> the fact that most academics do not have a sufficient command of English to write research papers in that language.
Because the academics are not taught in English, which they should be, because they will need to command English sufficiently if they wish to participate in the global science community. Again, this is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
> the quality of their research isn't any worse just because it isn't done in English
No but the quality of their work as a researcher is, because communication and collaboration is a part of research.
> The obvious solution to this is translation
No its not, because translation is exactly the meaningless overhead I was talking about. It does not aid in collaboration because its still a one-way process, and its lossy.
Because the academics are not taught in English, which they should be, because they will need to command English sufficiently if they wish to participate in the global science community. Again, this is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
> the quality of their research isn't any worse just because it isn't done in English
No but the quality of their work as a researcher is, because communication and collaboration is a part of research.
> The obvious solution to this is translation
No its not, because translation is exactly the meaningless overhead I was talking about. It does not aid in collaboration because its still a one-way process, and its lossy.