02.11.2022
COAR Announces first recommendation for supporting multilingual and non-English content in repositories
« Multilingualism is a critical characteristic of a healthy, inclusive, and diverse research communications landscape. The Helsinki Initiative on Multilingualism in Scholarly Communication asserts that the disqualification of local or national languages in academic publishing is the most important – and often forgotten – factor that prevents societies from using and taking advantage of the research done where they live.
While the dominant position of a lingua franca – English – is useful for the widespread dissemination of ideas across the world, it also impedes the use of research results at the local level. And after decades of policies that have directed researchers to publish in English, we are beginning to see a reversal of this trend. The UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science, for example, calls on member states to encourage “multilingualism in the practice of science, in scientific publications and in academic communications”. (…) »
