The use of phrase "per se" in academic writing Using expressions from Latin is a common theme in academia. Expressions like in/ex vivo, in vitro or in situ are very common in biomedical articles, since they are very concise way of expressing some concept. There are however other expressions which have pretty much direct translations in English, and in some cases not even much longer in number of words/characters. 

I have heard conflicting opinions on the use of the phrase per se and wanted to get more thoughts and ideally a generally applicable guideline for authors? 

Edit: just wanted to mention that this is not necessarily for my own writing, the inspiration for the question came from a manuscript written by collaborators.
I guess my advice would be to write in the way that seems most natural to you and gets your ideas across efficiently rather than worrying about the "word police."

If a reviewer objects then you can make a change, or not, as you see fit. 

Clearly objectionable terms would be an exception, of course, but reviewers will point those out pretty regularly. 

I think it is a fair statement to say that language rules evolved from language usage and not the other way around.