Perception and effects of foreign language publications in engineering research are examined. Through the use of both survey and archival sources, including coverage in major scientific and technical databases as vended by DIALOG, various aspects of the foreign language barrier were measured. A foreign language barrier is said to exist when important work is being published in a language the potential users cannot easily decode or have decoded for them. It is concluded that there is little concern about this subject among respondents, but that a significant amount of foreign language research is being ignored. The survey instrument is appended, as well as data in ranked order by database. Contains 12 references. (Author/LB)