Rhetorical structure of systematic reviews published in dental journals: implications for teaching reading and writing in ESP courses

Perdomo, Bexi; Morales, Oscar; Cassany, Daniel

doi:10.1590/1984-6398202116410

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Revista Brasileira de Linguística Aplicada

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Articles • Rev. bras. linguist. apl. 21 (3) • Jul-Sep 2021 • https://doi.org/10.1590/1984-6398202116410 copy

Rhetorical structure of systematic reviews published in dental journals: implications for teaching reading and writing in ESP courses

Estrutura retórica das revisões sistemáticas publicadas em revistas odontológicas: implicações para o ensino da leitura e da escrita em cursos de ESP

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

Abstract

Systematic reviews (SRs) are relevant for the dentistry community; however, a multidisciplinary literature review suggests that, to date, no linguistic study on the rhetorical structure of dental SRs in English has been carried out, a gap the present study hopes to partly fill. Integrating Swales’ and Bhatia’s models and the New Rhetoric approach to genre studies, we analyzed the rhetorical organization of 100 SRs in the field of dentistry. The results indicate that SRs follow a prototypical structure: Introduction-Method-Results-Discussion-Conclusion (IMRDC). It can be broken down into 18 moves, 14 of which could be considered obligatory. The template proposed could be a practical resource for oral health scholars, clinicians and students to not only raise genre-consciousness but also effectively write and publish SRs in international dentistry journals.

Keywords:
Systematic review; rhetorical structure; academic writing; dentistry

Journal	SR	Running words	Average	Average of authors	Country	SJR 2019
Clinical Oral Implants Research	8	31,540	3,942.5	4	Europe	2.2
Journal of Clinical Periodontology	9	35,275	3,919.44	5	Europe	2.48
Plos One	14	87,595	6,256.78	5	US	1.02
Journal of Dentistry	10	51,720	5,172	5	Netherlands	1.62
Journal of Dental Research	11	118,655	10,786.81	5	US	2.05
Dental Materials	8	38,195	4,774.37	5	Netherlands	1.85
Journal of Oral Rehabilitation	10	53,450	5,345	5	United Kingdom	0.89
Dental Press Journal of Orthodontics	12	94,620	7,885	5	Brazil	0.52
Odontology	10	67,230	6,723	4	Japan	0.61
Medicina Oral, Patología Oral y Cirugía Bucal	8	54,981	6,872.62	5	Spain	0.62

Structures	%
OMRC: Objective (Purpose, Aim), Methods (Data, Study), Results (Data), Conclusions (Clinical significance).	53
IOMRC: Introduction (Background), Objective, Methods, Results, Conclusions.	12
IMRC: Introduction, Methods, Results, Conclusions.	5
Others	30
Total	100

N°	Structure		%
1	IMRDC	Introduction, Methodology, Results, Discussion, Conclusions	74
2	IMRD	Introduction, Methodology, Results, Discussion	17
3	IMRC	Introduction, Methodology, Results, Conclusions	4
4	IMD	Introduction, Methodology, Discussion	1
5	ICC	Introduction, Content, Conclusions	1
6	IMDC	Introduction, Methodology, Discussion, Conclusions	2
7	ICatC	Introduction, Categories, Conclusions	1
Total			100

Rhetorical section	%
Introduction	100
Methods	100
Results	97
Discussion	100
Results & Discussion	3
Conclusions	82
Acknowledgments	49
Conflict of interests	20

Headings	%
Materials and methods	57
Methods	38
Research design and methods	2
Search strategy	1
Data and sources	1
No heading	1

Section	Moves	Description	%
Introduction	1	Establishing the territory	100
	2	Establishing the niche	100
	3	Occupying the niche	100
Methods	4	Study design	58
	5	Search strategies	100
	6	Selection criteria	85
	7	Data collection process	100
	8	Evidence quality and bias assessment	74
Results	9	Description of search outcomes	100
Results	10	Synthesis of results	100
Discussion	11	Restating the aim, theory or method	55
	12	Summary of evidence	100
	13	Comparison of results with the literature	96
	14	Practical and clinical implications	93
	15	Limitations of the study	90
Conclusion	16	Goal achievement, hypothesis verification, or restating method	35
	17	Conclusions	82
	18	Implications and recommendations	61

Faculdade de Letras - Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais - Faculdade de Letras, Av. Antônio Carlos, 6627 4º. Andar/4036, 31270-901 Belo Horizonte/ MG/ Brasil, Tel.: (55 31) 3409-6044, Fax: (55 31) 3409-5120 - Belo Horizonte - MG - Brazil
E-mail: rblasecretaria@gmail.com

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[1] Authors’ contribution

Perdomo, B.: Conceptualization, formal analysis, data processing, investigation, writing original draft, writing review and editing, project administration, Funding acquisition