‘Sloppy’ spelling errors on the rise in research papers

“Casual inference”, “prevalance”, “pubic health”: these are a few examples of the “sloppy” spelling errors that researchers have found are on the rise in academic writing.

Researchers at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) were concerned that the pressure to publish was leading scholars to cut corners in their work.

They examined 15 common spelling errors in the titles and abstracts of more than 32 million papers published in the health and medical database PubMed between 1970 and 2023.

Their early results, published in a blog post by the London School of Economics, found that 11 of the errors appeared more frequently over time, with most showing a strong increase. The total error rate was found to have risen from 0.1 per 10,000 abstracts to 8.7 per 10,000 across the period.

Spelling mistakes can be embarrassing, can undermine a researcher’s credibility and can make papers more difficult for academics to find, author Adrian Barnett, a professor of statistics at QUT, told Times Higher Education.

“Most spelling errors will just be a minor blemish, but an increasing number of blemishes are turning into a bruise for the literature,” he said.

The authors said spelling errors were not the most serious consequence of researchers rushing to publish, but tended to indicate that researchers were prioritising quantity over quality.

Professor Barnett said the main concern was that the growing prevalence of these errors was a sign of “increasing sloppy practice”.

“We think that some researchers are not proofreading their papers because they are instead spending their time on the next paper,” he said.

“It also could be because publishers are cutting costs and spending less on copy-editing services.”

The researchers warned that vital checks, such as running sensitivity analyses to verify results or waiting for a colleague’s feedback on a draft paper, may be seen as too time-consuming in modern academia.

The 15 most common spelling errors also included “risk ration”, “screeing”, “clinican”, “confident interval” and “reserach”.

Professor Barnett said even papers with complex ideas should be easy to read. “Spelling and grammar errors will slow readers down, forcing them to work out, or even guess, what the authors actually meant,” he added.

“The ever-growing quantity of papers is making academia harder, so spending time to create quality is more important than ever.”

Authors said some of the increase in total error rate was likely because of the growing number of researchers using English as a second language.

Artificial intelligence could be used to reduce spelling errors, but it could also lead to academics writing even faster and cause an increase in other writing problems, they warned.

patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com