I totally agree with Alex. Let's pass the suggestion along. Submissions, in principle, should be possible in ALL languages. That's the only way to guarantee/ensure a minimum common denominator in terms of opportunities, etc.
I've been reviewer for DH for years, and I know the various committes have been struggling to find solutions. I know it's not easy, but in the end English rhetoric, at all levels, rules. See this excellent contribution (pointed out to me by Marin Dacos -- thanks Marin!):
http://www.wssf2013.org/fr/paper-article/role-open-access-challenging-north-atlantic-domination-social-sciences

I am sorry to say that this year I decided to give up reviewing for DH2014. I guess very few native speakers can appreciate how much sweat and tears cost writing a proper review in English. Why should be our 'service' three (or more) times more time consuming than the average reviewer? Am I working for the glory?
And I don't even live in a English-speaking country like Ernesto and others. I don't use English everyday (and I think you can tell this from this email...). So, the irony is that Anglo-Americans very seldom read contributions in other languages than English, but I've to read them all and sometimes also to review them...

The solutions are out there, and the problem, as always, is political rather than technical.

All the best,

Domenico




2013/10/22 Alex Gil <colibri.alex@gmail.com>
We had a very positive experience at GO::DH with our essay contest by leaving submissions open to ALL languages. We made a commitment to try and find a reviewer for any given language, with the caveat that we may not succeed, in case that happened we would then ask for English. In the end we were able to accommodate all languages submitted. 

A combination of flexibility and good will can go a long way.

My .02,
A.


On Tue, Oct 22, 2013 at 1:20 PM, Neven Jovanović <filologanoga@gmail.com> wrote:
Hello all,

for me personally (as my first language and first scholarly community
is Croatian) it is easier to write the proposal in English, if I'm
required to deliver the paper in English as well. But, as they say,
your mileage may vary, and people who do not feel comfortable in
English would probably feel they have a better chance of acceptance if
they write in the language they know best. Also, I believe there is a
number of English speakers able to competently review proposals in
other languages (the reviews and communications to author would have
to be in the chosen language as well, I guess)...

The main problem is, this is simply not possible for *all* other
languages. Certainly it should be possible for Spanish, French,
Italian, German; perhaps for Russian and Polish; but, for Danish,
Croatian, Dutch, Hungarian, Romanian, Czech, Bulgarian, Slovenian (to
name just a few European ones, and not to mention Arabic or Chinese)?

Perhaps the initiative should state explicitly *which* languages for
proposals are acceptable (and ensure that there exists a pool of
reviewers for these languages).

Best,

Neven

Neven Jovanovic
University of Zagreb
Hrvatska / Croatia


On 22 October 2013 17:19, Ernesto Priego <efpriego@gmail.com> wrote:
> This is an interesting proposal. However, if one can give a talk in
> English... why wouldn't one be able to submit the application/abstract in
> English as well?
>
> I can see this would encourage peer reviewers who speak other langues
> natively to participate, but as pointed out this also carries the danger of
> the pool of experts (perhaps) being smaller and therefore there being
> greater risk of conflict of interest (or not).
>
> I can also see how if presentations are made in other languages (not
> English) then the audience of those presentations might be reduced/othered
> etc.
>
> It is a real dilemma that like many others here I keep thinking about.
>
> My main concern is that languages are not neutral vehicles, and that
> research submitted for review in a particular language will not be the same
> research (i.e. might not have the same quality) when translated into English
> (and who will do this translation? if not the researchers/authors, will
> translators get credit and can count as academic authors? a series of
> problems arise...!) Unless we are talking about researchers presenting a
> paper ("reading a paper") in their own language and having a real-time
> interpreter in situ...
>
> Do you know what I mean? Some research in, say, Spanish is not only research
> that could be presented in any language, but that results from the
> particular settings/problematics/contexts of Spanish-speaking academic
> cultures, availability of research, etc. Perhaps what is top notch research
> in Spanish is not necessarily top notch research in English, mainly because
> that type of research in English has, let´s say, in some cases, already been
> done?
>
> Just some brainstorming in public here...
>
> Cheers...
>
>
>
>
>
> Dr Ernesto Priego
> Lecturer in Library Science
> Acting Course Director, MSc/MA Electronic Publishing
> City University London
> http://epriego.wordpress.com/  @ernestopriego
> Editor-in-Chief, The Comics Grid: Journal of Comics Scholarship
> http://www.comicsgrid.com/
> Subscribe to the Comics Grid Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/iOYAj
>
>
>
> On Tue, Oct 22, 2013 at 2:33 PM, Alex Gil <colibri.alex@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> I agree with Marin. Shall we pass the message as is to the organizing
>> committee?
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>> On Oct 22, 2013, at 3:53 AM, Marin Dacos <marin.dacos@openedition.org>
>> wrote:
>>
>> Dear friends,
>>
>> As I am thinking about submitting a paper to DH2014, I would like to
>> suggest a way to enhance the visibility of non english native speakers and
>> to encourage them to submit in their own language.
>>
>> I would like to propose that the application is reviewed in the native and
>> the talk given in English. That would help a lot :
>> - the "cost" to write the project would be reduced, and so we would
>> receive more non English applications because people would not have to
>> translate their application in English ;
>> - if the application is refused, then the translation would be useless ;
>> - if the application is agreed, then a translation process of the whole
>> paper would be required, but it would be worth it, since the paper is
>> accepted.
>>
>> The only drawback of this system is that reviewers and authors are more
>> likely to know each other. The advantage is that we are more likely to get
>> new reviewers and more applications. To be completely honnest, today, I am
>> not confortable with my position of reviewer, since I do not support people
>> willing to give a talk in French AND that my reviewing skills are best for
>> French contents. If I had to review in French a paper that would produce a
>> talk in English, this would be more confortable for me.
>>
>> What do you think about this two-step proposal?
>>
>> Best regards,
>> Marin
>>
>>
>> --
>> Marin Dacos - http://www.openedition.org
>> Director - Centre for Open Electronic Publishing - CNRS - EHESS -
>> Aix-Marseille Université (AMU) - Université d'Avignon
>> OpenEdition is now a Facility of Excellence (Equipex)
>>
>> Nouvelle adresse postale :
>> OpenEdition - 38 Rue Frédéric Joliot Curie - F - 13013 Marseille Cedex 20
>>
>> Tél : 04 13 55 03 40 Tél. direct : 04 13 55 03 39 Fax : 04 13 55 03 41
>>
>> Skype : marin.dacos - Google hangout : marin.dacos@openedition.org
>> Twitter [FR] : http://twitter.com/marindacos
>> Twitter [EN] : http://twitter.com/openmarin
>>
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