Danke Marco!

As an example, in the past it was very difficult for me to read a text in German, even I studied it at school (but never practiced). But currently, thanks to automated translations, even if they are approximative, I can easily read an original old diagnosis or a specialised paper in German. So I think other readers can now easily read papers in French, in Spanish, or even more like in Russian or in Chinese (I need one time to do this and it worked!).

Another example, on some FB groups about Lebanese or Libyan plants, people are mixing languages, including Arabic, and it is easy to keep in touch with discussion by translating quickly Arabic sentences... and I think true Arabic speakers can do the same at reverse. These kind of possibilities are very useful for linking people without being all perfect english speakers.

Of course for oral discussion, it is not useful... and we need to speak a common language, generally English.

Dear Errol,

French is a beautiful language, all of us are Parisians, and I would love to answer this in French (at the peril of getting deleted ! ;-), so better in English then: … you're making a good point here and we have been considering this question for a long time. Eventually we are translating some pieces from German into English and, of course, it is a lot of work … but may be worthwhile, because a) Google translator only does a so-so job for a rough orientation, b) some of us older folks have a more multilingual classical training, but we seem to have become "endangered species". So ultimately, if you got a personal piece that you think you want to share with the world, then it might be a good idea to make friends with a native speaker … or invest! There are plenty of open access platforms and repositories, many of which free, that are nicely visible. TED

Responding to your question, that will depend on traditional journals continue to accept articles in French, there are few spaces but remain.Now we have electronic tools to translate documents with acceptable results, without having to be experts in any language. It would be very unfortunate that the French, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese or any other language disappeared from the bibliography

Gracias Angel,

Yes the main problem is that international journals indexed with "fashion factor" (e.g. impact factor), are less and less considering other manguages, aven if French is the only one more or less keeped. As an example, in Biodiversity sciences, I know only one or two journals that are still considering Spanish, German or Italian, but maybe fifteen or twenty for French, number unfortunately still decreasing slowly but surely. Even national journals like "Turkish Journal of ..." don't consider their own language. The only possibility to publish in another language is to publish is national or international journals without I.F. indexation, which are, for our career, negative.

About Spanish for example, do you know at least one journal which accept Spanish for the text ? (I know "Conservation Biology" which publish English abstract in Spanish also, but not the main text)

Dear Errol,

Some Biodiversity sciences journals accept texts in Spanish, I remember some in America (Revista de Biologia Tropical, Costa Rica; Revista mMexicana de Biodiversidad, México; Ciencias Marinas, México; Revista Chilena de Historia Natural, Chile; Interciencia, Venezuela). Some others European like Scientia Marina, España or Cahiers de Biologie Marine, Francia, in a time accepted articles in Spanish, but now they do not

Interesting !