Instant Authorship

An interesting news item about a group of MIT students questioning the peer review process, in this case, that of the World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics (WMSCI). The students created a program that would generate phony research papers, complete with diagrams and references. They submitted two of these papers to WMSCI, and one of them was accepted for presentation.

One of the conference organizers claims that there is always a pool of papers that will be accepted without review due to time constraints, but I doubt his word in this case*. I'd believe it if the paper was accepted to put up as a poster, but the WMSCI was inviting this group of students to speak about their results - most conferences would have given this paper a serious review before inviting the publisher to give a full-blown presentation.

You can generate your very own non-sensical scientific publication (I know, redundant) here.

* I'm mistaken - the original acceptance letter, published on the MIT website, to the students clearly states that their submission was accepted as a 'non-reviewed paper.' Still, I don't think this would be an acceptable policy at any respectable scientific conference, and it appears that WMSCI is held in rather low regard in Computer Science circles.

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What I'm listening to now: Piano Sonatas Nos. 20 and 21, W.A. Mozart

Of all Mozart's works, I am most unfamiliar with his sonatas, mostly because they get the least play on classical music radio stations. Most often, they play his symphonies or one of the sections from his Requiem. However, some of his best compositions are his piano sonatas, and probably the best way to track his maturity as a composer, as opposed to his symphonies, which he cranked out like so much pop music.