Journal of English for Research Publication Purposes - Volume 4, Issue 1, 2023

Abstract

Internationally, most prestigious and influential academic journals are published in English, and therefore a mastery of the language is necessary to ensure engagement with the international scientific community. There is debate in the literature as to whether the dominance of English might lead to the marginalization of contributions from academics for whom English is a second language. The present study explores through interviews the insights of 11 humanities and social sciences academics working at two Japanese universities ranked in the top 50 globally. The findings indicate that most of the participants view English as the logical vehicle for reaching a wider audience for their research. Despite an acknowledgement that publishing in English presents problems from both linguistic and pragmatic perspectives, these academics do not, on the whole, believe that current standards need to be revisited. These issues are discussed in light of the changing realities of academic environments, and the need to ensure accessible pathways for those who can and should be contributing to knowledge construction in the global academy.

Abstract

Adherence to standards pertaining to formality remains important for novice academic writers wishing to write within the scientific community. However, due to its elusive nature, it may not be clear what “formal” really means. This study investigates what affects novice writers’ perceptions of formality; specifically, it looks at the individual and combined impact of register (journal articles vs. academic blog posts) and linguistic features with two variants (e.g., split vs. non-split infinitives). The writers (n = 117) were presented with a series of binary choices between register-feature combinations and asked to select the most formal combination. This resulted in a rank-ordered list showing which combinations they perceived as more formal.

The results showed that the novice writers’ perceptions largely aligned with the expected rankings, in that journal articles and the feature variant associated with this register tended to be perceived as more formal than the alternative. These trends were especially strong for two of the features investigated: exclamation points and contractions. In bringing us one step closer to understanding how novice writers think about formality, this study helps shed some light on the commonly used, but less commonly defined, concept of formality.

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the challenges of early career academics working in the field of English Language Teaching (ELT) in Türkiye while publishing in international journals, which will contribute to the growing number of studies in different countries. In line with this thought, an online survey was administered. Semi-structured interviews were held to collect data for the study. Four main problems emerged from the findings: lack of institutional support, problems in collecting data, difficulty of planning research writing for the long term and under-training during postgraduate studies. From their suggestions, it is evident that early career academics should be offered training in writing for publication in the form of structured courses, seminars or workshops as part of the preparation for their academic careers. In addition, they need mentorship opportunities from experienced professors. It is also evident that their teaching hours should be reduced to allocate more time to their research and writing practices. Overall, highlighting the barriers to writing research articles and possible suggestions from the perspectives of early career academics can help graduate programme developers, supervisors and deans of faculties see the obstacles encountered and provide solutions for them.

Abstract

Ongoing debates in the humanities and social sciences concern different ways in which knowledge is viewed and constructed. As the main language of academic publication, English features prominently in these debates. In this Perspectives piece, I discuss how knowledge flows and language uses are intertwined, and how English serves both as a bridge and a fence in the context of international knowledge exchanges. In particular, the tensions around English and multilingualism, as well as variability within English, are discussed in connection with language policies, editorial practices, and structural inequalities. I conclude by considering the role of institutional structures vis-à-vis individual authors, peer reviewers, and editors, and offer a few suggestions on how to address the limitations of centripetal English-medium publishing.

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