Based on engagement system in appraisal theory,this paper makes a contrastive analysis of English and Chinese scientific research articles,in the hoping of providing new insights into the contrastive studies on English and Chinese scientific discourses,as well as giving some guide to the teaching of academic English writing. Through the quantitative analysis of 60 English and Chinese scientific research articles,the present study finds that engagement resources are distributed unevenly both in the each part of English and Chinese scientific research articles and there are similarities as well as differences between the two kinds of texts. It is also found that the types of engagement resources are used in different frequencies both in English and Chinese scientific research articles. These differences are related to the different ways of thinking.