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Do Research Topics and Abstract Readability Affect Citation Impact in Leading Finance Journals?

Zhengzhao Luo & Yiuman Tse

Applied Finance Letters2025https://doi.org/10.24135/afl.v14i.1059article
ABDC B
Weight
0.50

What the paper says

This study examines how research topics and abstract readability influence citation impact in finance journals. Using BERTopic modeling on over 7,000 abstracts from 13 top-tier journals, we identify four core themes—financial markets, banking & credit, corporate finance, and insurance & actuarial science—along with one interdisciplinary topic. Our results show that topic choice significantly affects citations: corporate finance attracts the highest average citations, whereas insurance & actuarial science receives the fewest. Interdisciplinary research has emerged as a major trend over the past decade. Abstract readability, measured by textual analysis, is also a key determinant: clearer abstracts are associated with higher citation counts. Page length, co-authorship, and journal impact factors further enhance citations. Overall, these findings underscore the importance of topic selection and highly readable abstracts in maximizing research visibility.

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Cite this paper

https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.24135/afl.v14i.1059

Or copy a formatted citation

@article{zhengzhao2025,
  title        = {{Do Research Topics and Abstract Readability Affect Citation Impact in Leading Finance Journals?}},
  author       = {Zhengzhao Luo & Yiuman Tse},
  journal      = {Applied Finance Letters},
  year         = {2025},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.24135/afl.v14i.1059},
}

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Do Research Topics and Abstract Readability Affect Citation Impact in Leading Finance Journals?

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.