Dear Professor Omid,

Many times I provide excerpts, and links in my responses because I'm afraid that my summarizing or my paraphrasing may distort the information. So for those questions that are quite technical, or outside my expertise, I usually include some portions of the text and links just to make sure that accurate information will be shared. 

Sincerely,

Cameen

The link could be just an example that extends the main answer. Exception - when the question is a call for some useful links.

Dear Mahmoud,

RG participants are busy, most of us do not want to effort ourselves with formulating an answer or the given link is really excellent. Thus there is a big difference between link and link. It occurs often that students or very young men ask really very simple questions, in these cases a good link is the best answer. In summary, questions and inquirers are too various and thread followers try to economize on energy and time.

Answers are very dependent on the question asked. Links- may not be best way to explain a perspective of/by the respondent...but can prove valuable if one is looking to delve in-depth and requiring more data/information/reference to understand the context/content

Dear @Mahmoud, answers that just contain links elsewhere are not always a good answers! I do like @András explanation!

Dear @Nidhi Thank you for the answer. Your point "if one looking for in-depth and requiring more data/information/reference to understand the context/content" is a good case for providing links to other website. I am not totally against linked answer, but my point is answers should almost always be either just a comment or fleshed out into a full answer not just pure copy-past one.  However, I am against duplicating material for the sake of doing so.

Dear @Venkata. Thank you. Let me quote something you may know already:

“There are a dozen views about everything until you know the answer. Then there's never more than one.”  ― C.S. Lewis

Dear Mahmoud, thank you for complementing my point. I too endorse that one should individualize his/her thoughts as we are opting to tune in the discussion by choice …at the same we all are busy people (most agreed) - there is kind of dichotomy in this situation and so in the way one decides to answer...

..thanks for sharing the thought by Lewis

I think that, by now, I have some experience with RG. Some RG colleagues are really brilliant in posing interesting appropriate questions. When answers are given by many scholars for a certain question, it is not practical for me to read each one. I read the answers of certain distinguished scholars, which I know that I am going to learn new things from them & I also read a random sample of answers from scholars unknown to me.

As for the first category, they usually comment & give relevant links and they give the links because they cannot write all the information. If the answer is just "links", then it is NOT a good answer, in my opinion.

Thank you dear @Dr. Nizar for expressing your view on this question. I must, however, confess I found some of the answers given by students (as well as those you call them as scholars unknown to me) interesting and more original. We should practice less googling in RG! Such answers are second hand.

Dear @Mahmoud, I think that “good answers” are the direct, short, and relevant answers.

In fact, there are too long answer which are not direct to the point. I believe the good answers are the answers that go direct to the point.

I do agree dear @Mahfuz and dear @Abedallah. But, we do very often have a situation where we do not monitor our answer(s)  for comments in order to reply with explanation!

Furthermore, many followers post just one answer to get some points for RG score and than they stop following that thread any more!

If there is a need or the reason appears in the discussion, we should not be afraid of editing the answer! On the contrary!

I also agree with Abedallah M Rababah. However, sometimes is not possible or very easy to be direct, we have not time to be shorter (I agree with András Bozsik) and the relevance is not easily understood (at least for me). Of course that from a point of views Machiavellian of utilitarianism, the intrinsic quality of the question or of the answer may be absolutely irrelevant.

I like short answer which can convey what you think , don't like that long cut, copy and paste kind of thing. 

There can not be one answer to this question. It would depend upon the value and usefulness an answer serves from the viewpoint of the user of the answer. In some case, a link might be extremely useful to the person concerned.  In others, a good precise answer may remove all doubts from the thinking of the user. 

Dear @Debi Thank you for the answer. As someone may say "No News is good News"  You have a point by saying "There can not be one answer to this question." 

However, my concern or my interest here was of fundamental one(!), i.e.,  to explore my colleagues point of view, learn from each other and not what is already in Google. I can find the later by myself. So I am interested in direct and original answers (NOT fake ones) even it is partial or ambiguous. Off course the answer can be exemplified or give more details by providing useful links to external materials. So I prefer direct, original and short answers by writer himself/herself, as you are one of those in this category.

There can be no Distinctive answer to be a good one; however relevancy is a good scale of measure.

Should we answer every questions? Obviously, NO. I very often follow questions which are shared with me.  I apologize to all who shared their questions but did not get feedback, because I can only respond to the questions I have a knowledge or interests on it.  Answer to many questions are available in Google and some people try to copy and paste them here for various reasons. I like to see your original answers which are not already in the net. Link to further reading is OK to substantiate your answers. 

When would you up-vote a given answer? I do if  I think "This was helpful." Often, I up-vote any answer that is helpful even if it's not the best answer (If I am the asker). What is your approach? 

In answer to you last question Prof. Mahmoud, I upvote an answer or contribution if I think it is useful or helpful or offers new information or shows brilliant analysis. I do not downvote an answer with which I disagree. I may use downvoting in the future but I shall be brave to say that I did that because of so & so and  the correct is such & such.

Dear Dr Matar Thank you for keeping the discussion useful! Unfortunately being brave is not the case here, there are more fundamental problems in RG. Such discussions will inevitably turns into quarrel or arguments, as some people only check their up- / down- votes and care less about the answers itself. Somehow we usually up-vote an answer here due to getting acquainted to each other rather than getting useful information and new ideas. If such a ridicules and nonsense system of measuring / scoring in RG is abolished and their algorithm to compute RG Score is corrected then we definitely get more useful (quality rather than quantity) answers, I believe. 

If I have time, I try to read a lot of comments and surely find a beauty in every answer. Every researcher has his/her own original style of thinking, that's why it's easy to define the author of the comment even without the icon in different threads.I try to upvote the more the better. I think, it's a sign of respect and attention to one or another point of view and it's very pleasant to upvote the answer of the personality, whose way of thinking I admire.I have never downvoted, it's unethical,but I try not to communicate with the persons, who are arrogant or sarcastic in relation to the contributors on RG.As a rule, links are rather informative.

Stack Overflow allows anybody to post a related  question and receive answers from the community.

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/522171/data-mining-reveals-the-secret-to-getting-good-answers/

Dear Mahmoud. Let me disagree with you with respect to RG. In my opinion and until now, RG looks an excellent forum. Each person is free to agree or disagree with the opinion of the others and the quality of a question or answer is always relative. For all of us, our answers/questions are the best (otherwise we would not give them), and it is very pleasant to see that we are not alone in our thoughts when someone up vote our answer/question. However, naturally, I respect your opinion.

Dear Antonio, Are you disagree with me for saying "If such a ridiculous and nonsense system of measuring / scoring in RG is abolished and their algorithm to compute RG Score is corrected then we definitely get more useful (quality rather than quantity) answers"? Or I misunderstood your answer. I want to refer you to Questions [more than 2000 ideas!] and comments posted in RG FeedBack page. I just mention few of those questions for your information. If you have spare time please read the comments to the following question in RG FeedBack page.

Your suggested publications algorithm is terrible.[62 comments, 264 votes]

Why hasn’t my publication’s impact factor been calculated properly? [52 comments, 208 votes]

Why is my RG Score not increasing but decreasing as my publications and dowloads increase? [19 comments, 27 votes]

RG shows incorrect impact factors of many journals! [18 comments, 35 votes]

Your method for RG calculation is absolutely wrong. Please revise your algorithms. [9 comments, 9 votes]

RG score and exaggerated weight given to questions and answers [1 comments, 3 votes]

RG's counters don't make any sense[5 comments, 5 votes, OPEN]

Your method for RG calculation is absolutely wrong. Please revise your algorithms.[9 comments, 9 votes]

ResearchGate scores are self-serving to ResearchGate but not helpful to the broader community.[5 comments, 6 votes]

For details please refer to RG Feedback page:

https://feedback.researchgate.net/responses/problems/status/all

My dear fellows, the algorithm for calculation the RG score is unknown!

Dear Mahmoud. RG score is not the most important. Also we all know that we do not live in a perfect world, but we should be tolerant and human with the others (as much as possible). Perhaps the question about the scarcity of water has perturbed a bit (it’s impossible to be indifferent to the human suffering). Basically I disagree with "Somehow we usually up-vote an answer here due to getting acquainted to each other rather than getting useful information and new ideas." This does not apply to you or to your questions, and I am very happy to participate on them.

Dear Antonio, I apologize if that sentence you mentioned was the cause of misunderstanding. or confusion. When I wrote "Somehow we usually up-vote ..." I  really meant "sometimes" not "always", this conclusion was my own understanding of some RG members and their answers and was not a generalization. As a matter of fact you answers on the issue of scarcity of water were very thoughtful and informative and I already appreciated your feedback there. Your works and papers in that subject meant a lot to me and forced me to read your answers carefully and keenly. Anyway, I hope the misunderstanding is resolved by now.

Good answers should be:

- Direct to the point

- Express clearly the opinion

- Convincing with signs and Proofs

- Short statement.

Note:

- Good answer could have different opinion from yours.

- Adding links for more informations.

Frankly. Anything that promotes POSITIVES such as Freedom, Peace, Education, Happiness, Health, Longevity, Growth and Prosperity is a good Response. These positives should not affect others then those are GOOD ANSWERS.

Dear Krishnan,

Sometimes we can't talk positively if the fact is not ...we shouldn't be far from the credibility when answering the question.

Without possessing enough knowledge about a concept, I could give away a wrong answer as a correct/helpful one and end up misleading many others who happen to stumble upon it months later. There is a possibility that many of these answers also become our references till that day we realize it was wrong. I know one would say, scroll down till the end to validate. With experience and time here we learn to do that too, but the audience is not always the old timers. What about the new naive ones who are satisfied by just looking at the orange and green font and decide to stop and not scroll further down. Not all are aware of who's who and the credibility of their answers.

https://learningnetwork.cisco.com/thread/71797

Excellent answers, Dear Jeanan. The balance between intellectual honesty and kindness is sometimes difficult. It is much more easy the hypocrisy or the cynic attitude (selfish attitudes). If it is not that the attitude that we have for the persons that we really like, why should we have that attitude with our other brothers? A long life dictator in the 20th century was comfortable with the people ignorance. He believed that: “The most ignorant are the happiest”. When I was eleven I heard from a “teacher”:  “In land of the blind, a man with an eye is King.I recommend “The Little Prince” from Antoine de Saint-exupéry.

We all could give perhaps a little more from ourselves.

There is a proverb which say "Early to bed, early to rise, makes the man healthy, wealthy and wise"  So, dear Antonio, you are right "The balance between intellectual honesty and kindness is sometimes difficult."  What to do to make a balance? keep up the good hard work you've been doing already. 

I'm happy, when I can see the famous photos and names in the threads, which I can attend. I like that the persons have a lot of up votes It means, that these humanistic and highly professional researchers have a lot of followers, like me.We are not alone in our thoughts- it's the greatest result of our being.

Dear Professor Mahmoud Omid, By now there are 38 contributions to answer your excellent question. I think most of them are great & I think they answered your question with rich ideas. No wonder, at  Research Gate most of the participating scholars are  Crème de la crème of this world.

Dear Dr. Nizar Thank you for your comments. Let me make it 40!  Once before I wrote a parable on "blind men and an elephant" which is a type of analogy to each individual answer in RG. Let me tell the story again. Once upon a time there lived six blind men in a village. Story says that six blind men were asked to determine what an elephant looked like. Each one touched it to figure out what it is. Each blind man felt a different part of an elephant (trunk, leg, tusks, ear, etc.). In this story,the first grabbed hold of the animal's trunk and says that this is a snake!. Another touches its side and says that the elephant is a rough wall. Another feels its tail and says that the elephant is a piece of rope, Another one crouched down on all fours and felt around the elephant's legs and said what we have here is four tree trunks.  The fifth blind man touched its tusks and says that object is made up of two swords. The sixth blind man scratched his head and thought and thought. He was the one who really was the wisest of all of them. He was the one who really knew what he knew, and knew what he didn't know. Each came into contact with a different part of the elephant and is convinced that their own explanation is correct.. He said "you are all right. "This elephant seems like something different to each one of you. And the only way to know what this thing really is, is to do exactly what you have done. Only by sharing what each of you knows can you possibly reach a true understanding."

Dear @Mahmoud, its a good story on sharing. "Knowledge Sharing is the Learning, Learning is the Knowledge Sharing.... since we are all embarked on a lifetime learning experience of what we know, what’s around us, who we are, what we do and why we do it, who we connect with, etc. etc. knowledge sharing is innate to our human nature of wanting to connect and collaborate with others. We, human beings, are social beings, and as such have been bound to share what we know with others, so that our learning curve never becomes flat. On the contrary!"

http://www.elsua.net/2012/09/19/why-do-i-share-my-knowledge/

Thank you dear  Ljubomir. Indeed, "Knowledge Sharing is the Learning, Learning is the Knowledge Sharing''. In old days, we were taught how we need to protect it, to hoard it from others, because “knowledge is power” and if we release our knowledge, we release our power, But nowadays we can claim that it is rather the opposite "knowledge SHARED is power".  So in a sense it is your personal (digital) brand.

Dear Professor Omid,

Many times I provide excerpts, and links in my responses because I'm afraid that my summarizing or my paraphrasing may distort the information. So for those questions that are quite technical, or outside my expertise, I usually include some portions of the text and links just to make sure that accurate information will be shared. 

Sincerely,

Cameen

"Simple answers to complicated questions are usually wrong." - Sen. Angus King

The good example of quick and wrong  answer by Donald Trump about recent killings in Germany and Turkey!

http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/angus-king-trump-simple-answers/2016/12/20/id/764894/

Dear colleague

A good answer is helpful to anyone who wants to know the answer to the question. Good answers are helpful to both the original poster of the question and to anyone else who has the same question in the future. An answer is helpful when it's clear, credible, and sincerely addresses the question that was asked.

You should always assume that people are asking really want help. Helpful answers don't change the subject Or far from the question, A good answer often considers the frame of mind of the typical person that has this question

Regards

Google can bring you back 100,000 answers. A librarian can bring you back the right one. ― Neil Gaiman

Few Tips on how to write "good answers"

How do I write a good answer?

Thanks for taking the time to contribute an answer. It’s because of helpful peers like yourself that we’re able to learn together as a community. Here are a few tips on how to make your answer great:

Pay it forward

Saying “thanks” is appreciated, but it doesn’t answer the question. Instead, vote up the answers that helped you the most! If these answers were helpful to you, please consider saying thank you in a more constructive way – by contributing your own answers to questions your peers have asked here.

Have the same problem?

Still no answer to the question, and you have the same problem? Help us find a solution by researching the problem, then contribute the results of your research and anything additional you’ve tried as a partial answer. That way, even if we can’t figure it out, the next person has more to go on. You can also vote up the question or set a bounty on it so the question gets more attention.

Answer the question

Read the question carefully. What, specifically, is the question asking for? Make sure your answer provides that – or a viable alternative. The answer can be “don’t do that”, but it should also include “try this instead”. Any answer that gets the asker going in the right direction is helpful, but do try to mention any limitations, assumptions or simplifications in your answer. Brevity is acceptable, but fuller explanations are better.

Provide context for links

Links to external resources are encouraged, but please add context around the link so your fellow users will have some idea what it is and why it’s there. Always quote the most relevant part of an important link, in case the target site is unreachable or goes permanently offline.

Write to the best of your ability

We don't expect every answer to be perfect, but answers with correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar are easier to read. They also tend to get upvoted more frequently. Remember, you can always go back at any time and edit your answer to improve it.

Answer well-asked questions

Not all questions can or should be answered here. Save yourself some frustration and avoid trying to answer questions which...

...are unclear or lacking specific details that can uniquely identify the problem.

...solicit opinions rather than facts.

...have already been asked and answered many times before.

...require too much guidance for you to answer in full, or request answers to multiple questions.

...are not about programming as defined in the help center.

Don't forget that you can edit the question you're answering to improve the clarity and focus - this can reduce the chances of the question being closed or deleted.

Always be polite and have fun

It’s fine to disagree and express concern, but please be civil. There’s a real human being on the other end of that network connection, however misguided they may appear to be. We’re here to learn from our peers, not yell at each other.

http://stackoverflow.com/help/how-to-answer

Good answers are those can be well understood by the readers. It may be short or it may be long.

A good scientific answer requires a good and worthy question, capacity to understand the question, as well as scientific background, and real knowledge, in order to asking and answering with clearness. It is well known that generally “without eggs it is not possible to make omelets”. See the link

https://www.quora.com/What-are-ways-to-make-an-omelette-without-eggs

Saint Christmas and Happy New Year 2017 for all.

Dear All, Thanks for your contributions.

At Christmas, all roads lead home.

Good or bad is perceptional. There is nothing good or bad in research. If it doesn't work the way it was expected, then use it wherever it is required. We only provide effort to a research activity, outcome is bound to bring surprises.

Analysis, synthesis (induction, deduction, analogy, modelng), based on experience and information. Values of the higher order are important.

Good answers can not be copy/paste answers! It is plagiarism!

Dear @Ahmed, I have upvoted your answer on previous page, but I have realized now that it misses a link to the original answer that you have posted. You should cite source properly!

https://www.quora.com/What-does-a-good-answer-on-Quora-look-like-What-does-it-mean-to-be-helpful

This is a good qoute by Skinner\; “A scientist may not be sure of the answer, but he's often sure he can find one. And that's a condition which is clearly not enjoyed by philosophy.” ― B.F. Skinner

Happy xmas!

Sincere, mature, well-thought-out and enriching with own experience

From one point of view, a “good answer” encourages a person to think inversely.

Good answers will enlighten, educate/inform and clarify issues bothering the person who asked a question.  

A good answer should answer the question!

An answer that can be understood and implemented in a research project

Thank you all for brief and to the point comments. We should also brave in  acknowledging mistakes! This is key to advancement and improvement.

It is not easy to detect the intention of the question; a good answer or reponse means to identify the goal of the question. A good answer can overcome both, the motivation of the respondent and the one who questions. Thus, a good answer broadens the horizon of all participants; a good answer is always part of a better solution for the respective problem.

A ''good answer'' is characteristic of a person who respects both themselves and their colleagues.

According to me, the answers:

*That are relevant.

*That are sensible

*That are contextual

*That are real

----are god answers!!!!

A deceitful answer, surely, is not a ''good answer''.

The secret of a good answer lies In the quality of the question and its presentation to reader or recipient , A ''good answer'' must that are relevant with the question.

A good answer is relevant to the question and must be clear!!

I agree with @Aristidis Matsoukis.

I also think for a "good answer" should outline the diversity and overall to leave possible rebuttal! 

Good answers are satisfactory answer which are usually useful for further questions for progress. 

To me, a good answer (to a scientific question) is:

1. If I already know the answer(s) to the question:

I would consider it is a good answer if: the person gives an answer which is the same or similar to what I already know.

2. If I don't know the answer(s) to the question:

I would consider it is a good answer if: the answer given is a straight-to-the-point answer, the author explains it and the explanation makes sense,  references/facts (ex. published papers) are also provided to support what they say.

Good answer is the one that offer the needed data or explanations in a proper manner. Links should be meaningful to further help in clearing the answer but are not a necessity for good answer.

Regards

SM Najim

Good answers are those which are to the point and provides precise description of the answer. 

what about scientific questions? Here the best answers are the ones provided by direct observations or with scientific tools.

Logical answers based on knowledge, experience, evidence, but also on imagination and scientific intuition. I prefer answers that provoke me, make me look at the problem from another perspective, that stimulate me to ask new questions.

Good scientific answers hit the target directly - to a head (scientific question) dear @Mahmoud!

Answers should be accurate, precise  and informative in response to any question.

As Nolan Bushnell said "A simple answer that is clear and precise will always have more power in the world than a complex one that is true." 

But H. L. Mencken thinks "For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong."

so sometime the question imposes different approach!

What answers are “good answers” in your opinion?

Answer that can get the idea / message across & satisfied the person who asked the question is the good answer.  However, if you put this in plural perspective, different people might react differently to an answer as they come from different backgrounds that might interpret the answer differently.

Simply, it clears all the things.

It is saying that one men food is another men poison & as such good answer should be considered where after leaving one gets a good satisfaction with the inner feeling of joy & help him to move in the direction of his on progress.

Good answer one has to study for the question before giving the answer . In this line in order to give justice to the answer one must study deeply by the way of reference & also by undergoing his own introspection.  If the answer get presented in this line to me a it is a good answer.

This is my personal opinion 

Good answer may be as clear, simple, complete  and understanding to answer or clear any question or  to explain any thing.

Regards 

good answer is the answer which paves the decent way for new questions.

I mean answer which makes you in comfortable position regarding your query but at the same time leads you in different zone of questions......

makes you for more query.

A good answer varies for person to person. I think its only depends on person’s perception that actually his mind wants to accept according to his previous information for particular query .

Good answer vs. Right answer

"Good answer" doesn't always mean "right answer". It can mean thoughtful, creative, interesting, valid. 

So we should differentiate between them.

https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/good-answer-vs-right-answer.100007/

Sometimes, the tone of given answer prevail the quality of answer!

The main thing is, that an answer should bring a benefit to the questioner ( and maybe to others). Bringing benefit to the answerer should not be the primary motivation for the answer.

a good answer from one  must be satisfied and covered   all sides of the question.

Good answers are those with rich content that address the main idea behind the question directly.

Regards

SM Najim

Good answers must fulfill all inquiries in the question and the sequences of details in the answer must be acceptable.

Regards 

How do I write a good answer?

• Any answer that gets the asker going in the right direction is helpful
• Try to mention any limitations, assumptions or simplifications in your answer.
• Brevity is acceptable, but fuller explanations are better.
• Links to external resources are encouraged

http://stackoverflow.com/help/how-to-answer

A good answer should be the answer required to be given in a situation and should never be only a politically correct answer only!

A good answer is the one which a clear, concise and to the point. Eric Steven Raymond said [attached link] : a short and sweet summary is better than a long dissertation unless the solution has real technical depth.

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html