Language barrier: Knowledge in non-English journals missed

LONDON: English is assumed to be the “lingua franca” of research globally, but studies bringing out new knowledge or insights and published in non-English journals and publications are often missed due to the existing language barriers in influential academic circles.

A study by University of Cambridge researchers has found that over a third of new conservation science documents published annually are in non-English languages, providing examples of important science being missed at the international level.

The language barrier means that practitioners and researchers struggle to access and use new knowledge, while a focus of research only on English may lead to biases in the understanding of key issues, the study says.

The Cambridge researchers argue that whenever science is published only in one language, including solely in English, barriers to the transfer of knowledge are created, according to their findings published in PLOS Biology. They have called on scientific journals to publish basic summaries of a study's key findings in multiple languages, and for universities and funding bodies to encourage translations as part of their “outreach” evaluation criteria. “While we recognise the importance of a lingua franca, and the contribution of English to science, the scientific community should not assume that all important information is published in English,” says Tatsuya Amano from the Department of Zoology and lead author of the study.

“Language barriers continue to impede the global compilation and application of scientific knowledge.”