Publishing Trends in Political Science: How Publishing Houses, Geographical Positions, and International Collaboration Shapes Academic Knowledge Production

Abstract

Even though political science is one of the most extensive research fields within the social sciences, there is little scholarly knowledge about its publishing trends and the internationalization of the discipline. This paper analyzes international publishing by taking a close look at publishers, Scopus-indexed journals, articles, and author collaboration networks. The results show that the number of political science journals almost tripled between 2000 and 2022. Our descriptive analysis also reveals that only a few Western commercial international publishers, and Taylor & Francis in particular, dominate the publication of political science journals, and Western authors account for the majority of both academic papers and citations. Additionally, our research explores that the most prolific country in terms of publication within political science is still the United States, but the BRICS countries, especially India, Russia, and China, have achieved remarkable growth in their publication outputs. Finally, our network analysis suggests that the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia occupy central positions in international collaborations among political scientists, but Asian, Eastern European and Latin-American regional networks have been developing in the last decade.