Update. New study: "Most journals in [#biology] offer minimal support for scientists whose first language is not English…Only 8% of the journals made their complete guidelines to authors available in at least one language other than English; less than 7% allowed authors to publish articles in languages other than English; and a mere 10% explicitly approved the use of references published in a language other than English." https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02529-1
Update. "Despite English being the lingua franca of science, getting an excellent level of English is a privilege of few, restricted to high-income countries or those who can pay for intense language training in Global South countries. Yet, most of the hiring calls from Global North research institutes urging inclusion conflate being a good scientist with being good (or excellent) at English. This isn’t true." https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/english-may-be-sciences-native-language-but-its-not-native-to-all-scientists/
"When it comes to language, we often think of Gloria Pritchett, a character in the popular American television show Modern Family. Gloria is a native Spanish speaker living in a fast-paced English-speaking family. 'Do you even know how smart I am in Spanish?' she says in one episode.”
@petersuber
Yeah, this calls back to my early career experience, even as a born Canadian. Once, in a bar, I spoke with a native English-speaker who explained to me, straight-faced, how he came to realize that people who struggle with English aren't necessarily stupid. Always good to witness some personal growth 😕
@petersuber So true. But a real "lingua franca" should have no native speakers, like the Middle Ages Latin. Otherwise, either non-native speakers will always remain a step behind, or they will lose the ability to use their native language to talk about science.
Natalia Kucirkova argues no. The best bots may be good enough. But they are not accessible to all who need them, and "non-native researchers still have to invest extra time & more dollars to fix their papers than their native colleagues."
Update. All too often scholars researching global attitudes toward something will write a survey in English and only English. Because I've criticized this practice, I'm happy to spotlight and applaud this research team for writing its survey (on data sharing and re-use in the field of traumatic stress) in seven languages — and publishing its abstract in three languages. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20008066.2023.2254118
Update. I missed this from 2020: "Among the researchers [from seven European countries] who published at least three [#SSH] journal articles [in 2013-15] over one-third…had written their work in at least two languages…Research is international, but multilingual publishing keeps locally relevant research alive with the added potential for creating impact." https://asistdl.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/asi.24336
Update. I missed this from last year: "We broadly review the advantages and limitations of…machine #translation…and propose that translation can serve as both a short- and a long-term solution for making science more…accessible, globally representative, and impactful beyond the academy. We outline actions that individuals and institutions can take to support multilingual science." https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/72/10/988/6653151
"The real benefit of machine translation lies elsewhere, said [Vincent] Larivière. 'In an ideal world, the #metadata, #abstracts and titles of scientific articles would be available in [many] languages, increasing their #discoverability…Readers could then choose to translate the text into any language they want. We wouldn’t always have to use English.' "
Update. "Non-native English speakers face additional barriers to scientific publishing, from journal guidelines accessible only in English to higher rates of language-related manuscript rejection. Journals, congresses, and others are beginning to offer support ranging from English language mentoring programmes, training, and buddy systems to free AI proofreading tools." https://thepublicationplan.com/2023/11/07/language-barriers-in-scientific-publishing-how-many-hurdles-are-there/
Update. "Much scientific evidence is still published in non-English languages, and excluding non-English-language evidence can introduce biases in evidence synthesis." https://ecoevorxiv.org/repository/view/6342/
Update. "To what extent are minority languages excluded from scholarly publishing infrastructure and initiatives…This is the provocative question we ask in this opinion piece, drawing on our experience of publishing the world’s only academic journal in our minority language [Sámi]." https://insights.uksg.org/articles/10.1629/uksg.640
Update. "GPT detectors frequently misclassify non-native English writing as #AI generated, raising concerns about fairness and robustness…GPT detectors could spuriously flag non-native authors’ content as AI #plagiarism, paving the way for undue harassment." https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666389923001307
Update. "The need to publish in English even when it is not the local language affects the type of research undertaken & further consolidates the global North-centric view of scientific approach. The bibliometric databases on which assessments of universities and journals are based are owned by two large [corporations], and this concentration of the market has in turn concentrated the research environment. #OpenInfrastructure offers an alternative option." https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/c8yq3
Update. "Most journals [make] minimal efforts to overcome language barriers. The impact factor of journals [#JIF] was negatively associated w/ adopting a number of inclusive policies…Ownership by a scientific society tended to have a positive association. Contrary to our expectations, the proportion of both #OpenAccess articles & editors based in non-English speaking countries did not have a major positive association w/ the adoption of linguistically inclusive policies." https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.2840
"Linguistically inclusive policies come in many forms, and can be implemented at each stage of the editorial process. They might aim to make publishing more #multilingual. Alternatively – if sticking with English – they may aim to reduce the burden on non-native English speakers."
Update. New study: "Academics who perceive high #pressure to publish tend to employ instrumental publication strategies rather than normative ones…Publishing results in open-access outlets or in native languages other than English is less important for those under pressure." https://academic.oup.com/rev/advance-article/doi/10.1093/reseval/rvae011/7634754
Update. "Too often, scientific research in any language other than English is automatically seen as second tier, with little consideration for the quality of the work itself. This harmful prejudice ignores the work of those involved, especially in the humanities and social sciences. It also profoundly undermines the global academic community’s ability to share knowledge with society." https://theconversation.com/english-dominates-scientific-research-heres-how-we-can-fix-it-and-why-it-matters-226198
@petersuber I am very supportive of the idea that papers can be published in the author's native language, along with an English language summary. In most cases, the summary is sufficient for non-speakers, and machine translations are now at the point that the details can be worked out if it is needed. The main issue is that non-English journals are not particularly well known (at least in my field of Earth sciences), so it is hard for the results to proliferate.
@petersuber If you speak two languages, you are Bilingual. If you speak more than two languages, you are multilingual. If you speak one language, you are American.
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