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When Does "Adapting" An Image Go Too Far?
I am interested in using a particular figure from the literature, but I do not want to go through the hassle of paying to use a figure. What I am wondering is if I made a similar figure, how easy is it to get in trouble for copyright infringement? If I were to essentially redo the image, it would not be verbatim the same, but very similar depictions would be pulled from the image. As an example, I provided two illustrative examples where the bottom image is an "adapted" version:
The second one is in a published paper as well from a reputable journal, so I am guessing that it should be okay to go about making a similar diagram myself, but again, I wouldn't mind other opinions as too when I might start to tow the line on copyright infringement.

Maybe this would fit the Law StackExchange more. Not sure if it’s off-topic for this site, though.

Are you sure you must pay? If it is for a paper or didactical use probably you just have to ask a permission or just properly cite the reference, respectively.

Is this for inclusion in a book or a paper?

Does this answer your question? How much do figures need to differ to avoid copyright claims? The two figures you give examples of share the same information, which cannot be copyrighted (but must be cited), but they differ substantially in design.

@BryanKrause, actually, I see not very much difference in design. In fact it looks like an attempt to mislead about the source.

"I do not want to go through the hassle of paying to use a figure": Have you already asked permissions to reuse? In my experience, many people have a distorted view on this: for many types of publications (e.g. papers in other publisher's journals, dissertations, books), publishers don't charge anything to republish a figure, they just ask one to put a certain notice. That's it. Ask first!

To be fair to the author of the "adapted" image on the bottom - they do explicitly make reference that they've adapted it from another author. The authors of the bottom image do not claim to have come up with it on their own. @Massimo Ortolano I will probably go ahead and follow up on your suggestion, I guess the worst thing they can do is say no.

Do you want to avoid the "hassle" of paying for a figure, or do you not want to pay for the figure?

If this is for a book, rather than for a paper, you have another option. Many book publishers will give you a certain budget for paying royalties on figures and such. Another alternative, if you are to receive royalties from book sales is to have the publisher pay any fees up front and charge it against your future earnings on the book. The former is preferable, of course. But book publishers expect to have to pay for some things such as cover pictures and some internal figures.
I doubt that this is an option for any journal, however.

If you do the image you then have no problem and under the image description you use :'fuente propia' (self source/made). if you want to use a figure from a magazine/paper/site/etc, then you simply  add the proper source and citing in your references. Remember that the difference between plagiarism and fair use is merely citation.
Clarification:
As long as it is cited and properly explained it's a problem, although it would be wise to check the local legislation because it varies from country to country. In my country the law specifies 'copy or reproduction'of the exact same thing, but redoing a new image/chart is no problem.
If its different for your countries then add a comment of what exactly the law in your places say to contribute to responding OPs question.

This is absolutely wrong.  Citing an image that you boost does not make it fair use, and using it in a publication is most certainly a copyright violation.

@Scott Seidman as long as it is cited and properly explained it's a problem, although it would be wise to check the local legislation because it varies from country to country. In my country the law specifies 'copy or reproduction' but redoing a new image/chart is no problem. What does law in your place say?

I stand corrected.  My statement is only true if the use is in one of the 177 countries on the list shown at https://copyrighthouse.co.uk/copyright/countries-berne-convention.htm, which are all signatories of the Berne Convention, a treaty that states that a copyright issued in signatory states is valid in signatory states.

@Scott Seidman that also means that there are still countries which are not included . Take your pick, FIFA lists 211 existing countries, ISOs 249, Olympics 206 . At worst it means there are 72 countries with different regulations, not to mention that copyright does not protect ' idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work' https://copyrighthouse.co.uk/copyright/what-copyright-doesnt-protect.htm  , if OP is makign the diagram of an idea it's still fair.

This is a bad, bad idea. In academic writing you're not doing well if "it's only wrong in most developed countries".

@ObscureOwl It should work completely or it doesnt work, and a good DIY on images is perfectly normal. You can make your own Maslow pyramid graph and as long as you explain based on Maslow's pyramid is perfectly fine and normal.


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Will mathematics journals accept a non-novel theorem, but with different approach
Suppose a researcher comes up with a mathematical theorem, which can be obtained trivially from discovered theorems, but with an approach, that was never used before to describe or prove the theorem.
Then do the journals accept the paper because of the new approach or reject the paper because of no novelty?

See also the potential duplicate: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/111704/is-it-okay-to-include-a-simplified-and-easy-version-of-a-result-already-proved

What if Alan Turing didn't publish his paper because of the (previously published) Church's Lambda calculus paper for the Entscheidungsproblem? :)

@Evariste Utopia! Everybody would be using functional languages instead of imperative ones. ... ...maybe.

Even a new perspective on an existing theorem can be encouraged in some places… For instance, in their latest call for contribution, JFLA writes « Nous encourageons aussi la soumission de "perles", ces  articles présentant avec élégance un résultat connu sous un angle nouveau. », so "We also encourage the submission of "pearls", these articles elegantly presenting a known result from a new angle."

There is more to mathematics than theorems. Sometimes the best part is the  methodology of the proof, especially if it can be used to also solve important problems in the field. If everybody has been thinking in a certain way about a class of problems for a hundred years and you give them a new way to think about it, you have made an important contribution.
So yes, a journal would publish that. But your paper needs to be clear about the novelty and importance of your approach.
My own dissertation had interesting theorems, but was noted for the proof of one of them that was something entirely new and unexpected.

I largely agree, but, not every proof methodology is interesting. How can the OP determine whether their methodology is interesting?

@user2768 Why isn't that for the journals rather than the OP to determine?

@user2768, You can't always know, of course, but you can suspect that it is so if you've looked for similar things without success. People with a lot of experience are more likely to know, of course.

@BCLC Perusing a result without knowing whether it is publishable is a waste of time, so although it is possible to let journals decide, it is ill-advised.

@user2768 wait what? I'm not familiar with publishing actually. How will journals know if something is publishable or not if they don't decide if it's publishable or not?

@user2768 ah wait you mean a journal may publish, but the proof methodology may or may not be interesting?

@BCLC Journals use reviewers to advise the editors on which papers are worth publishing. So it comes back to Buffy's "People with a lot of experience" - i.e. the reviewers.

Think about an extreme case: Let's say you find a simple proof of Fermat's theorem. I'm sure any mathematics journal would be elated to publish that.

@user2768, wait what??  Pursuing knowledge without knowing whether someone else will agree it should be published is a waste of time??  And scientific love of inquiry and knowledge just goes out the window into the garbage dump, does it?  What a sad commentary on the state of academia.

@Wildcard: Given the choice between pursuing knowledge that can be widely shared and pursuing knowledge that no one is interested in, I don't know how you can argue for the latter. (This even without considering practical things like career-building.)

@ruakh, well, certainly.  But by definition if you're interested in it, it's not the case that no one is interested.  Even more to the point, you're equating scientific journal publishing standards with the ability to widely share the knowledge, and equating both with "everyone's" interest level.  I refer you to an alternative view on the matter (note it's from someone who resigned a full tenured professorship, so it's not sour grapes of inability to attain academic success).

@Wildcard You seem to dramatize my words words out of context, but let me try to respond: In this instance, it is unclear whether knowledge (for wider society) or a learning exercise (for the individual) is being pursued. The latter is an interesting pursuit, but it isn't an expected public deliverable of researchers. (I agree that peer review is broken. So are many systems. We work with what we have.)

Edward Witten not only published a paper of this kind (entitled 'A New Proof of the Positive Energy Theorem'), but the paper strongly contributed to getting him a Fields Medal, the highest award in mathematics.  Both proofs in the paper had already been proved by Schoen and Yau using different methods: the key is that he was using new methods to carry out the proof.
Edit: I should also add that general mathematics journals often like to take interesting or easier new proofs of old theorems.
Later: I have thought about this a bit more and the truth is not as quite as glib as I suggested.  Unfortunately these things are never black and white.  The proof by Witten of that theorem was new but also interesting and surprising.  Producing yet another proof of some workhorse theorem which people use on a daily basis might be a bit hard to publish (and I'm speaking from experience as well).

In my area, proving Schur positivity is a big thing.
One can do that using RSK, bijections, involutions, crystals, dual equivalence, or representation theory.
Some proofs give more insight than others, so there are several different proofs of the same statement, as the different techniques have different pros and cons.

This doesn't answer the question, which was about what journals will accept.

Journals accept this - today I saw 'prominent researcher' put a new preprint on arxiv, reproving a theorem related to positivity using crystals, rather than dual equivalence. I have a (published) conjecture on how to prove the same thing using RSK.

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How Much Say Would A Prospective Supervisor Have In A Students Admission To An Applied Math Graduate Program?
I am interested in applying to some applied math graduate programs but I have some deficiencies in a few math courses. However, I have reached out to a potential supervisor and our conversations are going well. So my question is, if a prospective supervisor wants to take on a particular student, but students have to enter a common pool of applicants, how much influence on An individuals admissions does a prospective advisor have in the process.

In which country?

Canada/U.S is the context

Do you already have an MS in something? A BS in math? Other?

@Buffy I did some coursework in physics, got a minor in math, and ended up doing a BA in economics and will be defending for a MSc in Natural Resource Economics shortly. Two issues that exist are that 1) some of my math grades are sporadic (D in ODE’s, A- in PDE’s; why that’s the case I can save for the Statement of Purpose) and 2) I am missing some components such as real analysis. Generally though the reason for sporadic undergraduate grades is a lack of consistent discipline and hard work (for whatever that’s worth).

Actually don't dwell on the past in the SoP. Make it forward looking.

"Soft" influence
It's hard to judge how much soft influence a professor has. Every professor will have a different level of influence, and also a different approach in how they wield it. There is no way to answer this definitively. The most influential professors in departments that allow them to wield influence will have as much power as they want to choose students. Professors in other departments may have little to no influence at all.
"Hard" influence
In my experience, the more powerful control over admissions that professors have is money. For many programs, there are more qualified applicants than there are slots available for funding. That means that many qualified applicants miss the cut despite being qualified: there are simply too many other prospective students that either have better resumes or have a better fit to the program. However, the program still wants those students!
If a professor has resources to fund a student and offers to do so, that student can possibly skip the queue a bit, because they are no longer competing for the at large funding slots. In the grad program I attended, these students were referred to as "direct admit" students: they joined a lab immediately that offered to support them. Other students had a year to rotate and choose a supervisor.
Summary
I have no idea which of these categories your program and professor is more likely to fall into, if either. If you want to be a student, apply. It's better to apply and fail to be accepted than to not apply and guarantee you will not be accepted.

The answer to this question depends a lot on the university and the seniority of the prospective supervisor. I did not apply for a Math program but for computer science and though the prospective supervisor was keen the committee rejected my application. I believe there should not be a huge difference in the Math department.
Academia is ripe with politics and resources are limited. So there is never going to be one answer to this question. The influence of the prospective supervisor depends a lot on how good a politician he is. And that will determine how good he is in getting his prospective students into the programme. If the supervisor is junior then his senior colleagues will dictate terms. I have known prospective supervisors to write a personal note of recommendation for some students on the application who they think are more suited to work 'for' them.
In an ideal world, the supervisor should not be a member of the committee which shortlists the application. But even then I have seen senior academicians ensuring their colleagues who are close to them professionally being put into the committee to ensure they get what they want and vice versa.
If I were a prospective student I would care little about all this as none of this is in my hands.

I don't mind being downvoted but just curious on on knowing reason(s).

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How to find the list of relevant IEEE journals to publish a paper in?
If one has research findings in a topic X, and wishes to publish it in one of the many IEEE journals, which is the best way to list the journals that includes X within its scope?
Note that the solution to X might use one or more of frameworks of [A, B ..], where 'A' can covered in the scope of journal J1 and 'B' can be within the scope of journal J2 and so on.
The obvious method might be checking up on the keywords in IEEEXplore and look for journals corresponding to previously published papers that come up. But is there any other way?

I would suggest that, if you are broadly familiar with the literature that covers your research topic (and a bit beyond as well), it should be pretty obvious which journals, IEEE and beyond, accept articles in and around the topic. My personal experience was more questioning which journal would be best for a given paper (how exciting, novel, whatnot). I never wondered which journals might publish it.

Look in the bibliography of your paper. Which IEEE journal do you cite the most?

@JeffE That's a pretty straight forward way to look at it. That is how I've been doing till now. (Thanks, but the way)

IEEE.org currently has a Publication Recommender tool where you input the keywords, key phrases, title, abstract etc. of your article, or the actual document of the article (in pdf, doc, docx or tex format). You can narrow the search to periodicals and/or conferences, or the date you want to publish before. I tried it with the two articles I've actually finished, and received a few good recommendations with high relevance scores for both.

In my opinion, the simplest and quickest (but not necessarily the most optimal) solution would be to rank those frameworks [A, B, ...] by your favorite criteria (i.e., importance, fit to my research career goals/interests, fit to my department's research interests, etc.) and then perform bibliometric search within the IEEE journals scope, using one or more of your top-ranked frameworks as keywords. The resulting list of journals would be pretty relevant to your paper as well as to your most important criteria.

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Do the courses on your PhD transcript matter, beyond GPA and grades?
There are a few questions here that discuss whether PhD GPA/grades matter (for example this, this, and this). But I haven't been able to find anything on whether other information on the transcript matters. In particular, I wonder if a specific course and the status of that course on PhD transcript could be something an application reviewer would care about, for academic and industry jobs after completing the PhD, and also internships and fellowships during the PhD.
I have heard "no body looks at your transcript" from so many people, but I doubt if any of them had any issue with their transcript anyway. That makes me skeptical of their assessment of the importance of PhD transcript. Say, there is a course that's relevant to your research (but not absolutely essential). When you go on the (industry or academic) job market at the end of your PhD, would anyone care about whether you had that course or not and whether you got A, B, or a W for that course? If so, between a B and a W, which one is worse, and how bad is it?

To give more context, I'm quite a bit beyond the coursework stage of my PhD (an engineering PhD in the US), have completed all my courseworks, have taken my comprehensive exams, and have just one more step to candidacy/ABD. Almost all of my time should be spent on research, but I took an optional course that's on a topic quite useful for my research (admittedly a mistake to take it as a graded course). Now I'm considering dropping it with a 'W' on my transcript, but I don't know if that could have any consequences. In terms of learning the material, I've already gotten all that I want from the course (I kept it for most of the semester and did the homework, etc.), but I don't know if getting a B on that course is worth slowing down my research to study for the exams, or if it'd be better to just get a 'W' and focus on my research and avoid botching paper deadlines.

Are you in a middle-to-top ranked program where it's generally assumed by default (by society) that everyone in the program (and definitely everyone earning a degree) is competent, or a less well-regarded program where that's not a given?  Are you going to be competing for jobs where the employer is hoping to hire someone really good, or jobs where the employer is just trying to not hire someone bad?

I am in mod-to-top ranked program.
I don't know about the answer to your question about the jobs. In terms of competitiveness, the job market I hear about is quite competitive. For industry jobs, normally PhDs from our lab/program compete for jobs at well-known tech companies, but rarely go for niche and ultra competitive positions in Wall Street. And academic job market is highly competitive anyway as far as I know.

If you are done with all other courses, mostly the research portion is pending, and still can get a B or better in the course, I suggest completing that course even with a B grade while working on research and graduating. It seems like you are at the end of your PhD journey with the feeling of "Is it worth taking courses" during the end of PhD.  All you need is a final push which I am giving you. I had the same feeling and a friend of mine motivated me to finish the course; I did and the rest is history. You'll be proud at the end.

I doubt that courses and grades have any "external" value after you finish your dissertation and it is accepted.
My experience was that the doctoral level coursework (math) was to prepare one to pass comprehensive exams prior to starting on the dissertation. If you couldn't pass the courses with a good grade you probably weren't going to pass comps and might be advised to quit.
They were also, however, the way that the university "guaranteed" to the public that its PhD graduates were broadly prepared in the field. So, while algebra was far from my first love, I had to grok it to be considered a competent mathematician. For my main field, my grades and such in those courses reassured my advisor that he wouldn't be making a mistake in taking me on.
The emphasis on the courses will vary, of course, in different places.
It is unlikely that anyone would care about a withdrawal, or even know about it. There are lots of reasons to drop a course that isn't required.

Thanks for the response!
This agrees with what I've heard from others.
Do you by any chance have/heard of experiences of actually ignoring transcripts when reviewing applications for postdoc positions? Or the experience of not ignoring it and interpreting any specific information on the transcript?

Nothing specific, but it isn't a question of "ignoring" transcripts but the fact of the granting of a degree implies that the granting institution judged you worthy and it is unlikely to be second guessed other than in odd circumstances such as being hired to do a specific thing and your record implies you are bad at that. But a W is nothing to worry about, especially once you start research, which pushes other things aside.

Do the courses on your PhD transcript matter, beyond GPA and grades?
If you are applying for US Federal Government job, then the answer is yes.
Specifically, different job series require specific numbers of credits.
For example, a Mathematical Statistician states:

Basic Requirements:
Degree: that included 24 semester hours of mathematics and statistics, of which at least 12 semester hours were in mathematics and 6 semester hours were in statistics.
or
Combination of education and experience -- at least 24 semester hours of mathematics and statistics, including at least 12 hours in mathematics and 6 hours in statistics, as shown in A above, plus appropriate experience or additional education.
Evaluation of Education:
Courses acceptable toward meeting the mathematics course requirement of paragraphs A or B above must have included at least four of the following: differential calculus, integral calculus, advanced calculus, theory of equations, vector analysis, advanced algebra, linear algebra, mathematical logic, differential equations, or any other advanced course in mathematics for which one of these was a prerequisite. Courses in mathematical statistics or probability theory with a prerequisite of elementary calculus or more advanced courses will be accepted toward meeting the mathematics requirements, with the provision that the same course cannot be counted toward both the mathematics and the statistics requirement.

Also, for a federal job, you can list courses on your resume to show they fit the requirements.
For example, a biology-type series might require 24 credits of biology courses.
You could list "Wildlife 301: Herpetology" as a biologist course so HR would see you have enough credits.
For your second question:

For give more context, I'm quite a bit beyond the coursework stage of my PhD (an engineering PhD in the US), have completed all my courseworks, have taken my comprehensive exams, and have just one more step to candidacy/ABD. Almost all of my time should be spent on research, but I took an optional course that's on a topic quite useful for my research (admittedly a mistake to take it as a graded course). Now I'm considering dropping it with a 'W' on my transcript, but I don't know if that could have any consequences. In terms of learning the material, I've already gotten all that I want from the course (I kept it for most of the semester and did the homework, etc.), but I don't know if getting a B on that course is worth slowing down my research to study for the exams, or if it'd be better to just get a 'W' and focus on my research and avoid botching paper deadlines.

I personally do not think it matters either way.
A "W" will not hurt you (I had one or two in grad school too).
Ask your advisor or trusted committee member what they think.

The math courses you list seem to be undergraduate level, not doctoral level coursework. Same for statistics.

If somebody didn't have the courses at the undergraduate level, they could count graduate-level math courses. Especially for other areas like ecology or for a fish biologist.


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How do you write out mathematical formulae in a thesis
I am writing out my thesis at the moment and I am using Machine Learning Algorithms. Let's say I am using Support Vector Machine. I am not necessarily re-inventing the algorithm nor am I implementing it in Python from scratch because I am using Scikit Learn. Then do you need to add the formulae in your thesis or do you just reference you used the package and used those hyperparameters?
Thanks in advance for help!

This should be the question for your thesis advisor.

I agree with @Nobody. I could tell you how I am writing in my thesis, but it wouldn't help much since your advisor may disagree with it (especially cause I changed some of my references/explanation since my supervisor told me to, so it's not even my "original" way)


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How to explain typical number of publications during a PhD in a grant application?
A grant application requires me to elaborate on typical output indicators in my field (pure mathematics). In particular, I want to explain that 3-4 articles during a PhD is a good amount for my field. But having that solely as a claim seams very weak. How would you justify this statement? Are there any resources to refer to for this?

Does your graduate program keep stats on this for students in their program?

There are no statistics for that at my university I am afraid.

If you are still a student or still in contact with your advisor, ask them for some guidance on this. I'd think the number in math is (still) pretty small. When I was a student (long ago) the answer would be zero for any doctoral student. Good papers still take a long time to get published, I suspect.

The AMS has issued a number of "culture statements" (scroll to the bottom of the page) meant to explain the peculiarities of the field to outsiders. One of them deals with rates of publication. It does not address precisely the issue of the "typical number of publications during a Ph.D" (I would doubt that reliable statistics on are available beyond the informal personal impressions of senior mathematicians) but it does explain that mathematicians publish at rates much lower than some other fields. (Another statement is helpful if you need evidence that an alphabetical ordering of authors is the norm in pure maths.)

From my time as a math PhD I would add that 3-4 publications during PhD would be considered a good amount in some fields of pure maths and an exceptionally high one in other areas. Having a single paper with the key results of your thesis is not uncommon in pure maths.

I had one publication (joint with my advisor) in EE in grad school, I was co-author on several conference papers (maybe 3 or 4) ... don't know the current state ... this was decades ago, in the US but we published in UK!

I know at least the University of Michigan has some statistics on this. It may take some digging for others though. The doctoral exit survey graph below reflects data for students graduating between 2018 and 2022 in mathematics, and defines publications as scholarly works based on research conducted while as a graduate student that have been published or accepted:


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Obtaining Academic Work Permit in Europe/USA
What is the process of obtaining a work permit (to work in Academia) in US and Europe? I have noticed on many job postings there is a question along the lines of "are you authorized to work in Europe" (or US).
If one is offered a position, then I assume the university arranges the work permit. But my question is focused on getting the work permit in advance to increase chances of getting an interview.
Thank you in advance.

In most European countries, you cannot obtain a work permit without a work offer, so you cannot really obtain this in advance. The work permit is evaluated according to the work offer you obtain, so everything depends on that.

I have worked at a German university's English department for twenty years and have hired academic personnel below professorial level: a work permit has never been a prerequisite. Actually, the university has acted as though getting the work permit was solely the applicants responsibility. It has always worked like this: person (e.g. from Africa) applied, was selected to get the contract, then approached the state's foreigners' office with the work offer to get a permit, then was given the contract. It is sometimes tedious (e.g. from African states), but has always worked in my experience.

In the US at least, you need a position before getting a visa.
If a posting mentions needing to be allowed to work in the US, they're probably talking about a contingency, not a prerequisite: if you fail to get a visa after being offered a position, the offer sensibly becomes void. If there is some legal reason you cannot get a visa, you shouldn't even bother applying, but otherwise it certainly isn't expected nor possible that you have prior authorization.
If a question is asked about whether you are authorized to work in a country when you apply, you should answer honestly; this is not necessarily used to deny you a job, it's likely they need to know if you don't have authorization so that they can help you get it.


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How to get over 75% in an exam/coursework at masters level?
I'm half way through my MBA, and my highest mark is around 73%, which I've had in several modules and pieces of coursework. I've contacted the university to ask for concrete examples of previous answers for exams I've sat that have received > 80% but they won't provide any. I've read several books on critical thinking and essay writing, but still something's missing.
The university has published guidelines for > 80%, and they're things like:

Exploration of topic showing excellent knowledge & understanding through thorough & appropriate research. Impressive choice and range of appropriate content.

and other similar vague statements.
Specifically, how can I get over > 80% for an exam/coursework at masters level, or should I take this further with the university?

You did not specify the country here. In some countries, 70+% is considered to be a very good grade. While in some, it is a bad one. Also, sometimes, it is hard to get 80%+.

This is in the UK. 70+ is a first, but I need to make up my grade average since I'm currently averaging high 60s.

It looks like I'm being downvoted, probably by my university :D

Your post is somewhat off-topic I guess

There may literally be no recent examples of scores above 80.  Scoring above 80 tends to require doing better than the instructors think they could have done themselves.

RE the downvotes: this question is essentially "how to get better grades," and that's not something we can help with; it too broad and the answers depend on each individual. Some other sites do invite discussion or brainstorming, but we are strictly Q&A. Moreover, you seem to have concerns about how you personally are being marked, so you really need to be talking to instructors or graders who are familiar with your work and the course standards. If the question were "is it true that scores > 80% are effectively unachievable in the UK", that might be something we could help with.

https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/191600/is-it-true-that-scores-80-are-effectively-unachievable-in-the-uk

@jbrown It doesn't seem like the system is designed for you to obtain a "first" through a mixture of grades in the low 60s and below and those far above 70, rather if you want an average above 70 you should aim to have all your grades above 70. See also XY problem about asking about your actual problem rather than your proposed solution.

I'm not sure what you mean when you say you have contacted "the university" --- it's an awfully big institution with many people in it.  In any case, if you would like to know the shortcomings of your work and how you can improve it, you should seek feedback on your work from your course lecturer.  Given your specific interest, you might wish to ask your lecturer what more they would want to see in the work to get it to the point of being at the high grade level you have mentioned.
As to getting examples of work at high grade level, that might be possible, but it can also be tricky.  Lecturers typically treat student assessment as confidential and do not circulate it to other students.  If a lecturer has taught a course for several years then they might be able to anonymise a past submission for this purpose, or even seek permission from the student to waive confidentiality to allow circulation of their work (as an example of a high-quality submission).  I recommend that you let your lecturer know that it would be helpful to have examples of this kind and see what can be done.
Aside from talking with your lecturer to get feedback and examples of good work, no, you should not take this further with the university.

Re not taking it further. Why do you think that? I feel like I'm expected to take assessments but no one can tell me what's expected beyond bascially "do a good job". Since my course and my time is expensive I don't think this is good enough.

The answer is somewhat subject-dependent.
In more precise disciplines such as Mathematics for example,  exam problems normally have exact answers. For such disciplines, it is sufficient to correctly solve all problems to score 100% of the exam mark. Whether a mathematical problem is solved correctly can be objectively established by checking all the arguments, which reduces the scope for bias and ambiguity in marking.
Many disciplines are not as precise as Mathematics. Studying for such degrees involves reading a lot of approaches to the same question, which sometimes contradict each other. By reading and critically discussing those approaches students learn to be creative and apply appropriate decisions in difficult situations. Normally, a problem is open-ended, does not have a unique exact solution, and students are expected to explain and justify their approaches but sometimes also critique them and discuss their weaknesses. Normally assessment of such modules is based on coursework rather than exam. For coursework, students are expected to produce an essay with broad discussion of a topic. Obviously, marking of such work is subjective to a certain degree. University guidelines are vague because they are applicable to all disciplines. Your lecturers are experts in their own area and are able to contextualise what exactly they expect from an essay to give it a mark of 80%. They may not want to share examples with students, because it often leads to work being copied and students arguing that their piece is "the same" as the example that scored 80%. This of course defeats the purpose of the assignment.

Thanks, you make some good points. However, I'm trying to get examples from my university for modules I've already completed to avoid the latter points. As of now unfortunately I have been unable to get hold of a single example of what's required to get > 80%. Since exams aren't about original research I'm stumped by what might count as this "excellent knowledge" and originality of thought they seem to be looking for.

As far as exams are concerned, some (most?) Maths Depts in the UK publish model (=correct) solutions for all students after the exam grades are out by default. If your Dept is not doing it, it may be because they want to reuse exams and save themselves a trouble of writing a new exam each year. Or maybe customs in MBA Depts are different, I dunno. You may engage with your student union to see if you can collectively argue to make it happen.

I think a better analogue for project work in an MBA is project work in mathematics where there are no "exact answers".

@erstwhileeditor I agree, but project work is a very broadly defined activity which can be assessed in many different ways. For example a project on "building a bridge" has a clearly objective measure of quality (weight the bridge can sustain). A project on "Fibonacci numbers in modern society" can be very discussion-oriented and much closer to an essay with subjective criteria for assessment.


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What should I do if I feel that a senior academic is trying to take advantage of me?
A while ago I asked a senior mathematician a question. He made some suggestions for some papers to read and had a broad outline for what steps might work. Then I read those papers and proved a theorem and wrote it up and sent it to him.
He thought that what I wrote could be strengthened to make a more interesting paper. He suggested that I agree to co-author the paper so that he could "teach me good mathematical style." I agreed.
But it became clear over time when we met that he just wanted me to do all the work. When we met he would say things like, "Try to prove this..." I could tell that he wasn't interested in proving anything himself, even though the draft so far had results that were all due to myself.
Well, I am not a sucker. I will do everything I can to stop him from getting his name on the paper if he is not actually trying to prove anything.
He also seemed to lose interest in the project. We stopped talking because I had other things to work on, but we are generally on good terms. What should I do? The paper is just sitting in my computer doing nothing. But I want people to know that I did prove something that might be publishable.

I removed answers in comments, and unkind remarks. The other comments have been moved to chat.

You are a bit unreasonable. He pointed you to the right direction to derive the proof. He did not do nothing.
It is also not true that senior academics who always tell students what to do and never do any "actual work" are just trying to exploit the students. They are experienced researchers who (may) know what to do to come up with the results, and they are just trying to point the students to the "right" direction.
"right"? Of course, sometimes, they are wrong. However, their margin of error is much lower than their students'.

I don't disagree in any substantial way with this very good answer—just enough to note that "their margin of error is much lower than their students'" is an absolute statement that is, surely, not always true.  But a very mild qualifier (something like "is usually" or "is probably") would make me agree unreservedly.

Actually, if I were your advisor or mentor, I'd do pretty much the same thing as a way to help you to becoming a better mathematician. He may well have had proofs (or proof ideas) into the things he was suggesting, but felt (as I feel) that minimal hints to students (an probably mentees) is better than giving solutions.
Math is funny in a way, in that it is possible to be a co-author on a paper in which another person does the majority of the "work" but who provides the necessary insight (the "a-ha moment") that makes it all come together. A five minute conversation over coffee could, in principle, result in primary authorship, though mathematicians don't usually think in terms of "first author".
If you are sure that the person has not contributed intellectual content to the paper (a risky bet) then you can publish on your own. Or you can explore with them whether you should do so. But, his "suggestions on how to prove it" might be enough that you ethically need to include him.
My suggestion, possibly not shared, is that you try to continue to work with him to strengthen the work and get it published, possibly with both as author.

Time in the saddle or relative number of keystrokes are both meaningless measures of contribution in math and in some other fields. And, math maturity is measured in insight, which normally comes from hard work, though it can be communicated. But communication is facilitated by that hard work.

He's not my advisor or anything, though. If I gave you a hint as to how to prove something, does that mean you should list me as a co-author?

That depends on the hint, but mathematicians are usually pretty generous about such things. If my "hint" was the crux of the proof, then, maybe yes. If you couldn't have done it without my "hint" then maybe yes.

I would say rather than "you can publish on your own" that "you can ask the other part if it is OK for you to publish on your own".  Of course one can always make such a decision unilaterally, but the certain bad feelings and possibility of accusations or perceptions of academic dishonesty if one has done so without even consulting the other person are surely so severe as to make the consequences of asking (difficult and unlikely to end well as that is) seem trivial.

@LSpice, you cut a fragment out of a sentence that provides context. I'll stand by what I wrote.

Re, no matter how one person, especially a junior researcher, feels, making a decision like this unilaterally without at least talking to the senior researcher is almost guaranteed to have bad consequences (and deservedly so—I would be very upset if a co-author of mine cut me out of a paper and didn't even give me the chance to bow out gracefully in private discussion).  Let me note explicitly that you do suggest discussion in your next sentence; I only think it should be more urged.  But of course it is your answer; I just comment.

@LSpice and that's the point Buffy was making in that sentence you quote.

but I don't see what problem there is - if you get help by someone, of course you should add as author (right?) :o or am I missing something trivial here sorry! (NOTE if there is a problem, if not it's all good; sorry)

@WilliamMartens - you can thank them in the Acknowledgments without adding them as an author. I agreed to co-author this paper though, so if it ever gets published it will be a joint paper.

ohh I see, thanks for explaining; @cgb5436

There is often a dilemma about whether a contributor has done enough to deserve co-authorship or merely a mention in the Acknowledgement sections.
I would say that, when it comes to practically-intensive fields like medical research or basic biological laboratory research, it can be argued that someone limiting themselves to contributing ideas that move the project along toward publication rather than actually doing any lab work or writing anything that appears in the final draft merely deserves an acknowledgement (as opposed to co-authorship).
However, in a theory-intensive field, and especially in a field which is completely theoretical, such as Mathematics, ideas are everything. If the contributor has given you very significant original ideas, ideas without which you could not possibly have produced the work you have in hand now, I would say that they definitely deserve co-author credit. Besides, you did agree to it, it's only ethical to keep your word.

It is not only ideas, it is also directions and providing context (related articles).

@usr1234567Yes, I lumped all that into "ideas". Anything short of doing lab work or writing part of the manuscript.

"you did agree to it, it's only ethical to keep your word." - this is not, as a general rule, true, especially in situations where a person with greater power convinces a person with lesser power to say yes to something, which they didn't need to say yes to, but the latter person didn't know they didn't need to say yes to.

@user253751 You're implying coercion. Nothing in the OP suggests coercion at the outset.

Usually, in situations like yours, the first advice is, "you should have talked about authorship before you started to collaborate". In your case, this happend and you should not publish on your own without the senior researcher. You are bound to your agreement to have him as a co-author. If you are not satisfied with the extend of his contribution, you should talk to him.
Further, I expect if you finish your first draft and show it to your co-author, he gives helpful hints on how to improve your writing and overall presentation. Factor in these future contributions before you make your evaluation of his contribution.

tl;dr: Rather than "have to", consider the possibility that you might be "lucky enough to be able to" and see if it could be a better fit.

In my opinion @buffy nails it as usual, but I'd like to add some additional spin and context.
Those familiar with it will know my answer by a single reference to Erdős number. As discussed in answer(s) to the History of Science and Math SE question Which mathematician traveled to and moved in with each collaborator? where Erdős would not only invite himself into the academic world of various other mathematicians, he'd also invite himself into their homes!
The idea that the more senior and/or experienced mathematician saw that discussing together was going to be productive and so would a priori decide for both parties what would happen next might seem at first weird in the 20th century to most, but as several answers point out things are a little different in mathematics; and mentorship is much more common and probably much more important than in many other academic fields.
You have to trust your gut, but if your gut allows for the distinct possibility that you are being mentored, that you will learn a thing or three from this interaction, that the road to paper acceptance might be a little smoother and faster, and that there's nothing that smells particularly predatory about the interaction; in other words, if you can't identify any clear harm here, I'd say go for it!
I have seen mathematicians' web pages which list their interactions or even the "lineage" advisors of advisors prominently, and heard accounts of grand-advisors and great-grand-advisors firsthand.
Collaboration is often hard for people; demonstrating that you can do research with and write a paper together with another mathematician, and that you can accept mentorship are great qualities to show.

https://www.mathscareers.org.uk/erdos-numbers/

The question, well posed by OP, is what to do if I feel that a senior academic is trying to take advantage of me?
What the senior academic (SA from now on) is doing has been carved out by other answers, however there is an important part that are the feelings of OP.
OP genuinely feels that the SA is exploiting them. Although this can be the case, given the details in the question, I agree with the other answers that quite likely there is a healthy collaboration, that the SA is investing their own time to support, push and improve the work of OP, without exploiting OP. But OP is still feeling exploited.
I do not want to speculate on the OP-specific deep psychological reasons of this, I would like to remark that it is common for young academicians to be exploited, it is common for academicians to be willingly exploited (please note the praise that is often given to "hardworking" people). Such an self-imposed exploitation is possible only because working in a certain department/group is percevied as being part of a close-knitted group, where the needs of the individual have to be sacrified to the higher good of "scientific progress". It is a primordial behavior, it is deeply seated in the mind of people, it surfaces again and again in the academia (where the brightest and bias-free minds are, supposedly).
In general terms, this is typical of religious sect, the same sects impose a shame on the people leaving them, similar to the shame some academicians give to their (ex-)colleagues leaving the academia to work in a company.
Therefore, I guess the OP is feeling exploited because the senior researcher is from an external group, is not from the same group, so the primordial defensive response of one's own group is coming out.
I suggest OP puts themselves in the shoe of the SA: assume the SA has already enough to do and is approached by a brilliant colleagues from another group with a very interesting question. SA knows that has zero time to spend on the question, but can give out for free all SA's expertise and experience, only in a discontinuous pattern. What would OP do?

I think the exploiting / self-exploiting and the religious parts are misleading. I like the first two and the last paragraph thou.


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How important are grades in engineering graduate school
People generally agree that grades don't matter in graduate school because they are reflective of your understanding of other people's work. What matters is the work you did and your research.
But could it be said they matter to the same extent as undergraduate grades when applying for a job? For example, if an employer was screening candidates for a data science or software engineering position and one candidate was a graduate student and another an undergraduate student and both had a similar GPA would the graduate student be considered a stronger candidate?
If employers consider the grades in courses relevant to their position for undergraduates, so on that basis if you do well in graduate courses related to that position shouldn't you be given preference or at least seen as an equally strong candidate?
Although it's true that the expectations for graduate students should be higher than for undergraduates, if two candidates are being considered then the graduate student will probably be more knowledgeable if they have a similar GPA and other experience.

Has the graduate student, well, graduated? Why are they competing for jobs with undergraduates?

U.S. based? Also, are you mainly interested in graduate work for a Masters degree or graduate work for a Ph.D. degree? In general, grades are probably more important for a Masters degree than for a Ph.D. degree.

Related: Why is PhD GPA considered irrelevant?

Academic employers typically do not have much flexibility in positions with respect to the education level attained.
Industry employers do not care that much about the marks. Doing well academically is an argument a person could leverage, but any kind of portfolio beats that, so it is only applicable for entry positions.
Where grades likely matter the most is the intersection of industry and academia, when companies like NVidia would approach universities to find people for R&D positions - and in this case more than just GPA goes into the decision. And we are back to square one - actual skills matter, and the grades are a pretty poor predictor of them.

Statements that "grades don't matter" in graduate school apply to academia and academic jobs as a general statement and refer to people pursuing PhD degrees. The reason is that research output is just vastly more important than almost anything else for research-based jobs (teaching-focused jobs may be a bit different, but are still likely to focus on evidence someone will be a good instructor).
People in industry may or may not have any idea what is and isn't important in academia, and can hire by whatever criteria they think are important. If they don't see any value in a PhD degree that's up to them.
Since there is no one person in charge of all industry hiring, those criteria will vary.


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How can I recover value in the form of some degree from my time studying for a BSc?
The TLDR; is I was kicked out of my (Canadian) BSc in CS program on a technicality after having offended the department chair.
I had only 2 credits left to go when I was kicked out. Is there any way for my work to be applied toward any kind of degree or significant credit towards one? It was about 10 years ago.
Ideally I would get a BSc without much additional work. If that is not in the cards, I would love to hear about my chances to gain entry into a masters program. I have significant experience in the software industry.

Every school will have their own rules about what can be accepted as transfer credit, making this very difficult to answer with any authority.

"I was kicked out of my BSc in CS program on a technicality after having offended the department chair" - this sounds a bit euphemistic and suggests you haven't quite come to terms with the consequences of your actions. Learning to do that will likely have more value than any degree.

The intervening 10 years is not going to make it easy, especially if it was any kind of tech or science subject. I see computer-science in the keyword list. 10 years in computers is a significant delay. Your BSc may be a tad dated to try to claim you are only 2 credits from completion.

@BryanKrause I was trying to avoid adding irrelevant details. I don't see evidence that I employed euphemism; it seems rather that you simply doubt my claims. I don't agree with the assessment that my statements imply I haven't come to terms with the consequences of my actions. Your statement about the value of this coming to terms is irrelevant to the question I asked.

@HapticBovinator "On a technicality" would be the specific detail that is both irrelevant to the question and implies you haven't come to terms with the consequences of your actions.

Is there any way for my work to be applied toward any kind of degree or significant credit towards one? It was about 10 years ago.

You will have to ask the school for a definitive answer.
It is likely that you will have to go through the regular admissions process:

If you get in, your past work will be compared to the current degree requirements, and you will have to take whatever is missing. Most of credits should transfer (you've already taken these actual classes at the same school), but it's likely that you will have to retake a handful of them for various reasons.
If you don't get in, then you'll have to apply as a transfer applicant somewhere else. Most schools have a residency requirement, so you'll only be able to transfer about half your degree; you'll have to redo the other half. Many schools also only accept transfer credits if they were earned within the past N years. You can shop for a school that has favorable policies.

I was kicked out of my BSc in CS program on a technicality after having offended the department chair.

Be careful about making statements like this in the future, particularly when applying to universities. As you can see from the reception here, people tend to give the benefit of the university's judicial process, not to you. Further, no one wants to work with an angry student who feels hard-done-by about something that happened ten years ago. I realize it's totally possible that the university acted unethically toward you, and in this case, it sucks doubly much that random strangers are still strongly inclined to take the university's side. But life is like that sometimes.

I have significant experience in the software industry.

This really have no bearing on whether or not you can get into a master's degree, especially if said master's degree is research oriented. Practical skills gained in the industry doesn't transfer well into academia, and vice versa. These are two completely different worlds and require completely different skillsets.
To answer your question, it is very difficult to get accepted into a master's program without actually graduating from a bachelor's program. You might be able to convince some master's programs that you have the requisite knowledge, but given that you did your bachelor's 10 years ago (which means your education would be outdated, in the academia world), it would be a very hard sell.
I'm not entirely sure what your purpose is for doing a masters? You likely have a established career in the industry so a masters is only going to help you if you want to pursue research or change fields entirely. The other possibility is that you are just doing it out of spite (which from the tone of your post, I'm starting to believe to be true), which unfortunately is not going to get you anywhere. So, before you do this, actually sit down and think about why you want to do a master's in the first place.


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Meeting with Student Ombuds tomorrow - any advice please on how to do so effectively?
I'm meeting with the Student Ombuds, to deal with bullying and harassment situations with my school. I've gotten legal involvement, and this is with respect to my disabilities.
I take exams with accommodations, due to some disability and following treatments and require extra time to finish my exams. Occasionally, I request extensions too due to hospitalizations or treatment or what not. This may cause resentment amongst certain professors, though most are very understanding. I am empathetic as to the school's need to be strict with deadlines, as university is preparation for the workforce. However, the types of harassment that I have faced in the past two months have been egregious and have caused me health problems. I've had professors randomly give me a bunch of 0's on assignments simply because they didn't like me, amongst other concerns.
I'm wondering how I may prepare for this appointment, so that I may make the most out of this appreciated opportunity to document my concerns and to seek a resolution. I crowdsourced a few opinions, and peers told me to print off specific emails and to have specific circumstances to outline instead of being vague. I'll definitely do this. I'm just scared and anxious about it all, thus seeking second opinions. Thank you.
Update: Thank you so much for any insights, as I’m taking notes and I’m taking feedback seriously. The country is Canada where it’s easy enough to get into university but also easy to get weeded out in stem fields type of thing. University rankings don’t matter much here but mine is a reputable enough institution.

Stick to documented facts. Don't go near "because they didn't like me".

I am very sorry this is your experience, many of us in academia strive for a much better environment than this. However, I want to emphasize @EthanBolker's comment. Do try to be calm and stick strictly to the facts that you can prove. Don't say "I think they are taking revenge" or "they don't like me", let the facts tell the narrative. e.g. "They gave me zeroes in my assignments even if I had an extension approved" etc. Everything you say, make sure its a fact. That will help you get heard.

I agree with the peers who said to prepare something in writing.  I suggest you write down:

When the problem happened.
What happened.
Where it happened.
Who was present.
What you want to happen now.

I suggest you bring a person you trust who will be able to remain calm.
If your disability was previously documented, it might be helpful to bring a copy of that documentation.
You can explain why you did things that you did, but I suggest you do not comment on why other people did what they did.  It's often difficult to distinguish between malice, incompetence, and bureaucracy; It's often unimportant which one is the reason for certain actions.

Even when describing clearly abusive behaviour, you can stick to the facts. "And then so-and-so called me a disgrace to humanity" is pretty compelling on its own, without speculation about the person's motives.

"...incompetence..", yep, and I'll explicitly add gross ignorance (about medical conditions) to the list. Although my experience is in high school and not academia in this respect, during the years I've had colleagues who weren't able to understand the implications of some student's medical condition even when a specialist physician had explained the problem! Sadly there are people who just "don't get it".