In September 2020 I started what became a long #Twitter thread on #MultilingualResearch.https://twitter.com/petersuber/status/1307774697531113474

Update. The cost of translating #consent forms into other languages limits the participation of non-English speakers in clinical trials.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06382-0

Summary this study.
https://www.science.org/content/article/non-english-speakers-are-being-shut-out-clinical-trials

#Multilingualism #MultilingualResearch

Update. The Journal of Electronic Publishing (@JEPub) just issued a call for papers to appear in a special issue on #Multilingual publishing.
https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/jep/news/71/
(#paywalled)

The special issue will accept papers in accept papers in English, Spanish, or French.

#Multilingualism #MultilingualResearch #CFP

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

#Multilingualism #MultilingualResearch

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/

#Multilingualism #MultilingualResearch

Update. Good line from the previous piece (this thread, above).
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.”

#Multilingualism #MultilingualResearch

Update. Can #AI solve the problem of #language #discrimination (good research by non-native speakers rejected from English-language journals on the ground of weak English)?
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/ai-writing-tools-will-not-fix-academias-language-discrimination-problem
(#paywalled)

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."

#Multilingualism #MultilingualResearch

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

#Multilingualism #MultilingualResearch

Update. New study: Chinese scholars decide whether to publish in Chinese or English based on the "perceived value" of the "best-fitting" journals.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1249857/full

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

#Multilingualism #MultilingualResearch

Update. The Confederation of #OpenAccess #Repositories (#COAR) just released an important set of recommendations on managing multilingual and non-English language content in #OA repositories.
https://www.coar-repositories.org/news-updates/managing-multilingual-and-non-english-language-content-in-repositories/

#GreenOA #Metadata #Multilingualism #MultilingualResearch

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

#Multilingualism #MultilingualResearch

Update. See some new comments on the previous article (this thread).
https://www.universityaffairs.ca/news/news-article/machine-translation-a-game-changer-in-science/

"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.' "

#Multilingualism #MultilingualResearch

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/

#Multilingualism #MultilingualResearch

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. 2nd Helsinki Initiative Webinar on #Multilingualism in Scholarly Communication
https://www.helsinki-initiative.org/en/events/2nd-helsinki-initiative-webinar-multilingualism-scholarly-communication

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

#LLMs #Multilingualism #MultilingualResearch

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

#Monopoly

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