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<p>Scientific publishing is the primary means of disseminating research findings. There has been speculation about how extensively large language models (LLMs) are being used in academic writing. Here we conduct a systematic analysis across 1,121,912 preprints and published papers from January 2020 to September 2024 on <i>arXiv</i>, <i>bioRxiv</i> and <i>Nature</i> portfolio journals, using a population-level framework based on word frequency shifts to estimate the prevalence of LLM-modified content over time. Our findings suggest a steady increase in LLM usage, with the largest and fastest growth estimated for computer science papers (up to 22%). By comparison, mathematics papers and the <i>Nature</i> portfolio showed lower evidence of LLM modification (up to 9%). LLM modification estimates were higher among papers from first authors who post preprints more frequently, papers in more crowded research areas and papers of shorter lengths. Our findings suggest that LLMs are being broadly used in scientific writing.</p>

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Quantifying large language model usage in scientific papers

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年8月4日

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  • Weixin Liang,
  • Yaohui Zhang,
  • Zhengxuan Wu,
  • Haley Lepp,
  • Wenlong Ji,
  • Xuandong Zhao,
  • Hancheng Cao,
  • Sheng Liu,
  • Siyu He,
  • Zhi Huang,
  • Diyi Yang,
  • Christopher Potts,
  • Christopher D. Manning,
  • James Zou

摘要

Scientific publishing is the primary means of disseminating research findings. There has been speculation about how extensively large language models (LLMs) are being used in academic writing. Here we conduct a systematic analysis across 1,121,912 preprints and published papers from January 2020 to September 2024 on arXiv, bioRxiv and Nature portfolio journals, using a population-level framework based on word frequency shifts to estimate the prevalence of LLM-modified content over time. Our findings suggest a steady increase in LLM usage, with the largest and fastest growth estimated for computer science papers (up to 22%). By comparison, mathematics papers and the Nature portfolio showed lower evidence of LLM modification (up to 9%). LLM modification estimates were higher among papers from first authors who post preprints more frequently, papers in more crowded research areas and papers of shorter lengths. Our findings suggest that LLMs are being broadly used in scientific writing.