It’s time that we make a FAQ for shopping questions …

@Wrzlprmft I think the main problem with that post was that it was about the contents of the field of study, not so much that it was a shopping question.

"I have to write about a relevant change in the field of finance. The biggest relevant change in the finance field that I know of is in Finance Management. I know that there is a shortage of qualified candidates for financial analyst. Is there any other change in the finance management field that is more prominent that I am not seeing or am I heading in the right direction?"

Probably we could make the help center clearer about that - nobody knows what it means when we say not to ask about "The content of your research, rather than the process of doing research"

@ff524 In the current case, yes. But still this case exemplifies that many askers are confused by the term “shopping question” and the explanation we provide can be improved.

> Suggestions or recommendations for a university, journal, or research topic (a "shopping question")

I think that's pretty clear, actually.

@ff524 I was thinking of proposing the litmus test from my answer …

@ff524 Right, but we also apply this to other cases (with good reason). Also, it would not be bad to explain to askers why such questions are bad and what they can ask instead.

> because it effectively asks us to evaluate resources, which is something that we do not like to do as we would like to keep a neutral stance on such questions.

Is that why we don't like shopping questions? I thought it's because they are boring, and because the answers change over time and cannot easily be kept up to date, and because in the case of a "list" there is no definitive answer.

What does neutrality have to do with it? We definitely do not take a "neutral" stance on answers around here :)

It’s one of the reasons; there are tons of problems. Hence I would propose something like this

Sure, I guess. Are you procrastinating like me this morning? Is that why you want to write this up? ;)

@ff524 I am under the illusion that I am not procrastinating. In fact, I am reacting to current events only and would throw the idea out there, hoping that somebody procrastinates doing this instead of me.

@ff524 Anyway, what do you think of my litmus test?

@Wrzlprmft I meant procrastinating from your real work. I'm supposed to be finishing up a paper, which is why I'm writing extraordinarily patient answers on meta instead.

> As a litmus test questions that can only be answered by somebody in your particular subfield are off-topic here (and should be asked on a Stack Exchange pertaining to your field instead).

I don't know that I would state it like that - after all, it's OK to ask about conventions specific to a field, which can only be answered by people in the field.

@ff524 Hence particular subfield, but I agree that it would be good to capture this aspect better.

And questions that are about the contents of a broad field, not a particular subfield, are also off topic. which makes it complicated

We could prepend If academia were homogeneous …

I'm not sure that would clear up confusion... might make it worse ;)

I am afraid so, too.

At least, the proposed test could work as an explanation for the content-of-your-research bullet point, which sets a context, were field-specific culture is already excluded.

On the other hand, the focus on research does not address questions from students

Hmm, is the subject of a field something that people would understand?

@ff524 I rarely joined the conversion in chat. This time, I feel like I should. I think your answer to the meta question is perfect. I think the Op should read the help page more carefully. I just checked it. However, please do not ask questions about ... •Suggestions or recommendations for a university, journal, or research topic (a "shopping question") ... •The content of your research, rather than the process of doing research

And also we provided the comment when we put the question on hold for the reason of a shopping question. Plus you added another comment. How much more can we do?

And then you answered the meta question. I really really cannot think of better ways to deal with this thing. You have done your best. As a long long time participant on this site, I can tell you there is not much more you can do. Please have a nice sleep and concentrate on your paper when you get up. That's the thing you are an academian for, right? Good night.

@ff524 debunkingdenialism.com/2017/01/16/…

@StrongBad so, lawsuit seems most probable then

Hey guys. Would a question about the self-publishing policy of a particular journal be relevant on this site?

@halirutan Probably not. See the help center academia.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic

> You should not ask "a question that will help only me," but rather "a question that will help people like me." If your question is so limited as to be useful only to you, consider broadening the scope so others can learn from your question as well. As a general rule, if you're asking about a particular institution, course, or journal, it's likely your question is too limited in scope. Try to extract the fundamental question from the specific problem at hand.

If it's "What is the self-pubishing policy of Journal X" then probably off-topic, per ^

If it's something like "If the self-publishing policy of a journal says X, can I do Y?", then possibly :)

@ff524 I guess I found in the meantime what I was looking for. It was hidden in the transfer of copyright agreement.

@halirutan Great :)