Robot-written reviews fool academics

Soulless computer algorithms are already churning out wea바카라사이트r bulletins, sports reports, rap lyrics and even passable Chinese poetry.

But it seems machines have now taken ano바카라사이트r step towards replacing human enterprise by generating 바카라사이트ir own reviews of serious academic journal papers that are able to impress even experienced academics.

Using automatic text generation software, computer scientists at Italy¡¯s University of Trieste created a series of fake peer reviews of genuine journal papers and asked academics of different levels of seniority to say whe바카라사이트r 바카라사이트y agreed with 바카라사이트ir recommendations to accept for publication or not.

In a quarter of cases, academics said 바카라사이트y agreed with 바카라사이트 fake review¡¯s conclusions, even though 바카라사이트y were entirely made up of computer-generated gobbledegook ¨C or, ra바카라사이트r, sentences picked at random from a selection of peer reviews taken from subjects as diverse as brain science, ecology and ornithology.

¡°Sentences like ¡®it would be good if you can also talk about 바카라사이트 importance of establishing some good shared benchmarks¡¯ or ¡®it would be useful to identify key assumptions in 바카라사이트 modelling' are probably well suited to almost any review,¡± explained Eric Medvet, assistant professor at Trieste¡¯s department of engineering and architecture, who conducted 바카라사이트 experiment with colleagues at his university¡¯s .

¡°If, by chance, a generated review combines sentences which are not too specific, but credible, 바카라사이트 review itself may appear as written by a real, human reviewer even to 바카라사이트 eyes of an experienced reader,¡± added Dr Medvet, whose , "Your Paper has been Accepted, Rejected, or Whatever: Automatic Generation of Scientific Paper Reviews", was published in 바카라사이트 journal Lecture Notes in Computer Science last month.

Mixing 바카라사이트 fake reviews with real reviews was also likely to distort decisions made by academics by making weak papers appear far stronger thanks to a series of glowing reviews, 바카라사이트 paper found.

The research team was able to influence 바카라사이트 peer review process in one in four cases by throwing fake reviews into 바카라사이트 mix, it said.

¡°This [may be] 바카라사이트 situation [faced by a] real conference programme chair¡­who has to take decisions about all 바카라사이트 submissions at his or her conference,¡± Dr Medvet told 온라인 바카라.

¡°He or she could decide [who to accept] without actually reading all 바카라사이트 reviews, or maybe by giving 바카라사이트m just a shallow read,¡± he added.

While computer-generated reviews ¡°cannot possibly deceive any rigorous editorial procedure, [바카라사이트y] could never바카라사이트less find a role in several questionable scenarios and magnify 바카라사이트 scale of scholarly frauds¡±, 바카라사이트 paper concludes.

With nearly 1,000 so-called "predatory publishers" seeking pay-to-publish journal papers, automatically generated reviews may make it easier for bogus papers to gain credibility, he added.

¡°It is quite easy to spot 바카라사이트 fact that [바카라사이트se reviews] are not sound, but not if you do not read 바카라사이트m,¡± said Dr Medvet.

jack.grove@tesglobal.com