SnarXiv
Encyclopedia
snarXiv is a website spoofing the high-energy physics section (hep-th) of the popular electronic scientific paper repository arXiv
. It was created in March 2010 by David Simmons-Duffin, a 3rd year Ph.D. student at Harvard University
studying theoretical high-energy physics. The name snarXiv is a contraction of the words "snarky" and "arXiv".
. The implementation uses Perl
and OCaml, with source files posted on the website itself. Visitors are encouraged to play the game of arXiv vs. snarXiv: they are presented with a series of plausible-sounding pairs of titles and need to determine which of them is real. The program keeps the score, making snarky comments ranging from "Nobel Prize
winner" for 100% success rate to "Crackpot
", "9th year grad student" and "Worse than a monkey" for being wrong most of the time.
ArXiv
The arXiv |Chi]], χ) is an archive for electronic preprints of scientific papers in the fields of mathematics, physics, astronomy, computer science, quantitative biology, statistics, and quantitative finance which can be accessed online. In many fields of mathematics and physics, almost all...
. It was created in March 2010 by David Simmons-Duffin, a 3rd year Ph.D. student at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
studying theoretical high-energy physics. The name snarXiv is a contraction of the words "snarky" and "arXiv".
Description
The titles and abstracts of fake papers are generated using context-free grammarContext-free grammar
In formal language theory, a context-free grammar is a formal grammar in which every production rule is of the formwhere V is a single nonterminal symbol, and w is a string of terminals and/or nonterminals ....
. The implementation uses Perl
Perl
Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Perl was originally developed by Larry Wall in 1987 as a general-purpose Unix scripting language to make report processing easier. Since then, it has undergone many changes and revisions and become widely popular...
and OCaml, with source files posted on the website itself. Visitors are encouraged to play the game of arXiv vs. snarXiv: they are presented with a series of plausible-sounding pairs of titles and need to determine which of them is real. The program keeps the score, making snarky comments ranging from "Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
winner" for 100% success rate to "Crackpot
Crackpot
Crackpot may refer to:* Crackpot, North Yorkshire, a village in the United Kingdom* Crackpot Hall, a landmark ruin near Keld, North Yorkshire* Crackpot Cave, a cave located at Scurvey Scar, in Swaledale, North Yorkshire.* Crank , a pejorative term...
", "9th year grad student" and "Worse than a monkey" for being wrong most of the time.