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The Unsuccessful Self-Treatment of a Case of "Writer's Block"

"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 except for a title, journal formatting elements, and 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[1] and a classic example of humor in science,[2] or at the very least among behavioral psychologists.[3] It has been cited more than 100 times.[4]

The article received a humorous positive review which was published alongside the article.[1]

I have studied this manuscript very carefully with lemon juice and X-rays and have not detected a single flaw in either design or writing style. I suggest it be published without revision. Clearly, it is the most concise manuscript I have ever seen – yet it contains sufficient detail to allow other investigators to replicate Dr. Upper's failure. In comparison with the other manuscripts I get from you containing all that complicated detail, this one was a pleasure to examine. Surely we can find a place for this paper in the Journal – perhaps on the edge of a blank page.

The article has led to at least five similarly humorous and peer-reviewed, published replication studies,[5][6][7][8][9] and several similar papers[10][11][12][13] and scholarly articles.[14]

More seriously, the paper is said to be a case reinforcing the image of a writer's block as a "blank page",[15] and encouraging brevity in writing.[16] It has been also used as an example that humor can indeed be found in academic publishing.[17]

References

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  1. ^ a b "The Shortest Science Paper Ever Published Had No Words, and Was Utterly Brilliant". RealClearScience. Retrieved October 6, 2014.
  2. ^ "Humor in Science (Episode 1: Writer's Block)". arno simons. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved October 6, 2014.
  3. ^ Bassett, John E. (2010). "Perspectives in Behavior Therapy (Book)". Journal of Personality Assessment. 43 (1): 105. doi:10.1207/s15327752jpa4301_20.
  4. ^ "Google Scholar". scholar.google.com.
  5. ^ Molloy, Geoffery N. (1983). "The Unsuccessful Self-treatment of a Case of 'writer's Block': a Replication". Perceptual and Motor Skills. 57 (2): 566. doi:10.2466/pms.1983.57.2.566. S2CID 144342829.
  6. ^ Didden, Robert; Sigafoos, Jeff; O'Reilly, Mark F; Lancioni, Giulio E; Sturmey, Peter; LeBlanc, Linda (2007). "A Multisite Cross-Cultural Replication of Upper's (1974) Unsuccessful Self-Treatment of Writer's Block". Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. 40 (4): 773. doi:10.1901/jaba.2007.773. PMC 2078566.
  7. ^ Hermann, Bruce P. (2016). "Unsuccessful Self-treatment of a Case of 'writer's Block': a Partial Failure to Replicate". Perceptual and Motor Skills. 58 (2): 350. doi:10.2466/pms.1984.58.2.350. S2CID 147400784.
  8. ^ Artino, Anthony R. (2016). "The unsuccessful treatment of a case of 'Writer's Block': a replication in medical education". Medical Education. 50 (12): 1262–1263. doi:10.1111/medu.13003. PMID 27873416.
  9. ^ Ampatzidis, Georgios (November 24, 2021). "The Unsuccessful Self-treatment of a Case of 'Writer's Block': A Replication in Science Education". Journal of Trial and Error. 2: 60–61. doi:10.36850/e7. S2CID 244567338.
  10. ^ Mclean, Derrick C.; Thomas, Benjamin R. (2014). "Unsuccessful Treatments of 'writer's Block': a Meta-analysis". Psychological Reports. 115 (1): 276–278. doi:10.2466/28.PR0.115c12z0. PMID 25153962. S2CID 20344712.
  11. ^ Skinner, Nicholas F.; Perline, Arthur H. (2016). "The Unsuccessful Group Treatment of 'writer's Block': a Ten-year Follow-up". Perceptual and Motor Skills. 82 (1): 138. doi:10.2466/pms.1996.82.1.138. S2CID 145153409.
  12. ^ Skinner, Nicholas F.; Perlini, Arthur H.; Fric, awrence; Werstine, E. Paul; Calla, James (2016). "The Unsuccessful Group-treatment of 'writer's Block'". Perceptual and Motor Skills. 61 (1): 298. doi:10.2466/pms.1985.61.1.298. S2CID 147453593.
  13. ^ Olsen, Kenneth R. (2016). "Unsuccessful Self-treatment of 'writer's Block': a Review of the Literature". Perceptual and Motor Skills. 59 (1): 158. doi:10.2466/pms.1984.59.1.158. S2CID 144430449.
  14. ^ Jensen, Erik M. (February 11, 2000). "The Shortest Article in Law Review History". Journal of Legal Education. 50: 156.
  15. ^ Carter, Geoffrey Vincent (2007). Rereading and Rewriting Bloc/ks: Teaching Multi-modal Literacies Through an Apprenticeship in Proper Names. p. 3. ISBN 978-0549303558.
  16. ^ Glasser, Stephen P. (2014). Essentials of Clinical Research. Springer. pp. 415–416. ISBN 978-3319054704.
  17. ^ Fry, William F.; Waleed A. Salameh (1987). Handbook of humor and psychotherapy: advances in the clinical use of humor. Professional Resource Exchange. p. 150. ISBN 978-0943158198.
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