Quantitative Evidence on the Uses of the First Person Pronoun (I and We) in Journal Paper Abstracts

The objective of this research was to quantitatively examine the uses of first person pronouns in academic journal paper abstracts. An approximate total of 144,400 abstracts that comprising of four disciplines (chemistry, computer sciences, social sciences, and medicine) from nine countries (China, Germany, India, Japan, South Korea, France, Spain, United Kingdom, and U.S.) were quantitatively examined. By exploring the use of first person pronoun in abstracts, this paper examined the current practices among academics in the world. The results indicate the norms of each author’s country and the norms of each discipline. Furthermore, the frequency-count result of this study contradicted viewpoints of academics who disapprove the use of personal person expressions in abstracts. An implication of this study is that there is a need for academics to acknowledge the uses of first person pronoun in the real world before forming personal opinions regarding the first person pronoun.