A bibliometric assessment of the existence of Eszett (ẞ; ß)-carotene, a false positive of beta (β)-carotene, in the literature

Abstract

A unique linguistic phenomenon, in which the Greek letter beta (β) has been unsuspectingly replaced by a German letter Eszett (uppercase or capital ẞ; lowercase ß), and has resulted in the “creation” of a novel non-existent compound, Eszett (ß)-carotene, was previously recorded. The objective of this study was to provide a better quantitative assessment of the extent of the existence of ß-carotene in the literature. Using the Web of Science Core Collection, a search (September 1, 2022) revealed 121 results. The highest incidence of false positives per year was observed in 2021 (18 cases). The journal with the highest incidence of ß-carotene was the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture (five times), most cases (31) were found in Wiley journals, while authors with a US affiliation accounted for most (15) false positives. A Scopus search revealed 552 false positives, highest in 2020 (41 cases), most in Acta Horticulturae (17 times), and most frequently by corresponding authors with a German affiliation (48 times). It is recommended that these errors be corrected to prevent an increase in the incidence of this false positive in the biomedical literature, especially in the fields of food science and nutrition. In addition, journal editors and content managers who are responsible for creating quality metadata should avoid this mistake in the future.