The role of the English language as a means of academic communication in the international scientific community

Кошарна, Наталія Володимирівна (2025) The role of the English language as a means of academic communication in the international scientific community Вісник науки та освіти (серія «Філологія»)., 38 (8). pp. 357-368. ISSN 2786-6165

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Abstract

In the context of scientific globalization, the English language has become the primary means of academic communication, serving as an international lingua franca in the social, humanities, and natural sciences, ensuring the unification of terminology and the standardization of methodological approaches within the global scientific community. Its dominance emerged in the second half of the 20th century and intensified from the 1960s, displacing French, German, and other European languages from the status of international scientific communication, which led to the centralization of academic authority in English-speaking research centers and universities. This asymmetry creates persistent structural inequalities, as non-native English researchers face additional costs for adapting texts and hiring professional language editors and translators, what significantly complicates access to leading publication platforms and high-ranking scientific journals and affects the citation impact of their work in international databases. At the same time, the influence of multilingualism is growing: according to OpenAlex and Dimensions (1990–2023), the growth rates of publications in Indonesian, Spanish, and Portuguese exceed those of English-language materials by 12–18 % annually, promoting bibliodiversity, the formation of local citation networks, and increased visibility of research results within national and regional systems. The underestimation of non-English works in WoS and Scopus forms the basis for unequal research evaluation policies, while globalization processes, the integration of research institutions into international projects, and the active inclusion of countries such as China into the global scientific communication system increase researchers’ participation in the worldwide academic discourse. The problem of ignoring local data is particularly critical for climate change studies, where countries of the Global South, accounting for up to 15% of the world’s population, experience the most severe negative impacts of climate change. Simultaneously, the development of multilingual publications, professional translation platforms, and local scientific repositories creates conditions for more equitable access to knowledge, facilitates the integration of local results into the global discourse, and gradually reduces the asymmetry of English-language hegemony in world science.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	English language; academic communication; academic writing; lingua franca; multilingualism; scientific publications; bibliodiversity; scientific globalization; research evaluation
Subjects:	Статті у періодичних виданнях > Фахові (входять до переліку фахових, затверджений МОН)
Divisions:	Факультет педагогічної освіти > Кафедра іноземних мов і методик їх навчання
Depositing User:	Юлія Вікторівна Руднік
Date Deposited:	02 Dec 2025 15:54
Last Modified:	02 Dec 2025 15:54
URI:	https://elibrary.kubg.edu.ua/id/eprint/54342

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