This is the normal progression. Countries begin to publish in the language of the top country at the time, then later they publish in their own language as they

This is the normal progression. Countries begin to publish in the language of the top country at the time, then later they publish in their own language as they gain in importance. Up till around 1950, most science papers were in German as the Germans were the most technically advanced country till the late 1940s. I remember my brother trying to learn enough German to read those older German science papers. Then English took over as the number of US science papers overtook the number of papers written in German. Now the number of papers written in Chinese is overtaking the number of papers written in English. In another 50 years or so perhaps we will see Hindi or Swahili taking over from Chinese in the publication of science papers.