Exploring the change in scientific readability following the release of ChatGPT
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Another study analysed 2.4 million arXiv abstracts (2010-2024) using four readability metrics and found a steady decline in readability after the release of ChatGPT.
“Another study analysed 2.4 million arXiv abstracts (2010-2024) using four readability metrics and found a steady decline in readability after the release of ChatGPT, suggesting that its growing use may be contributing to increased linguistic complexity in abstracts (Alsudais, 2025).”
From How much are LLMs changing the language of academic papers after ChatGPT? A multi-database and full text analysis (2026) · cites this paper as Alsudais, 2025
Cites
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“These efforts continue a long tradition of research aimed at understanding and improving the scientific community’s engagement with rigorous scholarship (Abramo et al., 2020; Alsudais, 2021b, 2021a; Fraser et al., 2021; Wilkinson et al., 2016).”
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“These efforts continue a long tradition of research aimed at understanding and improving the scientific community’s engagement with rigorous scholarship (Abramo et al., 2020; Alsudais, 2021b, 2021a; Fraser et al., 2021; Wilkinson et al., 2016).”
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“Some studies have examined these models' effects beyond published papers, focusing on other aspects of publishing, such as using ChatGPT to assist in peer review (Hosseini & Horbach, 2023; Kousha & Thelwall, 2024).”
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“Other studies have applied these metrics in different contexts, such as examining their correlation with citation counts (Ante, 2022; Dowling et al., 2018; McCannon, 2019) and assessing the readability of papers within specific disciplines (Dolnicar & Chapple, 2015; Graf-Vlachy, 2021; Wang et al.,…”
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Readability is decreasing in language and linguistics
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Readability and research impact
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Self-citation
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Kousha, K., & Thelwall, M. (2026) · Scientometrics · doi:10.1007/s11192-026-05601-5 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Which abstract stylistic features fool ChatGPT research evaluations?
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Opinion paper: generative AI and the future of scientometrics
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Finding the Fingerprints of Generative Artificial Intelligence in Psychology Publications
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- Authors
- Alsudais, A.
- Affiliations
- Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University (SA)
- Corresponding author
- Alsudais, Abdulkareem
- Venue
- Journal of Informetrics
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2025-08
- Volume
- 19
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 101679
- ISSN
- 1751-1577 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4410219692
- Cited by
- 9
- References
- 37
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9
- FWCI
- 5.79
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- arxiv.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Informetrics (publishedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Funders
- Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University (PSAU/2025/R/1446)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty › scientometrics and bibliometrics research
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History and Philosophy of Science › Academic Writing and Publishing
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Text Readability and Simplification
- Keywords
- ChatGPT, large language models, readability formulas, scientific writing
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