unterbelichtet (unterbelichtetes Thema)

16:18 Oct 30, 2013 

I agree it is a deathly dull title, but we are translators here. I certainly don't see titles of that nature in UK/US academia very often - there is a long-established trend towards making them enticing/interesting/etc. But whether Brigitte can depart that far from the title as given is another matter. I have advised direct academic clients to pep up their titles before, but this may not be possible here.

16:10 Oct 30, 2013 

I agree wholeheartedly with what you wrote. Maybe it's just the way I tick - if I read a list of papers I could read or lectures I could attend, I would certainly go for the ones with a question mark. "Neglected &Co." would just make me think "So what".

After many years of titles as dry and dusty as "An example of the use of shear waves in seismic exploration." (Which was quite revolutionary at the time - and one of the authors was a Yorkshireman:-) ), I do like to find something that tweaks my interest at first glance, even though it may eventually turn out to be deathly boring.

15:55 Oct 30, 2013 

But none of the formulations: little-researched, under-researched, neglected are in any way critical, and are all very frequently used in academia, so I really see no need to find other ways of saying it.

15:50 Oct 30, 2013 

Precisely the reason why I chose the rhetorical question "a missed opportunity?"

In other words, others missed the chance/benefits of finding significant/meaningful data in a neglected/little researched field.

15:05 Oct 30, 2013 

Academics are always delighted to find little-researched areas; it's their life blood, after all, finding something that needs research. These EN formulations are not criticisms of anyone; just statements that little research has been done in that area. Book reviews and the like may criticise the work done to date, but again often merely highlight where research has been lacking in order to demonstrate the need for work or to carve out or delineate the scope of the current project. Everyone builds on the work of those who have gone before and one would have to be pretty sure or arrogant to say other researchers were flat wrong.

14:54 Oct 30, 2013 

Der springende Punkt ist, dass der Begriff "underexposed" in Bezug auf ein Thema (underexposed subject/topic) von Menschen mit Muttersprache Englisch so gut wie nicht verwendet wird (ja, es gibt vereinzelte Google-Treffer für eine derartige Verwendung aus USA, Australien usw., aber die sind so selten, dass ich sie für vernachlässigbar halte).
Der Autor macht außerdem sehr kritische Bemerkungen zum eher sorglosen Umgang mit Erhebungsdaten und ist durchaus der Auffassung, dass nicht nur er sondern auch andere Wissenschaftler in dieser Hinsicht noch viel tun müssen. Zugegebenermaßen habe ich diesen Punkt in meiner Frage nicht hervorgehoben, weil ich ihn nicht für notwendig hielt. Aber Formulierungen wie "little researched", "neglected" o.ä. werden der Intention des Autors nicht zuwiderlaufen, da bin ich sicher.

14:27 Oct 30, 2013 

is that the writer sucessfully avoided the implication of blame, that others had not done their fair share of work on the subject.

08:04 Oct 30, 2013 

No feedback from the client - too busy getting his paper to the conference organisers, I guess. To give him a choice, I suggested neglected, littled researched/under-researched and insufficiently explored as options, because I consider these suggestions most suitable in the context. Since the system does not allow me to split the points I follow the majority (no. of "agrees").

19:29 Oct 26, 2013 

No mention of moaning at all - the question that is posed by this leads into his discussion of the importance of what others have obviously overlooked. On of the first rules of marketing is to generate awareness and interest - what better way than a question, and a chance to find out what has, up to now, been missed/overlooked by everyone else.

17:58 Oct 26, 2013 

rephrasing, maybe "-- light on an underexposed topic"?

10:56 Oct 26, 2013 

I have until Monday to make up my mind.
The author is not just moaning about the wickedness of the world and the unreliability of data, he provides details of the problems and makes a number of suggestions regarding their solution (therefore "missed opportunity" does not seem suitable in this context).

08:36 Oct 26, 2013 

I like the combination of Helen's and Thayenga's suggestions: inadequately researched. Otherwise inadequately amplified/elaborated/expounded.