Academic Journals Across the Disciplines
Introduction
Article claims are phrased in specific ways to persuade disciplinary gatekeepers. Gatekeepers in each discipline control access to scholarly discourse and decide the context of conversation through academic journals [5]. Frame of reference and expectations of readers changes the way that academic journal articles can vary across disciplines [5]. Academic discourse is analyzed in the context of the disciplinary communities that are formed by a variety of social pressures and constraints. These disciplinary community pressures and constraints can alter the linguistic, rhetoric, discourse, and format of academic articles across multiple disciplines [4]. The genre of the academic journal article span across a variety of disciplines [4], as well as sub-disciplines to adhere to the format of its own disciplinary community, appeal to gatekeepers, and establish authorship within a field of study.
Literary Magazines
Literary magazines focus on aspects of the humanities with genre categories consisting of review articles, academic essays, or position papers. Literary academic writing often falls into the realms of history, english, and other related humanity studies. Topics for literary academic writing can range from broad to specific, but are aimed at readers within universities and colleges [8].
Engineering Journals
Engineering journals focus on aspects of high-quality theoretical and experimental papers across a range of engineering fields. Engineering fields may include electrical, mechanical and civil, or metallurgical and materials. Genre categories within Engineering journals may include: original research papers, original research reports, state-of-the-art reviews, short communication, and technical notes. Academic writing within engineering journals aims to promote the theory and practice of technology and engineering [3].
Medical Journals
Medical journals focus on aspects of ongoing and completed medical studies, trials, and research. Categories of medical journal articles may include clinical trials, pilot trials, microarray studies, data sharing, and statistics. Medical journals often adhere to more strict formatting and peer review processes, along with statistical accuracy checking.
Format & Structure
Across the disciplines, format and structure changes based upon the genre an academic article is being written for. Although academic journal articles are considered a genre of writing, each discipline is considered as a different tribe. Therefore the structure, format, content, and rhetoric of academic journal articles can vary across the academic disciplines [5].
Article Length
Length of the article may vary, but typically literary journals aim for a word count of 5,000-9,000 [8]. Engineering and medical journals vary in length based upon the research being presented and the statistical data that is incorporated to support the research topic. While some engineering and medical academic writing are representations of data with short supporting descriptions, trials and research can tend to be lengthy in their reports. Engineering articles should be 10 pages or less [3].
References & Citations
Across disciplines of academic journals, each genre may require specific reference and citation requirements.
Medical references must be double-spaced and numbered consecutively as they are cited [7]. Tables should be included at the end of the text file with footnotes when necessary.
Literary references prefer that a source is clearly and concisely indicated within parentheses in the text. Any references after the first one to a work should be in the text, in parentheses, and in abbreviated form [8]. When footnotes are necessary, make them as brief as possible and should be placed at the end of the article.
Engineering references should use footnotes sparingly and should be numbered consistently throughout the article. Footnotes should appear in the text and then listed separately at the end of the article. Footnotes should not be included in the References list. All other citations should be made in text and present in the References list [3].
Spacing
Engineering and medical journal articles should keep the layout as simple as possible. Articles should be in double-column format with single-space text. No justifications or hyphenations should be formatted into the article. Tabs should be used to align tables and grids. Statistical data is presented in organized and numbered figures and tables.
Literary journal articles should leave generous margins. Articles should be in double-space line format even for quotations and notes. An indent should be inserted at the start of each new paragraph, except for the first paragraph of the article. Long quotes should start on a new line and be set off by an indentation.
Structure
Literary journal articles often do not utilize subject headings to organize content. A general format for literary journal articles includes:
Abstract
Introduction
Body paragraphs
Conclusion
Bibliography or References
Engineering articles should be organized with subdivisions of numbered sections. The subsections should be clearly defined and numbered in order (ex. Section 1.1, 1.2, 1.3). Section headings may include [3]:
Abstract
Introduction
Material and Methods
Theory & Calculation
Results
Discussion
Conclusions
References
Appendices
Medical:
Abstract
Background & hypothesis
Identifying data
Discussion
References
Tables, figures & illustrations
Supplementary appendices, figures, & tables
Trial protocol
Statistical analysis plan
Conclusion
Content
Literary content may include the following topics:
Interests
Theory
Reviews
Argumentative
Medical content may include the following topics:
Microarray studies
Clinical trials
Pilot trials
Analysis
Data interpretation
Data sharing
Engineering content may include the following topics:
Experimental
Theoretical
Computational
Linguistic
Science writing such as engineering and medical articles use more nouns and pre-modifying nouns. Articles written for the humanities, such as English and History tend to report an author’s ideas and observations opposed to scientific articles which aim to transmit empirical results and scientific findings [2]. Scientific and medical writing often overlap in linguistic methods because they aim to define and explain new terms and processes that readers may not typically relate to. Specialized language and density of information, along with statistics and data, are all features of scientific articles within engineering and medical disciplines [2]. Different disciplines hold different views on the role of arguments as an advancement of knowledge, giving way to cross-disciplinary variation [1].
Rhetoric & Discourse
Medical articles should be free from commercial influence. Authors should remove information within the article and photographs that might identify a patient. The main purpose of scientific articles is to convince others of one’s viewpoint. Scientific articles utilize references and presentation of data to uphold the argument of the article [10]. The rhetoric of the discussion section in medical articles serves to reinterpret the data, going beyond it as a means of providing context for readers [9].
Structure and argumentation vary by subdomain in scientific articles. Medical and engineering articles of science have different subdomain categories which changes the experimental, theoretical, and computational approach.
Hedges are the modifications or toning down of claims. Hedges are often used as rhetorical strategies in scientific articles such as medical or engineering. Insertion of hedges in academic writing helps writers present statements with appropriate accuracy and caution, by acting as resources that can help scientists and authors express a degree of certainty regarding their claims [5].
Literary academic writing can be described as an emotional and author-focused, often written to be readable and appealing to a wide audience [2] . The basis of literary articles are meant to argue a claim or persuade readers utilizing familiar linguistic nature that readers can understand and relate to. Disciplinary norms and expectations may have in influence on rhetoric and discourse of the particular journal article in order to adopt more or less of an authoritative stance within the field of study [6].
Peer Review Process of Each Journal Discipline
Literary peer review endure revisions and review processes by experts in the academic related fields. Literary articles typically are reviewed by two or three peer reviewers.
Engineering peer reviews often endure two or three peer reviewers similar to literary journals. The main difference between literary and engineering peer review processes is the revision of statistical information included in engineering articles. Data and statistics in engineering articles must go through statistical testing and revisions to ensure the data is factually accurate.
Medical journal articles endure a rigorous review process. At least five experts review and edit each original article or special manuscript [7]. Each manuscript may go through hundreds of hours of peer review and editing by manuscript editors, statistical experts, illustrators, proofreaders, and production personnel. The medical peer review process is extensive to help improve research reports while preventing overstated results from reaching physicians and the public [7]. Fundamental criteria of quality, novelty, and potential clinical impact must be met [7].
References
[1] Bondi, M. (2005). Dialogue Within Discourse Communities (J. Bamford, Ed.).
[2] Egbert, J. (2015). Publication type and discipline variation in published academic writing. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 20(1).
[3] Elsevier. (n.d.). Author Information Pack. Retrieved from Engineering Science and Technology, an International Journal website.
[4] Holmes, R. (1997). Genre analysis, and the social sciences: An investigation of the structure of research article discussion sections in three disciplines. English for Specific Purposes, 16(4), 321-337.
[5] Koutsantoni, D. (2006). Rhetorical strategies in engineering research articles and research theses: Advanced academic literacy and relations of power. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 5(1), 19-36.
[6] Millan, E. L. (n.d.). 'Extending this claim we propose...' The Writer's Presence in Research Articles from Different Disciplines. Iberica, 36-56.
[7] New England Journal of Medicine. (2019). NEJM Author Center. Retrieved from New England Journal of Medicine website.
[8] Oxford University Press. (n.d.). Instructions to authors. Retrieved from Oxford University Press English Association website.
[9] Skelton, J. R., & Edwards, S. J.L. (2000). The function of the discussion section in academic medical writing. BMJ, 320.
[10] Waard, A. D., Breure, L., Kircz, J. G., & Oostendorp, H. V. (n.d.). Modeling Rhetoric in Scientific Publications.