Publishing when English is not your first language

My mother tongue is German. In standard German scientific language, passive voice has been the preferred standard for describing methods, at least in the past. Still, many researchers tend to use it. A problem occurs if they use passive voice when writing in English. Once, when handling a manuscript from a German author who used passive voice in the methods section, I saw a very harsh comment by a peer reviewer. The reviewer believed that the author was distancing himself from his own manuscript. He angrily asked who *really* had planned and conducted the study. Instead of seeing this as a language problem, understanding this cultural difference, and kindly suggesting corrections, he affronted the author. It would have been a complete misunderstanding on both sides, had not they had a German-speaking editor.

We did a small study across many reviewers in one discipline (not my current discipline) and we found that reviewers perceived language as a barrier when reviewing. Some even suggested that they would reject papers if they were poorly written. As an international publishing community, we need to be mindful of papers written by authors whose first language may not be English, be inclusive and appropriately review them for the science only. If a paper does need some language editing, the feedback should be positive and given sensitively. Taking the cultural context or the setting where the research study has taken place is important. We have fantastic technical editors who support authors, but not all publishers or journals can afford that so it is guiding them to improve. One of the things we plan to do is to review our peer review form and instructions to ensure it is accessible to an international audience. Also guiding the reviewers so they use appropriate language (inclusive) and provide feedback that authors can use to improve the paper. I know some publishers are allocating funding to support researchers who need language assistance. Authors can use tools such as Grammarly to improve their writing, but they need to declare tools. AI has the potential to help; however, we need appropriate checks and balances. Ultimately, the publishing ecosystem is richer with voices from all around the world!     

How can collections and special topics teams in publishing companies increase accessibility? What strategies and actions can be implemented to ensure the inclusion of research from diverse geographical and linguistic backgrounds, and to avoid geographical and linguistic restrictions?

It will be very difficult for scholars to understand certain words that may or may not please there readers. There will be other obstacles that they need to tackle just because their native is not English. But the main thing is to face their challenges and move on.

SAM ANDERSON