The hidden bias of science’s universal language

Since the middle of the last century, things have shifted in the global scientific community. English is now so prevalent that in some non-English speaking countries – like Germany, France and Spain – English-language academic papers outnumber publications in the country’s own language several times over. In the Netherlands this ratio is an astonishing 40:1, writes Adam Huttner-Koros for The Atlantic.

In short, scientists who want to produce influential, globally recognised work most likely need to publish in English – which means they’ll also likely have to attend English-language conferences, read English-language papers, and have English-language discussions.

In practice, this attitude selects for only a very specific way of looking at the world, one that can make it easy to discount other types of information as nothing more than folklore. But knowledge that isn’t produced via traditional academic research methods can still have scientific value.
Full report on The Atlantic site