Mastodawn

petersuber Jul 30, 2023

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

Starting today, I'm stopping it on Twitter and continuing it on #Mastodon.

Here's a rollup of the complete Twitter thread.
https://resee.it/tweet/1307774697531113474

Here's a nearly complete archived version in the @waybackmachine.
https://web.archive.org/web/20220908060944/https://twitter.com/petersuber/status/1307774697531113474

Watch this space for updates.

#Academia #Multilingualism
@academicchatter

🧵

Peter Suber (@[email protected]) on X

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://t.co/ZLDvIdNZSq

X (formerly Twitter)

petersuber Aug 4, 2023

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

Consent document translation expense hinders inclusive clinical trial enrolment - Nature

The availability of translated consent documents improves recruitment of patients with limited English proficiency to clinical trials, indicating a potentially modifiable barrier to the inclusion of patients with limited English proficiency.

Nature

petersuber Aug 5, 2023

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

petersuber Aug 27, 2023

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

Scientists who don’t speak fluent English get little help from journals, study finds

An analysis of hundreds of journals finds limited efforts to accommodate scientists who are not native English speakers.

petersuber Sep 3, 2023

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

English May Be Science’s Native Language, but It’s Not Native to All Scientists

There are talented scientists worldwide who do not speak fluent English. We have to accommodate the language barrier or risk losing their potential

Scientific American

petersuber Sep 3, 2023

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

English May Be Science’s Native Language, but It’s Not Native to All Scientists

There are talented scientists worldwide who do not speak fluent English. We have to accommodate the language barrier or risk losing their potential

Scientific American

petersuber Sep 11, 2023

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

AI writing tools will not fix academia’s language discrimination problem

Affordable AI-powered writing software offers some hope to scholars unfairly criticised for their imperfect English, but more radical change is required, says Natalia Kucirkova

Times Higher Education (THE)

petersuber Sep 18, 2023

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

petersuber Oct 9, 2023

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

Publishing in English or Chinese: a qualitative analysis of Chinese researchers’ academic language choice

Non-native language scholars often struggle to choose between English and their native language in scholarly publishing. This study aims to identify the mechanism by which journal attributes influence language choice by investigating the perspectives of 18 Chinese scholars through semi-structured interviews. Drawing on grounded theory, this study develops a model for how journal attributes influence researchers’ language preferences. We find that journal attributes influence researchers’ perceived value which, in turn, affects their particular language choice, with contextual factors playing a moderating role. By examining the motivations underlying Chinese scholars’ language choice, this study provides a critical understanding of the factors shaping their decision-making processes. These findings have significant implications for Chinese scholars, policymakers, and journal operators, shedding light on the issue of discrimination in academic publishing. Addressing these concerns is crucial for fostering a fair and inclusive academic environment.

Frontiers

petersuber Oct 29, 2023

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

petersuber Oct 31, 2023

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

petersuber Nov 1, 2023

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

Overcoming Language Barriers in Academia: Machine Translation Tools and a Vision for a Multilingual Future

abstract. Having a central scientific language remains crucial for advancing and globally sharing science. Nevertheless, maintaining one dominant language

OUP Academic

petersuber Nov 1, 2023

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

petersuber Nov 10, 2023

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

Language barriers in scientific publishing: how many hurdles are there?

Find out more about the barriers non-native English speakers face in scientific publishing, and initiatives that are starting to help.

The Publication Plan for everyone interested in medical writing, the development of medical publications, and publication planning

petersuber Dec 7, 2023

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/

Assessing diverse values of nature requires multilingual evidence

petersuber Dec 18, 2023

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

2nd Helsinki Initiative Webinar on Multilingualism in Scholarly Communication | helsinki-initiative.org

petersuber Jan 24, 2024

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

petersuber Jan 27, 2024

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

Frederik Borgesius

@petersuber Sigh.