Multilingual research dissemination: Current practices and implications for bibliometrics

TL;DR

This paper explores current multilingual dissemination practices in scholarly communication, highlighting challenges, disparities, and the need for standardization to promote equitable access and improve bibliometric evaluations.

Contribution

It provides an analysis of dissemination policies across platforms and discusses implications for bibliometrics and research evaluation.

Findings

Inconsistent policies hinder multilingual dissemination.

Lack of metadata complicates citation tracking.

Standardization is urgently needed to prevent unethical practices.

Abstract

English is widely used as a lingua franca in scholarly communication, yet preserving local languages is vital to reaching a broader audience. Disseminating research in multiple languages can help ensure equitable access, a responsibility shared by both publishers and authors. This study examines the practices of both groups to identify any notable differences. Several academic social networks, preprint servers, and repositories are analysed to evaluate the resources currently available and their existing policies. Additionally, journals that actively promote multilingual dissemination are reviewed to understand their implementation strategies and how these align with the standards set by the DOI Registration Agency (DOI RA). From the author's perspective, differing policies across platforms can heavily influence decisions, mainly because not all platforms provide relationship metadata. Publishers face similar challenges, underscoring the urgent need for standardisation. Moreover, the lack of consistency creates opportunities for unethical practices in academia, such as counting total of citations originating from the same article in different languages. This highlights the importance of a more comprehensive approach to evaluating research beyond citation and document counts. Collaboration among publishers, authors, and other stakeholders is essential to fostering greater understanding and preventing misconceptions in the academic landscape.