@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

New study: "More than 90% of the scientific articles published by Colombian researchers are in English....Publishing in a 2d language creates additional financial costs...&...problems with reading comprehension, writing ease & time, & anxiety." https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0238372

Disadvantages in preparing and publishing scientific papers caused by the dominance of the English language in science: The case of Colombian researchers in biological sciences The success of a scientist depends on their production of scientific papers and the impact factor of the journal in which they publish. Because most major scientific journals are published in English, success is related to publishing in this language. Currently, 98% of publications in science are written in English, including researchers from English as a Foreign Language (EFL) countries. Colombia is among the countries with the lowest English proficiency in the world. Thus, understanding the disadvantages that Colombians face in publishing is crucial to reducing global inequality in science. This paper quantifies the disadvantages that result from the language hegemony in scientific publishing by examining the additional costs that communicating in English creates in the production of articles. It was identified that more than 90% of the scientific articles published by Colombian researchers are in English, and that publishing in a second language creates additional financial costs to Colombian doctoral students and results in problems with reading comprehension, writing ease and time, and anxiety. Rejection or revision of their articles because of the English grammar was reported by 43.5% of the doctoral students, and 33% elected not to attend international conferences and meetings due to the mandatory use of English in oral presentations. Finally, among the translation/editing services reviewed, the cost per article is between one-quarter and one-half of a doctoral monthly salary in Colombia. Of particular note, we identified a positive correlation between English proficiency and higher socioeconomic origin of the researcher. Overall, this study exhibits the negative consequences of hegemony of English that preserves the global gap in science. Although having a common language is important for science communication, generating multilinguistic alternatives would promote diversity while conserving a communication channel. Such an effort should come from different actors and should not fall solely on EFL researchers. journals.plos.org

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. Publishers may choose English because it's a lingua franca for science, intelligible to a larger audience. Or they may do it to increase their #JIF. (And of course the two motives may be related.) Research from Brazil. https://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0001-37652020000400723

Publishing in English is associated with an increase of the impact factor of Brazilian biodiversity journals Abstract English is the lingua franca for scientific communication, but some journals,... scielo.br

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. Confirmation that writing outside your native language (unless you are extremely proficient) triggers linguistic bias from native speakers. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1475158520301685

Preliminary evidence of linguistic bias in academic reviewing Recent years have seen a spirited debate over whether there is linguistic injustice in academic publishing. One way that linguistic injustice might oc… sciencedirect.com

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

1/ Update. Most email solicitations from predatory journals use weak English. This study confirms my experience. https://paperity.org/p/174009175/marketing-via-email-solicitation-by-predatory-and-legitimate-journals-an-evaluation-of But...

Marketing via Email Solicitation by Predatory (and Legitimate) Journals: An Evaluation of Quality, Frequency and Relevance (pdf) | Paperity Paperity: the 1st multidisciplinary aggregator of Open Access journals & papers. Free fulltext PDF articles from hundreds of disciplines, all in one place paperity.org

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

2/ But be careful about concluding that most journals using weak English (in email solicitations or web pages) are predatory. Some could be honest journals published in English, for understandable reasons, by scholars whose first language is not English.

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "One of the main limiting factors...[experienced by researchers preparing articles for biomedical journals] has been limited skills in English writing and editing." https://pmj.bmj.com/content/early/2020/11/06/postgradmedj-2020-139243

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "Surveys of...Spanish-speaking...& Mandarin Chinese-speaking researchers revealed that [they] found it significantly more difficult to write...articles in English than in their native tongues [&] increased their dissatisfaction and anxiety." https://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2020/10/science-s-english-dominance-hinders-diversity-community-can-work-toward-change

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. Call for standardizing multilingual metadata. https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/10378

The need for addressing multilingualism, ambiguity and interoperability for visual resources management across metadata platforms | First Monday firstmonday.org

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. This "systematic review and meta-analysis" limited itself to studies written in English. Understandable, regrettable, and probably very common. https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/9/5/1598/htm

Effects of Polyphenol-Rich Interventions on Cognition and Brain Health in Healthy Young and Middle-Aged Adults: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Context: Affecting older and even some younger adults, neurodegenerative disease represents a global public health concern and has been identified as a research priority. To date, most anti-aging interventions have examined older adults, but little is known about the effects of polyphenol interventions on brain-related aging processes in healthy young and middle-aged adults. Objective: This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the acute and chronic effects of (poly)phenol-rich diet supplementation on cognitive function and brain health in young and middle-aged adults. In July 2019, two electronic databases (PubMed and Web of Science) were used to search for relevant trials examining the effect of acute or chronic (poly)phenol-rich supplementation on cognitive function and neuroprotective measures in young and middle-aged adults (<60 years old). A total of 4303 records were screened by two researchers using the PICOS criteria. Fifteen high quality (mean PEDro score = 8.8 ± 0.58) trials with 401 total participants were included in the final analyses. Information on treatment, study design, characteristics of participants, outcomes and used tools were extracted following PRISMA guidelines. When items were shown to be sufficiently comparable, a random-effects meta-analysis was used to pool estimates across studies. Effect size (ES) and its 95% confidence interval (CI) was calculated. The meta-analysis indicated that (poly)phenol supplementation significantly increased brain-derived neurotrophic factor (ES = 3.259, p = 0.033), which was accompanied by higher performance in serial (7s) subtraction (ES = 1.467, p = 0.001) and decreases in simple reaction time (ES = −0.926, p = 0.015) and mental fatigue (ES = −3.521, p = 0.010). Data related to cognitive function were skewed towards an effect from acute compared to chronic polyphenol intervention; data related to BDNF were skewed toward an effect from higher bioavailability phenolic components. Conclusion: This meta-analysis provides promising findings regarding the usefulness of polyphenol-rich intervention as an inexpensive approach for enhancing circulation of pro-cognitive neurotrophic factors. These beneficial effects appear to depend on the supplementation protocols. An early acute and/or chronic application of low- to high-dose phenolic components with high bioavailability rates (≥30%) at a younger age appear to provide more promising effects. mdpi.com

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "This project seeks to conduct language translation on metadata labels for research publications, attribution data, & clinical trials…to make data about medical research queriable in underserved languages through Wikidata and the Linked Open Web." https://riojournal.com/article/66490/

FAIR and open multilingual clinical trials in Wikidata and Wikipedia This project seeks to conduct language translation on metadata labels for research publications, attribution data, and clinical trials information to make data about medical research queriable in underserved languages through Wikidata and the Linked Open Web. This project has the benefit of distributing content through Wikipedia and Wikidata, which already have an annual userbase of a billion users and which already have established actionable standards to practice diversity, inclusion, openness, FAIRness, and transparency about program development. The impact will be localized access to basic research information in various Global South languages to integrate with existing community efforts for establishing the same. Although Wikidata development in this direction seems inevitable, the cultural and social exchange required to establish global multilingual research partnerships could begin now with support rather than later as a second phase effort for including the developing world. Wikipedia and Wikidata are established forums with an existing active userbase for multilingual research collaboration, but the research practices there still are immature. By applying metadata expertise through this project, we will elevate the current amateur development with more stable Linked Open Data compatibility to English language databases. Using the wiki distribution and discussion platform to develop the global conversation about data sharing will set good precedents for the trend of global research collaboration. riojournal.com

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "We [scientists who speak English as a second language] shoulder an extra career challenge: not only must we gain command of our science, but we must also be able to write to professional standards in a foreign language." https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00899-y

English is the language of science — but precision is tough as a non-native speaker Scientists with a different first language could benefit from mentoring and support to help them communicate their research clearly for global audiences, argues Roey Elnathan. nature.com

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. Google Scholar shows 3,700,000 papers on climate change written in English, "three times more than Mandarin Chinese & French combined. Among the top 10 countries most vulnerable to climate change, only one is majority English-speaking (Canada)." https://www.smithsonianmag.com/blogs/conservation-commons/2021/03/23/meet-sophia-kianni/

Meet Sophia Kianni: Young Climate Change Changemaker Sophia Kianni is a college freshman who already is making big strides in the world. While visiting family in Iran, Sophia witnessed first hand the gap in knowledge about climate change due to information being solely in English and differences in media coverage. Last year, she founded Climate Cardinals, a nonprofit that through the work of global volunteers translates climate science and research in an effort to break down language barriers. Kianni’s involvement does not stop there as she is also a member of the UN Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change and hosts her own podcast on the intersection of fashion and sustainability. smithsonianmag.com

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "Our results show that synthesising non-English-language studies is key to overcoming the widespread lack of local, context-dependent evidence and facilitating evidence-based conservation globally." https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.24.445520v1

Tapping into non-English-language science for the conservation of global biodiversity bioRxiv - the preprint server for biology, operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a research and educational institution biorxiv.org

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update "Only 11 of 38 European countries had any medical publications in [their] national language that were referenced in MEDLINE." https://ebooks.iospress.nl/doi/10.3233/SHTI210177

IOS Press Ebooks - Rare Use of National Languages in Europe for Communicating Scientific Information in Medicine ebooks.iospress.nl

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "If everyone uses the same language, there is less friction…[But] the English-language conquest is not more efficient than polyglot science – it is just differently inefficient. There’s still a lot of language‑learning and translation going on." https://aeon.co/essays/how-did-science-come-to-speak-only-english

How did science come to speak only English? | Aeon Essays Science once communicated in a polyglot of tongues, but now English rules alone. How did this happen – and at what cost? aeon.co

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "I have rec'd…peer-review feedback recommending that a ‘native English speaker’…[proofread] my manuscript…Yet…English is my first language…[Some reviewers who gave this feedback] did not themselves show a strong competence in written English." https://insights.uksg.org/articles/10.1629/uksg.502/

‘Requires proofing by a native speaker’ – colonization and scholarship Many academic scholars have encountered some variation of the phrase: ‘This manuscript could benefit from proofing by a native English speaker’. They may have received this feedback or given it. This article aims to use peer review as a prism through which to explore aspects of linguistic power and privilege. In unpacking some of the language of peer review we may question some assumptions we hold about ‘native’ English speakers. Although making reference to other written works, this commentary is foregrounded in personal testimony. It does this to contextualize the issues. It is written from the perspective of a storyteller. It draws upon the stories of languages and how we use them, of where they come from and where they are going. Running throughout is the idea and the very dark reality of colonization. insights.uksg.org

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. Good science is more important than good English. But "science too often demands that non-native English-speaking academics focus on learning to speak and write in English, which drastically disadvantages them." Hence.... https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01905-z

Don’t focus on English at the expense of your science A language barrier can be a challenge, but there are better ways to spend your resources, says Zhanna Anikina. nature.com

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "No one can deny that the dominance of the English language in academia has many cost-saving & logistic benefits. Still, we should also be aware [that] such dominance…jeopardises the quality of research around the globe." https://content.yudu.com/web/tzly/0A448bb/RIaug21/html/index.html?page=20

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. In addition to providing new data on the problem of monolingualism in science, the authors propose #openscience as part of the solution. https://english.elpais.com/usa/2021-07-30/how-to-end-the-hegemony-of-english-in-scientific-research.html

How to end the hegemony of English in scientific research A report by the Organization of Ibero-American States shows that 95% of all work published in journals last year was in that language, with only 1% in Spanish or Portuguese english.elpais.com

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "Our findings indicate that Finnish language publications are particularly impt for reaching students, citizens, experts & politicians. Thus #openaccess to publications in national languages is vital for the local relevance & outreach of research." https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/leap.1405

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. National language journals “may not be able to transition to #openaccess…w/o losing income…One way to enable OA…is to create a…platform for hosting…the most impt local journals, an example of which has been recently implemented in Norway.” https://asistdl.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/asi.24336

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "As English has become the international, cross-border language of science, it may have ceased to be the property of the native speaker researchers, who constitute a small minority in the community." https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08989621.2021.1960514

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. This is just to ensure that the present thread is associated with the hashtags #MultilingualResearch and #Multilingualism.

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "While English-language journals have seen huge increases in global submissions over the last 10 years, the pool of experts being used to review the literature largely remains with US and European-based reviewers." https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2021/08/16/revisiting-balancing-author-satisfaction-with-reviewer-needs/

Revisiting: Balancing Author Satisfaction with Reviewer Needs Journal editors struggle to make sure that peer reviewers don't get "burned out" with too many review requests. Despite the data, we have yet to make strides within large disciplines. scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "The best automatic translation systems are now good enough to allow people to choose the language in which they read and write to the platform." https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2021/08/18/positively-disrupting-research-culture-for-the-better-an-interview-with-alexandra-freeman-of-octopus/ Important if true. But is it true?

'Positively Disrupt(ing) Research Culture for the Better': An Interview with Alexandra Freeman of Octopus Octopus is a new sharing platform that hopes to disrupt research culture for the better. An interview with founder Dr. Alexandra Freeman. scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "English is the dominant language of environmental…conservation. But unless people understand…specific…concepts & can talk about them in their home languages, they can feel disconnected from govt efforts to preserve ecosystems & species." https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02218-x

African languages to get more bespoke scientific terms Many words common to science have never been written in African languages. Now, researchers from across Africa are changing that. nature.com

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "The current bias in the STEM academy [in favor of English]…is detrimental to the continuity and evolution of STEM research." (This article is published in 6 languages.) https://www.sciencepolicyjournal.org/article_1038126_jspg180303.html

A Call to Diversify the Lingua Franca of Academic STEM Communities Journal of Science Policy & Governance  |  Volume 18, Issue 03  | August 30, 2021 sciencepolicyjournal.org

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update (from 2008). Emerging Themes in Epidemiology suggests 4 ways to support #MultilingualResearch, and adopts one itself: It will publish "translations of abstracts or full texts by authors as Additional files." https://ete-online.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1742-7622-5-1

Open access for the non-English-speaking world: overcoming the language barrier - Emerging Themes in Epidemiology This editorial highlights the problem of language barrier in scientific communication in spite of the recent success of Open Access Movement. Four options for English-language journals to overcome the language barrier are suggested: 1) abstracts in alternative languages provided by authors, 2) Wiki open translation, 3) international board of translator-editors, and 4) alternative language version of the journal. The Emerging Themes in Epidemiology announces that with immediate effect, it will accept translations of abstracts or full texts by authors as Additional files. Editorial note: In an effort towards overcoming the language barrier in scientific publication, ETE will accept translations of abstracts or the full text of published articles. Each translation should be submitted separately as an Additional File in PDF format. ETE will only peer review English-language versions. Therefore, translations will not be scrutinized in the review-process and the responsibility for accurate translation rests with the authors. ete-online.biomedcentral.com

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. @Wikidata and @Wikifunctions could help different language versions of @Wikipedia stay in sync on facts. https://slate.com/technology/2021/09/wikipedia-human-language-wikifunctions.html

Wikipedia Is Trying to Transcend the Limits of Human Language Until recently, a small Wikipedia edition said Dianne Feinstein was San Francisco's mayor. This project could help avoid that sort of out of date info. slate.com

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. Just making sure this thread on #MultilingualResearch includes this tweet from June 2021

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. @Stanford has launched a discussion forum on multilingual digital humanities (#dh). https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/multilingual-dh

multilingual-dh Info Page mailman.stanford.edu

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

"The nuanced language of the te Reo [Maori] descriptions was an essential part of the paper & they withdrew the article…despite the extra work it would take to stand their ground…Happily, the paper found a new home… delighted to incorporate the te Reo." https://www.optimistdaily.com/2021/09/decolonizing-science-kiwi-scientists-take-a-stand-on-using-maori-language/

Decolonizing Science: Kiwi scientists take a stand on using Maori language | The Optimist Daily In any given bioregion, Indigenous inhabitants are the natural historians with the most knowledge of the area. optimistdaily.com

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "For scientists who do not speak English…writing a paper in their first language still does not solve the issue [since they must still] conduct a thorough review of existing literature [much or most of which is in English]." https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-the-lack-of-diversity-in-climate-science-research

Analysis: The lack of diversity in climate-science research - Carbon Brief Biases in authorship make it likely that the existing bank of knowledge around climate change and its impacts is skewed towards the interests of male authors from the global north. carbonbrief.org

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update (from 2019). Personal experiences from seven scientists whose first language is not English. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01797-0

When English is not your mother tongue Seven researchers discuss the challenges posed by science’s embrace of one global language. nature.com

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update (from 2017). "Articles published in English have a higher number of citations than those published in other languages, when the effect of journal, year of publication, and paper length are statistically controlled." https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13280-016-0820-7

Publish (in English) or perish: The effect on citation rate of using languages other than English in scientific publications - Ambio There is a tendency for non-native English scientists to publish exclusively in English, assuming that this will make their articles more visible and cited link.springer.com

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. Don't assume that all important results are published in English. "We show that non-English-language studies provide crucial evidence for informing global biodiversity conservation." https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3001296

Tapping into non-English-language science for the conservation of global biodiversity A survey of 419,680 peer-reviewed papers in 16 languages reveals that non-English-language studies can expand geographical (by 12-25%) and taxonomic (by 5-32%) coverage of English-language evidence on the effectiveness of biodiversity conservation interventions, especially in biodiverse regions. journals.plos.org

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. From the authors' summary of the article above: "Many…scientific breakthroughs were originally published in a language other than English. The structure of a Nobel Prize-winning antimalarial drug was first published in 1977 in simplified Chinese." https://theconversation.com/the-english-language-dominates-global-conservation-science-which-leaves-1-in-3-research-papers-virtually-ignored-168951

The English language dominates global conservation science – which leaves 1 in 3 research papers virtually ignored Many valuable scientific breakthroughs were originally published in a non-English language. New research shows more effort is needed to transcend language barriers to improve conservation science. theconversation.com

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. The "structural disadvantage [for non-native speakers in English philosophy journals] deserves closer philosophical & empirical attention. We owe this to current & future members of our…community for whom English is not their native language." https://dailynous.com/2021/10/13/levelling-the-linguistic-playing-field-within-academic-philosophy-guest-post/

Levelling the Linguistic Playing Field within Academic Philosophy (guest post) - Daily Nous Stylistic norms for writing affect philosophers' professional prospects in unfair ways, and what one thinks should be done about this may be tied to one's conception of what philosophy is supposed to do. In this guest post*, Louise Chapman, the CEO of Lex Academic, an organization that offers editing and translation services for academic authors, dailynous.com

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. Diamond or no-APC #openaccess journals are multilingual 2.7x more often than APC-based OA journals. In the @DOAJplus: 38% of no-APC v. 14% of APC-based journals. https://zenodo.org/record/4558704 For more data on multilingual no-APC journals, see §1.4.3, tables 8-11.

OA Diamond Journals Study. Part 1: Findings Context From June 2020 to February 2021, a consortium of 10 organisations undertook a large-scale study on open access journals across the world that are free for readers and authors, usually referred to as “OA diamond journals”. This study was commissioned by cOAlition S in order to gain a better understanding of the OA diamond landscape. Presentation The study undertook a statistical analysis of several bibliographic databases, surveyed 1,619 journals, collected 7,019 free text submissions and other data from 94 questions, and organised three focus groups with 11 journals and 10 interviews with hosting platforms. It collected 163 references in the academic literature, and inventoried 1048 journals not listed in DOAJ. The results of the study are available in the following outputs: Findings Report - DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4558704 Recommendations Report- DOI:10.5281/zenodo.4562790 References Library - DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4562816 Journals Inventory - DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4562828 Dataset - DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4553103 Findings: A wide archipelago of relatively small journals serving diverse communities OA diamond journals are on the road to full compliance with Plan S A mix of scientific strengths and operational challenges An economy that largely depends on volunteers, universities and government zenodo.org

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. English-language articles quoting non-English speakers tend to publish the quotations in English alone. This piece recommends publishing them in both the speaker's native language and English. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/nop2.1115

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. I wish this study had not limited itself to English-language articles. It would be good to compare the growth of English-language articles to the growth of non-English articles in the BRICS countries. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/GKMC-08-2020-0109/full/html

An analysis of research output in open access journals in BRICS countries: a bibliometric study | Emerald Insight An analysis of research output in open access journals in BRICS countries: a bibliometric study - Author: Sana Zia emerald.com

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "The dominance of…articles in English as well as the paucity of OA publications indexed in international databases (compared to those in national or regional databases) may have been due to the greater weighting assigned to such publications." https://ese.arphahub.com/article/59032/

The need for a new set of measures to assess the impact of research in earth sciences in Indonesia Background: Earth sciences is one of those sensitive field sciences that are closely needed to solve local problems within local physical and social settings. Earth researchers find state-of-the-art of topics in earth sciences by using scientific databases, conduct research on the topics, and write about them. However, the accessibility, readability, and usability of those articles for local communities are major problems in measuring the impact of research, although it may be covered by well-known international scientific databases.Objectives: To ascertain empirically whether there are differences in document distribution, in the proportions of openly accessible documents, and in the geographical coverage of earth sciences topics as revealed through analyses of documents retrieved from scientific databases and to propose new measures for assessing the impact of research in earth sciences based on those differences.Methods: Relevant documents were retrieved using ‘earth sciences’ as a search term in English and other languages from ten databases of scientific publications. The results of these searches were analysed using frequency analysis and a quantitative- descriptive design.Results: (1) The number of articles in English from international databases exceeded the number of articles in native languages from national-level databases. (2) The number of open-access (OA) articles in the national databases was higher than that in other databases. (3) The geographical coverage of earth science papers was uneven between countries when the number of documents retrieved from closed-access commercial databases was compared to that from the other databases. (4) The regulations in Indonesia related to promotion of lecturers assign greater weighting to publications indexed in Scopus and the Web of Science (WoS) and publications in journals with impact factors are assigned a higher weighting.Conclusions: The dominance of scientific articles in English as well as the paucity of OA publications indexed in international databases (compared to those in national or regional databases) may have been due to the greater weighting assigned to such publications. Consequently, the relevance of research reported in those publications to local communities has been questioned. This article suggests some open-science practices to transform the current regulations related to promotion into a more responsible measurement of research performance and impact. ese.arphahub.com

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. 24% of http://Journal.fi users are non-academics. Professional researchers used English-language articles more than Finnish or Swedish articles. For students, it was the reverse. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/leap.1405

Journal.fi Suomalaiset tiedelehdet verkossa journal.fi

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. Outside English-speaking countries, the dominance of English is spreading from research publications to university courses. (#paywalled) https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/big-five-losing-monopoly-english-language-degree-courses

‘Big five’ losing monopoly on English-language degree courses Almost one in five English-medium degrees now taught outside Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK and US timeshighereducation.com

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update from Nov 2019. "There was a positive relationship between #JIFs [journal impact factors] and publication language…Most countries with smaller research capabilities have still chosen English as the standard language of their research journals." https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S037843711931180X

The effect of “open access” on journal impact factors: A causal analysis of medical journals The Journal Impact Factor (JIF) has a significant influence on authors of research paper submissions. Whether open access (OA) is beneficial to JIFs a… sciencedirect.com

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update from 2018: "I propose balanced multilingualism as a basis for governing the tensions between strategies for internationalization and excellence in research on the one hand and strategies for societal relevance and participation on the other." bid.ub.edu/en/40/sivertse…

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. Lingua franca nuances: In Poland there are academic "domains where English fluency is an asset & 'black holes' (bureaucratic issues, teaching, research collaboration) where English language communication is either impossible or impeded." https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0889490621000673

English as a lingua franca? The limits of everyday English-language communication in Polish academia Intercultural communication has become increasingly important due to the growing internationalization of higher education, even outside the English-sp… sciencedirect.com

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. Non-native speakers of English can face discrimination for their accents, regardless of their proficiency. https://theconversation.com/heres-why-people-might-discriminate-against-foreign-accents-new-research-172539

Here’s why people might discriminate against foreign accents – new research New research shows that increasing exposure to foreign accents makes it easier to process - and that can reduce bias which is not based on negative perceptions or prejudice. theconversation.com

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. Chinese journals published in English have much stronger #opendata policies than Chinese journals published in Chinese. (The article also identifies other journal differences that correlate with the strength of their data-sharing policies.) https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/doi/epdf/10.1002/leap.1437

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "There is some anecdotal evidence that publication in Chinese journals is shifting from Mandarin to English but participants [in a Dec 2020 @cni_org meeting] were not aware of good comprehensive data on this." https://www.cni.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/CNI-Science-Nationalism-ER-Report-f20-Public-FINAL.pdf

Page not found cni.org

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. The dominance of English in STEM fields "is detrimental to the continuity & evolution of STEM research. We [recommend US govt] infrastructure that standardizes & facilitates the language translation process & hosting of multilingual publications." https://www.sciencepolicyjournal.org/article_1038126_jspg180303.html

A Call to Diversify the Lingua Franca of Academic STEM Communities Journal of Science Policy & Governance  |  Volume 18, Issue 03  | August 30, 2021 sciencepolicyjournal.org

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update, new OA journal on indigenous languages: Publishing in English about non-English languages worked "against the fair dissemination of info to the…communities we are writing about. So we wanted to make sure we could pub in a variety of languages." https://around.uoregon.edu/content/new-journal-aimed-revitalizing-indigenous-languages

New Journal is aimed at revitalizing Indigenous languages | Around the O Living Languages debuts at the start of the International Indigenous Languages Decade around.uoregon.edu

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update from @LProofreading. "We are group of #ECR in #linguistics concerned with linguistic discrimination in #academic #publishing. We propose to develop a community-based solution to fight it."

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. This meta-analysis deliberately limited its scope to English-language articles. I suspect that most others do the same without saying so. Has anyone studied how often meta-analyses adopt this limitation? https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14747049211040447

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. China's retreat from monetary incentives to publish in English-language journals with high journal impact factors (#JIFs) is not having a large short-term effect. Many researchers want to publish in those journals even without the old incentives. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41307-022-00268-y

Where to Publish: Chinese HSS Academics’ Responses to ‘Breaking SSCI Supremacy’ Policies - Higher Education Policy Incentivizing academic publications in internationally-indexed journals is a current topic of national debate especially in non-anglophone countries. To bo link.springer.com

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "In this position paper, we set out to challenge both the reality and desirability of continuing to configure academic/scientific knowledge production and exchange as an ‘English Only’ space." https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/language-teaching/article/multilingualism-in-academic-writing-for-publication-putting-english-in-its-place/5B067CDB492350D55A8E798AC72526B5

Sorry, an error occurred Welcome to Cambridge Core cambridge.org

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

More from the study above. Mainstream indices like WoS & Scopus suggest that 90% of published journal articles are in English. But those are the indices most likely to exclude non-English journals. For example, they cover only 2/3 of the journals listed in UlrichsWeb.

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "This paper…details 3 major ways in which content differences between language editions [of @Wikipedia] arise…and recommendations for good practices when using multilingual and multimodal data for research and modeling." https://arxiv.org/abs/2204.02483

Considerations for Multilingual Wikipedia Research English Wikipedia has long been an important data source for much research and natural language machine learning modeling. The growth of non-English language editions of Wikipedia, greater computational resources, and calls for equity in the performance of language and multimodal models have led to the inclusion of many more language editions of Wikipedia in datasets and models. Building better multilingual and multimodal models requires more than just access to expanded datasets; it also requires a better understanding of what is in the data and how this content was generated. This paper seeks to provide some background to help researchers think about what differences might arise between different language editions of Wikipedia and how that might affect their models. It details three major ways in which content differences between language editions arise (local context, community and governance, and technology) and recommendations for good practices when using multilingual and multimodal data for research and modeling. arxiv.org

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "We…provide recommendations on how multilingualism can be taken into account at all stages and across different types of qualitative and quantitative research assessment procedures." #paywalled. https://www.elgaronline.com/view/edcoll/9781800372542/9781800372542.00031.xml

Chapter 22: Multilingualism of social sciences This chapter aims to provide a comprehensive view of the role of language in academic publishing in social sciences. It also advocates the balanced multilingualism as an approach that supports taking language into account in all aspects of research assessment without prioritizing scholarly communication in any language over publications in other languages. To do this, we elaborate a geopolitical perspective on academic publishing that highlights the role of language in science and the benefits of multilingualism to society. Then, we provide new insights into multilingual publishing in the social sciences using bibliographical data from national current research information systems. Finally, we present the concept of balanced multilingualism in light of various policy initiatives, among others the Helsinki Initiative on Multilingualism in Scholarly Communication, to provide recommendations on how multilingualism can be taken into account at all stages and across different types of qualitative and quantitative research assessment procedures. elgaronline.com

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "The article compares selected entries on @Wikipedia concerning significant historical events in three language versions: Belarusian, Lithuanian, & Polish…[& notes] the prevalence of 'local' points of view on controversial historical events." cejsh.icm.edu.pl/cejsh/element/…

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. An argument for "balanced multilingualism" & "taking language into account in all aspects of research assessment without prioritizing scholarly communication in any language over publications in other languages." https://repository.uantwerpen.be/docstore/d:irua:11895 (warning, forced download)

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "African languages are barely represented in technology & research…@Lanfrica is a language-focused search engine that makes it fast & easy to find information on the Internet about resources relating to African languages." https://lanfrica.com/about

Lanfrica Lanfrica catalogues, archives and links African language resources in order to mitigate the difficulty encountered in discovering African works. lanfrica.com

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "Spanish and Portuguese together represent more than 800 million speakers…, 11% of the world’s population, but only 1% of globally indexed scientific output is published in these two languages." https://www.lodivalleynews.com/for-open-and-accessible-science/

For open and accessible science In an episode of the series doctor. Casa, LarThe famous doctor’s team faces a mystery:... lodivalleynews.com

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "The Council of the European Union…welcomes initiatives to promote multilingualism, such as the Helsinki initiative on multilingualism in scholarly communication." https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-9515-2022-INIT/en/pdf

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "What is the role of [English-language] academic journals in helping non-native English speaking authors to have their best chance at publication without their research findings being overlooked due to poor language usage?" Three recommendations. https://blog.scholasticahq.com/post/ways-academic-journals-can-support-esl-authors/

3 Ways academic journals can better support non-native English speaking authors Three ways that academic journals can better acknowledge and support the vast network of ESL authors to help them navigate manuscript preparation and to encourage more global research policy and dissemination. blog.scholasticahq.com

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. The @EUCouncil "welcomes initiatives to promote #multilingualism, such as the Helsinki initiative on multilingualism in scholarly communication...invites the Commission & the Member States to experiment with multilingualism, on a voluntary basis." https://www.consilium.europa.eu/media/56958/st10126-en22.pdf

Browser check - Consilium consilium.europa.eu

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "We [@COKIproject] have mapped the 122 million objects in Crossref up to the end of May 2022 to languages (based on titles and abstracts, where available) and done an initial analysis. The results are a mix of the expected and surprising." https://openknowledge.community/language-diversity/

Language Diversity in Scholarly Publishing - COKI There is a lot of lip service paid to the idea of diversity in scholarly publishing and often diversity of language is used as an example, but limited analysis has been done at scale. To address this gap, we have mapped the 122 million objects in Crossref % and done an initial analysis. openknowledge.community

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. The spread of "national [#openaccess] repositories" will help us study thematic "differences between locally published research in non-English speaking contexts and English-speaking international authors." https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11192-022-04403-9

Local emergence, global expansion: understanding the structural evolution of a bi-lingual national research landscape - Scientometrics Research institutions organize their scientific activities in an increasingly diverse landscape. In matters of global interest, research relies on an ever- link.springer.com

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "In many countries, the ten most downloaded books [from @OAPENbooks] are written in non-English languages." https://insights.uksg.org/articles/10.1629/uksg.580/

Big in Japan, Zimbabwe or Brazil – global reach and national preferences for open access books The perceived effect of internationalization on publishing is that there is a strong focus on global issues written in English only. In academic book publishing – strongly connected to the humanities and social sciences (HSS) – languages other than English play an important role. Non-English academic publications have been linked to regional issues: there is a tension between English as the ‘lingua franca’ enabling a global reach versus local languages that provide a better cultural ‘fit’. This article examines the preference of global readers in a systematic manner, by examining the usage of the open access collection of the OAPEN Library. Based on the ten most downloaded books from 100 countries during a 12-month period, the focus on regional topics is measured using the number of books written in non-English languages and the amount of English language books that mention the country.The results show a global interest in books with a regional focus. In many countries, the ten most downloaded books are written in non-English languages. Even when English language titles are part of the top ten, many mention regional concerns. The article counters the narrative of the dominance of English as the language of scholarly communication. Instead, it supports the value of bibliodiversity. insights.uksg.org

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. We "investigate NLP & Machine Translation approaches…to foster multilingual access & discovery to SSH content across different languages…[We created an open dataset] of multilingual metadata concepts." lrec-conf.org/proceedings/lr…

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. Google's translation of the Portuguese: "The publication of bilingual and multilingual articles is a potential, inexpensive solution that has been offered for years by the Scientific Electronic Library On-line (SciELO)." https://www.scielo.br/j/jvb/a/8g95sSFpscRXY7NbY9hPLzy/?lang=pt

SciELO - Brasil scielo.br

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. Anecdote from piece above: "German scientists…identified a significant causal relationship between smoking & lung cancer in the…1930s, a finding ignored by the scientific community for more than three decades, until British & American scientists rediscovered this link."

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "@Meta's grand vision is unlikely to be realised…because of #copyright. Unless online material is released under a permissive licence such as [those from] @CreativeCommons, it will be necessary to obtain permission from the copyright holder." https://walledculture.org/why-metas-project-to-translate-automatically-between-200-languages-will-be-stymied-by-copyright/

Why Meta’s project to translate automatically between 200 languages will be stymied by copyright

Meta’s AI division has announced two exciting new projects in the field of machine translation: The first is No Language Left Behind, where we are building a new advanced AI model that can learn from languages with fewer examples to train from, and we will use it to enable expert-quality translations in hundreds of languages, …

walledculture.org

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "Our research demonstrates that while EAL [English as an additional language] scholars are under significant pressure to publish in English, they are not provided with the necessary resources to bring their papers to publication." https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/we-must-end-linguistic-discrimination-academic-publishing

We must end linguistic discrimination in academic publishing Publishers need to examine their biases and universities their support mechanisms, say Avi Staiman, Marnie Jo Petray and Gaillynn Clements timeshighereducation.com

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update (missed this one from 2014): English-language journal editors said their journals provided clear instructions to authors more than twice as often as their non-English-speaking authors (76% v. 32%). https://blog.scielo.org/en/2014/05/19/non-native-english-speaking-authors-and-editors-evaluate-difficulties-and-challenges-in-publishing-in-international-journals/

Non-native English-speaking authors and editors evaluate difficulties and challenges in publishing in international journals | SciELO in Perspective Due to linguistic and cultural barriers, authors in emerging economies have faced challenges in having their papers accepted in main stream journals. A study conducted on international editors and authors in non-English speaking countries shows that good research results can be prejudiced by poor writing and difficulties with the language. blog.scielo.org

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update from 2015. "A single shared language is useful for an endeavor as collaborative & universal as science. But if you are not a native speaker…how difficult it must be to reach a 'eureka' moment but feel that the words are inadequate to describe it." https://slate.com/technology/2015/01/english-is-the-language-of-science-u-s-dominance-means-other-scientists-must-learn-foreign-language.html

Why Is English the Language of Science? I learned English as a second language. Becoming an Anglophone turned out to be a crucial advantage in a brief scientific career years later. (I once... slate.com

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update from 2019: "There is…evidence for significant linguistic bias when journals receive a manuscript written in poor English…[creating] an impression that the research they discuss is also sub-standard." https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2019/08/16/the-hidden-cost-of-having-a-eureka-moment-but-not-being-able-to-put-it-in-your-own-words/

The hidden cost of having a eureka moment, but not being able to put it in your own words Accessibility in scholarly communications is often framed as an economic and technical question of enabling more people to have access and engage with research literature. However, the dominance of… blogs.lse.ac.uk

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update: "The lack of specific strategies regarding language use in research may result in the imposition of English and in the displacement of local languages." https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0898589822000936

Language policy and multilingualism in semi-peripheral higher education research: Two cases from a University in Catalonia This study aims to contribute to the limited literature on language policy in research, where the increasing domination of English has raised concern … sciencedirect.com

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. Chinese incentives to publish in international English-language journals are causing Chinese research to be read and cited less by Chinese researchers. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11192-022-04537-w

Global impact or national accessibility? A paradox in China’s science - Scientometrics During the past decades, Chinese science policy has emphasized the international dissemination of research. Such policies were associated with exponential link.springer.com

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "We outline actions that individuals and institutions can take to support multilingual science and scientists, including structural changes that encourage and value translating scientific literature." https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/72/10/988/6653151

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. I second @karimjerbineuro's appreciation of "the extra work, time & energy that students + researchers around the world, whose native language is not English, need to put into writing academic papers + giving talks in English."

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. I welcome the @COAR_eV recommendations on #repository support for #multilingual research. https://www.coar-repositories.org/news-updates/coar-announces-first-recommendation-for-supporting-multilingual-and-non-english-content-in-repositories/

COAR Announces first recommendation for supporting multilingual and non-English content in repositories Multilingualism is a critical characteristic of a healthy, inclusive, and diverse research communications landscape. The Helsinki Initiative on Multilingualism in Scholarly Communication asserts that the disqualification of local or national languages in academic publishing is the most important - and often forgotten - factor that prevents societies from using and taking advantage of the coar-repositories.org

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. Only 3% of Dutch medical guidelines refer to research articles written in Dutch. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36300474/

[How often do medical guidelines refer to articles written in Dutch?] - PubMed Articles published in NTvG may be relevant for making recommendations in Dutch medical guidelines, as these publications usually reflect the Dutch care context, and may do more so than research published in international journals. The results of this research show that the number of Dutch guidelines … pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "This study identified eight factors that contributed to the success of…two #multilingual digital libraries [World Digital Library & Digital Library of the Caribbean] and eight technical and operational challenges they have faced." #paywalled https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/EL-03-2022-0061/full/html

Sustaining multilinguality: case studies of two multilingual digital libraries | Emerald Insight Sustaining multilinguality: case studies of two multilingual digital libraries - Author: Anping Wu, Jiangping Chen emerald.com

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "US researchers do not build as readily on the [English-language] work of Chinese researchers, relative to the work of other foreign scientists, even in a setting where Chinese scientists have long excelled." https://www.nber.org/papers/w30772

Who Stands on the Shoulders of Chinese (Scientific) Giants? Evidence from Chemistry Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, and business professionals. nber.org

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "Although the publishing patterns of CEE…journals in the field of language and linguistics are international, multilingual publishing in languages other than English ensures the continuity of local research traditions." https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11192-022-04595-0

The regional dynamics of multilingual publishing in web of science: A statistical analysis of central and eastern european journals and researchers in linguistics - Scientometrics This article explores multilingual publishing by analyzing the journals in the language and linguistics established in the last seven decades in CEE countr link.springer.com

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. I just gave an interview in which I spoke at length about #MultilingualResearch. "The dominance of one language creates obstacles, stress, expense & rejection for excellent scholars whose first language happens not to be the lingua franca." https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/37373947

Open Access helps both: authors and readers dash.harvard.edu

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "The cognitive sciences have been dominated by English-speaking researchers studying other English speakers…However, English differs from other languages in ways that have consequences for the whole of the cognitive sciences." https://www.cell.com/trends/cognitive-sciences/fulltext/S1364-6613(22)00236-4

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "Rooryck’s message was clear: 'Funders and universities should value multilingual publication in the same way as publication in English. We should convince PhD students of this too. Publication in English should not be associated with prestige.'" https://vastuullinentiede.fi/en/news/publication-english-should-not-be-associated-prestige

Publication in English should not be associated with prestige vastuullinentiede.fi

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "The Organization of Ibero-American States… reported that, in 2020, 95% of all articles published in scientific journals were written in English and only 1% in Spanish or Portuguese." https://www.scielo.br/j/ts/a/zwPRYVhkQLp5RTJzTXMrqky/?format=pdf&lang=en

SciELO - Brasil scielo.br

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. @UGC_India created a list of #Indian #SSH journals publishing in 15 Indian languages. One purpose was to purge predatory journals. Another was to highlight the existence of the rest, since international databases omit them. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/GKMC-11-2022-0266/full/html (#paywalled)

Indian languages, print journals and the UGC-CARE project | Emerald Insight Indian languages, print journals and the UGC-CARE project - Author: Shubhada Nagarkar, Archana Thakur, Monali Mane, Prajakta Nagare emerald.com

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "44% of Finnish peer-reviewed journals and series are published in Finnish…#Diamond #OpenAccess journals are much more multilingual than, for example, [OA] journals which charge #APCs." https://julkaisufoorumi.fi/en/news/diamond-future-open-access

Diamond future of open access julkaisufoorumi.fi

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "While English is only the native language of 7.3% of the world's population and less than 20% can speak the language, nearly 75% of all scientific publications are English." https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14550725221102227

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. Case study of the two-year transition to fully bilingual publication (Spanish and English) by the Chilean medical journal, @Medwave_cl. https://doi.org/10.1002/leap.1533

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "To some, this problem [writing in English when it's not your native language] may appear to be a minor one. However, if good research fails to find its way to publication – the barrier being the language – ultimately it is a loss for science." https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2019/08/16/the-hidden-cost-of-having-a-eureka-moment-but-not-being-able-to-put-it-in-your-own-words/

The hidden cost of having a eureka moment, but not being able to put it in your own words Accessibility in scholarly communications is often framed as an economic and technical question of enabling more people to have access and engage with research literature. However, the dominance of… blogs.lse.ac.uk

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "Journals & publishers have made little progress toward beginning to recognize or reduce language barriers. Counter to our predictions, journals associated w/ scientific societies did not…have more inclusive policies [than] non-society journals." https://academic.oup.com/iob/article/5/1/obad003/7008844

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. A new study of the #CulturalHeritage research indexed in #WOS finds it skewed toward English-language research and the global #north. The authors conclude that this is partly due to the research and partly due to what is indexed in #WOS. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-023-01582-5

A bibliometric analysis of cultural heritage research in the humanities: The Web of Science as a tool of knowledge management - Humanities and Social Sciences Communications Substantial research on the topic of cultural heritage has been conducted over the past two decades. At the same time, the overall output volume of journals and citation metrics have become important parameters in assessing and ranking researchers’ performance. Even though the scholarly interest in cultural heritage has recently increased world-wide, a comprehensive analysis of the publication output volume and its correlation to the shift in the cultural heritage regime starting in 2003 is still lacking. The article aims to understand the role of Web of Science (WOS) as a tool of knowledge management in academia by drawing on the scholarly output volume, the patterns displayed by this volume, and the intellectual structure of cultural heritage research based on WOS-indexed journal articles. The data include 1843 journal articles published between 2003 and 2022 and indexed in the WOS Core Collection. The article draws on a bibliometric analysis by using WOS tools and employing VOSviewer software to map and visualize hidden patterns of research collaboration and avenues of knowledge progress. The cultural heritage research indexed in WOS was found to be Eurocentric, corresponding to the increasing funding provided by European national and supranational agencies for research funding. Although the indexed research has grown significantly, the bulk of studies on cultural heritage in WOS is concentrated in a reduced number of European institutions and countries, written by a small number of prolific authors, with relatively poor collaborative ties emerging across time between authors, institutions, and countries. The central themes reflect the development of digital technologies and increased participatory emphasis in cultural heritage care. This article brings new insights into the analysis of the cultural heritage research in correlation with the emergence of international heritage governance with new institutional actors, professional networks, and international agreements, which are all constitutive elements of scientific production. The article seeks to critically assess and discuss the results and the role of WOS as a tool of knowledge management in academia. nature.com

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "By ignoring non-English-language science, international assessments may overlook important information on local and/or regional biodiversity." https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-023-01087-8

The role of non-English-language science in informing national biodiversity assessments - Nature Sustainability Consulting the best available evidence is key to successful conservation decision-making. While much scientific evidence on conservation continues to be published in non-English languages, a poor understanding of how non-English-language science contributes to conservation decision-making is causing global assessments and studies to practically ignore non-English-language literature. By investigating the use of scientific literature in biodiversity assessment reports across 37 countries/territories, we have uncovered the established role of non-English-language literature as a major source of information locally. On average, non-English-language literature constituted 65% of the references cited, and these were recognized as relevant knowledge sources by 75% of report authors. This means that by ignoring non-English-language science, international assessments may overlook important information on local and/or regional biodiversity. Furthermore, a quarter of the authors acknowledged the struggles of understanding English-language literature. This points to the need to aid the use of English-language literature in domestic decision-making, for example, by providing non-English-language abstracts or improving and/or implementing machine translation. (This abstract is also avaialble in 21 other languages in Supplementary Data 4). Despite the increasing importance of local and regional research for conservation efforts worldwide, research published in languages other than English is routinely ignored by global assessments. This study examines how such research is used and cited at national levels even though it is overlooked internationally nature.com

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. "Research in languages other than English is critically important for #biodiversity conservation & shockingly under-utilized globally." https://phys.org/news/2023-03-scientists-multilingual-approach.html

Scientists call for a multilingual approach to conservation Research in languages other than English is critically important for biodiversity conservation and is shockingly under-utilized globally, according to an international research team. phys.org

@petersuber - Peter Suber (@petersuber@fediscience.org)

Update. In the humanities, when Russian funders evaluated grant proposals using quantitative metrics, like publications & citations, "non-journal publications among new grantees decreased, while the share of English-language journal articles increased." https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jdis-2023-0010?tab=article

Evaluating grant proposals: lessons from using metrics as screening device Abstract Purpose This study examines the effects of using publication-based metrics for the initial screening in the application process for a project leader. The key questions are whether formal policy affects the allocation of funds to researchers with a better publication record and how the previous academic performance of principal investigators is related to future project results. Design/methodology/approach We compared two competitions, before and after the policy raised the publication threshold for the principal investigators. We analyzed 9,167 papers published by 332 winners in physics and the social sciences and humanities (SSH), and 11,253 publications resulting from each funded project. Findings We found that among physicists, even in the first period, grants tended to be allocated to prolific authors publishing in high-quality journals. In contrast, the SSH project grantees had been less prolific in publishing internationally in both periods; however, in the second period, the selection of grant recipients yielded better results regarding awarding grants to more productive authors in terms of the quantity and quality of publications. There was no evidence that this better selection of grant recipients resulted in better publication records during grant realization. Originality This study contributes to the discussion of formal policies that rely on metrics for the evaluation of grant proposals. The sciendo.com