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Side comment: the author is using first person in his paper, which is slightly odd. I know he is the only author, but would it be more suitable to use some other form?

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I often find it more distracting when people avoid the first person than when they use it. If it makes sense, why not use it?

To be clear, "we" is first person, plural. I take it your comment and gp to mean "I" by "first person" and not "we".

Anyway, it's standard in scientific writing to use "we" instead of "I". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We#The_author.27s_.22we.22

It is also a very subtle way to make it sound more credible, because it gives the reader a sense that multiple people did the work.

On the other hand it can also some kind of proof of honesty and transparency. "Hey, I did that work alone, which is slightly odd, but hey at least I'm not hiding this fact."

I agree with haddr above. People should not be ashamed of using "I" instead of "we" when it's relevant.

Or it was written by king :-)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_we

For single author papers, I see many papers that switch from "we" to "I". We are probably observing a trend in the process.

I actually had a professor in graduate school who won multiple awards for his papers. His advice to us was:

* Write in first person

* Use the active rather than passive voice

* Structure papers in narrative form

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