The widely held assumption that any important scientific information would be available in English underlies the underuse of non-English-language science across disciplines. However, non-English-language science is expected to bring unique and valuable scientific information, especially in disciplines where the evidence is patchy, and for emergent issues where synthesising available evidence is an urgent challenge. Yet such contribution of non-English-language science to scientific communities and the application of science is rarely quantified. Here we show that non-English-language studies provide crucial evidence for informing global biodiversity conservation. By screening 419,680 peer-reviewed papers in 16 languages, we identified 1,234 non-English-language studies providing evidence on the effectiveness of biodiversity conservation interventions, compared to 4,412 English-language studies identified with the same criteria. Relevant non-English-language studies are being published at an increasing rate, and can expand the geographical (by 12-25%) and taxonomic (by 5-32%) coverage of English-language evidence, especially in biodiverse regions, albeit often based on less robust study designs. Our results show that synthesising non-English-language studies is key to overcoming the widespread lack of local, context-dependent evidence and facilitating evidence-based conservation globally. We urge wider disciplines to rigorously reassess the untapped potential of non-English-language science in informing decisions to address other global challenges.

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BackgroundSeveral hundred butter y species show some form of migratory behaviour. Here we identify how the methodologies available for studying butter y migration have changed over time, and document geographic and taxonomic foci in the study of butter y migration. MethodWe review publications on butter y migration published in six languages [English, Simpli ed Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish], summarise how migration in butter ies has been studied, explore geographic and taxonomic patterns in the knowledge base, and outline key future research directions. ResultsUsing English search keywords, we found only 58 studies from Asia; however, after searching in local languages, we found an additional 99 relevant studies from China, Japan, and Taiwan. Overall, butter y migration studies are mostly concentrated in North America and Europe, with only 4.6% from Africa. Most studies focus on three species: monarch [Danaus plexippus], painted lady [Vanessa cardui] and red admiral [Vanessa atalanta]. About 62% of publications are focused on the monarch, with nearly 50% of migratory butter ies mentioned in no more than a single paper. ConclusionsSeveral research methods have been applied to ascribe migratory status and to study the physiology, neurobiology, and ecology of migration; however, virtually all this research is focused on a handful of species. There remain hundreds of species for which we do not understand the full seasonal pattern of movement, ight destinations, wintering, or breeding grounds. A full understanding of movement ecology and migratory connectivity is needed to effectively conserve migratory butter ies.'Butter y migration' and 'Migratory butter ies' we searched in Google Scholar for papers in Simpli ed [' ', ' ', ' ' and ' ''] and Traditional [' ', ' ', ' ' and ' ] Chinese, Japanese [' ' ' ', ' ', ' '], Korean [' ' and ' '] and Spanish ['Mariposas migratorias' and 'Migración de mariposas']. Because some of the relevant Japanese literature may not be found using the keywords, ' , ' and ' ', we made an additional search using the keywords, ' ' and ' '.