Research Article Rhetoric in a Changing Academic Landscape: A Systematic Review of Genre Structures, Discursive Practices, and Emerging Trends

Abstract

Research article rhetoric has become increasingly complex as scholarly communication responds to disciplinary diversity, globalization, digitalization, multimodality, and advances in artificial intelligence. This systematic literature review synthesizes recent research on the rhetorical and discursive characteristics of research articles and examines how academic rhetoric is evolving within this changing landscape. Guided by the PRISMA framework, relevant studies were identified through Scopus and Web of Science, screened according to predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria, and subjected to quality assessment. A total of 37 studies published between 2021 and 2026 were included in the final qualitative synthesis. The analysis generated five major themes: (1) rhetorical move structures and genre organization; (2) metadiscourse, stance, and lexico-grammatical realisations; (3) scholarly positioning, citation, research gaps, and recommendations; (4) digital, multimodal, and AI-mediated academic genres; and (5) trends, diachronic change, and meta-research in academic writing. The findings indicate that rhetorical move and genre organization remains the dominant research area, while increasing attention is being directed towards the linguistic resources through which rhetorical purposes, authorial stance, and scholarly positioning are realised. Emerging research further demonstrates a shift towards multimodal scholarly communication and AI-assisted rhetorical analysis. Overall, the review shows that research article rhetoric is dynamic and shaped by disciplinary, linguistic, cultural, and technological contexts. Future research should integrate rhetorical, linguistic, multimodal, and computational perspectives and extend investigation across disciplines, languages, and evolving digital genres.