I don’t think they have to be wordy as much as conservative in their claims.
Also honestly the state of science journalism is so utterly abysmal it’s a whole other discussion. I don’t know how much point there is in worrying about how “this will select for the more clickbait-y, inaccurate takes”: we already have selection for those anyway, and it’s so bad I doubt it can get significantly worse. Yours is not a hypothetical scenario, it’s how things are now. The thing that we’d need would be journals straight up enforcing guidelines for titles that do not allow unclear or ambiguous claims.
The form of conservatism that the OP is about is (I think pretty much necessarily) one that makes for wordier and less eye-catching titles.
I agree that the state of science journalism is bad. I don’t think I agree that it couldn’t get significantly worse. I think having stronger norms saying that conscientious scientists should avoid “eye-catching, hedge-free titles and/or abstracts”, etc., might end up making it either better or worse, and my money is on worse. More specificity about the mechanism: I conjecture that journalists will quite reliably ignore anything that isn’t eye-catching and not-too-hedged; if it’s fairly common for even good scientists to give their papers such titles, then some of what journalists pick up will be good science, albeit incautiously expressed; if all the good scientists are being too careful for that, then all of what journalists pick up will be bad science.
I think roughly conscientious scientists already try doing that today, that’s why I’m saying this isn’t a hypothetical. Having a stronger norm might lead to more of them doing that; some defectors would always remain of course, but maybe they would at least be regarded less well within their own community. Forget journalists, right now we have a problem even with academic journals being biased towards catchy positive results.
if it’s fairly common for even good scientists to give their papers such titles
Depends also about what we’re talking about. Honestly my experience is that the most stand out type of paper title isn’t necessarily “sensational claim” as much as “tongue in cheek reference”, which is a pretty neutral concession to visibility. It’s a very field-dependent problem, though. But title-wise, I think the worst of the drift happens in press releases and then through journalists. You can make paper titles catchy without making them state any claim (easy pattern: just state WHAT you’re looking at, like “Studying the relationship of X and Y” instead of “Positive correlation of Y with X” or whatever).
I don’t think they have to be wordy as much as conservative in their claims.
Also honestly the state of science journalism is so utterly abysmal it’s a whole other discussion. I don’t know how much point there is in worrying about how “this will select for the more clickbait-y, inaccurate takes”: we already have selection for those anyway, and it’s so bad I doubt it can get significantly worse. Yours is not a hypothetical scenario, it’s how things are now. The thing that we’d need would be journals straight up enforcing guidelines for titles that do not allow unclear or ambiguous claims.
The form of conservatism that the OP is about is (I think pretty much necessarily) one that makes for wordier and less eye-catching titles.
I agree that the state of science journalism is bad. I don’t think I agree that it couldn’t get significantly worse. I think having stronger norms saying that conscientious scientists should avoid “eye-catching, hedge-free titles and/or abstracts”, etc., might end up making it either better or worse, and my money is on worse. More specificity about the mechanism: I conjecture that journalists will quite reliably ignore anything that isn’t eye-catching and not-too-hedged; if it’s fairly common for even good scientists to give their papers such titles, then some of what journalists pick up will be good science, albeit incautiously expressed; if all the good scientists are being too careful for that, then all of what journalists pick up will be bad science.
I think roughly conscientious scientists already try doing that today, that’s why I’m saying this isn’t a hypothetical. Having a stronger norm might lead to more of them doing that; some defectors would always remain of course, but maybe they would at least be regarded less well within their own community. Forget journalists, right now we have a problem even with academic journals being biased towards catchy positive results.
Depends also about what we’re talking about. Honestly my experience is that the most stand out type of paper title isn’t necessarily “sensational claim” as much as “tongue in cheek reference”, which is a pretty neutral concession to visibility. It’s a very field-dependent problem, though. But title-wise, I think the worst of the drift happens in press releases and then through journalists. You can make paper titles catchy without making them state any claim (easy pattern: just state WHAT you’re looking at, like “Studying the relationship of X and Y” instead of “Positive correlation of Y with X” or whatever).