Easy to read, easy to cite?

Citation Analysis and Discourse Analysis

Swales, J. M. (1986) · Applied Linguistics · doi:10.1093/applin/7.1.39 · Cited by 240 · see citing works

Unintelligible Management Research and Academic Prestige

Armstrong, J. S. (1980) · INFORMS Journal on Applied Analytics · doi:10.1287/inte.10.2.80 · Cited by 210 · see citing works

Publishing while Female. Are women held to higher standards? Evidence from peer review.Preprint

Hengel, E. (2017) · RePEc: Research Papers in Economics · doi:10.17863/cam.17548 · Cited by 188 · see citing works

Readability: Text and Context

Bailin, A., & Grafstein, A. J. (2016) · Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks · doi:10.1057/9781137388773 · Cited by 120 · see citing works

Abstracts, introductions and discussions: How far do they differ in style?

Hartley, J., Pennebaker, J. W., & Fox, C. (2003) · Scientometrics · doi:10.1023/a:1025008802657 · Cited by 63 · see citing works

The readability of articles in tourism journals

Dolničar, S., & Chapple, A. R. (2015) · Annals of Tourism Research · doi:10.1016/j.annals.2015.03.003 · Cited by 61 · see citing works

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

Lei, L., & Yan, S. (2016) · Scientometrics · doi:10.1007/s11192-016-2036-9 · Cited by 60 · see citing works

ECONOMICAL WRITING

McCloskey, D. N. (1985) · Economic Inquiry · doi:10.1111/j.1465-7295.1985.tb01761.x · Cited by 46 · see citing works

What do Editors Maximize? Evidence from Four Leading Economics Journals

Card, D., & DellaVigna, S. (2017) · National Bureau of Economic Research · doi:10.3386/w23282 · Cited by 33 · see citing works

Mumbling with great incoherence: Was it really so difficult to understand Alan Greenspan?

Jansen, D. (2011) · Economics Letters · doi:10.1016/j.econlet.2011.05.034 · Cited by 32 · see citing works

Knowledge flows in marketing: An analysis of journal article references and citations

Sivadas, E., & Johnson, M. S. (2005) · Marketing Theory · doi:10.1177/1470593105058817 · Cited by 30 · see citing works

THE IMPACT OF BAD WRITING IN ECONOMICS

Laband, D. N., & Taylor, C. N. (1992) · Economic Inquiry · doi:10.1111/j.1465-7295.1992.tb01289.x · Cited by 18 · see citing works

THE METRICS OF STYLE: ADAM SMITH TEACHES EFFICIENT RHETORIC

Diamond, A. M., & Levy, D. M. (1994) · Economic Inquiry · doi:10.1111/j.1465-7295.1994.tb01317.x · Cited by 11 · see citing works

THE COSTS OF ECONOMICAL WRITING

High, J. (1987) · Economic Inquiry · doi:10.1111/j.1465-7295.1987.tb00758.x · Cited by 7 · see citing works

Factors associating with or predicting more cited or higher quality journal articles: An Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (ARIST) paper

Kousha, K., & Thelwall, M. A. (2023) · Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology · doi:10.1002/asi.24810 · Cited by 65 · see citing works

The relationship between readability and scientific impact: Evidence from emerging technology discourses

Ante, L. (2022) · Journal of Informetrics · doi:10.1016/j.joi.2022.101252 · Cited by 52 · see citing works

Readability is decreasing in language and linguistics

Wang, S., Liu, X., & Zhou, J. (2022) · Scientometrics · doi:10.1007/s11192-022-04427-1 · Cited by 36 · see citing works

Can ChatGPT be used to predict citation counts, readership, and social media interaction? An exploration among 2222 scientific abstracts

de Winter, J. (2024) · Scientometrics · doi:10.1007/s11192-024-04939-y · Cited by 34 · see citing works

Readability and research impact

McCannon, B. C. (2019) · Economics Letters · doi:10.1016/j.econlet.2019.02.017 · Cited by 28 · see citing works

Adjectives and adverbs in life sciences across 50 years: implications for emotions and readability in academic texts

Wen, J., & Lei, L. (2022) · Scientometrics · doi:10.1007/s11192-022-04453-z · Cited by 22 · see citing works

Write better, publish better

Fages, D. M. (2020) · Scientometrics · doi:10.1007/s11192-019-03332-4 · Cited by 16 · see citing works

Analysis of the scientific literature's abstract writing style and citations

Hu, H., Wang, D., & Deng, S. (2021) · Online Information Review · doi:10.1108/oir-05-2020-0188 · Cited by 16 · see citing works

The diachronic change of research article abstract difficulty across disciplines: a cognitive information-theoretic approach

Zhao, X., Li, L., & Wei, X. L. (2023) · Humanities and Social Sciences Communications · doi:10.1057/s41599-023-01710-1 · Cited by 15 · see citing works

How easy is it to understand consumer finance?

Burke, M., & Fry, J. M. (2019) · Economics Letters · doi:10.1016/j.econlet.2019.01.004 · Cited by 11 · see citing works

Exploring the change in scientific readability following the release of ChatGPT

Alsudais, A. (2025) · Journal of Informetrics · doi:10.1016/j.joi.2025.101679 · Cited by 9 · see citing works

Declining readability of research on biological invasions over two decades

Hulme, P. E., & Mclaren-Swift, H. (2022) · Biological Invasions · doi:10.1007/s10530-022-02740-7 · Cited by 9 · see citing works

Author Country of Origin and Attention on Open Science Platforms: Evidence from COVID-19 Preprints

Fry, C., & MacGarvie, M. J. (2023) · Management Science · doi:10.1287/mnsc.2023.4936 · Cited by 9 · see citing works

Discussants

Rose, M. E., Opolot, D. C., & Georg, C.-P. (2022) · Research Policy · doi:10.1016/j.respol.2022.104587 · Cited by 8 · see citing works

Writing matters

Feld, J., Lines, C., & Ross, L. (2023) · Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization · doi:10.1016/j.jebo.2023.11.016 · Cited by 4 · see citing works

Writing Energy Economics Research for Impact

Dowling, M., Hammami, H., Tawil, D., & Zreik, O. (2020) · The Energy Journal · doi:10.5547/01956574.42.3.mdow · Cited by 2 · see citing works

Writing MattersPreprint

Feld, J., Ross, L., & Lines, C. (2022) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/8jt2p · Cited by 2 · see citing works

Readability Affects Scientific Impact: Evidence from Emerging Technology DiscoursesPreprint

Ante, L. (2021) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.3897998 · Cited by 1 · see citing works

DiscussantsPreprint

Rose, M. E., Georg, C.-P., & Opolot, D. C. (2020) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.3727173 · Cited by 1 · see citing works

Abstract Readability Across Knowledge Domains and Citation Impact in Forestry-Related Research

Jiang, C., Liu, L., Luo, G., & Wu, J. (2026) · Forests · doi:10.3390/f17090998 · Cited by 1 · see citing works

LLM-Assisted writing in engineering is associated with higher citations as evidenced from 1.17 million papers

McCreery, Z., & Naser, M. Z. (2026) · Journal of Informetrics · doi:10.1016/j.joi.2026.101842

The Relationship Between Readability and Citations in Forestry Journals

Lingyu, L., & Guihua, L. (2026) · Social Science Research Frontiers · doi:10.57237/j.ssrf.2026.03.006

Factors Affecting Citation Impact Indicators for Individual Articles

Thelwall, M. A. (2026) · White Rose University Press eBooks · doi:10.22599/quantitativemethods.g

Write better, publish better

Fages, D. M. (2020) · Scientometrics · doi:10.1007/s11192-019-03332-4 · Cited by 16 · see citing works

Readability and research impact

McCannon, B. C. (2019) · Economics Letters · doi:10.1016/j.econlet.2019.02.017 · Cited by 28 · see citing works

Readability is decreasing in language and linguistics

Wang, S., Liu, X., & Zhou, J. (2022) · Scientometrics · doi:10.1007/s11192-022-04427-1 · Cited by 36 · see citing works

Abstract readability: Evidence from top-5 economics journals

Rodriguez, B., Huynh, K. P., Jacho-Chávez, D. T., & Sánchez-Aragón, L. (2024) · Economics Letters · doi:10.1016/j.econlet.2024.111541 · Cited by 5 · see citing works

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

Lei, L., & Yan, S. (2016) · Scientometrics · doi:10.1007/s11192-016-2036-9 · Cited by 60 · see citing works