Day: September 6, 2016

As a follow-up to the previous post with the shortest peer-reviewed, published paper – this is the shortest published abstract!

The unsuccessful self-treatment of a case of “writer’s block” is a humorous academic article by psychologist Dennis Upper about writer’s block. It contains no content outside title and journal formatting elements, including a humorous footnote. Published in 1974 in a peer reviewed journal, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, it is recognized as the shortest academic article ever and a classic example of humour in science. The article has led to at least three similarly humorous and peer-reviewed, published replication studies.