Article published In:
Language Problems and Language Planning: Online-First Articles

Linguistic hegemony in academia

The impact of English on Arabic scholarship

ORCID logo | American University of Sharjah
ORCID logo | American University of Sharjah
 | American University of Sharjah
 | American University of Sharjah
This research paper addresses the complex interplay between multilingualism and the pervasive dominance of the English language in academic publishing, particularly focusing on Arabic academic publications in the humanities. This study adopts a comprehensive research methodology, employing both qualitative and quantitative analyses to investigate Arabic research representation in English-dominated academic journals, particularly those indexed in Scopus across various humanities disciplines such as Language and Linguistics, Literature, Islamic Studies, and Translation. The analysis utilizes bibliometric data from Scopus, focusing on publications from 1970 to 2023 that feature “Arabic,” “Arab,” or “Islamic” in their titles, abstracts, or keywords. The results indicate a significant underrepresentation of Arabic scholarship, with English accounting for 85% of publications and Arabic barely reaching 1.1%. The discrepancies in publication trends are obvious, on the levels of countries, author affiliations as well as language of publication. Overall, the results highlight the hegemonic nature of academic publishing, the marginalization of valuable Arabic research and the challenges Arabic-speaking scholars face in gaining recognition. Finally, the study addresses the broader implications of linguistic dominance on global knowledge production and advocates for a more inclusive scholarly landscape that values linguistic diversity through specific recommendations.
Keywords: Arabic scholarship, linguistic hegemony, academia, Scopus, diversity
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1Historical perspectives
    • 2.2Languages of academic research and the status of Arabic
  • 3.Data and methodology
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Scopus publications over the years
    • 4.2Scopus publications by country
    • 4.3Scopus publications by language
    • 4.4Scopus publications by affiliation
    • 4.5Scopus publications in Arabic
    • 4.6Scopus publications in French
  • 5.Discussion
    • 5.1Summary of patterns
    • 5.2Broader implications
    • 5.3Recommendations of the study
      • 5.3.1Encouraging multilingualism and linguistic diversity
      • 5.3.2Fostering an environemnt of linguistic equity
      • 5.3.3Developing language diversity metrics
  • 6.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 4 February 2025
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lplp.24014.all
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