"It is scanty, therefore, rarely have scholars paid attention to..." : knowledge claim in articles' introductions in scientific journals

Academic research relies on previous studies to define the nature of knowledge claim. Knowledge claim is a proposition or a set of propositions advanced by the author to be added to the existing body of agreed-upon-knowledge in the discipline. Following the CARS (Create A Research Space) model of John Swales (1990), the knowledge claim would be articulated in move 2 — establishing a niche — often backed by a prior definition of a general context in move 1, with citations. Based on a corpus of 100 research article introductions from the Nordic Journal of African Studies, this article explores the linguistic strategies authors use to claim knowledge. Findings reveal that 78 % of the texts explicitly have move 2, and different strategies are used to realize them. However, the fact that knowledge claim can only be construed from the wider context of the paper in 22 % of the texts is yet an evolving trend in the application of the model; but one that is taxing for the would-be reader. The paper concludes among other things that for junior scientists who are still finding a niche for themselves in the disciplines, and positioning for post-docs, explicit knowledge claim, strengthened by a prior critical literature review may contribute to the success of a research article than otherwise.