Publishing research in English-language journals: Attitudes, strategies and difficulties of multilingual scholars of medicine

Over the last few decades a growing number of multilingual scholars have shown an increasing interest in having the results of their research published in English-language journals. Many of these researchers, however, experience difficulties in producing effective research articles (RAs) to meet the expectations of their international disciplinary communities. In this paper we report some of the results obtained from the analysis of the responses to a large-scale online survey [http://eneida.unileon.es/eneidaquestionnaire.php] which was administered to Ph.D.-holding researchers from various disciplines, affiliated to five Spanish teaching and research institutions. The results we present here are related to Spanish scholars of Medicine, a field of research in which researchers are in need of specialized assistance in English for Research Publication Purposes (ERPP). We focus on their motivations for reporting their research in English, their writing strategies, past publishing experiences and future needs for training in ERPP. The findings revealed an overall positive attitude towards writing in English, although difficulties with specific discourse features and with the most challenging sections and aspects of the RA were also identified. The information derived from this survey should allow us to design training materials that can be of assistance to multilingual scholars of medicine. •We explore Spanish scholars' motivations and attitudes towards publishing in English.•We examine their needs for assistance in publication skills in English.•We focus on multilingual scholars of medicine.•An overall positive attitude towards writing in English is reported.•Our survey reveals difficulties with specific rhetorical and language features.