Hidden voices: How language impacts science with Valeria Ramirez

Hidden voices: How language impacts science with Valeria Ramirez

Author: Science behind the Glass April 18, 2025 Duration: 35:12

What if I told you that some of the world’s brightest scientific minds are being left out of the conversation—not because of lack of talent, but because of language?

Researchers whose first language isn’t English often spend up to twice as much time reading scientific articles… and up to 91% more time writing them. Many even pay for editing services just to get published in international journals.

In this episode of Science Behind the Glass, we sit down with Valeria Ramírez Castañeda, a biologist and outspoken advocate for equity in science, to explore how the dominance of English creates invisible barriers in global research. From Latin America to the world, Valeria brings both hard data and personal experience to light.


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References

https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3002184https://ecoevorxiv.org/repository/view/7989/https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0238372https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y%C3%A1snaya_Aguilarhttps://leyendolatam.com/in-conversation-with-yasnaya-elena-aguilar-gil-ayuujk-linguist-translator-and-essayist/


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Science Behind the Glass: illuminating the human side
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