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English is now considered the common language, or 'lingua franca', of global science. All major scientific journals seemingly publish in English, despite the fact that their pages contain research from across the globe.
However, a new study suggests that over a third of new scientific reports are published in languages other than English, which can result in these findings being overlooked - contributing to biases in our understanding.
As well as the international community missing important science, language hinders new findings getting through to practitioners in the field say researchers from the University of Cambridge.
They argue that whenever science is only published in one language, including solely in English, barriers to the transfer of knowledge are created.
The Cambridge researchers call on scientific journals to publish basic summaries of a study's key findings in multiple languages, and universities and funding bodies to encourage translations as part of their 'outreach' evaluation criteria.
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Monday January 02 2017, @04:40PM
Bible reference, really? In an effort to map out the scientific agenda of the near future?
I really don't get what the big argument is over this here. The Tower of Babel was a parable about how humans could be more powerful if they were united in a single language. This thread is about how humans might make better scientific progress (which is basically one way for making humans more powerful) with a united single language. What's wrong with this allusion, since it seems perfectly on point? (And it's hardly endorsing the biblical view, since the OP in this thread was arguing AGAINST the biblical division into many languages and instead pointing out the power of taking an anti-biblical stance.)
Biblical allusions are a standard literary trope, along with allusions to Greek or Roman mythology, Shakespearean or Dickensian fictional characters or whatever. What's the big deal? Would you make such an objection on a story about thunderstorms if someone made a reference to Thor? Or if a story made a reference to blood stains, would you object to someone mentioning Lady MacBeth?