Readability is decreasing in language and linguistics

Shan Wang (), Xiaojun Liu and Jie Zhou
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Shan Wang: University of Macau
Xiaojun Liu: University of Macau
Jie Zhou: University of Macau

Scientometrics, 2022, vol. 127, issue 8, No 19, 4697-4729

Abstract: Abstract Readability reflects the ease of reading a text and high readability indicates easy texts. Based on a corpus consisting of 71,628 abstracts published in SSCI journals in language and linguistics from 1991 to 2020, this paper employs nine readability indexes to analyze their readability and relationship with citations. The results show that the readability of abstracts in journals of language and linguistics is low. Moreover, in the past 30 years, the abstract readability in language and linguistics abstracts is decreasing. Meanwhile, readability is significantly negatively correlated with the number of citations, even though the effect size is very small. The results above suggest that abstracts are very difficult to read; they are becoming more and more difficult than before; the abstract of the articles with more citations appear to be less readable. Faced with decreasing readability, it is suggested that scholars make themselves understood when expressing their ideas with jargon. This study not only has implications for scholars to use linguistic features to improve readability, but also provides quantitative support for the research on readability.

Keywords: Readability; Citation; Abstracts; Language; Linguistics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11192-022-04427-1

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