text:
What is a diplomatic way to tell a professor that progress hasn't been made because of their lack of communication?
Here is the scenario: in a collaborative effort, our group was to work with another group/professor to write a paper on some work we had previously done. I, a grad student, am to be the main author/architect of the paper. But, and this was said explicitly by him and my own professor, I was to write it with lots of help from the collaborating professor, and under his guidance and direction.
In other words, I would talk to him, get direction like "you should focus on this topic for the paper" or "don't pursue this, it won't be interesting to reviewers", and I would do the actual work/research/writing.
However, since making this agreement, months ago, he has gone basically incommunicado. I'll send him an email and not get a reply for literally a month. I've asked to set up a short (<1hr) meeting, at basically any time of his choosing, and just no response. Several times, too.
Let me be clear about this too: I'm not really that upset about the lack of communication itself (though, I'll say this single thing about that: when he is actually in person with me, he is constantly checking/answering his email on his phone, so I know he does do it, just apparently not with me). I'm not dying to write the paper, it's not a cutting edge thing that will get scooped, and I have several other projects. It's a little annoying in general that he has been flaky, but I'm plenty busy with other stuff, so again that's not too bad.
Here's what my question is about. I both suspect, and from my short interactions with him I've had in the past few months, that he is going to ask to see what work I've done on it since he became uncommunicative, to which the answer is "minimal". The reason is that I am busy with other projects, and because he wasn't doing his part of this, I didn't know which direction to take. I could certainly speculate and choose one, but that is very risky (timewise) for me: if I spend several weeks pursuing something and it turns out he doesn't think it's a good fit for the paper, welp, I just wasted several weeks. And that has happened to some extent.
Because it seems like I wasn't clear about this initially, I'll say it explicitly here: my goal is not to attack him, or bring this up. If he seems fine with the (lack of) progress made, then I'm very happy to leave it be and just continue on. But I strongly suspect (and he seemed to say) that he expects me to have done more. For this question, assume that the professor will ask why more hasn't been done on the paper, so the subject will come up.
So, how do you say this tactfully? You can't really respond with "because you were uncommunicative, I didn't get very much done, because it very possibly could have been for naught", because that's pretty accusatory and will ultimately not help solve the problem.
Is there a good way to say this?

Sometimes "flakiness" like this results from some sort of personal emergency, so tread carefully here.  If you say or write something that assumes he's voluntarily neglecting the project, and it turns out he's been in the hospital for a month, or attending a dying relative, or something, you're going to feel awful.

From what you say, you used his lack of communication as an excuse not to do your part in the project. This is not OK and it will probably backfire to you (he is a professor and you are a PHD student). So, finish your part at least to the degree possible without his help and then think about how to tactfully say it.

@NateEldredge, yeah, I'm not really blaming him. He's a young professor and has several young kids. I'm definitely not trying to demonize him; my attitude in all this is kind of "I'm not blaming you for not doing your part, but please don't blame me because I couldn't do my part as a result of that". That's what I need to tactfully say.

@Alexandros, It's not an excuse, it's a reason. To respond to your suggestion, I essentially have done everything I can, within reason. I've selected and done background on directions for the paper. But it is not within reason to spend a lot of time writing a paper that may be thrown out on a whim. To reiterate, I'm not trying to go after him here and give him trouble. I'm not trying to avoid work; rather, I'm trying to move it forward so I can do meaningful work.

There are profs who get hundreds of emails per day. One professor in our group is very explicit she wants us to communicate abruptly, to the point. No politeness formulas as these "waste her time" when processing our info. She takes up to a year to get back to you on papers but always do so within minutes when it comes to research funding / undergrad students' problems. She needs us to be autonomous even on stuff where she is better than us because her time is so valuable. So just write the paper, stop waiting for the professor to step in.

What is a diplomatic way to tell a professor that progress hasn't been made because of their lack of communication?

You don't.
That is, I don't think that would be very productive, diplomatic or not. I wouldn't focus on their lack of communication in the next meeting you have with them at all; I would instead focus on using that next meeting you have with the professor to come to some resolution on the things that are delaying progress on the paper/project.
As you mentioned in the comments:

I essentially have done everything I can, within reason. I've selected and done background on directions for the paper.

So, this is what you have, and this is what you show them. Additionally, any questions about the scope/direction of the paper, etc. should also be brought up during the face-to-face meeting.
To address additional information posted by OP:

But I strongly suspect (and he seemed to say) that he expects me to have done more. For this question, assume that the professor will ask why more hasn't been done on the paper, so the subject will come up.

We all have limitations. You were in charge of certain aspects of the paper/project, but you were not able to achieve a certain level of progress that was set. Just be upfront about that. Specifically, tell the professor what it is you are stuck on and ask them during your face-to-face meeting if they have any feedback to offer.

Thanks for the response. It seems like my question didn't convey a key point, which is that I'm not looking to start trouble or highlight his lack of communication. For the question, assume that the professor will ask why more hasn't been done on the paper, so the subject will come up.

@YungHummmma Thanks for the clarification; I have edited my answer.

I will repeat something that one of my committee members told me about working with my chair -- "The answer you are going to get will inevitably depend on the question you ask."
So I am going to suggest trying to ask different questions, because it sounds like A) This isn't important to the professor and B) He isn't going to make time to think deeply about it.
You are going to be the one to think deeply about this paper, and, best case scenario, he is going to react.
Instead of asking "When can we meet?" to get a meeting, ask "Can you meet on September 1st sometime between 1 and 5 PM?" (And then, to be polite and deferential, say you are certainly flexible if he/she would prefer a different date.
Instead of asking "What direction should I take?" ask, "I am thinking about taking this direction. Does that work?" Or, if you think there are multiple valid ways, say, "Which of these two specific approaches would you like me to take?"

I've found that the only way to break through things like this is to set regular meetings; during the meetings, everyone gets a list of tasks to be done by the next meeting.
However, you've said that you tried to set up meetings and got no response.
At this point, I'd drop the project and move on to something else.
By the way, anyone who is constantly checking email/their phone when you're meeting with them (in an actual meeting - not a "drive-by") is, in my opinion, a jerk. Nobody is so busy that they can't set their phone/email down to talk to someone and give them their full attention. My opinion only.

It seems like this project has become a confrontational affair for you?
Honestly is there a diplomatic way of communicating with anyone, even family?
Collaboration is not direction.
if the work had been documented prior to this exercise I'm guessing the point of the task was to provoke engagement in a collaboration, which is always going to initially be confronting to one degree or another.
We collaborate as equals, we put ourselves in each other's shoes.
You can always start by asking him if he is ok to brainstorm some frameworks together or with the group?
Now is a good time if you have time? An appointment would soon be made if he was not available immediately.
A month is a fair amount of time to follow up an email. A verbal follow up would be appropriate after a few days.
Of course he's going to want to see the work.
What was the nature of the project? Was the content less important than the collaborative component?
Communication can be difficult.

If you need to clarify some details, use comments to the question. Answers are to provide answers, not to generate more questions.


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Is it ethical to use past years' final exams that the professor hasn't explicitly given, to study for a final in the same class?
This happened to me in my 2nd year of grad school, in a STEM field. As many do, our professor gave the class the last year's final, to give us an idea of what areas to study and what to expect, etc, which he obviously isn't required to do and is very nice of him.
Now, the reason he gives us last year's one is because, at the end of the year, he returns your test, so he knows that most of the ones floating around are the ones from last year.
However, as many older professors (in my experience, but maybe younger ones too) do, he also reuses exams from previous years (not even concepts or the same problems with different parameters, just literal copies), since the material and curriculum of this course is very well established/so old that nothing needs to change. I don't blame him for this; if you teach the same course on and off over 20 years, coming up with good exam questions over and over again would be annoying.
Now, what my question regards is, I realized a student in my class had past tests from not just the last time the class was taught, but literally the past 5 years. I don't know how to say this part as diplomatically as possible, but this student came from a country that about nearly half our program comes from. The other half (aside a few outliers) is from the U.S. I don't mention this to demonize or stereotype anyone; I believe it's relevant because the students from this country (in my program) are almost uniformly very tight knit, and seem to often share resources between each other and across years more than is normal amongst everyone else. The relevance is that one group has resources that others don't.
So my question is, is this ethical (for the student to do, I mean) ?
Just to put some relevant ideas/arguments/details down:

Assume (and I believe it was the case) that in the scenario I've written, the rest of the students (the ones who don't have the past tests) don't know about the students that have the past tests, so they can't do something simple like ask them.
I think many will argue that if the professor didn't want this happening, he wouldn't reuse tests, or at least as exactly as he does. However, I don't think this changes the ethics of the situation: the point is, in this situation, you can get away with it, but is it right?
I imagine the professor would not approve of this (actually, recently, another professor said in regards to his final "I know there are past ones floating around, please don't look at them", so at least he disapproved), but an argument could also be made for the possibility of him approving: It's not as though having the previous tests just makes it a given that you'll ace it, it's still a lot of work to figure out all the problems such that you can reliably do them later (he doesn't give back the answers to the tests, only the tests themselves). I could imagine a professor being okay with students getting a better grade on the final if it meant they learned more and worked to get it.
This professor never actually said not to, so the student wasn't explicitly disobeying anyone.
This question really has two subquestions, but they're very similar: a) Would it be ethical if everyone had these pasts tests (that the professor did not know about/give)? And b), Is it ethical if only a subset of the class has these tests. Obviously if you say no to (a) you say no to (b), but you might feel as though the concept of using past tests isn't wrong, but some students having an unfair advantage is.

Not quite an answer but: the instructor who knows that previous years' exams -- with questions that are being repeated verbatim! -- are out there and whose only reaction to that is a weak sauce admonition to the students to stay away from these materials is all but abetting any unethical behavior that the students may be led into.  Making new exam materials every time you teach a class is indeed time-consuming: I have always regarded it as one of the main things you need to spend time on when repeatedly teaching a course.  Evading this responsibility seems lazy or worse.

One trick that I remember professors using, is to keep the same (or very similar) exam, but occasionally change it completely. That way, the professor doesn't need to change it drastically every time, and the students don't know if this time they will get a completely new exam. This way the optimal strategy for students was both to know the course material and know past exams. Some portion of the students would just look at past exams without studying much, and when the exam changed they would fail.

Our "students from other countries" (which was 95% of the students, including myself) would scan and e-mail around the past exams and/or share them in our Facebook group.  I've never seen an ethical problem with that, because if someone studies by preparing for the past 10 years of exams, they're probably well enough prepared to pass the current exam even if it is not a verbatim copy.

This is exactly why I publish all my old exams myself.

@gerrit, I definitely agree with you that studying past tests will help you on the real test even if it's a different test -- but I think the amount studying with the real test will help you is vastly different. The way our professors usually do it is to take a problem we're well acquainted with and then throw us a mean curveball. It often requires thinking pretty cleverly on the spot, and often isn't the type of thing that's easily found elsewhere.

At the end of the day, you're paying the university for a degree, and your objective is to get as high a GPA as possible. Unless explicitly prohibited and enforced, you are free to use any means to do so, its not unethical, its a commercial exchange

@user87166: Slight wording nitpick: You may be paying the university for training that gives you a chance to reach a degree. I would find it highly questionable if an institution actually promised a (meaningful) degree in exchange for payment.

Here in the UK, doing a lot of past papers is considered diligent study. Re "The relevance is that one group has resources that others don't" - really? If you've asked and no-one will give you copies then what's stopping you from being resourceful and getting the past papers the way they did originally (e.g. from the library)? You say that other students don't know that past papers exist but isn't this obvious? Or if not, what's stopping you from telling them?

@AE, maybe something is being lost in translation, because I'm not sure if by 'papers' you mean 'exams'. If that is what you mean though, we don't have the past exams at our library.

@YungHummmma, yes, 'past papers' means the exam questions from previous years. At UK universities they're usually readily available e.g. (random example) http://www.maths.cam.ac.uk/about/pastpapers.html At your university, where did the people who have them get them from? Can't you show equal resourcefulness and get them from the same source? Or have you simply asked the students who do have them if you can make photocopies?

@AE, the students who had the past ones got them from older students, which isn't a typical thing here (in my experience). I mentioned it elsewhere, but because this isn't usual, most people didn't even know that anyone had older tests. I should also point out that it's a pretty different dynamic, because if they give you older tests they're obviously not using those exact questions on the test you'll take. I'm not questioning whether it's ethical to study with any old test; the question is about specifically the test that you will almost certainly be taking.

Perhaps this is a bit of a genuine ethical issue: should one use "game advantages" one might find, that one knows other "players" will not have? Of course, these questions completely ignore issues of the subject itself, learning, scholarship, etc. But, yes, there are advantages to "good test scores". That game is primarily (contrived) an adversarial one between "teacher" and "student", and any information obtained "legally" by the students is... "legal". It's a game!
In that model, other students may suffer "on the curve". Not nice, true, but, ...
I think the real answer is that, especially internet-wise, any policy that presumes secrecy of information is misguided. Sounds innocent, but, as this test case shows, there are "victims".
My sincere conclusion, and basis for my own actions for 15+ years, is that everything should be made public. If someone can assimilate good solutions to all the exams for the last 20 years, ... then why shouldn't they pass the current exam? :)
(So, the kids who cram from the last few exams are merely being rational, assuming they didn't have to break-and-enter.)
The unasked question about whether the behavior of the "teacher" is inadvertently unfair is the interesting one. That is, lacking intent, can one be unfair? Yes, it turns out, by negligence...

Interesting answer, but I'm not sure you needed scare quotes around teacher and student.

@Tim, not so much "scare", but a possibly older-timey style of "X" meaning "not really X but trying to pass itself off as, etc." That is, a teacher who doesn't so much teach as "test", and is an adversary, or is at best not helpful, is not a genuine teacher, or is a bad one. Likewise, a student who doesn't want to study but wants to game the system is not... in my world... a genuine student, etc. So, actually, I stand by the "disclaimer-quotes".

In fact there was a question about whether professors should make exams public, and the top answers agree with you: http://academia.stackexchange.com/q/19477/19607

@paulgarrett "X" meaning "not really X but trying to pass itself off as, etc." That's pretty much the definition of scare quotes.

@starsplusplus, ah, ok, usage... but I don't understand "scare", then, ... Nevermind...

@paulgarrett, I'm not sure I really get what your answer is getting at... You said that "everything should be made public". Is that with regards to the professor? Because then that may be a good policy, but doesn't really answer the moral question for the student. Or did you mean that the morally right thing for a student with the past tests to do is to give them to all his classmates?

The reason a student shouldn't necessarily get a good grade even if he can complete all the past exams with the luxury of the internet and infinite time is... well, tests test your knowledge in a different way. The merits of timed testing is of course another argument, but that's not really what my question was asking -- it was asking that, given our current system, what's right? I think it's very important to not forget that these students weren't really studying all the other tests (that can easily be found on google) that they could find...they were studying these ones specifically.

If the question is simply "is it ethical to use advantages?", then I fear the answer is "yes". Should/will other people try to discourage you from using whatever advantage you have? Of course! Should you be altruistic and share (and thus obliterate) your advantage? Sure, especially if you're confident that other people will appreciate, remember, and return the favor. Oops, fail. Thus, my point is that the whole scenario is anti-social, insofar as it creates needless and irrelevant competition among students. Against each other, when they should exert effort "against" the subject itself.

TLDR; If you need to hide it from your professor, it's probably misconduct.
Does your University have any sort of Honor Code, published standards of Academic Integrity, Student Agreement, or other such thing that students must agree to be bound by? If so, this is a great place to look, and I'll share an item from my present University which notes that the following are violations of the code of Academic Integrity:

seeks to claim credit for the work or efforts of another without authorization or citation;
uses unauthorized materials or fabricated data in any academic exercise;

Similarly, it also notes about collaboration between students:

Collaboration
You should be aware that different instructors have
different expectations about working with others. If you wish to
consult with or work with another student on an assignment and you are
not sure of the course rules, ask the instructor. It is each student’s
responsibility to seek information about the boundaries of
appropriately working with others on assignments, papers, experiments
or examinations. If no rules concerning working with others have been
discussed in a course, the student must assume that working with
others writing a paper, completing homework, or taking an exam is not
permitted.
[emphasis mine]

In my University this would, therefore, explicitly be considered academic misconduct and punished as cheating.
However, I offer a much simpler version than all this written stuff.
My Personal Academic Ethical Gold Standard
Would you feel comfortable going to the professor and telling them what you were doing (such as studying an old test from a previous semester) and asking questions about it?
Why, or why not? If you would have any urge at all to refrain from talking to the professor or think that you should hide your behavior...DING DING DING DING you're probably doing something wrong!
Specific Advice
If I were you my first preference, having witnessed what seems to be wide-spread academic misconduct, is to talk with the professor (if I am on friendly terms at least) and ask them if they are aware that there is a good possibility that a sizable portion of the class has access to 5+ years of past tests from this class? If they were OK with it, I'd go ahead and ask that if you could would you be allowed to use them and pass them on to everyone else in the class too, or heck, for that matter can you just get a copy from him? It hardly seems fair that some people have access to special materials that others don't, after all.
If the professor objects then he can do something about it. If I were him I'd personally keep the test and add a twist to many of the questions to shift them into requiring different answers, so those who studied the unethical material would have their own change blindness and "study" behavior lead them astray, but that's just me wanting people to learn lessons for themselves.
Now if you fear such a discussion with your professor, well I think it's unfortunate there isn't a better relationship between the students and instructors, but I can't fault you for being personally cautious or not wanting to get ostracized by other students. I would however point you to the existence of anonymous/free email accounts - a simple no-names-named email alerting the professor to the widespread availability of past tests to some but not all students should be sufficient to put the ball back in his court.
Now if the professor doesn't want to do anything and just lets a large portion take advantage of the course while others are comparatively penalized by not having special access to test materials...well, that would just be a very sad reflection of the program and the instructor, and I'm sorry the education you are being provided has such an unsavory element included in it. I'd make sure the appropriate people know - professor, chair of department, etc - and then hold one's head high, actually work to learn the material, do a good job, and move on with life.
A Final Note On Nationality/Grouping
I would be remiss if I didn't mention this, but while I understand your observation of what you see as a pattern, I would ask this: if the situation were that a band of multicultural native citizens banded together and were engaging in this behavior but also did not share these resources to the entire class, would you be any less bothered by it?
As such, we can simply separate the issue entirely, because it doesn't matter what nationality, color, religion, or any other grouping they happen to belong to other than "people who seem to be behaving unethically in this instance". Otherwise we simply create and add to stereotypes that would encourage discrimination against the group, which would itself make it so that the group might need to be more willing to break the rules to get ahead because they are double-disadvantaged! All stereotype threats are inherently negative.
One need not ignore reality - just put in extra effort to prune out unnecessary grouping. Some students ban together to do something potentially wrong, and those students may share nationality or family ties - but it is not the nationality or family ties that are the problem, but the ethics and behavior involved in the situation. Stick to these facts and do not paint everyone with the same brush and you will improve your argument, possibly help improve the world at least a little, and be in a more justified and ethical situation yourself!

Hi, I very much like your metric of telling if something is wrong. I suspect that, after many peoples' bravado in saying it's not unethical, they would definitely not go up to the professor and say they were doing that. Of course, it still does have the flaw that the professor could just completely not care, and you could be willing to tell him (knowing that fact), but it could still be a wrong thing to do.

With regards to the nationality thing, I knew it would get a bit of flak, but I think it is relevant. To answer your question, if an American frat were doing the same thing in my class, I would be just as upset at it. I mentioned nationality because that is what defines the group in this instance (and left it vague on purpose). What I did leave out in the OP was that, in our program, this group has had a strong pattern of this in the past, including things that are unquestionably unethical.

@YungHummmma In my alma mater, the student representatives had a folder of past exams that any student could copy. This was publicly announced on a university-hosted Web site. They certainly didn't mind the prof. knowing that they did that - in one case, they came to me (working as a TA) and asked me whether I would let them copy one of the exams that they did not have in their collection.

I agree with @xLeitix: as a student (at Utrecht University, NL) I was part of a student committee collecting old exams, and even sometimes creating solution outlines when not provided by the professor. These were published online without reservations. Although some professors didn't quite like the fact that they thus couldn't recycle old questions, this publication was approved by the department. Also, I once sat on an exam which was a literal copy of an exam from 2/3 years ago, which I coincidentally practiced the day before. I'd have had no qualms admitting that fact to the professor.

Surely cooperating on preparing for an exam (which this is) cannot be considered misconduct?

There's no need for e-mail to anonymously inform the professor of anything.  You can just leave a paper note in his mailbox or under his door...

@xLeitix, I'm not saying that's a bad policy (in fact, it may even be a great one), but I've never heard of that being above-the-table at any of the schools I've gone to/classes I've taken. So with regards to Brian's metric, at your school it would be absolutely fine to tell the professor that, but at my school I suspect many people (who claim that it's not wrong!) would probably not be willing to tell him.

I find it somewhat depressing that this is not the most highly-voted answer.

Do we really need the trailing lecture in this answer? The cliquiness of students that come from one particular culture is a fact of life (we are genetically predisposed to feel more comfortable around those most like ourselves; it's how our distant ancestors sensed that an animal from another species was prowling around, most likely to cause harm and distress) and certainly relevant to the discussion at hand. The only one painting it as "racism" or "discrimination" or somesuch is you, only furthering to harm integration.

@LightningRacisinObrit And psychologically we now know we humans have cognitive biases that cause us to perceive differences that don't exist (or to perceive more difference than present) due to arbitrary groupings, and that we suffer from a systemic tendency to illogically invert valid observations ("Cheaters tend to be from Group A", vs. "members of Group A tend to be Cheaters"). Also notice I noted no "discrimination" or "racism" of any kind - I only advised caution to not fall into similar traps. Cheating is the problem, nationality isn't, and it is all too common to invert causation.

Sure, but I worry that going out of one's way to warn against "discrimination" where (as you yourself say) none has actually been detected, may come across as preachy at best, and potentially hypocritical at worst (why did it come to your mind just because another race was mentioned?). Not accusing you of this, but concerned about it in the general case. In this specific example, I don't think this answer's trailing section is called for, is all I'm saying. "The only one bringing race into it is you" etc

The students who got the past tests have not really cheated, but they do have an advantage over students who do not have the tests.  This is especially true if the professor is heavily recycling questions.  The professor may not be aware of this advantage.
Therefore, you should probably just speak to your professor about it.  I would be careful to not be accusatory toward your fellow students.  Your goal is not to get them in trouble, but rather to express to your professor that you feel you are at a disadvantage.  That is, you are perfectly willing to work and study hard, but others may have their work rewarded more than yours.
I would also recommend that you avoid mention of national origin since I don't think that that is really very relevant to the topic and may be distracting.
A very similar problem that I have seen in the past is that some groups may "curate" past tests.  For example, I have seen groups like frats and sororities which intentionally keep files of old tests for the purpose of giving future members an advantage on tests.  This is something that lecturers were very interested in knowing about even though it wasn't technically against any rules.

Well, this is a couple years past now, so it doesn't matter, I was just curious. I actually highly suspect the prof in question reaaaaaally wouldn't care, because he's old and just gives off that vibe. Also, I purposely avoided (for fear of offense) mentioning the actual nationality of the group I was talking about, so I don't think anyone should be offended, without making assumptions on their own. The reason I think it's relevant is that I think they're doing exactly what you mentioned in your last paragraph.

There's another way to combat this situation: provide more sample questions, so that fewer students would be at a "disadvantage".
At first that may seem counterintuitive, but I know of a few instances where such tactics were employed effectively.
One professor I know told me, "A long time ago, I figured out that if there was something I really wanted my students to learn, just tell them it will be on the test. That way, they'll learn it. So that's what I do."
(He doesn't tell students everything that's on his test, but if there's a fundamental concept he wants them to know, he's very public about it being asked on the final exam, using that as a motivator to steer the learning in a particular direction.)
Also, a past advisor once told me about a professor who gave his students a list of 24 questions, and told them, "Your final exam will consist of six of these questions." He smiled as he reminisced, explaining how all the students thought this was "cool," and how they thought the test would be "easy." He then told me how it took him about 10 years to realize how he and his fellow students had been duped. "Essentially, this guy wanted us to work through 24 problems," he said, "but he only wanted to grade six of them!"
I realize this answer isn't universal, and may not be a good alternative in some situations. But it does offer some different ways to possibly curb the problem of cheating on reused exam questions.

I've never seen 6 out of 24, but have done 3 out of 8 essay question. Or 10 questions, and pick 3 of 5 on the test ( Which meant you could be safe only prepping only for 8).

There is nothing unethical about a group of students that have grabbed their hands in the past years' examinations. Maybe you can argue that is not fair and that they are selfish, but those justifications are far away from ethical issues.
If you or other of your fellow USA friends want that information, why you just don't ask for those examinations directly to them? Maybe they will be happily to hand you a copy of those exams. In the case they don't want to share them with you, what is the problem? You cannot force them to do something that they do no want.
I see in your question that there is a hidden message, not a good one against expats studying with you, and that is something that should not be tolerated in any way. If I am wrong, then the only advice that I can give to you is to study and prepare well for the exams, because at the end the reward of a good education is going to be only for you.

As to ethics, it might be explicitly against the rules of the course, program, or University as a whole. If one agrees to be bound by Rule X, then in most ethical systems one is actually bound by Rule X even if they wouldn't otherwise agree with the rule. Many programs do explicitly disallow such behavior as a condition for attending, and if the institution in question is one then getting or sharing past tests is academic misconduct and is defined as unethical behavior. And what is fairness and selfishness if not ethical issues? I do appreciate your concerns regarding the expats, though.

yes, you are right @BrianDHall, but my comment was towards that the lecturer gave all the years the final examination from the previous year. So if, for example, one person has failed or retired from the course two years in a row, he already have two past examinations on his hands, so if he use them it would not be unethical. Also the OP commits the mistake that he has not mentioned if the lecturer has put a rule of not using past material or examinations; in that case, if that rule exists, would be unethical to do that.

@Layla, a quick google search for "define ethics" gives me "moral principles that govern a person's or group's behavior". So it seems like (your 2nd sentence) that if "that is not fair and that they are selfish" is absolutely an ethics issue.

Additionally, I only happened to become aware of what they were doing by accident, so I suspect many students outside their group don't even know what they're doing (as I didn't and wouldn't have), so can't ask for them. Beyond that, you don't see the problem if they have a huge upper hand that other students don't? I obviously can't "force them" but that's not what the question was asking, it was asking about the ethics of it.

@YungHummmma, to be or not to be selfish is a personal decision; the OP has not stated if he has asked that group for the past examinations so I am only making a conjecture about the situation. I believe that the OP is seeing all like black and white, but there are some attitudes and behaviours that we cannot categorize as being completely unethical at all.

@Layla, well, I think being selfish is being unethical... Also, I'm OP :) I'll edit the question to include the fact that most other students didn't know about the group that had the exams.

I feel like you are asking the wrong questions. It seems that your main concern is that the other group might have an unfair advantage and be gaming the system.
However, you do mention that this is graduate school. My understanding from talking to graduate students is that grades are really only a part of the overall graduate school experience. The other parts (actually learning the material, getting to know the professor, networking, getting internships if this is a masters program or doing research if this is a PhD program) are essential to the graduate experience and arguable even more important.
Morally, these students are acting fairly dodgy, but they are not necessarily ensuring their success in graduate school. Maybe the reason why there is not more collusion, and why the professor does not care enough to explicitly forbid this behavior, is that the tests don't matter as much as you think. They're are only reflected in the grade, but graduate school is about improving your career.

I agree with you, somewhat. You can do absolutely horribly in grad school, gradewise, and come out on top of someone who did great in their classes, if your research is better. But it's still important because you still usually have to maintain some average. If having this unfair advantage allows you to spend far less time studying (because you know exactly what to study, whereas they have to effectively study everything to be assured a good grade), that time will be spent doing research.

As evidence, I just spent the majority of my hours of the past week studying for this test, so my research took a big hit this week. Someone who had the past tests could have studied for a fraction of the time. Over 5 years of many classes, you can imagine this "lost time" adding up to months or so.

The above answers are shocking. The professors are not too busy. Most of them are lazy. They act unethically if they repeat the same exam questions and do not give copies of the past exams to students, when they should have known that some of the students probably have them, while not all of them. The students do not breake any rules by collaborating, studying together and simply using all available material.

The same thing happen in one of the courses of my graduate program. In my opinion, the only person who is unethical in this situation is the instructor, who is negligent/lazy enough to knowingly/unknowingly put a group of students under unfair competition. The students who take advantage of non-public materials have no obligations to let anyone know about it. After all, it is so common in college to obtain and practice past exams that it is one of the major ways to prepare for an exam.
Finally, I just want to mention that in the other course of our program the instructor chose to publish all of his past exams for practice. In that course no one could get any advantages.

If they are not public, but passed by students to students, highly unethical.
Major reasons:

Yes, most of the questions are very similar from earlier years.
Professors are too busy. Even if its not, you are more efficient in practicing them than problems in textbook.
Those cannot get it are pushed to lower grades, especially if the grade is curved according to distribution.
You only pay tuition for this year's class.

Most of my classmates did that in my undergrad and PhD years. I cannot, as I cannot get it from them. I sometimes wondered why they did not even take notes in class, as they can get it from last year's students.

Some people learn and succeed without taking noted in class.

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Applying for a tenure-track job at my undergraduate alma mater
I'm in the final year of my PhD program (in Applied Math, though this isn't too relevant).  I made the personal decision a while back that I would only consider tenure track jobs if they happened to be in my home state.  My research is sufficiently applicable that I have industry backup plans that I would be perfectly happy with, so I don't see this as a bad career choice.
Well, lo and behold a tenure track job is available in the math department at my undergraduate school.  I'm excited to apply, but I'm wondering if anyone has any specific advice on how to structure my application since I know most of the professors in the department?  Is there anything I should emphasize or avoid?  Obviously I need to demonstrate that I've "grown up" since I left and could return as a colleague, but I'm not sure how best to do this.

Prepare your application as though you were applying to a department with the same characteristics, but where you have never studied.  Keep in mind that if they hire you and you go on to bring glory to the department, they will be ten times as proud of you as an alum of their department.

I've seen job talks of people applying for tenure-track jobs at their alma mater. These talks tend to be more tailored more closely to the research within the department.
For example, these applicants tend (more so than others) to make references to specific projects conducted by professors within the department. I've also seen applicants make light-hearted jokes about the department's culture within a job talk before.
They also tend to be more savvy at answering soft-questions about why the department appeals to them and how they would improve it.
Showing that you're an 'insider' or 'one of them' is a useful strategy that I've seen.

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Can the postdoc adviser withdraw our paper against my will?
I'm a postdoc in Computer Science. Recently submitted a paper, co-authored with my adviser. I'm the first author, corresponding author and am primarily responsible for the content.
Less than a day before submission deadline my adviser asked me to withdraw the paper. There was no sign that he disagrees with submission before that. I was keeping him updated with the progress and asking for reviews. Today he gave me a list of unconvincing arguments why we should withdraw. When I refused, he said he'll use his legal authority to withdraw it. Does he have any legal authority to do this?
No ethics policy that I'm aware of links authorship rights with employment status. From what I know a co-author may chose to withdraw his co-authorship, but cannot ask a conference to withdraw the paper against the will of other authors. Anyone encountered such situations?
I have not signed any legal agreements regarding publication policy.

IMHO, the question translates to: Will an editor/committee risk the drama involved or just drop the paper? Personally, I'd drop it and let the authors sort it out rather than to piss of any professor...

Your supervisor might have used the word "legal" loosely.  Publication requires the consent of all authors.  If you or any of your coauthors withdraws consent, without agreeing to withdraw co-authorship, that ends the publication.  So he does have the right to withdraw the paper, but not because he's your supervisor.

Does it mean any co-author can veto the publication unilaterally? Doesn't sound right to me.

Yes, that is absolutely right.  You should try to negotiate to agree on a version to publish, even if it doesn't sound exactly perfect to either of you.  Otherwise, you can remove all the content he contributed and work toward turning it into something publishable by yourself.  But that will probably wreck your relationship with him - and this is a person whose backing is fairly essential to your future career.

By the way, your title is misleading: if your advisor is a co-author then it's not "my paper" but "our paper".  And therein lies the problem.

Thanks, corrected. This is not the problem, however. His co-authorship is mostly honorary. He didn't even review the paper. But this is completely different topic. The question is whether he can force the withdrawal unilaterally and how will PC chair likely react.

You say "There was no sign that he disagrees with submission before that" but did he actually, explicitly, consent to the paper being submitted?  If not, you committed an ethical breach by submitting it in the first place.

This is nitpicking. We agreed on this submission months before. I was sending him the paper section by section for review. If he would disagree with submission, he had plenty of time to notify me of this in advance. The paper was finished hours before the deadline, so he didn't have time to review it end to end. Nevertheless, he could judge the paper well enough from what I was sending him.

But anubis, this is your advisor we're talking about.  Do you really want to wage war with your advisor?  What's more important to you -- getting this paper submitted immediately, or preserving some sort of working relationship with this person (not to mention future letters of recommendation)?

But did he agree specifically to submit the paper to this journal at this specific time, and after having seen the full paper rather than one section at a time?

All the comments seem to accept without questioning that adviser wants the good of his mentee. If this would be the case, my question wouldn't be here. What sort of working relationship is possible with an adviser that actively works against me? My relationship with him is over now after this submission. Yet even now he cannot just mind his business. Please look at my previous questions for some past experiences.

You keep dodging the question of his explicit consent to publish the given paper in the given venue. That indicates to me that he did not give it, and his actions might be purely to protect his own academic standing by not publishing something he does not feel is up to his standard (or in a venue he has some problem with).

Thanks for all messages. We already reached an agreement that keeps paper under review. I might write an update in a few days.

Yes, an academic paper cannot be published without the consent of all its authors (as JeffE pointed out in the comments), so any one author can prevent publication for any reason, with no appeal or recourse.  Of course it would be unethical to do so for a bad reason, such as settling a personal grudge, but there's plenty of scope for good reasons.  For example, just feeling that it's not yet ready is a fine reason.
If your advisor withdraws the paper, then there's nothing you can do about it.  It can't be published in its current form with him as an author without his permission, and you can't remove him as an author if his contributions merit authorship.  (If they genuinely don't, then you can and should remove him, but you'll have to deal with serious questions about why he was listed in the first place.  Be very cautious with this, since if other people agree with him that he deserves authorship, then trying to remove him will be a disaster for you.)
In principle, you could try to extract your own contributions from the paper and publish them as a singly-authored paper without him.  However, this may be difficult, or even impossible if there was enough joint work that cannot solely be attributed to either author.
In practice, you'll probably have to work with your advisor to fix the paper, so that you are both happy to publish it.  He presumably feels it's worth publishing after some more work, since otherwise he would remove his own name from it and wouldn't care what happened to it after that.  Hopefully you are both reasonable people and can come to some agreement.
In the meantime, if you can't convince him to proceed with the submission, I'd recommend withdrawing it yourself, since it looks more awkward if he does.  (It can look like you screwed up and your advisor had to step in to fix it.)  If he withdraws it, then you shouldn't try to stop him, since there's nothing you can say to the program committee that would help.  All you can do at that point is to make it more awkward and embarrassing for everyone, without changing the outcome, and I don't think it's in your interest to make a fuss.
I'm sympathetic, since it sounds like your advisor has put you in a frustrating situation.  He should have reviewed the paper earlier, or asked you to hold off on submitting it because he needed more time to review it.  However, his failure to be a helpful coauthor doesn't justify publishing the paper without his consent.

Thanks for answer! Yet I cannot accept it. Hopefully someone who faced similar stories from editor/PC chair position can share his thoughts.

@anubis: In my experience as an editor, if an author asks to withdraw a paper, nobody asks why; the paper is immediately withdrawn.  I've never seen another author object to the withdrawal, but if that did happen, I wouldn't be able to do anything but tell them they needed to sort things out themselves (and the paper couldn't be handled unless they were all in agreement).

I see, thanks. I only hope he'll realize the embarrassment he causes to himself if he initiates the withdrawal.

@anubis Why do you expect him to be the one to face the embarrassment?  As mentioned in this answer, it might as well end up with you being the one to look bad.

Hopefully because his reasons for withdrawal are borderline between unjustified and absurd. If only anyone would ask me for reasons. And it damages me if I postpone publication.

As @AnonymousMathematician says, he doesn't even have to tell the editor his scientific reasons for wanting to withdraw, so embarrasment will not enter into it.  I am not sure you understand the situation properly.  If you submitted the paper without his explicit consent, that in itself was an unethical action on your part.  (You say "there was no sign that he disagreed" but silence is not consent.)  If he tells the editor he is withdrawing the paper because he never consented to its submission, that could cause serious problems for you.  Hence it is better if you withdraw it yourself.

@anubis As the submission deadline has likely now passed, I've hope you've made the best decision and have withdrawn the paper yourself already.  Forcing your advisor to do it (and he will, you do not have a choice about that) will only be an embarrassment to you.

@anubis Without your withdrawal, the fears you expressed of being fired in your other questions will be entirely justified, and you will be likely left with no paper, no job, and a very negative reference.  Furthermore, there is no question that your behavior would be informally discussed between colleagues (it is not only alarming that you tried to push through a paper without a coauthor's permission, but that you thought you could actually do so successfully).

@user58322 Don't you admit at least, without knowing the details, that his request might be an abuse?

@anubis Unfortunately anubis, the reason for his lack of permission doesn't practically matter. He position as a coauthor seems to be legitimate due to his intellectual contribution, and permission from all authors are required for submission (removing him in this case would be an ethical violation). The conference will honor his request to withdraw the paper as he is listed as an author.

@anubis Since untangling his contributions and rewriting the paper without them seems unfeasible, the paper is stuck.  The only thing I can think of is some sort of mediation - a discussion involving him and a neutral third party to try to clarify the current issues (both paper and personal).  But ultimately, don't let your poor feelings about the situation lead you to act unethically.


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What are my chances of getting into a top PhD program in the US when coming from a no-name university?
I have a 4.0 GPA in computer science from a no name university (1001-1200 in THE) and I have 3 months worth of research experience at a good university in Europe plus one semester of a research project. Can universities like CMU, Yale, Prineton consider my application? Has anyone seen other cases like this?

Many people I know went to top universities for postgraduate study after graduating from low-ranking universities.

The essential problem is that no one, including you, really knows what the 4.0 GPA at your university means.  Generally speaking, because your university is likely to have lower standards than Stanford (because otherwise almost all students would fail), the minimum quality work sufficient to earn a 4.0 at your university might only earn a 2.5 at Stanford.  Your recommenders might have perspective about how your work compares and be able to share that in their letters (and with you), or they might not.

In the old days, a good score on the GRE subject test in Computer Science would help.  But that test was discontinued as of 2013.

@AlexanderWoo I don't think it works like that. Universities with higher rankings have more research output and much harder admission process, but once you are in they do not necessarily require more work to graduate or to get a good grade. Rankings do not evaluate the difficulty of the material, and often not even the quality of teaching.

While the name of your undergrad university certainly plays a role, your personal excellence is much more important. You need to show this in your CV and in your application. For example, if you are 1st author on a really good paper in your field (e.g. originating from your bachelor or master thesis) this certainly counts a lot. Glowing reference letters might also help (good is not enough).

You will be considered by any university you apply to, but for those top few places, the competition is fierce with lots of top applicants. For that reason alone, I'd say your chances are small.
While it is worth applying to such places if you have a good record and (US centric) very good letters of recommendation, you should make a broader search if you want to assure success overall. Spread some applications over interesting top fifty or so US institutions.

I know the US system is very different but what I have experienced and seen in Europe is this: you can try to get funding/apply and complete a one- or two-year master's degree at a "top" university. After that, the "top" university or a university of similar "rank" is much more likely to offer you a PhD position (assuming you did well, of course).
This is likely not directly applicable to the US, but perhaps there are options to get your foot in the door: e.g., summer course, internship, RA/TA jobs, etc.? I think your research internship is already a big plus, too.

Based on your description I'd say your odds are not good. You can tell how competitive you'll be by going to the website of your target university and searching for some PhD students' CVs.
Here is an example CV of a current student at Yale. Ignore everything from after 2019, because he enrolled at Yale in 2019. He had one publication (which won a first place prize too), several academic honours, some undergraduate teaching experience, some internship experience at Apple, and four different projects.
I don't know the specifics of course, but as you can see the competition at top universities is strong, and your competitors will be armed to the teeth.

The first year you are looking for a PhD, I would apply mostly to the programmers you are most invested in getting accepted to, but also to some research positions or masters degrees where you might get a chance to better prove yourself if you fail to get into the PhD programme you want. As others have said, publishing great papers, or having a letter of reference from someone known to the people in the department you are applying to both significantly increase your chances.
But keep in mind that competitive PhDs are competitive. It isn't just about you, it's about who else happens to apply the same year. There will always be an enormous chance element about whether the best supervisor matching your interests is even taking any PhDs the year you apply, or whether they happen to have just gotten a big grant and be taking a lot of students.
If you don't get into a PhD programme you had hoped to your first try, then you can put more time into the next tier down, or if you do get a good research position, you can put a lot of time into trying to get papers out and wind up in a stronger position for your application, or of course both.
Personally I only got accepted at the MOST competitive of the four places I applied to my first year trying. I got lucky! The professor I wanted to work with there took 8 students that year. If I'd applied the year before, he wouldn't have taken any, as he was going on sabbatical.
But having said that, I had a poor GPA from a decently-known undergraduate programme, so I didn't even apply to a PhD until I had already done a Masters and got good letters of recommendation -- in that case from references who weren't particularly well known, but from a known MSc programme.

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I left a Ph.D. after a semester and now want to apply for master's degree. How can I justify my reasons of leaving well?
I was enrolled in the neuroscience Ph.D. program in 2020 in Turkey (without doing a master's because I graduated from medical school) in the condition that I had to take the GRE within my first semester. Our home lab and advisor were determined at the time of admission and mine was the psychosis lab. At the same time, I was a Research Assistant and a Teaching Assistant for the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, which was required for my fundings. Because of all the work pressure in a tough pandemic period, I could hardly make time to study for GRE so I ended up achieving a GRE score which was 2 points lower than the university's requirement, and this was not accepted by my university. My advisor suggested the department change my program to a Master's. I thought this was a great idea and I accepted. But, later in a talk, my advisor asked me if I am going to stay in her lab after completing my master's for Ph.D. and I said the truth that I will decide this in the future then she refused to change my program to Master's. So, I had to either take the GRE again or terminate my Ph.D. and I terminated my Ph.D. program. Of course, taking the GRE again was not the reason I left the program but there were some other reasons too. First, my advisor was not so helpful because she was very busy and the only time we discussed my research work and the lab work was in our talk before I apply to the university. Second, after taking the cellular neuroscience class I realized that I was more interested in cellular research and I was feeling like I was in the wrong lab. I thought it would be better to leave at the beginning than after some years when I have already wasted my energy and time as well as the university's resources. I studied 9 credits and two more classes that did not have credit according to the university system. My GPA is 3.80.
Now, I want to apply for a Master's degree in neuroscience in the department of biology in the U.S, so that I can make my mind clear for a Ph.D. in the future. I want to mention my previous Ph.D. program in my application. I am wondering how to explain the reasons I left my Ph.D. program. I do not think it would be a great idea to mention my GRE score there rather a change of interest sounds logical for me. Would you share your ideas on how can I justify my reasons? Also, will the fact that I left a Ph.D. decrease the chances of my acceptance for a Master's program?

In situations like this, there is no need to "justify" your decision to leave --- just be honest and clear about what led you to that decision.  It is best not to "get into the weeds" with excessive details, but you can give a basic summary that states the essential facts in a few sentences.  Something like this might be reasonable:

During my previous PhD candidature I had difficulty with work during the pandemic, and as a result of this I failed to meet the GRE requirement for continuation in the program (2-points below).  The department initially suggested that I transfer into a Masters program, but decided not to proceed with that offer unless I was willing to commit to remaining in the lab after graduation to pursue a PhD.  I was not willing to make this undertaking, so I have decided to seek entry to a Masters program at another institution.

Now, you should be aware that this previous history will raise some questions, and you should be prepared for this.  For example, if you were previously unable to succeed due to difficulties in the pandemic, what has changed?  Why should the new department think you will succeed there?  Just be up-front about your history and limitations, and explain why you think you will have greater success in the new program you are applying for.  Good luck.

Thank you for your guidance. The problem wasn't with pandemic difficulties. I was doing very well with all my responsibilities the TA and RA work and my GPA of the attended classes is also 3.80. I had positive feedback from my professors too. (I also asked one of them to write me a recommendation letter for the program I applying to ). The problem was raised with two less points in GRE. Also, I was getting fewer interested to my own lab work and more interested to the other lab work day by day and it made me realize I am going to the wrong path. And I could not risk 6 years.


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Does copying a precise, concrete definition from Wikipedia into a paper equal plagiarism?
There is a one sentence precise definition for a graph theoretical concept that I would like to copy more or less 1:1 into my paper. The only thing I change is some naming as "points" to "nodes" to fit it to the rest of the paper.
Is this assumed plagiarism? The definition is short and precise. Changing words or replacing them would prolong the definition unnecessary.
If taking the definition as it is would requiring me to reference it I would rather rewrite it and inflate it with words.
On the other hand wikipedia hasn't referenced where they have taken the definition from and they are not the first to use it. (Can say so for sure, because it has been around long before.)

Plagiarism is copying text from another source without (proper) attribution. As a quotation, you can put text from outside sources into you paper verbatim if is marked as such (see example).

"A quotation is the repetition of a sentence, phrase, or passage from speech or text that someone has said or written." Wikipedia,2021

If you slightly adjust the text, leave out the quotation marks but still reference the source:

Repeating parts of written or spoken information is considered a quotation Wikipedia,2021.

Same goes for definitions.

Does that mean, that Wikipedia has plagiarized the definition from whoever was first writing it down and so has every paper that wasn't able to determine the ultimate first source of the definition? Or is maybe not knowing the ultimate first source an excuse for saying it is not plagiarism I also thought of it and got to the same result?

@baxbear I feel like you're misunderstanding how attribution means. Let's assume the idea "originates" in source X and can be traced to it. You read source A which cites source B which cites source C... All the way back to X. It might be a good idea to cite X if you can find it but it is fine to cite A where you read it instead.
On wiki, most of the content is supposed to be original to some degree (at least, in terms of writing), rest is covered by citations. So, you're supposed to cite the wiki in your situation. Caveat: it might appear unprofessional if better sources are well-known.

Actually plagiarism is not about "copying text". It is about misattribution of ideas, no matter how stated. You can paraphrase and still plagiarize. Copyright, not plagiarism, is about "text".

You can't plagiarize common knowledge, though you can try, and the precise expression of it can't be copyrighted either. If I say that I invented general relativity, I'm a fool, but not a plagiarizer. I can copy precisely the definition of the derivative (from calculus) from a copyrighted textbook without breaking copyright law. Common knowledge is held in common. Most of what is in wikipedia is common knowledge (if only to to experts, perhaps). See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:No_original_research

@Buffy meaning when I take the definition of a UDG https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_disk_graph wikipedia provides three alternatives of which the first is the probably the most easily imaginable in the context I am interested in I don't have to reference it and I can do the same with other basic definitions as for example a formula for circles, undirected graphs, what connected means in regards of graphs and so on?

@baxbear, that all seems like common knowledge, but if you quote it literally it would be good to cite it to avoid confusing people. There might be other reasons to point to wikipedia articles for such things, even when paraphrased, to help readers get some context for your work without needing to find original sources. Note, in particular, that wikipedia itself doesn't cite any source for the definitions (but does for applications and analysis).

@Buffy  If one quotes another's writing verbatim, it's not "good to cite it;" citation is required.

@BobBrown -- citation is required if you express someone else idea, analysis, and whatnot, unless the material is considered to be common knowledge.  If something is a direct quote, that must somehow be clearly indicated as well, usually with quotation marks or a quote block.

Generally speaking, what you find in wikipedia is "Common Knowledge". Wikipedia isn't intended to contain original research or even creative ideas. It presents facts that are known and tries, in many cases, to show where the ideas came from.
What you read there is technically copyrighted, but with a broad license for reuse: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Copyrights. It is, in fact, intended for reuse.
There is actually a prohibition against posting original research there (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:No_original_research) and, when it is found, it is first marked and then removed.
Therefore, the ideas you get in wikipedia are free to use and plagiarism isn't an issue. However, if you quote from wikipedia you need to cite it. This is actually the same as quoting from any copyrighted work. You quote to indicate that the words came from elsewhere and you cite to make the source clear.
Citation, even of wikipedia, is a benefit to the reader who seeks, in most cases, not only your words, but context in which your words are developed. Wikipedia in general, especially for scientific articles, is good about providing such context.
So, I suggest that you cite wikipedia (judiciously) just as a service to readers, though a search of the scientific terms you use will probably turn up related wikipedia articles as top level hits.

Note that plagiarism is about ideas, not "text". I can plagiarize using literally none of the words in the original. It is misattribution of ideas. Copyright is about the specific expression of those ideas. It is a different concept. If I steal words from a copyrighted source, then I might break copyright, but maybe not plagiarize (common knowledge).

I'll also note that some people are confused about the definition of plagiarism and the other things that govern IP.
Unfortunately, in the context of a classroom, when an instructor sets the rules, things can get confusing, as what is called plagiarism there may not actually be that. It is used as a catch-all for lots of things that involve improper (in the class context) copying. But, I can't "plagiarize" by copying a bubble sort program, since bubble sort is common knowledge, though maybe not to students. I can certainly break the professor's rules, of course.
So, some people get the idea that plagiarism is about the words. It isn't. It is about the ideas behind the words.

The first link explicitly asks to cite the sources ("To re-distribute a text page in any form, provide credit to the authors..."). Main page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reusing_Wikipedia_content. Another relevant thing here is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Researching_with_Wikipedia, of course...


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Does a contract matter
I have been in my current teaching/research position for 4 years. I have just been informed that my contract is research only. I think technically this means I don't have to be teaching. My School and HR want to issue a new contract (which I am sure will take months/years). I would prefer to be research only. I think if there was a screw up and I was listed as teaching only, getting moved to teaching/research would be a real fight with HR. Do I put up a fight about the change? To what extent do contracts matter?
EDIT: I took the job with the expectation of doing both teaching and research. I have had a standard teaching load consistent with other new hires on teaching/research contracts. I have been under the impression that I have to teach as part of my job. The contract doesn't say anything about teaching (in fact it says little about specific job duties). This didn't strike me as odd when I signed the contract. Now on an unrelated issue I have learned that this is odd and means I do not have to teach. The university would like to modify my contract to include teaching duties (which I am already doing and am happy doing).

Please provide more details. What is your current teaching/research load. Do you have to teach? Or just when there is a need?

There seems to be a contradiction between “HR want to issue a new contract” and “getting moved to teaching/research would be a real fight with HR”. Could you clarify?

@F'x I was saying that if the mistake was the other way and I wanted to go from teaching only to teaching/research that it would be a fight.

Are you worried that there will be an error in the new contract which will enforce too much teaching on you? But I guess the new contract won't be valid until signed by you, so this should be easy to avoid...

Yes, contracts matter, as they define the legal obligations between you and your employer.  Note that it is not the contract only, but also the legal framework on which it is built (laws and decrees directly applicable to your situation). But, you have correctly identified the correct question to ask: even if the law is on your side, is it worth picking this fight? You can only answer by a careful analysis of risks and benefits. I list a few ideas below…

I have just been informed that my contract is research only.

Haven't you been handed your contract when you signed it? If not, that's a serious misconduct on their part and gives you leverage you can use.

I think technically this means I don't have to be teaching

This probably depends on the exact details of the contract, which we don't know. Read it and have it read by a lawyer, or at least a union representative or counselor.

Do I put up a fight about the change? To what extent do contracts matter?

What is missing most importantly here is your current relationship with your hierarchy (department chair, dean, whatever) and what is their position/wishes on this issue. Standing up to the bureaucrats is one thing, and while you may not get into their good graces, it can be a fight worth fighting. Standing up to your department chair can open a whole new can of worms.

When I took the job we (HR, head of school, and myself) all agreed I would do research and have a standard teaching load. The contract doesn't say I have to teach and I just found out that HR interprets this as meaning I don't have to teach. They would like to amend the contract to state I have to teach.

If I am understanding your situation correctly, when you were hired you had a certain understanding with your department and university about your duties, which included both teaching and research.  Since you don't say otherwise, it sounds like there are "standard" such duties in your department.  Also there was a standard contract, and by some strange mistake you were given and signed a different, nonstandard contract.  After four years of fulfilling your standard duties, the nonstandard contract has been brought to your attention.  Do I have all that right?
Now you are asking whether you should "put up a fight" about the fixing the mistaken contract.  If your question is a legal one, of course get a lawyer who is an expert in the specifics of your situation.
But are you really contemplating fighting against what you verbally agreed to when you took the job and the job you have been actually doing for the last four years because a contract you signed says otherwise and the difference may work out in your favor?  To me that sounds like horrible behavior.  If your bank had noticed after four years that they had mistakenly added a zero to your account balance, would you also fight the correction of the error?  Do you not have any ethical qualms about this?
As a justification you say that you wonder that if the situation were essentially reversed, correcting the oversight would be "a real fight with HR".  First of all: is this guess grounded in any kind of history with the HR department at your university?  Have they in fact been difficult with you in the past?  If not it seems like you are simply assuming bad faith.  Here's what I think would happen if you discovered your contract was all teaching and no research and tried to change it: there would be plenty of red tape, the entire process would take an order of magnitude longer than you felt that it reasonably should and would occupy too much of your time, but the final outcome would not really be in doubt due to the essential goodwill of the various parties, including people like your department chair/head who would come out on your behalf.
Aside from being ethically highly suspect, a decision to fight the change of your contract is likely to earn you the ill will of HR and other administration in your university and -- probably more importantly -- of the department chair/head and other faculty members.  You are contemplating not doing your share of the departmental work because of some technicality that you wonder whether you might be able to get away with.  To me that sounds like you are contemplating whether to reserve the right to try to screw over your colleagues at some later time.  Unless that is your actual goal, I would steer well clear of this.

I'd second the idea that one should stick to verbal agreements. The fact that many people do try to "game the system" ought not be sufficient motivation to try to do so. One should not even cheat people who'd cheat you if they had a chance. :)

You summarized it very well. Our department, like many others that I have heard of, has a history of not honoring informal non-written agreements. Our department might be worse than others in that our overhead accounts were recently reset to zero. I know people who were "promised" pre-tenure teaching releases and sabbaticals that never materialized.

I think Pete's answer gets this right. If you already informally agreed to this and it's what's standard for the job than you shouldn't fight. That said, by fixing the error without a fight you are doing them a favor (albeit a reasonable one), so you could ask for a reasonable favor in return. Again, not worth fighting over, but if there's something minor that you've been wanting fixed you could ask.

@Daniel: I'm sorry that the level of trust and goodwill in your department (and between your department and your university) is low.  I believe I still agree with Paul Garrett: it is better to take the high road.  If things deteriorate enough, then in principle it is game-theoretically correct to push back.  But you are playing a very asymmetrical version of the Prisoner's Dilemma: your department and university have much more power and opportunity to make your life unpleasant than the other way around.  If things are really that bad, it may be best to look for a different job.

Another point is how your colleagues would feel about your ducking out of teaching.  I suppose it's possible that they would admire you for sticking it to the man (so to speak), but I think it's much more likely that they'd feel you were taking advantage of them as much as any faceless administrators.  I would probably feel that way, for instance.

This sounds like a potential big screw up. If your contract says one thing and you were promise another, you should put up a fight. Certainly, put up the fight before signing anything.
Contracts matter when someone tries to get you to do something you would rather not do. If you don't want a heavy teaching loads, then your research-only contract would help you avoid that. If you don't have such a contract, then you've lost your leverage.
Informal agreements do not stand the test of time, especially if there is a contradictory written agreement (signed by you).

The odd issue is that I like what the contract says more than I like what was promised. Now they want to rewrite the contract to represent what was promised.

I agree with "This sounds like a potential big screw up. If your contract says one thing and you were promise another, you should put up a fight. Certainly, put up the fight before signing anything."  It never works out when you don't put up a fight.  At the end of the day, whoever said that they need to give you a new contract, is correct.


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Does doing an undergraduate semester exchange abroad improve chances of getting into top universities?
I am a math undergraduate student from India, from one of the IITs. I have an opportunity to go for a semester exchange at some Universities in Germany, France and Switzerland, for a single semester. I am interested in pursuing further studies in pure mathematics at a top university abroad. I wanted to ask how much would a semester at an excellent university help me in getting into the masters or Phd program of the same University, or for that matter even other top universities.
How much of an impact would a semester at an excellent university have on the chances of acceptance for masters and Phd programs at top universities?
Edit: Recent development and further information
I have been accepted as an exchange student at EPFL.(The question still remains)
Some background as to why I am asking the question - While the University is not taking any semester fees, the cost involved is significantly high, and would stretch my finances quite a bit. I want to evaluate what I would get out of, what would be a very significant monetary investment for me. Basically "Is it worth it?".

It depends on what you do with the opportunity. If you just take classes, the effect will likely be negligible.

@JeffE Do you have some suggestions as to how I can make good use of this opportunity?

I would guess that it would if you take courses that you've never taken before and achieve significant results. For example if you go to ETH Zurich or Paris 6 or Bonn University and you are on top of the class. You can also ask for a reccomendation by the professor, especially if you plan on returning there for graduate studies.

As JeffE says: It does not really matter whether you went somewhere and where did you go; it matters much more what have you done there. In general, having an Erasmus (or similar) semester abroad is not seen much as an advantage. Having a semester abroad accompanied by a publication with a professor there -- that's a different story, because it shows that you went there and really got some experience there.
However, if you spend the semester at a university at which you later apply for studies (which seems to be your case), you can get something from solely being there: the contacts and the knowledge of the environment. For instance: There are many PhD positions funded by various projects rather than by some general scholarships. It's mostly the project leaders who decide who gets the funding, and knowing them in person etc. can help. Still, you need to do more than just sit there at the lectures for 15 weeks.

A further development that has taken place in relation the question is that I received an acceptance letter for a semester exchange at EPFL just a few hours ago. My hope is that I would be able to do a semester long research project under a professor whose work I am interested in, preferably as part of the curriculum itself(though I still need to confirm whether such a thing is possible or not). Can you give me some suggestions as to what I can do to make the most of the opportunity?

Well, I'm not a pure mathematician, so I can't really help you. Even if I could, I wouldn't be so bold to say that a university is or is not excellent. I'm not sure how to approach it. Certainly you can try and write to one of the good people there something like: "I'll spend one semester at your university and I'm interested in topics X & Y. I would like to make my stay valuable and do some research while I am in Lausanne. I would like to ask you whether you know of somebody whom I could work with." Of course, take a good care to write it politely, but showing a true interest.

I wouldn't say directly that you only want to work under his supervision, because he might be busy and simply refuse you. This way, he can give you another ideas. Usually, all the people around a top professor are worth working with, so don't be afraid to accept supervision of someone else. As well, if any member of your school that you know had any contacts there, it would be a perfect starting point.


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What should someone do if he/she found a very similar published paper to his/her thesis work?
Assume while someone writing his/her master's thesis, he/she found that there was a very similar paper to his work (90% similarities) 3-5 years ago? Does that make a problem and how to tell your advisor about this?

This is a good thing, since it shows that the ideas you pursued were good ones (assuming that the work you found is a good one). 2. This happens in a lot of cases (my guess would be even in the majority of cases).

@Dirk This is the most positive thing I heard for a month. Thanks!

For a master's thesis it is not a problem, very few master's thesis work are original work

You have to tell your advisor and as soon as possible (like now), but the crucial point may be the age of the other paper and, if things have moved on sufficiently in the meantime then you may be able to continue with little or few changes.
This will be where your advisor will know what to do.

There is no question about how to tell your advisor. Just do it. He or she will help you decide what to do. If the work is independent and the other paper is obscure enough you might have no problem with your degree, but might not be able to publish this work as is.
Not to tell your advisor would be a serious breach.
However, if it is work that you should have known about (literature search, etc), then you may be unable to use it at all and have to revise your research plan. An extension of the work might be one option.
At the doctoral level the answer would be a bit different, leaning more toward abandonment of the work, but, depending on your advisor and any committee involved, you may be ok.
I'll note here as I have other places, that parallel work (and overlapping work) is very common, especially in fields with a lot of research activity. Your advisor will know about this, I'm sure.
The age of the other work is a bit of a problem, of course, but it can reasonably happen this way in certain cases.

Wouldn't you be able to just spin it as research intended to replicate or falsify the findings of the original paper? Falsifiability and replicability are a big parts of what make science work, right?

@nick012000 Well, anytime you use the word "spin" you are already in trouble, but I take your meaning. I doubt that would make for a good MS thesis, I'm afraid, unless that was part of your study and you started out to do that. The problem is that in some fields (math) you don't do that at all, and in others (bio), if the methodology is the same (hence a replication) then you can't say you developed the methodology even if you did.  You have to use the same methodology (basically) in a replicated study. Much of the value of a thesis is specifically in developing the methodology.

Breathe very, very deeply.
It's very easy to succumb to panic when something like this happens. However, panic is not a reaction that will help you respond appropriately to this situation. You need to be able to see the newly-found work from a calm and neutral stance to really evaluate which elements of your work are already present in the literature, which elements are untouched, and which elements are present in the newly-found work but can be improved upon with your work.
None of that is easy, but none of that is really doable from an anguished emotional standpoint, so: breathe, take it easy, put it to one side, and go to bed and sleep on it. After which, though:
Take this to your advisor ASAP.
Your advisor is there to help you solve problems in your research. This most definitely rates as a problem, and you need someone with experience to help you deal with the response. (As others have pointed out, it would almost certainly be unethical to withhold this information from your supervisor, but more importantly: it would be stupid to deny yourself your greatest source of help in dealing with the problem.)
Depending on the circumstances, it can indeed be the case that you are at fault for negligence in carrying out your initial literature review. (And that assumes that the newly-found paper really is that close to your research; as above, though, a calmer examination will often show a much larger distance.) However, it can also be the case that it was simply a hard problem to find the right literature in the first place.
As an example, it's a reasonably general principle that it is often extremely hard to find the solutions to problem X in the literature until you've actually solved the problem yourself, because having the solution in hand, and being able to examine the key methods, ideas and structures that make it work, opens up a whole new field of keywords to search for, and this can lead to finding literature that uses those things to solve a minor variant X' of your problem that you didn't (couldn't?) think to search for. If this was the case, then it's a Standard Hard Thing About Academia, and you should count yourself lucky that you encountered it at a master's level where the consequences are not that catastrophic.
However, telling which of those cases your problem falls into is not something that any of us can tell you, and it is not something that you should attempt on your own without telling your advisor. When you meet him/her, you should explain in depth which aspects of your research you think are reported in the newly-found paper, as well as how you came to find it, and why you think you missed it on your initial searches.
As to how to tell your advisor, I would advise you to send them an email ASAP, saying that you need to meet with them in person as soon as possible because you found a previous publication that includes some aspects of your work, and include a copy or reference to the work. Your advisor will be able to offer much more helpful advise if they've had time to see and digest the new work before you meet with them in person.


text:
How would you ask your professor to be your supervisor?
I am currently a graduate student. I've completed all the exams and I am currently looking for a supervisor for my master's dissertation. Few months ago I surveyed the professor I would like to have as my supervisor. However, he told me that probably he would have not been able to be my supervisor if I decided to graduate in July 2020 (as I intend to do), because he will probably be out of the country on the anticipated graduation date. He said that it is a moral duty for a supervisor to be there on the graduation date. Now, I really enjoyed his lectures, I consider him the best professor I have ever had and I think he is really skilled on the topic I am planning to discuss. Accordingly I would be willing to accept the risk that he will not be able to be there on the graduation date. How could I ask him to be my supervisor?

You ask not persuade and nicely

you are right, but I used that word, as he does not seem willing to accept.

If he is not willing to accept, that's the way it is. The fact that he highlights a moral duty is a good sign as concerns his character. If you are happy for him to be absent at graduation or using remote supervision, you could have said that from your point. However, you already asked and already got a response. If you ask again, you risk him getting annoyed. He might be wary of taking on a student that is not prepared to take a no for an answer. Are you prepared to move your graduation? If you propose this, he might be swayed, as he sees how important it is for you. But he still may not be.

It seems an odd preference on his part (from a US perspective). Is this a cultural thing where you are?

It seems an odd preference on his part (from a US perspective). --- Indeed, even I was not present at my Bachelor's graduation or my Masters graduation or my Doctoral graduation.

Yes, I am from Europe and it is pretty much a cultural thing here. However, he obtained both his master and Phd in the USA (Ivy league university). Do you think I should give the last try before moving on?

Yes. Do it. Do it soon.

To make the answer formal, yes, you should ask him. This is best done in person, and one of the best approaches is just what you say here about his skill and your common interest in a topic. Let him know that you think he is the best person around to do this, and you won't have a problem, yourself, if he can't be at the graduation.
What you need is his signature, I assume, and not his physical presence to approve your completion.
He might say no, but if you don't ask, the answer is certainly no.
Good luck.


text:
Why are most article pdfs not self-reproducable?
Context
In light of the perishability of external resources as illustrated here: https://xkcd.com/1909/ I was wondering if it is desirable to ensure a single PDF, including its research code, can be replicated as stand-alone.
This question pertains to articles produced with latex that use code as part of their research. Often, this code is hosted in an external repository, which is convenient but might some day stop being accessible.
Sometimes, the code used in the research is included in the appendices of the article PDF, which would make it available as long as the PDF exists. However, that still requires a scientists that wants to reproduce the results and/or enhance the work that is presented, to manually copy-paste the code and form it into some sort of runnable format (e.g. with line endings etc). This could be made easier in the following way (among undoubtedly many others):
One could include the code and data in the pdf, write a separate reproducibility appendix that contains a small code that scans the PDF to reproduce the research (and the report).
However, I have never found an article that has that level of reproducibility. Furthermore, I would expect this could save quite a bit of time of people reproducing the work of others, as it is made easier.
Example
Suppose someone published an article that describes how a certain type of pancakes can be baked. To illustrate the method, a code simulating pancake baking is written, and the particular pancake baking datafile (4 kb) is created to simulate that particular pancake baking. The results of the simulation are plotted in the report. The code is published in somerepositoryhost.com/somerepository
Fast forward 10 years, the original author died, the repository is not longer hosted, and the particular pancake baking datafile is not available anymore. Yet, person V wants to verify whether the that particular pancake could indeed be baked according to the presented method. Now person V should be able to reproduce the code and accordingly the results presented in the paper based on the method section. However, that requires more work than having to run a single command that does that for person V (as long as person V posesses hardware that can still run that code).
By lowering the amount of work that is required to reproduce the results, one could make it easier to verify the articles, and to build upon them.
Question
Why is this level of reproducibility not a standard in the fields and/or latex-compiled articles that do not rely on either large external input datasets or custom computing platforms?
Note
This is not to suggest that this would be the best, or even a perfect way to guarantee reproducibility of scientific articles that rely on code, it is merely an approach that could be used to increase the speed of reproducibility and the ease of building upon such work when externally referenced code- and/or data resources have decayed.

Am confused, if you already had the PDF, why do you need to be able to replicate itself? (wrt to maintainability)

You seem to be assuming that the pdf has been built from LaTeX. Even then you beg the question: reproducing the pdf depends on a LaTeX compiler that still works on the source. Moreover, there are other ways to produce pdfs - from Word, or knitr, or using some publisher's more or less proprietary software. (Right now, arXiv calls for TeX source.) I don't really see the value of the question - see @AzorAhai-him- 's comment.

To Ethan's comment - I don't think I've seen a single paper prepared in LaTeX in my field.

what kind of reproducibility are you looking for? Are you afraid that in 20 years no then modern computer can read pdfs and just want to make it easier to reproduce the text in some other future format or do you want to include the code and data into the document itself so reproduction of the research (rather than the document) is easier?

Because if we make self-reproducing articles, they may actually start spontaneously self-reproducing and soon the world will be overrun with pdfs...

Are you asking if there is a PDF decompiler? Something that will reproduce the source from which the PDF was made?

@AzorAhai-him- Thank you, to quickly reproduce the results and or enhance the work presented, it could be desirable to ensure the PDF can replicate itself (if for example the externally referenced repository is not longer accessible) (and/or datasets have gone missing over time). I  also included the explicit assumption of latex compiled reports that rely on code to generate their results.

@a.t. I'm not sure I follow.

@MaartenBuis I indeed meant to include the code and data into the document itself so reproduction of the research can be done automatically.

I think the premise of the question is based on a misunderstanding... That is, there is no "absolute" or "universal" computer format. Even ASCII formerly competed with EDBIC (or whatever)... Unicode may not last 1000 years. Etc. PDF has been a stable standard for longer than many.

Probably the best answer is with another XKCD:
https://xkcd.com/927/
PDFs are a document standard right now. Their ubiquity makes their content more likely to be reliably accessible in the future, because there will be a lot of value in maintaining methods to access or convert them in some imagined future. This applies to data storage methods, too: if you're trying to read data from something like a CD, that's still fairly easy to do today although becoming more difficult as it becomes less common for new computers to come with CD/DVD readers. However, it's much harder to access data from a similar era that came on one of the other lesser used standards like the Zip drive and similar. If you don't have the special hardware from that era you're in trouble. You can create a new standard, but in that case it's just that: a new standard.
If you added your imagined code, who's going to maintain it? Who says this won't break in the future? Why is it more likely to continue working when methods to read the PDF itself (which are much more ubiquitous) are broken?
In any event, when we talk about research being difficult to reproduce, we're referring to the methodology being insufficiently specified or the results depending too much on the experimental conditions for an independent replication. It is not about the actual documents being inaccessible or unable to be copied. This is a separate problem which some people do experience depending on their field, especially when there are relevant reports from the pre-digital era. Many journals have made efforts to digitize their older publications and reduce this issue; for what remains, librarians are professionals who can help.

Oh is that why people call thumb drives "zip drives"??

@AzorAhai-him- Haha that's quite possible, I can't say I personally saw the transformation though. I remember encountering them early on and then later finding them in another context where they had fallen out of use and was amazed that these things had actually taken off someplace.

Zip drives? Those are new-fangled things. How about Bernoulli drives? (And, yes, I've thrown away my old piles of both Zip and Bernoulli disks.)