A Bibliometric Analysis of Social Scientific Research Across Africa and Asia

Paper Abstract: Over the last three decades, social scientific research capacity has grown considerably in the Global South—i.e., Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Although early studies suggest that research collaborations across Global South continents remain limited (Mosbah-Natanson & Gingras 2014), due to the Northern bias of bibliometric databases, scholars have been unable to provide a comprehensive picture of knowledge production in the South. Using OpenAlex, a newly released bibliometric database with considerably improved global coverage of journals (Khanna et al. 2022), I investigate the history of cross-continental social scientific knowledge production between Africa and Asia from 1990 to 2020.

First, I document how social scientists in Africa and Asia have participated directly with one another vis-a-vis co-authorships, citations, and publications in regional journals. I also examine works that comparatively discuss regions in Africa and Asia. Preliminary analyses suggest that comparative research about Africa and Asia has doubled in quantity each decade since 1990, with higher absolute production in the North and higher growth rates in the South. Second, I use computational text analysis to identify themes that are disproportionately present in cross-continental research, providing insight into how Africa and Asia are epistemologically tied in social scientific imaginaries. For instance, at least one thread of research emphasizes “development” and uses language like “Global South” and “Third World,” thereby constructing the connection between Africa and Asia in opposition to the North. In my investigation, I hope to illuminate additional connective threads, including those that construct new axes of knowledge independent of the North.