| Repository | |
|---|---|
| Written in | Perl |
| Available in | English |
| Type | Paper generator |
| License | GNU General Public License |
| Website | http://pdos.csail.mit.edu/scigen/ |
SCIgen is a paper generator that uses context-free grammar to randomly generate nonsense in the form of computer science research papers. Its original data source was a collection of computer science papers downloaded from CiteSeer. All elements of the papers are formed, including graphs, diagrams, and citations. Created by scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, its stated aim is "to maximize amusement, rather than coherence."[1] Originally created in 2005 to expose the lack of scrutiny of submissions to conferences, the generator subsequently became used, primarily by Chinese academics, to create large numbers of fraudulent conference submissions, leading to the retraction of 122 SCIgen generated papers and the creation of detection software to combat its use.[2]
- ^ SCIgen - An Automatic CS Paper Generator
- ^ Bohannon, John (2015-03-27). "Hoax-detecting software spots fake papers". Science | AAAS. Retrieved 2020-09-28.
Rather than being created as pranks, it seems that many of the fake papers were coming from China where they were "bought by academics and students" to pad their publication records, says the lead researcher behind the investigation, Cyril Labbé, a computer scientist at Joseph Fourier University in Grenoble, France.