OBJECTIVETo quantify the time lag between biomedical articles and the studies they describe as "recent," a term widely used to imply timeliness despite rarely reflecting the actual age of the cited evidence.DESIGNRetrospective analysis of suspiciously timeless citations based on a structured PubMed search of 20 predefined "recent" expressions.SAMPLE1000 English language, full text biomedical articles in which a "recent" expression is directly linked to a citation.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURETime lag in years between citing articles and their referenced "recent" studies.RESULTSThe age of the cited "recent" studies varied widely. The citation lag ranged from 0 to 37 years (mean 5.53 years, median 4 years, interquartile range 2-7). The most frequent lag was one year (n=159, 15.9%), and 177 references (17.7%) were at least 10 years old. Citation patterns varied across medical specialties: critical care, infectious diseases, genetics, immunology, and radiology showed shorter median lags (around two years), while nephrology, veterinary medicine, and dentistry displayed substantially longer lags (ranging from 8.5 to 14 years). Among expressions, "recent approach," "recent discovery," and "recent study" were linked to older references, whereas "recent publication" and "recent article" had much fresher citations. The citation lag was similar across world regions and gradually decreased over time, with the most recent publications showing the shortest lags. Journals with high impact factors (≥12) cited more up-to-date work.CONCLUSIONSThis playful analysis suggests that "recent" is applied with striking elasticity across biomedical literature. While some authors cite genuinely recent work, others stretch the definition to decades. Readers and reviewers should take "recent" claims with a grain of chronological salt.
{"title":"How recent is recent? Retrospective analysis of suspiciously timeless citations.","authors":"Alejandro Díez-Vidal,Jose R Arribas","doi":"10.1136/bmj-2025-086941","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2025-086941","url":null,"abstract":"OBJECTIVETo quantify the time lag between biomedical articles and the studies they describe as \"recent,\" a term widely used to imply timeliness despite rarely reflecting the actual age of the cited evidence.DESIGNRetrospective analysis of suspiciously timeless citations based on a structured PubMed search of 20 predefined \"recent\" expressions.SAMPLE1000 English language, full text biomedical articles in which a \"recent\" expression is directly linked to a citation.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURETime lag in years between citing articles and their referenced \"recent\" studies.RESULTSThe age of the cited \"recent\" studies varied widely. The citation lag ranged from 0 to 37 years (mean 5.53 years, median 4 years, interquartile range 2-7). The most frequent lag was one year (n=159, 15.9%), and 177 references (17.7%) were at least 10 years old. Citation patterns varied across medical specialties: critical care, infectious diseases, genetics, immunology, and radiology showed shorter median lags (around two years), while nephrology, veterinary medicine, and dentistry displayed substantially longer lags (ranging from 8.5 to 14 years). Among expressions, \"recent approach,\" \"recent discovery,\" and \"recent study\" were linked to older references, whereas \"recent publication\" and \"recent article\" had much fresher citations. The citation lag was similar across world regions and gradually decreased over time, with the most recent publications showing the shortest lags. Journals with high impact factors (≥12) cited more up-to-date work.CONCLUSIONSThis playful analysis suggests that \"recent\" is applied with striking elasticity across biomedical literature. While some authors cite genuinely recent work, others stretch the definition to decades. Readers and reviewers should take \"recent\" claims with a grain of chronological salt.","PeriodicalId":22388,"journal":{"name":"The BMJ","volume":"15 1","pages":"e086941"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145728391","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Why not knowing can be a virtue.","authors":"Rajeev Dutta","doi":"10.1136/bmj.r2592","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r2592","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":22388,"journal":{"name":"The BMJ","volume":"45 1","pages":"r2592"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145728559","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Health professionals must speak out against the arms industry.","authors":"Assad Malik","doi":"10.1136/bmj.r2583","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r2583","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":22388,"journal":{"name":"The BMJ","volume":"26 1","pages":"r2583"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145728390","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
OBJECTIVETo assess changes in the prevalence of diversity language in National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants in 2024-25.DESIGNRetrospective longitudinal analysis.SETTINGUnited States.SAMPLE17 701 abstracts of research grants awarded by the NIH between 1 January 2024 and 20 June 2025.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURESPrevalence of diversity language in NIH awarded grants measured by month. A within grant analysis compared 2024 and 2025 versions of the same grants, and the net change in the number of words reflecting diversity language versus all words was calculated, using thousands of randomly sampled lists generated from the abstracts to provide control words.RESULTSThe rate of words reflecting diversity language decreased sharply between October and November 2024, from 11.11 to 5.42 words per 1000, a 51% relative decrease. The decrease persisted through 2025, with an overall relative decrease of 25% between January 2024 and June 2025. In a within grants analysis, among 1967 pairs of identical grants in 2024 that were non-competitively renewed in 2025, words reflecting diversity language comprised fewer than 1% of all words but accounted for about 10% of all deleted words between 2024 and 2025, with 8.28 words per 1000 deleted. This decrease was lower than that of all randomly sampled lists of control words.CONCLUSIONSWords reflecting diversity language have decreased across the abstracts of research grants awarded by the NIH.
{"title":"Changes in diversity language in National Institutes of Health grant awards: observational study.","authors":"Neil Mehta,Anupam B Jena","doi":"10.1136/bmj-2025-087222","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2025-087222","url":null,"abstract":"OBJECTIVETo assess changes in the prevalence of diversity language in National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants in 2024-25.DESIGNRetrospective longitudinal analysis.SETTINGUnited States.SAMPLE17 701 abstracts of research grants awarded by the NIH between 1 January 2024 and 20 June 2025.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURESPrevalence of diversity language in NIH awarded grants measured by month. A within grant analysis compared 2024 and 2025 versions of the same grants, and the net change in the number of words reflecting diversity language versus all words was calculated, using thousands of randomly sampled lists generated from the abstracts to provide control words.RESULTSThe rate of words reflecting diversity language decreased sharply between October and November 2024, from 11.11 to 5.42 words per 1000, a 51% relative decrease. The decrease persisted through 2025, with an overall relative decrease of 25% between January 2024 and June 2025. In a within grants analysis, among 1967 pairs of identical grants in 2024 that were non-competitively renewed in 2025, words reflecting diversity language comprised fewer than 1% of all words but accounted for about 10% of all deleted words between 2024 and 2025, with 8.28 words per 1000 deleted. This decrease was lower than that of all randomly sampled lists of control words.CONCLUSIONSWords reflecting diversity language have decreased across the abstracts of research grants awarded by the NIH.","PeriodicalId":22388,"journal":{"name":"The BMJ","volume":"20 1","pages":"e087222"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145728385","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Antidepressant deprescribing: Slow tapering plus therapy is best way to come off medication, say researchers.","authors":"Jacqui Wise","doi":"10.1136/bmj.r2608","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r2608","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":22388,"journal":{"name":"The BMJ","volume":"20 1","pages":"r2608"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145728393","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yamina Boukari,Amy Jane Stevens,Susanna Corona,Delan Devakumar
{"title":"UK asylum proposals harm health and human rights.","authors":"Yamina Boukari,Amy Jane Stevens,Susanna Corona,Delan Devakumar","doi":"10.1136/bmj.r2585","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r2585","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":22388,"journal":{"name":"The BMJ","volume":"116 1","pages":"r2585"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145728387","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Ministers seek power to control NHS drug approvals to support US pharma deal.","authors":"Elisabeth Mahase","doi":"10.1136/bmj.r2622","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r2622","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":22388,"journal":{"name":"The BMJ","volume":"49 1","pages":"r2622"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145728384","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"AI chatbots and the loneliness crisis.","authors":"Susan C Shelmerdine,Matthew M Nour","doi":"10.1136/bmj.r2509","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r2509","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":22388,"journal":{"name":"The BMJ","volume":"56 1","pages":"r2509"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-12-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145728388","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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