It is possible for citation processes to become more equitable for publications written in languages with smaller readerships than others. For instance, efforts could be made to increase the discoverability and visibility of non-English publications by building databases and search engines that index content in various languages. Citation styles and formats can be revised to ensure correctness and fairness while considering languages other than English. Databases and search engines that promote alternative languages can assist in discovering and understanding perspectives outside of English which are critical for generating diverse research. Ultimately, researchers' diligence in citing worthwhile work published in any language would improve citation practices without language bias. It is critical to achieve an inclusive and diverse research environment that encourages new ideas and viewpoints, and addressing language bias in citation procedures can help make that happen. An equitable citation process includes recognizing high-quality research reported in any language, which, in turn, can improve the quality of academic literature.

As somebody who publishes in German and English, I am rather pessimistic concerning an equitable citation process (whatever that is). I can only read in these two languages, which means that I am not able to read - and thus cite - anything else. There is very little I can do about this. Adding citations to unread publications in other languages (e.g. because I know the authors work in my field) would be dysfunctional and unethical. Processing a publication with an AI-based translation software is still risky and does not give me an authorized version.

In research, we have a global conversation on a shared subject, and we need to understand each other's contributions. We can build our own contributions only on what we understand. Thus, there is a systematic disadvantage in the science system to those whose first language is not English because English is the dominant language in all fields (perhaps with the exception of a few humanities fields). If we want our contributions to be perceived and understood by the majority of our community, we need to pbulish them in English. If we don't do this, the majority cannot understand and thus cite our contributions.

One way of not letting this disadvantage grow is not using citations as an evaluation measure in fields in which publications in other languages than English are important (social sciences and humanities, applied fields etc.). I happen to think that citations should never be used as performance indicators, but that is an aside.

Many thanks for starting a good discussion. The proposed idea is very realistic and can solve many problems associated with over citations. Indeed, this would create its own problems such as limited readership and limited new references for further reading.