Towards an estimate of the impact of censorship on biomedical literature.

Abstract

Objective: To determine how much of the current biomedical literature would be flagged or require modification in relation to the presence of terms from leaked lists prepared by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the National Security Administration (NSA) in early 2025.

Materials and methods: We searched PubMed (from 1996 to 2024) for all records that match at least one of the given terms, combined the terms and analyzed yearly and total frequency.

Results: At least 36.3% of all biomedical literature analyzed, representing more than 10 million records, would be flagged for review or modification with the given term lists. It is conservatively estimated that such term lists could impact more than 2.7 million biomedical publications over the next four years.

Discussion: Censorship of scientific findings and the use of term lists to judge the content of scientific materials could significantly impede scientific progress.

Conclusion: Future research should investigate the long-term implications of, and interim strategies used to navigate, the imposition of censorship on the production and dissemination of scientific knowledge.