Questions tagged [discussion]

Questions that may not necessarily have a clear-cut right or wrong answer and are often subjective. If your question isn't a bug report, feature request, or request for assistance, or question with a concrete answer, it's probably a discussion.

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We have no [press], [press-release], [popular-press], [public-relations], [publicity] tags even though these are regularly leveraged by universities

Major universities frequently have departments and staff and web pages for press releases related to notable ("hot") publications by faculty. They make sure that the popular press has the ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 2,892
12 votes
1 answer
162 views

Can we improve advice to those asking questions?

Quite a few questions asked generate comments that the OP doesn't answer. Let me suggest adding a bit to the Help Center advice on asking questions to say that responding to such comments will likely ...
Buffy's user avatar
  • 344k
7 votes
3 answers
505 views

Should we make Google Scholar questions off topic?

I am wondering why we should keep on answering questions related to Google Scholar (GS). This is a product from a well known advertising company (Alphabet) which is poorly documented, absolutely ...
EarlGrey's user avatar
  • 15.4k
14 votes
1 answer
675 views

User keeps on suggesting offensive edit, can this be stopped?

For the third time in less than 2 days there is an attempt to get an highly offensive edit through for this question: On re-instating a suspended scientist Me and any other reviewer so far rejected ...
Sursula's user avatar
  • 20.2k
5 votes
1 answer
258 views

How are "poor reviews" leading to Review suspension identified?

Because of a comment I recently had a look at some FAQs in the "help" section and stumbled upon this post about review suspensions. It states the following: Review suspensions are not ...
Sursula's user avatar
  • 20.2k
0 votes
0 answers
183 views

How does this question have 2k views in spite of not being a HNQ?

How can an independent researcher publish a well-written research paper / proof in a respected mathematical publication? I'm curious how this question has 2k views in spite of not being a HNQ & ...
Allure's user avatar
  • 122k
33 votes
0 answers
980 views

Please flag spam as spam; it doesn't matter if it is AI-generated as well

A long-running spam trend is to embed a malicious or merely promotional link inside some block of text, either written by low-wage workers in a spam farm or by stringing semi-random text along ...
Bryan Krause's user avatar
  • 104k
9 votes
5 answers
337 views

What should we do about questions asking for career advice outside of academia?

I felt like questions involving careers outside of academia have been received inconsistently in recent times. To look more systematically, I went through the industry tag specifically over the past 9 ...
Bryan Krause's user avatar
  • 104k
14 votes
3 answers
337 views

Can we hint to OPs that their question might be overly long?

Maybe it's just me, but I have the feeling that there is an increase in very long, very, very detailed posts, often not even formatted but wall-of-text style. I often stop reading midway through ...
Sursula's user avatar
  • 20.2k
-1 votes
2 answers
142 views

How can I improve my question about " 'inclusive' access", textbook self-destruction, and resale prevention?

Not too long ago, I posted the question: Why don't " 'inclusive' access" textbook publishers find a way to prevent resale, without requiring automatic textbook self-destruction after a year?...
unforgettableidSupportsMonica's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
77 views

Is a question requesting an endorsement (or other similar benefit to the OP) spam?

I recently encountered a question that was just a request to be endorsed in arxiv. I flagged as spam on the basis that it's not a real question, just "pure" self-promotion. Was that the ...
EJoshuaS - Stand with Ukraine's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
77 views

Why was this answer about IEEE CPS deleted?

On this current question about IEEE CPS, an answer that looks pretty good to me has been deleted by @Wrzlprmft with no explanatory comment (deleted answer visible only to high-reputation users). Since ...
jakebeal's user avatar
  • 187k
-6 votes
1 answer
375 views

Why was my answer to how to evaluate journals deleted by one mod?

I left the following answer (mirror) to the question Asked to be part of Editorial Board. How to evaluate journal?: If the journal is paywalled, I recommend to refuse so that you don't become one of ...
Franck Dernoncourt's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
240 views

How much slang is acceptable in a question or answer?

The answer posted by Thomas Chen for the question below has several slang words and phrases. The OP doesn't have an origin specified in their profile. I want to downvote it because of the slang and ...
mkennedy's user avatar
  • 2,405
30 votes
3 answers
754 views

Moderation Strike is Over

Subject says it all: the moderation strike announced here is over. We moderators are satisfied with the negotiation results and are back at work. Flags raised during the strike will be handled over ...
cag51's user avatar
  • 64.7k
1 vote
4 answers
390 views

Should we create a tag for ChatGPT-related questions?

At the moment, there are 81 posts with the phrase "chatGPT". Although it is generally not a favourite topic around here (but still will probably only become more relevant), I would say it is ...
Sursula's user avatar
  • 20.2k
0 votes
1 answer
75 views

suggest: function to cite a question on academia.se

Triggered by a recent question about a possibly AI generated paper (link), and the presence of a cite handle below the questions on mattermodelling.se to provide a snippet of BibTeX, e.g. (screen ...
Buttonwood's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
176 views

Are purely hypothetical questions allowed?

I recently ran into the following question: What happens if one of your committee members die after your initial submission? My understanding is that open-ended, hypothetical questions are not ...
EJoshuaS - Stand with Ukraine's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
159 views

Strike stopgap -- will this work, and is it OK?

I've seen what I consider a few abusive questions that would ordinarily attract moderator attention and possible deletion. Does flagging them as abusive trigger an auto-delete, if there are enough ...
Scott Seidman's user avatar
-2 votes
2 answers
248 views

Why were people upvoting spam

Earlier today there was a massive spam attack. One very disturbing thing that I noticed was people upvoting spam. This isn't actually only happening here, I've seen it a bit on other sites too. So, ...
Starship - On Strike's user avatar
11 votes
2 answers
529 views

Only flag spam, that's it

I've been seeing way to many people editing spam, upvoting spam, downvoting spam, closing spam, and using the wrong flags for spam. So, this is a reminder. If you are not on strike, flag spam, that's ...
Starship - On Strike's user avatar
23 votes
3 answers
871 views

Spam attack on Academia Stack Exchange?

This is not related to Academia at all, however, I've noticed that in the past week or so, numerous questions pop up that are spam. I flagged around 30 of them so far (or more) but they keep popping ...
cconsta1's user avatar
  • 1,192
20 votes
1 answer
564 views

After a month of moderator strike, is there any update on the situation?

It's been more than a month now that the events that led to a moderator strike here on academia SE and other sites on the network took place. Is there any movement towards a resolvement of the ...
Sursula's user avatar
  • 20.2k
12 votes
1 answer
331 views

What is the best way for high rep users to support the moderation strike?

I'm way behind the curve because I just found out today about the moderation strike (I don't visit Meta much...). I'd like to know what actions or lack of actions are best to take in order to support ...
astronat supports the strike's user avatar
1 vote
3 answers
152 views

Would question asking about using the code of a research project be on-topic?

Here is the draft of my question: The WE1S (WhatEvery1Says) project is so resourceful and well documented that I really want to use it. Unfortunately, I still don't know where is the repo that the ...
Ooker's user avatar
  • 8,190
13 votes
5 answers
813 views

What is the impact of the moderation strike on Academia.SE?

Academia.SE is quite particular in the sense that all its moderators seem to be on strike it is not one of the highest-volume sites, so SE might not see it as a priority to intervene here however, ...
wimi's user avatar
  • 8,411
399 votes
8 answers
286 views

Moderation strike

There is currently a moderation strike on this site: Academia.SE Moderation Strike Which is part of a moderation strike network-wide: Moderation Strike: Stack Overflow, Inc. cannot consistently ignore,...
StrongBad's user avatar
  • 104k
1 vote
1 answer
163 views

New contributor to Academia, inquiring about if discussing studying methods are fair game

I am new to this site, and as such, I would like to inquire on whether questions about studying and studying methods, in general, are fair game on this website. (I cannot ask a question on Meta yet, ...
Aaron Garcia's user avatar
124 votes
5 answers
4k views

Academia.SE Moderation Strike

Effective immediately, the moderators of Academia.SE (wrzlprmft, cag51, and Bryan Krause) are on strike. This is part of the network-wide action described here, and follows an Academia moderator ...
cag51's user avatar
  • 64.7k
134 votes
2 answers
4k views

It's time for me to resign

The title says it all: I'm resigning. In the last few days the Stack Exchange staff introduced a new policy about AI-generated content and how we should moderate it. This is a policy hastily created ...
Massimo Ortolano's user avatar
13 votes
1 answer
305 views

Are lengthy 'update' edits appropriate?

I noticed this old post has been edited to include a lengthy update to the original question. To me, this seems like a slight missuse of the platform which is supposed to be a Q&A site, not a ...
user438383's user avatar
  • 2,813
3 votes
2 answers
59 views

Update: tag [paperwork] can be deleted - new tag [document-organization] created

This is a follow-up of this question about how to proceed with the tag paperwork. Sorry for the series of questions, but as every one of them is slightly different I thought it best to create a new ...
Sursula's user avatar
  • 20.2k
5 votes
2 answers
157 views

Rename tag [paperwork] and create new tag for "organizing/structuring" files, papers etc

This is a follow-up to: Is the paperwork tag really necessary? After removing the tag paperwork from questions where the tag was misused I had a look at the remaing questions and other questions as ...
Sursula's user avatar
  • 20.2k
5 votes
2 answers
108 views

Tag cleanup: is the [paperwork] tag really necessary?

I just stumbled upon the tag paperwork when reviewing a question and I am unsure if that tag really makes sense to keep. In many instances the tag is (IMHO) misused for questions related to (...
Sursula's user avatar
  • 20.2k
-2 votes
1 answer
237 views

Mass downvoting of a well referenced pertinent answer: Why is an answer that is a complement to others considered so bad?

I spent many hours writing this answer and many days preparing it. Is it fair to desk-reject the above paper based solely on this one sentence? The question primarily asks if it is fair to desk-...
Ritesh Singh's user avatar
25 votes
2 answers
601 views

I am an unsung genius. Suggestion for a community answer

There seems to have been an unusual spate of questions on Academia with a similar "unsung genius" theme. I'm not going to highlight any particular post but the bulk of them relate to fields ...
CrimsonDark's user avatar
  • 5,689
9 votes
2 answers
154 views

Are questions about figures and statistics in academia (e.g. number of students, researchers, etc.) off-topic?

To give some context, I have a quite simple question (i.e. the number of international doctoral students in the US), but I have two different sources that give apparently conflicting figures. Would it ...
J-J-J's user avatar
  • 201
6 votes
1 answer
199 views

Should users with actual or perceived conflicts of interest disclose these conflicts in comments?

Suppose I work for a large multinational corporation that sells reference management software. Due to my job and previous academic career, I have a lot of experience in managing references. As such, I ...
Ian's user avatar
  • 2,645
13 votes
3 answers
419 views

Dealing with "how long until I hear back?" questions

We frequently get questions like this one, along the lines of "I submitted an application / had an interview, but haven't heard back after X days / weeks / months. Have I been rejected? At what ...
cag51's user avatar
  • 64.7k
7 votes
3 answers
239 views

Move the "Academia varies more than you think" question to the main site?

I recently linked the "Academia differs more than you think" meta question in a comment on a question on the main site. And started to wonder why this question is on meta and not as a ...
Sursula's user avatar
  • 20.2k
6 votes
0 answers
129 views

2022: a year in moderation

As we say goodbye to the old year and welcome the new one, we have a tradition of sharing moderation stats for the preceding calendar year. As most of you here are aware, sites on the Stack Exchange ...
JNat's user avatar
  • 101
8 votes
1 answer
201 views

Why/when are questions posted on the academia.SE twitter account?

When looking at the edit-history of a question, I saw that it had been posted on twitter by the academia.SE twitter account. I do not really use twitter and never knew that this account existed. I had ...
Sursula's user avatar
  • 20.2k
0 votes
2 answers
113 views

Canonical answer for "can I message X about Y"?

I recently made a rather misguided attempt to make a canonical answer for all of the questions that take this form. https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/192370/can-i-contact-x-person-about-y?...
ScottishTapWater's user avatar
-1 votes
1 answer
112 views

What is a "Hot Question"? Who and how is it defined?

How and what and who define a "Hot Question"? In fact "This question body does not meet our quality standards. Please make sure that it completely describes your problem - including ...
Muraleedharan Koluthappallil's user avatar
-3 votes
2 answers
252 views

May i know the reason of closing the question here

Someone, please tell me why this question is closed. and is the closed question appeared on the screen for others or not? how to reopen it?
elite's user avatar
  • 1
-3 votes
1 answer
116 views

Why is it possible to edit old (older than a couple of weeks), already closed questions?

I would not expect the editing of closed questions to be allowed. If the question need something to be redacted, would it not be easier to do this before closure? It brings a bit of noise to the SE:...
EarlGrey's user avatar
  • 15.4k
8 votes
1 answer
239 views

Should we have a canonical question about the relation (or lack thereof) between plagiarism and paraphrasing?

As a preface - it is a recurring topic, fragments of the relevant discussion can be seen here on Meta. Even in my relatively short time here, I have seen a few persistent strains of "is X ...
Lodinn's user avatar
  • 8,359
21 votes
2 answers
1k views

Automatically generated text is banned on Academia.SE

Do we have a firm policy on questions, answers, or comments that are automatically generated using a tool like GPT-3? This post follows a previous request for Academia SE community input: Should this ...
cag51's user avatar
  • 64.7k
-8 votes
1 answer
188 views

Why was this question closed by 1 person?

Is it normal to reject a peer-reviewed paper and then reject it after accepting it without specifying the exact reasons? Usually, you need 4, but a moderator was quick to close the question. I just ...
Sayaman's user avatar
  • 185
22 votes
3 answers
1k views

Should this site take an official position on answers generated by ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a human assisted AI that can be used to generate reasonable looking answers to questions. It seems to have been used for at least one answer here (now deleted). However StackOverflow has (...
Buffy's user avatar
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