East-Central European human geographers in English-dominated, Anglophone-based international publishing space

Abstract

A number of investigations have recently been devoted to the issues of inequalities in the international academic discourse. Hardly any of them concern, though, scholarly publishing practices and the actual utilization of the scientific output of non-Anglophone geographers, especially those from regions undergoing a neoliberal turn in the management of tertiary education and science. The following article aims to partly fill the gap through a close bibliometric analysis of the participation of researchers from East-Central Europe in international human geography. The investigation makes use of information about articles published in 48 geographical journals indexed in Web of Science. The results of the examination reveal that the share of researchers from East-Central Europe in the international geographical discourse is rather inconsiderable. The geographers struggle with the following problems: (1) publishing in a limited group of periodicals (concerning mostly the issues of Europe) coupled with a dearth of publications in important American and British societal journals as well as the ones of a more radical orientation; (2) infrequent citations of their works as compared to those of Anglophone and Western European researchers. All this is accounted for, inter alia, by (1) the negative impact the socialist period had on the development of social sciences, (2) a poor command of English, (3) a research focus on well-established and 'safe' themes as well as (4) the mechanisms of the Anglophone dominance in science. Giving all these handicaps careful consideration, the authors formulate the idea of doublepublication policy aimed at ameliorating the discussed problems.

Neoliberalism(s) as a Guide to Post‐Wall Urban Change: Explanation Out of the Blue?

“…Even so, as also noted by Borén and Young (), it appears that some journals are more open to articles on and from the region than others. Similarly, Bajerski and Przygoński () show that the presence of authors affiliated with research environments within the region in focus here differs quite substantially across our sample. This might be because of geographical or epistemological proximity, the journal’s mission, or a more or less sympathetic stance of the editor(s) and reviewers.…”

Unpacking the Lore on Multilingual Scholars Publishing in English: A Discussion Paper

“…More research is needed on how scholars use multiple languages in academic communications and the effects of these practices and choices on their work lives and on global knowledge production. Studies could investigate language choices at particular moments in scholars' work lives, how their publications in other languages are evaluated and rewarded, and the consequences of these choices for global knowledge production and circulation (i.e., through citations and the languages used in specific journals [53,100]). In terms of novice writers for publication (graduate students and early career scholars), additional research is needed on how less experienced scholars, from any linguistic background(s), working in any context, learn the social and linguistic practices entailed in publishing in multiple genres and different types of outlets (e.g., [9]).…”

“…Many of these studies have at their centre English-medium publications and have been produced by scholars working in the interrelated disciplines of applied linguistics, English for Academic Purposes (EAP), second language writing, and education, typically drawing on traditions of empirical research. The topic of English-medium publishing has also attracted the attention of scholars working in other empirically oriented disciplines, such as geography [53,54], international relations [55], management [56], and sociology [5]. The research base spans global geolinguistic locations, with work coming from the Anglophone "center"; bi/multilingual contexts such as French-speaking Canada [57]; and locations including Argentina [58]; China [59]; Egypt [60]; Iceland [61]; Japan [23,62]; Kazakhstan [63]; Korea [64]; Mexico [29]; Poland [65]; Romania [66]; Serbia [67]; South Africa [68,69]; Spain [70,71]; Taiwan [50]; and Vietnam [51].…”

Geography of research on post-socialist cities: a bibliometric approach

“…It is difficult to unequivocally point to the reasons for such trend dynamics, but based on other observations, it can, on the one hand, be associated with the overall increase in the number of articles indexed by Scopus each year (the number of magazines indexed increases, and already indexed titles publish more texts), while on the other it can mainly be associated with the growing internationalisation of science in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and Asia, which are increasingly important areas of concentration of research on post-socialist cities (see below). In recent years, these countries have introduced various system-based solutions, usually with a similar goal -increasing the level of education and stimulating competition between universities and researchers through an increasingly asymmetrical allocation of funds (Bajerski & Przygoński 2018).…”

“…Citations from Western Europe (mainly Germany, Scandinavia and Italy) are important, but secondary, while those from Central and Eastern Europe and other regions are marginal. The arrangement of citations of the works of British researchers refers to the general 'power relations' in both global geography and urban studies (Kamalski & Kirby 2012;Bański & Ferenc 2013;Bajerski & Przygoński 2018).…”