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/