A non-profit watchdog reported that the AAAS has received millions of dollars per year from the federal government. The AAAS publication "Science" is reviewing 2,600 of its own articles for possible "exaggeration."
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 to avoid sounding overconfident and giving readers a misleading conclusion.
In 1997, there were about 115.8 hedging examples per 10,000 words.
Science's news division highlighted this study of its research, and said that the reduction in hedging, according to some, "Suggests a worrisome rise of unreliable, exaggerated claims." According to the non-profit Influence Watch, "The federal government is the largest identifiable source of funding for AAAS," giving it $3.3 million annually between 2008 - 2017, not counting other grants it has received.
Science was first published in 1880 with seed money from Thomas Edison.
Continuing, the journal group said "Less hedging may reflect a subtle strategy by authors to sell their results to editors and readers as an alternative to explicit exaggeration," according to the study.
Science associate news editor Jeffrey Brainard declined to comment when reached by Just the News..
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