Dataset Information

Tapping into non-English-language science for the conservation of global biodiversity.

ABSTRACT: The widely held assumption that any important scientific information would be available in English underlies the underuse of non-English-language science across disciplines. However, non-English-language science is expected to bring unique and valuable scientific information, especially in disciplines where the evidence is patchy, and for emergent issues where synthesising available evidence is an urgent challenge. Yet such contribution of non-English-language science to scientific communities and the application of science is rarely quantified. Here, we show that non-English-language studies provide crucial evidence for informing global biodiversity conservation. By screening 419,679 peer-reviewed papers in 16 languages, we identified 1,234 non-English-language studies providing evidence on the effectiveness of biodiversity conservation interventions, compared to 4,412 English-language studies identified with the same criteria. Relevant non-English-language studies are being published at an increasing rate in 6 out of the 12 languages where there were a sufficient number of relevant studies. Incorporating non-English-language studies can expand the geographical coverage (i.e., the number of 2° × 2° grid cells with relevant studies) of English-language evidence by 12% to 25%, especially in biodiverse regions, and taxonomic coverage (i.e., the number of species covered by the relevant studies) by 5% to 32%, although they do tend to be based on less robust study designs. Our results show that synthesising non-English-language studies is key to overcoming the widespread lack of local, context-dependent evidence and facilitating evidence-based conservation globally. We urge wider disciplines to rigorously reassess the untapped potential of non-English-language science in informing decisions to address other global challenges. Please see the Supporting information files for Alternative Language Abstracts.

SUBMITTER: Amano T

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8496809 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Tapping into non-English-language science for the conservation of global biodiversity.

Amano Tatsuya T Berdejo-Espinola Violeta V Christie Alec P AP Willott Kate K Akasaka Munemitsu M Báldi András A Berthinussen Anna A Bertolino Sandro S Bladon Andrew J AJ Chen Min M Choi Chang-Yong CY Bou Dagher Kharrat Magda M de Oliveira Luis G LG Farhat Perla P Golivets Marina M Hidalgo Aranzamendi Nataly N Jantke Kerstin K Kajzer-Bonk Joanna J Kemahlı Aytekin M Çisel MÇ Khorozyan Igor I Kito Kensuke K Konno Ko K Lin Da-Li DL Littlewood Nick N Liu Yang Y Liu Yifan Y Loretto Matthias-Claudio MC Marconi Valentina V Martin Philip A PA Morgan William H WH Narváez-Gómez Juan P JP Negret Pablo Jose PJ Nourani Elham E Ochoa Quintero Jose M JM Ockendon Nancy N Oh Rachel Rui Ying RRY Petrovan Silviu O SO Piovezan-Borges Ana C AC Pollet Ingrid L IL Ramos Danielle L DL Reboredo Segovia Ana L AL Rivera-Villanueva A Nayelli AN Rocha Ricardo R Rouyer Marie-Morgane MM Sainsbury Katherine A KA Schuster Richard R Schwab Dominik D Şekercioğlu Çağan H ÇH Seo Hae-Min HM Shackelford Gorm G Shinoda Yushin Y Smith Rebecca K RK Tao Shan-Dar SD Tsai Ming-Shan MS Tyler Elizabeth H M EHM Vajna Flóra F Valdebenito José Osvaldo JO Vozykova Svetlana S Waryszak Paweł P Zamora-Gutierrez Veronica V Zenni Rafael D RD Zhou Wenjun W Sutherland William J WJ

PLoS biology 20211007 10

The widely held assumption that any important scientific information would be available in English underlies the underuse of non-English-language science across disciplines. However, non-English-language science is expected to bring unique and valuable scientific information, especially in disciplines where the evidence is patchy, and for emergent issues where synthesising available evidence is an urgent challenge. Yet such contribution of non-English-language science to scientific communities a ...[more]

PMID: 34618803

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Project description:English is widely recognized as the language of science, and English-language publications (ELPs) are rapidly increasing. It is often assumed that the number of non-ELPs is decreasing. This assumption contributes to the underuse of non-ELPs in conservation science, practice, and policy, especially at the international level. However, the number of conservation articles published in different languages is poorly documented. Using local and international search systems, we searched for scientific articles on biodiversity conservation published from 1980 to 2018 in English and 15 non-English languages. We compared the growth rate in publications across languages. In 12 of the 15 non-English languages, published conservation articles significantly increased every year over the past 39 years, at a rate similar to English-language articles. The other three languages showed contrasting results, depending on the search system. Since the 1990s, conservation science articles in most languages increased exponentially. The variation in the number of non-English-language articles identified among the search systems differed markedly (e.g., for simplified Chinese, 11,148 articles returned with local search system and 803 with Scopus). Google Scholar and local literature search systems returned the most articles for 11 and 4 non-English languages, respectively. However, the proportion of peer-reviewed conservation articles published in non-English languages was highest in Scopus, followed by Web of Science and local search systems, and lowest in Google Scholar. About 20% of the sampled non-English-language articles provided no title or abstract in English; thus, in theory, they were undiscoverable with English keywords. Possible reasons for this include language barriers and the need to disseminate research in countries where English is not widely spoken. Given the known biases in statistical methods and study characteristics between English- and non-English-language studies, non-English-language articles will continue to play an important role in improving the understanding of biodiversity and its conservation.

Project description:Knowledge products comprise assessments of authoritative information supported by standards, governance, quality control, data, tools, and capacity building mechanisms. Considerable resources are dedicated to developing and maintaining knowledge products for biodiversity conservation, and they are widely used to inform policy and advise decision makers and practitioners. However, the financial cost of delivering this information is largely undocumented. We evaluated the costs and funding sources for developing and maintaining four global biodiversity and conservation knowledge products: The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems, Protected Planet, and the World Database of Key Biodiversity Areas. These are secondary data sets, built on primary data collected by extensive networks of expert contributors worldwide. We estimate that US$160 million (range: US$116-204 million), plus 293 person-years of volunteer time (range: 278-308 person-years) valued at US$ 14 million (range US$12-16 million), were invested in these four knowledge products between 1979 and 2013. More than half of this financing was provided through philanthropy, and nearly three-quarters was spent on personnel costs. The estimated annual cost of maintaining data and platforms for three of these knowledge products (excluding the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems for which annual costs were not possible to estimate for 2013) is US$6.5 million in total (range: US$6.2-6.7 million). We estimated that an additional US$114 million will be needed to reach pre-defined baselines of data coverage for all the four knowledge products, and that once achieved, annual maintenance costs will be approximately US$12 million. These costs are much lower than those to maintain many other, similarly important, global knowledge products. Ensuring that biodiversity and conservation knowledge products are sufficiently up to date, comprehensive and accurate is fundamental to inform decision-making for biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. Thus, the development and implementation of plans for sustainable long-term financing for them is critical.

Dataset Information

Tapping into non-English-language science for the conservation of global biodiversity.

Publications

Tapping into non-English-language science for the conservation of global biodiversity.

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