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The Linguistic Asymmetry Index (LAI): Benchmarking Equity in Multilingual Research Infrastructures Cover

The Linguistic Asymmetry Index (LAI): Benchmarking Equity in Multilingual Research Infrastructures

By: Elena Battaner and  Paul Spence  
Open Access
|Feb 2026

Figures & Tables

Table 1

LAI components and weights.

CODECOMPONENTDEFINITIONINDICATOR/METRICWEIGHT
LRALanguage Representation AsymmetryDistributional inequality of resources per languageGini/HHI of language shares0.35
EABEnglish Anchor BiasRelative dominance of English as the metadata or interface languageRatio of English records to mean of non-English records0.20
MCDMetadata Completeness DisparityVariance in field completeness across languagesCoefficient of variation of non-null core descriptive fields (title, description, keywords, license, provider)0.20
ICIInstitutional Concentration IndexDegree of provider clustering per languageShare of total records controlled by top three providers/HHI of providers per language0.15
AIIAccess Inequality IndexVariation in openness or license distribution across languagesGini coefficient of open vs. restricted access proportions0.10
Table 2

Composite LAI for CLARIN.

COMPONENTDESCRIPTIONSCOREWEIGHTWEIGHTED VALUE
LRALanguage Representation Asymmetry0.6380.350.223
PRBParallel Resource Bias (English anchor bias)0.7870.200.157
MCDMetadata Completeness Disparity0.3410.200.0682
ICIInstitutional Concentration Index0.5280.150.0792
AIIAccess Inequality Index0.2410.100.0241
Total LAI0.552
Table 3

Composite LAI for Europeana.

COMPONENTDESCRIPTIONSCOREWEIGHTWEIGHTED CONTRIBUTION
LRALanguage Representation Asymmetry0.45220.350.158
EABEnglish Anchor Bias0.00790.200.001
MCDMetadata Completeness Disparity0.00020.200.000
ICIInstitutional Concentration Index1.00000.150.150
AIIAccess Inequality Index0.00000.100.000
Total LAI0.309
Table 4

Composite LAI for EUDAT/B2FIND.

COMPONENTDESCRIPTIONSCOREWEIGHTWEIGHTED CONTRIBUTION
LRALanguage Representation Asymmetry0.67030.350.234
EABEnglish Anchor Bias0.67750.200.135
MCDMetadata Completeness Disparity0.00020.200.000
ICIInstitutional Concentration Index0.80490.150.120
AIIAccess Inequality Index0.40000.100.040
Total LAI0.531
Table 5

Composite LAI for OpenAIRE Graph.

COMPONENTDESCRIPTIONSCOREWEIGHTWEIGHTED CONTRIBUTION
LRALanguage Representation Asymmetry0.6300.350.221
EABEnglish Anchor Bias0.6540.200.131
MCDMetadata Completeness Disparity0.0600.200.0120
ICIInstitutional Concentration Index0.4460.150.0669
AIIAccess Inequality Index0.1080.100.0108
Total LAI0.441
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/johd.474 | Journal eISSN: 2059-481X
Language: English
Submitted on: Nov 15, 2025
|
Accepted on: Jan 19, 2026
|
Published on: Feb 13, 2026
Published by: Ubiquity Press
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 1 issue per year

© 2026 Elena Battaner, Paul Spence, published by Ubiquity Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.