The 5 Briefest Scientific Articles Ever Published
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The perception that scientific articles must be lengthy is widespread among researchers. However, the true measure of a research paper is not its length but the significance of its content per word. In essence, being concise yet impactful is the key. This article highlights the five shortest scientific papers ever published, ranked by the length of their body text, excluding titles.
An Empty Psychology Article: Writer’s Block!
The briefest article in scientific history is titled “The Failure of Self-Treatment of a Case of Writer’s Block” and was published in 1974 by Dennis Upper, a clinical psychologist, in The Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. This journal holds the 54th position among applied psychology publications, according to the Decimago Journal Rank. Remarkably, this article contains no text in its body, apart from the title and a humorous footnote. Indeed, this publication is a unique example of a paper with zero words!
The only clue to understanding this article lies in its title, which addresses “writer's block,” a term describing the inability of a writer to produce text due to various cognitive barriers. This condition can afflict both fiction and non-fiction writers alike. The term “writer's block” was coined by American psychoanalyst Edmund Bergler in the 1940s and has since gained popularity.
Do such instances genuinely occur? Stephen King, a renowned author, states, “There may be weeks or months when it doesn’t come at all; this is called writer’s block.” Similarly, Gabriel Garcia Marquez articulates the struggle: “Neither lacking nor excess, it is the absolute remedy for the most terrible ghost of writers: the agony of facing the blank page in the morning.”
Furthermore, Robert Rodriguez, a Mexican-American filmmaker, reflects, “You don’t want to face the blank page. You would do anything not to write.” These perspectives suggest that writer's block is indeed a real phenomenon, even if not universally experienced. Upper's article humorously posits that the solution to writer's block might be as simple as staring at a blank page, leading to a publication devoid of words.
An Empty Chemistry Article
The second article is titled “A Comprehensive Overview of Chemical-Free Consumer Products,” authored by chemists Alexander F. G. Goldberg and CJ Chemjobber. It appeared in the journal Nature Chemistry in 2014 and was later featured in the Wiley Online Library in 2016. This journal ranks 5th among chemistry publications according to the Decimago Journal Rank. Like the previous article, it contains no words apart from the title, references, and summary.
In their cover letter, the authors clarify their objective: “We have conducted a thorough investigation of products marketed as ‘chemical-free’ and prepared a detailed analysis of such items. Our findings suggest that the term ‘chemical-free’ is misleading and unscientific.”
The editor of Nature Chemistry humorously remarked that publishing this article posed a dilemma, as doing so would require the use of chemicals to print a paper claiming to be chemical-free. Ultimately, the article was published on their blog in the proper format, highlighting the deceptive nature of “chemical-free” labeling and its prevalence in marketing.
Article With Just Two Words and Two Figures
The third entry, titled “Can Equilateral Triangles with n²+1 Units Cover an Equilateral Triangle Whose Side is n+? Units?” was published in 2005 by mathematicians John Conway and Alexander Soifer in The American Mathematical Monthly, ranked 51st in mathematics. This piece consists solely of two words and two figures, excluding the title and references.
The authors intentionally crafted this brief paper, often deemed the “shortest mathematical paper.” After initial resistance from the journal due to its brevity, the authors argued that their work was significant enough to warrant publication, emphasizing that the essence of their inquiry could not be expanded without losing its core intent.
The title hints at a mathematical challenge: determining how many unit equilateral triangles are necessary to cover a larger equilateral triangle. The article’s brevity does not detract from its complexity, as it proposes the intriguing question without providing a definitive answer.
Physics Article with Only Two Sentences
The fourth article, titled “The Ratio of Proton and Electron Masses,” was published in 1951 by physicist Friedrich Lenz in the American Physical Society journal. This society is the second-largest physics organization globally, with several affiliated journals. The article is notable for containing merely two sentences and 27 words, not including references or the title.
The significance of the proton-electron mass ratio is paramount in physics, as it serves as a fundamental constant. The article succinctly states: “The current most precise value for the ratio of proton to electron mass is 1836.12±0.05.” This brief yet impactful statement underscores the critical importance of this measurement in understanding the universe.
Math Paper with Only Two Sentences
Finally, the fifth article, titled “A Counterexample to Euler’s Conjecture on the Sum of Similar Forces,” was published in the Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society in 1967 by Lander and Parkin. Despite its publication in a prestigious journal, the work comprises only two sentences, excluding title and references.
Euler's conjecture posited that any power could be expressed as the sum of at least as many numbers raised to that power. The authors refuted this claim in just two sentences, providing a counterexample that demonstrated a fifth power could equal the sum of the fifth powers of fewer than five numbers.
Thus, these five articles illustrate that brevity in scientific writing does not equate to a lack of substance. Instead, they challenge conventional notions of academic writing and demonstrate that impactful research can be communicated with remarkable conciseness.
References
- Upper. (1974). The Unsuccessful Self-Treatment Of A Case Of “Writer’s Block”. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, p. 497. doi: 10.1901/jaba.1974.7–497a.
- Goldberg, et al. (2016). Chemiefreie Haushaltsprodukte. Chemie in unserer Zeit, pp. 144–145. doi: 10.1002/ciuz.201600750.
- NIST. Codata Value: Proton-Electron Mass Ratio. Accessed: 29 December 2021.
- Journal Rankings on Applied Psychology. Accessed: 19 December 2021.
- Nordquist. What Is Writer’s Block (And How Do You Overcome It)?. Accessed: 19 December 2021.
- Marshall. Read The Shortest Academic Article Ever Written: “The Unsuccessful Self-Treatment Of A Case Of ‘Writer’s Block’. Accessed: 19 December 2021.
- Marquez. Gabriel Garcia Marquez Meets Ernest Hemingway. Accessed: 19 December 2021.
- Fermat’s Library. Can N² + 1 Unit Equilateral Triangles Cover An Equilateral Triangle Of Side > N, Say N + ??. Accessed: 19 December 2021.
- Soifer. Building A Bridge III: From Problems Of Mathematical Olympiads To Open Problems Of Mathematics. Accessed: 19 December 2021.
- Lenz. (1951). The Ratio Of Proton And Electron Masses. Physical Review, pp. 554–554. doi: 10.1103/PhysRev.82.554.2.
- History. The Shortest Scientific Papers Ever Published — Cantor’s Paradise. (16 December 2021). Accessed: 21 December 2021.
- Community. A Chemical-Free Paper. (26 June 2014). Accessed: 22 December 2021.
- Open Culture. The World Record For The Shortest Math Article: 2 Words. Accessed: 23 December 2021.
- JSTOR. Surprises In Numerical Expressions Of Physical Constants. Accessed: 23 December 2021.
- Moskowitz. Phew! Universe’s Constant Has Stayed Constant. (13 December 2012). Accessed: 23 December 2021.
- Scimago Journal & Country Rank. Accessed: 23 December 2021.
- YouTube. The Shortest Ever Papers. Accessed: 23 December 2021.
- Weisstein. Euler’s Sum Of Powers Conjecture. Accessed: 29 December 2021.