🧲 Academic Clickbait

Academic clickbait refers to research articles with exaggerated, provocative, or misleading titles designed to attract attention, increase citations, or enhance visibility — often at the expense of scientific rigor or substance.

• A title poses a bold question or dramatic claim, but the study provides trivial or obvious findings.
• Creates an illusion of novelty or controversy that the data do not support.
• Often seen in low-impact journals trying to boost relevance or metrics.
• Prioritizes attention over contribution to scientific knowledge.

• Misleads readers about the importance of the findings.
• Wastes time and resources of reviewers and researchers.
• Erodes trust in scientific publishing.

• Use accurate and honest titles that reflect the actual contribution.
• Avoid question-based titles unless truly justified by the study design.
• Let the data speak louder than the headline.