Change in Format, Register and Narration Style in the Biomedical Literature: A 1948 Example

Abstract

Scientific communication has evolved over time and the formats of scientific writing, including its stylistic modules, have changed accordingly. Research articles from the past fit a research world that had not been taken over by the internet, electronic searches, the new media and even the science mass production of today and reflect a reality where scientific publications were designed to be read and appreciated by actual readers. It is therefore useful to have a look back to what science looked like in the past and examine the biomedical literature from older archives because several features of those publications may actually harbor vital insights for today’s communication. Maintaining a vivid awareness of the evolution of science language and modalities of communication may ensure a better and steadfast progression and ameliorate academic writing in the years to come. With this goal in mind, the present commentary set out to review a 1948 scientific report by I.L. Bennett Jr, entitled “A study on the relationship between the fevers caused by bacterial pyrogens and by the intravenous injection of the sterile exudates of acute inflammation”, which appeared in the Journal of Experimental Medicine in September 1948.

Striving for Modernity: Layout and Abstracts in the Biomedical Literature

“…The second observation is that, by 1990, more flexibility in inserting extra-textual content, e.g., tables or figures, was needed by the editors. It is known that older studies had a more limited iconography, due to the obvious technical restraints that authors had to endure [13]. However, the appearance and diffusion of personal computers made creating graphs and figures an easier task for researchers and scientific studies were progressively adorned with richer sets of figures, hence the need to find them a place on the page.…”

The Evolution of Narrativity in Abstracts of the Biomedical Literature between 1989 and 2022

“…Narration plays an important role in scientific communication [13], and yet it has been shown that biomedical articles have progressively moved away from a more narrative style of reporting [14]. Although it is difficult to establish standardized properties of narrativity, most scholars still regard the work of Gustav Freytag as substantially valid [15,16].…”