Readability and citations in information science: evidence from abstracts and articles of four journals (2003–2012)

Lei Lei () and Sheng Yan
Additional contact information
Lei Lei: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Sheng Yan: Huazhong University of Science and Technology

Scientometrics, 2016, vol. 108, issue 3, No 9, 1155-1169

Abstract: Abstract The present study analysed the readability of abstracts and full texts of the articles published in four journals of information science from 2003 to 2012. The results showed that the abstracts are very difficult to read in terms of readability indices such as FRE and SMOG. The results also showed that some of the readabilities of the abstracts and full texts changed in the examined decade, though the effect sizes were minuscule. Meanwhile, the readability scores were not significantly correlated with the number of citations. Although the readability issue of an academic text is secondary to the impact of the study, it is not suggested that the academic writers not pay any attention to the readability issue. On the contrary, it would be better if the technical texts be more readable and clearer after the knowledge or information is accurately and academically conveyed.

Keywords: Readability; Citations; Abstracts; Articles; Information science (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11192-016-2036-9 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:scient:v:108:y:2016:i:3:d:10.1007_s11192-016-2036-9

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11192

DOI: 10.1007/s11192-016-2036-9

Access Statistics for this article

Scientometrics is currently edited by Wolfgang Glänzel

More articles in Scientometrics from Springer, Akadémiai Kiadó
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().