A computational model for individual scholars' writing style dynamics

Abstract

A manuscript’s writing style is central to determining its readership, influence, and impact. Past research has shown that, in many cases, scholars present a unique writing style that is manifested in their manuscripts. In this work, we report a comprehensive investigation into how scholars’ writing styles evolve throughout their careers focusing on their academic relations with their advisors and peers. Our results show that scholars’ writing styles tend to stabilize early on in their careers – roughly around their 13th publication. Around the same time, schol- ars’ departures from their advisors’ writing styles seem to converge as well. Last, collaborations involving fewer scholars, scholars from the same gender, or from the same field of study seem to bring about a great change in their co-authors’ writing styles with younger scholars being especially influenceable. The proposed method can help to investigate the dynamic behavior of academic writing style.

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