Submission Guide

WORK IN PROGRESS. THIS DRAFT IS FOR PREVIEW ONLY.

Journal Theme

In Search of the Most Serious Absurdity and the Most Honest Fiction

FAKE is now officially accepting submissions from scholars, researchers, and academic enthusiasts worldwide!

We are dedicated to establishing a premier satirical journal characterized by an "impeccably formal exterior, utterly absurd content, and crystal-clear ethical boundaries." Here, we wrap the most preposterous academic conclusions in a highly rigorous scholarly facade to deconstruct and satirize the various dysfunctions of contemporary academia.

Our Mission:

A journal for fictional discoveries that reveal real problems.

Core Principles:

Prestigious form. Absurd content. Honest disclaimer.

How to Submit Manuscript

Preparation Stage

Use the Article Starter Kit to organize files and directories.

When you are ready, put necessary files into a ZIP archive, and send it to editors in your favorite method. Make sure to exclude files that are not directly shown to readers, e.g. raw data files and training sets.

Method 1: Email

You may send the ZIP archive as email attachment to submission (at) fakejournal.org.

Method 2: Form Upload

Use this form to upload your ZIP archive.

Method 3: GitHub Issue

You may create an issue and upload the ZIP archive there.

The Boring Legalese

See Manuscript Submission Terms for full legal terms.

Submission Red Lines & Ethical Boundaries

Before you begin writing, you must familiarize yourself with and adhere to FAKE’s ironclad rules:

Strictly Prohibited: Tutorials on Actual Academic Misconduct
We do not accept manuscripts that teach readers how to evade institutional oversight or manipulate data in real life. We only satirize the underlying logic of academic fraud.

Anticipated Submission Types & Examples

To help authors better align with our editorial direction, we have outlined the five permanent pillar columns of FAKE, along with a series of illustrative topics for reference:

Research Articles

• Column Overview: The main course of the journal. Submissions must fully adhere to the formal structure of top-tier journals like Nature or Science (Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion). They should employ an incredibly serious, sophisticated academic tone and argumentation to derive an entirely preposterous conclusion.
• Anticipated Directions:
  • Article / Letter: Full-length or short, high-concept papers featuring mock discoveries.
  • Synthetic Data Experiments: Specifically designed to satirize data manipulation and statistical misuse (e.g., p-hacking, selective exclusion of outliers). Note: Editors may append a notice stating, "All data in this article is synthetic and intended to satirize common statistical misuses; it does not constitute actionable data-processing advice."
• Sample Topics:
  • Achieving Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) Through Model Renaming — Conclusion: When a model's name includes "Omni-Ultra-Reasoning," its performance exhibits a statistically significant, cliff-like surge.
  • The Existence of Dragons Reaches Statistical Significance Following Selective Outlier Exclusion (A satire on data manipulation).
  • CRISPR-Based Graduate Student Personality Editing — Conclusion: Upon deleting the procrastination gene, subjects spontaneously begin drafting the Introduction section of their manuscripts.

News & Comment

• Column Overview: Shorter, opinion-driven pieces focusing on current academic hot topics. This column is ideal for articulating the absurdities of academia using an impeccably straight-faced journalistic tone, offering high potential for viral sharing.
• Anticipated Directions: Editorial, News Briefing, Correspondence, Retraction Watch Theatre.
• Sample Topics:
  • News Briefing: New Study Shows Significant Correlation Between Reviewer 2’s Comments and Lunar Phases
  • Retraction Watch Theatre: Pre-Retraction Science: This Paper Has Not Yet Been Retracted, But the Authors Remain Optimistic
  • Correspondence: Author Response: We Did Not Exaggerate the Statistical Significance of the Tyrannosaurus Rex

Reviews & Analysis

• Column Overview: Geared toward authors with deeper domain expertise who can systematically deconstruct academic culture or map out a hypothetical field of study.
• Anticipated Directions: Review Article (systematically mapping out a non-existent field), Perspective (insightful critiques of dysfunctional academic cultures), Analysis (satirical analysis of academic anomalies using public data).
• Sample Topics:
  • A Review of Quantum Necromancy: From Entangled Emotions to Non-Local Peer Review
  • The "Mechanism Hero Diagram" Culture in Modern Experimental Sciences
  • How Beautiful Figures Outlive Unbeautiful Data

Peer Review Theatre

• Column Overview: The column with the highest viral potential. We warmly invite submissions that share, adapt, or invent peer review comments and author rebuttals that are either infuriating or hilarious.
• Anticipated Directions: Reviewer 2 Reports (creative writing inspired by Reviewer 2), Author Response (mock author rebuttals), Editorial Decision (mock editorial decision letters).
• Sample Topics:
  • Reviewer Comment: "Reviewer #2: This manuscript holds potential significance, but the authors should replicate all experiments in a parallel universe."
  • Reviewer Comment: "We suggest the authors replicate this experiment in a larger mammal, preferably a blue whale."

Archives & Awards

• Column Overview: The journal's annual entertainment and awards section, open to nominations or parodic submissions.
• Anticipated Directions: Best Figure Manipulation, Most Elegant Null Result Disappearance, and the Lifetime Achievement Award for Unverifiability.

Special Call for Papers: Inaugural Issue Themes

If your creative concepts align with any of the following five special issues for our inaugural edition, please indicate so upon submission:

• Special Issue I: Evidence for Evidence
  Dedicated to papers that prove no substantive conclusions but exhaust every effort to demonstrate that "there appear to be indications," satirizing over-interpretation.
  Example: Sign of a Sign of Life on Mars: Indirect Evidence for a Possible Feature of a Potential Mechanism
• Special Issue II: Beautiful Figures, Fragile Data
  Targeting "figure aesthetics literature," including mechanistic diagrams, stitched micrographs, and overly smoothed data plots.
  Example: A Unified Mechanism Model Diagram Capable of Explaining Everything Except the Data
• Special Issue III: The Reviewer 2 Collection
  A dedicated compilation of the most absurd, pedantic, and impossible peer-review feedback.
• Special Issue IV: Synthetic Proofs of Impossible Claims
  Example: Weakly Significant Evidence for the Immortality Hypothesis in a Cohort of Highly Proactive Mice
• Special Issue V: Retraction-Ready Science
  Articles published complete with their own pre-packaged mock institutional investigations or mock retraction notices.