Which visual elements make texts appear scientific?: an empirical analysis

Abstract

Finding the articles relevant to a problem requires readers to assess texts prior to profound reading. Such an assessment of potential relevance can be based on meta-information. For example, a scientific article's visual elements and layout might make it distinguishable from pseudo- or unscientific texts. In order to investigate which visual properties let a text appear scientific we conducted an experiment. Results indicate that mathematical formulas, diagrams or tables in a two-column layout generate a scientific impression. Properties that might not conform to typical scientific conventions, e.g., photos in combination with a one-column layout, are perceived as less scientific by the majority of respondents.