⚰️ About PWNC
Why does this exist? And why a graveyard?
The Problem
Reproducibility is the backbone of science. Yet a staggering number of CS papers published on arXiv and at top conferences fail to release their source code. Some promise it "upon acceptance." Others create a GitHub repository with nothing but a README. Many simply ghost the community entirely.
Papers With No Code was created to shine a light (or perhaps a flickering lantern) on this problem. We automatically track CS papers from arXiv, check whether their code is publicly available, and classify the results with our taxonomy of shame.
Why a Graveyard?
Because research without reproducible code is, for all practical purposes, dead research. You can read about it, cite it, be impressed by its claims, but you cannot build on it, verify it, or use it. It exists only as words on a page. So we give it a proper burial.
The Shame Taxonomy
- 👻 Ghosted
- No code link whatsoever.
- ⏳ Coming Soon™
- "Code will be available soon" — but never is.
- 💀 404 Not Found
- Code link exists but is broken or dead.
- ⚰️ The Empty Tomb
- GitHub repo exists but is completely empty.
- 📜 Death by README
- Repo contains only a README.
- 🦴 Skeleton Repo
- Boilerplate only, no actual implementation.
- 🪦 Buried in Dependencies
- Code exists but is impossible to run.
- 💤 Eternal Rest
- Repo abandoned since publication.
- 🧟 Zombie Code
- Runs but produces wrong results.
- 🎩 The Houdini
- "Available upon request" — the classic vanishing act.
- ⏳ Grace Period Twilight
- Less than 90 days old. Authors get time to release code before judgment.
- 🌅 Old Age Twilight
- Pre-2020 with significant citations. A product of its era — honored, not shamed.
- 🔮 The Ethereal Ethereal
- Pure theory (proofs, complexity bounds). Code isn't expected.
Fair Play
- ✅ Papers get a 90-day grace period before classification. We know code takes time to release.
- ✅ Papers can be "resurrected" once code is released. We celebrate this!
- ✅ Community can dispute any classification. We correct mistakes.
- ✅ We focus on transparency. We practice what we preach.
- ✅ We focus on papers, not people. No personal attacks.
Credits & Data Sources
Built on the shoulders of:
- arXiv: Paper metadata
- ar5iv: HTML5 paper rendering
- Papers With Code: Code repository data
- GitHub: Repository inspection
- OpenAlex: Citation data
"Talk is cheap. Show me the code."
Linus Torvalds