ArticleFrontiers in neurology
Discordance in causal terminology between scientific papers and subsequent press releases: chronic traumatic encephalopathy in the "age of spin".
Article in Frontiers in neurology. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
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Abstract
Introduction: The concept of "spin," or overstating the conclusions and/or significance of the research findings in a press release, has been a notable problem across science. Whether spin is a problem for scientific communication about chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) studies is unknown. Methods: A search for the terms "chronic traumatic encephalopathy" or "CTE" was conducted on EurekAlert!, returning 61 usable press releases. We calculated a novel metric ("causal intensity score") for each scientific abstract and its corresponding press release. We quantified "spin" as the difference between the causal intensity score of the abstract/press release. Results: Thirty-nine of the 61 (63.9%) press releases studied were more deterministic than the abstract, reflected by a discordance gap >0.0. Five releases were categorized as "severe spin," with z-scores ≥1.5 standard deviations above the mean. Discussion: In this novel investigation, we found that press releases on CTE research studies were more deterministic on average than the studies themselves.
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