This study examined trends in the number of papers published annually in various languages in 78 microbiology journals indexed in the Science Citation Index? (SCI?), 1981–1991. Trends in the average number of citations per paper (impact) for each language were also tracked. In addition, interlingual citation patterns were examined. The results showed that English is the lingua franca of microbiology research, accounting for 90–95 percent of all SCI-indexed papers in this time period. Also, the impact of English-language papers was greater than that of other languages by factors ranging from 2.4 to 14.4. Lastly, the majority of citations to papers published in English, German, French, or Italian were from English-language papers. The exception were papers in Russian: more than 90 percent of citations they received were from Russian-language papers.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Garfield et al. (1992) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 2 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: