Again in my trip to Europe I noticed a lot of younger scholars answering questions with “it’s in the paper.”  I was not clear whether it was a language barrier of not understanding the question, not being able to formulate an answer to an unexpected question on the fly (due to language or other barriers) or not understanding the purpose of a conference presentation and a Q&A.

Let me be clear, “it is in the paper” is NOT an appropriate answer to any question.  The response should be either to seek further understanding of the question if it is not clear or understood OR a brief explanation/answer with the invitation to find further details in the paper and/or ask the participant to ask a followup question to narrow down the focus of the question further.