Academic journal urges scientist to lose the jargon, use plainspeak instead

One of the world’s top academic journals is begging scientists to speak plain English — or German, or Chinese — instead of the “insane newspeak” of jargon that’s only used for showing off.

Writes biologist Gottfried Schatz, former head of the Swiss Science and Technology Council:

Most lectures on biological topics appear so overloaded with unnecessary information, so obsessed with technical detail, and so cluttered with abbreviations, jargon, and acronyms as to be nearly incomprehensible to anyone but the specialist.