PB2A

The SCIgen generator creates research papers that appear genuine but don’t make any actual sense.  By pulling and incorporating different key elements of the research paper genre, the generator produces pieces that can pass as legitimate scholarly academic publications.  This assertion can be proved further by juxtaposing a SCIgen generated research paper (in this case, Cooperative Symmetries by Wagner, Vasquez, and DeMarco) with a real, peer-reviewed scholarly article (Generalizing the self-healing diffusion Monte Carlo approach to finite temperature: A path for the optimization of low-energy many-body bases by Reboredo and Kim) and observing the parallels present between the two. 

For starters, both papers are divided into sections, beginning with an abstract that summarizes what the purpose of the piece and what it will be discussing (in the case of the SCIgen piece, the abstract fails to provide much clarity as, like the rest of the paper, it was randomly generated and can’t offer any relevant or comprehendible information) and then separating their argument and evidence into numbered sections.  However, the SCIgen piece includes a Results section and Conclusion section to list its findings, whereas the real research paper had its findings more deeply integrated into the body of the paper and therefore more difficult to locate and extract.  Also, the individual sections of the real research paper are much more specific than those of the SCIgen paper (ex: A. Upper bound property of the truncated Helmholtz free energy.) Both papers integrate graphs and tables into the body of their arguments, contributing to the overall academic quality of the works.  In actual scholarly works, these graphs and tables would no doubt be included in order to clarify or visually demonstrate certain processes or statistics relevant to the topic of the work.  In this case, their main function is to make the papers appear more legitimate.

Despite the fact that one is a legitimate academic publication and the other was randomly generated by a computer, these works are both equally incomprehensible.  It’s genuinely difficult to read and understand a single sentence from either of these papers.  This has a great deal to do with the jargon that the two employ, another incredibly important convention of scholarly articles.  The wording the two papers use to explain their points is so specific and advanced that, at a glance, both papers appear to be genuine simply because people can’t be bothered to actually comprehend what is being written.  This suggests that the audience for papers such as these is composed of professionals and scholars in the same field as the author who have enough education and skill in their field to actually understand what is being written here.  The fact that the SCIgen article is composed of randomized academic jargon and still resembles real scholarly publications speaks volumes about the nature of language in scholarly writing.  It also establishes that one of the conventions of scholarly articles is that one can’t fully understand or process what is being discussed or proven. 

Another major convention that these two works share is the inclusion of academic sources following the conclusion and citations referring back to these sources throughout the actual body of the paper.  This aspect of these kinds of papers is absolutely crucial, as it is what convinces the audience to take the information presented seriously.  Essentially, the inclusion of sources and evidence legitimizes the papers, making them appear to have been well-researched and supported. 

In the scholarly publication, the most important aspects seemed to be the presence of graphs, tables, and formulas and the inclusion and use of academic sources.  The graphs and tables in the scholarly work were quite large and in color, indicating that they were of considerable importance.  The scholarly work also included a long list of sources, citations of which were integrated all throughout the body of the paper.  This aspect makes the paper appear more researched and supported by evidence, as well as more trustworthy.  These two specific characteristics of the paper were also found in the SCIgen generator’s research papers, indicating that they are crucial conventions of scholarly publications.