Although English is the dominant language of scholarly publication, many multilingual scholars continue to publish in other languages while they also publish in English. A large body of research documents how these multilingual scholars negotiate writing in English for publication. We know less, however, about the implications of such negotiations for other languages that scholars work in. We wanted to investigate trends in writing conventions in language other than English during a period when multilingual publication patterns have been common. Specifically, we examined changes in rhetorical patterns in the introduction sections of the 1994 and the 2014 volumes of three Norwegian-language journals in three different disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. Our findings show that while certain features of our material might be interpreted as the result of a non-English discourse community adopting dominant Anglo-American models, the overall picture is more complex. Our study indicates that we need more research that examines cross-linguistic textual practices that focus on English and any other languages that scholars may work in. We also consider the possible pedagogical implications of such a focus.

The popularity of the review article as a publication type has increased dramatically during the last decades. As the number of single studies published each year has reached staggering heights, the need to summarize or synthesize these has proportionally increased. As one of their core services libraries throughout Norway provides access for their users to as much of the published research as possible. Unfortunately, that is not equivalent to enabling the users to locate relevant research. This is a challenge often requiring a special skill set and expertise in literature searching, both which is often found among specialized librarians. Requests from researchers at OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University (formerly Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences) for assistance from the librarians in performing systematic literature searches was the basis in developing the literature search service described in this article. How a typical request for a literature search is handled, what the product comprises and which aspects that will be prioritized in the future is expounded. Furthermore, the authors describe some of the experiences in launching this service as a service charging the researchers for librarian assistance on an hourly basis. Finally, challenges and unresolved issues are commented on.