RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 The readability of scientific texts is decreasing over time
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 119370
DO 10.1101/119370
A1 Pontus Plavén-Sigray
A1 Granville James Matheson
A1 Björn Christian Schiffler
A1 William Hedley Thompson
YR 2017
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/03/28/119370.abstract
AB Clarity and accuracy of reporting are fundamental to the scientific process. The understandability of written language can be estimated using readability formulae. Here, in a corpus consisting of 707 452 scientific abstracts published between 1881 and 2015 from 122 influential biomedical journals, we show that the readability of science is steadily decreasing. Further, we demonstrate that this trend is indicative of a growing usage of general scientific jargon. These results are concerning for scientists and for the wider public, as they impact both the reproducibility and accessibility of research findings.