Multilingual scholarly communication and open science are intertwined in impact, transparency and equality. Read a summary of the Winter Conference programme for 2024.
What do we mean by multilingualism from the point of view of scholarly communication and open science? The Helsinki Initiative for Multilingual Scholarly Communication encourages the dissemination of research information to a wider audience than the scientific community, the support of national publication channels that enable multilingual publishing, and the promotion of multilingualism in research evaluation and funding systems.
Multilingual communication has played an increasingly central role in science policy in recent years. For example, UNESCO and the Competitiveness Council of the European Union have raised multilingualism as a recommendation for open science.
In Finland, the issue is primarily the use of other languages, such as Finnish and Swedish, alongside the dominant languages of scientific publishing and other areas of scientific activity. The programme for the Winter Conference 2024 includes presentations in Finnish, Swedish and English. We may also hear a touch of Sami. Various interpretation services and translation tools will be used during the event.
Multi-faceted fields of multilingualism
In the programme of the event, we will hear and reflect on how to cross language barriers in research, international management and, for example, popularising science. How does multilingualism change when viewed from the perspectives of an individual researcher, a university, a research funder or a scholarly publication?
We will also get a Nordic reference point from Norway when Vidar Røeggen (University Norway) presents how the principles of multilingualism have been maintained in the development of the Norwegian NOR-CAM tool developed for the assessment of academic career paths.
In Wednesday afternoon's panel discussion, researchers from different fields discuss their own experiences of choosing the language of publication and communicating in different languages. There is no denying the central role of English, but when it comes to science engagement, popularisation and involving other societal stakeholders in research, the question of language changes form. How should this be considered in terms of career paths and merit?
Register to the event
The theme of the Winter Conference 2024 is how multilingualism makes research and science more open and accessible. Multilingualism promotes the dissemination and impact of research both in the scientific community and in society. In accordance with the principles of open science, it also promotes the transparency of research, various forms of cross-border collaboration, and inclusiveness and equality.
Open science expert panels will meet at the event. In addition, at the end of the conference, the national Open Science Awards will be presented, and the organisers of the 2025 Summer Conference will be announced. Participation is possible both on site and online. Read more about the event from the link below.
Photo: TSV.
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