Category: 1. Research
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Plagiarism on the rise?
I recently reviewed a paper where, a few paragraphs into the introduction, the words seemed strangely familiar. After some cross-checking, I realised that the author of the paper had copied about two paragraphs verbatim from one of my papers. After a bit more digging, I found other places in the paper where the author had…
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Rigor vs. relevance, or: What is the size of a dissertation?
While listening to a colleague’s talk the other day, I got an idea for a Ph.D. thesis (grant proposal). I wrote up a short summary and sent it to him. He thought it was fine but commented that it might be a bit “thin”. This made me wonder: How do we determine sufficient size of…
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Why I’m interested in computer games research
Just before my inaugural lecture at University of Erlangen, a broad panel of scientists was debating the merits of computer games. Except for a computer games researcher and a games professional, all participants thought that computer games are of no particular interest. When I asked: “But isn’t there anything to learn from computer games?” I…
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A broader notion of computer science
A recent article in the CACM complained about the dominance of reductionists’ views in computer science research. “We are sorry to inform you that your paper has been rejected, due to the lack of empirical evidence supporting it.” [1] The author goes on to discuss other views of science, suggesting that the focus on empirical…
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Open access and open source
This morning, I read that the main Swedish research funding agency has decided to enforce open access to research results of projects it funds. This is a big deal for Swedish researchers relying on these funds: The status of a researcher is determined by the prestige of the journals in which they publish (and how…
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A license agnostic ACM digital library?
Most authors transfer their copyright to the ACM when having their papers published and archived in the ACM Digital Library. While the ACM allows authors to provide their papers on personal servers for non-commercial purposes, the goal recognizably is to make the DL not only the primary source of such material, but also the only…