FEATURE
Publishing Languages
Changing language can help reach global audience
‘It varies from society to society but,
Disseminating research fi ndings for an international audience raises the issue of publishing language. Siân Harris spoke to some journal editors about why they switched from their native languages to English
E
arlier this year an announcement from the international publisher Springer highlighted an interesting trend in scholarly publishing. The editors of Zeitschrift für Planung und
Unternehmenssteuerung decided to change the publishing language from German to English (with an accompanying change of name to Journal of Management Control).
continued, ‘the journal will be opened for the international scientifi c community so an international scientifi c discourse is enabled and the attractiveness and reputation of the journal will rise.’ The French National Institute for Agricultural Research INRA, which also now publishes fi ve of its journals in partnership with Springer, took a similar decision 10 years ago in moving its journals from French to English. Eric Lichtfouse, who is editor-in- chief of Agronomy for Sustainable Development and Environmental Chemistry Letters, as well as editor of the Springer series Sustainable Agriculture Reviews, commented that this leads to ‘impact factors that “rule le world”.’ The society has found that the number and the impact of the articles submitted by researchers from all over the world has considerably increased since the journals switched to English. Madeleine Hofmann, managing director
Uwe Gotze TU CHEMNITZ/JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT CONTROL There are many reasons why journals
switch from their native languages to English. As Uwe Gotze, a professor at TU Chemnitz in Germany and managing editor of the Journal of Management Control, explained: ‘The contribution will be internationally visible. Academics from German-speaking countries get an attractive option for disseminating their research results throughout the world in English, the leading language of science. This will be more and more important in times of a global knowledge society.’ In addition, he
22 Research Information JUN/JUL 2011
of Springer-Verlag Italia Srl (Springer Italy) added: ‘Our experience shows that in general Italian scientifi c societies opt for the publication of their offi cial journals in the English language. In this way societies get better international visibility and wider distribution of their scientifi c content. There is also an advantage from an educational point of view: society members can improve their skills in publishing papers according to international guidelines.’
Researcher reactions The decisions to switch from Italian, French, German or any other language to English may be clear to the editors and management, but what about the authors and readers in the journal’s home countries?
in most of the cases, authors and society members understand the advantage of publishing in English,’ observed Hofmann about the Italian research community. Gotze agreed: ‘The feedback of the vast majority of the community members that commented on the transfer from native to English language was positive,’ he said about the recent switch from German on his journal.
However, the experiences with the transition to English with INRA’s journals were more mixed. When we switched from 50 per cent French-written to 100 per cent English- written articles about 10 years ago I got protests from non-English speaking people, such as the librarians who purchased the journal,’
Madeleine Hofmann SPRINGER ITALY
commented Lichtfouse. ‘And, fi ve years ago, when impact factors were not used for career evaluation, authors would have preferred to write in French. However, I am not sure that they have the choice now. They publish in English because most high-impact journals are in English – even if they prefer French.’
Challenges This tension between a desire for researchers to publish and read in their own language (see Native-language publishing) and the desire
www.researchinformation.info
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28