The rising hype in science (Nature story)

[Simon]

Perhaps no surprise:
‘Novel, amazing, innovative’: positive words on the rise in science papers : Nature News & Comment

Researchers at the University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands say that the frequency of positive-sounding words such as ‘novel’, ‘amazing’, ‘innovative’ and ‘unprecedented’ has increased almost nine-fold in the titles and abstracts of papers published between 1974 and 2014. There has also been a smaller — yet still statistically significant — rise in the frequency of negative words, such as ‘disappointing’ and ‘pessimistic’.

Original article
Use of positive and negative words in scientific PubMed abstracts between 1974 and 2014: retrospective analysis | The BMJ

 

[helen1]

What happened around 1974 in the medical world that would cause such an abrupt rise in what appears to be over enthusiastic vocabulary? Is there a link to the economics of pharma I wonder.

 

[MeSci]

Oh dear. Shouldn't scientific papers stick to neutral words?