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Knowledge is what lies between heads of people in a community; This is an idea, I recently learned from a video tutorial on writing research papers in a youtube video. In this video, a professor presents such a model of knowledge which is different from what I already thought.

This suggests a measure of success in research is the amount of change she's able to effect in the space between heads. This video talks about community and people in power in that community. So we must know the community, its structure, who the people in power in the community are, and what knowledge is already in the space between heads.

The ideas proposed in this video seem tantalizing but I feel I haven't completely understood his thesis. I will try to lay out what's hanging me up about this:

I want to understand what a "journal's community" is? since this professor says that will affect the acceptance of a submission. In short, please help me understand the outlined aspects of this model of knowledge?
Note from question editor: if you have some ideas about how to improve this post further, with the goal of getting it reopened, please grab your red pen and help out. Thanks.

We usually want to know something from a perspective. Here we want to know a community such that we as researchers can better understand how to communicate with the community through Papers. All of the aforementioned sub-questions are around this single thread.

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    This question may be borderline on-topic. It is possible many people voted for off-topic instead of unclear. The SE system cannot show multiple close reasons, when there are 5 close votes, the system can display only one reason. That said, I don't exactly see what is unclear. Your suggestions on what to divulge at the bottom are indeed irrelevant, as you think. Please don't feel pressured to reveal your 'real name', pseudonyms are ok.
    – Discrete lizard
    Mar 21, 2018 at 19:24
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    Meta discussion about this question
    – Wrzlprmft ♦
    Mar 21, 2018 at 20:14
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    What is unclear in this question? Every question should be self-contained. Unless we watch the video, how could we know what he meant by "community"?
    – Nobody
    Mar 26, 2018 at 3:14
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    Voting to reopen. Please see academia.meta.stackexchange.com/a/4095/32436
    – aparente001
    Apr 2, 2018 at 0:41
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    I interpreted Prof. McEnerney's comments as 'birds of feather flock together'. Basically, if you don't behave like you belong, then you are considered an outsider and hence doesn't know the area. Tell-tale signs include using the wrong technical terms or jargon, using non-standard methodologies, etc. One rule of thumb is simply to look at articles in journals you want to target and compare your article with published articles. For example, if the community expects mathematical proofs or theoretical work, does your article contain such proofs or theories?
    – Prof. Santa Claus
    Apr 3, 2018 at 0:41

1 Answer 1

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1) Communities usually revolve around research topics, rather than journals. There are smaller and broader communities. The smallest ones are about a very specialized topic that only three research groups in the world are knowledgable about. The broadest ones are about an entire overarching research field. Of course, there also are overlaps between communities.

2+3) In my field, the only correct answer would be: Go to meetings and conferences. This is the place where people go to exchange ideas, in talks and informal conversations.

4) This is a very broad question. There can be all kinds of relations between communities, personal ones (overlaps) and emotional ones (respect, envy, disregard).

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  • I feel it is not a research topic that defines communities except the largest ones. Often I see journal and editorials of them which although they work on the same topic, I didn't even know them.
    – user85361
    Mar 20, 2018 at 16:35
  • Of course we can use term community in a very broad sense such as research community. But this way we miss the point that what is our aim, in talking about community: Getting our papers accepted and change the mind of people in the community.
    – user85361
    Mar 20, 2018 at 16:37
  • @user85361 You might have a wrong impression of the way that the term "community" is used in academia.
    – lighthouse keeper
    Mar 20, 2018 at 19:22
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    Often I see journal and editorials of them which although they work on the same topic, I didn't even know them. — Well, there’s your first problem.
    – JeffE
    Mar 20, 2018 at 23:44

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