Helsinki Initiative Webinar on Multilingualism in Scholarly Communication (31/05/2023)

Language barriers in conservation science:
consequences and solutions
Tatsuya Amano@tatsuya_amanotranslatesciences.com

kaizenconservation.com

Why language in biodiversity conservation?
States/territories where English is the first
language of the majority of population

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anglospeak.png
en:User:Iamvered, CC BY 2.0 AT

Richness of threatened amphibians, birds
and mammals

https://www.iucnredlist.org/resources/other-spatial-downloads

translatE project | understanding consequences of language barriers

Language barriers to:• The global synthesis of scientific evidence• The local application of scientific evidence• The generation of scientific evidence by non-native English speakers

translatesciences.com

Language barriers to the synthesis/application/generation of evidence
Synthesis of evidence
Non-English-language
evidence not used due tolanguage barrier

Generation of evidence
Native Englishspeakers
Non-nativeLanguage
English speakers barrier

Language barrier
Evidence available in English (64%)
Amano et al (2016) PLOS Biology

Language barrier
English-language evidence notused due to language barrier

Application of evidence

Evidence available inother languages (36%)

How is non-English-language science used in global evidence syntheses?
On average, 96.6% of the references cited in eight IPBES assessments were in English
Existing
conservation
literature(Amano et al 2016)

English

93.3

93.1

98.0

Spanish

3.3

1.3

0.7

French

2.0

3.1

1.3

Indonesia

0.7

Portuguese

0.7

94.7

100

94.0

5.3

96.3
1.4
1.1

2.0

0.1
0.2

0.6

German0.6

Italian

0.6

Russian

0.6Uzbek

98.0

0.7

0.2
0.1

Lynch et al (2021) One Earth

4.70.7

0.7

0.1

64%
vs36%

What are the consequences of ignoring non-English-language science?
1. Losing access to a non-negligible amount of evidence
Identified 1,234 non-English-language studies
that test the effectiveness of conservationinterventions

4,412 English-language studies
stored in Conservation Evidence

List of 466 peer-reviewed journals in ecology & conservation in 19 languages
https://translatesciences.com/resources/#journals

Amano et al (2021) PLOS Biology

What are the consequences of ignoring non-English-language science?
1. Losing access to a non-negligible amount of evidence
The number of conservation articles published in non-English languages is increasing

Shawan Chowdhury
Yearly changes in the number of scientific documents on conservation in 16 languages

Chowdhury et al (2022) Conserv Biol

What are the consequences of ignoring non-English-language science?
2. Causing biases in our understanding
Language bias in evidence synthesis

Language bias instatistical results
Language bias instudy characteristics

Konno et al (2020) Ecology and Evolution

What are the consequences of ignoring non-English-language science?
2. Causing biases in our understanding
Language bias in evidence synthesis

Language bias instatistical results
Language bias instudy characteristics

Konno et al (2020) Ecology and Evolution

What are the consequences of ignoring non-English-language science?
2. Causing biases in our understanding
Study location of English-language studies testing conservation interventions

Christie et al (2021) Cons Biol

What are the consequences of ignoring non-English-language science?
2. Causing biases in our understanding
Study location of English- vs non-English-language studies testing conservation interventions

Jim Sanderson CC BY-SA 3.0

Amano et al (2021) PLOS Biol

How is evidence available in different languages used in local decision making?
Proportion of non-English- vs English-language references
cited in national reports on biodiversity conservation among
37 countries/regions

On average, 65% of the references cited inthe reports were in non-English languages

The result is in stark contrast to IPBES assessments withonly 3.4% of the references in non-English languages

Amano et al (2023) Nature Sustainability

How is evidence available in different languages used in local decision making?
75% of the report authors recognise
non-English-language papers
as a relevant information source

Only 25% of the report authors recognise
non-English-language papers
as an easy-to-understand source

Amano et al (2023) Nature Sustainability

How do language barriers impede the uptake of English-language science?

A quarter of the report authors
struggle with understanding
English-language literature

Amano et al (2023) Nature Sustainability

Language barriers to the generation of evidence by non-native English speakers
Paper reading

Paper writing

Publication

Dissemination

Language barriers to the generation of evidence by non-native English speakers
Survey to quantify the amount of effort needed to conduct scientific activities inEnglish908 environmental scientists with at least one first-authored paper publication in English
8 target nationalities stratified by English proficiency and income level
Low English
proficiency

Moderate English
proficiency

English as an
official language

Lower-middle
incomeBangladeshi (108)
Nepali (82)

Bolivian (100)Ukrainian (66)

Nigerian (40)High incomeJapanese (294)Spanish (108)British (112)

Number of participants in parentheses

Amano et al (in press) PLOS Biology

Language barriers to the generation of evidence by non-native English speakers
50% of non-native
English speakers
often decide not togive an oralpresentation

30% of non-native
English speakers
often decide not toattend a conference

Presentation

Paper revision

Need 94% more time toprepare and practiceFrequency of language related
revision is 12.5 times higher

Ask someone to edit
their English for 75% ormore of their papers

Non-native

NativeValues are for those with one publication

Amano et al (in press) PLOS Biology

Reading
Need 91% moretime to read a paper

Writing
Need 51% more time
to write a paper

Paper rejection
Frequency of language related
rejection is 2.6 times higher

How can we overcome language barriers in science?
Ten tips for overcoming language barriers in science
Language barriers
to evidence
synthesis
Language barriers
to evidence
application
Language barriers
to evidence
generation

1. Disseminate research in multiple languages
2. Use scientific knowledge sourced from multiple languages
3. Increase the visibility of non-English-language science
4. Translate scientific terms
5. Provide genuine support to non-native speakers
6. Distinguish language skills from scientific quality
7. Consider language balance in scientific activities
8. Acknowledge efforts to overcome language barriers
9. Be considerate of non-native speakers
10. Make use of existing resources and opportunities
Amano et al (2021) Nature Human Behaviour

Disseminate research in multiple languages
Non-English titles and abstracts would help
half the report authors search and understandEnglish-language literature

Abstract

Amano et al (2023) Nature Sustainability

Use scientific knowledge sourced from multiple languages

Amano et al (2021) PLOS Biol

Use scientific knowledge sourced from multiple languages
Language-specific literature search system
List of 466 peer-reviewed non-English-language journals
in ecology and conservation

Language

Database

URL

SpanishSciELOhttps://scielo.org/en

Portuguese

SciELOhttps://scielo.org/en

Chinese

CNKI

https://cnki.net/

Airiti Libraryhttps://www.airitilibrary.com/

FrenchPersee

https://www.persee.fr/

GermanBASE

https://de.base-search.net/

JapaneseJ-Stagehttps://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/browse/-char/en

KoreanKorean Citation Index

https://www.kci.go.kr/kciportal/main.kci?locale=en

Polish

Polska Bibliografia

https://pbn.nauka.gov.pl/core/#/home(Simplified)
Chinese(Traditional)

https://translatesciences.com/resources/#non-english-journals

Chowdhury
et al (2021)
Conserv Biol

Amano et al (2021) PLOS Biology

Provide genuine support to non-native speakers

Provide genuine support to non-native speakers
we are now updating our license and Editorial
Policies to specify that text generated by
ChatGPT (or any other AI tools) cannot be usedin the work, nor can figures, images, or graphics
be the products of such tools.
H.H. Thorp, Editor-in-Chief of Science, 26 January 2023

Provide genuine support to non-native speakers

Researchers from low-middle income
countries don’t use paid English
editing services due to a lack offunding (Amano et al in press PLOS Biol)
Number of English papers publishedProvide genuine support to non-native speakers

Berdejo-Espinola &Amano (2023) Science

Science is aware that there may
eventually be acceptable uses ofChatGPT and related tools in thepreparation of scientific papers.
…
If a consensus emerges that isinconsistent with our policies, we willconsider adjusting them at that time.
H.H. Thorp, Editor-in-Chief, & V Vinson,
Executive Editor of Science journals, 9March 2023

Violeta BerdejoEspinola

translatE | transcending language barriers to environmental sciences@tatsuya_amano

Thanks to over 130 collaborators: https://translatesciences.com/people/

Ten tips for overcoming language barriers in sciencetranslatesciences.com

1.

Disseminate research in multiple languages

2.

Use scientific knowledge sourced from multiple languages

3.

Increase the visibility of non-English-language science

4.

Translate scientific terms

5.

Provide genuine support to non-native speakers

6.

Distinguish language skills from scientific quality

7.

Consider language balance in scientific activities

Amano et al (2016, 2021) PLOS Biology

8.

Acknowledge efforts to overcome language barriers

Amano et al (2023) Nature Sustainability

9.

Be considerate of non-native speakers

Amano et al (in press) PLOS Biology

10. Make use of existing resources and opportunities
Amano et al (2021) Nature Human Behaviour

kaizenconservation.com

Chowdhury et al (2021) Conserv Biol
Konno et al (2020) Ecology and Evolution
Lynch et al (2021) One EarthNegret et al (2021) PLOS ONE