Readability and research impact

Bryan McCannon

Economics Letters, 2019, vol. 180, issue C, 76-79

Abstract: I ask whether the writing quality affects a research paper’s impact. Using papers published in the American Economic Review between 2000 and 2009 I apply a standardized readability metric to score the quality of the writing of the introduction section of each paper. Using citation counts to measure research’s impact, I show a statistically significant relationship between the two. The hardest to read papers suffer a reduction in citations by up to 15 of a standard deviation.

Keywords: Citations; Impact; Linsear Write; Readability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:180:y:2019:i:c:p:76-79

DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2019.02.017

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