Polyglots need protection

Emanuel Kulczycki, Henriikka Mustajoki, Janne Pölönen and Vidar Røeggen discuss how the Helsinki Initiative highlights the value of multilingual research publishing: 

• "It can be the best way to communicate with national colleagues, it maximises the chances of local impact and it is almost the only way to reach important audiences such as policymakers".
• "research policy, evaluation and funding systems need to balance the push for international excellence with local relevance and societal and cultural context".
• "By focusing on the importance of language in scholarly communication, the Helsinki Initiative builds on the agendas of open science, open-access publishing and responsible metrics".
• "Open science, for example, promotes equal access to research results and public understanding of science. To achieve this, the transition to open-access publishing will require outlets for scholarly communication in different languages".
• "Recognising high-quality research and dissemination in all languages is a challenge not only for research metrics but also expert evaluation".
• "Multilingualism does not only need supporting in the social sciences and humanities. It is also crucial for technology, engineering and medicine in many parts of the world".
• "It is about developing a publishing system that fits the needs of researchers and their audiences, and values the diversity of scholarly work".

The full article "Polyglots need protection" is available on the Research Europe website.