Question of how research articles in different languages are related to each other in the process of knowledge production has received little research attention. I address this question and empirically focus on citation practices of experienced scholars. I use ‘paired analysis’ as a particular analytical focus on two RA in two different languages and their contexts of production. I discuss what consequences are for knowledge production in the local/global context.
Academic texts are produced by researchers in non-transparent and complex ways. Questions of how research article (RA) texts are produced in different languages and related to each other in the process of knowledge production have received little research attention. I address these questions by empirically focusing on citations as while they are core to academic text production what gets cited is not neutral and surrounded by the existing ideologies and power relations in knowledge production (Hewings, Lillis, & Vladimirou, 2010). I use Text Histories data set to focus on static (linguistic, fixed) and dynamic (changes related to processes surrounding text production) aspects of citation practices in the context of local and global knowledge making and politics surrounding academic text production. The presentation draws on 6 ‘paired’ TH data sets each based on two RAs (one in Russian and one in English) by two experienced participants in each of the three disciplines (Economics, Sociology, Philosophy). ‘Paired analysis’ is a particular analytical focus on two RA in two different languages and their contexts of production when the two texts were produced by the same writer, belong to the same discipline and substantially overlap (or the same) in the research issue studied, time and space of knowledge production. ‘Paired’ analysis enables me to explore citations in a systematic way by applying a set of heuristics for tracking static (e.g. citations types, density) and dynamic (e.g. changes made by literacy brokers) citation features in each paired TH data set. The findings indicate that scholars engage in citation practices in Russian and in English differently by negotiating demands to citation along their beliefs and values, epistemological orientations, and within contexts of knowledge production. I conclude by discussing what consequences are for knowledge production in the local/global context.
