Comments on: Carbon Fibre is Misogynist!

By: Michael

Michael — Mon, 18 Jan 2016 22:43:44 +0000

I think someone is out of marbles. Advancing the premise that an inanimate object can hold a belief of any sort is absurd. Publishing such a paper just devalues the publisher.

By: Tim Hall

Tim Hall — Thu, 07 Jan 2016 23:18:11 +0000

If you look at the link Chris posted, these machine-generated gibberish papers were meant to catch out journals and conferences that didn't review properly and would publish any old rubbish. It's quite an honourable goal, a bit like the famous Atlanta Nights sting on a notorious vanity publisher. This "Carbon fible is misogynist" thing reads more like the sort of ridiculous clickbait thinkpieces you see on bottom-feeding websites which even the writer knows is complete cobblers but goes ahead and publishes anyway. Except it's written in the arcane jargon-riddled style of an academic paper. Is the author taking the piss? Poe's Law states that it's impossible to tell.

By: John P.

John P. — Thu, 07 Jan 2016 22:48:17 +0000

Could it be someone has used a generator to produce something because they needed to meet a deadline for delivering a paper? It really doesn’t make any sense at all. It’s worse than a management textbook!

What’s next? Paper & pencils are racist because they are black and white?

By: Tim Hall

Tim Hall — Thu, 07 Jan 2016 15:29:00 +0000

There was some discussion on Twitter over whether this was a Sokal-style hoax. The problem is not that it’s inpenetrable gibberish, but its basic premise, that the behaviour of Oscar Pistorius proves carbon fibre is sexist, is ridiculous. It does sound as though the author has some quite warped and unhealthy ideas about both masculinity and disability.

By: Chris Hall

Chris Hall — Thu, 07 Jan 2016 14:29:14 +0000

Unless it’s one of these http://www.theguardian.com/technology/shortcuts/2014/feb/26/how-computer-generated-fake-papers-flooding-academia

By: Tim Hall

Tim Hall — Thu, 07 Jan 2016 13:28:42 +0000

I’m trying to get past the academicese word-salad and unpack the actual argument from that extract. It does sound like it’s full of non-sequiturs, bizarre leaps of logic and ridicukous sweeping generalisations.

By: Chris Hall

Chris Hall — Thu, 07 Jan 2016 13:18:58 +0000

I thought surely that can’t be real but I’ve got access to the journal and it’s peer reviewed so it must be!