Positive Words on the rise in Science

Post date: Dec 21, 2015 12:21:45 PM

An commentary in Nature suggests that scientists are tending to use more positive words in describing their research. That's not too surprising, especially given the personal advice I have received (ex. If you want the reviewer to recognize it as new, you should use the word "innovative"). Now I don't necessarily agree that using these kinds of words gives your work a higher impact or provides a better impression, but that is besides the point. To me, the most interesting aspect of this article is their list of negative words used as a sort of control: pessimistic, disappointing, hopeless, detrimental, disturbing, frustrating, useless, etc. - I honestly don't believe I have ever used any of these words in a paper, especially not the title or abstract.

Addendum: Another figure in the original article shows a breakdown of usage by word. Apparently the use of "prominent" rose until the 1990s at which point it plateaued and the work "groundbreaking" exploded. Here's the actual article on BMJ.