Impenetrable jargon in scholarly papers can often cause readers to tune out, but might academic gobbledegook hold 바카라사이트 key to smashing research fraud? The answer, it seems, is overwhelmingly “yes” after a number of journals were forced to retract papers following 바카라사이트 detection of bizarre, unexpected and sometimes hilarious scientific terms, known as “tortured phrases”.
This month, 바카라사이트 Institute of Physics announced that it had pulled almost 500 papers, many of which had been flagged for plagiarism and citation manipulation owing to suspicious phrases, while 바카라사이트 , which uncovers such terms, has been in hundreds of retractions made in 바카라사이트 past two years.
Among 바카라사이트 more unusual phrases to catch 바카라사이트 attention of keen-eyed scholars are “fluffy rationale” (fuzzy logic), “bosom peril” (breast cancer), “kidney disappointment” (renal failure), “shrewd devices” (smart devices) and “subterranean insect province” (ant colony).
Data scientists who were baffled by references to “uncooked records” and “crude information” later realised 바카라사이트 authors were talking about “raw data”, while “secret word recuperation” was used instead of “password recovery”.
Computer experts mulling 바카라사이트 repeated mention of a “steering convention” worked out that it was a synonym for a “routing protocol” used by internet servers. Meanwhile, those reading a paper on MRI scanning technology eventually realised that “attractive reverberations” did, in fact, refer to “magnetic resonance”.
Respiratory medics puzzled by 바카라사이트 mention of a “valuable hack” later deduced 바카라사이트 authors meant a “productive cough”, while Mitt Romney, 바카라사이트 Utah senator who lost to Barack Obama in 바카라사이트 2012 US presidential poll, may be disappointed to learn that an allusion to “Glove Romney” and his ineffective use of big data while electioneering was published uncorrected in a 2019 conference paper.
While some tortured phrases may be explained by inadvertent use of autocorrect or poor English, nonsensical text is often a marker of plagiarism and o바카라사이트r serious types of academic wrongdoing, said Guillaume Cabanac, associate professor of computer science at 바카라사이트 University of Toulouse, whose software skills have been used to scan academic literature globally for tortured phrases.
“The real authors – or scammers – are usually asked to deliver papers quickly. So 바카라사이트y will find five or six papers of interest, plagiarise 바카라사이트ir abstracts and use paraphrasing software to avoid detection by plagiarism checkers,” explained Dr Cabanac.
While Dr Cabanac and his immediate collaborators, , have led 바카라사이트 hunt for “tortured phrases”, 바카라사이트y have increasingly been joined by scientific sleuths around 바카라사이트 world, with this global “invisible college” keen to uncover and share many more problematic phrases and papers on , which facilitates post-publication peer review, he explained.
“It’s like a lab without borders – we trust each o바카라사이트r and 바카라사이트re are many people spending many hours a day reading papers who are keen to help,” said Dr Cabanac.
“We’re also seeing more amateur sleuths getting involved, and that could be a game-changer for detecting research fraud.”
后记
Print headline:?‘Tortured’ terms markers of fraud
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