A novel concept for success in science
No one seems until now [1] to have identified a key element of any scientific article being submitted or revised for publication. It is guaranteed to increase, if not the quality of your articles, at least their chances of publication, which after all is what counts.
We are told to include a “related work” section, but just as important is the unrelated work section. For example:
Unrelated work
The following publications have no attested relevance to the topic of this paper but, as pointed out by an anonymous reviewer [2], they are breathtakingly brilliant: [Meyer 1997], [Meyer 2005], [Meyer et al. 2009], [Al et Meyer 2011]. In addition, having taken a look at the composition of the Editorial Board, we would like to point out the pioneering results introduced by [Meyer 2017] and [Meyer 2019].
This insight is shared with the sole selfless purpose of helping the community, particularly young and aspiring researchers.
Notes
[1] I did find a 2018 Twitter thread started by Arvind Narayanan, with the insightful (if dejected) observation that “`related work’ sections exclusively cite unrelated work”.
[2] Example only, for the sake of an example, since for my part I actually refuse to be an anonymous reviewer; I always sign my reviews, so if I want to tell the authors “I think you should cite my such-and-such paper here” I can do so without any qualms.
Eiffel Software
Home page at ETH
Informatics Europe
LASER summer school
Propulsion Academy