Heavy use of equations impedes communication among biologists
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Edited† by Robert M. May, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, and approved June 6, 2012 (received for review April 4, 2012)
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Fig. 1.Equation-dense articles receive fewer citations from nontheoretical articles but not from other theoretical articles. The graphs show the mean (±SEM) number of citations by nontheoretical papers (A) and theoretical papers (B) for cited articles of differing length and number of equations per page (for the main text and appendixes combined). For illustration purposes only, the number of equations per page was binned into the ranges shown on the x axis; note that the data were not binned for the statistical analysis.
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Fig. 2.Equations presented in the main text reduce citations from nontheoretical articles, whereas equations presented in an appendix do not. The graphs show the mean (±SEM) number of citations by nontheoretical papers for cited articles of differing length and number of equations per page, when those equations are presented in the main text (A) or an appendix (B). For illustration purposes only, the number of equations per page was binned into the ranges shown on the x axis; note that the data were not binned for the statistical analysis.
