Comparative Analysis of Abstract Content and Structure in Russian and English Research Papers

The paper offers insights into transformation processes in the content and structure of Russian research paper abstracts that are motivated and driven by standards of the English academic discourse and database indexing requirements. The major objective of the study was to ascertain the significance of linguocultural academic conventions in writing research paper abstracts and assess to which extent Russian abstracts follow the best international academic practices by undertaking a comparative analysis of Russian and English research paper abstracts published in top-rated journals. Empirical data for this study was a bilingual corpus of original research paper abstracts drawn by the authors from top-rated academic journals. The methodological approach used in the data analysis is a mixed methodology based on quantification of text arrays, comparative and content analysis, along with automated semantic and morphological analysis tools. The research follows a multi-parameter case-study design worked out by the authors, with in-depth analysis of structural and content features of research paper abstracts that relies on common contensive criteria and relevant structural characteristics. Each subcorpus unit was processed in accordance with the developed algorithm. The findings suggest that Russian research paper abstracts published in top-rated academic journals over the 2018-2020 period aim to comply with international benchmarks both structurally and contensively, which confirms the authors’ hypothesis regarding internationally prompted transformation processes affecting the contemporary Russian academic discourse and reflects general trends in Russia’s academic community seeking to integrate into global academia.