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When applying for a PhD is it worth mentioning awards received for achievement in final year high school exams?
I am in the process of applying for a PhD at the univerity where I am currently completing my undergraduate.
The application has a section for awards.
I don't have anything to show for my time as a undergraduate (my university doesn't really acknowledge achievements in coursework).
I have several awards from my tertairy entrance exams/subjects completed in highschool.
Such as:

Award from my current univerity for being the highest ranking disabled applicant for undergraduate.
Award for being one of the highest scoring in my state for a particular tertiary entrance subjects
Several awards from my highschool for topping the school in particular tertiary entrances subjects

Are achievements/awards gained as a result of actions I undertook in highschool relevant to my application now?
I'm not talking about things like merit certificates in lower years of highschool (Its not impressive to piles of those), just things relating to my tertiary entrance exams/subjects, particularly the first two which are awarded by the university and the state, for achievement in final year of highschool.

High school awards are unlikely to help much but they probably won't hurt you either. I think it's fine to include them on a short "early-career" CV but move them to the very end to signal that you understand that these are not important measures of your current qualifications.
Who knows, if they are really awesome, they might might even help. I saw a graduate student CV once that listed being ranked first on a province-level college admissions exam that included many tens of thousands of students. Sure, it was a long time ago, but I was still impressed enough that I remember this now. I think I kept my high school awards on my CV until I started thinking about going on the faculty job market as a PhD student. At point, they just seemed completely irrelevant.

In general I would head into the same direction as Benjamin Mako Hill's answer: They might not help you in the application but they shouldn't do any harm. However, I would restrict that to awards that have at least some relevance to your application. This can be either awards for some achievements in the field of your PhD or awards that are about your general skills.
As an example for the first type, if you apply for a position in biology, you might add an award for being among the top 5% of the state in your high school final exams in biology. I maybe wouldn't include the same biology award if I'd apply for a position in economics. By this you can show that you're already interested in that topic for some time.
For the second type, imagine you received some award for some type of ongoing social engagement beyond the "normal" activities during your high school time. By this you could show that you are not just pulling your duties but also are willing to engage in things that are beyond your obligations.

I wouldn't include high school awards because it's really not the same playing field as undergraduate and graduate level study. Were you awarded any scholarships while in school? These can go under awards as well.
Applying to the same institution will likely help your application. If you have no awards, focus on your personal statement which can set you apart. You likely have familiarity with the profs and research happening at your school. Familiarity with those would be impressive in your essay.
Best of luck!


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What can I do to make figures I've created generally available so others can use them?
I have spend over a day making beautiful figures in Tikz
for project proposal seminar.
The figure are beautiful (the code is not).
These figures are to an extent reusable,
since they are about existing well known methods.
I didn't use the diagrams from the papers as I wanted to take advantage of the extra space I had on a slide, rather than the narrow 1 column images from papers. Also because I didn't want to try and cut any images out of the paper PDFs, since I would lose the vector scalability.
What can I do, to make these images generally available so that others can use them? (Benefit the community by saving others time)
Further more, when I publish my own work with figures, what should I do with the figures to make them available? Should I perhaps on my website with papers, include a .zip of the paper source and images?

Related: How to legally re-use images in paper and still continue to use and distribute them in slides?

You can

License them under a Creative Commons license that allows reuse. Put the figures with a notice regarding the license terms on your own website.
Contribute them to Wikimedia Commons. If appropriate, you might also add them to the Wikipedia articles for the methods they are about.
Post them on a site like Figshare which gives them a DOI, to make it easier for others to cite them when they use them.
If you're willing, also make the source code available under a permissive license (with whatever disclaimers you want to put about the code not being so beautiful...) so that others can create modified versions more easily. (You can put code on Figshare, too.)

Can I do all of the above? (or are some mutually exclusive?)

@Oxinabox Yes, you can do all of the above.

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Too old to get another math PhD degree?
I got my math PhD degree more than 10 years ago, and my major is algebra. I have published some papers in some journals such as Adv. Math.. I really love math, but I am still thinking I haven't got a good and complete math education, and do not have a good picture of math. Someone may argue that I can teach math to myself. The problem is that I am a teather in a university now; I have to teach a lot of classes and have other duties. Now I have an idea which sounds crazy: I want to do another math PhD. But the problem is I am  almost 40 years old. So I am wondering if this is possible. Does someone have experience of such a second PhD?

Why not clear out your summers from any university duties (if that is possible), and teach yourself an area that builds on your expertise in algebra, e.g., algebraic geometry.

Maybe see if the university you are interested in has something like "visiting scholar" ... if you do not need a salary from them, they will likely allow this.  Then you could audit courses and talk to the faculty.  I have seen this situation where someone has a sabbatical from one university, and spends it at aother university.

Another thing to consider:  try to offer classes in your department in the area which you want to move into!  Say you are currently specialized in PDE but you want to move into algebraic number theory.  Volunteer to teach elementary number theory, then abstract algebra, then a basic algebraic number theory course, then run a reading course on some advanced topic, etc.  Eventually you will be an algebraic number theorist!

Related questions: 1) When does one go for a double doctorate?; 2) Is doing two PhD's a good path?

The point of a PhD is not much about giving you an education in a specific field (math, for instance), but to teach you how to do research. You already did that. From what I gather, you do not want to learn more about research but about math: you can take classes or get some free time (and funding) to do your own research.

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Can I work alone on an extension of a paper that had multiple authors?
Is it permissible for one of the authors of a paper to work alone for the extension of that paper?

This sounds like something you should be discussing with your co-authors, not Random People on the Internet.

@RaghuParthasarathy: really? you go up to your coauthors and ask them if it's ok if they don't work with you on an extension of their paper? I feel like if having this conversation wasn't awkward for whatever reason then they would have had it already.

Yes, really. Life is full of awkward but important conversations.

@RaghuParthasarathy: I agree that this should be discussed with the co-authors at some point. However, I think it makes sense to ask an outside source first, to know what is common, know what to expect, and what is reasonable or unreasonable to say in such a conversation.

It should be clarified whether, in this question, "extension of [the] paper" refers to an extended version of the original paper, or a new paper that extends the work from the original paper. At least my answer would differ significantly between these two cases.

@Mehrdad The correct question is not "Can I work alone on an extension?" but rather "I have an idea for an extension; are you interested in continuing our collaboration?"

@JeffE: What makes you think the OP is interested in further collaboration for him to phrase it that way? He has every right to not be interested in it as any other coauthor.

@Mehrdad Regardless of whether OP is interested in further collaboration, it's still polite to ask. If the collaborators aren't interested, they'll say no.  If the collaborators are interested, asking them to butt out is rude (and just as likely to result in competition instead of butting out), and not asking them at all is extremely rude.

@JeffE: You're making this argument go completely in circles. Re-read my comment above which you initially replied to. Like I said at the beginning, if it wasn't awkward for him to ask, then he would have asked already. It makes no sense to be arguing with me about what he should do. Literally the entire point of the question is for him to figure out whether/how to approach the coauthors before doing so. I'm not the one asking the question, I'm just explaining why it's completely sensible for him to post his question for us here. If you have an answer to his question, post it as an answer.

There is nothing illegal about this, nor is this publicly frowned upon.  After all, it's very possible for some of the original co-authors to simply not be interested in the extension.
However, your co-authors might see this as impolite, to say the least.  If you offer to include them in working on the extension and they decline, then everything is fine.  If you don't make such an offer to them, they might not want to work with you ever again.

In addition, I suggest to prominently cite the original paper on which the extended paper builds.

On the other hand, in the frequent case where some authors of the initial paper did not contribute much to the end result, it would be impolite of them to insist to work on the followup if they don't plan on putting in more work than they did on the initial paper...

Thank You so much for your answer.. I asked this question to know if my co authors can make extension to my paper where I have actually worked the most

I once was in the situation that my coauthors were always "interested" in the extensions, but had little time, which delayed the whole paper.
After some time I began to write extensions on my own and tried to publish them, which, indeed, was bad for the relationship to my coauthors. They had the impression that I was working behind their back (which was somehow true) - while my impression was that I was much quicker alone.

Good to read some first-hand experience.

In this case it would be good to circulate the work to the (ex) co-authors, giving them some time to review it. Based on the comments/contributions that you get back, decide if to keep them as co-authors, mention them in the acknowledgement or drop them.

You probably are faster on your own. But if you are any good many want a piece of that cake....

Are you (writing the papers) under someone's employ or as part of a contract with someone? Then supposedly you would be expected to make sure your employer / contractor is OK with whatever direction you go. If you are not, then you simply have no such obligations anymore.


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Is it easier to get funding for a master's degree in North America or in Europe?
I'm getting my Bachelor's degree in Physics in a year and a half, I have a good GPA (~3.6/4.0) and I can score ~7.0 or higher in IELTS exam.
Which offers better chances for a scholarship for a Master's degree, North american or European countries? Is there a difference in accepting foreign (in this case middle eastern) students? Because I can't take both TOEFL and IELTS exams, I have to choose.
And when looking for scholarships, when should I start emailing professors and start sending applications?

Also, the premise that you have to choose between N.A. and Europe is wrong. Most graduate programs in the U.S. will accept either TOEFL or IELTS scores, whichever ones you take. Look for programs you are interested in, then look up their websites and read about their admissions requirements + timelines.

@ff524 I didn't mean to ask for universities to apply to, I meant to ask which offers better chances for a master's degree. I'll edit my question to clarify this.

I still don't see why you have to choose. As per my previous comment, most schools in the U.S. now accept TOEFL or IELTS - you can take either one.

@ff524 Which I didn't know. I thought Canadian & U.S schools ask for TOEFL. So there is no difference in the acceptance rate for foreign students either?

Europe is not a single country. For example, in Brittain the tuition fees for foreign students especially are pretty high, while in many German states you pay no tuition at all (yes, there are not only differences between the countries of the EU, but also for some countries differences within those countries...)

@MaartenBuis: And at the same time, in Germany, Master's studies are often just like Bachelor's studies with somewhat higher-level/more specialized classes, but involving nothing like research projects that could in theory be funded.

In many European countries you won't be able to get a scholarship for a master's degree directly from a university. Also local students don't usually get that. The research funding is mostly aimed at PhD students, because master's degree students aren't expected to do research at the level these funds are targeting. Also, the general perception is that if you're a master's degree student, the university is providing a service to you, not vice versa, so why should they pay for that in addition?
Depending on national / local regulations, you may have to pay a tuition fee or not. If there is a tuition fee, there may be programs to waive or reduce these. There may be opportunities to work as a salaried student assistant at the university, but you'd first have to start a study program before even being considered for that.
What you're looking for are usually national funding organizations or foundations that support students coming from abroad to do a master's degree in that country. These are very rare and come with specific conditions. One such example is the King Abdullah Scholarship Programme of the German Academic Exchange Service.
For these countries, it'll be a waste of time writing to individual professors about scholarships for a master's degree. Instead it might be helpful to contact the offices for international exchange at your target universities to ask whether they know any scholarship programs for their place that apply to you. Or maybe you have such an office at your home university that has a list of programs for their students who are interested in international exchange.

"opportunities to work as a salaried student assistant for a professor" - or also for other people employed at the university.

In some European countries, master's degrees are part of the "undergraduate" experience and handled accordingly. For instance, in Germany, where I worked for several years, there is no charge for undergraduate education beyond a registration fee of several hundred euros per semester. Consequently, scholarships would only be needed for living expenses, rather than tuition costs. Work-study arrangements could provide the necessary funding without scholarship support.
The case is very different in the US, where master's degrees are part of the graduate experience. Almost all master's programs charge tuition and there are not nearly as many available avenues for supporting such costs.
Therefore, it is probably "easier" to finance a master's degree in Europe, but it's also probably more challenging to get into such a program if you don't have the necessary language proficiency.


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In my Statement of Purpose (SOP), is it best to write about my specific area of interest, or to broaden my options?
I am currently a 4th year CS undergrad student.
If I tailor my Statement of Purpose (SOP) around my research interests (which are related to the research project I am working on with my professor), I feel like I may be limiting myself to professors who are in my field of interest, but may not have any funding, or may not accept any PhD students. Is this detrimental?

If you seem to absolutely rule out all other options, then yes, it could hurt you since it lessens the likelihood of finding an advisor.
However, it is good to narrow the field somewhat (languages, algorithms, AI,..., whatever). And it is good to say that you have some specific interest and experience with that.
So, be flexible, but focused.
In my own case (math), I'd have been happy in either Topology or Classical Analysis and had some insight in both. My dissertation was the latter.

According to me, whether or not you should focus your research interests around your current project will depend on whether:
(a) you want to continue working in that field/domain, and
(b) whether you are open to exploring other domains during your PhD.
When I look back to when I was an undergraduate student (I am currently doing a PhD in quantitative psychology in Europe after following a two-year research master and working as a full-time research assistant for a year), I had a broad curriculum and learned a great deal, but didn't (and still don't) know all the possibilities for research. Learning about other interesting topics for research requires constant exploring on your part. You can do this by reading, attending conferences, or speaking with your field's experts. But this is also what your PhD is for :)
In general, while I think it is important to elaborate on your current research interests and your work with your professor, discussing things you don't yet know and want to learn about in your SOP is a big plus. I would delve into detail about (a) what you have already done and how you could apply/extend this work during your PhD, and (b) things you are curious about but have no experience with yet. It's alright to be less specific when it comes to topics you're not familiar with - but expressing an active interest is what matters.
Before you apply at all, consider emailing them with some of your own questions or ideas and ask if they're accepting students. They might not always reply, but it could save you some time during the application process. This worked quite well for me!
I would also tailor the SOP to the university/professor you are applying to work with. Look up the people you want to work with and read about their current research. In the SOP, explain to them why you're interested in their topic/why you'd be a great addition to their lab. Not only will this show your motivation, but it will also already give you a foundation for what will be discussed during the interview.
Best of luck!

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What are the drawbacks for only taking one class a semester as an undergraduate?
I am currently an undergraduate student in mathematics at a US university, I am looking to go to graduate school and my dream is to be a mathematics researcher. I am currently in my second year and I am finishing up the second semester of my (graduate level) algebra, (undergrad level) analysis, and (undergrad level) topology sequences. I scored Bs on algebra and analysis in the first semester due to the hard transition (I also began doing research) but I expect to earn As in all classes this semester. Mathematics is my passion.
For my classes next semester, I have the option to do something unusual. Instead of enrolling in 3-5 classes as usual, I can get away with only taking one traditional class. This is because I am partnered with a professor to do an undergraduate thesis in hyperbolic dynamical systems. So, I would end up taking Abstract Algebra I (the third course in the graduate algebra sequence) as a traditional class and taking about 8 credit hours of directed individual study in dynamical systems under my thesis advisor. This is very appealing to me as it would allow me to get very deep into this field which I am very interested in.
So, how would this decision bode for my graduate school application? Would they look at this as being a decision of someone who is highly motivated and interested, or as someone who is maybe lazy? Is this a good decision in general?

I doubt this will have much impact on your graduate school applications, in fact it could have a beneficial impact since that professor will be able to write you a strong recommendation letter.
But there might be other drawbacks:

You might get discouraged since you've only got one topic to think of. See What do you do when you're stuck at a problem? (for which one of the best possible things to do is "work on another problem for a while") and How should I deal with becoming discouraged as a graduate student?.
You might take longer to graduate, which means paying another semester's tuition fees.
It assumes you do well in the directed individual study. If you don't, you might be screwed. (That's the pessimistic view. The optimistic view is that you might realize you don't want to do graduate study early.)

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Adding advisor's name as a coparticipant without their permission
Thank you in advance. I had some issues with my advisor and want to get some advice. I got a Ph.D. degree from a foreign country and started my new postdoctoral position here in the US this year. Meanwhile, I participated in an imaging challenge where organizers provide a certain task that is considered important in our field and participants compete with one another to achieve the best results.
Since my approach was developed when I was in the previous laboratory, I wrote my previous laboratory as the institution and my previous professor as a coparticipant in the team information. There was, however, a policy that it isn't allowed to submit multiple results from the same research group, and there was another team in my previous lab. Thus, I changed the team institution from the previous one to my current institution and wrote my current advisor as my co-participant to avoid the multiple submission policy. My current advisor knew that I participated in the challenge but didn't know he was added as a coparticipant (it is definitely my mistake).
After several weeks, some top participants were posted on the conference website page, our team was there, and I told him the results. However, he took it very seriously and asked me to remove his name because he didn't contribute anything to my results. And he said that "You committed the fraudulent issue.". Of course, it is his right, so I sent an email to the challenge organizers and ask to remove his name from our team, and they answered positively. I was wrong about adding him without his agreement, but I feel a little bad. I'm not sure that it's really a fraudulent issue because it's neither publications nor conference presentations, and I added him since he is my current advisor. On the website, the team institution, members, and scores were only posted. Nothing else is included.
If I'm fully wrong about it, I may need to learn from the comments.

Yes, you were wrong to add a non-participant and more so if you add someone without permission. It was an ethical breach.
You may have had good intentions, but that isn't a real excuse. Apologize, of course, and learn from the mistake. It isn't a career ender, after all.
The rules are similar to those of co-authorship here. Only contributors are listed and only with specific permission.


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What maths knowledge is required for a lab-based (molecular and cell biology) PhD?
I am currently enrolled on an MSci in Biosciences and am planning to apply to PhDs starting next year. I want to use my final summer to practise my maths skills which are severely lacking.
Because I have just three months I don't want to attempt something unrealistic, I just want to study the most important things that will enable me to work in the lab to conduct basic scientific research (measurements, concentrations, dilutions?). So far my plan is to work methodically through the book 'Fundamental Laboratory Mathematics' by Lela Buckingham. I don't know if this is the best way because I don't really know what is expected at PhD level.

The list is something like this:

Reasonable competence at arithmetic. It helps to be able to do math in your head so you don't have to keep looking for the calculator in the middle of pipetting.
Basic (middle school) algebra. Often when preparing solutions, you will end up with simple linear equations and have to solve for x.
Probability and statistics are useful when designing and interpreting experiments and dealing with experimental error. This is technically not something you use while doing the experiments, but at "the drawing board", and you can collaborate with someone who is knowledgeable about these topics if you are not.
Understanding logarithms and exponents is useful when working with enzyme kinetics, quantitative chemical reactions (pH) and exponential growth (microbe cultures and quantitative PCRs). There are usually software tools available to do this stuff for you, and doing these types of calculations "by hand" gives noticeably worse results, so it's not so much a matter of "having math skills" as understanding the general principles.
If you work with things like biophysics, biochemistry, protein folding simulations, microscopy then a strong knowledge of modern physics (electromagnetism, quantum physics, molecular forces, fluid dynamics) will be very helpful.
If you work in high-throughput areas like genomics, a strong knowledge of probability, statistics and combinatorics will be very helpful.
If you work in a highly computational field, good knowledge of programming, machine learning, data analysis, AI, high performance computing will be helpful.
If your work is about developing new devices, good knowledge of electromagnetism and electronics will be helpful.

In other words, for just "general" lab work, just middle school math is basically "enough". If you know some basic stats and probability, you're golden.
If you're going into a specialized field, you may need a lot more, but then you would know this already when going into that field.
Note: I have completely ignored things like ecology here, because the question specifies molecular and cell biology.

For the log and exponentials, the goal should be to have an intuitive understanding of what kind of result to expect. You want to notice if you misstyped in the software or the software is not doing what you think it does.

As a physicist, I would quibble with one detail of your terminology: "modern physics" is not usually taken to include electromagnetism or fluid dynamics.

(In many graduate programs) After you are admitted you may have a chance to take an undergraduate course in math if needed to fill in gaps in your background.  So don't get stressed out if you cannot finish everything in three months.

Because I have just three months I don't want to attempt something unrealistic, I just want to study the most important things that will enable me to work in the lab to conduct basic scientific research (measurements, concentrations, dilutions?).
I am not familiar with your book, but did skim it it's TOC online.
The book seems reasonable.
I would also ask your professors in your current program as well as your future program what they think you need.
Ask professionally and politely and most likely, they will be impressed at yourself awareness and desire to improve a missing skill on your own (or a least view your actions favorably).
They know your program and its needs better than anyone on this site.
You might look at books for general audiences like
Essential Math for Data Science.
Last, I hopefully you are not too stressed out about this.
Doing anything is better than doing nothing, so you're off to a good start.
In general, graduate faculty view self initiative as a positive attribute.

I am an ex-physicist who has reviewed* several PhD memoirs of friends who were biologists. There were "experimentalists" and "theoreticians" in that cohort.
By far what they were lacking most was knowledge of statistical methods. Some were so bad that I mentally could not cope to go through the whole thesis. The defenses were very successful.
So learn statistical methods from a purely practical angle if you want to be ethical in your research. There are so many butchered statistical results that yours will probably slip through so no need to be overly stressed. Note that the ones who will read you are likely to have the same understanding of statistics as you.
This said practical statistical methods are really worth learning so that you know if you are going in the right direction before someone else does and then a lot of unrecoverable work (or time) is lost.
The silver medal goes, ex aequo, to calculus and differential equations.
Again, we are talking practical stuff here, not theory.
With calculus, you will be able to understand how various functions behave and what to look for to understand their behaviour. Expected level is high-school.
Differential equations are, I think, how the world is described (but they do not want us to know). Sooner or later you will find a "change of something is a function of the something", or twice this. I do not think you should learn how to solve them (this is tricky to say the least, in physics we used to have a year-long course just on differential equations). You should really try, however, to find someone knowledgeable so that you can get their opinion about feasibility/countability/etc.
Story time: my wife ended up with a stiff equation when working on enzymes and attempted to resolve it with (I forgot the name of the program they were using in the 90's at her biology department). It was a disaster, mostly because no one in the dream of them could detect a stiff equation (they did not know about this beast) and it would have taken them eons to compute them the way the intended. She turned to me (tadam!) and I did the computation for her and guess what - she found out that the "standard behaviour" that was in use at the time had an issue because the equation was not solved correctly. Then came the Nobel prize and everything (well, it would have come if we did not switch to different lives after that)
The bronze (and special prize) goes to learning to code with Python. Look up Jupyter, spend 2 afternoons learning Python, then a week to learn Pandas and you will have an incredibly powerful tool in your toolbox. You can become the hero of the team with this.

* and have ben traumatized by

I don't think functional analysis is commonly studied in high-school. Calculus or just "study of functions" seem to better capture what you're after here.

Can only accept one but just wanted to say thanks, your answer was extremely helpful.

@Anyon: thank you, you are absolutely right (that was a failed translation from French). I corrected the answer.

Bayesian statistics is most important for understanding machine learning and how it is used. The traditional AP Statistics class is rather limited.

There is no one size fits all answer here. It will depend on your research project (which can still change direction even after you have started, especially if you are talking about fundamental research in the area of molecular and cell biology) which and how much math you will require.
I would argue, though, that things like concentrations and dilutions are an absolute must to be able to work with when you are in the lab. Even if nowadays you can look everything up online or have a website/program do the math for you, it is very useful to know and understand what you are doing so you can also develop a feel for when you are off by an order of magnitude. So yes, this would be basic biology applied mathematics that you need to know or your lab work will be slowed down and or suffer on a daily basis. That being said, studying this stuff over the summer will only get you so far: you become much more skilled by doing this in practice. Research internships typically prepare you a bit for what life at the bench will be like in real life.
All other things you should probably aim to learn on the job - applying basic statistics (and consulting with a statistician when you aren't sure), more advanced problems when they arrive (do you need to do quantitative modelling for your project? do you need to understand statistical significance of large genomics data analyses or population genetics? Totally different questions and different expertise required). That's the beauty about scientific research and a PhD in particular: You continue to learn every single day. Also don't forget that science is becoming increasingly collaborative, so find colleagues/collaborators with the skills you lack so you can complement each other.

I would approach this in an empirical manner. Contact your Ph.D. program and ask them what they expect. You can brush up in specific areas where you do not feel confident.
Learn from people who properly use mathematical, statistical, and computer science tools. Always ask them why a particular tool is relevant and how to use it properly. Always be open to learning how new tools can help you in your research.


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How critical is memory in achieving proficiency at Master's and PhD levels in mathematics?
How significant is memory in excelling in higher-level mathematics, particularly at the Master's and PhD levels?
I sometimes have trouble remembering certain theorems, proofs, and conclusions. However, when I had time to look at the book and my own notes, I was able to solve problems effectively.
What is the real need for memorization in mathematics? Is the ability to recall mathematical concepts from memory the key to achieving proficiency, OR is understanding and application, supported by reference material, sufficient?

It's very similar to language. Having a good memory for words certainly makes some things easier, but it does not replace understanding of the grammar. Develop both.

To do research you generally need to remember a theorem exist, not the theorem (you can always look it up). So I'd say memory is very important, memorization is not. I always say I am well happy to return my PhD if the internet ceases to exist.

I have a few time-tested books that contain lots of useful stuff. I know which book, and vaguely where in it even without the index. The books are much better at remembering details than I am.

I don't think it's likely you're going to get a good answer to this question here. It's effectively a research question that only experiments could answer.

In case it helps you, here’s a more or less relevant real-world example. During my Ph.D. thesis defense, when answering a question from one of my committee members (i.e., judges). I drew a complete blank on the term Gaussian elimination. I wanted to use it, but couldn’t remember it! After observing a few seconds of my stammering, they invited me to merely describe what it meant. I did so, and they rewarded me with a reminder of what the term was. And, shortly thereafter, with a decision to grant me the degree.

I find the question somewhat unclear since you do not specify what you mean by "memorization". Do you mean something like rote learning definition, theorems, arguments? In this case the answer is: you essentially don't need it at all. On the other hand, if you work a lot with some definitions, theorems, and arguments, you will automatically remember them later (most likely not all the details, but the main insights and ideas and techniques, which is precisely what you would like to remember).

‘[But] when I had time to look at the book and my own notes, I was able to solve problems effectively.’ Memorization is part of your  essential cognitive development. You’ll find a large part of research mathematics is identifying and formulating problems to solve.

Real proficiency in math requires memory, yes, but it goes beyond that. Memory is good for the details, but what is really required is insight. And to develop insight you need to spend time on the details and employ memory, though not always memory of specific facts.
Memory is enough to let you know what is already known, but a real mathematician needs more. It is the ability to imagine what might be true and worth exploring that separates the merely competent from the true mathematician. Good doctoral advisors likely have this insight, but a doctoral degree in itself may not be enough.
The brain is a complex thing. Quick recall is a benefit, but not strictly essential for someone with insight, as the details are probably easy to find if one has a "sense" that they exist.
For most people, achieving mastery requires a lot of repetition. Solving a lot of problems, for example. The way the brain works, this repetition will increase the likelihood that things are required. But when one moves on to study new things, those remembered facts get pushed to the background to some extent - more for some than others. And most of us need to be reminded of some things, at least occasionally. But, hopefully, that repetition will lead to insight, which is the key.

OR is understanding and application, supported by reference material, sufficient?

I am assuming you mean pure maths ("PhD in mathematics") and in the US context. Well, the strictest answer here is "no it is not sufficient" because to pass your PhD qualifying exam in the US, you are essentially thrown "hard" graduate level questions at you, where you are supposed to be able to recall theorems and apply them without help. This is a syllabus for Stanford's geometry exam -- pretty much you need to memorize lots of concepts from the syllabus to have a good chance of passing.
While the qualifying exam is "just an exam", it is a notable barrier to doing research in the mathematics.

Is the ability to recall mathematical concepts from memory the key to achieving proficiency

Not that much. It really depends on how far you have mastered the materials. See related writings by Terence Tao maybe?

Concepts overlap, very often new ideas come from the fact that someone realized that X concepts can merge and give something new (I am simplifying here, but you get the idea). If you can't recall concepts from memory, this does not make the whole thing impossible, but harder and probably longer.
Even though, you don't need to memorize every concepts perfectly, very often just knowing that it exists is enough to make a link.
But I suspect this question is not for this Stack, maybe Philosophy of Math, if such stack exists.

It varies from case to case as you might not need to memorize the theorems but you need to remember the steps. There is a subtle difference between remembering and memorization as the former is used in a bit vague sense. People in medical and pharmacy need to learn tons of difficult jargons and especially for non-English speaker (maybe for English speakers too), it is a nightmare. Even in Maths, you need to remember the steps and not memorize them. And remember would come with effective understanding of the problem be it theorem, derivation or conclusion. Unfortunately, there are both merits and demerits of both of them. Explaining them would take a major portion of the space, so I skip that part.
Regardless of pros and cons, I would urge you to adopt a bit change in your learning habits. Firstly, try to understand what you are doing because when you understand things, automatically you will do it without remembering. You can job down different steps and try to make connections between them.
Secondly, if understanding is not solving your problem, try to breakdown a large task to multiple small tasks. For instance you can split a large theorem or derivation to smaller and easier to grasp chunks. Master the smaller chunks and connect the dots to complete the picture.
Hope it helps!


text:
I do not receive proper support from my PhD advisor
I have started my fully-funded-PhD for about 6 months in North America. When I applied professor promised me that he was going to provide me with the funding.  Yet, I have not received any detailed topic about my PhD from my supervisor.
I see my other classmates have already got projects with secure funding. I have not received any secure project yet, and my funding is not stable(so far I have received only $12500), my bank is currently -$10000, and I had to pay the tuition fee.
The amount fund received so far: $12500
My spending so far: food, housing, and tuition fee: $18800
I needed to borrow an extra $10000 from my family to pay my expenses.
Each time that I have a meeting with him, he just comes and talks about some general topics about his projects and he does not assign anything.
I tried to communicate this during my meeting but it was not effective, seems like he does not understand my needs. How do I write him an email and communicate this with him? "I need a problem definition/ project with secure funding from a company so that I can work on it, It is really frustrating for me to see everyone is working on their project"
How do I write him an email to effectively communicate my thoughts? I feel like my words may not be heard as intended.

Assuming you won't get the funding, do you have alternatives?

"my bank is currently -$10000" You have $10000 debt or you still have $10000 balance in the bank ? Please clarify. If you owe $10000, how much was the tuition you had to pay ?

I edited the post, I needed to borrow an extra 10k from family.

Is your supervisor supposed to give you a topic or you are free to choose a topic ?

Obviously, I can not find a topic since he provides funding and is aware of the problems. I just want him to engage me in a project.

Either your PhD is not actually fully funded, or you have failed to bring this to the attention of the right people, who might include administrative staff for the grad program, a department chair, etc.

Funding and project are not quite so intertwined as you imply; you can easily have a project but no funding or funding but no project. It seems like the funding, not the project, is the more immediate issue so work on that first.

Which country is this?

Have you told him you'd like to have a meeting specifically about funding?

OP, you mentioned that you "see" that your classmates have projects with funding. Have you spoken to them and asked how they got to this point?

"I do not receive proper support from my PhD advisor" <- A very common situation unfortunately.

To be honest, it sounds like you are entirely too passive in this situation, expecting that the advisor will simply "give" you something. While I don't know your field, that would be very unusual in many.
You have had conversations with the advisor. Does anything in those conversations pique your interest in a problem to be researched. My guess is that the advisor expects that to happen.
A PhD isn't just an employee working under the explicit direction of a manager, carrying out assigned tasks. It requires some creativity and initiative.
Not everyone can come up with their own problem, but having some idea of a possible problem opens the opportunity for a conversation with the advisor that, with refinement, can lead to one. Open that conversation and not with email. This is a situation that calls for face to face discussions and explorations.
I suggest that you don't sit back and expect things to happen automatically. Get busy.

" It requires some creativity and initiative." Totally agree!

While this is a good advice, it does not answer his question.

@lr0, I've made it a bit more explicit. Email is a poor vehicle for this.

I cannot see how the question of funding (money) enter this answer. Or, this is already not important in academia?

@yarchik, my reading is that funding is tied to the specific research. The funding will follow from finding an appropriate project. That isn't universally true, but seems to be the case here.

There is a lot of assumptions in your answer. While I fully agree with you that one must show initiative, not only in science, in any job actually, there are formal requirements. Being initiative is never a precondition for a working contract. For this, there are evaluations. You pass the evaluation and your contract is prolonged. Or you do not pass and the contract is terminated. These are the conditions set at the beginning.

@yarchik the OP hasn't asked about money, they asked about how best to elicit a response from their supervisor. Coming up with a research idea would do that; the OP could approach their supervisor with a topic, then the supervisor would be forced to give feedback and clarify what needs to be done.

@isolatedmatrix Having 10K debt and no working contract, to come up with creative research ideas begging for unclear something would be the last thing for me to do. No contract, no money -- no job done.

@yarchik then perhaps you should post an answer suggesting what you would do. Either way, the question was not about money.

How do I write him an email to effectively communicate my thoughts? I
feel like my words may not be heard as intended.

You don not write an email. You meet him in the office, you pester him with phone calls, you read your contract and you escalate to the head of department.
You have plenty of hints that he is not getting your needs. You need to sit at the same table to discuss face to face. Be calm and polite, bring him to understand your situation.
"I apologize but I do not have much quality time to think about our research because I have to compare all this APR loan options to sustain myself" can be a good ice-breaker.

I've voted down because the advisor would be able to say this to their boss : "I'm being pestered by this crazy person.  He's always ringing me, no matter what I say."

@StephenG-HelpUkraine "no matter what you say, but what did you do?"

I have no idea what you mean by that.  I do know that pestering someone with phone calls is not going to be considered reasonable behavior by the organization employing the advisor.  That would likely solve the OP's problem (kind of), because the organization would most likely end his PhD for pestering staff.

@StephenG-HelpUkraine you have a very simplistic view of the world. Glad it works for you.

All your advice would do is make the OP look confrontational while leaving them without written evidence of the problem, as you particularly say they should not email.  That won't work well for anyone in dispute with any organization.  Writing in email also allows people to make considered responses that, if they make the effort) are phrased well.  This can reduce the problem of not saying what you need to in a conversation and not using ambiguous language - something that's very prone to happen in face to face conversation.  Heated phone calls (inevitable if you "pester" someone) won't help.

All your advice would do is make OP unhappy and believing in a future project that will solve their future economic problem. Sure, with a paper trail, very useful to present to the bank when they ask to refund the taken loans.
Congratulations nonetheless for explaining me what is already in my answer.

An email is a useful record when escalating to the head of department or other parts of the university/institute - "I specified x problems at y time and it is documented here." It's impossible to evidence what was said on a phone call. At the very least emailing after the phone call/meeting you describe with the contents of the discussion is useful.

@JayBee totally agree, but this is not the question of OP.  Unfortunately we are already in the realm of "oral promises" ( When I applied professor promised me that he was going to provide me with the funding.) so a paper trail is of little help, OP is looking for the professor to concretize the promises ... hard thing to do ...


text:
PhD admissions: what to do when not shortlisted at top choice program?
I applied for a PhD program at HKU and contacted a professor ahead of time. The professor said that it depends on the committee to decide the students. Then after one month, when I asked for my application status, the professor said that I am not in the shortlist for the main round. But I really like this program. What other efforts I can do at this time? For example, sending a love letter to the professor, or polishing my research proposal?

That was just a polite way of saying that you were not selected. At this point there is nothing you can do (definately do not sent love letters). Try again next year or find an alternative.

A philosopher once wrote: "you can't always get what you want".

To convert Maarten's correct comment to an answer:
This is a polite way of saying that your application was not successful. It is very unlikely that you can change this. Time to move on: try elsewhere, try next year, or take a different path.
You could try politely asking for feedback to help you improve future applications. You may or may not receive anything.


text:
Predatory journal threatens me to either pay or they will retract the paper visibly online
I accidentally submitted to a predatory journal from the Pulsus Group, which is on Beall's List. I did not sign anything yet; no copyright transferred. I then tried to withdraw when I found out about their predatory nature. They want to charge me 525 € as a last offer to either publish or withdraw by Monday so as not to retract the paper publicly. They only have a PDF version of it. How bad would the damage of public retraction from a predatory journal be, and can I resubmit it elsewhere afterwards?
If I pay, they could still continue to extort me… they are bombarding me with emails to pay.

Since copyright has not been transferred, you can submit it elsewhere. Does this answer your question? https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17374/how-can-i-withdraw-a-publication-from-a-predatory-fake-journal-and-resubmit-to

Do you have some legal protection insurance to discuss this with a lawyer? After all you signed no contract - it would be more about character defamation in this case.

Yes I know. But maybe they would defame me out of anger if I don’t pay… I am already talking to lawyers, but no legal insurance unfortunately and would be more expensive than paying the scammers. The question would be how bad retraction from a predatory journal would influence the chance to publish the paper elsewhere or destroy reputation. Maybe these are just bluffs of course… and they won’t publish or retract.

Does this answer your question? can I submit in a new journal after submission in a predatory journal who force to pay in order to withdraw?

see also: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/123408/do-i-have-an-obligation-to-pay-publication-fee-to-predatory-journal

I don't understand the scenario. The predatory publisher hasn't published your paper, and does not even have the rights to do so. How can a paper that was never published in the first place be retracted?

... and if indeed you have not signed anything yet, there is little basis for the journal to claim that you have made any kind of agreement with them that could subject you to liability if you broke it.  But do be careful about that: it is possible that you did make an agreement, and even did an equivalent of signing it, by the action of clicking the journal's "Submit my article" button.

The worry "maybe they would defame me out of anger if I don’t pay" would be enough for me to run the other way. Thugs. "Publishing" with them is a public announcement that your material does not otherwise meet high standards. Why advertise that?

Beall's List is in past tense on Wikipidia. Is that true, and if so, how does it affect this question? Presumably, the information is 7 years out of date.

"If I pay, they could still continue to bribe me…" - did you mean extort you, or something like that? If they are bribing you, that would mean they give you money so that you will do something in return.

Yes I mean extort. And yes it could be possible, that I gave them copyright accidentally. They wanted me to sign a formal copyright declaration, which I refused, but they state in their policy that by submitting the copyright is theirs, which I did not read and yes I clicked on it in the false and dumb believe the journal was not predatory. But they indeed threat to publish and retract, which is confusing. I will see, if they do that, but I refuse to pay scammers.

@GeraldineGera404Reichard What jurisdiction is the company or individual running the journal in? Ditto yourself?

@GeraldineGera404Reichard if they do publish and retract, bear in mind that nobody will care.  Anybody that knows that it was a predatory journal ought to be able to work out that it was not retracted on quality ("cui bono") - or it may be that they are taking advantage of the predatory nature and won't care.  For those that don't know it is a predatory journal, it may cause them to question the quality of the journal, which is no bad thing.  I have a paper with a publisher on Beale's list (*but from a decade before there was a list), it is no big deal, especially if you are early career.

BTW do you have any evidence that they failed to perform their part of the agreement for your specific paper (e.g. they promised peer review but didn't actually send it for review)?  For the copyright issue, you may want to ask on the Law SE - I suspect a substantial re-wording of the paper would circumvent the copyright, which is on the text/diagrams not the ideas, however I am not an expert on that so don't rely on my understanding!

I looked up the publisher in question, and the main evidence for it being predatory seems to be that it was bought up by OMICS, and that seems to have caused a lack of confidence in it's editors and associated medical institutions.  I don't think that is strong evidence that it actually is a predatory journal, it seems that it was on Beale's list as being potentially predatory.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulsus_Group .  I suspect they were once solid journals (if perhaps not that prestigious).

So they are going to publish without copyrights when you didn't give permission to publish and then withdraw it to make you look bad?  That's the most bizarre extortion scheme I have ever heard.

The truth is, no one can really predict what the journal will do. However, there are several things to keep in mind:

predatory journals are in the business of making money with the least effort for themselves
retractions potentially harm the journal in addition to the author
it makes no sense for a journal to retract a paper unless they have already published it.
threats and bluster cost the journal nothing

You don't say whether they have in fact already published your paper but it would seem truly strange that they would go to the expense of publishing your paper if they have not already done so, only with the intention of retracting it ... and still not getting any money from you.
With that in mind, in your shoes I would simply stop responding to any correspondence from them, submit your paper elsewhere.
One last thing ... I don't think that places like Retraction Watch deign to cover junk journals!

Thanks. That seems like the right thing to do. For now they have not even “peer-reviewed” it nor published, but threat me to do this on Monday, if I won’t pay. I guess there would have not really peer-review it in any case, but it is officially in review stage. They wanted me to sign the copyright agreement to proceed with the peer review, which I refused to do.

To me, that seems like the best call. Put differently, if I were in your shoes, I would do exactly as I suggested. The future is unpredictable, but surrendering to blackmail never does one any good. And I strongly suspect that the journal will move on to an easier victim if they can't quickly get money from you! And as I implied, I'd just ignore their future emails, not start arguing with them or abusing them.

Yes seems like the best option . Thanks.

Right now they are bombarding me with emails to pay, so I guess that’s all that they will do. Hoping for the best. But you cannot really argue with scammers that’s true.

+1. This journal almost certainly sends out threatening emails like that to anyone who sends them a manuscript, since threats do not cost them anything. At some point, if they tailor their threats to Germans, they will start telling you that they will send an Inkassobüro after you. This is all bluster. They are spamming people and hoping that one in twenty victims will pay them. Cut off contact with them, and submit elsewhere.

And should they indeed send someone to collect the money, I am sure there is the analog of "cease and desist" in Germany. As long as you did not sign a copyright agreement, I think you are in a pretty good state. 'Sittenwidrig' may also be a term of interest in a potential legal dispute of the nature of their business, but I do not think it will escalate to legal. These guys know that Germans are afraid of legal, and so that's the game they play.

@CaptainEmacs sittenwidrig isn't quite specific to this case. Whether it is or not, maybe, but that's details really. Sure, there is a cease and desist. They won't send an Inkassobüro, because they have to pay it upfront and it will leave you in peace if you refuse to pay. An Inkassobüro is meant to get money that someone actually owes. They are good at getting some money out of you instead of none, if you have no money.

@DonQuiKong I thought that it might be a potential defense appropriately interpreted in the context of the situation, but I am not a lawyer. In any case, I agree, unlikely that they can actually do anything.

I don’t think that they can send anyone after me, since they have no right to do so, not yet threatened with legal steps and have nothing except a Pdf of the paper. They now try desperately to lowered the price of withdrawal or publishing to 400$ in their latest spam mails to get at least some money out of me. If they really would publish and retract the paper, they maybe say, that they will put it offline again, if I’ll pay. Or its just a bluff. But who cares about retraction from those kind of journals?

Get a lawyer involved. I would not simply ghost them and hope they won't do anything, and you definitely shouldn't keep arguing with them. If you are a student or academic at a university or a researcher at a research institute or company, your organisation will have lawyers who are knowledgeable about contracts and copyright law. It is likely that a sternly worded letter from your lawyer will see the end of the matter.

Yes, if you are at a US university this is something the university legal office would probably handle for you.

(+1) for advice to get a lawyer involved.  However, whether a lawyer letter will dispose of the matter might depend on the jurisdiction which the predatory journal operates in.  If it is a "hostile" country then the courts there might not be terribly amenable to actions against the publisher, so the letter will carry little threatening weight.

I am German not US. I don’t think lawyers can do much, since these people are criminals and don’t care about laws. Also the information about the journal on the website seems like they use fake names and operate from some third world country. The lawyers demanded high prices. One lawyer even said 300€ an hour and I should better pay the scammers. Also Pulsus had several lawsuits to deal with and still seem to operate. They could always still retract the paper publicly, if that would have any impact, if a pdf version and a journal website are enough to do so.

As OP says, the typical spam journal operates from countries outside the reach of western law. Getting a lawyer seems like expenses that will ultimately not be helpful. OTOH this also seriously limits what they can realistically do to you - put a mean note on their website? Who cares, nobody takes them seriously anyway (that's why it's a spam publisher).

Geraldine, you almost certainly have access to a lawyer at no cost through your institution, assuming that you are a student or employed as a researcher. Ask your supervisor or check your intranet pages to find out their contact details. It is worth asking someone familiar with the relevant laws for advice.

Just to add: universities have lawyers everywhere. This advice is not specific to the US.

Ok I will try to. Cannot be harmful…

@Significance another question is whether those university lawyers will be willing to help you for free. It is not at all obvious.

@wimi if the paper is going to be published with the university’s affiliation, they have an interest in looking after the university’s reputation. It’s their job.

Just playing devil's advocate, but lets say you submitted a paper to a reputable journal and it had been accepted and published online, and the author refused to pay the agreed publication fee†.  It would not be unreasonable for them to "threaten" to withdraw the paper and leave a note to explain why.  What else should they do, given that they had published the work for you, as agreed?
Predatory publishers exists because they meet a need.  Some academics need to get papers in print, whether competently peer reviewed or not, perhaps for career progression reasons.  How is the publisher to know whether or not you agreed for them to publish your paper knowing what the journals standards are like.
At the end of the day, there is an element of "caveat emptor" (buyer beware).  You seem to agree that you made a mistake in sending the paper to a predatory journal, so you should expect there to be some consequences to your mistake.  I would send them a letter requesting them to withdraw your paper (or agreeing to the withdrawal).  Call their bluff.  If someone asked me why the paper was withdrawn, I would just say "yes, I discovered it was a predatory journal after I had submitted the paper".  If they give a false reason for the withdrawal, then you should have the reviewer comments and email from the editor showing that it was not because of a problem with the content.
† It amazes me that commercial academic publishers still exist, give that reputable on-line journals, such as jmlr.org have demonstrated it is feasible to have an open access journal that is free to both reader and author, as most of the work is done pro-bono by academic anyway.  It would be a much better use of taxpayers money for the funding bodies to subsidise similar academic-run on-line journals (the quality of the journal will depend on the quality of the editorial board).

It is not reasonable for a reputable journal to retract an article for unpaid fees. Nothing in the COPE retraction guidelines says you should, and I haven't seen it done. The publisher can go as far as to sue you for unpaid bills, but there is nothing wrong with the paper itself, and thus holding it hostage is improper.

@user71659 is there anything in the COPE guidelines that say that they shouldn't?  I think there is a terminological issue here, where "retraction" has the implication that there was something wrong with the paper.  Simply deleting the paper from the online journal leaving an explanation of why it was done would not be a retraction in that sense, so I don't see a problem with it - it wouldn't be a criticism of the content of the paper.

Reputable journals don't publish your paper before you've paid the fee, if there  is one.

Comments have been moved to chat; please do not continue the discussion here. Before posting a comment below this one, please review the purposes of comments. Comments that do not request clarification or suggest improvements usually belong as an answer, on [meta], or in [chat]. Comments continuing discussion may be removed.


text:
Is it acceptable to reference equations in a thesis instead of writing them out?
I am writing a technical report for my Bachelors degree in Computer science. When writing the background section I noticed that, for one specific topic, there will be a whole lot of equations. After describing some mathematical models and the flow of data between different nodes and such, would it normally in a thesis be OK to reference the equations to a book? The reason for even asking this is that if I were to give the equations in my own report, it would basically just be copying them straight out of the pages where the author of a specific book has collected them.
I am not asking about plagiarism. As I would reference to the book correctly, I assume that would not be a problem. But I am wondering if this would be considered OK, or is it "lazy", or something like that.
The models themselves are central to my work, but the instructions for the background part we've been given at my university are to provide basic knowledge. Therefore I think that the equations may be unnecessary to include.
Also, I am aware that I should speak to my supervisor about this, but he is on vacation and I am trying to work diligently. Of course I could just write the equations anyway, and maybe add a bit of explanation as well, and if it turns out to be redundant I can just remove it.

Seems like you already figured out a solution: "just write the equations anyway, and maybe add a bit of explanation as well, and if it turns out to be redundant I can just remove it."

Include whatever your target audience would find frustrating not to find within your paper.  Note, putting some or all in an appendix might make be something to consider.

The suggestion to put them in an appendix is a good one. That allows you to change your mind later (after you speak with your advisor). In fact you can write the main text along the lines of "the underlying equations are discussed HERE," and near the end of your writing you change HERE to reference either your appendix, or the book. It also allows you to postpone putting time into this part of your thesis, until your advisor tells you whether he/she wants it.
One concern I have is consistent notation. If you just reference to another source, are you relying on readers to figure out the needed notation changes? If so, it's better that you include the equations, properly translated.

That is a very good point you make, about the consistency of notation. This is one reason for me not to just reference to the book I have.. because I used other notations in preceding parts of my text. Thank you for making me aware of that!


text:
Does a professor need a student's permission to cite the student's unpublished essay in their own work?
Would professors keep an undergrad student's essay to contribute to knowledge in a certain field? I mean keep for the purpose of citing and using it as a reference when conducting further research on the topic.
Or are they designed to just reiterate information already known just to prove that the student understands the material to qualify to pass a class?
Consider a scenario where the prof is covering course topics throughout the semester and then tells the students to write an essay (the typical introductory paragraph/thesis, body, conclusion, etc.). For example, a student writes about a certain topic in the field and the arguments used to defend that topic over an opposing claim against the original thesis. The student may present arguments that can can be a breakthrough in the field as to why a certain position on a topic is the best choice.
This could happen where the student has a background outside the classroom that contributed to the "original" discovery.

I'm a bit unclear on what you are asking - advance who's knowledge? It's certainly true that an essay can advance a student's knowledge through writing, and that a professor can learn new things through reading student essays (I'm sure it is the best part of the otherwise terrible task of reading student essays), but they are generally not published to the public so they don't really "advance knowledge" in the general sense of research. If you clarify what aspect you would like to know about we could be more helpful.

@BrianDHall  I mean toward public knowledge in the academic field, such as a Phd would. I know it's a stretch to compare, but in the sense of creating a thesis in just an undergrad essay for say like a first or second year class that is a breakthrough in the research that hasn't been known yet.

Undergraduates do write and publish research papers.  It's rare, but it does happen.  But it doesn't usually happen from a homework assignment, which is what "essay" usually connotes, at least to me.  Can you clarify what you mean by "essay"?

I don't understand what you mean by "keep".

@JeffE I mean in the general sense where the prof is covering course topics throughout the semester and then tells the students to write an essay (the typical introductory paragraph/thesis, body, conclusion, etc.). For example, a student writes about a certain topic in the field and the arguments used to defend that topic over an opposing claim against the original thesis. The student may present arguments that can can be a breakthrough in the field as to why a certain position on a topic is the best choice.

@DavidRicherby I mean keep for the purpose of citing and using it as a reference when conducting further research on the topic. Or would they need permission from the student to do that?

It sounds like what you're really asking about is contributions to the state of knowledge in your field of interest, before becoming a graduate student.  Given that, you may find this take on the subject to be of interest.

@Wildcard  I'm curious to know the rights of the student in the situation and how the professor can utilize the information even though it's not published. Mostly if the professor would need the permission of the student.

Your edited question is a much clearer question than the previous version. On the other hand, it's considered not very nice to change a question after it has already been answered, in a way that invalidates an existing answer, that someone put time and effort into. In that situation, it's usually better to leave the question as it was before, so the answer makes sense, and ask a new question in a new post.

Well if you look at the question body, the answer is still valid to what I'm asking.

I edited the question with an example (the student has an "outside" background), and voted to reopen.

I imagine that undergraduate essays rarely contribute to the knowledge in a field, but there is nothing stopping them.
There is no rule that you have to hold a PhD to contribute.  You can be a graduate student, an undergraduate, or completely unaffiliated with a university and contribute.

I guess the prof would need the student's permission to utilize it to add to their own research? Would it be considered a part of the student's intellectual property?

@JPhills That is a tricky issue.  Of course, it would be considered a part of the student's intellectual property.  If it really advances the field, then the prof should encourage the student to publish it in a suitable medium.  Once published, the prof should cite it as appropriate.  If the student declines, then the prof can still cite but due to FERPA the cite might look like [unpublished essay from unnamed student].

would you think the prof would need permission from the student to hang on to it for however long in order to cite it? If it no longer exists anywhere to read, what would be the point of citing it?

The point of citing anything is to tell other people that the idea you're conveying is not your own.

@JPhills the prof would have no proof that he did not just make the student essay up, but s/he should not be claiming credit for ideas that are not his/her own.

@JPhilis imagine in a homework assignment, a student proves N=NP (or N!=NP) which would be a major advance in computer science.  The prof should encourage the student to publish this proof.  However, if the student refuses, the prof should publish an article heavily citing unnamed student's unpublished essay.  The field would advance.

@JPhills for an example of this look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student's_t-test#History

@emory wouldn't the essay need to exist in some form of readable format if you want to cite it? If the student doesn't want to publish it, would the prof need the student's permission to cite it?

@JPhills are all of Archimedes cited works extant? Does anyone have his permission to cite?

@emory but that's famous work one would call published a.k.a. accessible to the public. A student's essay is considered private intellectual property I would assume. And I would assume the prof wouldn't have the right to acknowledge it in the academic world and/or hang on to it for academic research purposes if the student doesn't wish for it. The prof could then steal it and abolish all proof of the essay existing in the class if the class is over for the year cycle and use the student's ideas for his own if he really wanted to.

@JPhills if the student did not want to share his/her ground breaking essay with the world, then it is his/her right not to.  The student's expression of ideas are protected, the student's ideas are not.  If the student does not want to share his/her ground breaking ideas with the world there are 2 options: (1) do not submit the essay to the prof, (2) have the prof sign a NDA before submitting the essay.

@JPhills I have taught classes and I have never read anything that was even close to worth stealing.  This is an extremely rare problem.

@emory what do you mean by the expressions are protected but the ideas are not?

@JPhills if you prove to me in essay form that P=NP, I am not obligated to forget it.  I am not obligated to not make use of the knowledge.

@emory so if the professor hands the student's essay back and the student shreds it, the prof can technically say the ideas are his own since there won't be any copies of the essay since it's unpublished. This goes back to my question of what's the point of citing when a copy of the essay doesn't exist? Which goes back to my question of whether or not the prof would keep it for citing purposes?

@JPhills if the student shreds the essay then there would be no proof of the prof's intellectual dishonesty (claiming credit for ideas that were not original to him/her).  Alternatively, the prof could just back date lecture notes and claim that the student received the idea in lecture.  We should assume that profs will act honorably.

Okay just needed some confirmation on that

My impression is that your only protection from an unethical professor, whether you are an undergrad, grad student, or professional, is:

Write a paper and submit it.

The ethical thing for the professor to do would be to say:

The ideas you proposed in your term paper are very exciting and I believe have the potential to form the basis of a publishable article.  I would suggest that you apply to do a summer project with Prof. XX to develop your ideas further.  Also, Course YY, which will be offered in the spring by Prof. ZZ, would be quite helpful in terms of background knowledge / research techniques / writing mechanics (or whatever).  I hope you can fit it into your schedule.  Let me know how it goes!

And then s/he would return the term paper to you.
My answer is based on a comment I once heard, urging a grad student to submit a paper quickly, that was in draft form, because a particular professor in the department had been observed going through someone's trash can.

That would be the "honorable" thing for the professor to do.
This is most likely to happen when the student has a helpful background outside the classroom. For instance, the student has a farm background, and designed a new farm implement for a mechanical engineering class.
It is "easy" for a professor to claim credit for teaching the student something "in class" that the student used, because of the professor's superior knowledge. The above example is one where the student is in the best position to defeat a professor's claim; that is, the student can challenge the professor to match his knowledge of farming.


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Can I use examples of others' research in my presentation on scientific conference?
I'm giving a talk on scientific conference in a couple of days and I have prepared my concept and my presentation. Because what I'm going to talk about is not done in practise in my country, I have included in my presentation examples and research results from the past from other academics and researchers.
Is this okay? I will also give credits underneath each slide to the respected researchers.

In my opinion, not only you can use others' research, but you should. It is important to highlight relationship of your research to prior knowledge.
If you only show what you have done (or are trying to do), then unless you are doing something simultaneously remarkably novel and easy to grasp at the same time (a dubious combination), you will, at best, come across as uninteresting and/or incomprehensible. Even more likely, it will look like you did no background research of your own, which makes you look incompetent.


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Possible for ABD (all but dissertation) to return?
Can an ABD (all but dissertation) return to the university to redo the dissertation? If yes, how do they proceed?

I'm voting to close because, as it is stated now, this is extremely dependent on the regulations of the particular university. Only the university officials can say what the procedure is.

What discipline are you? How many publications are required for you to publish before the PHD defense in your department? Have you got those publications?

Despite all the votes to close this question; he is asking a general question not about a specific program. I voted this question to remain opened.

Voting to reopen because this question, and the answers already provided, could be very useful to others in a similar situation.

tl;dr: it depends
We had two students who were AWOL for many years  while ABD and tried to submit:

The first student had delayed writing for a decade or so due to family commitments but kept in regular touch with faculty, refreshed the theory and data of the dissertation, reconstituted a committee, submitted the dissertation, and graduated.
The second student had not kept in touch with faculty. Their primary advisor had passed away many years ago and they had no committee. The student asked the department whether they could submit their dissertation but the data and theory used in the dissertation was decades old. They were not allowed to submit the dissertation.

Whether or not you will be allowed to even submit a dissertation depends on your university, on the provost, and then finally on the department and advisor. You will need to reconstitute a dissertation committee. After submission, the department will then have to decide whether to accept the dissertation as proof of your qualification for the PhD.

ABD isn't usually thought of as a final status. Most people don't leave their university ABD. Most people spend a couple of years in the program, having passed quals, taken all the classes, and proposed a topic working on their dissertations. At this point, they are colloquially considered "All But Dissertation" because that describes what they've done so far not an official status. Every university will have a policy about what happens if you leave while ABD, and most will have some mechanism for coming back in reasonable time (not decades later) and finishing. Ask your advisor and graduate school or coordinator.

Yes, every university has its own specific policy. Some policies may or may not include:

A person who has completed their classes and has passed qualifying exams becomes a doctoral candidate, and is, colloquially, ABD.
ABD status at some universities may also be called a Candidate in Philosophy.
Some schools confer the degree of MPhil to recognize a candidate's accomplishments until a candidate completes and defends their research, at which point, if successful, a candidate earns a Ph.D. or other doctoral degree.
At some universities, there are some very specific ABD Status Agreements, including considerations for status as ABD In Residence, and ABD In Absentia.
At some universities, you are ABD only so long as you have not abandoned your degree program and have not timed-out.
At some universities, you are no longer, by their policy, ABD if you have left your degree program, or you have timed out.

It's important to recognize that more often than not "ABD" is not a credential conferred, granted, or bestowed. Rather "ABD" is an indication of status--that status being you have not yet completed your research, and/or defended your research.
Generally speaking, you should check with your university to understand their policy regarding the status, "ABD."


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Do colleges/professors sign contracts with educational publishers that require them to use the publisher's learning platform?
I am attending a community college in the US, and one of my professors has made it a requirement to purchase a login from McGraw-Hill Connect, even though our school is already set up with a decent online-learning platform. (This is a traditional class, by the way - not an online class.)
So far, the only material that has been placed on this McGraw-Hill platform (which I paid $120 for) is a weekly multiple choice homework assignment which could easily be handed out on a piece of paper or distributed via the previously-mentioned platform (which is already available to students taking the class and requires no additional charge).
What would be the incentive for a professor to require students to purchase this "extra feature" which, for my class, provides little-to-no real use and reaps in thousands of extra dollars for McGraw Hill? Is it possible that my professor is required to do this to fulfill some sort of contract?

Related: Is it ethical for a lecturer to require students to purchase an online learning kit where kit is used for course assessments

Not an answer, but did you mention to your prof that there are free/cheaper alternatives which can handle multiple choice quizzes? It may simply be that the prof knows no other way to move towards automation and is being pushed into moving at least part of his/her class online (e.g., creating a 'blended' class).

Not saying that the situation is optimal, but you shouldn't jump to the conclusion that something immoral is happening. Maybe the lecturer in fact (rightly or not) sees an advantage in using this system? Maybe he is not aware of the alternative, or does not know how to use it?

It's possible that the multiple choice questions that the professor is assigning are content that is only available when students have paid for the online course materials.

I'm going ahead and flagging this as a duplicate of http://academia.stackexchange.com/q/18190/30785, since it appears the asker is complaining about the exact same platform as I am (there was a $90 option as well) and they mention all of the aspects of this that I am critical of.

Obviously, the most constructive way to deal with this is to take it up with the professor or even the head of the department. I personally don't agree with it and I would hope that my tuition pays for the professor's time in creating a curriculum, complete with homework assignments. After all, that's how things were done before the days of the internet. It could be as simple as picking problems out of the book (which I have had professors do in the past, hence why I purchased the book... ).

Is it possible? I suppose so, but that's not the way things normally work. Usually the professor, or a committee of professors, decides what textbook and/or homework system to use. There is not usually a contract, and they can change to a different book or system at any time.
I can think of several more likely reasons for using the system:

Simplicity. A generic online learning system like Blackboard has little pre-made content, while a system from a publisher will come with questions already written.  Writing even one quiz per week "from scratch" in Blackboard is highly time consuming. Giving quizzes on paper is also more time consuming, and takes class time.
Textbook integration. The online systems from publishers are often tightly integrated with an online textbook. Students often complain about systems like Blackboard, saying they don't see the link between the questions there and the textbook.
A desire to try out online systems. From the question, it sounds like the professor could get more "value" from the system. Perhaps she's just trying it out, before really committing to it. Or perhaps she is concerned about complaints if she assigns more frequent assignments. Student feedback is important in this case.
If a committee decided that the online system is required, perhaps the professor could be "playing along" by assigning a minimal amount of work on it, just enough to avoid criticism from colleagues.

From the student's point of view, the most useful way in which to influence future decisions by the professor and the department is to comment on this in the end of semester course evaluations.  If there are enough complaints from students about the cost of this material and the faculty don't see sufficient value in the material, then they'll be likely to stop using it.


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Are US PhD admission offers binding?
So I have just accepted (via some online function on the website) an offer of PhD admission into a prestigious US university. I have also been in telephonic and email contact with staff at this university. I still feel like it is rather informal. The department told me more information would arrive in April.
What I want to know is, is the offer I have accepted binding on the part of university? I have (and am about to decline) concrete offers from some UK groups and I am worried that I will be burning bridges. Can a US university rescind their offer? Does this ever happen? Am I just being paranoid?
For example, as I am still in master's program, my other offers usually said that I was admitted on the condition that I obtained a sufficiently good grade in my degree etc. My US offer does not make mention of anything like this - not that I plan on doing badly but it is good to know. Would the department think it odd if I asked along these lines?

If you're an international sudent a much bigger problem is that you may not be able to obtain a student visa to enter the US.

Graduate admissions offers in the U.S. can sometimes be rescinded, but I've never heard of it happening except in extraordinary circumstances.  I've known of cases where it was because the applicant failed to graduate, was dishonest in their application, or committed some sort of academic misconduct, but I can't think of any other reason.  However, as Johanna noted in the comments, the offer is not conditional on getting sufficiently good grades (unless this is stated explicitly).

I still feel like it is rather informal.

This sounds like it's about as formal as I've seen.  I don't think you have anything to worry about.  The only worrisome scenario would be if you received an oral offer and gave an oral acceptance, with no documentation, but that shouldn't happen if the department is handling things properly (and indeed it doesn't apply in your case).

The department told me more information would arrive in April.

It's common to send a detailed information packet for incoming students in April, after all the offers have been accepted/rejected.  That way the department can deal with it all at once, rather than handling each student individually.  This packet typically includes things like registration forms, insurance information, housing forms, etc.  (Anything they feel could be useful to students making a decision would be sent earlier.)

except in extraordinary circumstances — For example: Last week at CMU

It's a good point that an offer could be made by mistake, but as far as I know this has always been caught quickly.  (I don't know of any case in which a mistake was caught a week later.  It's generally the same day, or occasionally the next day.)  If you've had an offer for a week and corresponded with the department about it, I think it's safe to assume it won't be rescinded as a clerical error.

@AnonymousMathematician: I guess the worry here isn't the department rescinding the admission, but rather the university/bureaucracy running into weird issues. When the department recommends you for admission to the university, the university still has to give you admission... so what guarantee is there that they will? None, as far as I've been able to tell, even though they almost certainly will.

@Mehrdad I don't think there's any worry about rescinding a decision (if it's not a mistake).  However it is possible that they may have trouble funding everyone who accepts (due to more people accepting or having less funding than they anticipate).  Fortunately, the cases I know of where this happened, the funding was still given, just fewer grad students were admitted the following year.

@Mehrdad: In my experience U.S. departments (at least the ones I've been at) actually admit students, and don't just make recommendations to the university.  Once the department makes an offer, everything is official and no further approval is needed.  If there needs to be any verification that the choices comply with university rules or are acceptable to the administration, then this happens before the offer is sent out.

@AnonymousMathematician: Ooh... I made a mistake in my comment; the email I had had in mind had stated that the admissions committee had recommended the applicant for admission to the department, rather than the department recommending the applicant for admission to the university. Never mind that, then.

Does this answer say "Yes", or "No, but don't worry about it?"

@eric_kernfeld: As your own answer indicates, there's an issue here of exactly what "binding" means, and whether Anonymous Mathematician's answer should be interpreted as "Yes" or "No, but..." depends on the interpretation of "binding".  Lacking that clarification, the answer here is arguably the most useful kind of answer.

As far as I know (at least here at Georgia Tech) all the conditions (if there are any) are included in your offer. I have never heard of us rescinding an offer after it has been accepted.  If there is a deadline, though, you must accept by then or the offer may no longer be valid.
That said, I think nobody would be offended if your asked, if it puts your mind at ease.  I would not mention the "getting good grades in your MS" or similar things.
Just send a note to whomever you have been in contact with and say something like "I'm very happy to have been accepted into the program, and am looking forward to coming.  I am pretty sure I've completed everything I need to do to accept admission, but I just wanted to check one last time. I have a number of other acceptances I'm about to decline and I just wanted to check that everything is in order with my admission before I decline the other offers.  Thanks for your help and understanding!"

Anyone with better knowledge of the law is welcome to correct me here, but I think it's valuable to answer the question in terms of what universities are legally obligated to do, not what they usually end up doing.
If by "binding", you mean "legally binding", then the answer is "maybe". US courts have primarily treated the student-university relationship as a contract, but they do sometimes deviate from that model. For many US states, a signed job offer is not binding unless it contains a clear or implied long-term promise of employment. I'm not a lawyer; I learned this stuff from the following sources:
https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2819&context=ilj
https://www.tonybeshara.com/tips/accepting-an-offer-new-employees/


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How to ask for rec letter for another program after verbal commitment to stay with my current advisor for PhD?
I'm a senior undergrad, and I verbally committed to sticking around with my current research prof for a PhD at the beginning of the school year. However, I'm now really enticed by the graduate program of another school, and I'd like to at least apply to the other school.
However, I don't know how to ask my research prof--whose lab is the technically-juciest part of my CV--for a rec letter. He has already recommended me to 2 fellowships, so I know he has a letter ready for me.
Should I just not ask my advisor for a letter? How would a grad committee feel about the lack of input from the closest research adviser? I have a 3.8 and 3 years of hands-on experience in different labs (no publications) and student groups, so I feel like I have a decent shot at getting into the other school without my adviser's recommendation, but I'd like to get your thoughts.
More broadly speaking, is it okay for me to even apply to the other school? On one hand, I feel guilty about possibly reneging on my statement to work with him, especially since I've had some unproductive spats in his lab and I feel indebted to him for keeping me on. On the other hand, I don't feel guilty because he told me he doesn't have any long-term funding left for me (hence the fellowship applications). Moreover, one of the fellowship proposal's depended on the lack of progress in a certain field which my prof and I later discovered has been secretly progressed very rapidly by a government lab.

Absolutely you should apply to other programs, and your advisor should be encouraging you to do so.  If for no other reason, your advisor could be hit by a bus tomorrow, and then you'd be stuck without any back-up plans.
Your advisor should have no qualms about you applying to additional programs. He should be willing to submit his LOR for you. Moreover, if you secure some interviews, it is such a unique opportunity to meet some other PIs in your field as well as students who are in your field.
In sum, your professor should be totally open to doing this, just explain that you don't want to place all your eggs in one basket.  Good luck!