English language policies in scientific journals: Signs of change in the field of economics

This article aims to shed light on the socio-politics of English in the academic context of scientific publishing. It aims to bring to light the assumptions underlying the English language policies of journals indexed in the Economics category of the Social Science Citation Index of the Web of Science. Using information on journal territory, publisher and publication language from the Journal of Citation Reports and the instructions for authors on the journals' websites, the policies are classified with regard to English language variety, attitudes towards grammatical correctness, and readership constraints. The results indicate that English language policy can contribute to journal identity and is shaped by assumptions about readership, recognition of linguistic diversity among the contributing author base, and the publisher. The findings also suggest that journal English language policies are evolving in response to increased internationalisation in the contributor base. (c) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.