About/FAQ

Welcome to the Proceedings of the Natural Institute of Science (PNIS)! PNIS is a part-serious, part-satirical journal publishing science-related articles. There are several types of PNIS articles: SOFD, HARD, Editorial, Special Papers, and SCI-NEWS. Please read our editorial for much more information on PNIS and the motivations behind its formation.

Which type is serious?

HARD (Honest And Reliable Data) is the serious PNIS sub-journal. Papers published in HARD use actual data that were collected in some way by the authors (for example, data collected from an Internet resource (and properly cited, of course), or data from an experiment conducted by the authors).

Which types are satirical?

SOFD (Satirical Or Fake Data) is the satirical PNIS sub-journal. Papers published in SOFD use data that are fabricated by the authors for some purpose (for example, fake data from a fake experiment).

SCI-NEWS (Scientific, Concise & Interesting News Entries With Satire) is where we publish satirical news items related to science and academia. These are the only types of articles in which we don't publish an accompanying .pdf file.

What are Editorials and Special Papers, then?

PNIS-Editorial is a special PNIS sub-journal that publishes papers that generally do not have any associated experiments (real or fake) or hypotheses (real or fake). Mostly, their content is about science itself (and science-writing in particular). However, we suspect that PNIS-Editorial will be used to house papers that don’t fit in either HARD or SOFD.

Just like real Editorials in newspapers, blogs, magazines or TV, articles in PNIS-Editorial may or may not contain actual facts that may or may not have been fact-checked.

Special Papers cover anything that isn't an article in any way. It's just something special we put together. Which is why we call it a special paper.

Please also note that the use of data (real or fake) is not required for a paper to be published in any of the PNIS family of journals.

What is the purpose of PNIS?

While we don’t have an official mission statement or set of goals, the main purpose of PNIS is to promote the understanding of science through improved communication with the general public. We feel (and we are not alone in this) that science has a problem with effective communication. We believe that part of this problem stems from the view that science is an exclusive club that only a few can participate (and, thus, lacks transparency) and that current scientific studies are beyond the understanding of most people.

To change this view, PNIS uses satire, humor and its open publication policy to demonstrate that: 1) people use scientific concepts (most especially the scientific method) every day, frequently without even realizing it, 2) scientific discoveries are not limited to scientists (much like how playing sports is not limited to professional athletes), 3) most scientific concepts are easy to understand and 4) scientists are all too willing to laugh at themselves.

What do you mean by “open publication policy”?

Most scientific journals will only publish papers authored by professional scientists. At PNIS, we will publish papers by anybody, including you.

So, anybody can write an article for PNIS?

Yes, you do not have to be affiliated with a university or organization.

Is there a fee for submitting an article?

No, there are no fees for submitting an article. There are also no publication fees if your paper gets accepted for publication.

Who retains the copyright of published articles?

The authors retain copyright of their articles.

Are all articles open-access?

Yes, all PNIS articles are open-access. Open-access means that you don’t have to pay or be a member to read our articles.

Can I reprint any article?

Yes, you are free to reprint any PNIS articles.

Is there a print edition of PNIS?

No, as of now, there are no plans to produce a print edition of PNIS. We are currently online-only.

How often will PNIS publish papers?

Like most open-access journals, we will not publish using the Volume-Issue format. Papers will be published as soon as they're ready for publication. We expect to publish at least a couple papers per month.

SCI-NEWS articles will be published once a week on Mondays or Tuesdays (until the Great Coffee Shortage of 2018. You've been warned).

Why are the article webpages not fully formatted?

For several reasons, but mostly because we want you to download the .pdf version of the article. We work very hard on making these pdf’s, and we view them as the final PNIS “product”. Plus, did you know that a .pdf is a low-energy activity, whatever that means?

Is PNIS peer-reviewed?

No, PNIS is not a peer-reviewed publication.

Are you affiliated with the Natural Institute of Science?

No, we are not affiliated with any of the actual Natural Institutes of Sciences that currently exist.

How can I support PNIS?

As stated above, it is free to submit articles to PNIS and free to read articles on PNIS. However, if you feel that the services we provide deserve some sort of compensation, you may purchase a "subscription" via the PayPal link below. This "subscription" is set up as a one-time payment (i.e., there is no billing cycle), and you can pay any amount at any time you wish. We'll just call this the Panera Publishing Model.

Please note that PNIS is neither a charitable organization nor a non-profit, and we are certainly not qualified to receive deductible contributions.

How can I contact you?

Our email address is: