The readability of scientific texts is critical for the successful distribution of research findings. I replicate a recent study which found that the abstracts of scientific articles in the life sciences became less readable over time. Specifically, I sample 28,345 abstracts from 17 of the leading journals in the field of management and organization over 3 decades, and study two established indicators of readability over time, namely the Flesch Reading Ease and the New Dale–Chall Readability Formula. I find a modest trend towards less readable abstracts, which leads to an increase in articles that are extremely hard to read from 12% in the first decade of the sample to 16% in the final decade of the sample. I further find that an increasing number of authors partially explains this trend, as do the use of scientific jargon and corresponding author affiliations with institutions in English-speaking countries. I discuss implications for authors, reviewers, and editors in the field of management.

科学文本的可读性对于研究成果的成功传播至关重要。我复制了最近的一项研究，该研究发现生命科学中科学文章的摘要随着时间的推移变得不那么可读。具体来说，我从 3 十年来管理和组织领域的 17 种领先期刊中抽取了 28,345 份摘要，并研究了两个既定的随时间推移的可读性指标，即 Flesch Reading Ease 和 New Dale-Chall 可读性公式。我发现摘要可读性较低的趋势不大，这导致极难阅读的文章从样本的前十年的 12% 增加到样本的最后十年的 16%。我进一步发现越来越多的作者部分解释了这种趋势，科学术语的使用以及通讯作者与英语国家机构的隶属关系也是如此。我讨论了对管理领域作者、审稿人和编辑的影响。