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In several recent question it was suggested, that they are more suitable for academia.SE. According to the description at this site: This is a free, community driven Q&A for academics and those enrolled in higher education. It is in public beta at the moment.

IIRC I have seen this mostly in the questions on publishing and perhaps career advice. (See also the list of questions below.)

What is your opinion on this.

  • Do you think that there are some questions, that should be moved to academia.SE?
  • What are advantages of posting a question there compared to advantages of posting it here?

This meta question is related to some extent: http://meta.math.stackexchange.com/questions/2891/questions-about-math-grad-school-and-such

For the sake of completeness I copy here comments from here which lead me to posting this meta question, as I think this is a better place for continuing this discussion, should it be longer than just a few comments.

Zev Chonoles: This seems better suited to academia.SE.

Martin Sleziak: @Zev Is moving to a site in beta really recommendable. (The way I understand it, beta site might be deleted. Or is it only with proposals in earlier stages?) Also, there are various standards in various science disciplines, the OP is probably interesting about moth journals; this can be better answered here. (I've posted just a comment here, I don't think discussion about this is worth a meta thread.)

Zev Chonoles: @Martin: My sense is that academia.SE is doing okay, but if anything, lack of sufficient activity is the main cause of the deletion of beta sites, so I am generally inclined to send stuff their way when there is overlap (questions can be salvaged from them when this does happen, see for example this meta.math.SE thread). Also, there is a small but growing community of people there in academic mathematics. I certainly am also fine with the question staying here. Hopefully others can weigh in on the matter.

Here's a list of question from main where academia.SE was mentioned (at least the ones I was able to find):

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    $\begingroup$ I think that even if beta sites get closed, questions can be "salvaged" and moved back here. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Commented Jun 3, 2012 at 6:33

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I consider making people aware of academia.SE very good thing. So pointing out in a comment that there is a possibility to ask there is very good thing to do.

However, there are various standards in various science disciplines, and someone who asks here is probably interested in math journals; so such questions can be better answered here. I also think that if a site is in beta, it still might be deleted one day. (I might be wrong on this.) For these two reasons, I think that moving questions there would be "overzealous".

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    $\begingroup$ there are actually quite a few field specific questions on academia.SE; and I know several mathematicians who are active both here and on academia, as well as a few who are active only there and not here. (See for example academia.stackexchange.com/users/612/anonymous-mathematician .) If anything, I find advice from the point of view of someone in mathematics or computer science to be somewhat over-represented on academia compared to the general percentage of math faculty in universities. $\endgroup$
    – Willie Wong
    Commented Jun 4, 2012 at 8:50
  • $\begingroup$ In fact, in regards to math journals: see academia.stackexchange.com/search?q=math+journal and judge for yourself whether the questions are answered in a satisfactory manner. $\endgroup$
    – Willie Wong
    Commented Jun 4, 2012 at 8:51
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I think it depends. Of the four sample questions, the middle two do not actually mentions maths so are perhaps suited to a general academic site, while the first mentions Wiles' proof (a specific example which a general academic might not know much about) but this seems mostly irrelevant to the question. However, the fourth question is a different kettle of fish...(I would also cite this MO question).

I would argue that such questions should not be moved to a general site on academia, as an academic outside of mathematics could not answer such a question. The MO question especially is a question for mathematicians who just so happen to be academics, it is not a question for general academics.

Moreover, the fact that there are mathematicians on academia.SE is no reason to move a question there. This argument is essentially "the question can perhaps be answered at academia.SE", however this does not mean it is the best place for it.

A question on LaTeX is certainly better asked at the LaTeX SE, as those guys are the experts. However, when what you require is a mathematician who just so happens to be an academic you should be on a maths site, not an academic site!

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