Top journal "Science" says more than 2,600 of its papers may have ‘exaggerated claims’

A top international science journal funded by the federal government recently acknowledged that thousands of its published research papers may contain misleading language.

More than 2,600 of the papers from "Science," the peer-reviewed academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and one of the world's top academic journals, were examined in depth by another research journal, "Scientometrics." It found in a study that from 1997 to 2021, the use of "hedging" words have fallen by about 40%. 

The study’s co-author and Nanjing University linguist Ying Wei said this revelation ought to be concerning because "essentially, the nature of academic knowledge is indeterminate."

In academic writing, "hedging" means using cautious language (i.e., "could" or "appear to") to avoid sounding overconfident and giving readers a misleading conclusion.

In 1997, there were about 115.8 hedging examples per 10,000 words. But by 2021, there were only 67.42 for the same amount.