3 ms·

I've known a couple academics who argued to me that this problem is systemic, rather than something that can be blamed on indiviual authors. A friend of a frien

I've known a couple academics who argued to me that this problem is systemic, rather than something that can be blamed on indiviual authors. A friend of a friend submitted a biology paper that she tried to make as jargon-free as possible, and it was rejected on the grounds that she hadn't shown a familiarity with the field. She edited it to include the dense jargon she had originally avoided, and the article was accepted (though I'm not sure if the acceptance was from the original journal or a different one).

TeMPOraL 7y ago
It definitely seems systemic. Scientific papers have a pretty distinct style. "Familiarity with the field" is something rather hard to check when reviewing the paper, but one of the easiest proxy for it is whether your paper sounds like every other paper. The expected side effect of immersing yourself in a field is that you pick up its style.