Making sense and transparency in finance literature: Evidence from trends in readability

Oumaima Lahmar and Luca Piras

Research in International Business and Finance, 2023, vol. 64, issue C

Abstract: Transparency continues to interest finance scholarship, as regards not just to financial reporting, but to a host of areas. Concomitantly, there is a growing emphasis on the transparency of the finance research process, with journals initiating requirements for uploading data and codes. However, little consideration is given to the transparency of finance scholarly texts, despite new emphasis by academic institutions and accreditation bodies on articles having an impact on practitioners. We use textual analysis to investigate the readability of articles in a selection of finance journals. Results evidence that academic articles are becoming less readable. Whether readability straightforwardly implies transparency is unclear, still, we consider these issues alongside our findings. Our study should be of great interest to those concerned with the state of finance scholarship.

Keywords: Readability; Transparency; Academic writing; Natural language processing; Textual analysis; Finance literature (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G00 G10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:riibaf:v:64:y:2023:i:c:s0275531923000260

DOI: 10.1016/j.ribaf.2023.101900

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