We are writing a paper about an algorithm that takes a group of solutions and sorts them by their likelihood of being equal to the one and only 'good solution'.
Internally, we refer to this 'good solution' as meromero, which is a Mexican street slang for 'the most important' or the precisely for 'the one and only'.
I like the word because it allows naming an important concept with a funky and short sound. Also, it forces you to draw your eyes towards it, creating some kind of highlight about the ideas related to this 'one and only good solution'.
However, I'm not sure of using it, precisely because it is a slang word and I don't remember ever reading a paper using slang words.
Therefore, my question is:
Is using a slang word to name a concept bad taste in a scientific paper?
Notice that this is merely a personal curiosity, we have already choosen not to use the word.
Answer
Your goal in writing scientific papers is for the language to be as intelligible as possible. That is, you want to use language which won't hinder people who are trying to read your paper.
The disadvantage of slang is that it is often not intelligible to many people (especially non-native speakers), and may be idiosyncratic to specific groups. Therefore, if your goal is for the paper to be as intelligible as possible, you would want to avoid using slang.
In addition, scientific writing tends to be relatively formal, which is why slang will often look inappropriate and out of place.
Some papers which mention that you should avoid using slang:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1443950600900817
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/micr.20960/full
It's possible that conventions will be different in your field. When in doubt, look at other publications and use them to guide you.
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