Authorial Presence in Applied Linguistics Journals: A Comparative Study of self-mention in Iranian and International Publications

Self-mention markers are important in academic writing to establish the author’s presence, but using them inappropriately can violate writing conventions and compromise professionalism. This study investigates the use of self-mention markers in Iranian and international applied linguistics journals. The analysis was conducted on a total of 225 research articles published from 2015 to 2018, including 125 international and 100 Iranian articles. The study found that self-mention markers were used more frequently in international journals, with ‘I’ being the most frequently- used self-mention marker. In contrast, Iranian journals used self-mention markers less frequently, with ‘we’ being the most-frequently used self-mention marker. The most common function of authorial presence in both contexts was ‘explaining a procedure’, though this occurred more in international journals. ‘Stating results/claims’ was the second most frequent function in both contexts as well, with similar frequencies. The least common function was ‘expressing self-benefits’. Iranian researchers also used authorial presence to state goals/purposes and elaborate arguments less frequently than international authors, but used it more to explain procedures. The study has implications for observing academic writing conventions and expectations of knowledge construction in the humanities. It underscores the importance of recognizing diverse academic traditions in different cultural and linguistic contexts.