[andrelaszlo]

I just noticed a pattern in a few comments. Does it have a name? It would be useful as a shorthand to point out this behavior in "discussions". If not, maybe "reference flooding" is a good way to describe it?

These comments make a claim, then link to a paper that seems related to it. Sometimes the only thing in common is the title of the paper. Not sure if it's in good faith and these people have trouble understanding what they read, or a strategy intended to convince people who don't have the time to read the paper that they have science on their side. It also puts a heavy burden on an honest participant in the discussion, since their intellectual bandwidth will be flooded by semi-relevant papers.

This only works if the reference is vague enough. Like the title of a paper without a quote or even page number, or "just Google X".[1]

1: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3980010/pdf/nihm...