WG Multilingualism and language biases in research assessment

WG Multilingualism and language biases in research assessment

April 17, 2024

WG Objectives

The main objectives of the Working Group on Multilingualism and language biases in research assessment:

  1. Raise awareness across all fields about the importance of “multilingualism in practice of science, in scientific publications and in academic communications”(UNESCO);
  2. Provide institutions with guidelines, toolbox and implementation proposal for recognizing, rewarding and incentivizing research carried out and communicated in all languages, and for addressing language biases in metrics, expert-assessment and rankings.

Latest News & Upcoming Events

Updated on 25 November 2025

"Implementation proposal for language-aware assessments" currently in revision stage

The CoARA Working Group on Multilingualism and Language Biases in Research Assessment recently completed a public consultation on its Implementation Proposal for language-aware assessments, which was open until 6 November. The Implementation Proposal, currently under revision following the feedback receiving during the public consultation, is the first Type A to complete the community consultation phase of the Endorsement process.

“CoARA Working Group Webinar on Language-Aware Assessments”

The WG also organised its final webinar on 21 October 2025 to present the results of its landscape analysis and the Implementation Proposal, marking the conclusion of its main activities. Please find additional resources from the webinar below!

Resources

Webinar on Language-Aware Assessments

This presentation from the Working Group Multilingualism and Language Biases in Research Assessment provides an overview of the Working Group's mission and aims, a landscape report on how linguistic diversity is practiced and supported across European research systems, and an overview of the recent output "Implementation Proposal for Language-aware Assessments"

Link

Public Webinar: Multilingualism and Language Biases in RA

Presentation slides from the WG's public webinar on 26 September 2024

Link

Multilingualism: Insights from the MCAA Survey 2024

Presentation by Tereza Šímová on the MCAA Survey 2024

Link

Exploring the landscape of multilingualism through bibliometrics

Presentation by André Brasil on misguided internationalization efforts in the Brazilian evaluation system

Link

ECSPM survey on language use in science communication & citizen science projects

Presentation by Theodoros Marinis, Bessie Dendrinos, Monica Barni from the European Civil Society Platform

Link

Questionnaire to CNR scientific community

Presentation by Ginervra Peruginelli and Sebastiano Faro of the questionnaire addressed to the CNR research community

Link

Join the Working Group!

Interested in joining the Working Group?
Do you have any questions?

Please contact:

Emanuel Kulczycki
Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań

emek@amu.edu.pl

Janne Pölönen
The Federation of Finnish Learned Societies

janne.polonen@tsv.fi

Gian Maria Greco
Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA)

gianmaria.greco@mariecuriealumni.eu

Martine Garnier-Rizet
Agence nationale de la recherche (ANR)

martine.garnier-rizet@anr.fr

Affiliated Organisations

  • Federation of Finnish Learned Societies (TSV), Finland
  • Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA), Global
  • OPERAS AISBL, Europe
  • Coimbra Group, Europe
  • European Civil Society Platform for Multilingualism, Europe
  • Research Council of Finland, Finland
  • Adam Mickiewicz University (AMU), Poland
  • ANR – French National Research Agency, France
  • cOAlition S, Europe
  • Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Italy
  • Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Spain
  • CNRS, France
  • Eurodoc, Europe
  • European Alliance for SSH (EASSH), Europe
  • European Network for Research Evaluation in the Social Sciences and the Humanities (ENRESSH),
    Europe
  • EuroScience – the European Association for the Advancement of Science and Technology, Europe
  • Global Young Academy (GYA)
  • Hanken School of Economics (Hanken), Finland
  • Initiative for Science in Europe (ISE), Europe
  • Italian national agency for the evaluation of universities and research institutes (ANVUR), Italy
  • NIFU – Nordic institute for studies in innovation, research and education, Norway
  • Research Foundation Flanders (FWO), Belgium
  • Sorbonne Université, France
  • Tampere University (TAU), Finland
  • TOUR4EU Tuscan Organisation of Universities in Europe (TOUR4EU), Italy
  • Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain
  • Università degli Studi di Milano (UMI), Italy
  • Universities Norway (UHR), Norway
  • University of Antwerp, (UAntwerp), Belgium
  • University of Jyväskylä, Finland
  • University of Leiden (LEI), Netherlands
  • Università di Milano-Bicocca (UNIMIB), Italy
  • University Paris Nanterre, France
  • University of Turku (UTU), Finland
  • Latin American Forum on Research Assessment (CLACSO-FOLEC), Argentina
  • Lusófona University, Portugal
  • Stockholm University, Sweden
  • translatE network on language barriers in environmental sciences, University of Queensland,
    Australia
  • UNESCO Chair on Open Science
  • University of Montréal, Canada
  • University of Lleida
  • University of Warwick
  • Fonds de recherche du Québec (observer)

Activities

Updated on 24 October 2024

  • In the summer of 2024, WG members conducted three surveys. The Institute of Legal Informatics and Judicial Systems (IGSG) launched a survey on multilingualism and language biases aimed at researchers at the National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA) included questions on multilingualism in it’s member survey, and the European Civil Society Platform for Multilingualism (ECSPM) sent a survey to it’s members concerning language use in science communication and citizen science. Preliminary results from these surveys were presented in a public webinar on 26 September, 20. Almost all (96%) of the 169 registered participants who responded to poll questions agreed that researchers are advantaged or disadvantaged because of language skills and preferences, at least to some extent. For further resources and survey findings, please see the Resources section.
  • Preprint of a study recently published, Lucía Céspedes et al., Evaluating the Linguistic Coverage of OpenAlex: An Assessment of Metadata Accuracy and Completeness (2024). The study involved Vincent Larivière  from the Multilingualism WG and evaluates the linguistic coverage and metadata accuracy of OpenAlex. Manual validation of metadata on language in a sample of 6,836 articles in OpenAlex, of which 68% were in English, suggests a much more linguistically diverse landscape of global scholarly output than Web of Science (96% articles in English). Access the study here: https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2409.10633
Click here for the OpenAlex study!

Structure and Implementation

Activities will be carried out by Task Forces (TF) producing specific Deliverables, and five interest groups (IG) will represent topics or stakeholders throughout activities.

Task Forces and their leads are:

  • TF1: Coordination (lead: TSV)
  • TF2: Landscape Analysis (lead: AMU, LEI, UAntwerp, ANVUR, ECSPM)
  • TF3: Policy Advice and Implementation (lead: ANR, Coimbra Group, ISE, OPERAS, UHR, CNR, UTU)
  • TF4: Communication (lead: MCAA)

The IGs and their coordinators are:

  • Early career researchers (lead: Eurodoc)
  • Civil society (lead: ECSPM)
  • Intersectionality (lead: UNIMIB, CNR)
  • Language learning and skills (lead: Tour4EU)
  • Open Scholarly communication (lead: LEI, CLACSO/FOLEC)

The WG will implement several mechanisms for a continuous involvement of CoARA members and other organisations, making sure that they will be able to contribute to and be actively involved in, and benefit from the WG activities.

CoARA members will be invited to: contribute data;, respond to and distribute surveys; andparticipate in case studies for the landscape analyses; comment through open consultations on each core WG output; and participate in the IGs to make sure that the topics and stakeholder perspectives are taken into account throughout the WG activities.

The WG will also promote a series of online workshops and webinars to share, present and detail its outputs, for instance how to use the toolbox. Online meetings will be organised to cover several time zones to facilitate participation beyond Europe. In-person workshops can be held within events organised by WG members.

Activities Archive

Previous activities:

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