English is the lingua franca of scientific publishing in the 21st century, with more than 75% of research studies being published in international English journals. (Refer the book “Does Science Need a Global Language by Scott Montgomery). However, the situation was quite different in the 19th century before the First World War. An almost equal number of scientific studies were published in German, English, and French. Nevertheless, German was the lingua franca of scientific publishing till 1900s. Today the situation has reversed with massive proliferation of English scientific journals and a steady decline of publications in German.
Purists may argue that Latin is the original language of science, and this hypothesis is partially correct in that Latin dominated the scene of scientific literature from the medieval period till the 17th century. In fact, Galileo was the first scientist from the medieval Renaissance period to publish his thesis extensively in Latin. Thereafter, the thesis was translated from Latin to other European languages. However, Latin became just another language of scientific research with the advent of industrial revolution in Western Europe.
Cut to the 20th century: German language lost its dominance even in scientific literature as Germany had to concede defeat in both the World Wars held in the 20th century. During World War I (1914 to 1918), scientific research studies from Germany and Austria were vociferously boycotted by scientists from Britain, France, and Belgium. Thus, German and Austrian scientists were also debarred from publishing in Western European journals at that time. Thus, the World War led to the division of scientific communications into two sections: Central Powers (Germany and Austria) and Western Europe (predominantly English and French). However, the hatred toward German scientific journals persisted following the First World War. In the United State of America, all things German received widespread hatred as the country joined England during the World War I in 1917.
During this period, many international organizations of scientific publications were also established. This included the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemists (IUPAC). These organizations functioned in only Western European languages of English and French. German, the erstwhile dominant language of chemistry, was completely banned by these organizations during World War I.
Following the entry of United States of America in World War I in 1917, a strong anti-German wave swept the country. Although there was a sizeable population of Germans in the USA, the language was banned in 23 states. With the implementation of this ban, public speaking of German language stopped, including radio shows. Schools stopped teaching German language to children younger than 10 years of age. Thus, German as a foreign language lost its sheen in the USA during that period. Nevertheless, the ban on German language was lifted in 1923 in the USA; however, the damage was already done.
With ban of German language, the US witnessed a large population of English speaking scientists who had limited knowledge of foreign languages, such as German and French in the 1920s. Meanwhile, scientific publishing in American English gained significance in the international community.
To escape World War I in Europe, many scientists fled from Europe and migrated to the USA. With the ban on foreign language education, English was adopted by these European scientists in the USA. In the year 1902, only 293 scientists completed their doctoral studies in the USA (Source: National Science Foundation). Contrast this with the year 1990: more than 30,000 students graduate with PhD in the USA. Thus, more than a million new scientists from the USA are today working, writing, and publishing in English. This has made English language the indisputable lingua franca of scientific communications.
What one needs to know is that population of native English speakers in the world does not exceed 5%. This means that English is the second language of most researchers, including those living and working in the USA. Thus, lot of valuable scientific research fails to get published in English journals as ESL (English as Second Language) scientists struggle to elucidate their scientific discoveries in English. This is especially true for ESL countries like China, Russia, and French. English speaking scientists must have sympathy toward these ESL scientists and collaborate with them to develop “English as the universal language of science.”