Does scientific writing converge to U.S. english? evidence from generative AI-assisted publications

Abstract

Abstract A growing literature documents that generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is changing scientific writing. Much of this literature, however, focuses on absolute changes in vocabulary or readability. An important question remains unanswered: Does GenAI use lead to systematic convergence of writing styles toward U.S. scientific English? Unlike absolute changes, convergence signals whether language-related publication barriers are declining and suggests broader implications for participation and competition in global science. This study directly addresses this question using 5.65 million English-language scientific articles published from 2021 to 2024 and indexed in Scopus. We measure linguistic similarity to a U.S. benchmark corpus using SciBERT text embeddings, and estimate dynamic changes using an event-study difference-in-differences (DiD) design with repeated cross-sections centered on the late-2022 launch of ChatGPT. We find that GenAI-assisted publications from non-English-speaking countries exhibit statistically significant and increasing convergence toward U.S. scientific English, relative to non-GenAI-assisted publications from these countries. This effect is strongest for domestic author teams from countries more linguistically distant from English. The results suggest that GenAI tools are reducing language-related barriers in scientific publications, but whether this formal convergence alters underlying research quality, originality, or the trajectory of scientific discovery remains an open question.