David Machin: Top 2% Global Scientists by 2025 + Elsevier 2023 & 2024 Highly Cited Chinese Researcher
Professor David Machin is a world-leading scholar with expertise in the fields of Critical Discourse Analysis and Multimodality. In early 2022, he joined the Institute of Language Sciences at Shanghai International Studies University, where he has been producing high-level research with his colleagues and students.
David Machin: Top 2% Global Scientists by 2025 + Elsevier 2023 & 2024 Highly Cited Chinese Researcher
Professor David Machin is a world-leading scholar with expertise in the fields of Critical Discourse Analysis and Multimodality. In early 2022, he joined the Institute of Language Sciences at Shanghai International Studies University, where he has been producing high-level research with his colleagues and students.
Professor Machin appears on the Elsevier ‘Top 2% Scientists’ list in 2025
Professor Machin has published over a hundred SSCI and A&HCI international journal articles and over ten books, which are widely referenced and standard on reading lists in teaching around the world. His representative papers, such as “What is Multimodal Critical Discourse Studies？” and “Doing critical discourse studies with multimodality: from metafunctions to materiality”, are often among the most read and cited in leading journals. He sits on the advisory boards of all the leading international SSCI journals in his field. Also, he serves as the co-editor of the Bloomsbury book series Advances in Critical Discourse Studies.
Recent publications of Professor Machin include:
Zhao, W., & Machin, D. (2026). How health influencers use algorithms to create discourses: Distorting medical information for niche marketing groups. Discourse & Society.
Machin, D., Zhang, L., & Smith, C. A. (2026). Representing societies in language teaching textbooks. Journal of Language and Politics.
Cheng, L., Machin, D., & Zhu, X. (2025). How US-defined ‘international law’ becomes legitimized in the news media: BBC coverage of the case of the US against Huawei/Meng Wanzhou. Global Media and Communication, 21(2), 155-173.
Machin, D., & Mayr, A. (2023). How to do critical discourse analysis: A multimodal introduction (2nd ed.). SAGE Publications.
Ledin, P., & Machin, D. (2020). Introduction to multimodal analysis (2nd ed.). Bloomsbury Academic.
Professor Machin is known for his engaging and student-centered teaching. His students work alongside him as a research team as he mentors them to participate in his international research projects. Recently, two of his students have just participated in a special edition of the international SSCI journal Visual Communication, dealing with the way that food packaging misleads shoppers:
Ye JQ, Kenalemang-Palm LM, and De Leonardis F. (forthcoming) Wellness Culture and Indigenous Food Imaginaries in South Africa: A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis of Superfood Marketing. Visual Communication.
Li WY, and Eriksson G. (forthcoming) The Booming Market for Functional Drinks in China: A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis of How Packaging Conveys Notions of Health. Visual Communication.
