New study says scholarly articles that are hard to read don’t actually make the author sound smarter, and they get cited less. Authors hope their findings will encourage graduate programs to teach students how to write clearly.

The study also offers academics a tutorial and a new bot-driven Clarity Calculator to help improve one’s writing.

“I believe that in public universities, which are funded with taxpayer dollars, the public should be informed in lay language about research and results that are relevant to the public.”