Browsing by Autor "Kumar Paudel"

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Language, economic and gender disparities widen the scientific productivity gap
(Public Library of Science, 2025) Tatsuya Amano; Valeria Ramírez‐Castañeda; Violeta Berdejo‐Espinola; Israel Borokini; Shawan Chowdhury; Marina Golivets; Juan David González‐Trujillo; Flavia Montaño‐Centellas; Kumar Paudel; Rachel L. White
Scientific communities need to understand and eliminate barriers that prevent people with diverse backgrounds from contributing to and participating in science. However, the combined impact of individuals' linguistic, economic, and gender backgrounds on their scientific productivity is poorly understood. Using a survey of 908 environmental scientists, we show that being a woman is associated with up to a 45% reduction in the number of English-language publications, compared to men. Being a woman, a non-native English speaker, and from a low-income country is associated with up to a 70% reduction, compared to male native English speakers from a high-income country. The linguistic and economic productivity gap narrows when based on the total number of English- and non-English-language publications. We call for an explicit effort to consider linguistic, economic, and gender backgrounds and incorporate non-English-language publications when assessing the performance and contribution of scientists.
The cost of being a non-native English speaker in science
(2022) Tatsuya Amano; Valeria Ramírez‐Castañeda; Violeta Berdejo‐Espinola; Israel Borokini; Shawan Chowdhury; Marina Golivets; Juan David González‐Trujillo; Flavia Montaño‐Centellas; Kumar Paudel; Rachel White
The use of English as the common language of science represents a major impediment to maximising the contribution of non-native English speakers to science. Yet few studies have quantified the consequences of language barriers on the career development of researchers who are non-native English speakers. Our survey demonstrates that non-native English speakers, especially early in their careers, spend more effort than native English speakers in conducting scientific activities, from reading and writing papers and preparing presentations in English, to disseminating research in multiple languages. Language barriers can also cause them not to attend, or give oral presentations at, international conferences conducted in English. We urge scientific communities to recognise and tackle these disadvantages to release the untapped potential of under-represented non-native English speakers in science.
The manifold costs of being a non-native English speaker in science
(Public Library of Science, 2023) Tatsuya Amano; Valeria Ramírez‐Castañeda; Violeta Berdejo‐Espinola; Israel Borokini; Shawan Chowdhury; Marina Golivets; Juan David González‐Trujillo; Flavia Montaño‐Centellas; Kumar Paudel; Rachel L. White
The use of English as the common language of science represents a major impediment to maximising the contribution of non-native English speakers to science. Yet few studies have quantified the consequences of language barriers on the career development of researchers who are non-native English speakers. By surveying 908 researchers in environmental sciences, this study estimates and compares the amount of effort required to conduct scientific activities in English between researchers from different countries and, thus, different linguistic and economic backgrounds. Our survey demonstrates that non-native English speakers, especially early in their careers, spend more effort than native English speakers in conducting scientific activities, from reading and writing papers and preparing presentations in English, to disseminating research in multiple languages. Language barriers can also cause them not to attend, or give oral presentations at, international conferences conducted in English. We urge scientific communities to recognise and tackle these disadvantages to release the untapped potential of non-native English speakers in science. This study also proposes potential solutions that can be implemented today by individuals, institutions, journals, funders, and conferences. Please see the Supporting information files (S2-S6 Text) for Alternative Language Abstracts and Figs 5 and 6.