Published January 3, 2022 | Version v1
Journal article Open

Growth of non-English-language literature on biodiversity conservation

Creators

  • 1. School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, Saint Lucia, 4072 Australia ; Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, Saint Lucia, 4072 Australia
  • 2. School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, Saint Lucia, 4072 Australia ; Environmental Science and Resource Management, California State University Channel Islands, Camarillo, 93012 United States
  • 3. Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Koç University, Rumelifeneri Yolu 34450 Sarıyer, Istanbul, Turkey
  • 4. Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Fuchu, Tokyo, 183–8509 Japan
  • 5. Institute of Nature Conservation, Polish Academy of Sciences, al. Adama Mickiewicza 33, Kraków, 31–120 Poland
  • 6. Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Turin, Via Accademia Albertina 13, Torino, 10123 Italy
  • 7. Sovon Dutch Centre for Field Ornithology, Nijmegen, 6525 ED The Netherlands
  • 8. State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Department of Ecology/School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510275 China
  • 9. Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, 20144 Germany
  • 10. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, 1088 Xueyuan Ave, Nanshan, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, 518055 China
  • 11. Department of Migration, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Am Obstberg 1, Radolfzell, 78315 Germany ; Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Universitätsstraße 10, Konstanz, 78464 Germany
  • 12. Plant Technology and Environmental Monitoring Ltd, Technological Park of São José dos Campos, Campos, 12247-016 Brazil
  • 13. CEFE, Univ Montpellier, CNRS, EPHE, IRD, Montpellier, France
  • 14. Centre for Environmental and Climate Science, Lund University, Lund, SE, 22362 Sweden
  • 15. Faculty of Energy and Ecotechnology (GreenTech), ITMO University, Kronverkskiy Prospekt 49, St Petersburg, 197101 Russia
  • 16. CONACYT - Centro Interdisciplinario de Investigación para el Desarrollo Integral Regional Unidad Durango (CIIDIR), Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Sigma 119 Colonia 20 de Noviembre II, Durango, Durango, CP 34220 México

Description

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.

Notes

SC is funded by the Australian Government, the University of Queensland, and the Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science. KJ is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany 's Excellence Strategy—EXC 2037 'CLICCS—Climate, Climatic Change, and Society'—Project Number: 390683824, contribution to the Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability (CEN) of Universität Hamburg. M-M.R has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 766417. TA is funded by the Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (FT180100354) and the University of Queensland strategic funding.

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Additional details

Funding

ARC Future Fellowships - Grant ID: FT180100354 FT180100354
Australian Research Council
Inspire4Nature – INternational training at the Science-Policy Interface for Researchers in Europe, for Nature 766417
European Commission