Academic standards are not falling (despite what students might think!)

(You can tell it's marking season...) At least one student obviously thinks that academic standards are falling and that his standard of work can drop too, so he's handed-in an essay that includes a reference to that well-known peer-reviewed journal Nuts! Now writing funny comments in written work can be funny (within reason) but your reference list says a lot about how you researched your work ... we think it's taking honesty a bit to far to admit that whilst doing your work you were reading a tabloid men's magazine and that you thought that some of the content was of such obvious scientific value you just had to reference it! Probaby not "dumbass of the week" material (see the previous post!) but it's in the top 10 for this week :-)