Imagine all scholars around the globe able to acquire research papers? Whether they have no access to internet, or whose mother's tongue is not English. This problem is intended to make research papers accessible for everyone.
Lost in Arxiv
Currently, our web app is meant to be usable in different languages and from importing a
The Bigger Picture
This is where it all began, from an idea. One teammate suggested to create a web-app where a reader can hover over citations and see an abstract of the reference. Also, to include Wolfram into scan any equations on the sheet so the reader can understand what this equation is. This project is meant for self-study scholars who may be confused from all this information they're taking in. More evolved from one night of brainstorming. In addition to help self-study scholars, why not also allow these research papers be accessible worldwide through SMS? Basically, you text the number we will pair up with, and through text, we will return the user some recommended papers based on their query search. Only the abstract of it will appear.
The Big Debate (Myth?!)
As for people who speak different languages, well there has been debate whether they actually are at a disadvantage due to English being the main language of research papers when it comes to science. Cases in Columbia [1] or Korea [2] where the language barrier affects the accessibility in Scientific research papers. However, there are contrasts to say that due to scholars learning Science are well-versed in languages then there is nothing to worry about. How the rise of Scientific research paper authors whose non-English natives are improving [3]. To me, I say who cares? Who cares whether this gap is said to not exist? We can't assume the probability of all scholars learning Science knows English, regardless if Scientific papers are meant to be said in English. I say we need a system to give scholars what they want in the language they are most comfortable in.
Our Fallout
Due to timing and manpower, we were not able to execute everything nicely. I, Jose, was first learning React when doing this project, and my teammate, Giridhar, was learning Flask and API. We helped each other, and tried our best. Our other teammate, Mark, fell ill and was our presenter. I say we did a great job in setting everything up.
[1] - Ramírez-Castañeda V (2020) Disadvantages in preparing and publishing scientific papers caused by the dominance of the English language in science: The case of Colombian researchers in biological sciences. PLoS ONE 15(9): e0238372. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0238372 [2] - Cho, Dong Wan. “Science Journal Paper Writing in an EFL Context: The Case of Korea.” English for Specific Purposes, vol. 28, no. 4, Oct. 2009, pp. 230–239. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1016/j.esp.2009.06.002. [3] - Hultgren, Anna Kristina. “English as the Language for Academic Publication: On Equity, Disadvantage and ‘Non-Nativeness’ as a Red Herring.” Publications 7.2 (2019): 31. Crossref. Web.
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