Do male scientists use more positive language than females?

German and American researchers have made an interesting discovery that could go some way to explaining why women suffer from inequality in the highly competitive field of scientific research…

There’s no denying it – women are not only the minority in the world of scientific research, they are also paid less and don’t get as much research funding than men. To ensure career progress, all scientists must get research published, yet the number of times your article is then referenced ends up also having a significant impact on your career and renown, and this seems to be fraught with gender inequality.

In a recently-published study1, researchers analysed several million scientific articles using special software to identify how often 25 specific positive terms were used, including "excellent", "unprecedented" and "unique". They discovered that in articles with female principal authors, the probability of results being presented using positive terms was 12% lower than in other papers. Furthermore, the use of such positive terms was associated with 9.4% more referencing of the article.

While this finding is evidently not the only explanation for why female scientists face such inequalities, it does raise an interesting question. If you want to increase your chances of being published, is it worth using more eye-catching, positive language?

1) doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l6573