🔁 Unoriginal (Academic Definition)
Unoriginal refers to academic work that lacks novelty, creativity, or independent thinking — often repeating established ideas, methods, or frameworks without adding meaningful insight or value.
🔍 Key Features
- Repackaging of known content under new titles or buzzwords.
- Redundant reviews that cite the same sources as previous ones with minimal reinterpretation.
- Safe conclusions that align with dominant narratives and avoid controversy or innovation.
- Copy-paste structures mimicking the format of previous high-impact papers.
- Academic mimicry disguised as contribution.
🧱 Common Forms
- Superficial integration of trending topics (e.g., “AI,” “radiomics”) without depth.
- Predictable, committee-written consensus papers with no fresh insight.
- Grant-driven publications produced to check boxes rather than solve problems.
🧠 In Practice
A review that discusses “osteosarcopenia and AI” using generalities, without new data, new hypotheses, or new clinical pathways — simply rephrasing what’s already been said in more exciting packaging.
🚫 Consequences
- Wastes academic space and attention.
- Crowds out original thinkers and disruptive ideas.
- Perpetuates mediocrity and academic inertia.
📎 Related Terms
Bottom line: *Unoriginality is the silent killer of scientific progress — hard to detect when dressed in prestige, but intellectually empty at its core.*