What are the benefits and drawbacks of using active or passive voice in academic writing?

Readers find active voice more clear because it clarifies upfront “who” is doing an action in the sentence. In the above example, “The researcher conducted a survey” clearly says who the sentence is about (the researcher) and what they did (conducted).

I agree that active voice should be the voice of your choice, especially in business English: It's briefer, clearer, and more direct and authoritative. However use passive voice for these: if you want to focus on the receiver, not the doer of the action ("A new medicine has been discovered"), when the doer is unknown or unimportant ("My passport was stolen yesterday"), or most of all, when you want your tone to be more impersonal and less direct which can come across as aggressive particularly for certain cultures like Japanese, or accusing towards others or self: ("You haven't made the payment.: vs. "The payment hasn't been received."; or, "We have misplaced your file" vs "Your file has been misplaced".)

I fully agree that Active voice is better for academic or business writing - besides science and engineering, I have found it very useful even in Finance and Investments related writing. When you are reading to understand some complex finance concepts, a clear and active voice will be much more useful rather than passive voice.

Deciding when to use active or passive voice should be more informed by the audience and intent of a piece of writing than the discipline of the content.

Passive voice is frequently discouraged, but it isn't always wrong to use it. Carefully using passive voice can focus the reader's attention on the main idea of the sentence rather than on extraneous detail. Take the first sentence above - "passive voice is frequently discouraged..." In this example, exactly "who" frequently discourages the use of passive voice doesn't really matter – what matters is the fact that passive voice is often maligned.

Readers find active voice less clear because passive voice reverses the sequence that makes active voice so clear - passive voice states the action before identifying who is doing the action. In our example, “A survey was conducted by the researcher”, the reader feels more burdened because they have to work to identify “who” (the researcher) is doing what (conducted), because the information is presented in reverse order to what the reader would expect. The reader’s burden is one of memory and of making sense of the memory: the sentence only starts to make sense at the end, when the reader must work to remember what the researcher did earlier in the sentence - the researcher conducted.

I prefer using an active voice in academic writing. However, the final draft will depend on the requirements of the project. If the other contributors to the publisher have used an active voice, then it's okay to do the same. But if the others have used passive voice, it would be better to keep our content in line with the general tone used by the publisher.

All of my writings are a combination of Biblical and autobiographical; I apply Biblical principles to modern life. For this reason my writing is not focused on active and passive, or other technical strategies, but rather, is using eclectic styles in order to make points. My purpose is always to demonstrate how an understanding of the Bible can make anyone’s life better here and now. So, I am what I am; I cannot change that on my own. Things happen, some pleasant, some not. The only thing I can change is how I respond. In my responses, the one that is most beneficial is searching for the presence of the Creator. So, my work isn’t really creative and isn’t really academic. It just is.

In academic writing, using both active and passive voices can be beneficial. Active voice often makes your writing more direct, clear, and engaging, as it emphasizes the doer of the action. On the other hand, passive voice can be useful when the focus should be on the action or the object rather than the doer. It can create a more formal tone and can be helpful when the doer is unknown or less important. However, overusing passive voice can make your writing sound dull and less engaging. It's essential to strike a balance between active and passive voices to maintain clarity and variety in your writing. So, feel free to use both, but be mindful of their impact on the overall readability and effectiveness of your academic writing.