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Comment by fjdghsd | Hacker News Reader

Scientific papers aren't written for you, the layman. They are written specifically for scientists in that particular field. I'm a PhD student, and never have I read a paper with wording that I would describe as "convoluted."

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Lucky you! I agree, though, that the problem isn't as severe as the OP suggests, but it does exist. You see it especially in papers that aren't that great, where the author obfuscates what they've done because the reality isn't as impressive as they'd like (which is a shame, because that doesn't mean it's not useful research -- and if it was presented more concisely, it'd probably be more accessible by more people -- not everything needs to be groundbreaking!).

I am not the lay person, and I am not talking about communicating your findings to the pubic, which obviously requires an entirely different set of skills than communicating your work to fellow scientists (another problem, but one step at a time!). This is purely a comment on the typical language and style of writing used in papers - not on the content itself, per se, although the two are to a certain extent linked.

> I'm a PhD student, and never have I read a paper with wording that I would describe as "convoluted."

What field are you in, because I wonder if this makes a difference? I'm in a highly interdisciplinary field, so perhaps that's part of the problem.

You nailed it. If someone cares about laypeople understanding his research, he writes a blog about it. However, most research is of no interest to people who don't work on nearly exactly the same thing. And these people will not like to read the extra pieces needed to make something self-contained over and over again.

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