The linguistic strength is a metric indicating how definitive or hypothetical a sentence (evidence point) is, based on how the authors express it in language. Each evidence point is assigned a linguistic score ranging from -14 to 14. Definitive statements have a higher value than hypothetical ones, while refuting statements have a negative value.
Below are some examples of evidence about PD-L1 effects on NSCLC (link), spanning a broad score range (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Distribution of different evidence points about PD-L1 effects on NSCLC according to their linguistic score.
More specifically:
- When the language used describes a negative association or a vague possible relationship, the score is negative or close to zero as shown in the examples 1 & 2 in Table 1.
- As the statements become more affirmative for the relationship, the linguistic score increases accordingly (examples 3 & 4 in Table 1).
- When the authors describe the relationship with definite language, stating a strong association between the concepts, then the linguistic score is very high (examples 5 & 6 in Table 1).
Table 1. Evidence language rated with low, moderate and high scores.
The linguistic score can be used for sorting the relationships based on the strength of evidence that support them. (link)