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Study: Em-dash usage surged in scientific preprints post-LLM adoption

By PulseAugur Editorial · [1 sources] ·

A recent study analyzed preprints from medRxiv and found a significant increase in the use of em-dashes following the widespread adoption of large language models (LLMs). The prevalence of em-dashes in discussion sections rose from 4.23% before November 2022 to 11.58% afterward, indicating a shift in writing style. While the study cannot definitively prove causality, the gradual acceleration of this trend and its consistency across various analyses suggest a notable change in scientific literature composition coinciding with the early 2020s. AI

IMPACT Suggests LLMs may subtly influence scientific writing styles, potentially impacting readability and stylistic consistency across publications.

RANK_REASON The item is an academic paper analyzing linguistic trends in scientific literature. [lever_c_demoted from research: ic=1 ai=1.0]

Read on arXiv cs.AI →

AI-generated summary · Google Gemini · from 1 sources. How we write summaries →

Study: Em-dash usage surged in scientific preprints post-LLM adoption

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The item is an academic paper analyzing linguistic trends in scientific literature. [lever_c_demoted from research: ic=1 ai=1.0]
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COVERAGE [1]

  1. arXiv cs.AI TIER_1 English(EN) · Przemys{\l}aw Czuma ·

    Em-ergence of the em-dash: a population-level rise in em-dash frequency in medRxiv preprints at the dawn of the large-language-model era

    arXiv:2606.29540v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Large language models (LLMs) can leave subtle stylistic traces in assisted text; one of the most cited is the em-dash (Unicode U+2014). Yet no one has measured whether em-dash use has changed in the scientific literature. This stu…

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