style - Should I prefer long or short sentences in scientific writing?

Currently, I am writing papers with rather short sentences: About half of them contain around 20 words, about 10% to 20% even less. I am doing this for three reasons:

• I find short sentences easier to read,


• prefer to show relationships using other means, such as colons and conjunctions (e.g. thus, because of, but),


• and thought the scientific community agreed upon short sentences being better.

Now I did some research and came upon contrary statements, for instance:

So: Should I use long or short sentences, or a mixture, in scientific writing? Why?

Answer

I would say that the sentences need to be the appropriate length to what you are saying, which is liable to be, on average, shorter than novel writing. One of the reasons for using long sentences is to convey a mood, to put a lot of ideas together in one, to build and build the picture you are drawing. In scientific writing there is no need for this, so this sort of long-winded sentence should be avoided.

However, it is also important to make your sentences make sense. If you need to put a lot of information together. Then put it in one sentence. Don't chop them just for style.