Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Friday August 14 2020, @10:59PM   Printer-friendly
from the IDK-AMIIC dept.

WTF, when will scientists learn to use fewer acronyms?:

Have you heard of DNA? It stands for Do Not Abbreviate apparently. Jokes aside, it's the most widely used acronym in scientific literature in the past 70 years, appearing more than 2.4 million times.

The short form of deoxyribonucleic acid is widely understood, but there are millions more acronyms (like WTF: water-soluble thiourea-formaldehyde) that are making science less useful and more complex for society, according to a new paper released by Australian researchers.

Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Professor Adrian Barnett and Dr. Zoe Doubleday from the University of South Australia (UniSA) have analyzed 24 million scientific article titles and 18 million abstracts between 1950 and 2019, looking for trends in acronym use.

[...] "For example, the acronym UA has 18 different meanings in medicine, and six of the 20 most widely used acronyms have multiple common meanings in health and medical literature," according to Dr. Zoe Doubleday.

Journal Reference:
Adrian Barnett, Zoe Doubleday. Meta-Research: The growth of acronyms in the scientific literature, (DOI: 10.7554/eLife.60080)

Are scientific papers meant to communicate to a lay audience, or to other scientists?


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Funny) by ilsa on Saturday August 15 2020, @12:35AM (4 children)

    by ilsa (6082) Subscriber Badge on Saturday August 15 2020, @12:35AM (#1036853)

    I say we report them to the AAAAA. American Association Against Acronym Abuse.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Funny=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Funny' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   3  
  • (Score: 2) by acid andy on Saturday August 15 2020, @01:23AM

    by acid andy (1683) on Saturday August 15 2020, @01:23AM (#1036867) Homepage Journal

    Cut them some slack, will ya? They've been trying hard to quit. They show up to regular AAA meetings. That's Acronym Abusers Anonymous.

    --
    If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
  • (Score: 3, Funny) by aristarchus on Saturday August 15 2020, @01:43AM

    by aristarchus (2645) on Saturday August 15 2020, @01:43AM (#1036878) Journal

    The Anatolian Association, referenced above, is prior art. The Australian Association Against the Abuse of Anything, is posterior art, as most things Australian. Earliest, however, was the Alexandrian School's "Alexandrian Anti-Acronym Abuse Affiliation" headed by Eratosthenes and Euclid.

  • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Saturday August 15 2020, @11:41AM (1 child)

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Saturday August 15 2020, @11:41AM (#1037037) Journal

    That's popularly pronounced, "Ahhhhhhhh," which Fluffy teaches us is the Mexican sound of derision.

    --
    Washington DC delenda est.
    • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Sunday August 16 2020, @09:15PM

      by aristarchus (2645) on Sunday August 16 2020, @09:15PM (#1037610) Journal

      You are thinking of the Castle of AAAAAAAAAaaarh, the final resting place of the Most Holy Grail. Carved into the living rock, by Joseph of Arimathea, as he died.