text:
Worries because I'm slow in understanding course materials and my mind goes blank in exams
I am undergraduate in Computer Science and my problem is that i don't quite understand what's wrong with me

When I am taking a course I am able to understand it but at much slower rate then other students which results in me taking 2 or 3 courses instead of 5 or 6 that i should be taking, also I have to go in deep details for every subject to be able to understand it and this is very time consuming because it requires alot of research.
I have also noticed that my fellow students are able to read much quicker and to understand what the Author is telling them, while I often need much longer just to read the page plus I have to read it couple of times to actually understand the Author and i often get it wrong (I often get wrong what the Author actually means i.e I often interpret it the wrong way) and I am like slower at everything writing, walking, thinking, solving
And the most devastating part is that after the exams I forget everything literally everything as if I never learned it, this is very demotivating especially knowing that in order to get my degree i have to demonstrate my knowledge from the past too.

Am I mentally retarded or just stupid (like IQ bellow 80 or something) has anyone had similar experience ?
Even if I make it will I have any chance in the workforce?

I'll suggest that you just have poor skills for learning and need to up your game. You are unlikely to learn much just from reading. It is too passive and doesn't provide the appropriate mental reinforcement that lets you learn deeply. Look into active learning.

@Buffy thats also the sad part everything I learn I immidiatly search for extra assignments in hope to not forget the concepts f.e in programming I will search for extra assignments besides the one that the Professor has given us but as soon as it gets complicated with alot of details I simply forget it

Have you been screened for learning disabilities? Have you looked into alternate study habits? If there is a problem, it's usually one or the other. But unfortunately, we will not be able to diagnose the problem or offer a prognosis here.

@cag51 yes I am currently under screening process, I wanted to see if anyone has had similar difficulties since it is hard for me to talk about it unanonymously

are terms like 'smart' or 'IQ' really scientific though? see NNT aka Nero, Dweck and salman khan

No. You are definitely not retarded.
You mention that you spend a considerable amount of time going into deep research on every subject. Indeed one of the skills you develop (or should strive to develop) during the course of your studies is to adopt a more pragmatic approach and understand when do you need to understand every detail and when do you need to only understand things at a high level. I had a similar experience to yours so I know that this might sound to you like cheating/impostering, but the reality is that with the sometimes overwhelming load that you are faced with during your studies (and will keep facing in your future academic or professional life) you routinely need to evaluate if the gain in your overall performance from this additional rigorousness will indeed justify the amount of time you will invest in it, often at the expanse of other tasks.
Two things that helped me personally to control this tendency are:

Studying with other students. This can help give you some feedback on whether it is indeed vital to go into that level of detail on that particular task.
Deciding in advance how much time I'm going to dedicate to a specific task. This is indeed challenging and might also be stressful at times, but knowing you have this time constraint can help you to prioritize what are the most vital elements of each task.

Another equally important point: from your description it sounds possible that you might have ADHD or some other learning disability. I recommend that you will approach the unit in your university in charge of supporting students with learning disabilities. They will be able to advise you how to optimize your learning process and help you get additional assistance that you may be entitled for.
Last but not least, have faith in yourself! the fact that you are taking such a challenging program and are studying diligently and the very fact that you asked this question shows that you are capable!

Dont feel like you cant make it in the workforce, as long as you improve, even slowly, you should be able to build your skill set and prove your worth in any field.
I often overwhelmed myself with 7 or 8 courses per semester but had to drop many (due to gaming.)  That being said, slow reading and re reading, along with forgetting things after tests are something Ive experienced since I was extremely young.
That being said, I have been tested by the international High IQ society and scored a 143 when I was 12.  I managed to finish my physics degree and I managed to teach myself programming after college (I majored in physics and was a teacher for 2 years but unhappy when I wasnt learning) in under 6 months and get a job in industry. I tend to learn faster and retain only things I find interesting, and not things Im simply TOLD I will need or to remember.
Everyone is different, but you may have ADHD like I do.  It makes focusing and remembering difficult.  This is why I often have to re read over and over and over. It also contributes to how often I forget things. It is a daily issue that I spend up to 20 minutes looking for my keys and wallet before work, and I often get hungry, make food and forget it in the microwave when I begin some other random task. If these sound familiar maybe consider a doctors appointment and a discussion. I am unmedicated (had medicine from age 5 to 18 but now cant remember to go to the doctor or schedule things so I've fallen off that habit year ago)

It makes focusing and remembering difficult. This is why I often have to re read over and over and over. It also contributes to how often I forget things. It is a daily issue that I spend up to 20 minutes looking for my keys and wallet before work, and I often get hungry, make food and forget it in the microwave when I begin some other random task. omg this sound very familiar, did the medication help that you took from age 5 to 18?

My parents and teachers said it made me seem more calm.  That being said, I still feel very capable without it.  I feel like my mind wanders more but also functions faster  I wont at all play doctor tho, my experience may not match yours and I would recommend speaking with one. If you are going to try medication, while in school or especially during summer when you (likely) have off is way better than trying something like that when you have a full time job or more responsibilities (Not that school isnt a responsibility).  Keep learning and researching and keep building yourself. Youll be fine


text:
arXiv article says that code has been made available with the article, but I cannot find it
I'm reading an article on published a few years ago (https://arxiv.org/abs/1708.08130). It says in the article (p.4 at the bottom) that a Mathematica code was made available "as an auxiliary file associated with the preprint of the paper on arXiv" to reproduce the plots they show there, but I cannot seem to recover it on arXiv (there is no code available under the corresponding tab). Am I missing something? Is it common for this kind of code to be 'unshared' after a while? Is there still another way to find it besides directly contacting the author?
Thanks in advance!

The "Code" tab is a relatively new addition to arXiv I believe, and may not have been there yet when the preprint was submitted. However, you can click on "Other formats" under "Downloads" in the menu on the right, and download the source. The package contains a .nb file, which I suppose is the notebook you are looking for.

Thanks! What app did you use to open the file? I seem to be having some trouble with the specific file type.

There is some info here: https://arxiv.org/help/unpack. On a Mac I used the tar command on the command line. I'm assuming there are tools for windows that can unpack .tar or .tar.gz files.

Under Windows, 7-Zip would be a tool that can deal with .tar and .tar.gz.

I figured it out, thanks!

@ThomasBakx gentle reminder to accept the answer!

My apologies. Just did!

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
To what extent should relevant background be discussed vs. just referenced?
Is is perfectly appropriate to refer reviewers to other papers for understanding a concept or writer must include the concept in his paper too?
What should be done while keeping brevity, plagiarism and complexity of idea in mind?

Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean. Which reviewers? Papers sometimes include a Background section that cites some foundational papers. Or Related Information.

Plagiarism should entirely be taken out of the equation here. Paraphrasing and appropriately referencing other people's work are standard tools for every researcher.

How do other papers in your research area do it?

It depends.

What do your readers need to know to appreciate the main result of your paper? If your paper builds on the ideas of others, these ideas must be stated (included explicitly) and accompanied by a citation. If you simply note in passing that there are other relevant ideas, reference may be enough. Having said that, as a reviewer, I will question and discourage an excessively long list of references [1-22]. Authors should do their work to identify and tell the reader what they can find in each paper separately, not dump the whole reading list on them.
How long is your paper? If you are writing a 100+ page manuscript, then brevity is not as important as if you were restricted to 1 or 2 pages for your extended abstract.
Whom are you writing for? If this is a highly specialised journal, you can expect your readers to already know some sacred texts by heart, and a reference is sufficient. For a more general readership, you need to support your reader and tell them more , i.e. explain the main ideas and then refer to the texts.

Point 3 is the key one: Before you start writing, you should think about and define who your audience is. That includes thinking about what they will know and what you have to explain.

the readers of my domain already know some basic key points that keep repeating in almost every research paper. My problem is: I got an idea form a paper of another domain and I have implemented in my research field. To whom I am writing for, may not know that idea. So should I refer them to a specific research paper for learning basics and advanced ideas or should I have to include them in my paper. If I add them in my paper, it seems useless and I can't explain in detail as original author did. But I don't want reviewer to convey that I superficially know the idea.

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


text:
Is it unethical to expect one's PhD students to work after graduation without compensation? Should graduates ask for compensation for work?
My thesis advisor expects me to 1) write the paper rebuttal and 2) finish any remaining experiments by coming in on the weekends, for free. I am now working full-time in industry, and no longer being paid by him. Is this ethical?
Part 2 of my question:
I would be happy to do this if it had been my fault that we didn't submit my paper until the week I graduated. However, my history with this advisor has been:

1 year before Jan graduation date: We agreed that in 1 year I could graduate given the finishing of certain key experiments. He also insisted that I be here for the rebuttal of the paper after its been submitted.
During this year, we agreed that I was on track for this.
3 months before Jan graduation date: I brought up my Jan graduation again, and he protested saying it would take longer than I thought to write, submit, and wait for revisions to come back (different than being on track like we had agreed I was!)
I of course was dissapointed that he didn't tell me this sooner, that I wasn't on track. I relented to a compromise where I graduate in March instead of Jan.
Dec: All of the key experiments had been completed and I insisted on submitting in Jan or by the end of jan so that I could still be here for the rebuttal (3 months to write, submit, and get reviews back). He agreed that would be enough time.
Jan: He now wanted me to do several more, additional experiments for the paper. I tried, but the experiments were not going well. I kept trying to mention that the paper needed to be submitted. He relented, and we ended up submitting at the end of March.

Now, he doesnt even have the time to give me feedback on a draft of the rebuttal until after I put everything together (meaning I may be wasting my time on things that he will ultimately throw out or veto)
Therefore, I feel he has fanagled things so that he can get the most value out of me without regard for me as a person, and that includes this new period of being asked to do work with no mention of pay. Is this unethical and should I ask him to pay me for my work on the rebuttal?

What are the consequences if you just refuse to do anything else?

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat. Please read this FAQ before posting another comment.

You are thinking about this like an industry employee (which you are, so that's a reasonable stance).
Your advisor is thinking about this like an academic (which they are, so that's a reasonable stance).
Some perspectives:
Academic work is personal work and community work
You don't work for someone in academia as much as you work with someone. It seems like you are feeling a lot of conflict with your advisor right now, but I'd step back a bit and think about whose research this is. Certainly at some level your work benefits your advisor, but isn't it your own work, too? Do you not want to see your results published?
Is your advisor making decisions about suggesting further experiments that pushed your timeline beyond what you hoped because they are getting free work out of you, or are these steps to make the paper better and importantly to make it publishable (see below)?
In academia, it is normal to work on projects from a previous position; in industry it is not
Almost every academic will, at any time they move positions (including graduating as an undergraduate/graduate student, between temporary positions like post docs, and when getting hired as a professor and any moves afterwards) have some unfinished business at their previous place of work.
It's not reasonable to expect every research project to fall neatly into the academic calendar, conveniently finishing right at the conclusion, especially given the unplanned timelines surrounding peer review. Therefore, people tend to spend part of their time in their new position finishing up things from their past one, while being paid only by the new institution.
This gets "paid forward" in the future when the same happens during the next transition. A frequently asked question here at Academia.SE is some version of "which institution/affiliation should I list on this paper, new or old?" because of how often this happens.
Unpublished work is worthless to you and the academic community
Maybe your work is in a thesis in some draft form already, but all of the work you've done that isn't published is doing nothing for you or for academia. Maybe you're fine with that, because you aren't an academic anymore, but ultimately whatever funding agency funded your research and the university you worked for did so because they wanted you to produce published results, not just to give you the PhD title. If you think there is value in the work you've done, then that should be an incentive to get it into a form that can be shared.
On the other hand, you may decide that publishing is not actually of any benefit to you. If you don't feel intrinsic worth in the project, and if you don't plan any return to academia, then probably one more published paper won't mean anything tangible for your CV.
Given these differing perspectives...
I don't think there is any fixed answer. Should you do work for a past advisor without compensation? No. Should you collaborate with people you've worked with in the past to share your research with the broader academic community? Probably yes.
Ultimately it's up to you to define where those boundaries are. Personally, I would think it to be irresponsible to fail to follow up on basic authorship duties like responding to reviewer comments, editing manuscripts for submission, etc. These activities shouldn't replace paid employment, but they can be completed in a few free hours during a transition period. Coming in on several weekends to run experiments sounds like a bit much - maybe there is a compromise solution where you can train a new student to run those experiments, add them as a coauthor to the paper, and continue helping with the manuscript(s)?

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.

My thesis advisor expects me to 1) write the paper rebuttal and 2) finish any remaining experiments by coming in on the weekends, for free. I am now working full-time in industry, and no longer being paid by him. Is this ethical?

Generally, it's OK to have unrealistic expectations, and it's also OK to say no to unreasonable expectations. An ethical issue might arise if there's a power imbalance, and you would face repercussions from disappointing his expectations. Therefore, the ethical assessment of the situation mostly depends on the power balance between you and your advisor:

A particularly problematic situation would be if he still has the option to defer your graduation in some way, for example, if the PhD defense was still in the future. In this case, his expectation would be a power abuse (even more so if he hinted at the possibility of deferring your graduation).
A particularly unproblematic situation would be if your graduation is complete and you have made clear to him that you don't plan to ever come back to academia. In this case, there is no power abuse, as he doesn't have any leverage.
If he doesn't have any immediate leverage now, but might have some in the future (e.g. if you return to academia and need his recommendation letter), his expectation is a bit problematic.

should I ask him to pay me for my work on the rebuttal?

That would surely be okay, but be aware that this would transform your relationship into a business relationship. If you plan to approach him in the future for non-business issues (like writing a recommendation letter), there might be some consequences for that.

I think one thing that is missing from this conversation is whether the supervisor is able to pay or not. As much as I hate it when students that have worked for me continue to work on a paper after they run out of funding, there it is often that or no paper.
I have never had money lying around in the lab to choose to hire someone at will. Any staff money I have will be tied to a grant and anyone paid that money will be expected to work on that grant - not (or not only) whatever project is remaining from their last grant. I mean, I currently have piles of cash for experimental materials sitting around that I can't spend because the university is closed down, and researchers about to run out of funding. But I'm not allowed to spend the spare experimental money to cover the researchers, because thats not how grant money works (not in the UK at least).
Secondly, if I do have money, are you the most deserving of it? While I might think your project is the most interesting, or the one that would be most beneficial for my career even, am I going to give the money to someone who has secured a position somewhere else, and is being paid, or to someone who hasn't submitted their thesis, or hasn't secured a job? I'd feel a whole lot worst asking someone who has no current income to do work (even if that work is primarily to benefit them) than someone who has paid employment.
In the end,  is unetheical to demand someone do something unpaid? Yes. But is it unethical to say "If this paper is to be published, then x, y and z need doing and you are the only person who can do it, and I'd really like this to be published"? No. Suboptimal, but not neccessarily unethical. Being paid may not be an option so it may be: do the experiments, publish the work, or don't and don't publish the work. Or accept another author on the authorship list (in addition) who will do the experiments.

I'll answer the second question first

My thesis advisor expects me to ... finish any remaining experiments by coming in on the weekends, for free. I am now working full-time in industry, and no longer being paid by him. Is this ethical?

Yes, this is obviously unethical and you should not do it. If he wanted an hour for you to show someone else how to do something, I'd consider it as a favor but running entire experiments is not cool.
As for your first question:

My thesis advisor expects me to ... write the paper rebuttal ... for free.

If you are in a similar field in industry, I think it would generally be expected to follow up on papers in submission as an active scientist. You can of course say no, but realize that means the paper probably won't happen. A paper rebuttal isn't quite the same as being asked to write a whole  paper.
Regarding your comments, ethically, he cannot remove you as an author without your consent. The journal would want to see your permission before the author list being changed. Unfortunately, there's not much you can do against a bad actor who retracts, and resubmits somewhere else without your name.

Hard for me to see it as unethical. Working on a paper of which you are an author isn't "working for someone else." It is working for yourself.

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat. Leaving this one as representative of the discussion.

I am tempted to downvote just for the word "obviously" here. Nothing about this is obvious, it's in fact a supremely murky subject.

This person is no longer your thesis advisor. He or she is now at most a collaborator, and this observation should be your starting point.
In addition, compensation is not only in the form of money: there could be compensation in terms of promotion or future career to you if you complete this work.

It's a bit more tricky than that: Even though the thesis is completed, he will forever be her thesis advisor, which has some implications in academia. If OP plans to return to academia, his recommendation letter might be important.

@lighthousekeeper yes that's part of the "not-monetary" compensation.

What is ethical or not ethical is subjective.
What is legal or not legal is less subjective.
First, have you checked whether or not the contract to which you and your present employer in industry are legally bound, allows you to do outside work for free or for compensation?
Many (or most) full-time jobs do not allow you to work for others in return for money.
Some (or many) full-time jobs do not allow you to work for others even if its for free.
Here is the first paragraph, of the first article, on the first page, of my post-doc contract from a few years ago:

The situation is often much worse in industry, which can be a good thing and a bad thing:

If you want to get paid and your contract says you cannot do any other paid work, then perhaps this is a bad thing for you,
But here's the silver lining: the contract in my screenshot wouldn't allow me to do free work for someone else either, as I was "expected to devote the whole of my attention to the duties in my paid workplace". For me this came in as a handy excuse when I got asked to do things that I didn't want to do (but I understand it might not help you as much here).

Now let me try to answer your two questions, and give you some advice:

"Is it unethical to expect one's PhD students to work after graduation
  without compensation?"

As you may have noticed, different people have different opinions here. You may also be seeing more material here from the people saying it's unethical, since the people that think it's ethical are afraid to speak up. Or maybe they're not "afraid" to speak up, but they are reluctant to, because, for example, comments like these that get 18 upvotes:

I am not saying it's ethical, or not ethical, but I would advise you to take people's subjective opinions on this with a grain of salt, because it is not going to help you find a happy ending to this situation.
I really want you to walk out of this happy, so I hope that you consider taking my next piece of advice, which is to spend less energy thinking about whether or not its ethical, and to think about what you can do about the situation if in your mind it is unethical. The fact that you consider it to be unethical, is important enough for me. So he is "unethical", what shall we do? This is what I suggest (after you've checked your contract with the current employer and assuming you're not restricted):

Carefully read the brilliant answer of Bryan Krause. Consider doing the "work" not for money but for the reasons Bryan gave.
If you still don't want to, consider walking away from this without authorship (your PhD will surely be available online and citeable on Google Scholar, and you are a solo author on it).
If you don't want to sacrifice authorship on the paper and you want money for doing the work---- it's not really "work" ---- If you want money for the effort your more senior and more experienced adviser feels is needed for this paper to get published, you can try to ask him, then:
Read Ian Sudbury's answer to help manage your expectations.
If you still want to get paid, after a genuine kind-hearted professor like Ian, who comes here to give advice for free all the time, has spelled out the "professor perspective", you can consider to very gently and un-aggressively ask to get paid for the work. You will not likely be paid much, and you are likely to burn a bridge, something that you have said you do not want to do.
If you have reached all the way here, and find that you won't get paid, yet you want this paper to be published, we enter the legal and semi-legal realm:

Are there any laws, or rules, to which he is bound, obligating one co-author to pay another co-author for the effort they put into getting a paper published? Should you have to pay him for the work he's doing to help you publish this after he's already finished his duty to supervise you until degree completion (I agree this might not apply here, but it's interesting to at least think about)?
He is bound to the rules of the university, but universities will almost never side with you in situations like this, nor will they enforce their own rules if its not convenient for them to.
For the paper to get published, he is bound to the rules of the journal, but journals also may not enforce their own rules if its not convenient for them to, and the last sentence of Azor Ahai's answer sums up what will probably happen here.
So, since powerful organizations like universities and journals often have no concept of ethics, you may have to consider a legal perspective. I live in Ontario, Canada and we have small-claims courts, municipal courts, provincial courts, federal courts, and maybe 100 tribunals such as the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (covering the Employment Standards Act) and the Labour Arbitrations Tribunals, among others. I'm listing these in case the place where you live might have analogous courts/tribunals. Some of these will have jurisdiction over different legislation than others, and some will adhere to different instances of case law (previous decisions that count in some but not all courts/tribunals). I wish I could help you further with this, but by far a better place is here.

Should graduates ask for compensation for work?

There is nothing you should or should not do, and human behavior is far too vast for us to accurately predict what will happen if you ask, so I am going to take a conservative approach and say that in general, you are better off not asking for compensation in academia. It is given to you without question, in the instances when it is absolutely necessary (for example if your country requires all PhD students to have a stipend), and otherwise it is given only by the more generous half of the academic population.

Finally, I do want to apologize that this is happening to you. I empathize with you and sympathize with you. I will reveal that my (subjective) opinion is that your supervisor may have been unethical. A perspective I hope you do not miss, is that of Buffy. Their comments are being shut down, but there is actually a lot of truth to them. However, while Buffy is right that you should "count your blessings" such as the fact that this supervisor at least allowed you to get your PhD rather than using it as a dangling carrot to get you to do years of more work (I've seen it happen), a perspective I haven't seen here yet is that he allowed you to finish your PhD faster so that he would not be obliged to pay you for the work he knew he was going to later almost force you to do.
The world is not just, and you and me can continue trying to make it better, but for now, at least let me say: Congratulations on finishing your PhD and immediately getting your job in industry!!! It is rare, and you are amazing.

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.

It is not ethical to ask someone to work for free. Even accepting to work for free is ethically questionable, because other potential employees are also affected. It is very difficult to compete with someone who works for free, even on the quality of the work.
That said, this does not mean a request for compensation is advisable. In all likelihood, your request will not go down well and be denied. Moreover, it may not even be allowed under your current employment contract.
You don't mention whether you are employed as a researcher. If you are, then collaborating with your former adviser is simply part of your job - and you should arrange with your employer to do so during regular work times. You can motivate this to your employer on personal development grounds, but it is more likely to be successful if there is also a benefit to your employer.
If research is not part of your current job, you'll need to decide whether finishing this project is of any use to your career path - and whether it's worth spending your personal time on. That's not work, that's a hobby. If you're going down this route, you should clarify this with your former adviser in order to manage their expectations.
A final note to relate this answer to some of the others: don't be fooled by the notion that university professors work for free. University professors don't work for free, they are highly paid professionals who make money to do teaching and research. Collaborating with other academics on research projects is simply a part of their job. In general, professional researchers are not working for free when they are collaborating on research projects.
EDIT: Changed 'academics never work for free' to 'university professors don't work for free'. Turns out academic is an identity and not a profession, so of course some academics do work for free, and are damn proud of it! Three cheers for the independently wealthy! Make academia elitist again!

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.

The truth is that most individual pieces of research are done "for free", in the sense that there really aren't any immediate consequences if that particular piece doesn't get done.  Most professors would probably still keep their job and get paid pretty much the same if they published half as many papers as they actually do.  The same is true for graduate students and postdocs in terms of their current job, though if they want future academic jobs they'll need papers.
In this case, if you did the work, you would publish a paper.  If you didn't do the work, either there is no paper, or maybe your advisor, if they thought the research was important, would try to write up the research without you and publish it themselves.  (I think it's reasonable to say that, if you abandon the work, you give up authorship rights.)  If you don't care about the research and the authorship on a paper, there is no reason for you to work on it.  But, in that case, I don't really understand why you bothered to finish your PhD in the first place.  Why didn't you get a full time job and quit your PhD two years ago?

I think it's reasonable to say that, if you abandon the work, you give up authorship rights. Hmm, no I wouldn't agree, at least in my field (actually went through that recently), without explicit permission. If they were an author before, nothing should change, unless the new experiments (done without OP) so drastically change the scope of the experiment a whole new paper is written.

@AzorAhai: It certainly does depend on when abandonment happens.  I'm in a field where there are no experiments and writing the paper is a substantial part of the work.

This doesn't answer the question.

wrt. abandoning work: Not putting in more work for free doesn't undo any intellectual contributions done so far, so OP will need to be coauthor wherever their intellectual contribution warrants it - when that contribution happened does not matter. Where I am, a coauthor cannot unreasonably hinder/oppose publication, but that's a very different question from not putting in more work.

@AzorAhai: I am positive that abandoing work should not without explicit permission give up author rights. What one should be aware of, however, especially with unreasonable advisors, is that it gives up author rights just because the advisor is pissed off because of you not letting him exploit you anymore. So I think it's fair to consider that abandoing would give up author righrs (and be happy if the advisor does the right thing after all). This is very sad, but a reality in our world I think.

Regarding your question about payment and ethics: I don't see ethics involved. And as you just started in industry, you are not facing poverty or a long stretch of time without any payment. Finishing a paper after starting an industry job is not unheard of. You get your name on the publication.
My advice: Try to finish the paper with as little work as possible. Try to deny doing any additional experiments. These can be done by another scientist and they can write another paper based on further experiments. The rationale is, that you don't waste your work, but you limit the amount of additional work.

The fact that somebody does earn money does not imply it is ethical to expect other work from them. I guess after graduation their family and friends would be more than happy to spend some time with them on the weekends.

It's not unethical to ask someone to do favor or finish a work for free, if the answer can be "no" without any bad consequences.

True. But I think your sentence about the money is a red herring -- it has nothing to do with the problem at hand if they earn money or not. (And it is not clear whether there are no bad consequences.)

Also, if you are in power (as here), you should absolutely make it explicitly clear that one can say no. Many weaker minds may fear to say no or work all nights and weekends because they believe they have to do it because this person used to be their supervisor. (Especially in East Asian culturey!)


text:
Should I include independently derived but not novel results in my thesis?
I'm writing up my physics PhD thesis, and am wondering whether to include the derivation of a formula that I worked out myself. I've recently found that this work isn't actually a novel contribution to the field, as the formula (though not a detailed derivation) appears in the appendix of a 10 year old paper.
Is there any sense in including it? And, if so, how would one describe the contribution?

Absolutely include it! You should cite the 10 year old paper of course, but I would feel free to write that you discovered your derivation independently, and to highlight anything interesting about your derivation that isn't in this other paper.

There is usually no reason not to include something in a thesis.  Your thesis is a place for you to give a coherent account of all your work on a topic.  There are (usually) no page restrictions, and it should serve as a reference document for future readers.
Many theses include a lot of review material, beyond just what might be contained in a literature survey.  A thesis has to contain new material, of course, but it does not all need to be novel.  There can be a lot of merit in giving detailed explanations of known results, if the reader is not necessarily going to be familiar with them in detail.  A derivation that has not previously appeared in the literature (even if the final result is known) is clearly suitable for inclusion.

"There are no page restrictions" - For some Universities, plain wrong. Mine has a limit of 300 pages for the PhD thesis, and less for a Masters or Bachelors Degree.
The reality is that this varies from university to university.

Yes, some places have, in principle, page restrictions.  However, they are uncommon, and I have never known a student in a technical field (the questioner sounds like they're a science or engineering student) who was anywhere close the institutional limit of thesis length.

In my case there is a word limit of (I think) 65k words and I'm at no risk of even approaching that. Should I choose to include it, I'm still unsure how to present the work. Here is a derivation... oh, and it turns out this was first published [here]. Or start with a reference to the earlier paper and then make the case for including it.

@Buzz I'm in engineering - still have a limit. - Now the limit can be extended if this is necessary, but that needs permission from "higher up".
The aim here is to make sure people write about what is important and don't waffle. It is better to write a good 150 pages than a useless 300.

@f13ts You can present it as background or at the right spot as "so and so can be derived using xyz, based on the work of abc", where 'so and so' refers to the derived term in another equation or some other condition that  invokes the cited derivation.

I would argue that a derivation should be included iff it is non-trivial (basically almost always). A PhD (I'd even say Masters) thesis should be self contained and contain all the gory details of the work such that anybody reading it could take off where you stopped.

+1.  In addition to "it should serve as a reference document for future readers.", it's also for yourself!  (Even if just an account of the avenues you explored, and you don't look at it again until years later!)

This is one of these case which very from country to country - from University to University. For example a German PhD is very different to a UK PhD, in how it is handled, evaluated etc.
For  the UK, obtaining a PhD is easiest if:

You have made a novel contribution to research
That contribution is publishable/has been published

However, sometimes things go awry, you cannot afford equipment, your institution lacks the ability to do research etc. so you can also obtain a PhD on the basis of

a systematic in depth investigation of your research topic with a sufficient amount of sufficiently high quality work

Now coming back to the contents:
As a most simple description, a PhD Thesis should be a scientific document that is on its own understandable to an averagely educated person.
So non specialist school level knowledge may be assumed as a priori known while specialist concepts should best be introduced in greater detail.
Then again, some people do not include a large literature review or large background review while others do, this varies from country to country, from institution to institution.
The best advice I would give you is:

IF the information is of direct relevance to your work and required for an understanding of your work and is not trivia it would be better to include it in the thesis as background to aid the reader.
IF the information is trivia in another field but not yours, it would again be beneficial for readers to have that information as opposed to having to seek it out.
Check with how your institution likes its theses, do people generally write an extensive literature/methods review (in which case you should possibly include it) or do they just tend to write a rather plain presentation of results (in which case the benefit may be debatable).

I have never encountered or heard of a maths PhD thesis which was 'on its own understandable to an averagely educated person', nor do I think it would be acceptable to include material explaining a thesis topic to someone who knew calculus, but no undergraduate math.

@jwg That is the ideal though. PhD Theses are aimed at a general audience while papers are aimed at a specialist audience.
If a university lets someone get away with writing a PhD Thesis for a specialist audience only then that's how its done there - it isn't ideal though.

PhD Theses are aimed at a general audience — [citation needed] I have never heard anyone express this aim before. I have also never read a single PhD thesis that even attempted to aim at a general audience. What field are you in that has such accessible PhD theses?

@JeffE Engineering in my case - as far as I am aware though this holds true for all Natural Sciences. A PhD Thesis is NOT written for a specialist audience, that's what papers are for.

@DetlevCM My experience in a strong college of engineering is entirely inconsistent with your advice.  Again: [citation needed]!!

@JeffE Is that in the US or somewhere else? I'm in the UK.

@DetlevCM Aha! I must admit that my direct experience is limited to the US (where I live), Canada, France, Germany, Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, and Israel. I guess the UK must be different. Still, do you have a source for your claim?

@JeffE It was mentioned at the start of my Degree, it is how all PhD Theses are written... (And also explains why a lot of UK theses are 200+ pages while US theses I have seen are often 80-100 pages) - I did try to find an explicit reference but couldn't - unfortunately.
I did some more searching now and found that History at Camebridge recommends making it accessible (not a must but recommended): http://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/students/training/getaphd.html
The rule of thumb that I am aware off (for Germany and the UK though) is that a PhD Thesis should be more accessible than a BSc/MSc thesis.

The PhD Thesis is "its own document" on a bit of research - while a BSc/MSc thesis is pretty much just "fulfilling the degree requirement" (for many) and thus aimed only at the department you are studying with.

My PhD is with a well-known UK university, and it is certainly not accessible to anyone who does not have third-year or fourth-year analysis. In my estimation other mathematics PhD candidates in unrelated subjects would either be able to understand the introduction and some of the explication, but not much more, or be able to follow the proofs with some hard work, but not necessarily grasp the big picture, depending on their background. I would in general be able to understand a similar amount of their theses. I have never heard anyone refer to expectations that this should not be the case.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/


text:
Academic dismissal from PhD program. What next?
A couple semesters after beginning my PhD program (in the US), I was dismissed from the program because:

My GPA was slightly below the program's minimum (after being on academic probation for one semester already).
After months of work as an RA in a research group, at the end of the semester, my adviser informed me that he was not satisfied with my research and would not continue to fund me.
After that, the department was not willing to hire me as a TA, because TA funding was seen as an "interim" measure, and having a new adviser was necessary to continue in the program.
I couldn't find a new research adviser because everybody would freak out about my GPA.

However, I have done very well on exams, and I had a great GRE score. What are my options now? Applying again? What could I say about my messed up situation in applications? What if I applied to another school?

This question was edited after I posted my initial answer: added 78 characters in body Is it recommended to re-apply and trying to hide my records from this school? Oh my goodness, no, no, and a thousand times, no. What makes you think that you could reapply, and the school wouldn't know you had already been enrolled there?

What are the potential ways that another school can figure that? Online profiles, recommendation letters, and what else?

That's an entirely different matter than "What next?" If you want to know more about how your unscrupulous behavior might be found out, perhaps you should ask a new question.

Thank you for you response. I stated that in my question and it is one of the options, and I am asking about the options. Also, that being 'unscrupulous' is your opinion and depends on which party you are looking at it from. As a graduate committee member or a student. In fact, my willingness to start over and do everything again in order to get back to my academic research is not any less honorable than graduate committees wanting to increase their chances of success with every student.. because my goal is research whereas theirs is their job.

(1) Your application must indicate each institution of higher learning from which you have earned credit and you must submit transcripts or academic records for each… This includes partial or incomplete transcripts. (2) If you are applying as a degree-seeking applicant, submit a transcript for every institution of higher education attended… (3) You are required to upload from all undergraduate and graduate institutions where you..studied for one semester or more… Those instructions (taken from major university websites, emphasis added) seem pretty clear to me.

Thanks for your comment. But I have also seen those schools that require transcripts from schools that one has attended for at least two or more semesters. Plus, I believe that my records are my private information. So, back to my question, how can they possibly figure you think?

After reading the question, answers, and comments, I agree with @J.R. This question seems much less like "how do I work through this problem" and more like "how do I game the system". Concealing your records is unethical, period. Everyone has down periods, so if you are up-front and honest, this problem should not sink you. But sneaking around might. An institution could even revoke your degree (should you finish, which I suspect would be difficult with the displayed attitude) if they find out you falsified your application. I would never hire some who displayed the qualities of the asker.

@Reid well I would never work for someone who judges a person based on asking a question and think of themselves as saints. Successful managers put emphasize on ability rather than what is in your mind, which is not demonstrated in your answer.

Again, check your attitude at the door please. You're reading way more into my comment than is appropriate. What I'm saying is: based on what I see in this question, I would not hire you, and frankly I'm unsurprised you were dismissed.

@Reid Even your last sentence in the last comment is a proof that you are trying to judge me. Now I am not going to judge your attitude, you probably get enough response on that in your life. However, I would suggest you edit your comment. Because no one is interested in your personal prejudice.

The other posters are trying to help you, not judge you. View the commentators here as the kinds of people who might be responsible for interviewing in the future. They are trying to warn you about the possible repercussions of what they perceive to be a very unwise strategy (reapplying while hiding that you've been dismissed).

@aeismail I agree with you, except for the case of one of the comments.

A related question How do you get a bad transcript past Ph.D. admissions?

The first thing the OP needs to do is to work out what the OP would do differently in the future to achieve higher grades and a happier adviser. Use that information in any applications, and to try to find a professor in the current department who will write a "X had problems here, but has great promise as a researcher" type of reference.

I agree with the points in J.R.'s answer.  I'd like to specifically address your question: "What if I re-apply to another school and hide my records in this school?"
This is a very bad idea.  As pointed out in J.R.'s comment, most departments will require as part of your application that you list all schools you have attended, and send your transcripts.  It would be unethical to omit your current program, and judging from your comments on J.R.'s answer about copied homework, ethical behavior is very important to you (which I commend).  And on a purely practical level, it's extremely risky; if you get caught, it may very well end your career in physics and academia.
It is true that in the US, federal privacy laws prohibit your current institution (let's call it University X) from releasing your education records without your permission.  However, these rules do not apply to so-called "directory information", which include your name and dates of attendance.  If University Y calls up University X and asks if you have ever attended there, X will tell them.  They won't tell them how you did while you were there or why you left, but Y will know that you falsified your application.  So if anyone at Y ever suspects that you attended X, they can verify it.
If you don't mention X in your application, Y may not think to do this.  But if they eventually find out (and they probably will, see below), you'll be kicked out of the program and the years you spent at Y will have been wasted.  If you received a fellowship or tuition waiver, you could potentially be required to pay it back.  If you make it to graduation but they find out later, your degree could be revoked; this will probably get you fired from whatever job you hold by then.  Basically, once this becomes known, your professional career will be over.  It's a Sword of Damocles.
And it's going to be very hard to ensure that nobody at Y ever finds out you were at X.  Interview questions: "So what were you doing for the two years after your bachelor's?"  You'll have to never mention your time there or anyone you knew at X in any conversation with advisors, professors, or fellow students.  And the academic world is small: there's a very good chance that your advisor or someone else at Y knows someone at X, and your name could easily come up in casual conversation.  "Hey, I saw your new paper with your student user10165; I guess he's come a long way since his time with us at X."
Summary: Don't do this.

Your answer is much more helpful. Can it also be verified through contact what program or degree I studied in? How can a degree be revoked after it is granted after many papers and research? And how can I ever explain this in my sop? I had depression but I do not have proof for that.

Stanford reserves the right to withdraw an offer of admission under certain circumstances, including: if there has been a misrepresentation in or a violation of any of the terms of the application process; or if the applicant has engaged in behavior prior to matriculation that indicates a serious lack of judgment or integrity. Stanford may rescind an applicant's admission at any time, including after attendance and after degree conferral, if it determines that an individual has been admitted to Stanford on the basis of having provided false information or has withheld requested information.

Source. I doubt they are the only major institution with such a policy.

I am not sure offhand whether your program or degree is protected information.  If you want details, google "FERPA".  As to how to discuss this in a statement of purpose, I don't have any advice, but similar questions have been addressed on this site previously; try a search.

@user10165 Please see a related answer http://academia.stackexchange.com/a/14612/546

@user10165: If you've had(/have) depression, you should be seeking medical help. and once you do, you can get the proof of your illness, and get your dismissal reconsidered. (I suggest presenting that proof to someone higher up)

@Oxinabox In fact I did have major depression, but since I never showed up to psychologist/psychiatrist, I am not sure how I can prove that I had a condition.

@user10165: Without regard for proof, or how that would help/hurt, since you have had major depression I would urge you to seek treatment immediately. 80% of people with two or more depressive episodes and 50% of people who have had a single episode will relapse at some point. In addition to treating the underlying depression cognitive therapy will teach coping tools which may include stress management and communication tools.

Addendum: It seems that each school has some latitude in what it defines as "directory information" that can be released without permission, but my current institution does include "major field of study" and "degrees pursued" as directory information.  Source

@NateEldredge how does University Y know which university to call to check your student record? it is very unlikely that the people who review the admission packets have time to do these kind of investigations.

@user4050: Please read my 4th and 5th paragraphs.

@NateEldredge in principle I agree with you but it is really on a case to case basis. If student X went to a community college for one semester during his bachelor and he does not include transcripts from such college when applying to a PhD, who cares about that? Why would that be important for the admission committee?

@user4050: That particular case is not equivalent because the coursework generally shows up as transfer credit on the main BS transcript.  Being enrolled in a degree program is rather different from taking prerequisite courses locally and transferring them upon entry to the larger university.

This answer is going to sting, but it's how I read the situation based on what you've written here. It sounds like there is something going on that you haven't addressed.
If a department wanted to keep someone who they felt was a promising student, who they thought could contribute with good work, I think they'd find a way to waive the GPA for another term, seeing that it's so close to the threshold. On the other hand, if they felt like a student was not worth keeping, they might be relieved that the student's GPA fell below the specified threshold, so they could use it as grounds for dismissal from the program.
As for the lab reports, there's a difference between being late and being unreliable. One is a fact, and the other is a perception. You emphasize the fact, but I suspect it's the perception that is behind their unwillingness to rehire.
As for the GRE score, those scores used to measure potential from an admissions perspective. Once you're in the program, GRE scores become pretty much meaningless; from that point on, you're judged by the work you do at the institution. (The fact that you even mention it makes me wonder if you have a habit of overestimating your own value in a way that annoys your professors and your peers.)
As for your options, I wouldn't recommend reapplying. That's an uphill battle; they seem to be sending pretty clear signals that they'd rather be done with you. That leaves transferring somewhere else. Given that your GPA is so close to 3.0, I'll bet you could find a school willing to accept you as a transfer student; however, they might have second thoughts based on some of the reasons for your departure. I would be very careful about who I listed as a reference from the school that is dismissing you now.
You might want to look in the mirror, and try to more accurately assess why you are being let go. As I mentioned, I think it has to do with intangible qualities such as personality, reliability, and teamwork – things that are hard to quantify, but easy to spot notice once you start working alongside someone, especially in an environment where the goal is to achieve a complex and long-term endeavor.

Your answer is helpful. I cannot upvote due to low reputation score though. I never bragged about my GRE physics score nor here neither in the department, I simply stated it as information about me. In my opinion, it tells how much you know the basics. What if I re-apply and don't mention this school in my resume at all?

No matter where you apply, you'll almost assuredly be asked for previous transcripts. You shouldn't just pretend this never happened – admissions offices take such omissions VERY seriously, and, if you try that, it could get you into hotter water than you are in now. As for the scores, a GRE might be an indicator of how much someone "knows the basics," as you say; however, in a doctoral program, knowing the basics won't get you very far. [EDIT: This comment previously stated the asker's GRE score. I just deleted it, at the asker's request, for privacy reasons. -Pops, SE Community Manager]

Thanks for your answer but that sentence doesn't tell anything except what is stated in my score report (89%) and the answers to the question "How did you do on the GRE?" from people. So it is not self-aggrandizing. On the other hand graduate courses don't tell you much either. Because everyone that I know copied the solution to the vast majority of homework problems from the web or previous students. Or they did the homeworks in teams, one problem every person.

I see. I'd go back to what I said about intangibles, then.

Yes, I am not willing to submit a homework which is copied from the solutions or is not solely my work. I understand that this might be too idealistic for some people's worlds.

Except that in which ways do you think the schools might figure that I have already done graduate work elsewhere? Letters of recommendation, internet profiles, publications, what else?

You are not in US, right?

I didn't ask where you are from. You stated a fact about a place which is not known and my question is if that place is US. Since my question is about the US.

You said "where I am,...". It shouldn't be US since here that is by law considered as private information.

Yes, it is legally private information.  However, leaving an unexplained gap (or worse, implying "That's none of your business!") in your application will raise a red flag, which is likely serious enough to kill your chances of admission.  If you aren't willing to let us honestly evaluate you, we don't want you.

@JeffE I respect your opinion. Do you think my exact scores are essential for the answers?

This answer may seem unnecessarily sharp now, considering the much-revised version of the question. I answered Version 1 of the question. Key details from revision 1 were the basis for much of my answer. [EDIT: I've just deleted numerous revisions, including the original one, at the asker's request, for privacy reasons. -Pops, SE Community Manager]

@JeffE I agree and I will reveal all my records in applications. However, my question from you is about here in the answers. It seems to me that the answers are not based on my exact scores, and that they are my private information that I included by mistake initially.

@J.R. claims that his answer was based on the original version of your questions, which included your exact scores, and I have no reason to disbelieve him.  Further discussion of this issue should be taken to meta.

As everybody can tell, you are emotionally stressed.
My first advice to you, calm down!. This is not the end of the world. You still have options.
You can go to industry if you want although I think you prefer not. You still have the passion for Academia since you are asking this question on this site. So, I am not going to suggest that.
If you want to stay in Academia, others have given you excellent answers. I am not going to repeat them. I want to point out things others may have missed.
First, you have to admit that you messed it up. How to re-enter Academia is your question. I think you'll have to look for the schools in the next lower tier. Transferring to a school of the same tier may not be possible at this time. For example, if you are in the top 20, apply to the top 50. I think you have the chance. If you still don't get to top 50, go to top 100. There is a will, there is a way!
Go to your advisor and tell him you would like to transfer to another school. Tell him that you made a mistake and want to restart your academic career somewhere else. He will be glad to help you to transfer because he has some responsibility to fulfill. At least, you were his student.
Again, calm down. Being emotional will not help you. Find another school is your first priority. Good luck!
Edit
Let me address your specific issues here,

And what to tell about my messed up situation in applications? Is it recommended to apply to other schools without mentioning that I had attended this one?

Your question boils down to, Can I erase my past?
My answer is no. You can't. The key is the recommendation letters. Whom do you go to for those letters? The people who knew you during your undergraduate days? They know you were in your current school. Are they going to wonder what happened to you in the past couple of years? In these days, information travels fast. A couple of e-mails between your undergrad prof. and the profs. in your current school will reveal everything. Get help from your current school to transfer to another school is the practical solution.
End of edit

I've observed more than "stress" as this question has unfolded. Hints of obstinacy, duplicity, and immaturity abound. If the O.P. takes this does-not-play-well-with-others attitude to the next school, chances of success won't be so good there, either. This isn't about A's, B's, and C's on a transcript, it's about being able to work with other people. Few people can earn a PhD while alienating those around them.

@J.R. I think what is not mature is judging others based on a question. How do you know about my track record of collaborative work? Is it not immature to share personal information of others? I believe my exact scores are not essential for your answers and I would like to ask you again to remove them (yes they are in the history as well which I asked from the site already).

@user10165 You're just confirming J. R.'s point when you react with such hostility to random people on the internet who you asked for advice. All of us who have been involved in graduate programs know that it's not really especially about grades and GRE scores, but about successfully joining a community of researchers.  Some combination of factors convinced the professors in your program that keeping you was not a good idea, and you need to think hard about those factors are (we don't know of course, but you should, and if you don't, you should find out) before trying to continue in academia

@BenWebster It was one person who decided I must go and he is known for misbehavior.

I'm not judging you based on your question, I'm judging your  behavior over the 24 hours since you've asked your question, where you have: insulted and criticized members here, disregarded moderator requests, slandered your fellow students and former faculty members, averred that your right to privacy trumps established admissions procedures, nagged for answers about how an admissions office might learn of deliberately-omitted information, talked about yourself in high-and-mighty language, and repeatedly played petty revision games.

@user10165 ...and you continue to illustrate my point.  Even if this is true, it just makes it sound like you are making excuses.  You might consider how such a negative and defensive reaction to any criticism looks to a supervisor or your fellow students.  Grad students screw up a lot; if people get the impression you're not willing to face screw-ups and learn from them, then of course they won't think you're going to be successful.

As for the 2.97 vs 3.00, that's a tidbit you shared. I don't know why you suddenly changed your mind and decided that was "personal information" that needed to be cloaked, but from the very beginning I thought that those numbers offered a tell-tale clue about your situation, and much of my answer was based on that fact.

@BenWebster I do not see representing facts as hostility. It might just be too harsh to hear. I have come a long way to here and I am not going to give up.

@J.R. I know what I wrote and that's exactly why I edited it and why I would want you to remove it, even from this last comment: because this is my private information. However, I doubt if you respect that.

@user10165 I updated my answer to address your specific issues.

@J.R. Note that you started it out in here link. You continued by stating that I do not have maturity. I think you should reconsider your behavior in an online forum toward somebody you don't even know.

Which part of "Please stop removing important details from the question. I .. ask that you leave it [alone]" do you not understand? That simple request was made by a moderator 18 hours ago. Since then, you've tinkered with the question seven times. That version (seen here) left out the details about your GPA, which seems to be what you want. As for my comment about unscrupulous behavior, I stand by it. You asked about "trying to hide my records from this school," which would be unethical.

I realized that a PhD program was not working out for me for various reasons. They were trying to get me to transfer to their Masters program. I decided a more generalist Masters in my home town would be preferable because continuing where I was would only continue the difficulties I faced. My old cohort is now facing the publish or perish monster while teaching undergrad students at State schools across the country.
Sometimes you need to take one step back to take two steps forward. In the end, you get that PhD, and it's publish or perish. Your ability to publish will be greatly hindered if you've been struggling along the way.
Take a step back and get a fresher perspective. Maybe earning a Masters in applied mathematics or another applied science that has requirements that would create a record of academic success instead of failure would give you a firmer foundation on which to earn your PhD, perhaps at a better school. While you're doing that, you can keep the bigger picture in mind, do more self-studies, and build a toolbox of skills that would help you succeed.

I wasn't struggling as much as some A's in the classes. I explained why in previous comments. It is also shown that publications are not correlated with grades in graduate school and GREs. +1 for sharing your own story.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/


text:
Right way of requesting research project from a professor as a non-affiliate
I am a new immigrant and my question is about norms in American universities. I have MSc degree from abroad and in order to improve my chances for admission to a decent PhD program I would like to get published. I would appreciate your answers about the following questions:

Is it acceptable for someone outside a department/university to contact a professor and ask him/her for a research project (as a non-student)?
I do not have journal publications. What else can make them convinced?
Finally, what would be an ideal etiquette/strategy for contacting professors with a plan for making such a request, if it is sensible at all.

It is acceptable, but not the best strategy. Getting the attention of a top professor is like fishing a very picky fish: you need a good bait. In my experience, it is easier to approach them by offering something rather than by asking for something. Also, the approach should be genuine. This is, you approach them because you want to work on something that might fit his/her research interests not just because you want to see his/her name tied to yours in a paper.
IDEAS: Professors salivate when they see an interesting idea.
Just follow all the etiquette rules. Be polite and respectful as you would be with any other person. Also, try to be precise, they are busy people.

More importantly: Publications are not strictly necessary to be admitted to a decent PhD.
If you have some project in mind, write it and send it to the Professor in question. Tell him/her that you are interested in working on such project and that given his/her research interests, you think that the project would be greatly benefited with his/her ideas and that you would appreciate collaborating with him/her on it.

This is a helpful answer and I think will work out with young but successful professors that I am thinking of. In particular, having something to offer to each from the beginning is something I should keep in mind. Thanks.

@Iron's advice is good, but you will probably get turned down.  I get many such requests and none has worked out yet.
The best way for you to get to work with a professor is to first be admitted as a PhD student in his/her program.

So, then I'd assume that they will be very hesitant unless, as @Iron mentioned, I have something to offer. It's a good point and means I should prepare for rejections. Thanks.


text:
Recommendation letter from a research adviser who is expelled from the university
My undergraduate research adviser is expelled from the university for political reasons (in Middle East) after more than a decade of teaching and research. Now they have even forced the department to remove his name from the faculty list on the website of the department and they have taken away his academic email address.
I am applying to graduate schools in US and I want to include his recommendation letter in my application. What are the chances that the admission committee rejects my application due to

My adviser not being listed on the department webpage.
Not having an official email.

Some additional info: He has tens of publications which indicate his affiliation. He does have the letter head of the university, which can be used to print the letter on. The webpage of the department cannot be easily found by one search. One must find it through the university website which can take some effort.

You've left out a key piece of information: what he doing now?  If he's working at a different institution, that's no problem.  No one will notice.  If he's unemployed, that's trickier.

Problem is he is currently unemployed and not affiliated..

This is a tricky situation, but as long as everyone is careful and honest, you should be fine.
Here's what I would recommend.  Yes, you should ask your former advisor to submit a reference letter on your behalf, from his non-academic email address.  You should mention in your statement that he has left your university, but you should not say anything about why he left.  Any further details are up to your former advisor to reveal, if he wishes to do so.
Your former advisor absolutely should not submit his letter on university letterhead, because he is not affiliated with the university.  He should include a very brief bio describing his former affiliation and listing his departure date.  If possible, he should include some external evidence of his scholarship, like a pointer to his Scopus or Google Scholar profile.  If he wants to describe the circumstances of his departure, he should keep the story very brief; his letter should focus on you, not about him, his former employer, or their political conflicts.

An attempt to represent the former scientist as "not a scientist at all" in my opinion does not make any sense.
Normally, the university professor should have publications. These publications stay forever. Not only they confirm the competence, also the article headers always include information about the authors affiliation. If the journals have been at least moderately reputable, such publications can be easily found on the web.
Simply ask for a letter of recommendation. Of course, to make verification easier, he could also write a couple of sentences about himself, pointing to his most successful publications.


text:
Why do graduate school application forms ask applicants to name the other schools to which he/she is applying?
What do the admission committees learn about an applicant by knowing which other programs and schools one has applied to? Does applying to another program which is more prestigious make the applicant seem more serious?

Related (possibly the same) question: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5446/phd-application-asking-what-other-insitution-i-am-applying-to-how-to-answer

To avoid the tautological answer, one might also ask, "How might this information affect the committee's actions"?  For example, perhaps they don't use it in making the admission decision, but look at it afterward to decide how best to recruit the student.

One thing that some programs look at is whether you are likely to come if they accept you. Say you have a 4.0 gpa, perfect GREs, great letters of recommendation, and publications in respected journals from your undergrad research, and you apply to a bunch of the top schools and some mediocre schools. If there isn't something in your personal statement explaining why you are applying to the mediocre school, and that school sees all the other great schools you applied to, that school may not accept you because they assume even if they did, you would surely go elsewhere. Why would a university do this? Well its a waste of money to fly you out, but more importantly when someone gets put on the wait-list awaiting your decline of the offer, that person may accept other offers from schools that did not wait-list them. I have been told first hand by members of admission committees that the "where else did you apply to" question is used at least partially for this purpose.
Additionally, at the university administration level, they like to keep track of which universities they compete with for students. I have seen Universities present statistics on how many students reject their offers, and which universities they end up in. So the question is also probably there for statistics tracking purposes unrelated to the admission process. This is a potential reason why even the top schools will ask this question.

But why do top schools ask this too?

I am aware of no school with only PhD programs that would be considered top 10. Many schools have a base application that is unrelated to the program, and it might be the default to include this question. For example, UC Davis is one of the best schools in the world to study ecology, but probably not top 20 in most fields. So when you apply to their ecology department, you may face this question, even though they are likely to ignore it (as far as deciding who to let in). Harvard, on the other hand, is top 10 in most fields, but they do have some PhD programs that are not top 10.

Additionally, I suspect at the school administration level, they like to keep track of who they compete with for students. I have seen Universities present statistics on who they "lose" students to.

Some things I (as someone sitting in academic admission committees) would learn from this question is

is the person flexible (willing to move)
Did (s)he just apply to some randomly selected institutions or is there a clear dedication to one field
Who are my main competitors (and this might be the true reason for this question).

The first two are really silly reasons to ask this question (although I don't doubt that some people may think about those things). What may appear like a random selection of schools may actually be very purposeful and methodical. If your school is far away enough from them, the fact they applied to your school should show enough flexibility. (3) is more likely the reason out of these

I concur with OBu that competitive intelligence is the major reason for this question, but there is one individual-level strategic concern: financial aid. It's sometimes possible to guess what kind and amount of aid a given applicant is likely to attract. That leaves us with the question of whether we can or should match it.


text:
I regret declining a really good PhD offer. Can I ask if I can accept the offer after all?
I recently declined a really good PhD offer in the US for another offer from an American university and I'm terribly regretting it now.
I made my decision on the 15th of April and it's past deadline now. I really want to go to the other school and since the 15th of April was the last working day, I'm hoping that they haven't offered my position to any other aspirant yet. I know this is ethically wrong but I feel miserable about my decision and want to contact the university and ask them if they can still accommodate me.
As far as the other university is concerned I have only accepted their offer through an email and haven't formally been given the final offer letter yet. Should I go ahead with this?

You don't lose anything by asking. The worst that could happen is that the university will deny your request.

Why do you regret your original choice?

Just in case you do not get a positive reply, don't be discouraged. US universities take students every semester as opposed to every year. So you have a chance to get in after 6 months. In worst case, you will have to wait for another year. But that doesn't have to be wasted time. Use it to learn about the topic you were planning to explore in PhD so that next year you have an edge.

@displayName: Although some US grad programs do admit every semester, my experience has been that this is not the norm.  Certainly the OP should not assume that this option is available unless he/she can explicitly confirm it.

What makes you say this is "ethically wrong"?  Maybe your ethics are different from mine, but I don't see how it could be unethical to ask.  They are free to accept or refuse, and you're certainly not coercing them.  At worst you would annoy them slightly, but that's not an ethical breach.

@NateEldredge I believe they are referring to withdrawing their acceptance of the other school's offer. Which is still not unethical if done within a few days, just kind of annoying.

Transferring in grad school is nontrivial, and I similarly regret having chosen the wrong program. If you seriously want to rescind your rejection of the first university, I'd suggest you do so as soon as possible, and try to do so by contacting the head of the department directly (and over the phone rather than email, to ensure that you're paid attention to). It's a suboptimal situation, and it's not going to be a clean process even if it works out; the thing to consider is whether it would be better than going to the grad school whose offer you did accept.

Grad school is hard. It's not the military but it can be pretty brutal even under the best circumstances.  It will not go well for you if you're not grateful for the opportunity to learn, if you're not grateful for the challenges, and (above all) if you're not prepared to play by their rules.  It sounds as though (possibly in either the "A" or "B" case here) you may be at risk of attending a program that you're not totally confident in.  I think that would be a mistake.  Honestly, you might consider doing something else for a year and re-applying next admission cycle.

Thank you everyone for all your responses! I did contact the university back and they didn't mind enrolling me :)

@user37208 Despite the upvotes, this is clearly irrelevant to the OP's situation.

You had a reason to decline. Has the reason evaporated? Why are you changing your mind? You should need to have a good response for that, both for yourself as well as to the place you apply to. As a superviser, I had students changing mind back and fro, which I understand - it's a big decision, and not all information may be available. However, keep in mind that your originally offered position, as stated elsewhere, may have been already given to someone else.

Dude I am an old guy and here is my advice:

Never be shy to ask for things you don't know.
Accept the fact that you are an imperfect being. You made mistakes, and will make mistakes.
Be open to hear others views, and take moment to digest their words to fully understand their perspective.

Therefore it is totally normal to email the university back with full honesty and tell them that you changed your mind.
BUT before you do that, think twice, thrice or even more. You have already done a mistake for being too quick. Don't be too quick again. At least learn.
To me it seems that maybe you are unstable and change your mind too quickly. Let me blame you a bit: before deciding too quickly, why didn't you just email them back and simply ask "I would appreciate some time to think. Could you please let me know the deadline for my response? Thanks."?
Lesson #1 when you are at a point in time where you need to make a choice, usually the best decision to evaluate and perform is the following:

Evaluate if it's possible to postpone the decision (you might need to ask questions to ensure whether it's possible to postpone the decision).
If it's possible to postpone, then postpone it so that you have more time to think and make a better decision.

Of course, some times it is not possible to postpone a decision because time matters. That's why you need to first evaluate the possibility (or even more accurately: the cost associated with postponing it; if the cost is low, and the value from a more reliable decision is high, then dude postpone it!).

Very wise advice. Asking for time to think is a key thing when deciding on any position, if you're even a little unsure.

I would add that additional time to think is only worth if you expect to get additional information in this time slot. It is an extremely helpful skill to make decisions based on the available information (and estimating which additional information could influence the decision and how probably it is to get this information).

@Dirk true, and that's a special case of my last paragraph where I relate"cost of postponing" to "value gained from more reliable decisions".

I love this advice.

Wow I always thought cavemen were very wise and boy was I right!

Just as my favorite chess lecturer would say: "Think, don't rush. When you find a good move, look for a better one."

A standard military tactic is to delay decisions until the last possible moment because things change in the meantime (hopefully becoming more clear!).

@ErikEidt: That's also standard tactic in CS (lazy evaluation).

Sometimes the extra information you need is not external - sometimes you need time to process things, find out how the options make you feel, decide how to weigh priorities.

I don't have much experience of US PhD programs, but in the UK it would be quite likely that the place you declined would have been offered to the next candidate almost immediately after you declined it. Again from a UK perspective, it would also give a somewhat unfavorable impression that you declined and then changed your mind. A potential worry for the University making the offer would be that you might change your mind again at a later point.
You don't mention your reasons for declining the offer the first time, I would reflect on these before doing anything further or in haste.
Having said all that, if after reflection you still feel that it was a mistake to decline the offer, I would suggest informally contacting the University where you declined the offer and asking if there is any possibility for you to change your mind. If you don't ask, you'll never know.

I don't know about the U.K., but many Ph.D. programs in the U.S. don't have a waitlist to pull more candidates from at the last minute, so they would either have been taken or just left empty.

To play devil's advocate, some PhD programs might not have a waitlist because they mentally eliminate candidates and don't always need to meet a quota.  So they might decide just to wait until next year if they don't get who they want.  I'd still say this is rare, and there would be a waitlist around.

@ChrisWhite: Note that I said "many", not "most". Many have a waitlist, and many don't, and I don't know what the ratio is to say which one is the majority. It can depend on the field, the rank, and the department itself. You won't necessarily find information about this officially stated in every school publicly.

My (U.S.) university actually has (or had) a policy that even if you deny their offer, go to another place, and after a year decide that that place sucks, they will still consider taking you.

I declined a PhD offer from one university and accepted an offer from another. It was a very difficult decision and I later regretted it (and still do). It made my whole experience of the PhD quite miserable because I regretted my decision. You are making a commitment to spend several years of your life in one place. It is not an easy decision. I would just ask. I think people will understand.

+1 for having been in the same situation (and it sucks).

There are a lot of questions, especially on academia, that only exist because the person asking the question has completely overthought the problem. It seems a lot of people in academia tend to do that, rather than using 'gut feel' or 'common sense'.
Now deep down I think you know that this question is just an excuse to postpone what you know you have to do.
I can answer a lot of questions on this site very simply - be OPEN and HONEST with the university. If you are really regretting not taking their offer and deep down you really want to, but you feel guilty for doing so, THEN TELL THEM THAT. Tell them EXACTLY what you wrote in your question.
How do I say this...? Be open and honest. What if my boss thinks this...? Be open and honest. But what if...? Be open and honest. Don't walk on eggshells around everyone - get to the point.
Being honest and open takes balls because when we are not used to opening up to people and being vulnerable it scares us. You are worried about integrity. Integrity is about being honest, open and vulnerable.

I don't understand this reply. Clearly the present situation has arisen as a result of the OP underthinking the situation.

@reinierpost It's not clear to me at all that this is the case.

Do try contacting the department, or if you can't, contact your prospective adviser if you know who that is. I believe I have heard of students in the U.S. who have made such a mistake and then reversed it through contacting the department.
Departments who care will not have chosen their students lightly -- they will have put in a ton of effort on the students that have been accepted and will want them to come.
So if all that stands between you joining them is 1 click, they'll probably help you fix the mistake.
Note that I would not contact the university for a Ph.D. admissions matter -- the department plays a heavy role and has a lot of power and a lot more incentive to make this happen for you.

You can certainly ask.
You say yourself the program is very desirable. Surely you are not the only one they admitted, and they have a whole list of backup applicants that have been waiting with bated breath for someone to reject the offer. Now that you have, the school would try to promptly notify the person on the waitlist, and that person would reply very quickly that, yes, they'd love to take up the offer. From what I recall, PhD applications are very competitive at the top schools and the stakes are high for applicants.
If the waitlister did indeed reply and and accept the offer, then your ship has definitely sailed. The university cannot go to the person they just said they'd admit, and say, "whoops, nevermind, we're not admitting you after all, go ask the other school you just rejected to take you back". The outrage and loss of reputation would be far greater than telling you "sorry, should have thought about that before rejecting our offer" (though they'll use much nicer language than me, I'm sure).
The offer of admission, and acceptance of that offer (or rejection for that matter) is often considered legally binding. While it rarely makes sense for anyone to actually go to court over something like this, in practice that adds additional gravity and friction to the decision. That is to say, there is a very narrow time window from the time you reject their offer to the time the next applicant on the list takes your spot, and if you miss that window you are almost certainly out of luck. The best you can do is hope to be waitlisted, but even that is doubtful - both due to time, the fact that universities often dislike applicants who reject them, and also that in rejecting their offer you reduce your own desirability as a candidate (who knows, if you changed your mind once you can change it again).
What if you hit this very narrow window? There's two possibilities:

If you tell them you changed your mind after they send the email to the waitlister, but before the waitlister replies, I would say your chances are almost as slim. As I said, the offer cannot be easily withdrawn, unlike your asking to renegotiate, which can very easily be refused with no real consequence.
If you tell them before they take any action, ie. before they tell the waitlister, then you might have a chance. It comes down to whether that particular program will hold your indecision against you. Some are understanding, because everyone knows the decision is hard and stressful. Some don't want students with even the slightest hint of not being absolutely committed.

On the one hand, you let them know on the 15th, so even the deadline has passed. In theory, all the decisions should have been finalized by now and it's too late for any do-overs. In practice, there's always a few programs that are late, I've heard of people on waitlists linger on into May and then get an offer after all. In addition, it was technically the weekend, so if you send an email now, they should see it first thing in the morning tomorrow... Assuming they don't decide to keep working over the weekends - again, something which while a huge factor, you cannot possibly know.
So in conclusion, it's a bit of gamble with long odds. Can you ask? Sure you can. Should you ask? Well you don't really lose much, so I'd say go ahead and try. Hell go buy a lottery ticket too while you're at it, you never know. But I'd say, whatever you do, don't go to the school you have accepted instead and tell them you won't be attending until you've got a concrete yes from the one you want.

"a few programs that are late"  I think this vastly underestimates how far behind programs can run, when professors are the ones making the decisions and then relying on department administrators to implement them.  Given that the decision was made before the weekend, there's a good shot no action has been taken to even evaluate the Yes/No decisions from the pool and send out offers to the waitlist.  How many department admins do you know who work weekends?


text:
Letter of recommendation from a deceased advisor
A PhD advisor usually sent all his letters of recommendation for his students through his secretary. He wrote a letter for his PhD student who is currently applying for academic positions, and unexpectedly died a month after. The secretary has a letter. Should this letter be submitted as a part of application? Should it be stated in the cover letter that the letter is from a deceased advisor and how the submission should be handled (for example, for MathJobs should an account with the secretary email be created)?
The advisor worked in the US and the applicant is considering both American and European universities.

Also see I graduated last year and my advisor passed away unexpectedly soon after. What should I do now for subsequent academic job searches?

I can't think of a reason why it should not be sent. The professor wrote it, his (untimely) passing shouldn't affect its being sent out. It may be a good idea to have the secretary include a note that this was written prior to the professor's passing, simply to avoid any questions of someone else writing it.
If you have specific requirements for the job process (I'm not familiar with MathJobs), contact the site and/or the places where you're applying. While unusual, this isn't that uncommon, and any respectable program should be willing to work with you on this.


text:
How do visa issues factor into industry vs postdoc decision in United States?
I am planning to graduate this fall with a PhD in Mechanical Engineering (Robotics) from UT Austin and is in the process of making a decision to choose between industry and academia as a career choice. I have some questions regarding the same:
I have a job offer from Mathworks and potential post-doc positions from two professors at UT Austin and one at Rice University. It is difficult for me to decide between an industry position and a post-doc in academia. I like publishing papers and have 5 published and 3 under review journal publications, 14 conference papers and 2 pending patents.
If I decide to join Mathworks and later found that academia is a better fit for me. How easy or difficult it is to move out of an industry position back into academia (professor or post-doc position) after a few years considering that the company would file an H1B or green card for me?
What are the long term implications of joining industry as far as staying in US is concerned? I understand that applying for green card is a lengthy process and it is relatively easier through the academic route. Is the industry route too risky and the academic route much safer considering that I am an Indian citizen?
Any advice would be highly valuable for me to make an informed decision.

Your first list item wasn't actually a question. Anyways, we ask for one question per post on this site. So I retitled your question to focus on the second and third items, which are both about visa issues.

If you have good scholarly work, even if you join the industry, you might be eligible to apply for GC through National Interest Waiver (NIW) or maybe even through EB1. You don't have to be in Academia to apply using these options. I know many of my colleagues (with PhDs and work in industry) who applied via NIW. i would suggest you contact an immigration lawyer to get the most recent information.

For positions in industry, there is a national quota on the number of H-1B visas that can be issued in each year.  For positions at non-profit higher education institutions, there is no such quota.  Note that if you change positions while on an H-1B visa, your new employer would have to sponsor you for a new visa.


text:
UK Transferable skills programs, where has this scourge originated and how to complain about it?
If you are part of academia in the UK, either as a teacher, postdoc or PhD student, you might have had to fulfill some departmental requirement for transferable skills.
For those who have never came into contact with such a scheme, it singles out a set of skills that one does or should gain while in academia and can be ported. Here's a fairly tipical list from Cambridge.
While commendable in theory, for what I have witnessed in my university this programs are mostly useless (I still have to find a single colleague saying otherwise), which in turn means that they represent a huge waste of resources. Non trivial amount of money are spent to pay "teachers" and admin to make these courses run. Indirectly, time that could be devoted to research is instead spent to do something else, up to the  ridiculous extreme  of people being administered Myers Briggs personality test (this being an example of the activities in courses where you learn teamwork ).
Where does the provision for such programs stem from? Is it a law, a document by some ministry suggesting to adopt this programs, is it just some buzzword that made its way into academia and survives thanks to the money it funnels into the pocket of those who take part in it?
Secondly, as there is no feedback to be given on the program as a whole (I have no trouble imagining why) which would be the typical person or office to bring complaints? I know this is a lost battle, as these programs are carefully designed to appear useful that have to implement them (but don't experience them first hand) , but just out of curiosity.

Are you sure these programs are/were common. I spent 6 years in the UK as a lecturer and never heard of one.

How long ago was that? I don't know about elsewhere but they are ubiquitous in my Russel group university. A Google search I did a while ago convinced me that transferable skills are "hot" right now in UK academia

18 months ago at a Russel group university in a STEM field.

Ah they might be less widespread than I thought, tweaking the start of the question. But watch out, they might arrive where you are to waste your time ;)

Please include some explanation of what this is supposedly about, for the rest of us.  Maybe also explain what it ends up being in practice.

I edited to give a couple of examples. I don't want to say too much more, but if you need other examples I can provide them.

Of course, it could be that your university has realised that most PhD students don't go on to academic careers and that actually being employable in the real world may be a good thing? I think the concept of teaching transferable skills is long overdue, although it's possible that your institution is doing it badly.

Anyway, I'm not sure what the question is here... Do you actually want answers to anything, or is it just a rant?

I want to know whether this is: a general thing that (some)  universities have come to consider useful and if so how? Was it through a meeting among the chancellors? Was it mandated from the ministry of education? Is there a provision for transferable skills that university / funding bodies are obliged to pursue?

@SimonW - I don't think there are even any skills you'd want PhD students to have that aren't transferable in some way.

The book How To Get A PhD,  E Phillips and D Pugh (6th edition) refers to the 'Robert's Report' as introducing the idea that students should also have skills that are useful outside of academia. Also material at https://www.vitae.ac.uk might help (search for 'transferable skills').