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

A special issue of Publications (ISSN 2304-6775).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2020) | Viewed by 13394

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
University Library System, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260 USA
Interests: linguistics; language; open access; open education; altmetrics; promotion and tenure; multimodality

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Guest Editor
Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanity (DARIAH-EU), Centre Marc Bloch Friedrichstraße 191, D-10117 Berlin, Germany
Interests: Scholarly Communication; Open Access; Open Humanities; Research Data in the Humanities; Citizen Science; Innovation in peer review; Research transparency

Special Issue Information

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.
Dr. Lauren Brittany Collister
Dr. Erzsébet Tóth-Czifra
Guest Editors

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.

Keywords

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

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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13 pages, 259 KiB  
Article
The Representation of Indigenous Languages of Oceania in Academic Publications
by Eve Koller and Malayah Thompson
Publications 2021, 9(2), 20; https://doi.org/10.3390/publications9020020 - 8 May 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 5109
Abstract
Of the estimated 7117 languages in the world, approximately 1500 (21%) are indigenous to the Pacific. Despite composing approximately one-fourth of the world’s linguistic diversity, the representation of these languages in academic publication is scant, even in periodicals focused on Pacific Island studies. [...] Read more.
Of the estimated 7117 languages in the world, approximately 1500 (21%) are indigenous to the Pacific. Despite composing approximately one-fourth of the world’s linguistic diversity, the representation of these languages in academic publication is scant, even in periodicals focused on Pacific Island studies. We investigated 34 periodicals that focus on research in Oceania. We report on (1) journal names; (2) how many are currently in circulation; (3) how many accept submissions in Indigenous Pacific languages; (4) what percent of the most recent articles were actually in Indigenous languages of the Pacific and (5) which languages those were. Five of the 34 journals allowed submissions written in Indigenous Pacific languages. Three of the five journals specified Hawaiian as an accepted language of publication; one Sāmoan and one Tahitian and any other Indigenous language of Polynesia. We were able to collect data on four of the five journals, which averaged 11% of recent publications in an Indigenous language. None accepted submissions in Indigenous languages from the Pacific outside of Polynesia. Full article
14 pages, 1589 KiB  
Article
Language Preferences in Romanian Communication Sciences Journals: A Web-Based Analysis
by Mariana Cernicova-Buca
Publications 2021, 9(1), 11; https://doi.org/10.3390/publications9010011 - 11 Mar 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3547
Abstract
In modern times, English has become the lingua franca of science, dominating journal publishing ecologies. Multilingual journals keep up the flag, many researchers arguing that, especially in the case of social sciences and humanities, diversity of languages is an asset. In Romania, in [...] Read more.
In modern times, English has become the lingua franca of science, dominating journal publishing ecologies. Multilingual journals keep up the flag, many researchers arguing that, especially in the case of social sciences and humanities, diversity of languages is an asset. In Romania, in the absence of national databases or repositories, the first task to understand linguistic preferences for scientific communication is to map the ground. The study extracted information on Romanian communication sciences journals from four major databases. Out of the 22 identified journals, only eight are dedicated solely to communication sciences, grouped in two poles of communication sciences schools, where doctoral studies in the field have been established. While English dominates the publication world, multilinguistic journals also appear, prevailing in traditional multicultural regions such as Transylvania–Banat. The future of multilingual journals depends on, among other factors, the capacity of the European Union to promote linguistic diversity for scientific purposes. Meanwhile, Romanian journals in communication sciences work towards increasing their impact. Research findings have practical and policy implications, the core idea being that Romanian editors need to strive for better standards in publication and showcase the journals better on the journal’s webpage. Full article
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21 pages, 311 KiB  
Article
“There’s No Discrimination, These Are Just the Rules of the Game”: Russian Scholars’ Perception of the Research Writing and Publication Process in English
by Irina Shchemeleva
Publications 2021, 9(1), 8; https://doi.org/10.3390/publications9010008 - 26 Feb 2021
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3258
Abstract
This paper reports on the study of multilingual speakers’ perception of their research writing practices in English and in their local language—Russian—and the publication process in English. It is based on interviews with 18 scholars from social sciences and humanities working in a [...] Read more.
This paper reports on the study of multilingual speakers’ perception of their research writing practices in English and in their local language—Russian—and the publication process in English. It is based on interviews with 18 scholars from social sciences and humanities working in a leading university in Russia. The study discusses social factors influencing multilingual scholars’ choice of languages as well as their personal motivation to choose English as the main language of publication. Special attention is given to their attitude to proofreading as part of the publication process. The interview results suggest that, from the participants’ perspective, the benefits they gain by publishing research in English seem to outweigh costs they experience in the process of writing and publishing. The study contributes to the on-going debate about the position of multilingual scholars in the competition to publish in top-rated journals, suggesting that the traditional doctrine of linguistic injustice, from the participants’ point-of-view, does not seem to be relevant for every multilingual scholar. Full article
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