A universal language for scholarship can promote dialogue, but also worsen inequalities, says Laura Bernardi, the Vice-President of the National Research Council of the Swiss National Science Foundation. | Image: University of Lausanne

It is a fact that scientific work often goes unnoticed in international academic circles when it is not published in English. Conversely, many valuable research results that are published in English are ignored by policy makers in other language regions if no translation is provided for them.

As was previously the case with Latin and French, there are trade-offs involved in adopting a single language for international science. It promotes the international exchange that is necessary for scientific progress. But the language in question will also dominate the scientific discourse, widening inequalities in participation across different countries and disciplinary communities.

Given this trade-off, and considering the importance that is placed on promoting diversity today, what standard language practices should the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) support in multilingual Switzerland? The SNSF plays an important role in different stages of the knowledge production chain, including research evaluation and promoting research results within academia and beyond it. Some of those stages can be better served by adopting a lingua franca, while others can benefit from multilingualism. When evaluating research proposals, the broadest possible range of national and international expert reviewers ought to be able to judge whether a proposed project is relevant, sound and feasible. To this end, English seems to be becoming the norm.

This is already common in fields such as STEM, but not in others, where the research itself is conducted in other languages. Encouraging proposals in English also promotes equity among researchers working in Switzerland whose work might involve languages other than the Swiss national languages, like those active in Spanish philology or Chinese history. In all these cases, the cost of writing research proposals in English is largely compensated by the benefits of enabling fair and open scientific evaluation.

In parallel to promoting English for evaluation purposes, multilingualism ought to be supported where it offers the most benefits, for example, scholarly publications in fields like law or literature where research results are more effectively communicated in the same language as the research is conducted. Such diversity is valuable. A plurality of languages is also vital in non-academic outreach that aims to stimulate political and public debate through publications and other means of communication.