Public health journals in own languages: an endangered species?

English, has become the universal language for science. A new generation across Europe grows up with English taught in schools, and global television networks and songs provide an ubiquitous sound-background. The few scientists who were professionally advantaged by speaking English, and the many who laboured to learn the language during their careers, are succeeded by colleagues for whom English as a second language is their natural means of international communication.English is the first language now because the USA leads the world in science and technology. (Chinese may become that language in the future, as German, French and Latin have been in the past.) The use of a single language facilitates rapid communication, especially when information must be passed on relatively quickly as in the medical field. But English is not yet the daily language of scientists across Europe. Professional practice—especially contact with the public—continues to need good own-language skills.Generally speaking, there are both cultural and commercial reasons that drive authors and publishers to want to publish in the English language. From a cultural point of view, scientific researchers wish to gain visibility and the affirmation of a clearly defined scientific identity at the national, and above all, international level. For this reason they generally prefer to publish their articles in English. On the other hand, from a commercial point of view, publishers wish for each of their own journals to become a point of reference, internationally, for researchers and professionals working in the specific sector of expertise of the journal.Yet each European country has a public health tradition based on science, scholarship and social action. Scientific journals have a long tradition, reporting the proceedings of science meetings as well as publishing original papers, and in most countries this has developed as a national public health journal. It …