REACHING PARNASSUS: ADVICE ON HOW TO GET PUBLISHED FOR
RESEARCHERS FROM DEVELOPING OR NON-ENGLISH SPEAKING COUNTRIES
Kerstin Stenius, Isidore Obot, Florence Kerr-Corrêa,
Erikson F. Furtado and Thomas F.
Babor
INTRODUCTION
Parnassus has several important connotations
in geography, mythology and literature. It is the name of
a mountain in central Greece once considered sacred. One of
its two peaks was dedicated to Apollo, the god of intellect,
creativity and contemplation, protector of youth and god of
the light, who met here with the Muses to celebrate. Parnassus
thus symbolizes the site of learning and scientific precision
in poetic expression. It is an elevated place for noble communication.
Always difficult to reach, the ascent to Parnassus provides
a metaphor for the publication challenges faced by researchers
who have to overcome cultural, linguistic and resource obstacles
to get their research published and to take a seat as equals
in the international social gathering of informed scholars.
Today, 85 % of the world's population lives
in countries categorised as low and middle
income (LAMI) (World Bank 2003). Relatively few addiction
journals are published in these countries (see Table 2.2,
Chapter 2), despite the growing need for specialized knowledge
in countries like China, India, South Africa, Mexico and Brazil,
where addiction problems are prevalent. Presently, between
5% and 9% of the world population grow up with English as
their first language. The dominance of English within scientific
communication is, however, overwhelming. It is estimated that
80% of the world's scientific articles are in published in
English language journals (Montgomery 2004) whereas about
two-thirds of the known addiction journals communicate in
English.
This chapter deals with the challenges encountered
by addiction scientists who work in countries with few resources
as well as those whose first language is not English. The
aim of the chapter is to discuss: a) the practical and professional
issues that are faced by these scientists; b) how authors
who come from these countries can improve their chances of
publishing in English language journals; c) the possibilities
for authors to publish in both English and an additional language
so they can communicate to different audiences; and d) how
to decide whether an article serves the public best by being
published in the author's mother tongue and/or a local or
regional journal.
THE STRUCTURAL BARRIERS
THE SKEWED DISTRIBUTION OF SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATIONS
There is a fundamental imbalance between available
resources and resource needs in the addiction field. On the
one hand, there is as noted above a disproportionate concentration
of addiction science and addiction publishing in the richer
and English speaking countries (North America, Europe and
Australia). On the other hand, the majority of the world's
population and an increasing share of the addiction problems
can be found in low and middle income countries and countries
where the native language is not English (Room et al. 2002).
This presents a serious challenge to those interested in the
most effective and efficient use of current resources in the
interests of public health on an international level.
In November 2003, the World Health Organization
(WHO) arranged a meeting on 'Mental Health Research in Developing
Countries: Role of Scientific Journals'. The joint statement
by participating journal editors and WHO (2004) describes
the barriers to scientific publishing experienced by researchers
from low and middle income countries in the mental health
research field. The document states that the accumulation
of scientific knowledge is dependent on free and accessible
communication across the world. The promotion of good research
increasingly
requires not only the ability to access research from other
parts of the world, but also the opportunity to communicate
research results. Researchers from LAMI countries often have
difficulties in publishing their findings in mental health
scientific journals.
The reasons include limited access to information;
lack of advice on research design and statistics; and the
difficulty of writing in a foreign language, as well as material,
financial, policy and infrastructural constraints. Limited
appreciation of the research needs of LAMI countries and the
comparative anonymity of their researchers may constitute
additional barriers. According to the WHO (2004, p. 226) report,
many researchers from LAMI countries 'are daunted by the seemingly
insurmountable chasm between their research effort and its
publication in international journals'.
Most of these problems could be applied to the
addiction field. Many countries with few resources are striving
to develop scientific research capabilities. These efforts
do not always have sufficient political support. Politicians
and decision makers in these countries -as in many others-
are not necessarily interested in whether certain measures
are evidence-based or not. Also, research can be difficult
to translate into policy. For these reasons, research and
scientific publishing may not be high on the list of political
priorities. Career scientists and professionally trained clinicians
are needed, but except for government-sponsored university
programmes, there is little support for clinical, epidemiological
and policy research. Very few countries have specialist addiction
societies where locally relevant and topical problems can
be discussed and solutions developed. Training opportunities
are lacking. In some countries the number of masters and doctoral
students has grown, as well as specialization courses at the
universities. But many addiction professionals entering the
work force are clinicians in private practice who may do academic
work voluntarily or for a small salary. Under the circumstances,
the development of addiction research will be slow.
Communication with researchers in other countries is often
restricted by lack of resources. Many libraries have run out
of journal subscription funds and addiction journals are seldom
a priority. In some countries, influential research-funding
agencies are now supporting programmes that give most universities
free access to online periodicals. These programmes have improved
the availability of international research, but the situation
is still not adequate. The formal communication of locally
relevant addiction research is encountering other challenges.
Local journals are necessary to deal with sociocultural peculiarities
and the priorities of different societies. Presently there
is a strong movement in several countries to publish good
quality articles, preferably in English, in local journals.
Because competition in the scientific field
is intensifying, publication in indexed journals is a priority
for researchers who need scientific credit for their work.
Alcohol and drug science is, however, a young and relatively
small field. Local addiction journals have difficulties meeting
the criteria for inclusion in the US and international
indexing systems, such as the Institute of Scientific Information
(ISI) and MEDLINE. A sign of how problematic the situation
can be is that no addiction journal from the Latin American
region has yet been included in the register for Latin American
and Caribbean health sciences, LILACS (see http://www.bireme.br/abd/E/ehomepage.htm
accessed 23 August 2004). As a consequence, many addiction
scientists publish in indexed public health or mental health
journals when writing for the local or regional audience in
this part of the world. Only a small number of these articles
is published in English. Publishing in these journals is,
of course, in itself not a bad thing. But for
the development of the addiction field in a particular country
or region, a specialised journal can play an important role.
In India, the situation is no less problematic. There is no
local language or English language addiction journal, and
the only psychiatric journal which publishes addiction articles
is not indexed. Indian researchers working
in institutes that demand publications in indexed journals
therefore have no option than to publish in English language
journals from outside India. However important national or
local journals are, it sometimes can be hard for a researcher
from a country with few resources to rely on them. These journals
often have limited funds, may be published irregularly, or
have long delays between submission and publication of an
article. Not infrequently these journals will find themselves
in a vicious circle: they are not regarded as prestigious
enough, which means that they will not get enough good articles,
which in turn means that they will not get enough resources
and not enough good articles.
The International Society of Addiction Journal
Editors (ISAJE) has acknowledged the importance of getting
journals from all parts of the world, and published in different
languages, indexed and included in the important databases.
A work group with the aim of improving this situation has
been established within the organisation.
MARGINALISATION OF LAMI RESEARCH IN THE INTERNATIONAL DISCOURSE
In academia nowadays, faculty are often evaluated
by the number of their publications and the impact of the
journals in which their papers are published. Publishing in
high impact journals has become the principal aim for many,
owing to the fact that grants, positions and funding go to
scientists, faculty and departments that succeed in this respect
(see for instance Linardi et al. 1996). When research funds
are in short supply, resources are concentrated in the hands
of a few investigators, and the dominance of impact factors
contribute to this concentration.
The Institute of Scientific Information, which
publishes the most commonly-used impact factors, has a less
than complete coverage of the world's scientific journals.
English language journals and especially US journals are better
represented. This means that, in general, research conducted
in LAMI countries and reported in languages other than English
is under-represented. Of Brazil's 4,580 nationallyindexed
scientific journals, for example, only 117 are indexed in
the ISI database (Targino and Garcia 2000). See Chapters 2
and 4 for a full discussion of this topic.
The problems for LAMI researchers who seek to
publish internationally may be compounded by structural factors
associated with the management of the English language scientific
journals. A survey of the editorial and advisory boards of
leading international journals in the field of mental health
(e.g., Archives of General Psychiatry, American Journal of
Psychiatry, Schizophrenia Bulletin, British Journal of Psychiatry,
Adolescent Psychiatry) found only four representatives from
the LAMI countries out of a total of 530 board members (Saxena
et al. 2003). The absence of LAMI representation on the editorial
boards of the major journals may explain why authors from
developing countries often feel that their articles do not
receive sympathetic treatment.
Thus, research from LAMI countries is likely
to be regarded as less relevant in the international discourse.
This is supported by a study of articles published in Addiction
(West and McIlwaine 2002), which found that papers from LAMI
countries were cited significantly less often than papers
ranked by independent peer reviewers to be of the same quality
as those from the developed world. Other studies have shown
that an increase in the number of articles published from
LAMI countries is not paralleled by a similar increase in
citation of these articles (Volpato and Freitas 2003; Holmgren
and Schnitzer 2004).
Other factors which may account for the relatively
limited number of publications from these countries include
poor research methods, inadequate sample sizes, less sophisticated
statistical analyses, lack of national or regional journals
and limited English-language competence. In a survey of 116
international journals on physics, chemistry and biology (Gosden
1992, p.130), about one-third of the responding editors reported
that bias existed against papers submitted by writers who
did not have English as their native language. Some stated
specific bias against certain parts of the world or certain
countries, based on how their science culture was perceived.
If it appeared that multiple publications were non-controversial
in a particular country, or that the citation tradition was
ethnocentric, this tended to lead to negative bias towards
all papers from that country.
THE LANGUAGE AND CULTURE TRAP
English is the lingua franca of scientific research
today and will be in the foreseeable future. However, as Montgomery
(2004) points out, to call it 'the universal language of science'
is ahistorical and possibly inattentive to the complex linguistic
developments taking place in the world. In the future, more
and more people will be
bilingual and languages other than English will grow in importance.
For the present, however, the English language has a dominant
position in addiction science. For instance, all addiction
journals with an ISI Impact Factor (see Chapters 2 and 4)
are published in English, and none of the addiction journals
published in other languages
has an Impact Factor.
The scientific world today is dominated by a
small group of rich countries. The USA is in the lead, followed
by UK, Canada, Australia, and the European nations which are
oriented towards a similar scientific tradition and where
English language training is well developed. The disproportionate
influence of US research extends to basic science, prevention,
epidemiology, and treatment research. American researchers
tend to cite American researchers (see further discussion
in Chapter 4; and Babor 1993). The same applies (perhaps to
a lesser degree) to other countries, but with the dominance
of journals from the USA and other English language or English-language
oriented countries there is a bias across the research field
as a whole. Research that is performed in the USA may represent
a priori for many Anglo-American readers - and other uncritical
readers as well - a more universal truth than results from
a study conducted in a country such as India. Researchers
in some Western nations (for instance the Nordic countries)
have adapted to the dominant research paradigms and seem to
manage quite well, in terms of citation measurement (Ingwersen
2002). The under-representation of non-English speaking nations
in indexed journals and in cited research extends to several
developed countries, such as Spain, Germany and France (Maisonneuve
et al. 2003), suggesting that general linguistic and cultural
influences may be at work. The US dominance of science on
an international level may imply a serious bias in the selection
of research topics, questions asked, methods used, and types
of research conducted. One should remember that US research
is primarily (and legitimately) oriented towards that country's
own social and economic priorities, which do not necessarily
apply to cultures for instance in the developing world. The
problem of the US dominance is thus not only one of maldistribution
of opportunity. There are other problems inherent in this
hierarchy within addiction research. Addiction science has
at least two subdivisions - basic and applied research. The
former is more or less universal in its nature, and scientific
knowledge from basic research can be applied everywhere in
the world. The latter is contextual. Public health research,
for instance, belongs to this category. Today, public health
research in LAMI countries suffers from a double disadvantage:
the difficulty in getting published and quoted in the influential
journals; and unfair competition at the national and international
level with the much better funded neurobiological research
(cf Midanik 2004). In short, this means that the world literature
on substance misuse is rarely determined by the research priorities
of the developing countries.
Commerce plays a role as well and may not favour
the public health interests of the poorer parts of the world.
Randomized clinical trials of new medicines have a greater
probability of being published than brief interventions to
treat alcohol and drug users. Not all policymakers realize
that alcohol and tobacco are more important issues than
heroin and cocaine in the developing countries (Ezzati et
al. 2002).
For researchers from LAMI countries, some of
the problems in getting published come from not being familiar
with the codes of international scientific communication.
In the above-mentioned survey of physics, chemistry and biology
journals (Gosden 1992), the editors summarized the problems
encountered by researchers who were not native English speakers.
The most often mentioned problem was that research results
and discussion were not well written: that is, an inability
to communicate the importance and relevance of the research.
Another important problem was the fact that authors did not
know the written and unwritten 'rules of the publishing game'.
For instance, they failed to cite sufficient references to
earlier research, and were not familiar with the argumentation
style or scientific level of the journal (ibid, pp 132-133).
Writing a good scientific article for an international audience
demands not only technical skill, such as being able to carefully
follow the instructions to authors, but also an acquired competence
in social communication. The best way to gain this is by reading
some of
the journals mentioned in Chapter 2 and getting feedback on
your writing from more experienced researchers. This is not
always easy in a LAMI country.
WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT ADDICTION JOURNALS'
LANGUAGE AND CULTURAL POLICIES?
Unfortunately, we have almost no research to
show how addiction journals in general deal with articles
from LAMI countries, and only a small amount of information
about their language policies. However, in two surveys conducted
by ISAJE, Edwards and Savva (2002a; 2002b) mapped the language
policies of 14 English language journals and nine
non-English language journals.
Half the editors of the English language journals
who responded had not mastered any language besides English.
This is a handicap in a multilingual scientific world. Based
on the ISAJE questionnaire, it seems that the English language
addiction journals outside the USA have greater international
representation on their editorial boards. Fifteen percent
of the editorial board members of the US journals represented
other nationalities, while the figure for other English language
journals was 79%. The composition of an editorial board can
give an indication of the internationalism of a journal. We
have no exact knowledge of how the LAMI countries are represented
on the editorial boards, but they are likely to be few.
Among the responding English language journals,
the share of research articles from non-English language countries
varied from 0% to 57%. There was large variation in the rejection
rates of articles by non-English language authors: from less
than average to three times higher. In this, perhaps biased,
sample about one-third had a policy to give special support
to authors with other mother tongues. Only three journals
declared that they could not give any language editing support.
Of the non-English language journals responding to the questionnaire,
the majority published only in the language of the country
of publication. Several published articles that had already
been published in English. Only one journal had resources
to finance translations. Several had regional or international
ambitions. All the editors knew English, and several were
competent in more than one foreign language. All journals
had English summaries. The editorial boards often had representatives
from other countries.
WHAT CAN AN AUTHOR DO?
In this section we turn to some practical suggestions
that may help to correct the imbalance, level the playing
field, and improve the diversity of addiction science.
CROSSING THE CULTURAL BORDER TO THE ENGLISH
LANGUAGE PUBLICATIONS
As noted above, it may be particularly difficult
for authors from LAMI countries and non-English speaking countries
to get an article accepted in an English language journal.
It is thus especially important for a LAMI country author
to show that he or she has mastered the rules of the game:
to carefully follow the instructions to authors, checking
that the structure, the language and the presentation of the
study and its results are clear and logical and that the references
are correct. If the formalities are not followed, even a study
containing strong and original findings might immediately
be turned down. Cultural bias may put higher demands on the
substance of research from countries where resources are few.
The famous Chilean pharmacologist Jorge Mardones
(Edwards 1991, p.392) concluded in an interview after a long
career:
I do not know why there is a generalized attitude
of doubt concerning results reported in papers coming from
Latin American laboratories. In order to overcome this situation,
we need to be extremely certain about the accuracy and high
significance of our results, before submitting a paper for
publication. I feel that this is an advantage, because the
worst thing a scientist can do is to pollute the scientific
environment with data of poor value.
Before submitting a manuscript, an author should
find a mentor or an experienced investigator who could read
through the article and give advice on the presentation of
the results. This may however be difficult in many countries
where the addiction research milieu is very small. A survey
of Nigerian papers published in a psychology journal showed
that more than 75% of the articles were published by single
authors, a figure that was much higher than that found in
American journals at the time (Obot, personal communication,
2004). One suggestion is to try to work in a team that includes
people with expertise in different areas, such as statisticians
and social scientists. This may help to improve the quality
of the study, and enhance its appeal to a greater number of
readers. Another possibility is to work within a joint project
with researchers from non-LAMI countries, or within a large,
international network. This is in most cases only possible
if you have already published in an international English
language journal, or work with other researchers who have
international contacts and reputation. International conferences
can provide possibilities for networking, but to attend them
you need financial resources.
Technical requirements are relatively easy to identify and
follow. A more difficult challenge is that conventions about
how to write an article differ among countries. Burrough-Boenisch
(2003, p.2), in a text on editing problems, gives some examples
that show how culturally embedded our scientific writing endeavours
are. For an Anglo-American, the author states, the German
tradition of writing may seem both pretentious and less well
organized. The four-unit pattern of writing, which is traditional
in some Asian cultures, such as China, Japan, Korea and Thailand,
may give an incoherent impression. 'And when French scientists
transfer the French convention of reporting science in the
present tense to their English writing, they seem to be stating
general truths, rather than describing their own procedures
and findings'.
In most cases it is not possible for an author
to communicate with the readers of a journal if she or he
cannot talk to them in the 'scientific dialect' of that particular
publication. (This is of course also true when you choose
a publication channel within one linguistic area.) This requires
that the author is fairly well acquainted with the specific
journal, knows what types of article are published and in
what format. Some English language journals are more sympathetic
than others to articles from other countries and cultures.
This is possible to find out by:
• looking at the journal's mission statement
to see if they have any policy regarding
articles submitted from different countries or cultures;
• checking whether the journal has previously published
articles by non-English
language authors;
• checking to what extent the editorial board is international,
which may imply a
greater understanding of cultural diversity and a more multicultural
peer
reviewer pool; and • contacting the editor to find out if the journal may
be interested in your work -
pointing out its particular importance and the possible mitigating
circumstances
of being from a LAMI or non-English speaking country.
CROSSING THE LANGUAGE BORDER
Montgomery (2004) points out that the linguistic
future of the world will be one of diversity, bilingualism
or even multilingualism. An important goal in this world will
therefore be 'to increase tolerance towards variation in scientific
English - to avoid the imperial attitude that one standard
must be obeyed' (p. 1335). Until this tolerance is developed,
however, authors of scientific articles have to take the language
issue seriously.
As noted above, the way in which authors present
their results is often crucial to how the editor and reviewers
will view the research report. The importance of good English
language usage cannot be overemphasised. The presentation
of the study and the results is particularly important when
the topic or setting may seem new and exotic to the editor
and reviewers. It is not just a matter of using the right
terminology. Many Englishspeaking editors and reviewers (in
the same way as many French, German or Swedish speaking editors)
will have a rather strict idea of what constitutes good language.
Gosden (1992), in his survey of editors of physics, chemistry
and biology journals, identified features that English language
journal editors found most important when judging texts by
non-English language authors: sentences should be linked logically
and clearly; they should be grammatically correct; the language
used when making your claims should be skilful; and the author
should use language in a way that reflects awareness of his
or her status.
Should one do a full language check before sending in an article?
Although it is expensive and time consuming, the answer is
YES. If a researcher is certain that she or he has a good
case, a more experienced person has read the article and found
it good, and the author wants to publish it in a journal with
no resources to help with language editing, it will definitely
increase the chances of acceptance. There is also the risk
that if the paper is considered to be a 'borderline case',
it will be rejected if there are language problems. However,
in rare cases, if the author knows that the journal and the
editor have a policy of accepting articles by non-English
language authors and has the resources to do a language check,
it may not be necessary to have perfect English at the time
of the first
submission. But this is a case where contacting the editor
beforehand is definitely worthwhile.
KILLING TWO BIRDS WITH ONE STONE: DUAL LANGUAGE
PUBLICATION
Where the topic of the article is such that
it would be important to publish both at the national level
and in an international journal, the author could consider
trying to publish the same text in more than one language.
In fact, if an author feels that his or her results should
be considered in the development of local policy, publication
of the results in an international journal may very well give
the findings more prestige among the politicians of his or
her country. Some addiction journals will agree to publish
an article that has already been published in another language,
or to simultaneously publish the article in several languages.
A few addiction journals have officially established networks
with this aim ( Addiction and Exartisis; Addiction and Sucht;
Drugs: Education, Prevention and
Policyand Nordisk Alkohol- & Narkotikatidskrift). Others
may be sympathetic to this idea.
These practices do not violate ethical codes
regarding duplicate publication (see Chapter 8) as long as
the editors agree, and the simultaneous publication is mentioned
along with the source of the original. The general rule for
the author is to find out the policy of the journal(s), if
there is an interest in presenting the article to several
audiences.
THE IMPORTANCE OF NATIONAL AND LOCAL PUBLICATIONS
As a researcher one should not be blinded by
the prestige of internationalism, but instead try to protect
the diversity and applicability of research. The diffusion
of relevant research to a national audience fulfils important
democratic, social and health policy aims. The development
of culturally specific research is also important for the
global development of addiction research. Nevertheless, some
research may lack universal relevance.
Research on specific treatment systems, special
treatment modalities or on effects of nationally implemented
policy measures in LAMI countries may sometimes be irrelevant
outside their national or regional audience. In parallel,
some of the research published in the big international journals,
based on findings in North America or Europe, may not be relevant
in other cultural circumstances or in developing countries.
As long as most of the important databases and indexing systems
favour English language journals and journals from the affluent
countries, journals published in LAMI countries and non-English
journals may be regarded as less prestigious publication channels.
However, in some countries, such as Nigeria, there has been
a growing acceptance of locally published papers as part of
a person's academic curriculum vitae.
This situation may be helped by the recently
established African Journal of Drug and Alcohol Studies. The
journal was set up in response to the fact that the number
of addiction researchers in Africa has grown and that some
of the issues of national importance would not be of interest
to international journals, the only channels for
African researchers in earlier times. The wider acceptance
of local publications also recognizes the reality that it
is difficult for many researchers to get published in international
journals. The number of scientists has increased, but not
the resources and support, such as libraries and translation
services, that are needed to conduct the kind
of research and produce the kind of article that would be
interesting for an international journal. This does not mean
that the research is not valuable. For an African researcher
or researchers from other LAMI regions, pragmatism in the
choice of a publication channel seems essential. As noted
above, it can sometimes be problematic to rely only on national
or local journals, especially those with few resources, but
the situation may be improving.
CONCLUSIONS
Addiction problems and their solutions have
strong local, national and cultural characteristics. Addiction
research needs to communicate within these milieus. It is
important to preserve linguistic and cultural diversity in
the communication of scientific findings. Addiction problems
are an unfortunate fact of life in many countries, and are
growing in Latin America, Africa and Asia. International communication
is clearly necessary for the spread of information and can
be personally rewarding, as indicated in Box 3.1. The research
communities in LAMI countries need support and encouragement.
In a world of increasing globalization, the English-speaking
developed world can easily become isolated, not recognizing
that it has much to learn from experience in other parts
of the world.
Many international and English language journals
are sympathetic towards publishing research from other countries
and linguistic areas, as a recent survey of journal editors
has shown (Edwards and Savva 2002a and b). The activities
within international organizations such as ISAJE will hopefully
increase the awareness of resource, language
and cultural issues among journal editors and the research
community in general, through fostering networks and striving
to change the discriminative practice of the databases and
indexing systems. This is the good news for researchers from
less resourced countries and non-English language cultures.
BOX 3.1 PROFESSOR MUSTAPHA SOUEIF ON 'BILINGUALISM' IN ADDICTION
PUBLISHING
The following quotation from
an interview with Professor Mustapha Soueif, an Egyptian psychologist,
cannabis researcher and internationally recognized addiction
expert, shows how exciting it can be to confront the challenges
of publishing in multiple languages and different cultures:
I have to be 'bilingual' if I care for international readership
and acknowledgement. And bilingualism is not an easy job.
You cannot reduce it to a pendular movement from Arabic to
English and vice versa. Rather, you switch off a whole way
of thinking, feeling and mode of expression; and tune yourself
to a totally different wave length. At the start of your career
you find that this exercise is really tough, and overloaded
with frustrating moments. But you accept it the way it is,
because you chose to have it this way. Gradually, you attain
higher levels of relevant skills; your troubles decrease,
yet they never disappear.
Another implication is that you have to
accept a double load of responsibilities most of the time;
I mean your local duties (the university, the private clinic,
sharing in national meetings and writing in periodicals) and
international requests (usually meetings and writings). Sometimes
you have to turn down a request from one side or the other.
But you have to be very careful if you intend to play the
two roles with optimum smoothness. It takes creative effort
to find points of convergence between both, and it is,therefore,
highly rewarding.
A third implication is that gradually your
role is redefined for you. You are no more just a local scientist
with international resonance. You are transformed into a culture-transmitter
or a bridging factor. You are expected to behave as a medium
for communication between two cultures. Whenever you cross
the fence you should do something useful and interesting to
the people on the other side. Of course what you carry with
you should always be relevant to scientific endeavour. But
it is sometimes peripheral. Yet it proves to be quite instrumental
in promoting mutual understanding between investigators trying
to transcend national and/or cultural barriers. This is all
the more important when it comes to an area like research
in drug abuse. Soueif, M. from Edwards
ed. (1991, p.438-439)
The bad news is that the competition within
research is hardening, strengthening existing hierarchies
in the world of science and putting increasing demands on
researchers from LAMI countries. Researchers from these countries
face special challenges. General advice and rules of conduct
are of limited value. Hard work and a good dose of pragmatism
are needed if you want to communicate your research to the
appropriate audience and get scientific credit for it.
In this chapter we have pictured the unique
challenges faced by addiction scientists who work outside
the cultural and linguistic mainstream. Like the ascent to
Mount Parnassus, it will take a great deal of skill, persistence
and courage to get to the top of your field. But the rewards
awaiting you at the summit may be that much greater, because
you will have acquired the skill to read the map and orient
yourself both in your country of origin and in the world that
lies beyond.
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