22
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: found
      Is Open Access

      A discourse analysis of the macro-structure, metadiscoursal and microdiscoursal features in the abstracts of research articles across multiple science disciplines

      research-article
      1 , 2 , 3 , *
      PLoS ONE
      Public Library of Science

      Read this article at

      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          The abstract of a scientific research article convinces readers that the article deserves to be read. Abstracts can also determine the success of publications and grant applications. In recent years, there has been a trend of cross-disciplinary collaborations in the science community. Scientists have been increasingly expected to engage not only experts of their own disciplines, but also other disciplines with the scope of interest extending to non-experts, such as policy-makers and the general public. Thus, the macro-structure, metadiscoursal and microdiscoursal features exhibited in scientific article abstracts merit attention. In our study, we examined 500 abstracts of scientific research articles published in 50 high-impact journals across five science disciplines (Earth, Formal, Life, Physical and Social Sciences), and performed quantitative analysis of the move structure as well as use of boosters and linguistic features. We found significant interdisciplinary variations in the move structure, boosters and linguistic features employed by these science disciplines. We confirmed that each science discipline possesses a distinct set of macro-structural, metadiscoursal and formalization features, which contribute to its own unique discipline-specific convention. Understanding and observing the disciplinary rhetorical choices and communication conventions will allow scientists to align the abstracts of their studies with the expectations of the targeted audience.

          Related collections

          Most cited references25

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: found
          • Article: not found

          A generation at risk: young investigators and the future of the biomedical workforce.

          A number of distressing trends, including a decline in the share of key research grants going to younger scientists, as well as a steady rise in the age at which investigators receive their first funding, are now a decades-long feature of the US biomedical research workforce. Working committees have proposed recommendations, policy makers have implemented reforms, and yet the trajectory of our funding regime away from young scientists has only worsened. An investigation of some of the major factors and their geneses at play in explaining the increasing average age to first RO1 is presented. Recommendations related to funding, peer review, career paths, and the university-government partnership are provided.
            Bookmark
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: not found
            • Article: not found

            Boosting, hedging and the negotiation of academic knowledge

            KEN HYLAND (1998)
              Bookmark
              • Record: found
              • Abstract: not found
              • Article: not found

              Research article abstracts in applied linguistics and educational technology: a study of linguistic realizations of rhetorical structure and authorial stance

                Bookmark

                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: Data curationRole: Formal analysisRole: Funding acquisitionRole: InvestigationRole: MethodologyRole: Project administrationRole: SupervisionRole: ValidationRole: VisualizationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: ValidationRole: VisualizationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: ConceptualizationRole: Data curationRole: Formal analysisRole: InvestigationRole: SupervisionRole: ValidationRole: VisualizationRole: Writing – original draftRole: Writing – review & editing
                Role: Editor
                Journal
                PLoS One
                PLoS ONE
                plos
                plosone
                PLoS ONE
                Public Library of Science (San Francisco, CA USA )
                1932-6203
                12 October 2018
                2018
                : 13
                : 10
                : e0205417
                Affiliations
                [1 ] Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China
                [2 ] Language Centre, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China
                [3 ] School of Life Sciences, Faculty of Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong SAR, China
                Central European University, HUNGARY
                Author notes

                Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4274-7052
                Article
                PONE-D-18-15086
                10.1371/journal.pone.0205417
                6185845
                30312332
                1c8f81c7-6410-41a6-bec3-7c5aaae58c8f
                © 2018 Ngai et al

                This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

                History
                : 20 May 2018
                : 25 September 2018
                Page count
                Figures: 4, Tables: 5, Pages: 21
                Funding
                The authors received no specific funding for this work.
                Categories
                Research Article
                Social Sciences
                Linguistics
                Grammar
                Science Policy
                Science and Technology Workforce
                Careers in Research
                Scientists
                People and Places
                Population Groupings
                Professions
                Scientists
                Social Sciences
                Physical Sciences
                Research and Analysis Methods
                Scientific Publishing
                Earth Sciences
                Research and Analysis Methods
                Research Design
                Quantitative Analysis
                Social Sciences
                Linguistics
                Grammar
                Syntax
                Custom metadata
                All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files.

                Uncategorized
                Uncategorized

                Comments

                Comment on this article