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Bull. Hist. Chem., VOLUME 39, Number 1 (2014) 73 IN DEFENSE OF THE USE OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE IN SCIENTIFIC COMMUNICATION, 1965-1985: NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL DELIBERATIONS AND AN INGENIOUSLY CLEVER TAKEOFF ON THE THEME BY R. B. WOODWARD Joseph Gal, Departments of Medicine and Pathology, School of Medicine, University of Colorado Denver, Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO 80045, [email protected] and Jeffrey I. Seeman, Department of Chemistry, University of Richmond, Richmond, VA 23173, jseeman@ richmond.edu Supplemental Material Abstract Introduction For many decades, French scientists, the French The international nature of chemistry—indeed, of Académie des Sciences, and the government of France science—is a truism. Operationally, however, the practice have been concerned about the declining use of French of doing and communicating chemistry is not equally within the scientific milieu and the trend toward English and symmetrically shared throughout the world. That is as the universally-accepted language to communicate also a truism. The evidence that English has become the science. This trend is discussed with a focus on the issues unofficial language throughout the world in chemistry most vigorously debated in the time period 1965-1985, is multifold. For example, English is the only accepted including the reduced use of French in international sci- language of Pure and Applied Chemistry, the official entific communication resulting from the dominance of journal of the International Union of Pure and Applied English. A summary of the merging of national-chemical- Chemistry (IUPAC). Indeed, there has been a gradual society journals into international journals is also present- disappearance of non-English chemistry journals over ed. A set of previously unpublished documents from 1965 the past several decades. written by the late Robert Burns Woodward—actually a In the late 1990s, the 14 European chemical societies linguistic twist on La Marseillaise, the French national listed in Table 1 founded the organization ChemPubSoc anthem, that addresses the French-English debate—and Europe “as a consequence of the amalgamation of many his letter and enclosures to Jean-Marie Lehn are included chemical journals owned by national chemical societ- and discussed. ies into a number of high-quality European journals” (2). The journals listed in the top portion of Table 2, all It shall and may be lawful by the said society by their published by ChemPubSoc Europe, are solely in Eng- proper officers, at all times, whether at peace or war, to cor- lish, “replac[ing] 14 traditional national journals” (2). respond with learned Societies, as well as individual learned In 2005, surely influenced by the model and success men, of any nation or country ... of ChemPubSoc Europe, the Asian Chemical Editorial —American Philosophical Society charter 1780 Society (ACES) was founded as a “conglomeration of [13] chemical societies [Table 1] with the mutual aim of 74 Bull. Hist. Chem., VOLUME 39, Number 1 (2014) creating a modern publishing forum for research in Asia Table 2. ChemPubSoc Europe’s and Asian Chemical and coordinating future publishing activities” (3). ACES Editorial Society’s journals (2, 3). publishes two journals, both in English: Chemistry—An Asian Journal and Asian Journal of Organic Chemistry. ChemPubSoc Europe’s Journals (See the bottom portion of Table 2.) Chemistry—A European Journal European Journal of Organic Chemistry Table 1. Participating societies in ChemPubSoc Europe (2) and the Asian Chemical Editorial Society (ACES) (3) European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry ChemBioChem Participating societies (abbreviation) Country ChemPhysChem ChemPubSoc Europe ChemMedChem Gesellschaft Österreichischer Chemiker Austria ChemSusChem (GÖCH) ChemCatChem Société Royale de Chimie (SRC) Belgium ChemPlusChem Koninklijke Vlaamse Chemische Vereniging Belgium (KVCV) ChemElectroChem Czech Repub- ChemistryOpen Česká Společnost Chemická (ČSCH) lic ChemViews Société Chimique de France (SCF) France Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (GDCh) Germany Asian Chemical Editorial Society’s Association of Greek Chemists (EEX) Greece journals Magyar Kémikusok Egyesülete (MKE) Hungary Chemistry—An Asian Journal Società Chimica Italiana (SCI) Italy Asian Journal of Organic Chemistry Koninklijke Nederlandse Chemische Verenig- The Nether- ing (KNCV) lands Polskie Towarzystwo Chemiczne (PTChem) Poland The transition to English as the single most-domi- nant language of communication in chemistry from 1985 Sociedade Portuguesa de Química (SPQ) Portugal to the present is surely based on the preparative 20-year Real Sociedad Española de Química (RSEQ) Spain period 1965-1985. A variety of practical considerations— Svenska Kemistsamfundet (SK) Sweden economics of publication being just one—have funneled Asian Chemical Editorial Society (ACES) many chemical forums around the world into English and away from French and German, the dominant languages Royal Australian Chemical Institute Inc. (RACI) Australia of chemical communication in the 19th and first half Chinese Chemical Society (CCS) China of the 20th centuries. Other factors can be cited for the Hong Kong Chemical Society (HKCS) China choice of English as today’s preferred language of the Chemical Research Society of India (CRSI) India chemical community, a critical one being the dramatic Himpunan Kimia Indonesia (HKI) Indonesia rise of American chemistry after World War I and further Korean Chemical Society (KCS) Korea powered by World War II and post-World War II chemical advances in the USA (4). Chemical Society of Japan (CSJ) Japan Institut Kimia Malaysia (IKM) Malaysia Ironically, French and German substituted for th New Zealand Institute of Chemistry (NZIC) New Zealand another native language in 19 -century chemical com- munications. For example, instead of Russian in the Singapore National Institute of Chemistry Singapore (SNIC) Bulletin scientifique publié par l’Académie Impériale des Sciences de Saint-Pétersbourg, Russian chemists Chemical Society Located in Taipei, China Taipei, China (CSLT) published their research in French and German. Appar- ently, Russian chemists during that time felt that their Chemical Society of Thailand (CST) Thailand work would be better disseminated by using what were Chemical Society of Vietnam (CSV) Vietnam then the international languages of science. There are other similar cases, a full discussion of which is outside the scope of this article. Bull. Hist. Chem., VOLUME 39, Number 1 (2014) 75 Almost certainly, nowhere has the discussion of the future Nobelist French chemist Jean-Marie Lehn. These choice of English as the universal scientific language documents reveal Woodward’s French literary capabili- been more pronounced and publicly more vigorous than ties coupled with his wittiness, subtle sense of humor, in France. However, recent discussions on the decreasing and adroit political savvy. We first discuss the context use of languages in science communication have taken in which these Woodward documents are best viewed. place in countries other than France, especially in Ger- many, Italy, and Japan (5). There is substantial national On English Becoming the Universal pride by the French, and indeed in other countries, for Language of Science and the Resistance to their own language. Given the emphasis in this article on the French-to-English conversions in science communi- this Trend by the French cations, we note that in 1998, the venerable Bulletin de At the March 1, 1965 meeting of the French Aca- la Société Chimique de France and Chemische Berichte/ démie des Sciences (“Académie” henceforth) in Paris, Recueil and Liebigs Annalen/Recueil merged with other the following was adopted on the basis of a decision by journals to form the European Journal of Organic Chem- a Comité Secret (i.e., secret committee, that is, one that istry and the European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry. meets behind closed doors) of the Académie, as reported One year earlier, in 1997, Chemische Berichte and Lie- in the official journal of the Académie (8). (See Figure bigs Annalen were merged with the Dutch journal Recueil 1 for the original.) des Travaux Chimiques des Pays-Bas to form Chemische Berichte/Recueil and Liebigs Annalen/Recueil. For a COMITÉ SECRET. personal account of some of these transitions, see the The following wish, to be addressed to the President autobiographical essay by Wiley-VCH publishing ex- of the Republic, concerning the maintaining of the ecutive and Ph.D. chemist Eva Wille in the journal The use of the French language in international scientific Chemical Record (6). meetings is adopted unanimously: L’ACADÉMIE DES SCIENCES, In this essay, we shall review some of the highlights committed to the active defense of the French lan- of the concerns and trends expressed between 1965 and guage in international scientific events and troubled 1985 dealing with the choice of English as the universal by pressures in favor of the exclusive use of the language in chemistry and the French resistance to this English language exerted by certain international trend. We emphasize the word “highlight” as this is organizations of intergovernmental nature, expresses neither a comprehen- its wish for a firm inter- sive research study of vention by the [French] this communication state to assure from trend nor of the vari- now on the respect of the French language ous national responses in the scientific domain to English, today, or within the framework German and French of meetings sponsored
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