Scientists gaining inspiration from Bob Dylan and The Beatles song titles: What goes on in Biomedical Literature

Since 1990 there is a growing trend of using popular music titles in the scientific literature. We have investigated the extent to which songs written by Bob Dylan, recently awarded the Nobel Prize for literature for his work, and one of the most popular ‘supergroups’ of all time, The Beatles, are referred to in the title of biomedical scientific publications. The Beatles are cited more often than Bob Dylan (in 589 and 211 publications, respectively). It also appears that publications with Beatles song titles are quoted more often by others than publications with Dylan in the title. The Beatles’ greatest hit is the long and winding road for Dylan’s it’s the times they are a-changing. Most authors who use Dylan’s lyrics in their papers are from the US or Europe, while The Beatles appear have a more global impact. The study, while certainly in some sense tongue-in-cheek, does aim to find out what serious scientists hope to achieve by citing these particular pop artists, and what influence these artists’ words may be having on academia, an area beyond the traditional realm of popular culture.

Keywords: Song Titles, Biomedical Literature, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Rhetoric in Music, Popular Culture, Bibliometric Analysis