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You have to read this

Nature Human Behaviour volume 5, pages 1466–1468 (2021)Cite this article

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Reading scientific papers is a necessary part of the research enterprise, but poor writing impedes the flow of information from authors to their audiences. We argue that a return to narrative in scientific writing is not incompatible with rigour and objectivity; it can mitigate information overload and achieve the core purpose of publication: to communicate.

As dusk falls over the city, silent figures creep out from miserable pits in the sand. The troglodytes are grey-skinned and naked, with derelict beards. Pitiful and pitiless, these serpent-eating immortals devote their wretched days to pure thought. In Jorge Luis Borges’s grim fantasy1, immortality deprives human life of joy, merit and engagement. In our reality, immortality deprives scientific writing of much of the same.

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Acknowledgements

We thank J. M. Zarate for insightful guidance that helped us to select the well-written scientific work cited here.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Paula L. Croxson

  2. The Story Collider, New York, NY, USA

    Paula L. Croxson

  3. Department of Neuroscience, Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA

    Paula L. Croxson & Daniela Schiller

  4. Liminal Creations, Washington, DC, USA

    Liz Neeley

  5. Department of Psychiatry, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA

    Daniela Schiller

Authors
  1. Paula L. Croxson
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  2. Liz Neeley
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  3. Daniela Schiller
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Correspondence to Paula L. Croxson or Daniela Schiller.

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Croxson, P.L., Neeley, L. & Schiller, D. You have to read this. Nat Hum Behav 5, 1466–1468 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01221-6

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