In recent decades, English has been much heralded as the dominant language of global academic journal publishing, with estimates putting the prevalence of English use in academic journals at between 75% and 90%, depending on the discipline (see for example, Deng, 2015; van Weijen, 2012). In the context of global academic knowledge production, English is sometimes viewed positively as a lingua franca that facilitates the spread of ideas; in this vein, it is seen as replacing earlier linguae francae such as Latin and German (Sano, 2002). The rise of English in academic publishing parallels its reach across many academic domains in the present era of globalization, with English playing a key role in other trends such as the global mobility of students and scholars and as the medium of instruction in educational contexts outside of historically Anglophone ‘center’ nation states (Brock-Utne, 2007; Wallerstein, 1991). For scholars around the world, including in contexts where English is not the daily medium of communication, publishing in English can bring both benefits and detriments. In the increasing number of contexts where academic knowledge production has become commodified, publishing in English can yield prestige and material rewards (Lillis & Curry, 2010). It also enables many scholars to realize their interest in participating in international exchanges of ideas and research, with the desire for a shared intellectual language echoing utopian ideals about the free flow of knowledge (Ondari-Okemwa, 2007). In contrast, not publishing in English can carry negative consequences for certain scholars, such as being passed over for promotion, being denied salary increases or not being considered eligible to supervise doctoral students or to receive research funding (e.g. Queiroz de Barros, 2014). In many locations, therefore, multilingual scholars no longer face a decision about whether to publish in English; rather, their decisions focus on how to include English-medium publishing within their complex publishing agendas, which may include commitments to local knowledge production (Curry & Lillis, 2004, 2013a). This commitment typically requires additional time and other resources (Lillis & Curry, 2010).