Do Linguistic Style and Readability of Scientific Abstracts Affect their Virality?

Authors

  • Marco Guerini Trento-Rise
  • Alberto Pepe Harvard University
  • Bruno Lepri Massachusetts Institute of Technology

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1609/icwsm.v6i1.14305

Abstract

Reactions to textual content posted in an online social net- work show different dynamics depending on the linguistic style and readability of the submitted content. Do similar dy- namics exist for responses to scientific articles? Our intuition, supported by previous research, suggests that the success of a scientific article depends on its content, rather than on its linguistic style. In this article, we examine a corpus of sci- entific abstracts and three forms of associated reactions: ar- ticle downloads, citations, and bookmarks. Through a class- based psycholinguistic analysis and readability indices tests, we show that certain stylistic and readability features of ab- stracts clearly concur in determining the success and viral ca- pability of a scientific article.

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Published

2021-08-03

How to Cite

Guerini, M., Pepe, A., & Lepri, B. (2021). Do Linguistic Style and Readability of Scientific Abstracts Affect their Virality?. Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media, 6(1), 475-478. https://doi.org/10.1609/icwsm.v6i1.14305