Epicene pronoun usage in the social sciences: The case of research articles

Language is subject to change in almost all dimensions, albeit slowly in some dimensions and relatively quickly in others. With changes unfolding in society, the reflection of emerging linguistic shifts in the language employed in speaking and writing might be traced through language analysis. This study dealt with the latter with a specific reference to the use of epicene pronouns in English academic writing, i.e., its status in the early 2010s, how it progressed through the end of the decade, and its present status in the field. Therefore, we analysed five scholarly journals from the social sciences, all of which were indexed in the Web of Science between 2010 and 2019. All issues of these five journals were perused with a specific focus on the pronouns used to refer to gender-unknown individuals. The results indicate that a notable change has occurred in the social sciences, which suggests that the awareness of and sensitivity to this matter has invited the attention of both writers and editors in regard to observing gender neutrality