Citation advantage of positive words: predictability, temporal evolution, and universality in varied quality journals

Dengsheng Wu, Huidong Wu, Jianping Li

Abstract: The number of positive words in scientific papers has exhibited a notable upwards trend over the past few decades. However, there remains a gap in our comprehensive understanding of the relationship between positive words and research impact. In this study, we conduct a multifaceted exploration of the citation advantage associated with positive words based on social cognitive theory, examining its predictability, temporal evolution, and universality across journals of varying quality grades. Drawing from a corpus encompassing 124,144 papers published in the management field between 2001 and 2020, our regression results provide compelling evidence suggesting that positive words can serve as a significant predictor of the citation counts of academic papers, supporting the citation advantage of positive words. However, it is essential to recognize that over time, the citation advantage attributed to positive words is experiencing a conspicuous decline. The universality of the above phenomenon has been further verified in the analysis of journals of different quality. Our findings prompt a discussion regarding the need to pay more attention to the overuse and misuse of positive words, as well as practical considerations for enhancing scientific communication within the academic community.