These days, the lingua franca of science is undoubtedly English. Having a common language is helpful for sharing ideas, exchanging knowledge, and forming collaborations. Unfortunately, for scientists who aren't native English speakers (95% of the World population, btw), that common language can also be a barrier, and hinder science itself.
If you've tried or successfully learned another language, you will appreciate how tough it is. Dr Tatsuya Amano, Deputy Director in Research at the Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science at the University of Queensland, can attest to that, too. He moved to the UK from his home country of Japan in 2011 before moving to Australia, where he lives now. Even after living in English-speaking countries for the past 12 years, he says he still struggles to work in English.
If his latest research is anything to go by, he is not alone. Compared to a native speaker, non-native speakers need:
📖 91% more time to read a paper in English
🖋️ 51% more time to write a paper
🗣️ 95% more time to practice and prepare for a presentation
🔁 12.5 times more revisions for peer-reviewed papers (and are more likely to be rejected too)
That's even before we get to people self-disqualifying themselves from conferences because they are uncomfortable in English.
Then there are the citations - the papers scientists reference in their own work. Another study Amano was involved in, which looked at the language diversity of papers referenced in assessments from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, found that ~97% of the citations were from English.
So what's the answer?
It's not feasible for all scientists to be fluent in all languages, but it's also not fair to expect non-native speakers to fix the problem all by themselves, either.
Amano and his fellow scientists recommend a mixed approach, generally focusing on more funding and support tools for non-native speakers and translating conference proceedings, books, and papers (even just abstracts) into other languages. Take a look at the table below for more.
Credit: Amano et al (2023) (CC BY 4.0)
Read the science 👇
Amano T, Ramírez-Castañeda V, Berdejo-Espinola V, Borokini I, Chowdhury S, Golivets M, et al. (2023) The manifold costs of being a non-native English speaker in science. PLoS Biol 21(7): e3002184. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002184