Small languages - small geography? The production of knowledge and contemporary challenges for publishing in geography
2004
Jauhiainen, J.S., University of Oulu (Finlandia). Dept. of Geography; University of Tartu (Estonia). Inst. of Geography
The article emerges from the debate concerning publishing in geography, especially regarding internationalism, the language of publishing, and the scope of geographical journals. English is the most common language of science - though only about 6% of the inhabitants of the earth speak it as a mother tongue. Increasingly, the evaluation of scientific activities is based on refereed publications in English at electronic databases (ISI, SSCI, etc.). In this article I consider the role of Geografiski Raksti/Folia Geographica (GRFG), a geographical journal published by the Latvian Geographical Society. In the GRFG a total of 53 articles by 51 different authors were published in 1999-2003. Human geographical themes dominate over physical geographical ones. The articles have been predominantly in Latvian (33) but all articles include at least a summary in English and there are also articles fully in English. English and Latvian make up a total of 84% of all references. Russian references are few and references in other languages are scarce. Language is significant in the production of particular geographical knowledge and geographical concepts are often best expressed on the mother tongue. GRFG is a unique arena for publishing geographical research in Latvian. Small languages contribute significantly in making great geography.
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