TY - JOUR
T1 - Growth of non-English-language literature on biodiversity conservation
AU - Chowdhury, Shawan
AU - Gonzalez, Kristofer
AU - Aytekin, M. Çisel Kemahlı
AU - Baek, Seung Yun
AU - Bełcik, Michał
AU - Bertolino, Sandro
AU - Duijns, Sjoerd
AU - Han, Yuqing
AU - Jantke, Kerstin
AU - Katayose, Ryosuke
AU - Lin, Mu Ming
AU - Nourani, Elham
AU - Ramos, Danielle Leal
AU - Rouyer, Marie Morgane
AU - Sidemo-Holm, William
AU - Vozykova, Svetlana
AU - Zamora-Gutierrez, Veronica
AU - Amano, Tatsuya
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors. Conservation Biology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Conservation Biology.
PY - 2022/8
Y1 - 2022/8
N2 - English is widely recognized as the language of science, and English-language publications (ELPs) are rapidly increasing. It is often assumed that the number of non-ELPs is decreasing. This assumption contributes to the underuse of non-ELPs in conservation science, practice, and policy, especially at the international level. However, the number of conservation articles published in different languages is poorly documented. Using local and international search systems, we searched for scientific articles on biodiversity conservation published from 1980 to 2018 in English and 15 non-English languages. We compared the growth rate in publications across languages. In 12 of the 15 non-English languages, published conservation articles significantly increased every year over the past 39 years, at a rate similar to English-language articles. The other three languages showed contrasting results, depending on the search system. Since the 1990s, conservation science articles in most languages increased exponentially. The variation in the number of non-English-language articles identified among the search systems differed markedly (e.g., for simplified Chinese, 11,148 articles returned with local search system and 803 with Scopus). Google Scholar and local literature search systems returned the most articles for 11 and 4 non-English languages, respectively. However, the proportion of peer-reviewed conservation articles published in non-English languages was highest in Scopus, followed by Web of Science and local search systems, and lowest in Google Scholar. About 20% of the sampled non-English-language articles provided no title or abstract in English; thus, in theory, they were undiscoverable with English keywords. Possible reasons for this include language barriers and the need to disseminate research in countries where English is not widely spoken. Given the known biases in statistical methods and study characteristics between English- and non-English-language studies, non-English-language articles will continue to play an important role in improving the understanding of biodiversity and its conservation.
AB - English is widely recognized as the language of science, and English-language publications (ELPs) are rapidly increasing. It is often assumed that the number of non-ELPs is decreasing. This assumption contributes to the underuse of non-ELPs in conservation science, practice, and policy, especially at the international level. However, the number of conservation articles published in different languages is poorly documented. Using local and international search systems, we searched for scientific articles on biodiversity conservation published from 1980 to 2018 in English and 15 non-English languages. We compared the growth rate in publications across languages. In 12 of the 15 non-English languages, published conservation articles significantly increased every year over the past 39 years, at a rate similar to English-language articles. The other three languages showed contrasting results, depending on the search system. Since the 1990s, conservation science articles in most languages increased exponentially. The variation in the number of non-English-language articles identified among the search systems differed markedly (e.g., for simplified Chinese, 11,148 articles returned with local search system and 803 with Scopus). Google Scholar and local literature search systems returned the most articles for 11 and 4 non-English languages, respectively. However, the proportion of peer-reviewed conservation articles published in non-English languages was highest in Scopus, followed by Web of Science and local search systems, and lowest in Google Scholar. About 20% of the sampled non-English-language articles provided no title or abstract in English; thus, in theory, they were undiscoverable with English keywords. Possible reasons for this include language barriers and the need to disseminate research in countries where English is not widely spoken. Given the known biases in statistical methods and study characteristics between English- and non-English-language studies, non-English-language articles will continue to play an important role in improving the understanding of biodiversity and its conservation.
KW - barrera del lenguaje
KW - bases de datos de la biodiversidad mundial
KW - biodiversity information
KW - evidence synthesis
KW - global biodiversity databases
KW - idiomas
KW - información sobre la biodiversidad
KW - language barrier
KW - languages
KW - publication bias
KW - sesgo de publicación
KW - síntesis de evidencias
KW - 生物多样性信息;证据综合;全球生物多样性数据库;语言;语言障碍;出版偏向
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85127355937&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/cobi.13883
DO - 10.1111/cobi.13883
M3 - Artículo
C2 - 34981574
AN - SCOPUS:85127355937
SN - 0888-8892
VL - 36
JO - Conservation Biology
JF - Conservation Biology
IS - 4
M1 - e13883
ER -