Managing multilingual and non-English language content in repositories | COAR

Multilingualism is critical for a healthy, inclusive, and diverse research communications landscape.  After decades of policies that have directed researchers to publish in English, we are starting to see a reversal of this trend. The UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science, for example, calls on member states to encourage “multilingualism in the practice of science, in scientific publications and in academic communications”. In China, Europe, and other jurisdictions, policy makers are introducing new measures that encourage researchers to publish in local languages.

In August 2022, COAR launched the COAR Task Force on Supporting Multilingualism and non-English Content in Repositories to develop and promote good practices for repositories in managing multilingual and non-English content. Based on 17 use cases contributed from different stakeholders communities (repository managers and users, authors and translators, aggregators and discovery systems), the Task Force identified three relevant areas for their work:

1. Enhancing discoverability of non-English content
2. Curating multilingual content in a repository
3. Supporting translations

In June 2023, the Task Force published an initial set of draft recommendations for community review. The consultation resulted in a wide range of input, which was reviewed by the Task Force and incorporated into the recommendations document. This document presents the updated recommendations based on this community input. The recommendations identify good practices for repository managers and repository software developers, and focus on the topics of metadata, multilingual keywords, user interfaces, formats, and licences that will improve the visibility, discovery and reuse of repository content in a variety of languages.