Researchers who are non-native English speakers spend more time and money than native speakers in contributing to the global scientific community where the language is prevalent, a group of international scientists said, calling for more inclusivity.
Their survey of 908 environmental scientists of eight nationalities revealed greater costs for non-native speakers in reading and writing English papers and that they even forwent attending international conferences held in English, according to research published July 18 in PLOS Biology.
The study conducted online in 2021 sought to compare and quantify the effort made by researchers from Bangladesh, Bolivia, Britain, Japan, Nepal, Nigeria, Spain and Ukraine, with varied English proficiency and income levels.