‘Tortured phrases’ impact the integrity of the environmental literature

Abstract

In environmental science, it is necessary to accurately describe processes, methods and phenomena using established technical terms and jargon. Any significant deviation from such terms might leave readers and peers confused, while confusion can lead to misinterpretations, opening up the possibility of errors. During peer review and prior to publication in a peer-reviewed environmental journal, it is thus incumbent upon editors and peer reviewers, and to a lesser extent copy editors, to verify that terminology in a scientific paper is accurate. In this brief communication, 61 papers with cases of ‘tortured phrases’, which are terms that have – for some reason – come to replace established jargon, are described in indexed environmental literature, frequently in indexed journals that are generally associated with reputable publishers. Of the 61 papers, 13 have been retracted, suggesting an erosion of the papers’ integrity. Awareness of this phenomenon and these cases allows editors and peer reviewers of environmental journals to be more careful when screening and vetting submitted papers, but should also serve as a lesson for authors to be more careful when writing their papers, avoiding the temptation to automatically incorporate text that online text thesauruses may provide, or to use non-standard terms.