Evolution by Any Other Name: Antibiotic Resistance and Avoidance of the E-Word

The word "evolution" is rarely used in papers from medical journals describing antimicrobial resistance, which may directly impact public perception of the importance of evolutionary biology in our everyday lives

Use of “Evolution” in Popular Articles Based on Research Papers

<p>This graph shows the relationship between the frequency of use of the word “evolution” in popular press articles addressing antimicrobial resistance and the frequency of its use in the corresponding research article. Most of the articles included were in the biomedical literature (<a href="http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.0050030#pbio-0050030-sd001" target="_blank">Text S1</a>). The point at the origin represents nine pairs for which “evolution” was mentioned neither in the scientific nor in the popular version. The regression is highly significant (d.f. = 21, <i>p</i> < 0.0001, ß = 0.76; weighted arcsine square root transformed; points and fitted line in figure represent untransformed data).</p

Frequency of Use of Words to Describe the Evolutionary Process in Evolutionary Journals versus Biomedical Journals

<p>The left-hand pair of bars show percentage use of the word “evolution,” and the right-hand pair of bars show percentage use of the words “emerge,” “arise,” or “increase.” Data shown are unweighted means and standard errors, based on 15 papers in evolution or genetics journals and 15 papers in biomedical journals.</p

Change over Time in the Frequency of Use of the Word “Evolution” in Journals and Grant Proposals

<p>This figure shows change in the frequency of use of the word “evolution” in (A) paper titles and abstracts for journals classified by type and (B) titles of funded research proposals classified by US federal granting agency. Note that the data for general science journals and medical journals are shown at 10 and 100 times their values, respectively. Analysis of covariance (log of arcsine square root transformed data) showed that the rate of increase of use of the word “evolution” was significantly greater in the journal categories of general science and medical than in the evolutionary category (<i>p</i> < 0.002). Journal classification was as follows: evolutionary journals: <i>Evolution</i>, <i>Genetics</i>, <i>Heredity</i>, <i>Journal of Evolutionary Biology</i>, <i>Journal of Molecular Evolution</i>, <i>Molecular Biology and Evolution</i>; general science journals: <i>Nature</i>, <i>Nature Genetics</i>, and <i>Science</i>; medical journals: <i>BMJ</i>, <i>Clinical Infectious Diseases</i>, <i>JAMA</i>, <i>The Lancet</i>, and <i>The New England Journal of Medicine</i>. Funding data are from the online data retrieval systems of the National Science Foundation (Division of Environmental Biology) (NSF [DEB]) and National Institutes of Health (National Institute of General Medical Sciences) (NIH [GMS]).</p