State of multilingualism within the social sciences and humanities: A seven-country European study

In this study we investigate the state of multilingualism across the social sciences and humanities using a comprehensive dataset of research outputs from seven European countries (Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Flanders [Belgium], Poland, and Slovenia). Although English tends to be the dominant language of science, SSH researchers often produce culturally and societally relevant work in their local languages. We have collected and analysed a set of 164,218 peer-reviewed journals articles (produced by 51,063 researchers from 2013 to 2015), and found that multilingualism is prevalent regardless of geographical location and field. Amongst the researchers who published at least three journal articles during this time period, over one third from the various countries had written their work in at least two languages. The highest share of researchers who published in only one language were from Flanders (80.9%), whereas the lowest shares were from Slovenia (57.2%) and Poland (59.3%). Our findings suggest that patterns of multilingualism are not only linked to countries but also to author productivity, which further depends on rates of co-authorship and field. We argue that research is international but multilingual publishing keeps locally relevant research alive with the added potential for creating impact.