Bridging Language Barriers: Addressing Complexity, Accuracy, and Fluency Challenges of Egyptian Researchers in Writing Research for International Publication

Abstract

Researchers are encouraged to publish research internationally due to the quality standards international journals strictly follow as well as the weight added to the research published in them when compared to publishing in a local journal. There is a need, however, to provide guidelines to non-natives of English to help them overcome any linguistic challenges they may face when writing their research. The original manuscripts of 20 Scientific, Technical, and Medical (STM) research articles (RAs), written by Egyptian researchers, were thus analyzed according to the complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) framework. The analysis of the researchers' writing proficiency revealed that the language used was simple both grammatically (1.2 clauses/T-unit) and lexically (7 lexical word types/T-unit). The accuracy score (75% error-free T-units) showed a number of errors to consider, that is, punctuation errors, spelling errors and typos, confusing the noun and verb forms of a word, run-on sentences, subject-verb agreement, and sentence fragments. The fluency score showed within average T-units (19 words/error-free T-unit). These findings highlight some linguistic areas of difficulty and hence set the foundation for tailored programs to avoid them, a step toward improving the research status of Egyptian researchers as well as those whose native language is not English.