Publish or perish: the dirty side of science

Again, another important research article has been retracted. Again, all the responsibility is exclusively of the first author. No responsibilities for the co-author or for the leader of the scientific group, in this case the Nobel Prize (!) Linda Buck. Linda Buck, who seven years after the article was published and quoted 138 times by other researchers realized that “there were inconsistencies in the data that were in figures contributed to the paper by the first author compared to the original data”.

Nothing new, actually. After several years in the field, I dare to make a sorted list (the most important on the top) of the factors too often required for top rank publications:

For sale: baby shoes, never worn.

Hemingway is also famous for this “shortest romance” ever written (the title of this post). What did he mean with his 6 words? Dead kid? Wrong shopping? How many possible explanations for a short story made of only 6 words. The owner of smithmagazine.com recently printed a book with “Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous & Obscure“. Can you also write a story of 6 words with such a high impact on other people fantasies? Too late to be published in this book, give it a try here. For example:

Today is life, tomorrow never comes