6th Helsinki Initiative Webinar on Multilingualism in Scholarly Communication
Helsinki Initiative organizes a webinar series on Multilingualism in Scholarly Communication with speakers representing different expert communities and strands of work. This event includes three presentations on global patterns of multilingualism in scholarly communication, x and x. The event is free and open for everyone to participate. Recording and presentations will be made available after the event to registered participants.
Registration: here (Zoom link will be sent to registered participants)
Date & time: 27 May 2026 15:00-16:30 CET
Programme
- Carolina Pradier (University of Montreal): How multilingual is scholarly communication?
This presentation explores, based on recently published article, how language shapes inequality in science through a global analysis of multilingual publishing and citation patterns from 1990 to 2023. Drawing on OpenAlex and Dimensions data, it highlights the growth of Indonesian, Portuguese, and Spanish scholarship, same-language citation preferences, and the role of bibliodiversity, and discusses how language policies influence global scholarly communication and equity.
- Kai Li (University of Tennessee): Geographic and Language Representation in the Library of Congress Book Collection
This presentation examines, based on a recently published paper, how library metadata can reveal long-term shifts in global knowledge representation. Using over six million Library of Congress records, it traces changes in subjects, publication places, and languages since the 1970s. The talk highlights growing diversity beyond Western and English-language materials, showing how libraries actively shape cultural visibility, scholarly communication, and the geography of knowledge.
- Ulla Sivunen (University of Jyväskylä): Signed languages in scholarly and science communication
- Tomasz Krawczyk (Jagiellonian University Medical College): a comment
Description of talk will be added soon.
The event is hosted by Emanuel Kulczycki and Janne Pölönen.
For further information email helsinki-initiative@tsv.fi.
Speakers:
Carolina Pradier
Carolina Pradier is a PhD Candidate at the École de Bibliothéconomie et des Sciences de l’Information (Université de Montréal), researching gender inequalities in science through bibliometrics. She holds a degree in Economics and an MSc in Labour Studies from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Kai Li
Kai Li is an Assistant Professor at the School of Information Science, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He is an experienced information scientist and scholar who has worked for libraries and companies worldwide, in addition to higher education institutions. Li obtained a bachelor’s degree in history from Beijing Normal University, a master’s degree in information science from Syracuse University, and a PhD from Drexel University.
Ulla Sivunen
Ulla Sivunen is a doctoral researcher at the Language Campus of the University of Jyväskylä. Her research focuses on the multiliteracies, linguistic environments and participation of deaf and hard-of-hearing young people who use signed languages. Her research interests include the experiences of signed language users in educational and digital environments, multiliteracies, accessibility and equitable language policies in education.
Tomasz Krawczyk
Tomasz Krawczyk is a psychologist and PhD candidate in bioethics at the Department of Bioethics and Health Psychology, Jagiellonian University Medical College, member of the REMEDY research group. His PhD project concerns ethical issues of engaging underrepresented groups in research, at the example of Deaf people. His research interests include research ethics, Deaf and disability studies, accessibility of science, and participatory methods through the lenses of ethics of care, feminist ethics, and philosophy of dialogue.