Book Description

The research was conducted between December 2002 and October 2003. Fourteen researchers working for EMBRAPA - National Soybean Research Center and IAPAR - Agriculture Institute of Parana, in Londrina, Brazil, answered a questionnaire. Researchers were asked to report on their own experiences (first two sections of the questionnaire) and to respond as speakers for the Brazilian scientific community within the field of agriculture (third section of the questionnaire). I obtained complementary information from informal interviews with other researchers and from EMBRAPA and IAPAR websites. My research questions were: (1) to what extent do organizational features and demands influence the writing and publishing of scientific articles in English by Brazilian agricultural researchers working in governmental organizations; (2) to what extent do language and cultural barriers limit the production of scientific articles in English by these agricultural researchers; (3) to what extent do researchers feel that international journal, editors, and reviewers discriminate against developing countries' scientific production and scientists. The goals of my research were (1) to obtain a preliminary understanding of the rhetorical context of scientific publications in governmental agricultural research organizations in Brazil and (2) to recommend actions and suggest further research topics. The main results of this study were: (1) organizational demands influence the amount of time researchers allow for publishing articles in English; (2) language barriers are due to little or no training in scientific writing both in Portuguese and in English and to a lack of knowledge of the rhetorical demands and expectations of the target language and target journals; (3) the degree to which researchers perceive discrimination by editors and reviewers of international journals varies according to discipline, country of graduate studies, and gender. My recommendations involve: (1) action and professional communication research at the organizational level; (2) professional communication research at the high school and university levels; (3) theoretical and applied research in L2 scientific writing in governmental agricultural organizations in Brazil; (4) a proposal for training in scientific writing in EMBRAPA and IAPAR.