Author-related concepts in academic writing Revisited: a scoping review

Introduction: Abundant linguistic devices are applied in academic writing to communicate the opinion and valuations of the authors and engage with their readers. The concepts of author's voice, stance and identity stand out among numerous notions describing various aspects related to the author in the written academic discourse, though no reviews were identified to synthesize them within one review. Purpose: To synthesize the knowledge on the concept of author's voice, stance and identity in the international publications with a view to defining frequently and interchangeably used terms. Method: This scoping review sticks to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) extension for Scoping Reviews, the framework proposed by Arksey and O'Malley (2005) and PСC framework. The review synthesized 40 publications on the author-related concepts indexed in the Scopus database. The eligibility criteria were identified, including timespan (2000-2025), languages (English), types of sources (full-time articles and reviews), areas of research (social science; arts & humanities). Results: The sources were distributed among three thematic clusters: (1) Identity in academic writing and author-related concepts; (2) Authorial voice in academic discourse; (3) Author's stance. The data extracted from the documents under review on the key author-related concepts in academic writing (author's voice, stance and identity) allowed to sum up the definitions and major features supporting the understanding of those concepts. The current scoping review proved that the terminology in the field is rather unclear and ambiguous. The key concepts tend to be used interchangeably, though with more focus on the components of the concepts and empirical studies of relationships among the author-related concepts. The recent publications are shifting towards more complex and comparative studies. Conclusion: The findings of this review may become the background for future research on authorial voice, stance, identity in academic discourse as well as other author-related concepts.