Is there any standard recommendation on when to use previous/next vs. back/forward? Or is there any reason not to pair back with next?
To me, previous/next make sense to use as a pair when navigating a linear sequence, such as flipping through the pages of a book, while back/forward should be used when navigating an environment that doesn't have a logical linear sequence, such as a web browser.
That said, I'm tempted to use back/next as a pair simply because of the fact that they are more concise words and have a symmetry in their number of characters.
Thoughts? Recommendations? Any empirical evidence on this subject?