Research Papers Used to Have Style. What Happened?

A Brief History of Scientific Writing

The advocates of the new science in the seventeenth century so reacted against the excesses of stylistic artistry that a reluctance to use any artistry at all seems to have prevailed ever since. — Whitburn et al., 1978 Since the founding of the first scientific journal in 1665, there have been calls to do away with stylistic elements in favor of clarity, concision, and precision. In 1667, Thomas Sprat urged members of the Royal Society to “reject all the amplifications, digressions, and swellings of style; to return back to the primitive purity, and shortness, when men delivered so many…

saved by

• Shubham Shah
• Madison Ueland

related reading

• Research papers used to have style. What happened?secretorum.life
• The rise and fall of peer review - by Adam Mastroianniexperimentalhistory.substack.com
• A Brief History of Lab Notebookspress.asimov.com
• A Brief History of Lab Notebooksasimov.press
• An invitation to a secret society - by Adam Mastroianniexperimental-history.com
• Real peer review has never been tried - Works in Progress Magazineworksinprogress.co
• When do ideas get easier to find?freaktakes.substack.com
• Is Science Stagnant? - The Atlantictheatlantic.com
• Rethinking High-School Science Fairs—Asteriskasteriskmag.com
• The rise and fall of peer reviewexperimental-history.com
• Which Kind of Science Reformelevanth.org
• The triumph of logical English - Works in Progress Magazineworksinprogress.co