To assess what journals are doing to accommodate authors with varying levels of English proficiency, researchers analysed author guidelines from 736 journals in the biological sciences and survey responses from the editors-in-chief of 262 of these publications.
Only 8% of the journals made their complete guidelines to authors available in at least one language other than English; less than 7% allowed authors to publish articles in languages other than English; and a mere 10% explicitly approved the use of references published in a language other than English.
Among the 736 journals surveyed, only two – Nature and Nature Plants – stated in their guidelines that manuscripts would not be rejected solely on the grounds of perceived English quality (Nature’s news team is editorially independent of its journal team). Of the 262 journals whose editors-in-chief were surveyed, only 6% instructed reviewers not to base their assessments solely on language proficiency.
The consequences of journals’ linguistic bias are made clear in another study. This found that non-native English speakers reported having their papers rejected because of writing issues at least 2.5 times more often than did native speakers.
Journals’ guidelines commonly suggest that scientists whose first language is not English consider using a professional editing service before submission.
