File:Diversity of language use in science and technology over time.png

English: "This figure shows changes in the ratio of unique to total words (also known as the type-token ratio) over time based on data from the abstracts of papers (A) and patents (B). For papers, lines correspond to WoS research areas; for patents, lines correspond to NBER technology categories. For paper abstracts, lines begin in 1992 because WoS does not reliably record abstracts for papers published prior to the early 1990s. The ratio of unique to total words is computed separately by field (i.e., the uniqueness of words and total word counts are determined within WoS research areas and NBER technology categories). If disruption is decreasing, we may plausibly expect to see a decrease in the diversity of words used by scientists and inventors, as discoveries and inventions will be less likely to create departures from the status quo, and will therefore be less likely to need to introduce new terminology. For both papers and patents, we observe declining diversity in word use over time, which is consistent with this expectation and corroborates our findings using the CD index."