Computer-generated prank academic paper accepted at scientific conference

Prank fools US science conference

BBC Friday, 15 April, 2005, 16:39 GMT 17:39 UK

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4449651.stm

A collection of computer-generated gibberish in the form of an academic
paper has been accepted at a scientific conference, to the delight of
hoaxers.
Three US boffins built a programme designed to create research papers
with random text, charts and diagrams.

Two bogus papers were submitted to a computing conference in Florida,
and one of them was accepted.

One of the hoaxers said the fake paper was designed to expose the lack
of standards at academic gatherings.

The paper has the nonsense headline "Rooter: A Methodology for the
Typical Unification of Access Points and Redundancy".

It was accepted for the World Multiconference on Systemics, Cybernetics
and Informatics (WMSCI), due to be held in the city of Orlando in July.


Donation request

Hoaxer Jeremy Stribling, a computer science graduate at Boston's MIT
university, said they had targeted WMSCI because it sent large amounts
of spam emails soliciting admissions for the conference.

"We were tired of the spam," he told Reuters news agency.

The trio are planning to attend the conference and give a randomly
generated talk, for which they are requesting donations on their
website.

They have so far received more than $2,000.

Visitors to the site are also invited to generate their own academic
gobbledegook.

But conference organisers poured cold water on the proposed
presentation, saying bogus papers would not be included in the
conference agenda.

Conference General Chair Nagib Callaos said the paper had been passed
because reviewers had not given feedback on it by a set deadline.

"We thought that it might be unfair to refuse a paper that was not
refused by any of its three selected reviewers," Mr Callaos told
Reuters news agency.

He added that the conference was now reviewing its acceptance
procedures.





Rusty