A Bibliometric Analysis of the Internationalisation of Political Science in Europe

Abstract

Based on data on 67 000 articles published in 100 high-impact journals in the twenty years between 2000 and 2019, I analyse the scientific contribution of European political science scholarly communities in the global context. The scholars contributing to the global scientific production are largely concentrated in few countries, with the US and UK alone accounting for more than half of the articles published in high impact journals. However, the tendency is toward increasing diversity in the geographic basis of the international scientific production; and European countries are central to this change. Contributing to international collaborative publications has been a key engine of the increased scientific production of scholars based in Europe. This was a generalised global tendency, and a spectacular one for certain national scholarly communities. The network analysis of international collaborations points to the consolidation of three clusters within a growing and increasingly dense network. The US, followed by the UK, are central to a global cluster of collaborations. European countries are primarily clustered in two groups: a larger and growing cluster; and a smaller but even more integrated, highly productive and connected cluster of scholars based in seven northern European countries. All bibliometric indicators consistently point to a generalised growth in the output and internationalisation of the scientific contribution provided by the European political science community.

Publication
European Political Science (early view)
Marcello Carammia
Marcello Carammia
Senior Researcher in Political Science

My research focuses on the comparative analysis of institutions and public policies, with special interest in the interaction between migration dynamics, politics, and policy.