By February 2024 an estimated 17.5% of sentences in computer-science abstracts on arXiv were substantially modified by language models; the share was higher in papers closer to their nearest peer, a proxy for more crowded research areas (22.2% against 14.7% for less similar papers).

SocioLens project,

Claim LD09-SL-C09 (v1.0)

Research opportunities this claim motivates

What this claim leaves open for research. Each is a hypothesis about a gap, not a finding.

Does language-model use narrow what whole fields study, including the social sciences?Language-model-modified sentences were more common in crowded research areas.
In science, is it the wording that converges or the ideas?Model-modified sentences were more common in papers closer to their nearest peer.

Provenance and status

Claim type: Estimate
Publication status: Eligible for publication, with qualifiers: version
Verification state: Checked against the primary source; the source is a preprint. Who checked this claim is not recorded for it; claim checks so far were AI-led, and no person has checked claims against their sources.
Does not license: That language-model use causes papers to become more similar; crowding may drive use
Limitations: Version 1 of the preprint read; a later version (COLM 2024) was not read and may update the numbers; measures writing, not content
Source (as cited): Liang, Zhang, Wu, Lepp, Ji, Zhao et al., “Mapping the Increasing Use of LLMs in Scientific Papers,” arXiv:2404.01268, April 2024
Source type: Preprint (recorded as “Preprint”)
Institutional position: Independent academic (Stanford University-led)
Maturity of the evidence: Rapidly maturing evidence
Recorded date: 15 October 2026
Currentness / correction: This is the current version. No correction or concern is recorded on its sources.

Sources this version cites

Liang, Zhang, Wu, Lepp, Ji, Zhao et al., “Mapping the Increasing Use of LLMs in Scientific Papers,” arXiv:2404.01268, April 2024 (Preprint)
Read the original

Version

This is the current version, v1.0. Earlier versions stay available, and their records never change.

Versions: v1.0 · current

Raw record: every recorded field, with its coded values

All 25 canonical Claim fields, verbatim, with the coded values derived from them. The plain-language labels above are read from these.

Claim type (coded): ESTIMATE (as printed: “ESTIMATE”)
Publication status (coded): ELIGIBLE (VERSION) (as printed: “ELIGIBLE WITH VERSION QUALIFIER”)
Verification state (coded): CONTENT_VERIFIED_PRIMARY (PREPRINT)
Source type (coded): PREPRINT
Maturity (coded): RAPIDLY_MATURING

#	Canonical field	Canonical value (verbatim)	Normalized (Claim Value Vocabulary v1.0.2)
1	CLAIM ID	LD09-SL-C09	—
2	PUBLIC-FACING CLAIM	By February 2024 an estimated 17.5% of sentences in computer-science abstracts on arXiv were substantially modified by language models; the share was higher in papers closer to their nearest peer, a proxy for more crowded research areas (22.2% against 14.7% for less similar papers).	—
3	CLAIM TYPE	ESTIMATE	base_types: ESTIMATE
4	RESEARCH STRAND	A — Science and scholarship	—
5	MATURITY	RAPIDLY MATURING	states: RAPIDLY_MATURING
6	SOURCE	Liang, Zhang, Wu, Lepp, Ji, Zhao et al., “Mapping the Increasing Use of LLMs in Scientific Papers,” arXiv:2404.01268, April 2024	source_ids: SRC-SL-LIANG-ET-AL-ARXIV-2404-01268
7	SOURCE TYPE	Preprint	classes: PREPRINT
8	INSTITUTIONAL POSITION	Independent academic (Stanford University-led)	—
9	SCOPE	arXiv, bioRxiv and Nature-portfolio papers, January 2020 to February 2024	—
10	DESIGN	Population-level estimate from shifts in word frequencies, not a per-paper detector	—
11	SAMPLE / DATASET	950,965 papers	—
12	MODEL / TOOL / VERSION	A distributional estimator of language-model-modified text	—
13	COMPARATOR	Pre-ChatGPT word distributions	—
14	MAIN RESULT	Computer-science abstracts up to 17.5% modified sentences; mathematics 4.9% and Nature-portfolio abstracts 6.3%; higher in crowded areas and among papers closer to their nearest peer (22.2% against 14.7%)	—
15	INFERENTIAL TARGET	How widely language models shape the text of scientific papers, and where	—
16	DOES NOT LICENSE	That language-model use causes papers to become more similar; crowding may drive use	—
17	VERIFICATION STATE	CONTENT VERIFIED PREPRINT	state: CONTENT_VERIFIED_PRIMARY · qualifiers: PREPRINT · verified_by: UNKNOWN
18	LIMITATIONS	Version 1 of the preprint read; a later version (COLM 2024) was not read and may update the numbers; measures writing, not content	—
19	CONTRADICTORY / SUPPORTING SOURCES	Not applicable	—
20	GEOGRAPHY / LANGUAGE	Global / English	—
21	DISTRIBUTIONAL LEDGER	Not recorded	—
22	R01 / FIELD-MAP LINKS	LD-09, D3	—
23	WHAT WOULD CHANGE THIS CLAIM?	Per-paper evidence that modified papers converge in content, not only in wording	—
24	PUBLICATION STATUS	ELIGIBLE WITH VERSION QUALIFIER	state: ELIGIBLE · qualifiers: VERSION
25	RECORDED DATE	2026-10-15	—

Field 22 references resolved against Field Map v0.2: LD-09 (LIVING_DEBATE); D3 (DOMAIN)

The sources as recorded, with their record IDs and coded source types:

Pinned Sources (field 6, version-specific)

“Liang, Zhang, Wu, Lepp, Ji, Zhao et al., “Mapping the Increasing Use of LLMs in Scientific Papers,” arXiv:2404.01268, April 2024” → Liang et al. (2024), “Mapping the Increasing Use of LLMs…” (SRC-SL-LIANG-ET-AL-ARXIV-2404-01268--v1.0) — Liang, Zhang, Wu, Lepp, Ji, Zhao et al., “Mapping the Increasing Use of LLMs in Scientific Papers,” arXiv:2404.01268, April 2024; class PREPRINT (explicit public provenance pin)

Cited by Living Debate versions

Individual gain, collective narrowing? Does AI make science, creative work and shared knowledge more alike? (v0.1) LD-09

Cite this page

SocioLens project. (2026, October 15). By February 2024 an estimated 17.5% of sentences in computer-science abstracts on arXiv were substantially modified by language models; the share was higher in papers closer to their nearest peer, a proxy for more crowded research areas (22.2% against 14.7% for less similar papers) [Claim LD09-SL-C09, version v1.0]. SocioLens. https://sociolens-web.pages.dev/claims/ld09-sl-c09/v1.0/

@misc{sociolens_ld09_sl_c09_v1_0,
  author = {{SocioLens project}},
  title = {By February 2024 an estimated 17.5\% of sentences in computer-science abstracts on arXiv were substantially modified by language models; the share was higher in papers closer to their nearest peer, a proxy for more crowded research areas (22.2\% against 14.7\% for less similar papers).},
  year = {2026},
  date = {2026-10-15},
  howpublished = {\url{https://sociolens-web.pages.dev/claims/ld09-sl-c09/v1.0/}},
  note = {Claim LD09-SL-C09, version v1.0}
}

The link points to this version, whose record never changes. For a finding, cite the original study as well: SocioLens summarizes research and does not replace it.

Research-of-record provenance

Materialized by sociolens-materializer 0.6.0 at 2026-09-28T20:00:00.000Z; normalization contract SocioLens — Claim Value Vocabulary v1.0.2 — Pre-Spike Materialization Contract (v1.0.2). Content seal SHA-256 81fb15564a6755bfcc7ffe28c362e96c8f64f8c90f52d1f98d5a997af23d1815.

Repository-authored inputs (not Drive exports)

SocioLens claim — LD09-SL-C09 v1.0 (v1.0) — written in the SocioLens repository by Project Lead (Claude, AI) on 2026-10-15; no Drive identity exists. Authority: AGENTS.md "Authority" (the Project Lead decides research content within the research-integrity rules) and the Owner's choice in the SocioLens project chat on 15 October 2026 to build the LD-09 debate; a new Claim, first version, written from the project's LD-09 source notes, checked against full texts or official abstracts. Block “ENTRY 09 — LD09-SL-C09” SHA-256 e4cca6746e3f1093fb06426166ab54deedeec5893ab7d17a2445ac16f086bf87; fixture fixtures/authored/claims/LD09-SL-C09--v1.0.

Builder decisions (not Drive data)

VERSION = v1.0 — basis: Claim version taken from the repository-authored claim fixture version (SocioLens claim — LD09-SL-C09 v1.0); the first version of a new Claim of the LD-09 debate
CURRENT_POINTER = true — basis: repository-authored claim "SocioLens claim — LD09-SL-C09 v1.0" (Project Lead (Claude, AI), 2026-10-15); basis: AGENTS.md "Authority" (the Project Lead decides research content within the research-integrity rules) and the Owner's choice in the SocioLens project chat on 15 October 2026 to build the LD-09 debate; a new Claim, first version, written from the project's LD-09 source notes, checked against full texts or official abstracts
FIELD_6_SOURCE_REFERENCE = SRC-SL-LIANG-ET-AL-ARXIV-2404-01268--v1.0 — basis: field 6 of ENTRY 09 — LD09-SL-C09 cites "Liang, Zhang, Wu, Lepp, Ji, Zhao et al., “Mapping the Increasing Use of LLMs in Scientific Papers,” arXiv:2404.01268, April 2024"; the only field-6 segment of this ClaimVersion's repository-authored ledger block.
SOURCE_PROVENANCE_PIN = SRC-SL-LIANG-ET-AL-ARXIV-2404-01268--v1.0 — basis: explicit version-pinned public provenance of this ClaimVersion (Amendment v1.2 §6): the pinned field-6 Source record "Liang, Zhang, Wu, Lepp, Ji, Zhao et al., “Mapping the Increasing Use of LLMs in Scientific Papers,” arXiv:2404.01268, April 2024".