Language Matters: The Geolinguistics of Academic Writing for Publication by Multilingual Writers

Dear colleagues,

Academic writing for publication is one of the key practices in most higher education (HEd) institutions around the world [1–9]. In contexts where research and publishing heavily contribute to a HEd institution’s economic, social and symbolic capitals, academics are recognised, valued or silenced largely based on where and in what languages they publish their work. As a number of scholars have already argued (e.g. [1–3,6–7]), English, being globally accepted as the language of science and technology, enjoys a status of ‘prestige and excellence’ in research dissemination, especially in top-ranking journals. Not surprisingly, these journals are almost exclusively English-medium publications, which places a great deal of pressure on academics to “publish in English” ([7] p. 1). Such pressure becomes even more significant in the case of multilingual academic writers. However, we still know very little about how multilingual writers use their linguistic repertoires when they write for publications [10]. Issues such as the role linguistic repertoires play in writing for publication; how multilingual writers decide what repertoires to use in the processes and products involved in academic publishing; and the economic, political and cultural factors that influence their decisions have received scant attention in the literature so far, despite a few notable exceptions [2,6,7].            

This Special Issue aims to critically examine the geolinguistics of academic publishing (e.g., the status of particular languages for publication from the economic, political and cultural standpoints; preferred languages for publication, the economic, social and symbolic capitals of different languages for publication), with a special interest in the challenges and opportunities afforded to multilingual writers in non-English speaking contexts. To this end, our intention is to contribute to existing debates on the role of languages in the processes and products in academic writing for publication, and we encourage submissions from researchers from around the world.

This issue especially welcomes contributions that address the following:

• The role that multilingual writers assign to their linguistic repertoires when writing for publication;
• Multilingual writers’ decisions as to what repertoires to use in the processes and products involved in academic publishing;
• The economic, political and cultural factors that influence multilingual writers’ decisions as to how they use their linguistic repertoires;
• The status of particular languages for publication in multilingual contexts from the economic, political and cultural standpoints;
• Preferred languages for publication and rationales behind the preferences;
• The economic, social and symbolic capitals of different languages for publication.

References

1. Canagarajah, A.S. A Geopolitics of Academic Writing. University of Pittsburgh Press: Pittsburgh, PA, USA, 2002
2. Canagarajah, A.S. Translingual Practice: Global Englishes and cosmopolitan relations. Routledge: London, UK, 2013.
3. Curry, M.J.; Lillis, T. A Scholar's Guide to Getting Published in English: Critical Choices and Practical Strategies. Multilingual Matters: Bristol, UK, 2013.
4. Flowerdew, J. Writing for scholarly publication in English: The case of Hong Kong. Second Lang. Writ. 1999, 8, 123–145.  
5. Flowerdew, J. Scholarly writers who use English as an additional language: What can Goffman’s “Stigma” tell us? Eng. Acad. Purp. 2008, 7, 77–86.  
6. Flowerdew, J.; Wang, H.S. Author’s editor revisions to manuscripts published in international journals. Second Lang. Writ. 2016, 32, 39–52.
7. Lillis, T.; Curry, M.J. Academic Writing in a Global Context: The Politics and Practices of Publishing in English. Routledge: London, UK, 2010.
8. Salager-Meyer, F. Scientific publishing in developing countries: Challenges for the future. Eng. Acad. Purp. 2008, 7, 121–132.
9. Salager-Meyer, F. Peripheral scholarly journals: From locality to globality. Ibérica 2015, 30, 15–36.
10. Kuteeva, M.; Mauranen. A. Writing for publication in multilingual contexts: An introduction to the special issue. Eng. Acad. Purp. 2014, 13, 1–4.

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Publications is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Geolinguistics of academic publishing
• Multilingual academic writers
• Multilingual practices in academic publishing
• Language, power and access in academic publishing