A Story of Fluctuating Institutional Incentives: Publishing Humanities Research in English from a Polish Perspective

Abstract

The key problem identified in this essay is connected with many Polish researchers’ ambivalent attitude to submitting their research to academic journals published in English. This is particularly true of humanities researchers but a similar ambivalence has also affected social sciences in Poland. Simultaneously, through recourse to its author’s own experience and empirical observations, this essay demonstrates a range of strategies that may be utilized to overcome reluctance to reach international readerships. Adopting a more relaxed style, structures and vocabulary, associated, in Polish universities, with lack of sophistication and pandering to non-academic audiences, is opposed, as a strategy, to translating Polish texts into English. In the context of academic writing, communication skills prove to be language and culture specific. Therefore, for those who do not speak English as their L1, the best way to acquire those skills is by extensive reading in English, including literary works and other academic writings, preferably by Anglophone researchers. Imitation of successful communication strategies (i.e. templates and logic unique to academic argumentation) is highly recommended. Furthermore, Polish researchers who want to be published in English must bear in mind that academic English is “writer-responsible” as opposed to academic Polish, which puts on the reader the onus of responsibility for the comprehension of each text.

Keywords

• research publication
• academic culture
• writing skills in l2
• emulation
• translation
• intellectual xenophobia