Clausal and phrasal complexity in research articles published in well-established and predatory journals
A case study of two journals in political science
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47862/apples.120753Keywords:
predatory publishing, research articles, syntactic complexity, political science, disciplinary writingAbstract
Predatory publishing has attracted much scholarly attention recently, but little is known about the actual material published in predatory journals. In this paper, we address this gap focusing on syntactic complexity. Using both traditional syntactic complexity measures and more fine-grained indices of phrasal and clausal complexity, the study explores the similarities and differences between two corpora consisting of 220 research articles drawn from two comparable journals in the discipline of Political Science, one purportedly predatory and one top-ranking. The results show that the articles look similar in many respects (e.g., mean length of sentences/T-units, number of T-units per sentence). Differences are found in more fine-grained indices such as clausal complements, adverbial clauses, and noun phrases with noun premodifiers, which are associated with discipline-specific rhetorical and ideational functions. The study demonstrates the potential of linguistic analyses in contributing to our understanding of predatory publishing as a complex phenomenon.
Downloads
Published
Versions
- 2023-05-23 (2)
- 2023-03-16 (1)
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Ying Wang, Josep Soler
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Author’s Warranty and Publication Agreement
The corresponding Author (hereafter Author) hereby warrants on behalf of all the authors (hereafter author(s)) that the manuscript here submitted to the journal Apples - Journal of Applied Language Studies is original and has not been published or submitted to publication elsewhere in part or in whole. The Author also commits not to send the manuscript for consideration elsewhere while the article is being processed by Apples - Journal of Applied Language Studies. The Author also warrants to have the full authority to submit the article. Apples will not accept a manuscript for which the copyright is held by a third party. The Author also warrants that the article contains no libelous or unlawful statements, and does not infringe on the rights of others. If the article contains any material protected by the copyright of others, the Author must deliver a written permission from the copyright owner(s) to reproduce such material in the article.
The Author also understands that:
1. The Author hereby agrees that the Publisher (the University of Jyväskylä, Centre for Applied Language Studies) has the right to publish, distribute, display and copy the article. When the manuscript is ready for publication, it will be published at Publisher's own expense and under the Publisher's name. The author(s) retains the copyright to the article.
2. The Author understands that no royalties or remuneration will be paid by the Publisher to the author(s) for the above-named submitted manuscript.
3. The Author is responsible for the content, originality and integrity of the article, and will indemnify and defend the Publisher against any claim, demand or recovery against the Publisher by reason of any violation of any proprietary right or copyright, or because of any libelous or scandalous matter contained in the manuscript.
4. The publisher will have the right to edit the work, provided that the meaning of the text is not materially altered.
5. The publisher has the right to end the service of the journal Apples - Journal of Applied Language Studies or alter it at any time and for any cause without liability to the author(s).
6. The Author understands that the article will be published openly on the Internet and, after publication, anyone has the right to copy, distribute and display the work freely as long as it is for nonprofit purposes, and the original author(s) is given credit and Apples - Journal of Applied Language Studies is named as the original publication.
7. This Agreement, whenever called upon to be construed, shall be governed under Finnish law.
8. The parties to this Agreement consent and agree that all possible disputes will be resolved primarily by negotiations. If needed all legal proceedings relating to the subject matter of this Agreement shall be maintained in Jyväskylä district court.
9. This Agreement cannot be modified except by a written instrument signed by the parties hereto.
10. This Agreement shall be binding upon the parties hereto, their heirs, successors, assigns and personal representatives.
11. If the Article was prepared jointly with other authors, you warrant that you have been authorized by all co-authors to sign this Agreement on their behalf, and to agree on their behalf the order of names in the publication of the Article. You shall notify us in writing of the names of any such co-authors.
If the article includes material from other copyrighted sources, the Author agrees to send the relevant permissions to Apples editors (address below).
If the article include illustrations in which a person can be recognized, the Author agrees to send the relevant permissions to Apples editors (address below).
Apples – Journal of Applied Language Studies
Centre for Applied Language Studies
P.O. Box 35
FIN-40014 University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Email apples@jyu.fi
