Questions tagged [on-topic-ness]
This tag is used for posts about whether a question is on-topic for the main Academia site or not.
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Update the "What topics can I ask about here?" section?
In the help centre, there's a page giving advice on what topic to ask or not ask about :
https://academia.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic
Specifically, in the "What topics should I avoid?", ...
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Questions about practices related to specific computer science subfield -- when are they on topic?
There were recently two questions about specific, different, computer science subfield.
Why do a lot of publications ignore better results from other papers // compare only to old results (example in ...
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Is a trivia about a university or academic institution considered as off-topic?
I wonder if not-so-academic questions about academic institutions are allowed here.
For example, there are such questions like:
Why is the logo of DBLP (a computer science bibliography) written in ...
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May I ask this question or will it be closed?
I'd like to know if I can get more specific than a checklist to understand whether or not my research paper (at the graduate level for getting my M.Sc.) is good enough to publish anywhere. It's been ...
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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 KrauseMod
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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 ...
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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, ...
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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 ...
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Questions about old, hard to find sources
Every once in a while, questions about (very) old papers or books pop up and the inability of the OP of said question to find them, e.g. this one or this one, posted recently only a day apart. The ...
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Is this question about printing an e-book on topic?
Is it legal if I print PDF files of Springer books for personal use?
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Questions on drawing software
Questions about drawing software appear periodically on this site, and get either closed as off-topic or closed as duplicate of this one, which is again closed.
I think that this state of affairs is ...
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Questions related to ADHD among students and academics
Should questions that focus on the effects of ADHD on academics and students be on or off topic? For example: Survive the postdoc stage having ADHD.
And the OP has added a new tag. I'm of mixed ...
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Is a question about the Nobel Prize committee/awardees on-topic here?
A question was recently asked about the gender distribution of the 2021 Nobel Prize laureates. I cast the deciding "close as off-topic" vote on this question. I felt this question was off-...
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Are questions requesting reviews of flaws in exams on-topic?
I recently sat a statistical/machine learning exam where, I believe, the instructions and questions were clearly flawed (to the point of being logically incoherent). The problems with the instructions ...
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Are questions about non-academic sites using research publications off-topic?
I don't understand why my question about Google knowledge panel was closed as off-topic. The only reason I can think of is that the question is about a non-academic site. I would like to understand in ...
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Looking for a general academic term on "technology trees" and related research and not sure where to ask best
I'm not sure where better to ask this, maybe Philosophy either English SE are better places than Academia?
My question:
From computer games like Civilizations, we know the concept of the
technology ...
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Why was my question ("Any way to sync my Papers 2 library to my newer iPad?") closed?
My question (Any way to sync my Papers 2 library to my newer iPad?) was closed as off-topic today. To be honest, I hesitated before posting it because it felt not quite like an exact fit for this SE ...
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Is academia the right place to get help for dealing with classmates?
I have an issue with someone in my group project (a non-ESL student who writes in broken English)
Is this the right SE for this? Is there even an SE for this?
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Can I ask about my previous employer asking me not to publish?
I want to ask the following question, but am not sure if it is appropriate for this site. Can you help me tell if it is okay to ask here? If not, can you point to a better forum?
I consider ...
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Big list question for reference managers
This recent question on reference managers and note taking has got me thinking again. I am on the record of not liking big-list questions and really not liking big-list software questions. Questions ...
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On-topicness of the content of research when the subject of research is academia itself
This question asks about studies about peer reviewing. It was voted to close as off-topic and one of the close voters gave the argument:
This reads as if you want people here to do your research on ...
WrzlprmftMod
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How do I ask a good question?
I asked a few questions on this website and I think all of them got deleted. I have no idea how to ask a good question on this site. I'm not a researcher. Maybe researchers have knowledge that I don't ...
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Are questions about research administration on topic?
I think it's clear from the Help and actual questions/answers here that questions about the academic side of research are on topic. However, are questions about research administration on topic?
By "...
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Why questions about race is on topic, but about LGBTQ not?
Latino is not even race, Is this statistic about how many Latinos/Hispanics have a PhD in the USA correct?
and it was only referenced via social media,
my question Is there any relible evidence of ...
user94263
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Would this questions be on topic here?
I want to ask a question, but I'm wondering if it's on topic here. It's a question about if I should even bother writing up a paper, but the work is in Abstract Algebra, so maybe MathOverflow would be ...
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Should this question on the OSF system be reopened?
There is a closed question on the OSF system: Is there a way to move a preprint from one service to another within the OSF system? that has spawned a number of comments as well as two meta questions:
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Follow on to the lingerie–elevator question
The original question about the lingerie joke made in an elevator was controversial leading to a lively meta discussion. The consensus appeared to be to ask a new, but related, question on issue. This ...
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Can I ask about the research level of a certain university here?
For some reasons I need to know about the level of research conducted in a certain university (not because I want to study there: I got my Ph.D. years ago). Specifically, I'm interested in a certain ...
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How to proceed with the lingerie–elevator question?
The question What was offensive about the "ladies lingerie department" joke, and how can I avoid offending people in a similar way? has caused a lot of controversy in comments and answers, ...
WrzlprmftMod
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Need a couple of examples of questions that are too hypothetical to keep open
I've read several questions here about whether a certain question is too hypothetical. A nice rule of thumb I read at one of these was that in a not-too-hypothetical question (i.e. an acceptable ...
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What to do with questions asking to evaluate commercial online services?
We have at least one old unclosed question asking to evaluate some commercial online services: Is Academia.edu useful?
This was cited in favour of questions going into the same direction: Is Peer.us ...
WrzlprmftMod
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Why is this question about discrimination still open?
I ran across this questions in the Hot Network Questions: Is it discrimination to hold someone from a minority or underprivileged background to the same academic standard as regular students?
It ...
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Reopening question about becoming a good advisor?
I recently asked a question which recieved some attention. But was closed as off-topic (Shopping question).
Basically my question is about training or which steps I can take to become a good advisor. ...
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Why is the content of my question out of scope?
What are the criteria for effective academic journal websites?
This question was put on hold yesterday, the reason being: "This question is not within the scope of this site as defined in the help ...
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On-topic-ness of GRE conventions
I recently asked a question about GRE wording conventions and was immediately told that I was off-topic. I promptly removed the question to avoid clutter, and decided instead to ask here:
Are ...
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Let’s specify our scope with respect to undergraduates
Proposal
Currently the definition of our scope with respect to undergraduate questions is:
[do not ask questions about]
Undergraduate-specific issues that could not apply to graduate or ...
WrzlprmftMod
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Can I post an ad for a postdoc position blurring the name of uni and person, to point out illegal activity?
An ad that one of my advisors shared contains a sentence that is against law and working ethic, and I am surprised to see an associate professor request from a postdoc to stay more than 10 h per day.
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Does Academia S.E. have an equivalent of SO's "boat programming" questions?
I'm curious about questions such as this one, which asks about the author of a particular academia-related quote:
Quote about recruiting academics – looking for original
I'm of the opinion that ...
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Are questions on research methodology on topic?
This question about whether (in this case statistical) research always needs a hypothesis made we wonder: Are questions about research methodology on topic?
In general, questions on specific research ...
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Lab journal best practices - on topic?
I had a question about best practices for keeping a lab journal (specifically, should one only record experiments, or should one also include research for experiments, or time spent looking around on ...
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Request for closure
Are non-citizen Muslim professors and students going to be removed from US universities and subsequently deported by Trump's ban?
This post has several problems:
It mischaracterizes the problem, ...
user8762
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Why was my question put on hold for shopping?
My question was put on hold for the following reason:
This question is what we call a shopping question. It is currently not accepting answers.
What does this mean?
Why are shopping questions not ...
WrzlprmftMod
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Where and how to discuss choices of software workflow for academia use?
Disclosure: I recently posted a question on software recommendations on Academia SE, and got it marked as a "shopping question" perhaps quite justifiably based on the guidelines. I appreciate the in ...
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Are questions about formatting and presenting results off-topic?
I recently asked this question about formatting presentation of tables contents in academic publications.
I saw that those tags exist on this site and each one has a set of questions. I saw in the ...
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Why was my question put on hold for depending on individual factors?
My question was put on hold for the following reason:
This question was closed for strongly depending on individual factors. It is currently not accepting answers.
The answer to your question ...
WrzlprmftMod
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"Attitudes of academics towards X?" On or off topic?
Is a "What are the attitudes of academics towards X?" question on or off -topic?
The question in question:
What are the social norms associated with stealing free coffee?
OP says:
Note: I'm not ...
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Is my question about which degree best fits my non-academic career goal appropriate for this site?
I have a question about the software development job market.
I am interested in knowing whether (in particular) a big company would value a software developer with a degree in a development-related ...
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Should the Black Nodes Matter question be removed?
Should the "Black Nodes Matter" question, which mocks the Black Lives Matter protesters, be removed?
Here's the link:
Is it appropriate to make a pun that references a highly charged topic in ...
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Would this question about data storage be on-topic?
Is the following question on-topic for Academia?
I am from Biology field and our lab uses microscopy as a tool extensively. Our lab data is increasing exponentially. I want to ask other academia ...
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Questions comparing publications between different field of research?
Is a question such as "which current fields are producing the most research?" appropriate? For Example, I am primarily interested in comparing the different 'amounts' of research (publications?) being ...
