Scientific Paper Hoax:

I just learned of these graduate students who submitted a fake paper to an academic conference and then were invited to present it (before the organizers learned it was a hoax). They used a random paper generator. The web site also allows anyone to generate a random paper. They then created their own session at the conference for which they have a video on the web site (although I couldn’t get the video to play, just audio). They state:

SCIgen is a program that generates random Computer Science research papers, including graphs, figures, and citations. It uses a hand-written context-free grammar to form all elements of the papers. Our aim here is to maximize amusement, rather than coherence.

Once it came out that their paper was a joax, they had their invitation revoked but then raised money to go to the conference anyway and present their own session–which they did, generating a random title for their program and three random papers. They also review prior hoaxes, such as Alan Sokol’s Sokal’s famous hoax.

Their web site with details is here.

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