a valid concern.

Ah, I see, that's important information indeed. I think that individual institutions in Germany tend to make their own rules in the scope of whatever the federal state (in this case Berlin) allows. An individual prof might even have more restrictive policies for their lab than their institution.

@Buffy But how would I ask him? "Hey, thanks for the feedback. Is it actually true?" "No, sorry, it is not true, you just sck as a candidate". But otherwise I get what you mean.

@AN_ It might also be, for example, that the professors have increased child care duties with schools closed, and need to avoid taking on more obligations than they have to. In any case you got your answer and I recommend that you not press the matter further. It's difficult times for all, very best wishes finding an internship.

AFAIK, all universities right now restrict how many people are allowed in the lab. If an intern is allowed in the lab, that means a technician or student can't go. I cannot image anyone accepting you for a lab internship. Our technicians are working shifts now just to keep the lab operating at half capacity.

@Roland x_x I didn't know that! Thanks for telling

Some people may let you. I know of a couple of labs in my institution that are open to accepting interns, but its is much fewer than normal.

I suspect it's true. I mean, why lie? In the past, when I've decided I don't have the time or energy for summer interns, I've just replied "Sorry, I am not taking any summer students this year". They are not under any obligations to take students, so there is no reason to lie.
Most labs currently have strict occupancy and distancing limits. Many researchers are only attending labs under restrictive timetables or on a shift-work basis. Even where there is enough space for those employed at the lab, there may not be space for additional people. Even where there is, teaching people in the lab requires close contact and that might be hard with 2m rules in place. And even if all those problems can be surmounted, an extra person in a room always increases the risk. Why increase the risk for those you are responsible for?
Add into this that many academics are far busier this year than normal, may have extra child care responsibilities, or are trying to catch up with things missed during the pandemic. For example, my postdoc was out of the lab for 6 months. Normally they would look after a summer intern, but they don't have time for that this year as they have 6 months (out of their 3 year contract) to catch up on.

Plus, in some sense there is a responsibility to keep in-person activities minimal and to what's necessary to function. Unfortunately, training summer interns isn't high on the necessity scale.


text:
Who's the Principal investigator if you are doing your degree project abroad?
Some necessary information:
I study at European university A, but did my degree project at European university B.
I will not get a degree from B but from A.
I was supervised by a professor and one of his assistance at B.
My supervisor at A only received regular updates, but wasn't involved in any other way.
Officially the professor at A is grading my work (in reality he probably will just call and ask the professor at university B for the grade, but nonetheless).
Question:
I'm currently making the last thing for my thesis: The titlepage. How do I refer to the two professors and the assistant on the titlepage? Who is the supervisor, who the PI? I don't want to step on anybody's toes. I definitely need to mention all three of them.
Furthermore I ask myself whether it is acceptable to put the logo of both universities on the title. I feel like it is weird because I only get a degree from A, but also feel like the professor at B will be offended if I don't.
I know this is a silly question, but maybe you can help me resolve this.

@gnometorule, that is probably the answer.

At least in the US, grants have "Principle Investigators."  Theses have supervisors, not PIs.

Send a joint email to both professors involved, and ask them what you write here. Showing that you care to do the right thing is unlikely to upset anyone.


text:
Are non-mandatory sensitivity trainings mandatory?
This is probably a very USA-specific question:  My university is implementing a new sensitivity training framework.  This is so new that no information about it can be found in faculty handbook, school website, or anywhere I tried. This framework appears to be completely independent from colleges or the senate. I am one of the lucky few to be "invited" to join the training.
The invitation letter stated that such trainings are not mandatory, but in light of a recent "incidents" such trainings will of great value to me. My chair and dean all said these are optional yet they strongly implied that I should just go with it ("There's no reason to cause trouble").
I don't yet have tenure. So for me, in the current climate, is not mandatory a code phrase for mandatory?

Why ask us rather than listening to what your chair and dean have implied? Is saving the time you'd invest worth any risk of looking bad among people judging your fate? Is it possible there is some value in these trainings?

Well, your tone doesn't imply it would be a waste of time for you

Just go. It’s just a little bit of time for some piece of mind

If you don't trust your chair and dean's advice, that's a much bigger problem for your tenure prospects than your attendance at training.

If this is reaction of some incidenrs, I'd say it's mandatory (not US-perspective, though) or you will face concequences.

in light of...recent "incidents" such trainings will [be] of great value to me: If you're culpable for insensitive incidents, you should really attend. Your chair and dean may have publicly advised that attendance is optional for all, yet they['ve] strongly implied that [you] should [attend]: Are they doing so to keep incidents private? Allowing you to save face, to attend without publicly attributing blame?

They are not mandatory in the same way that you getting your tenure is not mandatory, I am afraid.

@user2768 It's not really clear from the post whether OP was involved in this incident. The post could be read as "somebody else messed up, and we think it would be valuable for our staff to attend so nobody else does the same".

@GeoffreyBrent I agree: That's why I used if, may, and asked questions rather than make statements.

I just read a couple of your posts about how you interact with your students. Sensitivity training isn't optional. The people who will be voting on your tenure think you have a problem. Frankly, I agree with them.

No, in general 'Not Mandatory' doesn't mean 'Mandatory', also not in the 'current climate'.
However, in your case, given the advice of your chair and dean, I'd say it would be unwise not to go to these trainings. You could even gain something, both in the sense that you learn something and in the sense that you will get in a better view from the chair and dean. It will cost you some time, but not going might cost you more.

Non-mandatory means non-mandatory. When you do not have tenure, the institute is not mandatorily having you on payroll. There is a duality to these non mandatory situations that I think it is reasonable to pick up on.

I agree @StianYttervik, that's why I start with that remark. I don't fully understand what you mean with your final sentence though, could you explain?

I was agreeing with you. Employment in general is non-mandatory, it seems like a prudent choice to accept that... Some things are wise to assume as necessary even if they are not explicitly mandatory.


text:
Do I mention that a paper in mathematics is a "Short Communication" or "Note" or "Research Article" when citing it?
Apologies in advance for a possibly naive question. When I search for literature relevant to my research work, I come across articles that are published variously as either a "Short Communication" or "Note" or "Research Article". Possibly there are other variants as well. I have seen this distinction in the articles published by the Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series B.
My question is regarding the importance of the distinction between these categories for the purpose of properly citing a paper. Do I mention in the bibliography whether the article is a "Short Communication" or "Note" or "Research Article"? Somehow, explicitly naming the last category feels redundant, but the former two not so much. What are the best practices to be followed here? Is there a general rule that is to be followed for these as well as other categories?

No, you should NOT include this information. These designations are journal-specific and would provide little information to someone not familiar with each of the journal's classification schemes. For example, a short communication in one journal might represent a more impressive paper (because for some journals a very short paper might be, on average, more impressive than that journal's average quality paper [1]) than in another journal where the bulk of the papers might be short papers, often being "announcement of results" type papers. Also, many journals have no such classification, and thus the reader of your bibliography may wonder whether the paper was not classified in this way by the journal or whether you simply forgot to include the journal's classification.
[1] "Shorter Notes was established to publish very short papers of unusually elegant and polished character ..."

No. The citation guides I know of do not distinguish between types of published contents in journals. They simply use the overarching term of an "Journal Article" (e.g. APA) and do not require one to note whether it's an Editorial, a Review, a Research Article or Short Communication (or whatever of the ca 45 labels there are - possibly with the exception of a Retraction).
Perhaps the underlying reason is that there is not so much of an added value to the reader how the journal happens to categorize an article.

In my field, there is no distinction. Short and long papers are cited the same way.
However this may vary by field. To find out if it is important to your specific field, read papers in your field. Do they make any distinction when citing? For example, after you've written your manuscript, take a look at all of the references you cited. How do they cite their references? Also figure out what journal or conference you plan to submit to. Read some papers on that journal or last year's conference. You should use a similar style.


text:
How should I disclose a data extraction error when submitting a revision?
I was recently asked for a minor revision a review paper submitted, including more detailed reporting on parts of the analysis. When performing this additional analysis, I noticed a big data extraction error which had a small effect on the results and conclusions. It has no relevance to our main conclusion. This wasn't picked up by the peer reviewers, who were generally very positive about the paper and I think it has a good chance of being accepted.
Obviously I intend to correct this error and the conclusions derived from it. What is the proper way to go about disclosing this? My plan was to include this as a general note to all reviewers at the start of the response document before addressing all of their individual comments. Should I explictly point this out to the reviewers and explain, or just fix it without explanation and only address their comments directly in the response?
Any and all suggestions much appreciated.

It is probably better to point it out. A note to the editors/reviewers is fine. You and everyone want the best science to be published. Full disclosure is best.
I doubt that this would lessen the chance of acceptance, but it might draw a bit more scrutiny overall. But that is a good thing in general.
This is similar to pointing out other changes in the paper, those that were called for and those that you think are relevant to improving the paper.

In your response to reviewers, you can add a section at the end titled "Other changes" or something like that. Explain this data extraction error and mention that it does not change the results to any noticeable extent.
I think that by putting it at the beginning, you're implicitly saying that it's a bigger issue than it really is. If it really does not invalidate the peer review process thus far, it is more a footnote than a main point.
I would also triple-check your other data extractions. While one slip-up is unfortunate, two might signal that you're not careful in your methodology. You could specify that you have verified all your results in your response as well, if you fear that reviewers would doubt your results.

+1 for the last paragraph: explain how you made sure that the current data extraction doesn't include another big mistake (which might affect the results...)?


text:
Asking a faculty member at my university that I have not met(!) about his research, and about courses that deal with his specialty/my career goal?
I am an undergraduate student pursuing a double major in Computer Science B.S. and Mathematics B.S.
My dream career is to work in quant. finance. However, my school does not have a dedicated department to this field, resulting in lack of dedicated classes and opportunities for it. The page for "Mathematical Finance" is simply a white page with nothing but a list of three faculty members, linking to their page, two of which are Ph.D students.
I have found an associate professor who I believe can help answer a few of my questions and confusion about going down this path, but I have read a little here and generally, emails like this are frowned upon, and the last thing I want is for him to be offended by my request.
However, I don't really know any other professors or faculty members who would be able to give me insight on this.
My email would start off something like this
"I would just like to start off this email by saying please excuse me and forgive any informalities or unprofessionalism. I hope to not offend you with this sudden email from a student you do not know.
I have found your email and page from MyCollege's "Mathematical Finance" page: mycollege.com/mathematical-finance"
Then I would say something along the lines of "given your expertise, what courses/concepts are important...what steps should I take now..."
And then finally I'd say something like "I know you are incredibly busy with research, school, among other things, so I hope you do not mind this email."
I will also make sure not to completely bombard him with questions, but ask general, non-pressuring questions.
Is this a bad idea? I am not quite sure where else to get in contact with someone in this field with such close proximity, and aside from LinkedIn with people I will probably never meet, this seems like my best bet.
EDIT: this might be a duplicate of OK to ask a professor at my institution with whom I have no previous relationship some questions relating to hobby-project?
but this is about a community college professor who is not doing research, which may be different from my circumstances, also his is about a hobby, while mine is about career and industry.

FYI, PhD students are not faculty

Does this answer your question? How should I phrase an important question that I need to ask a professor?

I was a staff member at a US university for 20 years. Anytime I got an email that apologized for writing it, I tossed in the trash without reading any further.

@NomadMaker Why? Did you only want to correspond with a certain kind of person?

Because I choose to believe that people who constantly apologize for bothering me are telling the truth, and have nothing meaningful to communicate. I fully admit that I might be wrong. I was exaggerating: I don't throw the note away, but put it in a special folder so that I can defend my decision if I ignored somebody my boss would have preferred I listen to.

@NomadMaker Perhaps it might be worth reflecting on whether a process that involves deliberately ignoring everybody who contacts you without a requisite amount of confidence and boldness could be outright discriminatory? I am thinking in particular of differences in communication styles that are often socialized through cultural and gender differences. Some people are taught from an early age to apologize frequently, and that manifests in their writing; they're just as worth listening to as anyone else.

You claim that people who apologize for writing to me are as worth listening to as anyone else. I haven't found it that way. Should I listen to people who knock on my door trying to convert me to a religion or political view that I have no interest in? I put the people who think that their own words are worthless in that category. Some of them might be worth listening to, but I'd rather not bother to find out.

@AzorAhai-him-: That depends on the country/on the way the university is organized.

@NomadMaker Personally I immediately ignore anyone who doesn't approach me with the correct amount of groveling and apology. Anyone who assumes that what they have to say is worth my time is obviously over-inflating their own importance and thus clearly an unfit judge of how important something is. Someone who recognizes that they are unworthy of even being in my presence is at least likely to keep it to the absolute minimum necessary and only present the truly important things.

@NomadMaker ...I'm kidding, I hate groveling, but truly the people who have absolute confidence are even worse than those who have no confidence at all. I've never had a proselytizer ever apologize for wasting my time and I've never seen a crank/crack-pot have the thought that maybe, just maybe, they might not have the most important discovery since knocking flint against steel.

@o.r. In which systems are they faculty?

@AzorAhai-him-: From what I can see, "faculty member" is quite a vaguely defined term that, depending on definition, may encompass all employees (related to research/teaching) of a university. And the way I understand the question, the OP's concern is centered on the situation of "a student contacting a university employee without having had any prior contact to them", rather than contacting a specific kind of university employee in particular.

@O.R.Mapper I do  not know of any definitions of faculty that include PhD students. But, as we know, academia varies a lot. If you have an example of a locale where they're considered faculty, I'd love to hear it. OP seems new to be new to academia so I was letting them know

@AzorAhai-him-: In fact, I wasn't too sure what exactly is a "faculty member", so I googled - Wikipedia seems to assume it is a synonym of "academic personnel", Other resources provide equally vague/wide definitions. Now, if I attempt to translate this to German, I'll invariably end up with a term that includes PhD students, who are considered rather "employees of the university" than "students" here in my experience.

@NomadMaker: Due to the Dunning-Kruger effect, many brilliant people might feel the need to apologize for the things they still don't know, while ignoramuses won't even care and write e-mails full of confidence. You're free to read the emails you want.

It always surprises me how faculty members are seen by some people as some kind of demi-gods. They are faculty members, they work for research and teaching so I do not see why someone would not ask them questions - or apologize for taking their precious time. If they are good people they will answer. If they are busy they will answer or not. If they are assholes, they will not answer. They (I used to be one) are just normal people. When I was a student I would always ask everyone around. When I was a faculty member I would get asked and depending on the circumstances, be able to answer or not.

It is completely fine to send an email. Your request is totally reasonable. You are a student, at university to learn. The professor is at university to teach. If they get offended by a simple enquiry that shows interest in learning more about their favourite subject then you have a bigger problem on your hands.
It will not be the first or even the hundredth time this professor has received an email from a student they don't know and writing such an email is not going to cause offence in any way, shape or form. The worst that can happen is you get a polite "Sorry, I am too busy" or perhaps no reply. The professor will not be offended by you asking -- in fact, it's more likely they will be annoyed or frustrated that they don't have the time to help you, not at you for asking.
Finally, I would not start off with such a grovelling/self-deprecating tone. There's no need to apologise for sending a perfectly innocuous email. However, please bear in mind that academic cultures do differ, and I'm writing from a UK/Western European perspective, where the culture can be a little more blunt and far less deferential towards authority (i.e. professors) than in the USA (where I assume you are from). To me it would come across as more professional if you write to them as though you are a peer wanting to initiate a scientific discussion, rather than as a lowly student who isn't worthy to interact with an esteemed professor.
In summary, the best thing to do is make sure your email is short, polite and to the point. Briefly introduce yourself, ask your question and thank them in advance for their time.

thank you so much! I really appreciate you telling me about my initial tone.

Good advice here. An option I'd suggest that also keeps the first email short is to simply introduce yourself along with your field of interest and ask for a conversation about advice for your future. You don't need detail in the first email.

I would not start off with such a grovelling/self-deprecating tone --- To me (in the USA) this part was absolutely cringeworthy, but cultures do differ. Aside from the cringeworthy aspect, it also seems much too long of a preamble, and I can imagine someone really busy, who also gets a lot of these types of emails, not bothering to read far enough to get to the point of the email.

Echoing Dave, the US is probably not the best counterexample to UK/Western Europe on expectations of grovelling. Far far better to cut that out and get to the meat of the message so the reader doesn't need to wade through it. Tell who you are and what you want as direct and succinctly as possible to increase the odds someone will reply.

"Briefly introduce yourself" = " I am , B.Sc student in Computer Science & Mathematics" will suffice.
@simonshampoo don't limit yourself, if in your school you have two Ph.D affiliated with MathFin, they may be doing a lot of interesting work (search them in Google Scholar or in Scopus) and your school webpage simply being neglected. I am not pushing you to send cold e-mail, but writing concise emails to "just" Ph.Ds may open up the door to talking directly with their professor.
A today's PhD may be professor in 2-3 years.

Keep it short, simple, polite, and formal.  “Dear Prof. X, I am an undergraduate at your school majoring in Y with an interest in Z as a career.  I saw on the webpage for Z that you have some knowledge about that area.  Would it be possible to meet with you about this?  Thanks so much for your time, YourName”

You perceive the US as being more deferential toward authority than Europe?

@chrylis Yes. For example, as an undergraduate student in the UK, I addressed all my lecturers by their first names. Never "Doctor" or "Professor", even on the first meeting. It would be extremely weird to do that here. Compare this to the US, where (at least, this is the impression I have gathered from the hundreds of US-centric posts I've read on this site) it would be seen as weird or rude not to address someone by their title until they give you permission to do otherwise.

Western Europe and the US are both big places and the variation within each is large enough that this kind of generalization just doesn’t make any sense.  Rules about addressing people and titles are certainly taken more seriously in Germany than in California, but that’s a statement about Germany and California not Western Europe and the US.

This is coming from a US perspective, so take that as you will.
Professors are pretty busy and generally just want to cut to the chase.  A good email is one that is written clearly and concisely enough that it can be scanned in a few seconds and the gist of what you want to say is clear.  Often after a quick scan the professor will decide if they are interested and want to reread it more carefully.
That being said:

Introduce yourself briefly:  Name, undergraduate, major, interested in X
State what you want clearly and briefly. One bite-size paragraph for each key idea (~3 sentences each) has worked well for me in the past.
If you want you can close with something like "given your expertise in this area I would love to get your input, but I understand if you are pressed for time".

Since it is a given that professors are incredibly busy, however, I might consider leaving this off.  Some people don't like it when you state the obvious, while others might view it as a courtesy, it's really your call.

Showing a bit of passion can be good. If fin. tech is really your 'dream' job then try to convey that in some way (just saying, "its my dream to work in x" is good enough).  Professors are often very passionate about their work and like to help students that share some of that passion too.

I also think you should consider whether you want to ask to meet with them briefly rather than discuss things over email.  Many professors are more than happy to share their wisdom and expertise with students. If you are more comfortable with email though then that is certainly fine.
If you do want to meet, then in the 'state what you want section' mention you want to pursue mathematical finance, that there is no apparent program at the university, that you are looking for guidance on what to study, and ask if they would be interested in a brief conversation about it sometime.
Don't be worried about these  sorts of emails having a 'bad reputation'.  The kind of emails that actually have a bad reputation are low-effort correspondence, often from lazy or entitled students.  That is not the case at all here, your university is not setup to provide what you want and this professor is uniquely positioned to be able to help you.  At worst he will read it, be too busy, and just move on without a second thought.

What to Avoid
Don't grovel like you did in your proposed intro, apologizing for any perceived offenses your email might be about to commit. This doesn't help the professor know who you are, what you want, or why he should keep reading the email and will likely come off as rather irritating.  The professor fully understands the situational dynamics, so there is no need to make them explicit.  Just stick to the facts. (quantitative people especially tend to like this)
As long as you are polite, direct, and respectful you should be fine.

Don’t over think it I would drop a brief email saying as you wrote above I’m  @simonshampoo studying Math and CS and have questions a, b , and c and was wondering if I could pop in during your office hours (or your university’s equivalent), or some other convenient time, to discuss.
You don’t need to be apologetic (as @astronat ‘s answer rightly notes ). Few faculty are going to decline to see serious students with interest in their area. I get such requests from time to time, mostly from maths majors, and have always found them interesting conversations. Many (most?) faculty, dislike answering questions which are available via google, but are often pleased to answer those in their area which are not.

+1, though probably better to request an online meeting at the moment, rather than in person office hours.

Indeed! Although I think many people continue to hold something similar online (like a zoom room, for example)

Nothing wrong with writing to this professor, but this professor maybe isn't the best resource to answer your questions. In particular, you mention that this is a community college--professors at community colleges can vary hugely in how much time and experience they have for things like this. On one hand, you have younger faculty who are just trying to make ends meet while they complete their own education/try to find a tenure-track job at a "real" university... On the other hand, you can have old industry veterans who only teach part time as a hobby and who would love to tell you all about their experiences.

Career services at your school (especially community colleges generally focus on providing career-oriented curriculum, so career services are usually pretty good).
Your academic advisor(s)...it is literally their job to help you decide what to study. In particular, they might be able to suggest some related areas that you have not considered, like stats or data science, which may be more available at your school. Also, they hopefully have some connections inside your department(s) and know who might actually have the knowledge and the time to talk to you.
The internet. There are literally a million results for what to study and how to get into quant, and if none of them seem specific enough to you then you can always post your own question.

Although I agree with the other answers that professors receive such e-mails every day and would not be offended to receive one from you, I would caution you against writing this e-mail: "what courses/concepts are important...what steps should I take now..." What is the professor going to tell you? Let me Google that for you? Such an e-mail does not show signs of having "done the homework" and will not make a good first impression. If you have a request to make of a busy person, it should be something they are uniquely qualified to help you with. This kind of general information could be found anywhere, particularly here on StackExchange.

I know there is already an accepted answer, but let me suggest another option if it is convenient: Go by the professor's office in person. He almost certainly has office hours, and you could also call and arrange a specific time. An in-person conversation would give you a chance to clarify questions, and honestly it would also reduce the chance that he would sincerely mean to reply later and then forget.


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What and how to write about these problems in my CV when I apply to phd program in Europe
I completed my Masters in mathematics in my home country (a developing country in Asia) in June 2020. I applied to 6 professors to do a PhD in the last semester of my Masters. I was rejected for 5 and funding couldn't be arranged for the 1 in which I was accepted. So I thought I would try next year in both my home country and abroad (Europe). I didn't apply earlier to any of my home country's universities.
So, I started studying  for the qualifying exam in my home country while side by side studying some more to apply for PhD programmes abroad. I took the exam for PhD admission in my home country in December and received the result in early January. The result was lower than I had hoped for, although I don't yet know if I've been accepted.
My father is using this to make cruel comments to me, hurting my mental health. This contributed to me being depressed and missing several application deadlines for European universities. I completed only one application on time. Since then I have received medical help for my mental health problems.
How should I explain why I didn't apply to other programmes to the admissions committee of the university I did apply to ("university X")? Will it hurt my application if they know my father is against my decision or that I have had mental health problems? Should I lie (e.g. say I had COVID)?
If  I get an interview call from university X can I request to be interviewed later than other students so I have time to prepare?
I am really passionate about research and also returning to academia after quitting would be really hard for me. I don't want to do a PhD in my home country because my experience is that the quality of teaching is low.

What makes you think you have to "explain" a "gap"?  I can't imagine a Ph.D. application process asking you for a week-by-week breakdown of your whereabouts over the last year.

there is no gap in your CV, you got your degree in June and then you had a look around and studied for your homecountry PhD exam. All while there was a pandemy across the world.
"they would come to know that my father is against my decision" How? financially, you will pobably be able to ask for assistance to the institution that would accept you in getting the flight paid. By the way, do you have a passport? do you need your father approval to obtain a passport?

@EarlGrey Yes I got a passport made in December 2020. Then he didn't said anything

https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/80655/should-i-mention-mental-condition?rq=1 Might be useful

@EarlGrey Can you please give some advice to me for this question also:https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/162808/should-i-email-the-professors-who-will-give-me-the-letter-of-recommendation-for which is somewhat  related to the question asked above. Any advice you give me would be really helpful to me.

I am handling PhD admissions for CS at a British university. None[1] of the information you mention in your post seems relevant for a PhD application to me. There is no need to say anything at all about how exactly you spend your January.
Similarly, preferences for interview dates should given in a far more generic way. For example, "I am unavailable on May 9th." or "I would prefer a later date over an earlier, if possible."
[1] Except that you got a MSc in Mathematics in June 2020, that is important of course.

Can you please have a look at this question which is somewhat similar asked by me ? I shall be really thankful to you.https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/162808/should-i-email-the-professors-who-will-give-me-the-letter-of-recommendation-for


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Can I update the search of a systematic review at revision?
I have recently received peer review on a systematic review after six months, with revisions requested. This is on a dynamic subject with significant literature published since. I re-screened the papers and was able to include a further 5 from those published in the past 6 months.
Is it acceptable to update the review at revision with this additional data, as it will be undergoing peer review again regardless? I think it improves the review substantially to include more data, which is more recent, but I'm not sure if this is acceptable?
Thank you in advance!

To add to this, this does have an effect on the results and the conclusion, and I don't feel comfortable publishing a paper while knowing the conclusion is already out of date when the latest literature is included.

Since it is undergoing peer review again, in general, you should be able to include the new papers.  If you do this, though, highlight both the new papers and the changes to your conclusions in your author response / revision note, so that the reviewers know to pay particular attention to them and give them proper review - if you don't, they might not notice, and skip over important things because they think they already reviewed it.
It's common for reviewers to ask for new analyses or even experiments in revision, so this seems like a relatively normal kind of update in a revision cycle.
If in doubt, e-mail the managing editor.  One way to do that productively is to make a specific proposal - e.g. include the new papers and highlight in the author response letter - and ask if that is an appropriate way to handle the situation for their journal.
A note that doesn't seem applicable to your specific situation, but may help others finding this answer: the exception to this is when you get what many journals call a "Minor Revision" decision, where only the editor will see the revisions - it won't go back out to reviewers. In such a situation, I would contact the managing editor and notify them of the situation.  They may be able to handle the revision as a "Major Revision" and get reviews for it.

The journal state that it will be undergoing peer review again. What I have done is referenced the new papers in the re-submission as you describe. I was just unsure as the reviewers haven't specifically asked for the search to be updated, I just feel slightly uncomfortable submitting a paper with conclusions I already know to be slightly incorrect based on current evidence, but equally I wasn't sure if submitting unsolicited revisions is common practice. Thanks very much!

It is essential to update the systematic review in the revision, identifying new studies, incorporating them into the results, and reconsidering the conclusions.  An overarching goal of systematic review is to present a synthesis of the existing literature as close in time to publication as possible.  If there are known new studies and they have not been included in the systematic review, the review is obsolete when published.
The conclusions should be modified to reflect the new information even if the conclusions are different from those in the original submission.
It is likely that one reason for re-submitting for peer review is to assure that the systematic review has been updated and the manuscript revised as appropriate. If the systematic review has been updated and the manuscript revised appropriately to reflect any new information, the revision will likely be accepted quickly.
You will need to move fast in a rapidly changing field.

These were my thoughts as well, but I wasn't sure if it was acceptable to add studies when one round of peer review has already been completed

@zetan2021 It is not just acceptable, it is essential to add studies if eligible studies are identified.  The peer review generally concerns itself with methods for finding, assessing, and summarizing studies and the approach to interpretation. The reviewers will expect updated results because a serious threat to the validity of a systematic review is omission of eligible studies.  Updating before publication minimizes this threat.  The need to make a systematic review as up-to-date as possible at publication is a challenge for many topics.


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On math papers and general questions they need to address
If you proved something new in math and want to publish it (or even before you've started proving that and before you have thoughts on publishing anything), do you need to answer questions like "why do people care about what I proved?", "why is this topic interesting?", "how does this fit into a broader picture?", "what theoretical implications does this have?", etc.? I have some background in linguistics, and in linguistics, from what I understand, it is essential to answer these questions (even before you've decided to work on some research question/problem). But I've taken a look at several math papers from arxiv, and I didn't seem to see those questions addressed. So does nobody care about them in math, and as long as you proved something new (or gave a better proof of an old result), this itself is considered good enough?
If so, then I guess this question can be extended to "how do you choose a good research question in math?", but maybe it should be a separate question.

Yes you do have to answer these questions, and math papers do.  But you may not have noticed it as a non-mathematician, because math research is extremely specialized, and the broader picture will still be incomprehensible to you (or to most mathematicians).
Suppose I wanted to read Wiles's paper providing the final piece of the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem.  I would have to spend about 2 years of intense study to get to the point of being able to even understand what the basic theoretical constructs of the paper are, and I'm closer to this area of mathematics than 70% of mathematicians.
I might add, as is customary for more important papers, Wiles's paper pretty extensively addresses the bigger picture.  Less important papers will have a smaller, more specialized audience, and there is no need to explain the picture as broadly.
One does not choose research questions in math; one chooses research questions on Glauznov operators on Tchaikovsky cohomology of Rubenstein spaces (example completely made up using names of Russian composers).  Naturally, one explains the motivation for one's research for (the 10) other people working on Glauznov operators on Tchaikovsky cohomology of Rubenstein spaces, and the papers that introduced Glauznov operators, Tchaikovsky cohomology, and Rubenstein spaces all explained the motivations for these ideas.  If you think your paper is important, your introduction will also explain the implications of your work for the overall study of Tchaikovsky cohomology of Rubenstein spaces.
I've done a cursory look into the historical chain of ideas that leads to my research.  It's about 15 layers of theoretical constructs from something a non-mathematician might think about.  About 200 years ago, some mathematicians took a naive question and created a theoretical construct to help understand it.  They found some facts about this theoretical construct, and some other mathematicians created a further theoretical construct to understand these facts about the first theoretical construct.  Repeat about 15 times to get to my research.  (Take a different chain of about 25 layers of constructs to get to Wiles's proof of Fermat's Last Theorem.)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but then I guess in general, if a paper doesn't introduce a totally new notion like Rubensten spaces, it doesn't have to address directly the questions I mentioned, but rather it's assumed that the reader (who has a background in the topic of the paper) has these (not explicitly asked) questions answered in their mind when they read the abstract. Because most papers I've taken a look at only say something like "in this paper, we prove X" in the abstract, and in the body they're just proving X (e.g. https://arxiv.org/pdf/2101.05185.pdf).

(Well, I shouldn't say that they're just proving X (they're also giving examples and mention how some of the intermediate results can be extended), but I meant that they don't explicitly mention why what they're doing is interesting, and I suppose the people in their area should understand it just because they're working in this area...)

If you look at Remark 1.2, they pretty explicitly explain why what they study is important.  Of course that explanation is incomprehensible to either of us.

Actually, the first paragraph of that paper also describes the motivation.  They're addressing a standard natural problem in a setting where it hasn't been addressed.  Someone who has taken the standard first year graduate class in analysis would get that much.

Thanks, I missed the motivation in Remark 1.2.The first paragraps says that the purpose of the paper is to compute something -- would that alone (in this case, without Remark 1.2) be considered a good reason to write that paper? Again, I guess people who're working in this area would know how this related to other stuff in the area and for them that would probably be enough.

Regarding your part on how to choose research questions on Glauznov operators on Tchaikovsky cohomology of Rubenstein spaces. Does this imply that it's practically impossible to organize workshops within graduate programs to teach incoming graduate students how to choose research questions? Do math grad students only learn about this from their advisors?

The first paragraph gives motivation that would be understandable to most second-year graduate students.  Mathematicians will understand why one would want to compute that thing in general.  Someone would have to know more about the specifics of the area to know just how compelling the motivation is.

Let us continue this discussion in chat.


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Should I tell my recommendation writers about my self-studying since graduating? Should I also mention my illness and depression?
I completed my masters in mathematics in my home country in June 2020. I didn't had success in 4th semester of my masters with PhD Applications. So, I thought I would try next year in both my home country and abroad (Europe). I didn't apply earlier to any of my home country's universities.
So, I started studying  for the qualifying exam in my home country while side by side studying some more mathematics to apply for PhD programmes abroad. But I fell in depression and wasted 1 month and 1 week in stomach infection till now.
The depression problem: I took the exam for PhD admission in my home country in December and received the result in early January. The result was lower than I had hoped for, although I don't yet know if I've been accepted.
My father is using this to make cruel comments to me, hurting my mental health. This contributed to me being depressed and missing several application deadlines for European universities. I completed only one application on time. Since then I have received medical help for my mental health problems and for 1 week I could not study due to pretty bad stomachache.
Question 1: Should I email the professors which will be sending letter of recommendation, and tell them what I have been doing since I completed my masters in June 2020? It would be only list of topics I have studied till now.
Question 2: If so, should I also include episodes of depression along with stomach infection?
Question 3: If so, should I also describe the reason behind the depression?

Does this answer your question regarding mentioning depressions (or other mental health issues): https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/80655/should-i-mention-mental-condition ?

A recommendation letter should not be a list of topics you studied, but an individuals (professor or other supervisor or more senier collaborator) judgement of your qualities.

@Mark It is not  same as in my case the gap is of only 1 month

First, I agree completely with Arno's answer here. The logic from that answer applies to these questions as well. Specifically...

Should I email the professors which will be sending letter of recommendation [and tell them] what I have been doing since I completed my masters in June 2020? (It would only list topics I have studied till now)?

Those reviewing your application may be interested to know what you have been up to during the past year. The answer appears to be "studying." So, it may be worth listing this briefly in your application somewhere. Just one bullet on your CV, or one sentence in one of your essays.
To your question: I see no harm in also providing this information to your letter writers. For the most part, their letters will focus on what they know about you directly, not what you say you did after graduating. But, it's definitely a good idea to stay in touch with your letter writers, and mentioning your recent activities is a natural thing to say in this context.

[Should I] include episodes of depression along with stomach infection?

No. It's usually better to declare victory rather than make excuses. In your case, there is no need for excuses; it is quite straightforward to say "since graduating, I've been studying topics X, Y, and Z." This sounds much better than "I've been trying to study, but between depression and illness I haven't made much progress." Why volunteer these extra details?

[Should I include] the reason behind the depression [issues with my father]?

Definitely not. This is very much oversharing. It is understandable that you want to discuss your difficult circumstances and are seeking forgiveness, validation, and/or reassurance. But you should have this discussion with your family, friends, or therapist, not with your professional references.

A letter of reference is what the professors want to say about you as a potential researcher. Not about your grades, courses etc. You can of course tell them about your problems, but I highly doubt that they will include such information in the letter. It would be awkward if they did.
On the other hand, your CV is also not the place for these personal problems. If you think that your depression and stomach problems are relevant, then you should mention them in your cover letter.
Keep in mind that most of the time, what you have gone through will not affect the decision process. Instead of focusing on why you have failed, it is much better to highlight your potential and what you can achieve.

But the depression lead to considerable loss of time which could have been used in studying more math and trying problems. That's why I am confused.

@Avenger I do understand. However, unless there is sort of an entrance exam, your current knowledge does not help in most cases. What really helps is when your area of interest and potential match what the professor is looking for.

If you talk or write to anyone about depression or family problems, make it a mental health professional. They can provide actual help.
But as for contacting potential letter writers, bringing them up to date, include not only what courses or other study you have done since they last interacted more directly with you, but also something of your future plans and goals.
In many places you will be asked to include a Statement of Purpose (SoP) with the application. If you haven't already written this it would be good to do so. It includes your short and long term goals and how you are well situated to achieve them. Then, include some of the essentials of that in your notes to potential letter writers so they have a better sense of where you want to go.
But you won't be accepted anywhere based on your problems. Look forward and convince people that you can get there.

This is a tricky one. In my opinion, informing the people responsible for giving out letters is always the right thing to do. Let them know what happened, what you did, what you are currently working on. That is a must. Talking about mental health and difficulties you faced is correct when you can make sure it does not seem like a pity call rather proving how you are successfully battling your challenges.

Should I also mention the cause of depression , which in this case is is my father ( and hence the reasons that he is confusing me and the total causes) or just telling to professors that I had battled depression(telling theduration) and currently doing fine is sufficient?


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How to deal with professors who don't respond to emails?
I am an undergraduate student in India who is struggling to get professors to reply to my emails. I believe that my emails are well-drafted. Here is an example:

Dear Professor X,
I am Y, a student in your Machine Dynamics and Vibrations
class.
Is it possible to make the recorded lectures on MS Teams available to
us so that we can revisit the lectures in case we have doubts, sir?
Thank you.
Warm regards

I never received a reply to this. Some other emails that I have sent were related to technical issues during online tests, a result that I got as part of research, and an email to my department head which addressed questions regarding extra credits transfer, thesis work etc, all of which are important and urgent. I never received a reply to any of them (these emails were all sent to different professors).
This is not just my experience. Other students who try to contact professors in my department via email, be it a question about the course material or a question about the exam syllabus, some of the professors simply don't respond.
It is common for students to directly message the professor on WhatsApp. I try to avoid this since it feels like I am impinging, but I have found that some professors respond exclusively to WhatsApp messages and nothing else. But some others don't even respond to this.
I avoid calling as much as possible. In the few situations that I have had to call, the professors didn't seem very irritated, but since I have not done this much, it's hard to generalize.
Due to COVID, a face-to-face conversation is out of the question.
Some options I have considered:

Contacting the department head, but he is also quite similar in this regard. I contacted him about information regarding extra credits and such, but never received any reply.

Making this issue known in our class committee meeting (a meeting between a few student representatives per class and the professors to discuss class progress and any issues faced by either the students or the professors) but I find that in these meetings, simple suggestions go unheeded (after repeated begging to add a lock to the girl's washroom, it never happened) or professors become outright hostile if any problems against them are raised.

I can probably take it up with the academic Dean (a sort of head to the various department heads) but again, professors here are generally serious and don't take criticism well. I am worried that this might affect my grades (this has happened to other students in the past).

At this point, I am happy with the rare monosyllabic responses I get from professors. What do I do to fix this? I appreciate answers from anyone here but if there is an Asian POV, I would specially appreciate it. Thank you.
Other info that might be useful:

Some other colleges have policies regarding not responding to students' emails, but mine doesn't.

There may be a cultural aspect involved here. Perhaps an article such as  https://www.1stopasia.com/blog/cultural-differences-saying-no-in-india-how-to-read-between-the-lines/  may help you.

For that example email, if there is no response, the answer is probably no.  The prof probably wouldn't want to reply because he/she does not want to get into an extended discussion on why the answer is 'no'.  Alternatively, the answer probably exists somewhere on the course web-site or that he/she has mentioned it and you missed it.  Profs don't reply for many other reasons as well.

I cannot give an Asian perspective, but the situation you describe was quite common in many universities thirty or more years ago, at least in my country. Students were not supposed to have rights, and many professors would simply ignore most of the students queries or requests, whatever the medium used to deliver them (emails were not so common in those days). And the situation was even worse in the humanities where I had some friends (and I've been told that a few bad habits have survived to the present).
Since also the university was unresponsive to complaints, the most common solution at the time was to ambush a professor at their department, frequently sneaking into the department (since one wouldn't know when the professor was in, students would sometimes take turns to avoid missing them). Indeed, this is not a fix to the problem: it's just a survival strategy, which would hardly work and be recommendable in these COVID-19 times.
I'm afraid, though, that alone you would not be able to do more then the above survival strategy. In my experience, the only thing that works—at least partially—when a university shows such generalized level of unresponsiveness is when students unionize en masse and make a strong action (common actions are occupation of the university, contacting media and such). Indeed, the possibility and the chance of success of such an action depend on the political climate in your country, in the willingness of all students to participate in such an action and in the possibility of finding a strong leadership within the union.
A base action, suitable for these unlucky times, would be that of preparing a document describing the problems, and signed by as many students as possible, to be presented by your representatives at the class meetings. The representatives should go well prepared and should be able to choose the right time to present the complaints (in my experience, students frequently miss the right moment and are frequently out-of-phase with respect to the agenda of committee meetings). Send your document also to the Dean and, possibly, also to the media, finding someone who would be willing to side you and follow your cause if nothing happens. Indeed, before doing any of the above, you should estimate the probability of success on the basis of your knowledge of the situation, the chances of retaliations for those involved and whether it's worth it, taking also into account the time that doing all this would take: pick your battles carefully.