The ‘scientist’, the ‘analyst’ and the ‘novelist’: science or metrics? – published online 22/12/2022

Enzo Bonora

Progress in medicine relies on scientific literature because journals are the main peer-reviewed medium of discoveries, achievements, concepts and ideas, inspiring further research as well as establishing best clinical practices. In this issue, Enzo Bonora (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00125-022-05808-0) illustrates the huge increase in diabetes-related literature over the last few decades but highlights what he believes is an excess of ‘nothing-to-add’ papers and, in particular, redundant meta-analyses and repetitive narrative reviews. He also emphasises the enthusiasm that meta-analyses and reviews receive from some journals and some scientists, anxious to improve their own metrics. He concludes that the scientific relevance of papers and the scientific achievements of investigators and journals are more important for medical progress than their respective metrics. See the counter-debate by Deirdre Tobias in this issue.

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