The research world is beginning to resemble just so much gibberish. Everywhere one looks there is another acronym. And as two wags point out in the latest issue of BioProcess International, this is becoming an AGIFE (a growing issue for everyone).

Look at it this way: if a venture capitalist or finance team must hunt through a dictionary to read a proposal, it is unlikely they will bother to spend much time on it. And which senior manager wants to be embarassed when uttering odd sounds he or she doesn’t really understand?

There is, perhaps, one benefit: The recent increase in acronyms may confuse some into thinking science is advancing just as rapidly!

Here’s an excerpt:

“It is possible, even likely, that a new investigator or investor will not understand literature that is written in tongues understood only by certain ‘tribes.’ Thus, he or she will not appreciate that a ‘new’ phenomenon is, in fact, one from the past that’s been relabeled. The situation is further complicated when the tribes in question are at war over territory and possession claimed on the basis of their combinations of nomenclature and electrophoretic patterns obtained under different conditions.

Although such events might fool investigators or investors, they are unlikely to escape the attention of legal groups. It is also unlikely that such an action would fool an investigator who has been in the business for a while. One of us recalls a situation in a presentation at a Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) meeting in Atlantic City, NJ (around 40 years ago) in which a presenter was gently informed by the distinguished session chair that the ‘new observation’ described had been published by Pasteur.”

So before sitting down to write that next report, consider this: ARBS!

Who wants to translate PITA and ARBS for the rest of the Pharmalot crowd?

Have a go…..

Source: Bio-Process International (registration required)[tags]Acronyms, Biotech[/tags]