Militarized Language in Scientific Abstracts Rises Sharply Since 2019

A new study analyzing 21.4 million scientific papers from 2010 to 2025 reveals a significant increase in the use of militaristic language in abstracts. The research, posted on arXiv, found that the presence of such terms rose 48% in the OpenAlex database and 32% in PubMed, with the trend accelerating sharply after 2019. The study also conducted a within-subject experiment with 801 participants and 32,040 trials to assess the persuasive impact of militaristic framing. The prevalence of militaristic language correlates with conflict data from the Uppsala Conflict Data Program at both country and annual scales (r = 0.77-0.84), and abstracts from the Global South show the fastest rise. Among disciplines, social sciences leads in the level of militaristic language use. The findings suggest that scientific communication is increasingly adopting a war-like vocabulary, potentially reflecting broader societal trends.