In the current context of a growing internationalization of scientific exchanges, the issue of the language of scientific publications – settled in the natural sciences since the 1980s – has now become a central issue for the Social Sciences. Our paper discusses this topical issue through a detailed analysis of the linguistic strategies adopted by two major French social science journals, Population and Revue française de sociologie (RFS), which have chosen to translate into English a selection (RFS) or all (Population) of their articles. In view of the measured effects in terms of visibility in the international scientific field – increasing visibility for the journal Population at the expense of its French edition and a marginal effect for the RFS – we raise questions about the role of national social sciences journals and recall that the specific intellectual mission of these journals lies beyond the pursuit of internationalization.
