The linguistic patterns and rhetorical structure of citation context : an approach using n-grams

Using the full-text corpus of more than 75,000 research articles published by seven PLOS journals, this paper proposes a natural language processing approach for identifying the function of citations. Citation contexts are assigned based on the frequency of n-gram co-occurrences located near the citations. Results show that the most frequent linguistic patterns found in the citation contexts of papers vary according to their location in the IMRaD structure of scientific articles. The presence of negative citations is also dependent on this structure. This methodology offers new perspectives to locate these discursive forms according to the rhetorical structure of scientific articles, and will lead to a better understanding of the use of citations in scientific articles

Writers' uncertainty in scientific and popular biomedical articles. A comparative analysis of the British Medical Journal and Discover Magazine

Distinguishing certain and uncertain information is of crucial importance both in the scientific field in the strict sense and in the popular scientific domain. In this paper, by adopting an epistemic stance perspective on certainty and uncertainty, and a mixed procedure of analysis, which combines a bottom-up and a top-down approach, we perform a comparative study (both qualitative and quantitative) of the uncertainty linguistic markers (verbs, non-verbs, modal verbs, conditional clauses, uncertain questions, epistemic future) and their scope in three different corpora: a historical corpus of 80 biomedical articles from the British Medical Journal (BMJ) 1840-2007; a corpus of 12 biomedical articles from BMJ 2013, and a contemporary corpus of 12 scientific popular articles from Discover 2013. The variables under observation are time, structure (IMRaD vs no-IMRaD) and genre (scientific vs popular articles). We apply the Generalized Linear Models analysis in order to test whether there are statistically significant differences (1) in the amount of uncertainty among the different corpora, and (2) in the categories of uncertainty markers used by writers. The results of our analysis reveal that (1) in all corpora, the percentages of uncertainty are always much lower than that of certainty; (2) uncertainty progressively diminishes over time in biomedical articles (in conjunction with their structural changes-IMRaD-and to the increase of the BMJ Impact Factor); and (3) uncertainty is slightly higher in scientific popular articles (Discover 2013) as compared to the contemporary corpus of scientific articles (BMJ 2013). Nevertheless, in all corpora, modal verbs are the most used uncertainty markers. These results suggest that not only do scientific writers prefer to communicate their uncertainty with markers of possibility rather than those of subjectivity but also that science journalists prefer using a third-person subject followed by modal verbs rather than a first-person subject followed by mental verbs such as think or believe

Epistemička modalnost u akademskom diskursu u hrvatskom i engleskom jeziku

The present thesis is the result of a cross-cultural, genre-based study whose main objective is to examine how writers of research articles in psychology in Croatian and English use epistemic modality devices in hedging their claims or in evaluating other scholars’ work. Based on the corpus of 60 research articles published in Croatian and English journals, the study aims to establish the patterns of similarities and differences in the use of the epistemic devices across the main rhetorical sections of a research article as well as to identify their major hedging functions. The overall results show that English writers use epistemic markers more frequently than their Croatian counterparts. This finding is generally in line with the previous cross-cultural studies, showing a more salient use of hedges and their more entrenched status in the Anglo- American writing as compared to academic writing in some other languages investigated. With respect to the individual categories of epistemic devices, the results show both similarities and differences in their uses across the two sub-corpora. In both the English and Croatian sub-corpus, epistemic modal verbs are employed most frequently, followed by epistemic verbs, while epistemic nouns are the least frequent category of epistemic devices. The major difference in the overall results concerns the distributional patterns in the use of epistemic devices. While epistemic modal verbs show a strikingly high frequency of occurrences as compared to other epistemic devices in the English corpus, the results of the frequency analysis of the Croatian corpus show that writers hedge their claims mostly by means of the modal verbs, epistemic verbs, and epistemic adverbs and particles, as attested by their overall similar frequencies. With respect to the distribution of epistemic devices across the research article sections, both English and Croatian writers hedge their claims mostly in the Discussion, followed by the Introduction section, while the use of epistemic devices in the remaining two sections is significantly lower by comparison. Generally, this complies with the major rhetorical functions of the research article sections. Thus, the highest density of hedges in the Discussion reflects its major rhetorical functions primarily concerned with writers’ interpretations and implications of the given research, which often requires a cautious and tentative use of language, shielding writers from the risks of negatibilty of the claims. By contrast, the use of hedges in the middle research article sections is less salient given their focus on the descriptive accounts of the methodological procedures and obtained findings. Drawing on Hyland’s (1998) polypragmatic model of scientific hedges, epistemic devices in both corpora are mostly concerned with the reliability type of hedges, concerned with indicating uncertainties towards the propositional content, signaling at the same time the extent to which the claims may be considered as accurate given the limited state of knowledge they are based on. In addition, epistemic markers may be used as writer-oriented hedges concerned with diminishing the writers’ presence in the text, allowing them to maintain distance from the proposed claims. Finally, the use of epistemic verbs co-occurring with the 1st person plural pronouns is interpreted in the present study as a writer’s strategic choice in foregrounding the epistemic stance. This use of epistemic devices is more frequent in the English as compared to the Croatian corpus, which is in line with some previous crosscultural research, indicating that self-mention is a more prominent feature of the Anglo- American writing as compared to that in other languages. In sum, the present findings provide an insight into the use of the epistemic language in the cross-cultural disciplinary writing and as such may be of particular use to the Croatian speaking disciplinary scholars, students and all those interested in writing research articles in English. On a more general note, it is expected that the study may incite further research on academic writing conventions in Croatian or their comparison with those in English as a lingua franca of science.Cilj je rada istražiti kako autori znanstvenih članaka iz područja psihologije na hrvatskom i engleskom jeziku koriste sredstva epistemičke modalnosti da bi izrazili različiti stupanj sigurnosti prema iznesenim tvrdnjama te iskazali stav prema tvrdnjama drugih autora. Analiza se temelji na korpusu 60 znanstvenih članaka objavljenim u znanstvenim časopisima na hrvatskom i engleskom jeziku. Cilj je analize utvrđivanje sličnosti i razlika u uporabi i učestalosti sredstava epistemičke modalnosti u glavnim retoričkim segmentima znanstvenog članka te istraživanje njihovih pragmatičkih funkcija kao sredstava ograđivanja u znanstvenom tekstu. Rezultati frekvencijske analize pokazuju veću zastupljenost sredstava epistemičke modalnosti u engleskom korpusu u odnosu na hrvatski, što je općenito u skladu s nalazima prethodnih međujezičnih istraživanja koja upućuju na učestaliju uporabu oznaka ograđivanja u akademskom stilu angloameričkog govornog područja u odnosu na akademske stilove pisanja u nekim drugim jezicima. Rezultati pokazuju da su modalni glagoli najčešća gramatička kategorija epistemičkih sredstava u oba korpusa, dok su epistemički glagoli sljedeća kategorija po čestotnosti. U oba korpusa najmanju zastupljenost pokazuje uporaba epistemičkih imenica. Unatoč navedenim sličnostima, rezultati analize pokazuju na istaknutu uporabu modalnih glagola u engleskom korpusu, dok učestalost ostalih sredstava epistemičke modalnosti ne pokazuje drastična odstupanja. Rezultati analize hrvatskog korpusa pokazuju da se najčešća sredstva grupiraju oko modalnih glagola, epistemičkih punoznačnih glagola te modalnih priloga i čestica, dok su ostala sredstva značajno manje zastupljena. Nalazi analize ukazuju da se u oba korpusa oznake ograđivanja najviše koriste u Raspravi, manje u Uvodu, dok je značajno manja učestalost zabilježena u Metodi i Rezultatima. Najveća zastupljenost oznaka ograđivanja u Raspravi ukazuje na autorovu potrebu iskazivanja opreza i odmaka u tumačenju nalaza istraživanja i pokušajima izvođenja zaključaka, što proizlazi iz svijesti o različitim ograničenjima istraživanja koja često ne dozvoljavaju iskazivanje visokog stupnja sigurnosti u iznošenju stavova. Manja zastupljenost oznaka ograđivanja u središnjim segmentima članka odražava njihovu primarnu usmjerenost na opise metodoloških postupaka i rezultata, što u pravilu ne zahtijeva izraženiju uporabu oznaka ograđivanja. U odnosu na Hylandov (1998) polipragmatički model ograđivanja u znanstvenom tekstu, rezultati pokazuju da se sredstva epistemičke modalnosti najčešće koriste za iskazivanje nižeg stupnja sigurnosti u odnosu na sadržaj tvrdnje, upućujući pritom da se iste mogu smatrati pouzdanim u okvirima postojećeg, često ograničenog, znanja na temelju kojeg se izvode. Osim na propozicijski sadržaj, pragmatičke funkcije epistemičkih sredstava mogu biti usmjerene i na autora, pri čemu se umanjuje njegova prisutnost u tekstu te omogućuje zadržavanje većeg odmaka od iznesenih tvrdnji. Naposlijetku, uporaba prvog lica i punoznačnih epistemičkih glagola u ovom se radu smatra autorovim izborom s ciljem isticanja osobnog epistemičkog stava. Rezultati pokazuju da je navedena uporaba epistemičkih sredstava učestalija u engleskom korpusu, što je općenito u skladu s nekim prethodnim međujezičnim istraživanjima koja ukazuju da je prisutnost autora istaknutija konvencija angloameričkog akademskog stila pisanja u odnosu na iste u nekim drugim istraživanim jezicima. Zaključno, pretpostavlja se da bi uočene specifičnosti u uporabi sredstava epistemičke modalnosti u psihologijskim člancima u engleskom i hrvatskom jeziku mogle koristiti predmetnim stručnjacima, studentima i svima onima koji počinju pisati ili već imaju iskustvo pisanja znanstvenih članaka kako na hrvatskom, tako i na engleskom jeziku. Očekuje se da bi postojeće istraživanje moglo potaknuti daljnja istraživanja konvencija akademskog pisanja, kako hrvatskog jezika, tako i njihove usporedbe s engleskim jezikom kao globalnim jezikom znanosti

Editorial for the Bibliometric-enhanced Information Retrieval Workshop at ECIR 2014

This first "Bibliometric-enhanced Information Retrieval" (BIR 2014) workshop aims to engage with the IR community about possible links to bibliometrics and scholarly communication. Bibliometric techniques are not yet widely used to enhance retrieval processes in digital libraries, although they offer value-added effects for users. In this workshop we will explore how statistical modelling of scholarship, such as Bradfordizing or network analysis of co-authorship network, can improve retrieval services for specific communities, as well as for large, cross-domain collections. This workshop aims to raise awareness of the missing link between information retrieval (IR) and bibliometrics / scientometrics and to create a common ground for the incorporation of bibliometric-enhanced services into retrieval at the digital library interface. Our interests include information retrieval, information seeking, science modelling, network analysis, and digital libraries. The goal is to apply insights from bibliometrics, scientometrics, and informetrics to concrete practical problems of information retrieval and browsing.Comment: 4 pages, Bibliometric-enhanced Information Retrieval Workshop at ECIR 2014, Amsterdam, N

Multimodal Writing of University Students: The Case of Academic Posters

After having been marginalized for a long time as a second-class genre or “the poor country cousin of papers” (Swales & Feak, 2000), academic posters have recently received remarkable attention as a special multimodal genre that is indispensable for the membership of the academic community. In line with the currently growing interest in multimodal writing, the present study seeks to contribute to the limited body of knowledge on academic posters in two ways: first by investigating the textual and visual communicative strategies employed by novice multimodal writers to facilitate the comprehension of their multimodal texts and guide readers through their discourse and second by exploring the perceptions of those young multimodal writers towards that special genre. To accomplish the first objective, a corpus of 100 academic posters gathered from freshmen university students enrolled in a second language research writing course was compiled and analyzed textually and visually drawing mainly on the framework of D’Angelo (2016a) that distinguishes between interactive and interactional resources. To fulfill the second objective, a questionnaire was filled out by 66 students, and four interviews were carried out. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used in the analysis. Descriptive statistics was employed in the multimodal analysis of the posters as well as the analysis of the questionnaire responses, and a qualitative thematic analysis was conducted to interpret the responses of the interviewees. The quantitative textual and visual analysis revealed a clear dominance of the interactive resources and, to some extent, a lack of making the best use of all the available visual resources. The analysis of the self-reported data unveiled that young multimodal writers hold quite positive perceptions towards the academic poster as a multimodal genre. Further, they tended to decode the interrelation between textual and visual resources as an illustrative or code mixing relationship where both text and visuals complement each other to communicate the intended meaning. The study has pedagogical implications relevant to introducing novice multimodal writers to the available semiotic resources