Multilingualism

Abstract

English dominates scholarly publishing, but using a single language has consequences for researchers, scholarship and society. Multilingualism is the use of more than one language to disseminate research. This could include translating individual publications, but it also entails a publishing ecosystem where publishing takes place in a variety of languages. Steps to support multilingualism include diversifying reviewer pools and editorial boards, translating websites and resources, and implementing policies to publish in multiple languages.

Main Text

In recent decades, English has emerged as the dominant language for scholarly publishing. However, using a single language for research dissemination privileges some scholars while marginalising others, which has consequences not only for individuals but for research and society more broadly. For instance, Non-Anglophone researchers may need longer to read and write in English and may face more revisions and rejections. This may result in a lower volume of research output, which could impact career advancement (Ramírez-Castañeda, 2020). What’s more, when scholars do choose to publish in a language other than English, their work is less likely to be indexed in prestigious databases, thus making it less discoverable and less likely to be cited (Di Bitetti & Ferreras, 2017). 

Meanwhile, English-speaking scholars, who come mainly from Western cultures, will have more visibility and power, and this could influence which subjects are investigated and which communities benefit from the results (Amano et al., 2016). Their higher visibility and volume of output may also improve career advancement opportunities for English speakers, such as prestigious appointments as journal editors, among others.

As the consequences of using a single language for research dissemination become clearer, the movement to make scholarly publishing multilingual is gaining momentum (e.g. Helsinki Initiative, 2019; UNESCO, 2021). In this context, multilingualism could include translating individual publications into more than one language, but it also means supporting publication in a variety of languages even when the works published are not translations of one another (e.g., one journal or article may be published in Finnish and another in Polish).

Diamond OA publishers  can help to support multilingual scholarly publishing in a variety of ways: 

• Develop or revise a book publisher’s or a journal’s mission statements and objectives to improve linguistic diversity and monitor progress towards this goal.
• Translate book or journal websites and resources, as well as calls for papers, into languages beyond English.
• Diversify the pools of reviewers, editorial board members and editors to have greater linguistic coverage, and ask authors whether they can accept peer review or editorial feedback in other languages.
• Audit author guidelines to clarify policies and practices around multilingualism (e.g., which publishing languages are accepted, whether translations are permitted, how to cite works in other languages, whether total word limits can be extended for some languages).
• Provide concrete guidance to help authors write in a way that optimises their text for translation.
• Implement policies to host translated abstracts, plain language summaries or full-texts alongside published articles.
• Create a visible byline or a field in service acknowledgement platforms (e.g., Publons) to recognize translators or multilingual editors.
• Offer low-cost licence agreements that permit authors to translate their publications elsewhere or to publish translations of previously published manuscripts.
• Provide or facilitate translation support alongside editing support.
• Integrate new functionalities into journal platforms, such as the capacity to manage multilingual metadata, or a forum to facilitate peer language translation.
• Support metrics that allow non-English articles or journals to be cited more easily and equitably.

Related Toolsuite Articles

• Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (EDIB)

Related Guidelines and Training Materials

• Multilingualism

References

• Amano, T., González-Varo, J.P., & Sutherland, W.J. (2016). Languages are still a major barrier to global science. PLOS Biology 14(12): e2000933. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2000933 
• Di Bitetti, M.S., & Ferreras, J.A. (2017). Publish (in English) or perish: the effect on citation rate of using languages other than English in scientific publications, Ambio 46(1): 121-127. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-016-0820-7 (Also available at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5226904/) 
• Federation of Finnish Learned Societies, Committee for Public Information, Finnish Association for Scholarly Publishing, Universities Norway and the European Network for Research Evaluation in the Social Sciences and the Humanities. (2019). Helsinki initiative on multilingualism in scholarly communication.https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.7887059 
• Khelifa, R., Amano, T., & Nuñez, M.A. (2022). A solution for breaking the language barrier. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 37(2): 109-112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2021.11.003
• Ramírez-Castañeda, V. (2020). 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. PLOS One 15(9): e0238372. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0238372 
• UNESCO (2021). UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science. https://doi.org/10.54677/MNMH8546 

Further Reading

• Amano, T., Rios Rojas, C., Boum II, Y., Calvo, M., & Misra, B.B. (2021). Ten tips for overcoming language barriers in science. Nature human behaviour. 5:1119-1122. https://rdcu.be/cnZQf
• Confederation of Open Access. (2023). Multilingual and Non-English content. https://coar-repositories.org/what-we-do/multilingual-and-non-english-content/
• European Association of Science Editors. (2018). EASE guidelines for authors and translators of scientific articles to be published in English. European Science Editing 44(4):e1-e16. https://doi.org/10.20316/ESE.2018.44.e1
• Lujano, I. (2023). Open Access Journal Toolkit.  Running a journal in a local or regional language.  https://www.oajournals-toolkit.org/running-a-journal/running-a-journal-in-a-local-or-regional-language
• Nolde-Lopez, B., Bundus, J., Arenas-Castro, H., Román, D., Chowdhury, S., Amano, T., Berdejo-Espinola, V., & Wadgymar, S.M. (2023). Language barriers in organismal biology: what can journals do better? Integrative Organismal Biology. 5(1): obad003, https://doi.org/10.1093/iob/obad003

Glossary

• Multilingualism

Frequently Asked Questions  

• What do equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging (EDIB) mean in scholarly publishing?
• What types of bias can occur in scholarly publishing?
• What are some of the consequences of bias in scholarly publishing?
• Who is responsible for ensuring EDIB in scholarly publishing?
• What types of actions can be taken to improve EDIB in scholarly publishing? 

Licensing

This document is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

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