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Ten tips for overcoming language barriers in science

Nature Human Behaviour volume 5, pages 1119–1122 (2021)Cite this article

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Language barriers have serious consequences in science, causing inequality for under-represented communities, making non-English-language knowledge inaccessible, and impeding the uptake of science by decision-makers. Here we provide a practical checklist as a starting point for tackling this overlooked issue.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the eLife Ambassador program for bringing the authors together to discuss this important topic. Thanks also to W. J. Sutherland for his invaluable feedback on an earlier draft and M. Amano for all the support. T.A. is supported by the Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (FT180100354) and the University of Queensland strategic funding.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Tatsuya Amano

  2. Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Tatsuya Amano

  3. Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Clarissa Rios Rojas

  4. Epicentre, Yaoundé, Cameroon

    Yap Boum II

  5. Physiology Department, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile

    Margarita Calvo

  6. Millennium Nucleus for the Study of Pain (MiNuSPain), Santiago, Chile

    Margarita Calvo

  7. Independent Researcher, Namburu, India

    Biswapriya B. Misra

Authors
  1. Tatsuya Amano
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  2. Clarissa Rios Rojas
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  3. Yap Boum II
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  4. Margarita Calvo
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  5. Biswapriya B. Misra
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tatsuya Amano.

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Competing interests

B.B.M. currently works as a Principal Scientist with Enveda Biosciences but did not receive any funding for this work.

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Peer review information Nature Human Behaviour thanks Emilio Bruna, Caroline Wagner and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Amano, T., Rios Rojas, C., Boum II, Y. et al. Ten tips for overcoming language barriers in science. Nat Hum Behav 5, 1119–1122 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01137-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01137-1

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