Scientific impact and the monopoly of English: challenges for linguistic diversity
Abstract
This study examines the relationship between the language of publication and scientific impact, focusing on the number of citations received by articles authored by researchers from Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) on the internationalization of higher education. The research data stems from the analysis of the most cited works in three bibliographic databases of Scopus, WoS and Lens, discussing whether the current dynamics of scientific internationalization have effectively expanded international dialogues or, conversely, reinforced the hegemony of English and central countries. This dynamic promotes the adoption of a habitus among researchers, encouraging the use of a common language, English, for the dissemination of research outcomes, ultimately restricting and devaluing other languages and academic perspectives. Based on the collected data and analyzed, it is concluded that while publishing in English increases visibility and scientific impact, it also tends to perpetuate geopolitical inequalities in the scientific field, where knowledge produced in peripheric countries must conform to standards dictated by (and for) central countries so as to gain recognition. This reality places LAC researchers in a dilemma: to adopt English to achieve greater visibility or to prioritize local languages to guarantee social and local impact and also to preserve epistemological and cultural diversity.Downloads
References
Adams, J., D. Pendlebury, R. Potter, e M. Szomszor. 2021. Global research report Latin America: South and Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean. Institute for Scientific Information. https://clarivate.com/webofsciencegroup/campaigns/latin-america-south-and-central-america-mexico-and-the-caribbean/.
Beigel, F., e L. Jackson. 2022. “Um programa de pesquisas comparativas sobre o multilinguismo na produção científica do Cone Sul”. Tempo Social 34 (3): 5-10. https://doi.org/10.11606/0103-2070.ts.2022.204162.
Bourdieu, P. 2004. Os usos sociais da ciência: por uma sociologia clínica do campo científico. Unesp.
Bourdieu, P. 2007. A economia das trocas simbólicas. 3. ed. Perspectiva.
Canagarajah, S. 2002. A geopolitics of academic writing. University of Pittsburgh Press.
Céspedes, L. 2021. “Latin American journals and hegemonic languages for academic publishing in Scopus and Web of Science”. Trabalhos em Linguística Aplicada 60 (1): 141-154. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/010318138901311520201214.
Chiappa, R. e K. R. Finardi. 2021. “Coloniality prints in internationalization of higher education: the case of Brazilian and Chilean international scholarships”. SOTL in the South 5 (1): 25-45. https://doi.org/10.36615/b3cab604.
Connell, R. 2007. Southern theory. Allen&Unwin.
De Swaan, A. 2001. Words of the world: the global language system. Polity.
De Wit, H. 2020. “The future of internationalization of higher education in challenging global contexts”. ETD Educação Temática Digital 22 (3): 538-545. https://doi.org/10.20396/etd.v22i3.8659471.
De Wit, H., F. Hunter, E. Egron-Polak, e L. Howard, L. (Eds.) (2015). Internationalisation of Higher Education: Study. European Parliament. Brussels.
Demeter, M. 2019. “So far, yet so close: International career paths of communication scholars from the global South”. International Journal of Communication 13: 578-602. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/10181/2549.
Díaz, A. 2018. “Challenging dominant epistemologies in higher education: the role of language in the geopolitics of knowledge (re) production”. Em: Multilingual Education Yearbook 2018: internationalization, stakeholders & multilingual education contexts, organizado por I. Liynage, 21-36. Springer.
Finardi, K., e F. F. Guimarães. 2017. “Internacionalização, rankings e publicações em Inglês: a situação do Brasil na atualidade”. Estudos em avaliação educacional 28 (68): 600-626. https://doi.org/10.18222/eae.v28i68.4564.
Finardi, K. R., S. Sembiante, G. Amorim, e T. Veronez. 2020. “Internationalizations in two loci of enunciation the south and global north”. ETD Educação Temática Digital 22 (3): 591-611. https://doi.org/10.20396/etd.v22i3.8659311.
Finardi, K. R. 2022a. “As línguas e rankings no Oscar da internacionalização das produções científicas latino-americanas”. Estudos linguísticos (São Paulo) 51 (1): 147-161. http://dx.doi.org/10.21165/el.v51i1.3180.
Finardi, K. R. 2022b. “Global English: Neither a “Hydra” nor a “Tyrannosaurus Rex” or a “Red Herring” but an Ecology of Approaches Towards Social Justice”. Education and Linguistics Research 8 (2): 33-45. https://doi.org/10.5296/elr.v8i2.20244.
Finardi, K. R., A. R. M. Mendes, e K. A. da Silva. 2022. “Tensões e direções das internacionalizações no Brasil: Entre competição e solidariedade”. Education Policy Analysis Archives 30 (58): 1-21. https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.30.6823.
Finardi, K. R., C. França, e F. F. Guimarães. 2022. “Ecology of knowledges and languages in Latin American academic production”. Ensaio: avaliação e políticas públicas em educação 30 (116): 764-787. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0104-40362022003003538.
Finardi, K. R., C. França, e F. F. Guimarães. 2023. “Knowledge production on internationalisation of Higher Education in the Global South: Latin America in focus”. Diálogos Latinoamericanos 32: 51-69. https://tidsskrift.dk/dialogos/article/view/127278/186129.
Finardi, K. R., G. B. Amorim, e S. Sarmento. 2024. “Internationalization of higher education and the role of languages: insights from the Global North and the Global South”. Education and Linguistics Research 10 (1): 18-46. https://doi.org/10.5296/elr.v10i1.22006.
França, C., e K. R. Finardi. 2024. “Explorando as línguas na internacionalização da educação superior em revistas latinosamericanas e africanas”. Comunicação apresentada no EBBC 2024 - 9o Encontro Brasileiro de Bibliotemetria e Cientometria, Brasília, Distrito Federal, Brasil, julho de 2024. https://doi.org/10.22477/ix.ebbc.224.
França, C. e K. R. Finardi. 2025. “Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Academic Production and Dissemination in Languages other than English: Possibility or Wishful Thinking?”. AILA Review 37 (1) (no prelo).
Gorovitz, S., e A. E. Munoz. 2022. “Diversidade e direitos linguísticos na ciência no Brasil no âmbito da integração regional latino-americana”. Cadernos de Aulas do LEA 4: 43-64. https://periodicos.uesc.br/index.php/calea/article/view/3373.
Gueye, A., E. Choi, C. Guzmán-Valenzuela, e G. Gregorutti. 2022. “Global south research collaboration: a comparative perspective”. International Journal of African Higher Education 9 (3): 63-82. https://doi.org/10.6017/ijahe.v9i3.16045.
Guzmán-Valenzuela, C. 2017. “The geopolitics of research in teaching and learning in the university in Latin America”. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South 1 (1): 4-18. https://doi.org/10.36615/sotls.v1i1.10.
Guzmán-Valenzuela, C., e C. Goméz. 2019. “Advancing a knowledge ecology: changing patterns of higher education studies in Latin America”. Higher Education 77: 115-133. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-018-0264-z.
Guzmán-Valenzuela, C., L. Ortega, M. Monteiro e, P. Perez-Mejias. 2022. “The new knowledge production in the social sciences and in the arts and humanities in Latin America”. Higher Education 85: 587-612. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-022-00853-5.
Hamel, R. E. 2013. “El campo de las ciencias y la educación superior entre el monopolio del inglés y el plurilingüismo: elementos para una política del lenguaje en América Latina”. Trabalhos em linguística aplicada 52 (2): 321-384. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0103-18132013000200008.
Helsinki Initiative. 2019. Helsinki Initiative on Multilingualism in Scholarly Communication. https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.7887059.
Jenkins, J. 2013. English as a Lingua Franca in the international university: the politics of academic English language policy. Routledge.
Knight, J. 2020. Internacionalização da educação superior: conceitos, tendências e desafios. Oikos.
Laranjeira, R., e L. G. Paris. 2020. “Tensões entre legitimidade e autenticidade nas publicações em inglês por doutorandas brasileiras”. Letras, Santa Maria 3: 49-75. https://doi.org/10.5902/2176148548544.
Leal, F. G., M. C. B. Moraes. 2018. “Decolonialidade como epistemologia para o campo teórico da internacionalização da educação superior”. Education Policy Analysis Archives 26 (87): 1-25. http://dx.doi.org/10.14507/epaa.26.3026.
Leal, F. G., K. R. Finardi, e J. Abba. 2022. “Challenges for an internationalization of higher education from and for the global South”. Perspectives in Education 40 (3): 241-250. http://dx.doi.org/10.18820/2519593X/pie.v40.i3.16.
Leal, F. G., J. Abba, e K. R. Finardi. 2024. “Immersed in the dominant global imaginary: reflecting on internationalization of higher education discourses in Brazil”. Journal of Studies in International Education 0 (0): 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1177/102831532412860.
Lumb, S. 2023. “Strategic international partnerships: global north and global south discourses”. Comparative & International Education 51 (2): 110-126. https://doi.org/10.5206/cie-eci.v51i2.15155.
Piccin, G. F. O., e K. R. Finardi. 2021. “Abordagens Críticas/Descoloniais Na Educação Superior: (In)Visibilidades nas/das Epistemologias de (Des)Construção das Internacionalizações”. Línguas & Letras 22 (52): 56-71. http://doi.org/10.5935/1981-4755.20210005.
Sanchéz-Tarragó, N. 2021. “Publicación científica en acceso abierto: desafíos decoloniales para América Latina”. Liinc em Revista 17 (2): e5782-e5782. https://doi.org/10.18617/liinc.v17i2.5782.
Santos, B. de S. 2019. O fim do império cognitivo: a afirmação das epistemologias do Sul. Autêntica.
Tamrat, W 2022. “The notion of relevance in academic collaboration”. International Journal of African Higher Education 9 (3): 133-151. https://doi.org/10.6017/ijahe.v9i3.16051.
The Lens. 2024. What is The Lens. https://about.lens.org/.
Vavrus, F., e A. Pekol. 2015. “Critical internationalization: moving from theory to practice”. FIRE: Forum for International Research in Education 2(2): 5-21. http://dx.doi.org/10.18275/fire201502021036.
Vessuri, H., J. Guédon, e A. M. Cetto. 2014. “Excellence or quality? Impact of the current competition regime on science and scientific publishing in Latin America and its implications for development”. Current sociology 62 (5): 647-665. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392113512839.
- Authors keep the copyright and give the journal the right of the first publication, with the work registered with the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, which allows third parties to use what is published whenever they mention the authorship of the work and the first publication in this magazine.
- Authors can make other independent and additional contractual agreements for the non-exclusive distribution of the article published in this journal (eg, include it in an institutional repository or publish it in a book) as long as they clearly indicate that the work It was published for the first time in this magazine.
- Authors are allowed and recommended to publish their work on the Internet (for example on institutional or personal pages).
