Publishing in English or another language: An inclusive study of scholar’s language publication preferences in the natural, social and interdisciplinary sciences

Abstract

To what extent has English become the dominant language of scientific communication? What factors push non-native speakers to publish their research in English rather than their native language? Using a survey of more than 800 authors of scientific papers in Springer Nature journals we find that the average non-anglophone researcher makes approximately 60% of their journal submissions in English. This percentage varies across disciplines, regions, and age groups, with younger scholars, Europeans, and those in the natural sciences favouring English more heavily. Finally, we find that the belief that publishing in English will increase the reputation of one's work is a primary motivator; in contrast, perceived institutional pressures to publish in English do not seem to influence researchers' language choice.

Linguistic Diversity Index: A Scientometric Measure to Enhance the Relevance of Small and Minority Group Languages

“…Several social science subdisciplines are centered on a particular cultural community and they use this community language as the communication language of their subdiscipline (Stockemer & Wigginton, 2019). LDI will motivate researchers to cite sources from smaller languages, which might increase the reputation of texts published in these languages, given that “the primary motivator of choosing English as a publication language is the belief that publishing in English will increase the reputation of one’s work” (Stockemer & Wigginton, 2019, p. 645), LDI might lead to increased publishing in smaller languages and enhancing the quality of their scientific discourse.…”

Destination Resilience and Innovation for Advanced Sustainable Tourism Management: A Bibliometric Analysis

“…Other filters concerned the type of document and the language, searching for only research papers and in English language. Our decision was based on the assumption that English is the common language of science or the most used language of scientific publication [84] and it is widely considered as the "lingua franca" for academic purposes also among non-Anglophone researchers [85,86]. After the gathering process, the total number of papers decreased to 508.…”

Використання Бібліометрії В Соціальних Та Гуманітарних Науках

“…Цей відсоток залежить від дисципліни, регіону та віку, й цілком очікувано англійській мові віддають перевагу переважно молоді європейці, що працюють у природничих науках. Основним же мотиватором щодо вибору мови публікації для авторів у всіх дисциплінах стала віра в те, що публікація англійською мовою підвищить авторитет їхньої роботи [24]. Таким чином, багатомовність є характерною для вчених з різних дисциплін, а результати досліджень, що становлять інтерес для світової спільноти, автори в СНГ намагаються представити насамперед в англомовних виданнях.…”