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Authors rely on a range of devices and techniques to attract and maintain the interest of readers, and to convince them of the merits of the author's point of view. However, when writing a scientific article, authors must use these 'persuasive communication devices' carefully. In particular, they must be explicit about the limitations of their work, avoid obfuscation, and resist the temptation to oversell their results. Here we discuss a list of persuasive communication devices and we encourage authors, as well as reviewers and editors, to think carefully about their use., Competing Interests: OC, IH, JO, LJ, NH, AP, BB, HC, PL, LL No competing interests declared, JH Director of Access 2 Perspectives, which provides training and consultancy in the area of open science and scholarly writing, EH Member of the Registered Reports Steering Committee, which is supported by the Center for Open Science, HI Director of the Annecy Behavioral Science Lab, which provides training and consultancy for the corporate and non-profit sectors in open science, measurement, and qualitative research, NO Director of Writing Hub Africa, which provides training and consultancy in open science and scholarly writing, (© 2023, Corneille et al.)