With its emphasis on the importance of knowledge in creating economic growth and global competitiveness, today’s knowledge-based economy is increasingly affecting research production and dissemination traditions in higher education (Hazelcorn, 2010; Musselin, 2005). Motivated by the desire for global competitiveness, governments around the world have endorsed initiatives that are pushing higher education institutions to adopt “codified and uncodified policies about research output that regulate the work of scholars” (Curry & Lillis, 2013, p. 210). Within these new policies, the trend seems to be to move toward a system where many scholars are told where to publish—at least in terms of the indexes in which possible journals are included. In this new model of scholarly production and knowledge distribution, privilege is assigned to publications in English in high-status journals (in particular indexes).

An international group of researchers (including Sally Burgess, University of La Laguna, Spain; Laurie Anderson, University of Siena, Italy; Mary Jane Curry, University of Rochester, USA; Theresa Lillis, Open University, U.K.; Sedef Uzuner-Smith, Lamar University, USA; Karen Englander, York University, Canada; Hikyoung Lee, Korea University, Korea; Kathy Lee, University of Pennsylvania, USA; Haiying Feng, University of International Business and Economics, China; and Dawang Huang, Ningbo University, China) is currently exploring the impact of this changing environment on scholars’ lived publishing practices in different parts of the world (Europe, Korea, China, Mexico, and Turkey). The researchers hope that their work will stimulate a critical debate about how the policies requiring publishing in English and in particular indexes affect the publishing experiences of multilingual faculty who use English as an additional language.

And this group calls for similar works to be conducted on a local level in places or countries that are not currently represented.

References

Curry, M. J., & Lillis, T. (2013). Introduction to the thematic issue: participating in academic publishing—consequences of linguistic policies and practices. Language Policy, 12, 209–213.

Hazelkorn, E. (2010, July 8). Handle with care. Times Higher Education. Retrieved from http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/412342.article

Musselin, C. (2005). European academic labour markets in transition. Higher Education, 49, 135–154.

Sedef Uzuner-Smith, assistant professor in the College of Education, Lamar University, teaches graduate-level courses in the Online Preparation Program for ESL Certification. Her research interests include sociological perspectives on second language academic literacy and on teaching and learning in online/blended environments.