![]() ![]() The gag reveals how research literature, when stripped of its jargon, is just as susceptible to repetition, triviality, pandering, and pettiness as other forms of communication. “My colleague is wrong and I can finally prove it,” declares another. “The immune system is at it again,” one paper’s title reads. It depicts a taxonomy of the 12 “Types of Scientific Paper,” presented in a grid. The cartoon is, like most XKCD comics, a simple back-and-white line drawing with a nerdy punch line. Together, these became a global, interdisciplinary conversation about the nature of modern research practices. ![]() ![]() So when Randall Munroe, the creator of the long-running webcomic XKCD, laid out this problem in a perfect cartoon last week, it captured the attention of scientists-and inspired many to create versions specific to their own disciplines. Scientists joke (and complain) that this relentless pressure to pad their résumés often leads to flawed or unoriginal publications. Universities judge their research faculty not so much by the quality of their discoveries as by the number of papers they’ve placed in scholarly journals, and how prestigious those journals happen to be. But career scientists must continually create this kind of magic. As a tired, single medical student, I used to feel lucky when I managed two good dates in a row. A real scientific advance, like a successful date, needs both preparation and serendipity. ![]()
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