Journal of Science Policy & Governance | Volume 18, Issue 03 | August 30, 2021

Policy Position Paper Competition Second Place Winner

Policy Position Paper: A Call to Diversify the Lingua Franca of Academic STEM Communities​

Kaylee R. Henry (1,3)*, Ranya K.A. Virk (1,3)*, Lindsay DeMarchi (2,3), Huei Sears (2,3)
  1. Northwestern University, McCormick College of Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Evanston, IL
  2. Northwestern University, Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA) and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Evanston, IL
  3. Northwestern University, Science Policy Outreach Taskforce, Evanston, IL

*These authors contributed equally to this work.

Translations: Vasundhara Agrawal (Hindi), Ali Al-Alawi (Arabic), Celeste Hay (French), Surbhi Jain (Hindi),​ Panagiotis Metaxas (Greek), Alicia Rouco Escorial (Spanish), Smriti Vats (Spanish)

Corresponding author: kaylee.henry@northwestern.edu
Keywords: linguistic diversity; diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in academia; translation; multilingual publishing; accessibility; federal grant funding
Executive Summary: The current bias in the STEM academy favors English-language research publications, creating a barrier between English-speaking and non-English speaking researchers that is detrimental to the continuity and evolution of STEM research. In this paper, we lay out policy measures that employ U.S. government resources to create infrastructure that standardizes and facilitates the language translation process and hosting of multilingual publications. This proposal aims to increase linguistic diversity in academic STEM publications for the ultimate goal of improving global scientific communication and ameliorating the existing disparity between English and non-English STEM literature.

-Read the full article and translated versions through download.-

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Kaylee R. Henry (she/her) is a biomedical engineering graduate student at Northwestern University studying deep brain stimulation. Kaylee holds a BS in mathematics and BS in biomedical engineering from the University of Arkansas. She is a member of Northwestern University’s Science Policy Outreach Taskforce.
 
Ranya K.A. Virk (she/her) is a biomedical engineering graduate student at Northwestern University. She is part of the Backman group, which develops and employs nanoimaging techniques for cancer diagnostics, and the Szleifer group, which uses physics-based modeling techniques to mechanistically characterize biological systems. Her research focuses on combining computational and experimental techniques to characterize genome structure and function. Ranya holds a BS in quantitative biology and computer science from McGill University. She is also a member of Northwestern University’s Science Policy Outreach Taskforce.
 
Lindsay DeMarchi (she/xe) is an Astronomy graduate student at Northwestern University studying core collapse supernovae and the formation of compact objects, such as neutron stars and black holes. Lindsay holds a Masters in physics from Syracuse University and a BA in physics from Colgate University. She is a member of Northwestern University’s Science Policy Outreach Taskforce.
 
Huei Sears (she/her) is a graduate student in physics at Northwestern University studying long gamma-ray burst host galaxies. Huei earned her Masters in physics from Ohio University and her BS in advanced mathematics from Lyman Briggs College at Michigan State University. She is also a member of Northwestern University’s Science Policy Outreach Taskforce.
 
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the members of the Science Policy Outreach Taskforce for their strong support during the drafting and editing of this manuscript. The authors want to acknowledge our colleagues who translated this manuscript into multiple languages and will thank them in alphabetical order: Vasundhara Agrawal (Hindi), Ali Al-Alawi (Arabic), Celeste Hay (French), Surbhi Jain (Hindi), Panagiotis Metaxas (Greek), Alicia Rouco Escorial (Spanish), Smriti Vats (Spanish).
 
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The authors’ views do not necessarily reflect the views of their respective departments or the Science Policy Outreach Taskforce.
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