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

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

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.

1544-9173
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Amano, Tatsuya, Berdejo-Espinola, Violeta, Christie, Alec P., Willott, Kate, Akasaka, Munemitsu, Baldi, Andras, Berthinussen, Anna, Bertolino, Sandro, Bladon, Andrew J., Chen, Min, Choi, Chang Yong, Kharrat, Magda Bou Dagher, De Oliveira, Luis G., Farhat, Perla, Golivets, Marina, Aranzamendi, Nataly Hidalgo, Jantke, Kerstin, Kajzer-Bonk, Joanna, Cisel Kemahli Aytekin, M., Khorozyan, Igor, Kito, Kensuke, Konno, Ko, Lin, Da Li, Littlewood, Nick, Liu, Yang, Liu, Yifan, Loretto, Matthias Claudio, Marconi, Valentina, Martin, Philip A., Morgan, William H., Narvaez-Gomez, Juan P., Negret, Pablo Jose, Nourani, Elham, Ochoa Quintero, Jose M., Ockendon, Nancy, Oh, Rachel Rui Ying, Petrovan, Silviu O., Piovezan-Borges, Ana C., Pollet, Ingrid L., Ramos, Danielle L., Reboredo Segovia, Ana L., Nayelli Rivera-Villanueva, A., Rocha, Ricardo, Rouyer, Marie Morgane, Sainsbury, Katherine A., Schuster, Richard, Schwab, Dominik, Sekercioglu, Cagan H., Seo, Hae Min, Shackelford, Gorm, Shinoda, Yushin, Smith, Rebecca K., Tao, Shan Dar, Tsai, Ming Shan, Tyler, Elizabeth H.M., Vajna, Flora, Valdebenito, Jose Osvaldo, Vozykova, Svetlana, Waryszak, Pawel, Zamora-Gutierrez, Veronica, Zenni, Rafael D., Zhou, Wenjun and Sutherland, William J. (2021) Tapping into non-English-language science for the conservation of global biodiversity. PLoS Biology, 19 (10), [e3001296]. (doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.3001296).

Record type: Article

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.

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More information

Published date: 7 October 2021
Additional Information: Funding Information: Funding:ThisworkwasfundedbytheAustralian ResearchCouncilFutureFellowshipFT180100354, theUniversityofQueenslandstrategicfunding(T. A.),theNaturalEnvironmentResearchCouncilNE/ L002507/1(A.P.C.),NationalResearch, DevelopmentandInnovationOffice,Hungary ED_18-1-2018-0003(A.Ba ´ ldi),UniversityofTurin, localresearchgrant(S.B.),theGermanResearch FoundationunderGermany‘sExcellenceStrategy EXC2037ProjectNumber390683824(K.J.),Grant SonataBis4no.2014/14/E/NZ8/00165fromthe NationalScienceCentre,Poland(J.K.-B,),German ResearchFoundationgrant2153/5-1(I.K.), EuropeanUnion’sHorizon2020researchand innovationprogrammeundertheMarie Skłodowska-Curiegrantagreementno.798091 (M.-C.L.),theNaturalEnvironmentResearch CouncilNE/P012345/1(V.M.),Coordenac ¸ãode Aperfeic ¸oamento de Pessoal de Nı ´ vel Superior– Brasil(CAPES)–FinanceCode001(J.P.N.G.), ColombianAdministrativeDepartmentofScience, TechnologyandInnovation(P.J.N.),Consejo Nacionalde Ciencia y Tecnologı ´a-CONACY T 1004537(A.N.R.V.),EuropeanUnion’sHorizon 2020researchandinnovationprogrammeunder theMarieSkłodowska-Curiegrantagreementno. 766417(M.-M.R.),Ph.D.fellowshipatthe UniversityofVeterinaryMedicineBudapest(F.V.), ChileanNationalAgencyforResearchand Development,BECASCHILE72170569(J.O.V.), CNPq-Brazil304701/2019-0(R.D.Z.),Arcadia, MAVA,andtheDavidandClaudiaHarding Foundation(W.J.S.).Thefundershadnorolein studydesign,datacollectionandanalysis,decision topublish,orpreparationofthemanuscript. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 Amano et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 486687
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/486687
ISSN: 1544-9173
PURE UUID: cc552d21-02b7-4308-bc01-e451882ae574
ORCID for Veronica Zamora-Gutierrez: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-0661-5180

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Date deposited: 01 Feb 2024 17:45
Last modified: 06 Jun 2024 02:20

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Contributors

Author: Tatsuya Amano
Author: Violeta Berdejo-Espinola
Author: Alec P. Christie
Author: Kate Willott
Author: Munemitsu Akasaka
Author: Andras Baldi
Author: Anna Berthinussen
Author: Sandro Bertolino
Author: Andrew J. Bladon
Author: Min Chen
Author: Chang Yong Choi
Author: Magda Bou Dagher Kharrat
Author: Luis G. De Oliveira
Author: Perla Farhat
Author: Marina Golivets
Author: Nataly Hidalgo Aranzamendi
Author: Kerstin Jantke
Author: Joanna Kajzer-Bonk
Author: M. Cisel Kemahli Aytekin
Author: Igor Khorozyan
Author: Kensuke Kito
Author: Ko Konno
Author: Da Li Lin
Author: Nick Littlewood
Author: Yang Liu
Author: Yifan Liu
Author: Matthias Claudio Loretto
Author: Valentina Marconi
Author: Philip A. Martin
Author: William H. Morgan
Author: Juan P. Narvaez-Gomez
Author: Pablo Jose Negret
Author: Elham Nourani
Author: Jose M. Ochoa Quintero
Author: Nancy Ockendon
Author: Rachel Rui Ying Oh
Author: Silviu O. Petrovan
Author: Ana C. Piovezan-Borges
Author: Ingrid L. Pollet
Author: Danielle L. Ramos
Author: Ana L. Reboredo Segovia
Author: A. Nayelli Rivera-Villanueva
Author: Ricardo Rocha
Author: Marie Morgane Rouyer
Author: Katherine A. Sainsbury
Author: Richard Schuster
Author: Dominik Schwab
Author: Cagan H. Sekercioglu
Author: Hae Min Seo
Author: Gorm Shackelford
Author: Yushin Shinoda
Author: Rebecca K. Smith
Author: Shan Dar Tao
Author: Ming Shan Tsai
Author: Elizabeth H.M. Tyler
Author: Flora Vajna
Author: Jose Osvaldo Valdebenito
Author: Svetlana Vozykova
Author: Pawel Waryszak
Author: Veronica Zamora-Gutierrez ORCID iD
Author: Rafael D. Zenni
Author: Wenjun Zhou
Author: William J. Sutherland

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