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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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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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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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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What kind of undergraduate questions are not really generalizable to graduate education? (An "Academia varies more than you think" perspective)
A remarkable point of this community is that it makes people realize that academia varies more than you think it does.
One of these variations is the structure of the different education levels. ...
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Are questions asking technical issues on academic services on-topic?
The question Is there a way to change preprint service within OSF system? is about to closed and I suspect the reason is that it's a technical question. Perhaps the close voters think that it's better ...
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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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2
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Are realistic hypothetical situation based questions permitted?
The question would have to be very specific and answerable, but would hypothetical (and realistic) questions be permitted?
What I mean by this is, would situations that do not necessarily happen to ...
user7130
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"If your question is not about...": proposed change to help center text
Some time ago, Ben Norris proposed here on meta that we update the help center text to be explicit about what not to ask. That proposal currently appears to have the community's approval. Several ...
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Questions about particular institutions
The guidelines state:
As a general rule, if you're asking about a particular institution...it's likely your question is too limited in scope
Can this rule be made more precise? In particular, ...
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Why does AC.SE exclude undergraduate students?
It seems SE users that are not particularly involved in AC.SE are often confused that while questions pertaining to undergraduate students, classes and degrees are relevant to academia, we generally ...
- 105k
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On-topic-ness of questions on legal issues related to academia?
We seem to have a very inconsistent policy with respect to questions on legal issues related to academia.
I am not referring to questions asking for legal advice for a particular situation (these ...
- 110k
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2
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Has the stance on questions pertaining to legal issues changed?
On-topic-ness of questions on legal issues related to academia? seems to say questions pertaining to legal issues are on-topic.
However, the question below got closed on the grounds that it is a legal ...
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Is "What background do I need to do research in specific field X?" on-topic at Academia.SE?
I recently posted this question, which was closed as off-topic for being too specific to my situation. I admit I'm a little bit confused, since it didn't seem particularly more situation-specific than ...
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How to make users of other SE sites more aware of what Academia.SE is about?
I have observed the following on several occasions:
New user posts a very broad, subjective, and/or open-ended question (and not the "good subjective" type, either).
When the question is closed, the ...
- 110k
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Where is the line between "a question about doing research" and "a question about the content of research"?
My question (How can physicists help in theoretical biology, besides math and fresh perspectives?) is decided to be off topic because of this reason:
However, please do not ask questions about:
The ...
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2
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2
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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:
...
- 105k
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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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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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3
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When did DOI questions become off-topic here?
My question on DOIs for time series was migrated to Open Data. That's annoying. If I'd wanted it there, I'd have asked it there myself. I have an account there.
But instead of being here, where it ...
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3
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Just how high is "higher education"?
By looking at the site today, it seems that "higher education" is an euphemism for "doctorate". The definition stage however doesn't imply that (1 2 3...)
Is Academia only about PhD, postdoc and ...
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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 ...
- 1,123
10
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Undergrad course exemption with interest in grad school
I believe this question about wanting to have a undergrad humanities course requirement exemption to be off-topic as it is primarily about undergraduate life.
Is it reasonable to request an exemption ...
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College undergraduate advice questions [duplicate]
We've had a couple questions since the dawn of Academia.SE asking for advice about undergraduate-related topics, the most recent being this well-formulated and generally pretty solid question. In the ...
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Are questions about the reputability of individual journals, publishers or conferences on topic?
Yesterday, we closed this question about an individual conference’s reputability, i.e., as to whether the conference is a scam or not. The author correctly remarked that a similar questions remained ...
WrzlprmftMod
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Why was “Physics research journal for undergraduates” not closed?
A few days ago, this question was asked. While the author is somewhat unclear about what he is actually looking for, he is certainly looking for an individual journal or a list of journals as an ...
WrzlprmftMod
- 65k
3
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1
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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 ...
- 105k
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4
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Should we specify that questions where "expert" answers are from experts outside of academia are off-topic?
Occasionally we get questions that are about the on-topic areas listed in the help center, but that are considered off-topic here because an expert answer to such a question would come from an expert ...
- 110k
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What is our stance on questions that can be used for legal and illegal purposes?
What is our stance on questions that can be used for legal and illegal purposes? Are they on-topic or off-topic?
The other Stack Exchange websites that I am aware of where this issue has been ...
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Are very specific questions about formatting applications off topic?
This question asks about italicizing adjectives in a "research statement" submitted as part of an application to a PhD position.
While it's true that many users that frequent AcademiaSE might have an ...
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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 ...
- 105k
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Do questions need to be about "actual problems that you face"
This question is potentially related to Should seemingly hard-to-answer questions be downvoted (and closed)?
Our help center don't ask section includes some generic text that is used SE wide:
You ...
- 105k
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2
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Are questions about citation style on topic?
I see questions from time to time about citation styles. For example,
Should the fullstop go inside or outside the brackets for Harvard in-line citations?
How should 'van'-names be ordered in ...
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Questions on writing: should I ask them in here or in writers.SE?
Recently, I find that in the writers.SE, there is a academic tag. Its description says:
Writing texts in a scientific or educational setting: peer-reviewed articles, theses, text books, and others. ...
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merge the research-undergraduate tag into research
We currently have 76 questions tagged research-undergraduate. By the definition of the site scope, either:
these questions are about research that's not applicable to postgrad students and academic ...
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