The relationship between citations and the linguistic traits of specific academic discourse communities identified by using social network analysis

Abstract For a research article (RA) to be accepted, not only for publication, but also by its readers, it must display proficiency in the content, methodologies and discourse conventions of specific discipline. While numerous studies have investigated linguistic characteristics different disciplines, none utilised Social Network Analysis techniques identify communities prior analysing their language use. This study aims investigate use three highly fields Psychology, Physics Sports Medicine. We were interested how these features are related total number citations, eigencentrality within community intra-network citations individual RAs. Applying Biber’s Multidimensional approach, 771 RA abstracts published between 2010 2019 analysed. evaluated correlations one network (citations, in-degree), corpora’s dimensions 72 features. The pattern suggest that cited other RAs almost all cases from those outside network. finding highlights challenges writing both discipline-specific wider audience.