The Biosphere

2:29 AM

When is the next election?

I want to be a mod, but not right now...

I am currently not very active... I used to be more active before, and my rep is not very high... So I hope to be a mod in a year or two...

will there be an election then?

Mesentery

3:06 AM

@Chris Thanks!! I searched on meta but was unable to find, maybe I didn't use the correct keywords :)

James

4:11 AM

@WYSIWYG Congratulations! I submitted to FEBS letters a few years ago and their review seemed fair enough. Our work was a structural modelling project. Their editor did reject us after comments that amounted to minor revisions which was a bit suspicious. Ho hum we thought. We went to PloS ONE which was laughable in our case. We were rejected at the editorial level because without experimental evidence it can only be a hypothesis. Absolutely unbelievable.

WYSIWYG

4:33 AM

Thanks. FEBS changed publishers (around the time I submitted) and that could have been a reason for mismanagement. They did not even consider sending it to more than one reviewer. Moreover, when we rebut a review they are supposed to send it to another reviewer.

The first review was fine (even then there was just one reviewer's report). The reviewer recommended the MS for publication if some additional data is provided.

Now they could not get back to this reviewer and sent it to some asshole who was hasty and misinterpreted the results. We write back to them saying that this reviewer is a…

James

4:54 AM

It's such a shame to see the review process fail. Have you heard Einstein's response when he was provided with peer reviewer feedback from Physical Review? It cheers me up.

"We (Mr. Rosen and I) had sent you our manuscript for publication and had not authorised you to show it to specialists before it is printed. I see no reason to address the – in any case erroneous – comments of your anonymous expert. On the basis of this incident I prefer to publish the paper elsewhere."

WYSIWYG

@James This is quite funny.

James

@WYSIWYG Unfortunately, we're not all Einstein!

WYSIWYG

@James I pitch for bioRxiv as the standard norm for publication process.

At least it would be democratic and not based on whims and fancies of 2 out of 10000 people in the field.

So people should be asked to vote and any person with sufficient "reputation" can vote (just like SE).

This reputation would be based on the previous publication in that subject area.

10 net upvotes (or whatever the suitable threshold is) should make the MS eligible for publication.

Chris

@Mesentery It took me a while to find this :-)

James

Yes. I'd like to see that become the default pathway like in Physics. At the FEBS conference a couple of years ago a question received a round of applause when posed to a panel of Nature, Cell, EMBL chief editors and the founder of eLife. It went something like this:

Imagine that, rather than the conventional story telling science, we scientists merely contributed small bundles of contextualised results into a global repository for open review. Then the editors and journals actually sift through the repositories and assemble the stories.

@WYSIWYG This seems like a neat idea. Mods could help prune the pseudo-science (never forget, there is a journal of homeopathy that had a bonafide impact factor up until 2015!)

AliceD

9:12 AM

Just sharing my post on the mod Q&A

If there is anything I can clarify let me know. There are a few downvotes and I'm happy to clarify or discuss my views.

AliceD

9:48 AM

@Chris - biology.stackexchange.com/questions/57696#comment103861_57696 I did flag that one as spam

Chris

@AliceD Ah, good. Then I misunderstood your comment.

It's gone now anyways...

AliceD

I flagged and voted for deletion

just to be sure :-)

Chris

Hehe.

AliceD

voted-2-close sorry

not for deletion

Chris

Spam from this company group is coming around every now and then.

AliceD

9:50 AM

gotcha

Chris

It's always something creative-bio

AliceD

10:24 AM

I'm just nervous about the coming elections @Chris

I really want to do this.

Maybe if you mods would tell me straight out - --dude, don't-- I could just retract my nomination haha

Chris

11:08 AM

@AliceD No, I think you would be a fine mod.

AliceD

11:37 AM

@Chris Thanks, that helps.

skull petrol

12:49 PM

You got my vote.

terdon

@skullpetrol ? You can't vote here.

skull petrol

:(

How about a vote of confidence from the chatroom?

terdon

1:04 PM

Those are free :P

or run out and ask/answer some good questions.

2 days ago, by terdon

@AliceD 150 to vote, 300 to nominate.

91

A: There's an election going on. What's happening and how does it work?

What's happening? The community is electing diamond ♦ moderators; those individuals responsible for moderating the site the election is happening on. Moderators are elected by a four-phase process: Phase 0: Announcement and question collection Duration: 7 days An election is announced by a p...

Mesentery

1:25 PM

@terdon Quite helpful!!! Got an idea about voting. That means we will not have primary phase.

terdon

No we won't.

another 'Homo sapien'

@terdon when I saw election link earlier, it was already written "ends april 4", which means whether primary phase happens or not will have no effect on overall duration of election. So how long do primary and secondary phases take (usually)?

terdon

@another'Homosapien' I think it's a week each, if I remember correctly.

another 'Homo sapien'

1:41 PM

@terdon then I don't get it...how would both end at april 4 then? it should be a week more...

or my maths is that week? ;)

terdon

@another'Homosapien' The number would probably change if there were a primary.

I guess

another 'Homo sapien'

@terdon then the date shouldn't have been written april 4 even before nominations finished...

did I just disclose a scam? :D

terdon

If I were writing this, I would only change the date if >N candidates were running. So, set the default to Apr 4 and, if it turns out it will be longer, change it accordingly.

In other words, the date was always correct.

another 'Homo sapien'

@terdon :O maybe admins assumed that there won't be anywhere around 10 candidates (if N=10) for a single seat...they weren't wrong if they did ;)

terdon

@another'Homosapien' What makes you think there was an assumption? The number of candidates is specific and known at any time.

If there are >10 candidates, there will never be a preliminary round, so the right thing to do is mention Apr 4.

If there are ever 11 or more, then they can change the date.

another 'Homo sapien'

1:50 PM

@terdon maybe the fact that the date was april 4 given even when 0 candidates had nominated...

terdon

@another'Homosapien' 0 is less than 10.

another 'Homo sapien'

@terdon huh?

terdon

@another'Homosapien' 0 candidates means no primaries, therefore the election will end on Apr 4th.

This is true until the moment there are at least 11 candidates, at which point, it is possible that there will be a primary. But, until then, the election will end on Apr 4.

another 'Homo sapien'

@terdon obviously (so I am good enough in maths ;) but with 0 candidates, the proposed date should be an assumption

@terdon oh yes yes, sorry I got that wrong :)

theforestecologist

HOW ABOUT A COMMUNITY PROMOTION AD TO PROMOTE THE ELECTION?!

2

terdon

1:53 PM

:36309515 No point. Those are changed once a year and the election is already right there in the sidebar and all users get a special message in their inbox when it starts.

theforestecologist

0

A: Community Promotion Ads - 2017

another 'Homo sapien'

@theforestecologist put trump's image at last face and you get +1 ;)

terdon

@another'Homosapien' Surely you mean 1st face!

another 'Homo sapien'

@terdon yeah, last face LTR ;)

Chris

@AliceD You're welcome.

another 'Homo sapien'

1:54 PM

I wanna live outside prison for the rest of my life :P

theforestecologist

@terdon I realize the ads are changed and that the eleciton is short lived. But if we could get the ad in rotation for the next week, I would htink a large picture will draw in people's attention more than a line of text ...

another 'Homo sapien'

@theforestecologist go for it! (though I don't know how would you ;)

terdon

@theforestecologist I doubt they'll do this. And it isn't up to us, only SE can change the ads. Then, you'd also need to make sure the add is displayed. And what, should it be displayed to everyone and replace all the others?

another 'Homo sapien'

what about users with ad blocker?

Mad Scientist

the community ads change automatically once the score is high enough

2

theforestecologist

1:59 PM

@terdon YEs, but they select the ads that we vote to promote. I'm not 100% sure how promotional ads are cycled, but I don't think we could "replace" the other ads -- just insert this one into rotaiton

terdon

@theforestecologist And then remove it next week. Dunno. Doesn't seem worth it to me.

But you can try, I guess.

theforestecologist

@terdon. Yup. I'll leave it up to the community to vote on it. We can always delete it after the elction.

(obviously)

Sanjukta Ghosh

5:29 PM

@WYSIWYG (or anybody competent) What are the possibilities that one with Masters in a particular field ( Molecular genetics for e.g.) gets to do Phd/ Postdoc on some other field (say Cell biology) in India and abroad? Is one allowed to do that?

Chris

6:17 PM

@SanjuktaGhosh That depends on the rules for the PhD, the openess of the PI you are going to and so on. I don't think you can give a general valid answer here.

But I personally think it shouldn't be a problem. You learned how to work scientifically (at least to some part), so you have the basis to acquire new knowledge on your own. I think this is the most important scientifically qualification and knowledge.

M.A.R.

7:26 PM

Whistles

Chris

Yes?

AliceD

@M.A.R. Thank you for your comment under my nomination - much appreciated!

Tic tac tic tac - if anyone wishes to nominate - you still can!

M.A.R.

I wish there were more than three candidates

I can technically vote for everyone!

AliceD

7:43 PM

@M.A.R. Me too. I've actually nudged a few people but I guess they don't have the guts ;-)

Chris

Three candidates is fine for one spot.

M.A.R.

*intestines

AliceD

But seriously, there are many folks around here doing awesome jobs. I guess not many people like to run for mod

AliceD

7:56 PM

...4 min...

Chris

And: Voting is open: biology.stackexchange.com/election/2?tab=election

Bryan Krause

@SanjuktaGhosh There are many posts with similar questions on Academia.SE. I'd echo @Chris that "it depends" is about the best answer you can get. So many fields in biology are interdisciplinary anyways, if the techniques transfer from one field to another there is no reason your specific degree should matter.

Chris

8:12 PM

@BryanKrause About what postings where you talking?

Bryan Krause

@SanjuktaGhosh My field, neuroscience, is a bit of a special case because it didn't even exist as a named field until about 40 years ago and institutions are still opening new neuroscience fields, but most professors in neuroscience have degrees in electrical engineering, computer science, genetics, zoology, physics, comparative biology, psychology, immunology, physiology, anatomy, and so on.

@Chris People asking about whether their (undergraduate/masters) degree will be sufficient/acceptable when applying for a masters/PhD program in an adjacent area

Sanjukta Ghosh

8:25 PM

@BryanKrause @Chris Thank you.

Chris

8:41 PM

@BryanKrause Ah, now I remember :-)

And it's all about lifelong learning.

canadianer

9:29 PM

I would've ran for moderator but I don't like my chances ;)

Transcript for