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How to deal with students who refuse to do anything except take exams?
This is a follow up to my previous question. Some context:

I teach at a new Fachhochschule-type institute, where my course is 5-day, 1 hour/day course to 20+ students.
I am actively teaching, providing the material, and encouraging the students to always ask questions.
My course is structured to have 4 days of lecture and 1 day of practical. In the practical, I explain a real-world problem and give the students graded exercises.

In week 1, the exercise in the practical was to prepare a half-page report on a short consultancy problem. I gave them 7 full days to write the report. No one asked questions or stated any concerns before the deadline.
The day after the deadline, only half the class had submitted on time, half of which only at minutes before said deadline. I was gobsmacked, since even half of the submitted results were very poorly made (one even stated, in the report, "excuse me, but I didn't understand anything"), by totally missing the point or even copy/pasting definitions without context from the lecture notes. In total 1/4 of the class actually proved that had sit down and worked actively on the practical.
The next day I explained that their actions were completely out of line, since in 6 months they are supposed to go in the workforce, and this behavior of completely ignoring and not giving notice to the professor would be very detrimental to their careers. I refused to evaluate any latecomer who did not advise me on time. My stern reaction did upset the students who didn't submit. I even received an 1-page email (double the size of the report) from one of the students claiming that my job is only to teach and their is only to take exams, and they are not obligated to do any extra work I give them.
Is there anything that I can do to improve the cooperativity of said students? Should I modify the final exam mark structure or organize the lectures differently? Since this is my first shot, I don't really know how to proceed.
Clarifications and Update:

It is technically true that the student's grades (according to university policy) are determined by exams only.
But, I am allowed to have practicals and other assignments count as part of the exam score. My mentor confirmed this.
I think these students are bad apples because they are clinging to this technicality rather than doing the useful assignments (or at least respectfully letting me know of their concerns in advance).
Based on the discussion here and with my mentor, I have decided to count the practical for extra credit only.

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OP: I made some edits to incorporate info from the comments and to improve readability / clarity. Please feel free to make additional edits if I screwed anything up, but I recommend keeping the length as short as possible.

@cag51 Thanks for the edit, in particular the 3rd bullet point summarizes perfectly the main issue.

Welcome to higher education! Students will use formal assesement to guide their learning, and no amount of cajoling, or appealing to their sense professional or intellectual propriety will change that. Some students will always work above and beyond what the assessment requires of them, but most won't.
Assessment is how students comprehend what is the stated aim of a course. Instead of fighting against it, you might embrace it. For each learning outcome there should be an assessment that is aligned with that outcome - that is, it is impossible to successfully complete the assessment without have met the learning outcome. The learning activities are then designed to meet the outcomes. This might seem like "teaching to the test", but in fact it is the opposite: in "teaching to the test", the assessment defines learning outcomes, here the learning outcomes define the assessment. Biggs and Tang [1] refer to this as "constructive alignment". [1] is a good read for the evidence that students have more or less always measured what they are supposed to learn by what they are assessed on.
Thus you would ask "what learning outcome am I hoping my students achieve by this homework, and where is that assessed?". If the learning outcome isn't assessed anywhere, then it should be. If it doesn't meet a learning outcome then perhaps it shouldn't be set.
In practice we either make homework credit bearing (even if only a tiny percent of the overall credit), or, more frequently, ask an exam question that tests the learning outcome that a homework is aimed towards, and a student won't be able to answer without having done the homework. The final possibility is that the homework is practice for what will be tested in the exam. In this case you need to make this abundantly clear to the students. Even then, you will probably only get a fraction of the class doing it. The consolation is that this is the part of the class that deserves to do better in the exam and undoubtedly will.
[1] Biggs, J and Tang, C. (2011): Teaching for Quality Learning at University, (McGraw-Hill and Open University Press, Maidenhead)

The phrase "test-driven development" comes to mind from your second paragraph, but with rather a different meaning than it usually carries.

Thanks for the very thorough answer, I will check out the work of Dr. Biggs. In the meantime, I have tried to come up with a solution to this problem (see question edit).

Not only do most students only do the bare minimum to get their grades, worse still, many cheat. Even professionals, e.g. 1, 2. So this question, honestly, should have been "how to deal with bad students". Sigh...

Could you tone down the undifferentiated “all students” sentiment? It's just not true, and in particular not that all students do primarily focus on the formal assesment and some do some extra. There are also students who excel in such aspects of the course, because they're just interested, but don't really care about the assessment at all (and consequently end up getting bad grades).

@leftaroundabout: Or they get bad grades because their lecturer is actually incompetent and finds fault with their assignments and test answers when actually their lectures and textbooks are irreparably flawed. When I was a student, I got A in every course except for some dumb ethics course (where I disagreed with something), some english language course (where the teacher wrongly claimed that I made grammatical errors), some humanities course (where the lecturer was unethical), and some computer science course (where the textbook spouted nonsense), and some physics course (that I was bad at).

Anyway I thought Ian was quite clear that it was not "all students". By "students will" he just meant "students in general will", since in that same paragraph he said "some will always work above and beyond [...] but most won't". =)

While I agree with that approach and try to implement it myself, I've always felt – as a student – explicitly demotivated by such grading systems. Having the freedom to decide to do less actually encouraged me to do more. I had exchanges with other students who were also more likely "to do more than asked" who confirmed my feelings there. Do you happen to know whether there are any studies regarding this problem and how to remedy that?

@leftaroundabout : I think I was clear that not all students are only interested in the formal assessment. However, I do think all student SHOULD be interested in the formal assessment, even if I am delighted when they go further. As I said - the assessment is how students understand what I am trying to teach. This is also laid out in the specific learning outcomes, but often those are only clear once you have met them.  Going further is a requirement at our uni as it demonstrates the ILO of being able to read and understand the literature.

A good formal assessment design (be it summanative or formative) is a way of helping students learn, rather than just a way of ranking them. I have absolutely zero interest in ranking students.

I think your perspective on this is a bit skewed. Other answers have touched on why your assessment probably needs tweaking, but I'd like to address your general view on your students and what you see as their obligations to you.
First, it's important to be clear about your grading rubric at the very beginning of the course. It's okay to announce extra credit work in the middle of the course, but you still need to make that clear when you give out the assignment, not afterwards. You like comparing your course to the workplace, so imagine this: at the beginning of the year, you sit down with your supervisor and decide metrics for how you'll be judged at your review at the end of the year. You both agree on what tasks are important and will be used to rate your performance: task X will count for 50% of your rating, task Y will count for 30%, and Z will count for 20%. Now imagine a month later, your supervisor chews you out for not doing something that was never even mentioned in your agreement, and he tells you that it will be considered in your rating after all. That'd be completely unfair, right? Even if it was something he asked you to do, if he stated it was simply to increase your understanding of something and you wouldn't be paid to do it, then most people would consider that to be voluntary. If it's mandatory and will affect their grade, be clear about that at the beginning. Probably nobody would've objected if you'd done that.
Secondly, students don't have infinite amounts of time and energy to spend on your course. They may have multiple courses, families, jobs, spouses, hobbies, volunteer work, or any other number of reasons to not spend all their resources on your course. Moreover, it isn't a job, you aren't their boss, they aren't being paid to be there, and they aren't delivering anything that you need. So it is completely up to each individual student whether any particular task provides enough benefit (either in increased understanding or as points towards a certification) to be worth the resources it takes to complete it. This isn't unprofessional or a personal insult against you. It's simply rational prioritizing. If this causes them to have poor understanding or to fail the course, that's on them. They're adults, they can make their own decisions and accept the consequences. You don't need to chew them out for not doing extra work; that's unprofessional and inappropriate on your part. In fact, they can simply stop participating at all halfway through if they decide that's the best thing for them, and that wouldn't be unprofessional like not coming into work with no explanation would be. Grade them appropriately and move on.
Your  obligations to your students are a clear grading rubric and the tools to succeed in your course. Their obligation to you is to not disrupt your class and to accept a fair grade for the work they submitted. (And you should both treat each other with general basic respect, of course, but that applies to all situations.) That's it. They don't owe you effort or completed assignments, and you don't owe them handholding. Give them the best chance at success that you can (within your own time constraints), and let them decide whether to take the steps necessary to achieve that success.

Sorry for the previous two comments. Upon careful reading of your answer, I understand your point. One take away is that I should have laid out better the grading scheme, and set the priorities of what was mandatory and what was not. This would have solved the "students ignoring" problem (there was an error on both parts, me for not being clear and the students for not letting me know of any concerns arising for my possible unclarity). I'll gladly use those insight for my possible future courses

@TheVal You say in your comment it was an error for the "students for not letting me know of any concerns arising for my possible unclarity". It sounds to me like they thought they had clarity -- that the exams were the basis of their grades. To me (as a former student and teacher) it's folly to expect students to ask for additional graded work (unless they're looking for extra credit). They're not there to do your job, or to make your job any easier. They're there to receive a grade to move on with their lives.

@ChrisBouchard I don't understand how you got this so backwards. The students were introduced to a simple, standard, wholly used "practical", that is a collection of exercises in the form of a real-world problem that is based completely on the portion of course they experienced up to that point. To me (as former student) this is not "my job", it is theirs, as in any conceivable university course. I explained that to them, and, again, none said anything (nor complained). If you really think that "they're there to receive a grade" then I am sorry to say you are at the opposite side of right

@TheVal: I think for students who are not interested in the course, they will indeed be there just for the grades, and so will just blissfully ignore whatever you said about the assignments being practical. (Disclaimer: I do agree with you that for a student whose aim is to excel through this course, then they need to consider what you said seriously, including the assignments.)

@TheVal: I'm sorry if I wasn't clear. I was not taking a shot at your course content. In my mind part of "your job" is to decide the structure of your course and to clearly explain it, e.g., in your syllabus. To expect the students to question your ambiguities is expecting them to check your work — or in other words, to do your job. If you are lucky, some students may ask those questions. But in my experience, if you are not clear in your expectations, expect them to interpret every ambiguity in the way that most benefits them.

@TheVal: It would be like being upset with the class if no one said, "Teacher, please, you forgot to assign us homework!"

@TheVal: Also, to your other point, I do believe one can get a lot more out of school than a grade, but in the end, the students have agency and decide what they get out of this. They have their sights on something beyond this class, and they are free to decide to give you any level of effort that they believe benefits their goal. And they're basing that level of effort on the expectations communicated to them up front, so hopefully you understand why it would be upsetting to find out after the fact that you expected something different.

I guess that most of the students are obliged to take your course, right?
They do not come out of interest for the topic but because they need the exam.
I have first taught mathematics and later logistics at universities. While most of the mathematics students were interested in the topics, many of the logistics students were not.
At first, I found this disappointing and then I realised that it is legitimate to do not more than one is obliged to do to pass the course. I can try to make the course interesting but I cannot make somebody like it.
When I remember my high school time, I tried to be good at any subject, but there were some which I really did not like and for which I did the minimum amount of work to get the grade I aimed for.
So if three quarters of your course hand in work written in the hour before submission deadline or even don't hand in anything at all (I guess that most students have not even looked at the topic before the day of submission, so it is not strange that you did not receive any questions), just be happy about the quarter who did.

Thanks for the answer, and I wholly agree with you. I am feeling pretty much the same, in particular I believe that any teacher at some point realizes that "I can try to make the course interesting but I cannot make somebody like it", no matter how much passion for the subject someone has. In the end "just be happy about the quarter who did" seems exactly as the famous Gibbons' quote "The power of instruction is seldom of much efficacy, except in those happy dispositions where it is almost superfluous."

Fully agree in the "nobody is interested in everything".  OTOH it seems to be quite frequent in some degrees (e.g. CS) that quite many aren't interested in any CS at all. That's frustrating, but more importantly, I think one shouldn't try to "cater to them" by giving more focus on, in that case, programming rather than scientific/conceptual topics.

@larkey at least in the UK (and even more so America) students are paying customers. CS is a very employable degree so I suspect it attracts a way above average number of students primarily motivated by the good career after the degree. The degree is a means to and end, and I think that's a perfectly rational and legitimate end, and I think students have a right to optimise their attention and enthusiasm toward that end given the extortionate cost they have fronted up. They pay lecturers' wages, it's not on them to also flatter the lecturer's intrinsic love of the subject by feigning thesame

@benxyzzy But CS is note "learning programming", and if the want to learn programming they are wrong in expecting that from CS, as they'd be wrong to expect be a good author after studying literature. If they don't want to study science then they shouldn't enroll in a scientific field, no? (The effect can be seen in Germany as well, where higher education is mostly payed for by the state).

@larkey I disagree, if they want a given job they should pursue whatever employers of that job value in potential employees. That is a perfectly rational and legitimate end. Most degrees do not get the student a job in anything related to the subject at all, just an overall better job than they would be competitive for otherwise. CS is in fact comparatively rare for the relevance of most students' eventual job to the subject matter. They're (mostly) not hoping to be CS professors and it's unfair to expect that of them. They've paid the huge sum and are thinking correctly about their future.

@benxyzzy And who's then teaching actual CS and not "called CS because that's what employers expect but actually programming"? Also, on a more general level, universities are IMHO not service providers but institutions that work for society. And society is not made up of all people pursuing their own career but a greater cause. I firmly believe we shouldn't see universities as service providers to individuals who just want to jump start their own career or companies who want comparatively cheap but good workers. But I digress.

@larkey It is a digression but I would agree, were itnot the students footing the bill of this system. Given they are, they're customers. If instead academia is to be for the social good, society should foot that bill. Otherwise yours sounds like a slippery slope argument, given I never said "proper" less practically useful CS should be dropped. It's a question of emphasis. What you're deriding are market forces; maybe the CS that you feel is neglected by practically-oriented courses should regroup under a new name; I suspect students might vote with their feet. "Basic CS" versus "applied" etc

@benxyzzy At least in Germany that's not really the case, but we have similar problems.  The thing is, we have applied CS here both in universities and trade schools, both mostly footed by the state. But the majority of the students select the "academic" graduation because it has the better reputation, even amongst many companies. It's an absurd situation, but "academic" degrees are simply "valued above" practically oriented ones.

I like to think of student fees, not as a price being paid for a commercial service/product, but more akin to a tax or a membership fee. Taxes are the contribution we make to the upkeep of the communities we are a part of. A university is a community of scholars of which students become members. Much as we would like it to be purely intellectual, Universities, and those that work there have material needs.

@IanSudbery Since publish or perish academia has become more like a high-pressure job than the Grecian academies. I think your view of universities is somewhat idealised and today in the UK at least, some degree is very much a requirement for most good jobs. Maybe back when only a small number of "elites" went to uni more or most of them aspired to the unique vocational nature of an academic career. In the UK today however 50% of school leavers go to uni, for the aforementioned reason. The reality has changed and students now pay through the nose for it.

My comment said nothing about any vocational nature of an academic career, which is a completely different discussion. Students seeing themselves as members of a community of scholars in no way precludes their education providing them with the skills they need to flourish in a non-academic job. Indeed, while my job titles says I teach biology, I have little interest in whether students know what gene causes what disease, and far more in an ability to critically reason scientifically - which is what employers value.

There is evidence to suggest that students who regard themsevles as part of a community both learn better, and suffer fewer mental health difficulties. Of course the corollary of this is that students should get a proportionally large say in how the community functions and what its aims are.

Your overall tone and emotional state sound extremely similar to my own, the first semester I taught at a U.S. community college. I note in comments you've said this is likewise the first time you've taught; and your description in the linked question of your "Fachhochschule-type institute... the middle ground between high school and university or industry" sounds pretty analogous to our 2-year community colleges.
At least in the U.S., the overall graduation rate nationwide for our institutions stands at about 20%. The majority of our students are not remotely ready for college work and have a very large challenge at succeeding in such a program; i.e., the majority are functionally illiterate, innumerate, possibly have learning disabilities. (I wonder what the success rate is at your institution? You should find out.)
Personally, my first two disaster moments were (a) assigning a one-page paper in the first week and assuming any college student could accomplish that (basically, none could), and (b) giving a test and seeing everyone just start openly copy answers off each other when I didn't know how to immediately start giving out punitive measures.
You'll need to digest and accept that this institution is not remotely like where you went to university, and the students are not remotely like yourself. In fact, is it possible that more students where you did go to school had similar attitudes, but you didn't know it, because you weren't receiving their work as the teacher?
Let's estimate that roughly half of your students won't do any advance work for any reason, whatsoever, no matter what you do. Whatever the exact proportion, it will be a large number and you have to expect that. The rest will only do work in direct response to specific point awards. You need to state those grading policies up front very explicitly, and highlight them. It will be the top driver for student behavior in the class. (In the comments/edit it sounds like you didn't specify a grading formula at the start of your term, and that's a major mistake.)
Will there be any students who act "professional" in the sense of doing extra preparation, advance studying, looking for extra material? In my experience, maybe roughly one or two per calendar year -- around 1% or less, when I'm teaching upper-level (2nd-year in the major) courses. You cannot expect or rely on this being customary, because it will simply never happen. You absolutely need to let go of your surprise or disappointment over this.
It's sad and painful and our students are human beings with their own hopes and emotional existence, and we should wish them well. But in cases similar to your institution, the best we can do is set up fair grading policies for fair work, apply them objectively and honestly, and know in advance that about half will be failing all the time. That's the job at these kinds of institutions.

I wouldn't call it "unprofessional" to do more than the bare minimum. Maybe it is unwise etc but in principle the bare minimum should be so high that everyone who obtains is is ready for the next courses, work, fuether studies etc. I also do think that many of us had subjects in school where we did not prepare more than needed, for me eg in Music and Physical Education.

@user111388 Again, it depends on the context. In university, doing the bare minimum may still be accepted, but not in the context of this question. This is because those students will start soon (6 months) traineeships with partner companies of the institute. Allowing them to keep the "bare minimum" behavior should NOT be allowed, since it does not send a positive message to the potential employers which they will join for traineeship. I believe this issue stands for a single example of how NOT to behave in the context of what shortly they will have to do in a real company.

@TheVal: I disagree here, provided the bare minimum is set well enough. In jobs, doing more than the bare minimum (which is doing the job right and well) is working/learning in the free time, which might be beneficial but should never be expected.

@user111388 I understand, and I might add that the point of disagreement hinges on the "wellness" of the "bare minimum" required by the student. In this context, I consider advising (even telling "no, I don't want to do the practical because...") the professor as included in the bare minimum (or common sense) that the students are required to perform. Hope that this better illustrates my reasoning

@TheVal: I do understand your point. I think a big problem is that people are not taught that this is information to tell - if I told a prof I don't want to do a voluntary assignment in my time, he wouls say "why are you telling me? This is your choice since its voluntary. It will only harm you. Get away."1

@user111388: To be clear, I think this series of comments is more about the OP's question than my answer. I put "professional" in scare quotes to meet the OP's question on its own terms (as you can see, OP does think that). Not sure if this is better in chat or not?

In my experience, the only way to get students to do coursework activities or contribute to forums is to allocate some of the marks to those activities, and to make a minimum pass grade.
e.g. coursework 40%, exam 40%, forum contributions 20%, and a minimum score of 60% for each of the three components in order to pass, so 24/40 for coursework, 24/40 for exams and 12/20 for forum contributions.
Where I currently teach, we have assessable coursework tasks worth 50% and an exam worth 50%, however, if students have not completed weekly coursework activities, we do not accept their coursework tasks as we cannot validate that they are a student's own work.
Edited to add: but yes, you need to inform the students at the beginning of the course how things will be assessed, so in your case it's too late. Extra credit for future coursework seems like a good compromise.

If you hire a group of fruit pickers, and tell them you'll pay them to pick strawberries, but it'd be nice to get some apples. Would you be surprised that nobody picked apples?
You either need the assignments to form part of the mark, or you need to ensure that it's clear that the assignments will cover ideas that will be in the exam, which will not be taught directly in class.

I'm not sure of your exact locale, but some universities have resources that are free for the asking about how to be a better teacher. You may get some good advice here (including adjusting your expectations to include a theory of alien minds to people with a vastly looser work ethic), but some of the universities I've been at have some very good people who can offer you things academia.SE can't.

I perceive school, in parts, as a place:

to learn things which are useful in later life
to learn things which are not useful in later life
to listen to things without learning them
to meet with a reality different from your family, more "workplace-like"

You have students which are graded on the exam and you gave them extra work. It is their choice not to do it. If you were a robot that would have had zero effects on your future grading.
I am a human though, and when faced with someone who does not care - I am not well inclined to help them.
I will not be vindicative, but they should not count on any help from my side. If their answer is good, they will get good marks. If their answer is bad and they explain that they had a bad night before - well bad luck: this is life.
I believe that we are tip-toeing around students because they are offended by virtually anything. Tomorrow, in the workforce, they will be fired.
So help the ones who want help and let the other learn something from life. And be fair despite your emotions.
As for the last part (being fair): I had a teacher once I hated and he hated me. I had an exam where he could easily sack me. I got 6 questions, 5 were easy, one was horribly difficult. I did not have enough time to solve it.
He said "See, Mr WoJ, the last question was for brilliant students. You are not a brilliant student. I will just give you 20/20 (max grade) but if you were better, you could have had a few more points, above the maximum".
20 years later, when we met by chance, I told him that while we will never be on good terms, I sincerely appreciate his fairness and I respect him for that. I learned something that day.

I know it is too late for the downvoters, but I genuinely wonder whether this is because "I do not agree with you" (which is a choice, though a downvote is for answers which are "not useful" (whatever that means)), or because the answer was wrong (not an answer to the question, for instance - on which case the downvote is very much corect)

Give them an F, and report the one who sent the snotty email for disrespecting a staff member.

As for the email, I was thinking of something more effective, like replying with the following "I acknowledge your point, I have taken it into much consideration when I modified the exam grading to include the practicals".

@TheVal That is fine as long as you did so well before the first practical was due. Otherwise, it is unfair to students who made rational decisions about where to spend their limited time.

Unfortunately, this happened after the first practical deadline. The solution was that for the students who did not do the first practical, only future practicals will comprise the extra 10% mark on the exam. This gives a fair chance to those who actually did the work and for those who did not but will be encouraged to do so.

I don't think reporting is okay (and in my experience with German unis, there would be nobody interested in taking this report and doing something). Indeed, I think the student stated their opinion about this practise, which should be okay (as long as the word choice is not unprofessional) and should not be reprimanded.

@TheVal what about those who submitted something but got a poor mark? Surely that shouldn't count against them? Maybe you should drop the lowest score from the average for everyone.

@Kat Once the work is submitted, it is graded, full stop. As in the workplace, you have submitted the report and it is judged on the basis of what has been done (and I stress, NO student came to me to ask questions or clarifications on the report). If the report is poor, the mark will be low, and vice-versa. If the student had any issue, I had made very clear I was available to discuss it. Thus, no communication means no issue, thus no issue for me to grade them for what they deserve

@TheVal so the people who did nothing don't have it count against them, but those who at least attempted it do? Does that seem fair to you?

@Kat No. Yes. They attempted, and submittd while asking no clarification (when they have had multiple chances and suggestions to do so by me), therefore they get the mark and corrections that they deserve. Those who did not submit (as I said in the question) did not receive any evaluation, just a default fail mark.

@TheVal also I have no idea what you mean by this being similar to the workplace. In my industry, it's standard to "submit" work with flaws, get feedback, then fix those flaws. That's what QA departments are for. Even in academia, reports and studies are reviewed and people get a chance to revise them. If you routinely submit substandard work or miss critical deadlines without explanation, sure, you'll eventually get in trouble. But work  taking longer than expected or needing revision  is completely normal.

@Kat I understand, as industry environments are uncountably different, and I took the industry environment that they will be part of into consideration. Moreover, ALL students have been advised that if they reach out to me before the deadline for an extension, this will be completely fine. The point is: NOT advising AND NOT submitting is NOT acceptable, but even advising for any kind of difficulty is more than acceptable. I still need to learn how to deliver this point home to my future students

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

@TheVal: I don't see why this is not acceptable. If in a "real job", a boss said "hey, you would learn much if you did X but do it in your free time and I will not pay you extra" and would later be angry because you didn't do X, that's a sign of a toxic boss.

@user111388 No, in this case I (the boss) would be angry because the employee did NOT advise me that was not going to do X AND did NOT do X. The logical AND is important. If the employee just said "look, X looks like very tedious to me, I don't think I'll do it" I would have been completely OK with that. This is called communication, something that I'm trying to get across to my students (however, as my first time, it is evident I still have lots to learn on how to do it properly)


text:
My paper is posted to arXiv; how do I get it endorsed?
I own an article on Arxiv and I am not currently an endorser as it is my first paper. I want this article to be endorsed.
My supervisor is qualified to endorse it but Arxiv is asking for an alpha-numeric endorsement code. Where can we find this code?

This question is clearly on topic, even though it misunderstands Arxiv.

@TommiBrander I don't think "How do I use this web form?" questions are on topic.

@AnonymousPhysicist The question is not really about how to fill a form, or at the accepted answer is not about that. But maybe you can write another answer to the question that points to the right form.

@AnonymousPhysicist This is not about how to fill a form but how to get endorsed. It appears that it helps to clarify the concept of endorsement on ArXiv.

I think you have misunderstood how the endorsement system works.  Endorsement isn't something that's applied to an article, it's applied to an author.  It's a one-time process that some people have to go through in order to gain the privilege to submit articles.  Others are granted "automatic endorsement", by virtue of, say, having an academic email address
So if you have already been able to successfully submit a paper, then you don't need endorsement and you never will, and you should just ignore the whole thing.
If you had needed endorsement, you would not have been allowed to submit your first paper, and would instead have been given instructions that included the alphanumeric code.  You would then have given this code to your supervisor, and by logging into their arXiv account, they would have been able to use it to endorse you.  Then you would have been able to go ahead with submitting your paper.
The fact that you are not an endorser simply means that if someone else wants to submit their first paper and needs endorsement, you won't be able to be the one to endorse them.  You'll gain this privilege after you have more papers.  But you can't speed it up by being endorsed by someone else.

Ok great, thanks for this clarification. You are totally right, I thought it was applied to an article and not to an author. This being said, it may be useful in the future that my supervisor endorses me. Do you know where to find the alpha-numeric endorsement code? It is asked by Arxiv when my supervisor tries to endorse me. Thanks

@A.Ben: I tried to clarify my answer; please reread it.  Endorsement just grants permission to submit papers.  It isn't some sort of reputation-enhancing or networking mechanism.  If you can already post papers, then you already have endorsement, forever, and it is neither necessary nor possible for you to be endorsed by your supervisor.  If you can't, and you don't have automatic endorsement, then you will be presented with a code the first time you try to post a paper.

Ok I get it now. I wanted to be endorsed in order to be able to publish article without endorsed co-authors but I guess there is no need to take care about that before as long as my papers are accepted. Thanks!

"if [...] then you don't need endorsement and you never will" The way the dcoumentation on the system is written it is clear that arXiv reserves the right to restrict automatic endorsements to, say, certain topics. Not that I have heard of anyone who had positings in one category being required to get an endorsement to post in some other category. I suspect that they've retained the option to give themselves options in hard cases.

@dmckee I've had it happen when a grad student submitted a paper I was coauthor on to a category none of us had previously posted to (and thus didn't have endorsement privilege for). Though, I don't remember if he found an eligible endorser, or if arxiv moderators just decided to clear it.

I suspect a misunderstanding. It seems that OP is just a coauthor on a paper that happens to be on arxiv. OP still needs endorsement to be able to publish papers there and they still need to understand what actions should advisor do to endorse OP.

@Džuris: If that's the case, then my third paragraph explains what to do (change it from the conditional mood to the indicative), or see the last sentence of my first comment.

@dmckee I've needed endorsement when posting to a new category in the past.

@Džuris I am the first author of the paper but I have co-authors, including my supervisor. It looks like my co-authors endorsement status was sufficient to get the paper submitted quickly.

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text:
A colleague who ignored my request for a favor is now asking me for a favor. How should I respond?
I asked a colleague to give me a short tour of their lab to see how they have established it. Later, I followed up saying I was still interested in visiting their lab. They told me that they would reach out with a date later after their major deadline. It's been a while since that deadline passed and I have not been invited until now. My colleague gave a similar tour to another person after the above-mentioned deadline passed yet I was not invited. So, I assume my colleague was not interested in giving me the tour. I thought it was okay--even though I felt bad--since it's up to them to decide whom to invite or not invite.
Later, the same colleague asked me for a favor to do a task that was up to them to complete. The task requires a qualified person who is good enough to make intellectual judgments. So they may be asking me to do the task because 1) I am one of the qualified persons and 2) it may not necessarily be a good use of their time or fun to do the task.
Officially, neither I nor my colleague have obligations/incentives to work together with or fulfill requests from each other. I am in a transitional job in my current position. The only incentive for me to accept their request is to maintain a good working relationship if I accept a long-term position in my current office--an option I consider a possibility for now.
Personally, I don't want to refuse their request because I like helping people. Helping them with the requested task may not be necessarily a good use of my time and beneficial for me. But I don't mind fulfilling someone's request if they ask and I can help. But, I am also not happy that they silently refused my request earlier and now asking for a favor which is also not a good use of my time either.
I don't want to say "You rejected my request earlier and now you are requesting a favor which is not a good use of my time either" directly or indirectly. But I want to make them realize that mutual respect is important in a collegial relationship. How should I do that?
Note: this happened in academia. So, I posted here.
Update: I asked in workplace and interpersonal skills. But was not well received in both platforms. People in both platforms suggested this post does not belong there.
Update: I accepted help request made by my colleague and I will fulfill what I promised. But it’s almost clear that acting busy is mostly a matter of priority. I know there are kind people around. But I am writing this update so other people like me will not just think someone is super busy when they are just pretending being busy with a motive of not honoring the request.

This sounds like it might fit better at https://interpersonal.stackexchange.com/.

To be honest, it sounds more like they may have forgotten about your request rather than an intentional passive-aggressive plot of promising to get back to you with no intention of ever doing so (which would be a slightly weird thing to do imo). Have you simply tried emailing them again to remind them instead of hypothesizing about what their thought process might or might not have been?

You may still want to ask in Interpersonal.  Please don't take that as a brush-off, but rather as advice to help you get to the best answer.

"So, I assume" well, there's your problem!

Beside Interpersonal.SE, this is also on-topic in Workplace.SE : https://workplace.stackexchange.com/

I strongly suggest that you happily agree to the favor. Happily. It is "in your lane". Every one will benefit.
And, you can also say that you are still interested in visiting their lab when it is possible.
DON'T make one contingent on the other. Don't say or imply that. That would be unfriendly, and, frankly, dumb.
How would you have reacted if the original situation were reversed and you were in the middle of important work with impending deadlines? My guess is that you would have done just as they did and then forgotten about it unless and until reminded.
Please, it is in your own best interest. Long term.

Let me expand a bit.
Helping them out with their problem might actually let you learn something you don't already know. That would be a mutual benefit, perhaps as great as visiting their lab. I can't guarantee it, but such things happen.
I'll also note that "ignored" might be too strong. I can't promise that it is, but your description seems to not suggest that, but rather someone who is (too) focused on their own work and frantic about deadlines. It is all to easy to forget everything else. Earlier this year I was involved in a project that consumed me entirely. Couldn't sleep (brain too active), couldn't reliably do certain "habitual" tasks. There are people who are sort of always in that state and hard to get through to. Some are "on the spectrum" actually and just don't react "properly" in situations such as you suggest. They can be nice people, though they don't project that.

How does this "make them realize that mutual respect is important"?

As someone working on their first CV, I’m wondering if the asker might be able to add the work done for the favor to their CV, right? Basically free growth opportunity?

This is such a good answer.  Some suggested additions:

GK Chesterton and others have been paraphrased "Never attribute to malice what is as easily explained by stupidity."  OP asked for a favor and didn't receive it.  But they shouldn't assume that was rude when it may have just been dumb;
OP wants collegial relationships, including with this person.  That comes from being collegial.  Should so here, without getting hung up on the past.  MANY relationships that start on bad footing became valuable;
Starting from cost/benefit is probably the wrong calculus in human relationships.

"My guess is that you would have done just as they did and then forgotten about it unless and until reminded. - That was my first and second thought. OP expressed a mild interest and was mildly rebuffed, then his mild request was forgotten about.

+1, but I feel like this is missing a caveat: while the OP's colleague is probably just busy or inattentive or missing emotional cues, it's also possible that they're really as self-centered or exploitative as the OP seems to assume. They could even be all of these things at once. I agree that the OP should not assume malice where none likely exists, but they should also watch and see if the pattern (of only paying attention to the OP when they have a favor to ask) persists. If it does, at some point the correct answer to the colleague's requests becomes "no, sorry, I'm busy."

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text:
Scientific writing: attributing actions to inanimate objects
I have always believed that sentences such as

This (paper/report/section/work/chapter/...) describes ...

should be avoided in scientific work, as they attribute an action (describing) to an inanimate object (e.g., a paper). I have therefore always opted for variations of

In this paper, we describe ...

I am now reviewing some student's work and would correct this (for him to learn, not to penalize him in any way). Looking around on the web, though, I cannot find any evidence that writing "this paper describes" or similar is wrong, and do not want to correct my student for not making a mistake. If it matters, neither the student nor I are native speakers of English.
Is there any rule?

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

Related, if not duplicate: Is the personification of concepts or terms accepted in academic writing?

You might get other good answers to this question from different points of view if you posted it on the English Language and Usage subsite.

Where did you get the strange notion that inanimate objects cannot perform an action? Handcuffs restrain, water refreshes, food feeds, screens show, wind blows, the sun rises, the moon shines... and the list goes on... so why would a paper not describe?

@user32882 I meant human actions, I guess it’s clear-ish from the context

Action words, or verbs in the english language are not tied to their subject in that way. You  can pretty much combine most verbs  with most nouns as their subjects. Not sure what your native language is, but there is simply no such constraint in the English language.

This is a matter of style, so I doubt there's a concrete rule.
You could certainly use the APA Style & Grammar guide to support your point, specifically Section 4.11. However, this is more nuanced than apparent at first sight.
I will first state the relevant text/links, followed by some caveats and nuances which may be worth considering.
Quoting from this useful page (emphasis mine):

Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human characteristics to
nonhuman entities, objects, or concepts. It results in ambiguity or
misleading communication and thus should be avoided in APA style.
However, common usage in academic writing includes some phrases such
as "the results suggest" that, although examples of anthropomorphism,
are acceptable for use because they do not lead to confusion.

And from here:

Correct usage:   The theory addresses
Incorrect usage:  The theory concludes
Rationale usage: A theory might address, indicate, or present, but researchers (not theories) conclude.

Now, the caveats. @Schmuddi has correctly pointed out that some examples on the first link directly address your specific point. These examples, all of which are considered applicable are :

This section addresses
This paper focuses on
The results suggest
The study found
The data provide evidence that

Thus, the specific example seems above board based on general perception as well as the APA guide.
A broader question is whether the APA guide is infallible; @DanRomik and @Wrzlprmft have correctly observed that the APA judgment on what constitutes anthropomorphism is somewhat arbitrary, and some examples contain a logical fallacy, such as :

The theory concludes

The fallacy is that a theory cannot logically conclude anything, so anthropomorphism is moot. A section, manuscript, article, or comment can. In these cases, one must decide if the usage is appropriate. (Of course conclude has two meanings, deduce and end, and we are talking about the former. It is possible for a theory to conclude a lecture.)
This brings us back to the beginning; this is a matter of style, so in ambiguous cases, one must apply one's own judgment. APA recommends rewriting when in doubt:

If you are unsure whether a construction constitutes anthropomorphism,
try rewording the sentence or choosing a different verb.

My personal suggestion would be to do so if the rewritten sentence doesn't become clumsy, wordy, or otherwise unnatural. As a teacher, probably it is best to make students aware of these conventions and leave the choice to them.

I doubt any reader would object to "This paper describes..."

What does section 4.11 say?

@Oliver882 basically this: https://www.enago.com/academy/anthropomorphism-in-academic-writing/#:~:text=writing%20with%20anthropomorphism%20means%20that,is%20appropriate%20for%20that%20object.

Following your link, a sentence like "This paper focuses on" is acceptable. I won't annoy my student for this.

I disagree with the quoted part. "The results suggest" is not anthropomorphism and it is completely fine, and not just because it does not lead to confusion. I agree with the apa.org page (linked from "here" in this answer), the enago.com page (in G. Gare's comment), and Dan Romik's answer.

@G.Gare-I think that's the right decision. :)

Urgh, the linked page seems to be distinguishing anthropomorphism by usage and ambiguity: “If a construction is in widespread use and its meaning is unambiguous, it is usually not anthropomorphic.” They essentially decided that all anthropomorphisms are bad and then declared some common anthropomorphisms false Scotsmen. How is “the theory addresses” any less an anthropomorphism than “the theory concludes”? (You are not wrong to cite and link this, though.)

Another problem with the second cited example is that the “The theory concludes” is bad irrespective of anthropomorphisms. Theories don’t conclude for the same reason they don’t make coffee: The framework of a scientific (or mathematic) theory has no room for conclusions. By contrast “The paper concludes” works (unless you are offended by the anthropomorphism), as papers usually feature conclusions.

You could quote some more from the APA page: "This section addresses…", "This paper focuses on…", "The results suggest…", "The study found…" are explicitly considered acceptable by the APA, and they are precisely the structure that the question is asking about.

At: https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/apa/other/anthropomorphism they give this example:
Less clear phrasing: The study explored the effect ...
Revised for clarity: In the study, I explored the effect ...

Wrzlprmft, Schmuddi - great points, edited and incorporated.

Your premise that inanimate objects are not capable of action is false. Does the Earth not revolve around the sun? Do leaves not fall on the ground? Is the book “Crime and Punishment” not a thought-provoking work? And didn’t you yourself just write that certain sentences attribute actions to inanimate objects?
The types of phrasing you listed aren’t an example of anthropomorphism, despite what another answer says. It would be anthropomorphism to say that a report believes or feels something. Saying it describes something is simply a factual statement consistent with the dictionary definition of the verb “describe”.

This answer contains some good examples!

Yes. But there are some borderline cases too, for example "The study concluded that ..." (from the waldenu.edu page linked to in the other answer).

I think it sounds natural and would not raise any eyebrows, because we take study to mean the piece of work overall, including the researchers and their thought processes and their outputs. Perhaps I am wrong.

Very good points, I'm fully aligned. As with all rules, we must apply the test of common sense to decide if something is really anthropomorphism.

Saying it describes something is simply a factual statement consistent with the dictionary definition of the verb “describe”. – But doesn’t the dictionary description of the word describe originate from it being used in an anthropomorphic manner? Aren’t there a lot of anthropomorphisms in everyday speech that we just don’t perceive as such anymore? Do we really need to draw a line such that all anthropomorphisms are bad?

@Wrzlprmft I don't think a verb has to count as anthropomorphising simply because an earlier meaning described a human action… For example, humans were directing their attention to tasks long before lenses were known, but that doesn't mean we are anthropomorphising a lens if we describe it as ‘focussing’ light rays. (So any decision about anthropomorphisation simply wouldn't affect it.)

@gidds: Actually, focus in the sense of concentrate came later AFAICT, so it’s the opposite of an anthropomorphisation. Anyway, my point is exactly not to prescribe the “etymologically correct” usage (whatever it may be). Instead words taking on additional meaning through anthropomorphisations is just one of the ways language develops and gets richer, more efficient, etc. We cannot draw a clear line where a linguistic anthropomorphisation has become sufficiently established to cease to be a mental one – and we don’t need to. Rather we should focus on whether it’s clearly understandable.

OED:   DESCRIBE  I. To portray in words or by visual representation.

a. transitive. Of a person, text, passage, etc.: to use words to convey a mental image or impression of (a person, thing, scene, situation, event, etc.) by referring to characteristic or significant qualities, features, or details; to give an account of or statement about in speech or writing; to portray in words. Also intransitive.

This answer suggests writers should prefer inanimate actions.
I agree with Dan's answer, that a paper can describe or explain something. I'd even say it can conclude something, that is what the section called "Conclusions" does. None of these things suggest that the paper is a sentient entity, just that our use of language includes talking about inanimate objects doing things.
When writing a paper, there is actually a reason to prefer "This paper describes" over "In this paper, we describe"; the former is less verbose. Being less verbose has a few advantages;

It respects the readers time.
It's harder to make reading errors on shorter sentences. All else being equal, a shorter sentence is clearer.
You or the publisher are more likely to spot all writing errors in a shorter text.

Plus, using "we" as subject just moves the ambiguity to the question who's we.

These are questions of taste more than questions of grammar.
"This paper describes ..." isn't wrong, but it does put the paper rather than what's being described first. If possible, start with the result. The abstract might read:

29 and 2929 = 67 are both prime. We explore that curiosity and find
connections to deep questions on the distribution of the primes: the
prime number theorem, Dickson’s conjecture, and Zhang’s bounded prime
gap theorem.

Then I prefer "We explore" to "This paper explores".
In the text, name the author where possible. Use

In [reference 6] Gauss proved ..

rather than

[Reference 6] proves ...

Out of pure curiosity, what is this 29_29 notation?

@Anyon I guess it's 29 interpreted in base 29.

It mean the digits "29" in base 29, so 2 * 29 + 9 - 67. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0025570X.2020.1704613

29_29 is a mathematical syntax error, since 2 and 9 are not binary digits. I think you meant 29_{29}…

@DanRomik Yes, if this were real LaTeX. But it's academia.

Thanks. Somehow it makes complete sense when typeset, but tripped me up reading the post here...


text:
How to retract emails requesting LORs?
I was planning on applying to med school. However I realized that I no longer wanted to apply this cycle. I am anxious to write an email to my LORs asking them to hold off on writing my letter of recommendations. I was wondering if something similar to the email written below would be acceptable. I plan on using the same LOR for the next cycle.

Hello ....
I appreciate you agreeing to write my letter of recommendation. However I realized Ihat I am not ready to apply and go to med school upon review of my current state of orders. Again, I do greatly appreciate your willingness to write my medical school application.
Thanks,

Whatever brilliant email you have, consider not sending it just yet, until you absolutely totally positively 100% sure you won't be applying this round. Have a good night's sleep on this idea before pressing send. It is just too easy to make a wrong decision when you are exhausted and sleep deprived.

Looks basically good, there is no secret incantation for such things. However I would eliminate your last sentence (which is redundant) and add a sentence explaining that you plan to apply during the next cycle and will ask them to write your letter at that time. Also, note that “on review of my current state of orders” is not grammatical; instead, you could say simply “on reflection, I have decided…”
Finally, I would suggest making sure about this before you send (sleep on it, discuss with an advisor, …); it will not be easy to un-reverse this decision.

Thank you for the quick response! The main reason I am sending the email is because I am too fatigue and overworked. I have had 50+ hours between work and research to do every week for the past 6 months. From what I have gathered, applying to med school itself is a full time duty. I plan on taking a well deserved break this summer, as applications have started already.

This sounds good.
However, in addition, if there is even the slightest change that a referee might have already put work into this (allegedly, there exist people who write recommention letter before the deadline), I would suggest to apologize for any work this might have already caused. Putting a sentence clearly stating that the letter is no longer required also does not hurt. (Currenty, your key message "You don't have to write this letter any more" is not contained in the letter - you are talking around it.)


text:
Should I apologise to a professor for not citing his paper?
Last year, I went to a math conference to present new results in my paper 1, which was just submitted to a journal. Afterwards, a well-known Professor X approached me to discuss the paper. He seemed very interested in the results, and mentioned paper 2, which was written by him and his collaborators. He didn’t ask me to cite his paper though (in hindsight, I guessed that he mentioned it just because he wanted it to be cited).
Recently, I asked him for a letter of recommendation. Initially, he agreed. However, after one month, he sent an email saying that he changed his mind, and criticized me for not citing his paper 2 in my paper 1, which is now published.
I already have enough references so his refusal doesn’t cause any harm. However, I wonder if I should apologise to him for not citing his paper?
The overlap of the two papers is as follows. My paper 1 has two main ingredients A and B, which are equally important. His paper 2 has two main ingredients A and C. I didn’t know about his paper until he told me, and thus I didn’t use any ideas or results of his paper.
Updates/Clarifications:

When I talked about the main ingredients, I meant the overall paper, not the new results. Our paper didn’t have any overlap results. The part A was about the physical model (already well-established and in textbooks), which was our starting point. Our paths then diverged from this common physical model.
I removed some references and an appendix to meet the page requirement, including this professor's paper and some other textbooks that described the physical model. We deliberately chose the least relevant ones to remove, and we didn't remove anything that would lead to plagiarism issues.
As a side note, a senior colleague Y just showed me a paper 3, written by Y 5 years before paper 2, but Professor X didn't cite paper 3 in paper 2, even though they had similar mathematical results!

Some clarifications were edited into the post, and some answers-in-comments were removed; please post answers as answers.

In general, you do not owe anyone an apology for not citing their work.  Even assuming you were wrong not to cite the paper, that is essentially just a mistake in your assessment of the appropriate scope for your literature review; reasonable people can disagree on such matters (or just make mistakes), and it is not a personal snub against the authors whose works are not included.
It is possible that you were wrong not to cite this work, and some of your comments on your reasoning suggest that you may be operating under some misapprehensions in regard to this issue.  In particular, your comment citing space limitations as the reason for non-citation is not a particularly good justification.  (It sometimes only takes two words to cite a single-author paper in Harvard style, plus another one or two lines to add the paper in the reference list.)  Similarly, while use of results in a paper is a good reason to cite it, it is not a necessary condition.  Sometimes we cite a paper just to let the reader know that there is another work that examines the same/similar problem.  In general, whether you cite a paper or not should be judged by whether or not it is helpful to the reader to know about the paper.
Giving a charitable interpretation to this professor's actions, one could say that he does not want to give you a letter of reference because he has concluded that you have poor judgment with regard to your ability to conduct a literature review.  (The less charitable interpretation is that he conditions his assessments on whether or not the subject of the letter benefits his own citation metrics, which is a bit churlish.)  That does not require you to make any apology, but you should take some time to self-reflect and consider whether this is a reasonable criticism of your work.  You could certainly write back and thank the professor for taking the time to consider your work and offer a critique, and let him know that you will reflect on it.  If you decide you made an error here (i.e., that you should have cited his paper) you could also write back and note your change of views, and in this case you could apologise if you wish, though it is not really necessary.

Thank you for your advice! I also discussed with a few seniors whom I trust and decided not to apologise him. My paper 1 was first declined immediately due to oversize, so I trimmed several pages including some auxiliary results and references. I think it is unfair if I only cited his paper but not the other similar ones. Still, I regretted that this is a lose-lose situation for both of us. I should have resubmitted my paper to another journal which is more generous in page limit to keep all the references and also to include his work.

One case where not including a citation will make me think less of someone: if they have overlapping results with a previously published paper X, are aware of X, and don't cite it.  It doesn't matter if the proofs were discovered independently or not.  If the results are only tangentially related, that's a matter of taste for when to cite.

Isn't another big reason we cite other papers to avoid plagiarism?

It is, but I take that to fall in the more general category of that which is helpful to the reader (i.e., knowing about prior sources of ideas).

Your charitable interpretation is, in my opinion, very charitable. +1 for the answer. It's just this just doesn't seem like good behavior of the professor's part, to me.

@Andrew: Ha, ha, yes.  Fair enough.  I guess I'm just a very charitable guy.

Should I apologise to a professor for not citing his paper?

The other two current answers are excellent, there are several good reasons to respond and at least acknowledge the professor's concerns and the relevance of their work (the "A" component). If it were me, I'd also include an explicit statement that you were not aware of the paper at the time and that your work was independent of it, to "allay any potential concern" that you might have not cited their work to make it "look like" you were not aware of it. Cover all of your bases in any paper trail.

However, after one month, he sent an email saying that he changed his mind, and criticized me for not citing his paper 2 in my paper 1, which is now published.

As mentioned elsewhere, we should strive to make the readers of our papers aware of all relevant/related existing work to the extent possible within practical constraints.
If it were me I'd include something like "In hindsight, I see your point and your paper would have been good to include along with the other citations" provided that you actually feel that way (never lie). You could even suggest that "Should I continue to publish in this area, I'll be sure to reconsider citing your work" and perhaps "Thanks for your advice".
It's a big world, but for any given topic of research, it's still a small world. Researchers of a given field constantly bump into each other, sometimes by reviewing each other's papers, and there are plenty of us with subconscious bias and a few that are even cut-throat and vindictive.
On the other hand...
You could also archive, print and frame the email and hang it on your wall. "I decided not to write you a letter of recommendation because you didn't cite my paper" (if that's what it really says) is a real gem! and anyone passing through your office and noticing it will get a chuckle! :-)

+1: Definitely frame it. It's so wonderfully petty - it will cheer you up every time you look at it. See also: "What a pity that so great a man should have such bad manners." (Talleyrand speaking about Napoleon)

@StuartGolodetz indeed! As a corollary, never write an email you wouldn't want seen hanging on someone else's wall.

If you decide to print and frame if for the lulz, just make sure to redact the professor's name and contact information so that it remains anonymous.

@Ben yes that's certainly taking the high road

The prank you suggest will reflect poorly on OP - even if the Professor's name is redacted, as whoever sees it will not know whether a citation was merited or not.

This whole situation reminds me of that "every question on every conference ever" video: "it is more of a comment than a question but you should really take a look at this paper which by the way we wrote and which does everything that you do but... Better". Quite shameless!

I should apologize to him for not citing his paper?

As a general rule, and not just in your specific case, I suggest erring on the side of apology without acknowledging wrongdoing. That is, do tell him: "I'm sorry I didn't cite your paper"; but unless you are sure you did something wrong, don't tell him: "I should have cited your paper".
Why?

It will make the object of apology feel better.
If you're not sorry for what you did, you can at least be sorry for having made him feel bad / slighted / disrespected.
You're not actually giving him evidence for a potential formal complaint about your conduct. So you don't really have anything to lose.
Apologizing does not mean losing face, or admitting a moral vice etc. So even symbolically you have nothing to lose.

The OP suggests they didn't know about the other paper when they wrote it. No citation is called for. If there was an error it was in doing due diligence in the lit search.

But yes, for a needed citation, cut elsewhere. Language is pretty flexible.

@Buffy: I thought OP had heard about the paper while still being able to amend it with a citation, but perhaps that's not as trivial to do. Rephrased.

That isn't the same. Learning of it after the fact means you didn't depend on it for your own work. It would be a courtesy to cite, but not a necessity.

@Buffy: OP did say that the uncited paper had about half of what OP's paper had.

Yes, and parallel work happens. Even when one paper occurs long after the other. The OP probably should have known, but I can't say for sure.

I think the relevance of citation is field-dependent because, based on what I remember from my academic days, it was very much expected (in my field) to cite related work even if I wasn't actually depending on the results. In that context, knowing about a relevant paper and not adding a citation to it is pretty questionable behavior, if not actual misconduct. (Of course, it happens all the time that citations are missed because the authors didn't know about the paper, and that's another matter, but we'd really try to minimize it.)

Anyway, the point I wanted to make about this answer is that I think a sizeable number of people do interpret an apology as an admission of wrongdoing. E.g. one might argue there are two and only two kinds of apologies: (1) I did something wrong which affected you and I am expressing remorse, and (2) I'm expressing sympathy for something which affected you that I had no control over; in this case it'd be really hard to argue that scenario (2) applies.

@Buffy: Upon further thought, I removed the comment about whether OP should or should not have cited that fellow altogether.

" I think a sizeable number of people do interpret an apology as an admission of wrongdoing" <- Depends on what you actually say. You yourself presented a second kind of apology. ""It's be really hard to argue that scenario (2) applies" <- You're just presenting a false dichotomy. Apology type 2 is "I'm expressing sympathy for something which affected you", without the extra claim.

I wouldn't imagine there is any real avenue for a formal complaint for failure to cite this paper.  Failure to cite a relevant paper is a long way short of any kind of academic misconduct.

@Ben: It could be an informal email to some of OP's acquaintenaces decrying his behavior, painting it in much stronger negative colors, and claiming that OP has admitted it.

Okay, fair enough, but then perhaps it would be better to change your description to that.  That does not describe anything that could be called a formal complaint.

The OP suggests they didn't know about the other paper when they wrote it. --- This has nothing to do with the need to provide credit for previous work, when relevant.

You owe him and yourself, if not an apology, at least an explanation why his paper does not deserve a credit.
The professor has criticized your actions, so you cannot ignore him at this point. Either, you apologize or you explain politely why you shouldn't cite his paper.
Ignoring a legitimate comment by a scholar is a clear disrespect to the colleague, and is the worst kind of reaction.

Regardless of whether or not you should have cited the paper, in my opinion refusing to write you a letter based on this is a pretty clear overreaction. It's not like you plagiarized his work. In fact I think it borders on bullying behavior so you err on the side of citing him in the future. I wouldn't apologize. You can say something nice acknowledging his point if you want to avoid burning a bridge.


text:
Is it exploitative that an institution offered me associate professor when I am qualified for full (and have been full at a previous institution)?
I am an international academic having received my degrees in 4 different countries.
I began my career in a highly prestigious position in industry, but thoroughly enjoyed research so made a move into academia to an Assistant Professor (non tenure track) at 1/3rd my salary. I then held two Associate Professor positions (both tenure track) before being appointed tenured Full Professor.
I then left academia for industry spending about 10 years there.
I applied for an academic position advertised at Professor/Associate Professor rank at a University (a peer institution to my former one) but they tell me that their selection committee shortlisted me for the "Associate Professor" appointment.
I feel very discouraged because I am much more experienced (academic + industry) and considerably older than most Associate Professors in my field. At the salary offered I doubt I will be able to break even on the cost of my education.
Two possibilities here: Either the selection committee had another candidate in mind from the beginning for the Full Professorship or they are deliberately intending to be exploitative (unemployment in my country is around 50%).
I don't know if at this age I still have the stamina and energy to work my way back to Full Professor and can only imagine how tense the office politics could get if I am perceived as a "less than" academic. I have never before seen a peer institution refuse to acknowledge status (since we are all state institutions) in my country before.
Is this an ethical practice?

There is a third option - your academic CV was good enough for a position as full prof ten years ago, but it isn't any longer. One of the unfortunate side effects of a highly competitive hiring market is that the barrier of what is needed in terms of concrete achievements for a specific rank rise all the time. So I don't think that foul play on the institution's part is a given (although of course always a possibility).

Are they willing to shorten the time to advancement? Say to 2-3 years?

I’m voting to close this question because it is a complaint, not a question.

"I don't know if at this age I still have the stamina and energy to work my way back" Then why do you think you can be successful as a full professor?

I don't see how this is a demotion, as you are not in a full professor position now.  Unless we know how the job was advertised, it is hard to say if the offer is unethical.

You cannot control what others do, but you can control what you do. In your case, you can just walk away from the application and say that it is below your dignity to consider a position that you believe sells you short. In fact, reading between the lines of your post, you appear quite bitter about the slight, and one can wonder whether you would ever be happy at that institution given how you feel treated.
Of course, the alternative would be to go through the interview process but make it clear that, since you have more experience than is common for an associate professor and since you had been a full professor before, you will not consider being hired at the associate professor level. Then they will have to figure out how much they want you to come. This isn't an entirely uncommon part of the negotiations process: When a university puts you on a short list, they've decided that you would probably be a good match for their institution, and they want to hire you. It's clear to everyone that they have to give something in this process, be it salary negotiations, startup money, or in your case the title they give you. It is not unreasonable for someone who had been a full prof before to ask that they be hired at the full prof level again; if that's the red line that you draw and the university is not willing to meet it, then you know what you need to do: Walk away.

Agree. Treat it as an opening gambit in a negotiating process. Tenure at hire is a reasonable demand, for example.

I once switched and insisted on retaining full rank. But also accepted a two year probationary period, which turned out to be pro-forma.


text:
Why would an international applicant with a perfect GPA and an undergraduate thesis get rejected from 16 grad schools?
I applied to 16 graduate schools for this coming fall. I am a transfer student at a Top 10 Public US school. I had GPA 4.00 at the time I applied (Not yet took graduate course yet, but I wrote that I would have taken 8 graduate courses at the time I applied).
I didn't have the REU (but I was proceeded algebraic geometry research thesis), and a few experience of presentations. I am an international male applicant.
The person who wrote my letter of recommendation is famous/reputable (one Fields medallist and one very famous mathematician of algebraic geometry). But, I couldn't hit any of the graduate schools (including the Top 50-60 US math department schools). I am not sure what was the reason I can't get into any of the graduate schools to which other students in my school were admitted.
What can I do to improve my prospect of getting into any graduate schools?

"Not yet took graduate course yet but I wrote that I would have taken 8 graduate course at the time I applied" -- I'm a bit confused about this sentence. You applied in Fall 2020 and would need to graduate before Fall 2021. When were you going to take these 8 graduate courses?

I took 6 graduate level courses in fall and winter. I am taking 2 graduate courses in this spring. (I wrote I will take 8-9 graduate course in my personal statement. Sorry for confusing chronological order. )

This seems like an interesting question: from the information presented here, I would not have expected you to go 0/16 (though I am no mathematician). But, of course, we can only speculate; it is possible there are important factors beyond those you are aware of (the obvious candidate is: could someone have written you a bad letter?)

@cag51 I think one factor which I didn't wrote on here might be choice of schools. I have a scholarship which could be used when I admit very good schools, so half of the schools are chosen out of from the Top 5-Top 15 US math department where I can study what I am interested in.  Other than big chunk of such a schools I think I chose various schools from Top 60 schools.

You did not mention if you had English language test scores that reach the minimum required for admission.

@AnonymousPhysicist I am waived English test as studied in America for many years...

I read the first version of your question. Full of grammar errors, e.g. "would have took". Did you ask someone to check your statement of purpose in your application packages?

@anonyos, Perhaps, you are an excellent math student. However, many people on this forum suggest that your English skill is not quite good enough after they read your original question. It would be greatly beneficial for you if you spend a little more time to improve your English, and then you can get into any school you want. Best of luck. :-)

Not duplicate, answers written so far are completely different from the one in the linked question. Voting to reopen.

@Allure Answers of this question point out the OP's English problem which is stated in StrongBad's answer in the linked questionj: "unless you’re a poor writer (in which case, you might want to reconsider the Ph.D. until you’re a decent one; good writing/communication is essential for successful researchers)" and the rest of the answer.

@Job_September_2020 "...then you can get into any school you want." This is not true in math. OP will greatly improve their chances by improving their English skills, but very few students can get into any school they want.

I can suggest two possibilities and a possible solution.
First, your English writing seems awkward, so possibly you didn't express yourself well or made many misspellings. It is Fields Medal, by the way. This might have blown up your statement of purpose, which can be quite important.
Second, it is possible that the "famous mathematicians" wrote you mediocre letters of recommendation. I wonder how well they know you and your work. What they say about you is probably much more important than who they are for these purposes.
You can address both of those issues in various ways, but I also suggest that you simply broaden your search. Send a few applications, tailored to the individual institutions, but cover the full range of R1 universities (and maybe even some R2 places), not just the top of the range.

Thank you for a reply. I consider a possibilities that eminent mathematician wrote mediocre letters. One of the professor is my current project advisor and difficult to believe that happens. The other case I can say just I think I asked questions a lot in his classes. Discuss contents of classes or further topics in E-mail. I am not sure more than that in that case.

The first reason is more likely.

It is hard to to diagnose the problem from the information you provided.  Like @Buffy, I notice that your written communication is quite rough -- to a degree this is understandable because you are presumably not a native English speaker, but it also looks sloppy.  (A non-native speaker should also know how to spell "Fields Medal.")
I will disagree a bit with Buffy and say that very eminent mathematicians giving only routinely supportive recommendations should be enough to get into a top 50 mathematics department given 16 tries.  If the writer felt less than routinely supportive they should probably not have written the letter (and in most cases they wouldn't).  So one idea is to talk to your letter writers.  Don't even hint that you worry they wrote a less than strong letter: just express your concerns and ask how you can do better.
The only other thing I wonder is whether the answer is hidden in the details of being a "transfer student" -- how long have you been at your Top 10 Public School?  At most such schools, a student with 4.0 GPA would likely take their first graduate course before their final undergraduate year.
Anyway, I agree that the outcome is surprising given the information given.  I do suggest asking around for additional help, trying to improve the situation based on the feedback you get, and applying again next year.  Good luck!

Thank you for a reply. In retrospect, my statement proposal might not be good(not only grammar but also contents). In terms of letter writer, one of the letter writer is my advisor so it should be strong I believe. I was in a year for that school(I entered as a Junior.)

To add a little further context to Buffy's and Pete Clark's: in the U.S. in the current state of things, as I see in my own math R1 state univ (I'm on grad admissions), the total number of (EDIT: not admissions) applicants is perhaps 30% greater than usual. At the same time, economic constraints (partly due to uncertainty about the course of the pandemic) are reducing the number of offers we can make, and also reducing the volatility we can tolerate in the outcomes of offers made.
Further, the partly-good idea of the April 15 common date (in the U.S.) for commitment to grad programs tends to make us prefer to make offers to (good) people who've given some indication that they'd come to our program if we made the offer. E.g., at least some explicit mention of our university and some relevant people on our faculty. Otherwise, we figure we're just a back-up, and the April 15 thing has game-theoretic implications.
So there's a confluence of complications in this cycle.
EDIT: currently, as ever, contacting potentially relevant faculty by email is some evidence of your genuine interest. But/and this should be clear in your statement of purpose. If you don't get a first-round offer from a school, you can tell the Grad Office (in that dept) that you still are definitely interested in being on their "wait list" (or whatever they call it). And follow up again on April 14... :)  Of course (!!!) if you send spammy-sounding emails, it won't help at all.
EDIT2: and, as Noah Snyder comments, international students may cost a department more in terms of the budget-games of tuition, and may create complications in terms of English fluency for functioning as teaching assistants. The other current features amplify these aspects in an unfortunate way.
I should also note that at my univ the math dept is NOT allowed to claim that we cannot cover all the math courses, due to reduced personnel (hiring freeze on faculty, for example). So we really need all new grad students (if not on fellowships or RA's) to be able to "hit the ground running" in terms of teaching. English problems are very unhelpful.

That's a good comment.   I have done a lot of graduate admissions, but I am not doing it this year.  But I do check in with the person in charge of that, which corroborates what you say: it's an unusual year.

Thanks for a wisdom. For clarification of latter sentence, did you means that "If I were potentially good candidate for an admission, around April 15 is good date to ask an information or contact to relevant faculties who I want to work on the future? "

Economic constraints can also fall especially heavily on international students (who often cost the department more for tuition) and even more so on international students whose English skills limit which teaching assignments they can be given for the first couple years.

@NoahSnyder, indeed. I should insert such a remark, in case comments get expunged... Thanks.

A few things that may help.

Your written English is below average.  There are several grammatical and spelling issues with your post.  One thing that can set you apart from many other international students is excellent English skills.

While famous recommenders are important, more important is they have something great to say about you.  You mention you didn't do REU's - this is probably the best way to make sure they can say something great about you.  If possible do at least one semester of REU's.

While a 4.0 GPA is important, that isn't the only thing admissions committees will look for.  They look at leadership position held in clubs (such as president of the ACM), and other extra extracurriculars.

As someone who has done mathematics graduate admissions for almost ten (nonconsecutive) years: "They look at leadership position held in clubs (such as president of the ACM), and other extra extracurriculars."  No, we didn't.

Thanks for a comment. I think if you implies "REU" to be official REU in U.S. Then International students are not eligible to participate these in first hands. If REU means Research curriculum of mathematics in universities, then I wrote some in proposal. Is it prefer on official REU?


text:
When struggling with an important course right before applying to grad school, is it better to withdraw or get a C grade?
I am a undergraduate economics student who is looking to apply to PhD statistics programs next year. I don't have the strongest math background because I started my undergraduate studies looking to go straight into the finance industry after graduation. I am currently taking a real analysis course as this is a prerequisite for any type of graduate study in statistics, and I am doing poorly. I think at this point the best I can do is a C+. Other than this course, I have excellent grades and I think I am a solid candidate for some of the "better" statistics graduate programs in the US. But, I feel that if I get a C in real analysis during my final year, I will be effectively disqualified from all PhD statistics programs.
So: would it be better to drop the course now, receive a W grade, and retake it next semester? Which is viewed worse by admissions?

Note that titles should ideally be questions (with a question mark), or at least give an indication of what the specific problem is. We discourage titles like "retaking a course" since someone with the same situation in future will be unlikely to find the post (and because posts with such titles typically don't contain a well-defined question at all, but that does not seem to be the case here). I've taken a stab at this, you can make further edits if needed.

Have a look at the stated requirements of the stats programs.