Carter Center Fellow and Ph.D. candidate Kelsey Hannah recently published a groundbreaking study on the intersection of language and biodiversity research. Her analysis published in Conservation Biology. It primarily targeted a general readership with highly technical articles related to the protection, management and capture of birds, mammals, and amphibians. Translated article results indicate English-language articles receive 98 times more citations than articles in 16 other languages. This disparity is troubling both for representation and the visibility of significant, impactful conservation work.
The study’s results reveal a chilling truth at the heart of the growing global biodiversity emergency. Most of the world’s areas highest in biodiversity do not speak English as a first language, potentially interfering with the spread of this critical research. As Hannah’s work indicates, the language barrier threatens to lock important studies out from receiving the attention they need to have a meaningful impact in the broader scientific community.
The Impact of Language on Citation Rates
Hannah looked at citing rates, pitting articles published in English versus other languages. The analysis revealed a stark contrast: non-English papers received significantly fewer citations in subsequent research. This trend continued regardless of the study design’s level of evidence or the species’ conservation status.
“Across the board, the non-English language papers had significantly fewer citations,” – Kelsey Hannah
Surprisingly, a lot of the non-English-language studies were furthering their influence with very high citation numbers in their own language communities. Cross-language citations remained notably low.
Hannah brought this concept to life through a compelling case study on the Oriental stork, an endangered species across its range. Even though it is listed as critically endangered, a Japanese consensus study made in 2011 on this species received citations only in Japanese.
“A Japanese study of the Oriental stork in 2011, for example, only had citations in Japanese—even though the species is also endangered in China, Korea and Russia,” – Kelsey Hannah
Recommendations for Enhancing Research Visibility
These results demonstrate exactly why we need to see a change. Hannah and Associate Professor Tatsuya Amano from UQ’s School of the Environment are passionate about increasing access to scientific research. They argue that having abstracts available in English would massively increase both the exposure and potential influence of those non-English studies.
“One thing that did make a difference for non-English-language articles was providing an English abstract—those articles had 1.5 times as many citations,” – Kelsey Hannah
Amano made it clear as to why ignoring research from other parts of the world is a bad idea. He noted that ignoring the wisdom of practitioners and planners in these places might result in ineffective, counterproductive conservation measures.
“If we’re missing out on information from those regions, and not making decisions using that expertise, [conservation efforts] could have less impact,” – Associate Professor Tatsuya Amano
The Call for Multilingual Accessibility
This important discussion around language barriers in biodiversity research is a call to action for the scientific community to urgently respond. To both researchers it’s clear that making research findings available to everyone is essential. Providing this valuable context allows both grantmakers and grantees alike to make more informed decisions about their conservation work.
“We encourage researchers to think about the accessibility of their work and consider providing multi-lingual abstracts,” – Associate Professor Tatsuya Amano
Hannah’s study serves as a crucial reminder that timely and relevant work may remain unseen by those who can leverage it for significant conservation initiatives.
“This means timely and relevant work may not be being seen by the people who can use it to understand and address the conservation challenges of many species,” – Kelsey Hannah