[pps43]

In this case knowing that ROC stands for Receiver Operating Characteristic wouldn't help much.

[thomasahle]

It would let me know that we are not talking about finance, say return on capital or rate of change.

This in turn would help me decide whether I might want to read the article, given that the title is the only resume given on the front page.

Thank you for putting it in the comments though :-)

[pps43]

Actually ROC curves are commonly used in finance, e.g., to quantify separating power of various credit risk models.