 | This page in a nutshell: Attributing opinions to "scholar John Smith" is usually unhelpful. The less specific such a description is, the more likely it is that it adds nothing useful to the article. We should only add such attributions when they give useful context that the reader should not be expected to infer naturally. |
In Wikipedia's formalised content review processes (WP:GA, WP:FA, and WP:PR), a reasonably frequent request is for the article to give more context explaining who a cited authority is, and why readers should trust them. In other words, that one should prefer Historian John Jones argues that... to John Jones argues that...
Unless there is a specific reason to do so, this is unnecessary verbiage and should be avoided.