This contrast was even starker, with a difference of more than 21%, when the team focused only on research papers published in the most prestigious journals. Crucially, after taking into account a host of factors including gender, research published in prestigious medical journals was referenced in 13% more subsequent studies if it featured at least one glowing term. The team then searched these for 25 positive words, such as “robust”, “novel”, “remarkable” and “promising”. Further analysis revealed that the finding was driven by differences in language among papers published in the most prestigious journals. For both fields, the team found positive words were associated with a higher rate of subsequent citations.

Source: The Guardian December 16, 2019 23:26 UTC