Marketing data: has the rise of impact factor led to the fall of objective language in the scientific article?

Abstract

The language of science should be objective and detached and should place data in the appropriate context. The aim of this commentary was to explore the notion that recent trends in the use of language have led to a loss of objectivity in the presentation of scientific data. The relationship between the value-laden vocabulary and impact factor among fundamental biomedical research and clinical journals has been explored. It appears that fundamental research journals of high impact factors have experienced a rise in value-laden terms in the past 25 years.

Figure 1

Increase in biased words in the last twenty years. The data are normalized by dividing the total word score obtained for an article for biased words by the total number of words contained in the same article The median, 25th, 75th, percentiles are shown. Statistical significance was assessed by Student T-test and corrected for multiple comparisons.

Figure 2

Content of biased words in low versus high impact journals. The data are normalized by dividing the total word score obtained for an article by the total number of words contained in that same article. The median, 25th, 75th, percentiles are shown. The data show that there was a significant increase in the use of highly biased words over the past 20 years in high impact journals but not in low impact journals. Statistical significance was assessed by Student T-test and corrected for multiple comparisons.

Figure 3

Content of biased words in fundamental versus clinical research journals. The data are normalized by dividing the total word score obtained for an article by the total number of words contained in that same article. The median, 25th, 75th, percentiles are shown. The data show that there was a significant increase in the use of biased words over the past 20 years in the fundamental science journals but not in clinical science journals Statistical significance was assessed by Student T-test and corrected for multiple comparisons.