Impact of rhetorical devices on citation behavior: persuasion in scientific papers and its effect on reader response

Storytelling is an effective method for communicating science, with rhetorical writing offering a structured framework to enrich narratives and enhance their persuasive impact. Scientific writing does not inherently prioritize obscure or convoluted language; however, overly dry and impersonal scientific texts may be difficult to understand and engage with. This study investigates how rhetorical styles in scientific writing influence citation behaviors among readers. Building upon Aristotle's rhetorical theory, we construct computational measures for three key rhetorical strategies in scientific writing: authority (ethos), readability (logos), and emotions (pathos). Using a dataset of over 10 million journal articles from OpenAlex, we analyze the causal relationship between rhetorical styles in scientific writing and their impact on citation behaviors. Our findings reveal that (1) increased use of ethos and pathos in scientific writing positively influences citation counts, while logos has a negative causal effect; (2) author reputation significantly moderates the persuasive effects of rhetoric, particularly mitigating the negative impact of logos; and (3) rhetorical heterogeneity is influenced by factors such as country of publication, publishing formats, disciplines, and citation percentiles. These results offer valuable insights for early-career researchers on effective scientific writing and serve as a reference for publishers developing guidelines.