Taylor and Francis Journals under the critical lens of readability analysis

Abstract

Academic journals are channels through which research findings are presented. They are said to be the most potent means of communication in the academic community; hence, they must be as readable as possible. This paper evaluated the readability of the topmost 11 journals published by the Taylor and Francis group. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the 11 journals used for the study. Flesch Reading Ease (FRE) and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL) indexes were used to compute the readability scores. Measures of central tendencies, one sample (with bootstrapping) T-test, and bar graph (with standard error bars) were used for data analysis. The results showed that they are practically unreadable when compared to the standard readability score.

Keywords: Readability, Research Article, Academic Communication, Taylor & Francis, Flesch Reading Ease, Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level