Dr. Total A**hole's Collaboration Essential for Publication

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The true story of Stronzo Bestiale (and others scientific jokes)

<<we were very active in the development of a new computational technique, non-equilibrium molecular dynamics, connecting fractal geometry, irreversibility and the second law of thermodynamics. [...] I wrote several papers on the subject along with some colleagues. But the reviewers of Physical Review Letters and the Journal of Statistical Physics refused to publish my texts: they contained too innovative ideas>>.

<< [...] I thought that Stronzo Bestiale would have been the perfect co-author for a refused publication. So I decided to submit my papers again, simply by changing the title and adding the name of that author. And the researches were published>>.


Not everyone took it well, at the time: the President of the Italian Physical Society, Professor Renato Angelo Ricci said, «This joke is an offense to the entire Italian scientific community». In reality, though, it laid bare how vulnerable control systems in the review of scientific research were (and still are!) . If you are able to insert in a publication the name of a nonexistent author in a publication, who will guarantee that even the scientific contents have been examined with care? Incredibly, even today, 27 years later, Stronzo Bestiale continues to be present as the author of publications in scientific databases: is it not extraordinary?
 

Blossom

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Re: Dr. Total A**hole's Collaboration Essential for Publicat

That just illustrates perfectly that we should question everything!
 

Blossom

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Re: Dr. Total A**hole's Collaboration Essential for Publicat

Such_Saturation said:
I agree! Also see http://retractionwatch.com/ for more appalling tales.
Just WOW! That sure makes knowledge from personal experience seem even more valuable.
 
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Blossom

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Re: Dr. Total A**hole's Collaboration Essential for Publicat

:hattip You're awesome! Great digging. Thanks for bringing that information to the forum.
 
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Re: Dr. Total A**hole's Collaboration Essential for Publicat

Glad you enjoy :mrgreen:
 

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