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This question -- Why the programming code of many algorithms are not public in OR community? -- is about the field of OR. It is not a question about a topic within OR.

Is that on topic?

Note: There is some debate in the comments of that question about whether it is too opinion-based. I'm not asking about that issue here. I'm asking about whether a question about the field of OR is on topic.

For example, would the following question be on topic?

What professional societies represent operations researchers?

What about this one?

Does any federal U.S. agency offer summer internships for OR undergraduates?

Or this one?

What is the average starting salary for an OR professional?

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  • $\begingroup$ I deleted the wiki "canned" answers per Robert's comment. If you already voted (or if you didn't!) feel free to post an answer and/or vote for one. $\endgroup$
    – LarrySnyder610
    Commented May 31, 2019 at 22:16

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Yes, these questions should be on-topic. Questions about the field of operations research are often very useful to operations researchers.

To go over your specific examples:

What professional societies represent operations researchers?

Yes, this should be fine as long as the question is specific. The current title makes it sound slightly vague, and there should be more details in the body.

Does any federal U.S. agency offer summer internships for OR undergraduates?

This is a good, useful question.

What is the average starting salary for an OR professional?

Meh... this one is pretty broad. Different jobs tend to offer very different salaries, and it's hard to find the actual average salary of an OR professional, or even a number close to the average. I would say this should be closed as Too Broad.

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    $\begingroup$ I would say that while the "average starting salary" is too broad, questions about salary in certain OR applications is on-topic. Especially given that "data science" is appealing for new grads in part because of the promise of high starting salary. $\endgroup$
    – Ralph
    Commented Jun 5, 2019 at 17:41

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