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The advantage of simple paper abstracts

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  • Letchford, Adrian
  • Preis, Tobias
  • Moat, Helen Susannah

Abstract

Each year, researchers publish an immense number of scientific papers. While some receive many citations, others receive none. Here we investigate whether any of this variance can be explained by the choice of words in a paper's abstract. We find that doubling the word frequency of an average abstract increases citations by 0.70%. We also find that journals which publish papers whose abstracts are shorter and contain more frequently used words receive slightly more citations per paper. Specifically, adding a 5 letter word to an abstract decreases the number of citations by 0.02%. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that the style in which a paper's abstract is written bears some relation to its scientific impact.

Suggested Citation

  • Letchford, Adrian & Preis, Tobias & Moat, Helen Susannah, 2016. "The advantage of simple paper abstracts," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 1-8.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:infome:v:10:y:2016:i:1:p:1-8
    DOI: 10.1016/j.joi.2015.11.001
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    References listed on IDEAS

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