Publishing academic texts in English: A Polish perspective

The language in which to publish is a complex issue for academics in Poland. With the growth of English as the global lingua franca it may appear to be the obvious language of choice. Yet, publishing in English inevitably brings with it linguistic challenges. It also raises concerns of a social and ideological nature. Choosing to publish in Polish may be more straightforward for most academics, but at the same time it limits the accessibility of the research to a much more confined readership. This paper provides some background information on the current situation of academic publishing in Poland. It then reports the results of a survey of academics from the fields of applied linguistics and foreign language studies, psychology and medicine which set out to determine Polish academics' attitude towards and experiences of publishing their research. It looks at the issue of language choice and the perceived advantages and difficulties experienced as a result of selecting one or other language. The findings suggest that although many Polish academics face similar difficulties to those reported elsewhere when writing in English, the decision as to which language to publish in is complex. There appears to be a tension between becoming recognized in the wider academic world which has access to academic literature in English, and the need to publish in Polish, thus making one's work better known locally and resisting the total dominance of English.