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https://doi.org/10.17323/jle.2022.13471
Does Journal Indexation Matter? A Genre-Approach Move Analysis of Nursing English Research Article Abstracts
Arif Husein Lubis, Eri Kurniawan, Wawan Gunawan
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Jawa Barat, Indonesia
ABSTRACT
Background. A plethora of previous studies have discussed the importance of a genre-approach move analysis because the analysis results can provide a picture of the typical conventions of research article writing across disciplines.
Purpose. Nursing as a professional discipline, however, has received scant attention, particularly in the abstract section in the journals with different indexation. To fill such an empirical void, this qualitative study probes the notion of whether journal indexation matters in manifesting the rhetorical moves in the nursing abstracts.
Methods. Fifty abstracts from a Scopus-indexed Q1 journal and another 50 from three Sinta-indexed journals in Indonesia were analyzed manually. This study employed a descriptive comparative approach to analyze and present the data.
Results and Implications. The findings demonstrated conformity manifestations of method and results moves along with their linguistic realizations by using simple past tense in active or passive forms. The article abstracts from the Scopus-indexed nursing journal emphasized the novelty of the research more than their counterparts from the identification of gap of previous research and highlighting the significance of the study. Implications: This study provides the textual evidence of the affirmation of the contributing role of journal indexation type in projecting a higher standard of abstract writing.
Citation: Lubis, A. H., & Kurniawan, E. (2022). Does journal indexation matter? A genre-approach move analysis of nursing English research article abstracts. Journal of Language and Education, 8(2), 92-105. https://doi.org/10.17323/jle.2022.13471
Correspondence:
Arif Husein Lubis, lubis_ah@upi.edu
Received: December 07, 2021 Accepted: June 15, 2022 Published: June 30, 2022
KEYWORDS:
journal indexation, move analysis, nursing, rhetorical structure, research article abstract, Scopus-indexed nursing journals
@ ®
INTRODUCTION
Publications in scientific journals are beneficial for scholars and academicians, without exception those in the field of nursing studies as a professional discipline because scientific journals are considered the prime outlet for circulation and development of disciplinary knowledge. It is also inseparable from the field conditions of nursing practice that cause dynamics and differences every day. Hence, updating knowledge, methods, communication styles, and teaching knowledge is essential. Research articles published in scientific journals will have an impact on the distribution and renewal of nursing knowledge and teaching itself which will increase the circulation
of nursing practice innovations (Beyea & Nicoll, 1997; Oermann et al., 2008; Urquhart, 1998). On the pragmatic side, publications in scientific journals will help academicians gain promotions and salary increases (Friginal & Mustafa, 2017). In other words, publishing in scientific journals has been an integral part for academicians as the downstream of their research to keep circulating and updating disciplinary knowledge toward the development of disciplinary practices.
The development of nursing practice today depends on the spread of nursing science. Therefore, it is undeniable that international publications have now become another requirement for nursing scholars or researchers to regularly test
the reliability of their findings (Derman & Jaeger, 2018, p. 122). However, publishing research articles in English is not an easy task; especially in the Indonesian context. For example, Ramos (2015) observed that a considerable number of nursing postgraduate students are dealing with difficulties in writing academic papers, and their written assignments do not meet their instructor's expectations, particularly in genre conventions. Therefore, studying the genre conventions of English research articles through move a genre-approach move analysis can be beneficial for students and academicians in the field of nursing so that it helps increase the opportunity to be successful in their publications in scientific journals.
A comparative analysis of the rhetorical structure of abstracts between a reputable international journal and a national-accredited journal is the focus of this research. Despite being the shortest section, as compared to other sections in an academic paper, the abstract, in Hyland's (2000) lens, is the first and foremost element that the readers look at and serve as a gateway for international readers to judge whether they will continue to read the contents or not (see Lorés, 2004). An abstract is also an effective means of overviewing research findings and implications (Cleveland & Cleveland, 2013) and transferring them for easy retrieval in this digital era (Chan & Foo, 2004; Posteguillo, 1999). Thus, abstracts represent one of the key sections in scholarly research (van Bonn & Swales, 2007; Doró, 2013; Marefat & Muhammadzadeh, 2013; Saboori & Hashemi, 2013). Research article abstracts are well-known for their brevity, explicit purpose, and format requirements (Swales & Feak, 2009). Abstract quality also influences the possibility of a research article being accepted or rejected by the journal's editorial team (Kurniawan, et al., 2019a; Saeeaw & Tangkiengsirisin, 2014). Therefore, the organization of information conveyed in a journal article abstract should meet international writing standards. However, nursing discipline as a professional discipline has received scant attention in terms of genre-approach move analysis. Previous studies have extensively looked at a variety of research article sections of nursing journals from the standpoint of genre analysis. Buus (2005), for instance, used a genre-approach move analysis in scrutinizing the method section of scholarly nursing journal articles. Quite recently, Amirshei-bani (2015) compared the introduction section of English language teaching and nursing papers. The results mainly revealed no significant differences between both fields in manifesting the CARS (Creating A Research Space) model -a model Swales (1990, 2004) proposed as a template for authors to write research article introductions. Using a similar discipline pairing, Ghazanfari et al. (2016), concentrated on the conclusion section. They also found no significant difference between both fields in manifesting the rhetorical moves. Meanwhile, Uzun (2016) analyzed the method section of nursing research articles and revealed the most frequent moves in the method. However, much remains less explored regarding the typical rhetorical moves manifested in nursing English research article abstracts.
Research Article Abstracts
Some scholars have proposed several definitions of research article (RA) abstracts. The RA abstract can be seen as a mini paper or summary of the paper to understand the research variables before reading the entire paper (Hartley & Benjamin, 1998). It becomes the readers' first exposure to comprehend the general points of the article (Huckin, 2001; Pratiwi & Kurniawan, 2021). In the world of international publication, the abstract remains the prime sub-genre to evaluate the content quality of the journal by the journal indexing agency staff such as Elsevier (Scopus Content Coverage Guide, 2020). It is no surprise then that academic investigations on the eligible rhetorical structure of RA abstracts for international publications ensue.
Rhetorical structure is associated with the way an author organizes the information to convey the message to the audience effectively. It contains a set of communicative (move) and sub-communicative (step) functions that tie together coherently (Swales, 1990). A 'move' is an element that has a specified target within the text, and it is divided into some types based on the function of the text. It may contain a combination of multiple smaller elements that will realize the move itself called steps (Connor, Upton, & Kanoksilap-atham, 2007). Typically, the rhetorical structure of the RA abstracts consists of four moves, as in the concept of the IMRD model: Introduction, Method, Results, and Discussion (Martin-Martin, 2002). Hyland's (2000) five move configuration—INTRODUCTION, PURPOSE, METHOD, PRODUCT, CONCLUSION—has also been widely accepted and used among scholars, conducting a genre-approach move analysis on research article abstracts. He also delineated the possible steps that typify the moves. Hyland's (2000) move configuration was adopted as a guideline to analyze the data due to its more precise definition of Move 5, CONCLUSION, covering both the discussion and recommendation or implication compared to Santos' (1996) model which only emphasizes the discussion of the results and Swales' (1990) that collapsed the INTRODUCTION and PURPOSE moves.
To understand the boundary of each move, linguistic realizations also become the focus of the present study. They may include the way authors preferably use certain types of tenses and the choice of active/passive voice in manifesting the moves and steps. The present study only focuses on the use of verb tense and voice in relation to rhetorical moves and steps.
Previous Research on Genre-Approach Move Analysis of Research Article Abstracts
Several previous studies have conducted genre-approach move analyses of research article abstracts. Three essential aspects have been explored. Regarding the occurrences of rhetorical moves, previous findings indicated that PURPOSE, METHOD, and PRODUCT were the most frequently identified moves; hence conventional moves regardless of
the type of the journals: local and international reputable journals (e.g., Kurniawan, et al., 2019a; Kurniawan & Sabila, 2021; Amnuai, 2019; Behnam & Golpour, 2014; Can, Kara-bacak, & Qin, 2016; Saboori & Hashemi, 2013; Vathanalao-ha & Tangkiengsirisin, 2018). Meanwhile, INTRODUCTION and CONCLUSION exhibited variations across different journals and scientific disciplines. Behnam and Golpour (2014), for instance, in their comparative study of Iranian and English abstracts, unveiled that CONCLUSION was relatively more frequent in the English abstracts. Meanwhile, Amnuai (2019) found that Thai authors differed from the international counterparts in manifesting INTRODUCTION and CONCLUSION in their abstracts. In a similar vein, Vathanalaoha and Tangkiengsirisin (2018) reported that Thai and international authors authors behaved differently in the manifestation of INTRODUCTION in their abstracts. In the Indonesian context, Kurniawan and Sabila (2021) and Kosasih (2018) revealed that CONCLUSION was the least incorporated move in the Indonesian abstracts. However, the general structure of the abstracts with four or five moves was more often manifested in reputable international journals (Kurniawan, et al., 2019a; Saeeaw & Tangkiengsirisin, 2014). The above studies appear to suggest that
the rhetorical structure of the abstracts varies especially in INTRODUCTION and CONCLUSION depending on the status of the authors (local or international).
From an interdisciplinary perspective, research has shown that consensus has not yet been reached as to which moves in scientific article abstracts are considered the norms. Soft-science disciplines, for instance, such as linguistics (Can, Karabacak, & Qin, 2016), education (Kafes, 2012), and tourism (Kurniawan & Sabila, 2021) tended not to incorporate CONCLUSION in their abstracts. On the contrary, hard-science disciplines such as economics (Saboori & Hashemi, 2013), environmental science (Saeeaw & Tangkiengsirisin, 2014), and medicine (Vathanalaoha & Tangkiengsirisin, 2018) provided CONCLUSION after RESULT/PRODUCT. Research conducted by Qandarli (2012) revealed that most Turkish writers did not frequently include CONCLUSION in their abstracts.) In their analysis of the abstracts of Biology studies, Xiao and Cao (2013) indicated that the background of the study, INTRODUCTION, was more dominantly manifested by native English authors. The variations in the rhetorical structure of abstracts from the previous studies are presented in Table 1.
Table 1
Several previous studies on moves and steps
Author(s)
Focus/Field
Findings
Amnuai (2019)
Thai vs international authors
Kurniawan, Lubis, Suherdi, Applied linguistics international journals & Danuwijaya (2019)
Kurniawan & Sabila (2021) Indonesian vs international journals on tourism
Behnam & Golpour (2014) Iranian vs English abstracts in applied linguistics
and mathematics
Can, Karabacak, & Qin (2016)
Çandarli (2012) Kosasih (2018)
Saboori & Hashemi (2013)
Saeeaw & Tangkiengsirisin (2014)
Vathanalaoha & Tangkiengsirisin (2018)
Xiao & Cao (2013)
International abstracts in applied linguistics
Turkish vs international authors in education journals
Indonesian master students' theses in fisheries management, public administration, management, and mathematics education
Top tier international journals in applied linguistics, applied economics and applied engineering
Top tier journals on environmental science
Thai vs international dental journals
Chinese vs English native authors in journals on biology
INTRODUCTION was more dominant in Thai; CONCLUSION was more dominant in international abstracts
INTRODUCTION and CONCLUSION were conventional
INTRODUCTION was more dominant in Indonesian; CONCLUSION was more dominant in international abstracts
Despite some variations in moves across the two disciplines, CONCLUSION was more frequent in English abstract
INTRODUCTION was not as dominant as CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION was used less by Turkish authors CONCLUSION was the least manifested move
INTRODUCTION was not as dominant as CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION was more frequent than INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION was much more dominant in international abstracts
INTRODUCTION was employed more by native English authors
Tenses Simple present tense was used dominantly in Present perfect tense was used dominantly in
INTRODUCTION & PURPOSE INTRODUCTION & simple past in PURPOSE
Voices Passive was used more in METHOD & RESULT in
more prestigious journals
Table 2.
Linguistic realizations in the applied linguistics abstracts
More prestigious journals Less prestigious journals
Variations are also attested in the linguistic realizations of the abstracts depending on the characteristics of the journals, as can be seen in Table 2. Comparing the linguistic realizations of abstracts from Scopus-indexed journals across different quartiles in applied linguistics, Kurniawan et al. (2019a) disclosed that simple present tense time was more dominantly used to realize the INTRODUCTION and PURPOSE moves in the abstracts from more prestigious journals. Contrastingly, the abstracts from less prestigious journals tended to use present perfect tense for INTRODUCTION move and simple past tense for PURPOSE move. Passive forms were used more by the abstract writers from reputable journals to realize METHOD and CONCLUSION.
In the context of the nursing field, genre analysis of scientific articles, more specifically abstracts, remains scares. To mention a few, Ramos (2015) investigated undergraduate nursing students' case studies and thesis proposals in medical universities in Southeast Asia. Among numerous aspects of students' writing, Ramos examined the entire moves of students' writing and found that some necessary moves were absent. A research study that is closely relevant to the scope of our paper comes from Piqué-Noguera and Camaño-Puig (2015) that specifically examined abstracts from twelve nursing journals. The results revealed that although the move structure varied in the corpus data, the indicative abstract—a very general, brief type of abstract commonly found in review papers—occurred more frequently than the informative abstract—a more detailed type of abstract with specified information from the background to conclusions and typically found in research papers. However, the abstracts were retrieved from local journals only. A comparative analysis between journals with different types of journal indexation is worth doing as journal indexation represents certain demands and standards, which may vary across indexing agencies. An empirical void from the current genre analyses is an examination of nursing abstracts published in two distinct journal indexing agencies.
Of interest in this paper is this underpinning assumption that journal indexation can be a distinguishing factor in publication quality. Literature has demonstrated that the indexation of journals serves as a prototypical matrix that a journal meets the established standard (Nagoba et al., 2016) as well as a pathway to stellar research publication
(Kurniawan et al., 2019b). In addition to that, indexation is often parallel to visibility, with internationally indexed journals reaching a much broader readership, which may allow for international collaboration among researchers, resulting in more contribution to the academic community (Holland, Duncombe, Dyas, & Meester, 2018). With such promising benefits, reputable journals impose strict requirements for manuscripts to be considered for publication to ascertain the highest quality. To meet that end, international databases, such as Scopus, professionally hire independent, international boards of editors, librarians, and bibliometricians (Rew, 2015). With such rigid requisites and professional board, mainstream international journals may be deemed more credible than locally-indexed counterparts; thus, perpetuating a presumption that the former is superior to the latter (Kurniawan, et al., 2019b).
Thus, this study seeks to fill the void by examining the manifestations of rhetorical moves in nursing research articles abstracts from selected nursing journals indexed in Scopus and Sinta - an Indonesian journal index. In particular, the present study attempts to address the following research questions: (1) What rhetorical moves are manifested in the nursing research article abstracts across two different indexing agencies? (2) To what extent is journal indexation associated with the manifestation of rhetorical structure of the abstracts?
METHODS
Data Set
This study was designed as a genre-approach move analysis (Baker, 2010; Hyland, 2009; Swales, 1990) to firstly explore the rhetorical moves of nursing abstracts and whether journal indexation results in different manifestations of rhetorical moves of nursing abstracts. The data were 100 research article abstracts about nursing studies taken from four journals. The criteria for selecting the abstracts were: accessible to download and written in English. International Journal of Nursing Studies (n=50 abstracts) is published in the United Kingdom and managed by Elsevier with Scopus-indexed Q1 (a quartile in Scopus is a category attached to the scientific journal based on its credibility where Q1 is the highest category and Q4 is the lowest one). The journal requires all submissions to include an abstract of 400 words or less. On
the other side, three nursing journals from Indonesia (n=50 abstracts from all journals) were Jurnal Keperawatan Indonesia (UI) (n=16 abstracts), Jurnal Pendidikan Keperawatan Indonesia (UPI) (n=18 abstracts), Jurnal Keperawatan Soe-dirman (UNSOED) (n=16 abstracts). They were nationally accredited, indexed by Sinta (the Indonesian science and technology index administered under the Minister of Education). The range of words for the abstract in the journals is 100-300 words. The criteria for selecting the abstracts were: accessible to download and written in English.
Data Collection Procedure
Initial analysis was done to recognize the rhetorical structure of the abstracts. Hyland's (2020) framework was adopted to analyze the moves because the framework closely conformed to the initial analysis results (see Table 3 as a sample of the initial analysis results). However, during the analysis, the researchers were taking notes of any existing moves or steps, not covered in Hyland's analysis. Table 1 depicts the coding scheme. Table 4 below exhibits the coding results of a sample text.
Some sentences in the abstracts of International Journal of Nursing Studies did not contain a verb because the abstracts used specific tags such as Aim, Method, and Results. That is why some authors directly start the sentences using to-infinitive form, particularly in the Aim part. Meanwhile, the abstracts from the Sinta-indexed journals did not use any special tags to indicate the content. However, the number of tags in the abstracts is not similar to each other, meaning that the manifestation of rhetorical moves in the abstracts also depends on the authors' preferences, particularly in the Introduction and Conclusion moves.
Data Analysis Procedure
This study employed Kurniawan et al.'s (2019a) and Lubis' (2020) analysis procedure. First, all titles and abstracts were read to understand the topic and general points of the paper. The texts were broken down into sentences. Then, the sentences as the units of analysis were coded manually by the researchers as exemplified in Table 2. The coding results were classified into moves. The classification results were used to count the occurrences of each move and step to determine its salience. Kanoksilapatham's (2005) benchmark was employed comprising three categories: obligatory (100% of occurrence), conventional (66% or higher, but below 100%), and optional (below 66%). The rhetorical structure of the abstracts of the journals was obtained by calculating the number of moves manifested. This benchmark was employed to help the readers get the general conclusion of the move-step occurrences so that other writers can prepare their manuscript abstracts more carefully, based on the results of previous studies.
The analysis of linguistic realizations focused on the use of tense and sentence voice (active and passive form) in each move. Indeed, during the initial analysis, we identified several abstracts which did not use any verbs. In the main analysis stage, we carefully selected other abstracts from the same journal, which used verbs in all moves; in other words, the moves were realized in a complete sentence form. We underlined the verb phrase (e.g., this study aimed to identify) used in each sentence, featuring a move. Then, the type of tense and sentence voice of each sentence was presented in a table along with the explanation of the move. Afterward, we reviewed the analysis results to ensure data reliability.
Table 3
Coding scheme in the present study
Move
Step
M1
M2 M3
M4 M5
INTRODUCTION
PURPOSE METHOD
RESULT CONCLUSION
51 Arguing for topic significance
52 Making topic generalization
53 Defining the key term(s)
54 Identifying gap
Stating the research purpose
51 Describing participants/data sources
52 Describing instrument(s)
53 Describing procedure and context Describing the main results
51 Deducing conclusion
52 Evaluating the significance of the research
53 Stating limitation
54 Presenting recommendation or implication
Table 4
The sample of the coding results
Abstract No. 45 (International Journal of Nursing Studies) Label (Step-based) Classification (Move-
Title: Work Environment Characteristics Associated with Quality of Care in Dutch Nursing Homes: A Cross-Sectional Study based)
A lack of relationship between direct care staffing levels and quality of care, as found in prior studies, underscores the importance of considering the quality of the work environment instead of only considering staff ratios. Significance of the topic Move 1 (Step 1)
Only a few studies, however, have combined direct care staffing with work environment characteristics when assessing the relationship with quality of care in nursing homes. Identifying gap Move 1 (Step 4)
To examine the relationship between direct care staffing levels, work environment characteristics and perceived quality of care in Dutch nursing homes. Stating the research purpose Move 2
Cross-sectional, observational study in cooperation with the Dutch Prevalence Measurement of Care Problems. Describing design Move 3 (Step 1)
Twenty-four somatic and 31 psychogeriatric wards from 21 nursing homes in the Netherlands. Forty-one ward managers and 274 staff members (registered nurses or certified nurse assistants) from the 55 participating wards. Describing participants Move 3 (Step 2)
Ward rosters were discussed with managers to obtain an insight into direct care staffing levels (i.e., total direct care staff hours per resident per day). Describing analysis procedure Move 3 (Step 4)
Participating staff members completed a questionnaire on work environment characteristics (i.e., ward culture, team climate, communication and coordination, role model availability, and multidisciplinary collaboration) and they rated the quality of care in their ward. Describing analysis procedure Move 3 (Step 4)
Data were analyzed using multilevel linear regression analyses (random intercept). Describing analysis procedure Move 3 (Step 4)
Separate analyses were conducted for somatic and psychogeriatric wards. Describing analysis procedure Move 3 (Step 4)
In general, staff members were satisfied with the quality of care in their wards. Staff members from psychogeriatric wards scored higher on the statement 'In the event that a family member had to be admitted to a nursing home now, I would recommend this ward'. Describing main results Move 4
A better team climate was related to better perceived quality of care in both ward types (p = 0.020). Describing main results Move 4
In somatic wards, there was a positive association between multidisciplinary collaboration and agreement by staff of ward recommendation for a family member (p = 0.028). Describing main results Move 4
In psychogeriatric wards, a lower score on market culture (p = 0.019), better communication/coordination (p = 0.018) and a higher rating for multidisciplinary collaboration (p = 0.003) were significantly associated with a higher grade for overall quality of care. Describing main results Move 4
Total direct care staffing, adhocracy culture, hierarchy culture, as well as role model availability were not significantly related to quality of care. Describing main results Move 4
Our findings suggest that team climate may be an important factor to consider when trying to improve quality of care. Stating conclusion Move 5 (Step 1)
Generating more evidence on which work environment characteristics actually lead to better quality of care is needed. Highlighting recommendation Move 5 (Step 4)
RESULTS
Introduction
Rhetorical Moves Manifested in the Nursing Research Article Abstracts
This sub-section explains the rhetorical moves manifested in the nursing abstracts from Scopus-indexed and Sinta-in-dexed journals. In total, there were 1259 sentences categorized as moves in the entire data set. Generally, the METHOD move obtained the highest number of occurrences with 427 sentences (34%), followed by RESULT move with 297 sentences (24%), INTRODUCTION move with 259 sentences (20%), CONCLUSION move with 176 sentences (14%), and PURPOSE move with 100 sentences (8%). This indicates that more sentences are spent to inform how the research was conducted and what results emerged from the research in the nursing abstracts. The number of occurrences of the moves did not necessarily reflect its salience in the data set. Table 5 displays the results. The findings showed that method and results moves were obligatory in all journals (100%). Introduction move was conventional in all journals. On the other side, purpose and conclusion moves were obligatory in International Journal of Nursing Studies, but conventional in the local journals (96% and 94%, respectively). The findings demonstrate that journal indexation can result in differing standards of manifesting the rhetorical moves in the abstracts.
Table 5 displays the comparative results of rhetorical moves between Scopus-indexed and Sinta-indexed research article abstracts. The findings showed that in conveying the introduction move, both groups of abstracts were mostly concerned with highlighting the significance of the research topic and describing previous findings. They less focused on defining the key terms. However, a discrepancy emerged in the tendency of abstracts from the Scopus-indexed journal to identify the research gap as the motive of the research as compared to the Sinta-indexed journals (64% and 12%, respectively). Introduction move was typically realized by using simple present tense (1) and/or simple future tense in active forms (2).
1. However, there is limited evidence informing flushing practice and little is known about the current flushing practices. [International Journal of Nursing Studies, Abstract No. 13]
2. The increase of the age will cause changes in the structure and physiological properties [...]. IJurnal Pendidikan Keperawatan UPI, Abstract No. 1]
Purpose
The journal indexation type did not result in a significant number of gaps regarding the manifestation of purpose move in both types of journals. This move was mostly real-
Table 5
The comparative results of the move-step salience
Moves Featuring abstracts Steps Featuring abstracts
Scopus-indexed Sinta-indexed Scopus-indexed Sinta-indexed
journal journals journal journals
Introduction 48 (96%) 49 (98%) Highlighting topic significance 30 (60%) 29 (58%)
Describing previous findings 31 (62%) 36 (72%)
Defining key terms 5 (10%) 12 (24%)
Identifying gap 32 (64%) 6 (12%)
Purpose 50 (100%) 48 (96%) N/A
Method 50 (100%) 50 (100%) Stating research design 41 (82%) 40 (80%)
Describing participants 46 (92%) 34 (68%)
Describing instruments 38 (76%) 21 (42%)
Describing procedures 47 (94%) 27 (54%)
Result 50 (100%) 50 (100%) N/A
Conclusion 50 (100%) 47 (97%) Interpreting results 42 (84%) 25 (50%)
Highlighting significance of the 15 (30%) 2 (4%)
study
Stating limitations 1 (2%) 0 (0%)
Highlighting recommendations 19 (38%) 28 (56%)
ized by using simple past tense in active forms. Excerpt (3-4) represent the linguistic realizations.
3. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of a specialist training programme for acute hospital staff regarding improving attitudes, satisfaction and feelings of caring efficacy, in provision of care to people with dementia. [International Journal of Nursing Studies, Abstract No. 36]
4. The purpose of this research was to know the correlation between Body Mass Index with elderly blood pressure in puskesmas Melong Asih Cimahi. [Jurnal Pendidikan Keperawatan Indonesia, UPI, Abstract No. 1]
Methods
This move was generally manifested by stating the research design, describing the participants, research instruments, and procedures. A discrepancy was identified in which the Sinta-indexed abstracts considerably did not incorporate the description of the instruments used and the research procedures. The findings imply that the local journals had a tendency not to require the author(s) to provide more information regarding both elements. This move was realized by simple past tense in active or passive forms. Excerpt (5-6) present some of the examples.
5. Instruments used included Blau's Career Commitment Scale and Orlinsky and R0nnestad's Interpersonal Adjective Scale. [International Journal of Nursing Studies, Abstract No. 33]
6. This research used a quasi-experimental design, pre-post with control group that involved 44 samples of female adult suffered from overweight and obesity. [Jurnal Keperawatan Indonesia, UI, Abstract No. 19]
Results
Not surprisingly, the result move was manifested in all abstracts regardless of journal indexation. The nature of scientific or research-based writing fundamentally requires the authors to present the main results of the research so that the readers can understand the representative portrait of the whole content of the papers. Typically, the realization of the result move involved the use of simple past tense in active forms mostly as depicted in excerpt (7-8).
7. Nursing students did not differ from students in teaching and social work programs in terms of the degree of affirming personality trait. [International Journal of Nursing Studies, Abstract No. 33]
8. The result showed that 74 elderly who undertook physical exercise 65% did not experience depression, while 58,8% who did not perform exercise experienced mild depression. [Jurnal Keperawatan Indonesia, UI, Abstract No. 21]
Conclusion
The salience of the conclusion move in both types of journals necessarily influences the manifestation of its constituent steps. More Sinta-indexed abstracts manifested recom-
mendations step than Scopus-indexed abstracts (56% and 38%, respectively). On the other hand, interpretations of the results and significance of the study were more emphasized in the Scopus-indexed abstracts than in their counterparts (see Table 3). Apart from that, 2% (one abstract) from the Scopus-indexed journal preferred to state the limitations of the study, which was also found by Kurniawan et al. (2019a) in the field of applied linguistics. This move was realized mostly by simple present tense in active forms as exemplified in (9-10).
9. Thus it can be concluded that there is significant influence steam bath therapy in increasing the physiological response to stress. [Jurnal Keperawatan Soedirman, UNSOED, Abstract No. 37]
10. These findings present a unique insight into the quality and quantity of staff-patient interactions in acute care. [International Journal of Nursing Studies, Abstract No. 22]
Journal Indexation Influence on the Manifestation of Rhetorical Structure of the Abstracts
This sub-section unveils the role of journal indexation in manifesting the rhetorical structure of the nursing abstracts.
Table 7 showed that in terms of the moves, all authors manifested the same rhetorical structure, starting from the introduction, research objectives, research method, result, and conclusion. In other words, all journals have determined the shared move structure of the abstracts, which is eligible to be employed by the authors. Due to the highly rigid rhetorical structure, the opening and closing moves of the abstracts were also similar. The abstracts started with an introduction. Then, the abstracts were closed by the statement of conclusion. However, journal indexation is associated with the rhetorical structure of the steps. While the identification of gap in the previous studies typically occurred after describing previous findings in the Scopus-indexed abstracts, such step occurred otherwise in their counterparts. Another discrepancy, associated with the journal indexation was noticed in structuring the steps in conveying Move 5 Conclusion. The Scopus-indexed abstracts tended to highlight the significance of the study after interpreting the research results, which was not considerably evident in the Sinta-indexed abstracts. In Move 3 Method, both groups of abstracts did not exhibit a discrepancy regarding the position of the steps. This may be caused by the logic of the information where the description of the research procedure appears after the statement of research design and the description of the participants and instruments. The results indicate that while journal indexation is not associated with the move-level rhetorical structure, it does play a role in the manifestation of the step-level rhetorical structure.
Furthermore, the salience status of the moves and steps can influence its configuration. Table 6 exhibits the results. The indexation status of the journal may not influence the
Table 6
The comparative typical rhetorical structure of nursing abstracts across journals
Rhetorical structure of Scopus-indexed abstracts
Rhetorical structure of Sinta-indexed abstracts
Move
Introduction
I
Purpose
4
Method 4
Result 4
Conclusion
Step
Highlighting topic significance Describing previous findings Identifying gap
No constituting steps
Stating research design Describing participants Describing instruments Describing procedures No constituting steps
Interpreting results
Highlighting significance of the study
Highlighting recommendations
Move
Introduction
I
Purpose
4
Method
4
Result
4
Conclusion
Step
Highlighting topic significance
Describing previous findings
No constituting steps
Stating research design Describing participants Describing instruments Describing procedures No constituting steps
Interpreting results Highlighting recommendations
move-step configuration. The two-step configuration of the Introduction move was more preferred by almost half of the abstracts in both groups. However, no abstract manifested all steps in Introduction and Conclusion moves. This may be due to the need for much space if the authors want to manifest all steps in each move. The indexation status of the journal can influence the move-step configuration. While one-step configuration in the Introduction move occurred more in the abstracts from Sinta-indexed journals, three-step configuration appeared slightly more in the Scopus-indexed counterparts. Additionally, four-step configuration in the Method move and two-step configuration in the Conclusion move were considerably more evident in the Scopus-indexed journal than in its counterparts. Even, three abstracts from the latter group did not offer any conclusions. This indicates that the indexation status of the journal may reflect its expectations on the authors to convey the information regarding the research method and conclusion drawn from the main results.
DISCUSSION
This study has delineated the manifestation of the rhetorical moves of nursing research article abstracts from Scopus-in-dexed and Sinta-indexed journals. The findings demonstrate that commonalities and discrepancies are evident across the two types of journal indexation. Regarding the commonalities, noteworthy is the fact that all authors in the nursing journals under examination manifested the same rhetorical structure, starting from the introduction, research objec-
tives, research method, results, and conclusion. This concurs with Khansari, Heng, Yuit, and Tan's (2016) finding that the majority of RA abstracts follow the underlying rhetorical structure of RAs, which further underscores Swales' (1990) premise that abstracts serve as a mirror of RAs. Another key finding that both journal groups have in common is that all abstracts from both groups of journals manifest the method and result moves. This finding corroborates the same pattern exemplified in the abstracts of applied linguistics and educational technology (Pho, 2008), linguistics (El-Dakhs, 2018), tourism (Ahmed, 2015), biology, engineering, linguistics, medicine, and physics (Hardjanto, 2017). This appears to suggest that in terms of the rhetorical structure of RA abstracts, nursing authors fall into the same category as authors of other disciplines in obligatorily showcasing methods and results. This also indicates that the nursing scholars in both journal groups employed the informative style of an abstract since the authors do not only inform the main findings but also describe the research procedures. Meanwhile, discrepancies are identified. Involving Dentistry research article abstracts, Vathanalaoha and Tangkiengsirisin (2018) demonstrated that the salience of the results move in the abstracts from the reputable journals was lower than that in the abstracts from the local journals (97.5% and 100%, respectively). Similarly, Amnuai (2019) found that while 90% of the Accounting abstracts from the international journals manifested the results move, 100% of the abstracts from the local journals did so. The differing nature of the disciplines, albeit in the same category of science, might be the possible cause of such discrepancy. Hence, journal index-
Table 7
The configurations of the rhetorical structure of the moves in the abstracts
Move
Configuration
Number of featuring abstracts
Scopus-indexed journal
Sinta-indexed journals
Introduction
One-step Two-step Three-step Four-step
8
23 14
21
22 6
Method
One-step Two-step Three-step Four-step
1 6
13 30
6 22
16
6
Conclusion
One-step Two-step Three-step Four-step
24
25
1
39 8
ation might not necessarily influence the manifestation of the method and result moves in this study. The awareness of the importance of both moves among the local authors might also be another contributing factor. Moreover, the journal indexation type does not influence the manifestation of the introduction and conclusion moves in which both moves are regarded as conventional. The findings of the present study corroborate Vathanalaoha and Tangkiengsiri-sin (2018) and Amnuai (2019), particularly on the conclusion move. Although it was shown that there was a gap in the relative occurrence of purpose and conclusion moves where the two moves were obligatory in the international journals, but conventional in the local journals, the margin appears margina-a 2 % difference. Clearly, this still indicates that the two moves are pertinent in RA abstracts irrespective of indexing categories. Again, this finding fortifies the argument that journal indexation plays little role, if any, in the realization of the rhetorical moves of RA abstracts.
Furthermore, the linguistic realizations seem not considerably different. Regarding the tense, the authors employ present simple tense to convey the introduction and conclusion moves. The purpose move can be realized by using present simple or past simple tense. The past simple tense is conventional to convey the method and findings moves. Regarding the voice and subject-verb agreement, the findings imply that if the authors employ active voice, the subjects are move-dependent and usually related to the macro elements of the study (e.g., this paper, this study, the findings) or self-reference (e.g., the researchers) with the verb + that-clause combination for explaining the findings or
concluding the research (e.g., reported that, conclude that) or to-infinitives to tell the research purpose (e.g., aim to investigate). Meanwhile, if the authors employ passive voice, the subjects may vary, but still be move-specific (e.g., the research topic has been investigated for the introduction move or a questionnaire was administered for the method move).
On the other hand, several non-typical linguistic realizations are identified in the data set of the present study. Some abstracts from the local journals use future simple tense to convey the significance of the topic in question as well as the findings of the previous research. Moreover, an abstract from the top-tier nursing journal employs present continuous tense to convey the significance of the topic. This indicates that the use of the non-typical linguistic features depends on the contextual functions of the sentences, not the types of the journal indexation.
Last but not least, the rhetorical structure of the abstracts from the international and local journals has been examined. The findings reveal that the discrepancies in organizing the information conveyed in the introduction, method, and conclusion moves between the two groups of abstracts are evident. First, the gap identification is significantly not featured in the local journals (64%:12%). Second, the detailed description of the instruments and research procedures received more focus in the abstracts of the top-tier journals. Third, although the percentage of occurrence of the recommendations in the conclusion move of the local abstracts is higher than that of the international abstracts (56%:38%, respectively), the statement of the significance
of the study as a way of expressing the research novelty is more obvious in the international abstracts than in the local ones (30%:4%, respectively). The discrepancies show that there is a role in the type of the journal indexation. The top-tier journal demands a higher standard of the abstract writing in which the availability of the research novelty, gap identification, and detailed description of the research method in the abstracts are the requisites to be able to cope with the journal's standards. The findings justify the previous research that the journal indexation type results in the differing demands of some elements in the abstracts (Kurniawan, et al., 2019a).
CONCLUSION
This study has investigated the rhetorical moves manifested in the nursing research article abstracts across two different indexing agencies and the extent to which journal indexation is associated with the manifestation of the rhetorical structure of the abstracts. The findings revealed the role of genre-approach move analysis in examining the role of journal indexation in the rhetorical structure of the nursing research article abstracts. As far as moves are concerned, indexation does not play an important part in the configuration of moves in the nursing abstracts; all the moves were identifiable in the abstracts, mirroring the RA structures. However, journal indexation matters in the step level. While the recommendation for future research is more apparent in the abstracts of the local journals, the manifestations of the research novelty through gap identification and statement of topic significance and the description of the research procedure are more evident in the abstracts from the international top-tier journals. This reinforces the differing standards of abstract genre conventions in the step level, which might be influenced by the orientation of the top-tier journal to maintain the abstract's quality as a contributing
REFERENCES
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DECLARATION OF COMPETING INTEREST
None declared ■.
AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS
Arif Husein Lubis: conceived and designed the analysis, collected the data, performed the analysis , wrote the paper.
Eri Kurniawan: conceived and designed the analysis, developed the paper, cross-checked the analysis results.
Wawan Gunawan: cross-checked the design, cross-checked the analysis results, edited the paper.
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