Many a researcher will surely have thought about testing their loved ones as to whether or not they really did read their work – but one statistician from China appears to have gone a step further by leaving a romantic��message to his partner.

In his����“Performance analysis for minimally nonlinear irreversible refrigerators at finite cooling power”, published in��Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications��in April this year, Rui Long, a PhD student in engineering at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, left a subtly placed marriage proposal to his partner Panpan Mao.

Alongside an acknowledgement of funding support received for the research, the paper states: “Rui Long wants to thank, in particular, the patience, care and support from Panpan Mao over the passed years. Will you marry me?”

Highlighting the proposal on��, Jess Wade, a postdoctoral researcher at Imperial��College London, said: “Romance is not dead, it’s just behind a paywall”.

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Romance is not dead, it’s just behind a paywall.��

— Dr Jess Wade‍ (@jesswade)

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Mr Long is not the first to use academic publishing as a medium for popping the question.����by Caleb Brown and Donald Henderson in 2015 includes a similar line hidden among details of a newly discovered horned dinosaur.

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In “A new horned dinosaur reveals convergent evolution in cranial ornamentation in certopsidae”, the acknowledgements read: “CMB would specifically like to highlight the ongoing and unwavering support of Lorna O’Brien. Lorna, will you marry me?” (She said yes).

Times Higher Education��has contacted Mr Long for comment, but it remains unclear whether he was successful in his proposal. “Here’s to Mao’s response getting through peer review,” noted Dr Wade.

rachael.pells@timeshighereducation.com

Update, 15 January: Mr Long has been in touch to confirm it was a positive result. "Panpan said yes!"