Does language matter? A case study of epidemiological and public health journals, databases and professional education in French, German and Italian

doi:10.1186/1742-7622-5-16

Emerging Themes in Epidemiology

Volume 5

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Baussano I
Brzoska P
Fedeli U
Larouche C
Razum O
Fung IC

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Brzoska P
Fedeli U
Larouche C
Razum O
Fung IC
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This article is part of a series on Beyond English: Accessing the global epidemiological literature, edited by Mr. Isaac Fung, Imperial College London.

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Does language matter? A case study of epidemiological and public health journals, databases and professional education in French, German and Italian

Iacopo Baussano¹^,2^* , Patrick Brzoska³^* , Ugo Fedeli⁴^* , Claudia Larouche⁵^* , Oliver Razum³^* and Isaac C-H Fung¹

¹Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, St. Mary's Campus, Imperial College London, UK

²CPO-Piemonte, Novara, Italy

³Department of Epidemiology & International Public Health, School of Public Health, University of Bielefeld, Germany

⁴SER-Epidemiological Department, Veneto Region, Castelfranco (TV), Italy

⁵Department of Community Health and Humanities, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada

author email corresponding author email* Contributed equally

Emerging Themes in Epidemiology 2008, 5:16doi:10.1186/1742-7622-5-16


Published:	30 September 2008

Abstract

Epidemiology and public health are usually context-specific. Journals published in different languages and countries play a role both as sources of data and as channels through which evidence is incorporated into local public health practice. Databases in these languages facilitate access to relevant journals, and professional education in these languages facilitates the growth of native expertise in epidemiology and public health. However, as English has become the lingua franca of scientific communication in the era of globalisation, many journals published in non-English languages face the difficult dilemma of either switching to English and competing internationally, or sticking to the native tongue and having a restricted circulation among a local readership. This paper discusses the historical development of epidemiology and the current scene of epidemiological and public health journals, databases and professional education in three Western European languages: French, German and Italian, and examines the dynamics and struggles they have today.