Languages Are Still a Major Barrier to Global Science

TLDR

Language barriers still impede scientific knowledge transfer, as reliance on English can bias understanding and leave non‑English research inaccessible locally. The authors aim to encourage the scientific community to address language barriers by developing methods to compile non‑English research and to multilingualize existing English content. They propose compiling non‑English scientific knowledge effectively and enhancing multilingualization of new and existing English knowledge for local users. Their survey found that 35.6 % of biodiversity conservation papers were non‑English and that 54 % of Spanish protected‑area directors cited language as a barrier.

Abstract

While it is recognized that language can pose a barrier to the transfer of scientific knowledge, the convergence on English as the global language of science may suggest that this problem has been resolved. However, our survey searching Google Scholar in 16 languages revealed that 35.6% of 75,513 scientific documents on biodiversity conservation published in 2014 were not in English. Ignoring such non-English knowledge can cause biases in our understanding of study systems. Furthermore, as publication in English has become prevalent, scientific knowledge is often unavailable in local languages. This hinders its use by field practitioners and policy makers for local environmental issues; 54% of protected area directors in Spain identified languages as a barrier. We urge scientific communities to make a more concerted effort to tackle this problem and propose potential approaches both for compiling non-English scientific knowledge effectively and for enhancing the multilingualization of new and existing knowledge available only in English for the users of such knowledge.