Global South Scholars Under-represented in Development Research

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Findings from a research paper published in Applied Economic Letters suggest that researchers from the global south are under-represented in research papers relating to community development, even when they are writing about development in the global south. 

As an operational definition for the study, authors coming from the global north are based in first-world countries: Typically, North American or European countries and Australia. On the other hand, "southern" researchers are based in Latin America, Asia, Africa or West Asia. 

Economists crunched data and numbers through 24,894 journal articles, citations and conference presentations regarding development and development-policy research. 

Findings showed that only 16% of the almost 25,000 articles, published in 20 high-profile development journals between 1990 and 2019, were written by scholars based in the global south. 

On the other hand, 73% of the articles are authored by researchers based in the global north - 11% mediated and worked with researchers between the global north and south. 

Another subset of 15,117 articles examined researcher involvement in articles and research publications that were specifically about the global south. Findings showed that even in research regarding the global south, 62% of authors were based in the global north. Only 22% of researches in renowned journals on the global south are actually authored by people from the global south. 

Many causes can be attributed to such findings; however, it is noteworthy to mention that a similar study was conducted in 2016 in the European Journal of Developmental Research, where findings suggested that only a meager 14% of researchers who authored development papers between 2012 and 2014 were from the global south.

Sadly, not much has changed since. 

Some factors behind the current statistics could be related to opportunities and research funds. Many scholars in the global south are known to move to the global north in order to pursue 'better' education or simply seek more opportunities. Another factor could be attributed to ethnic biases in academia: research on development and economic issues, to an individual whose experiences are unlived by the Western man, may not fit into Eurocentric frameworks set by Western academia. 

“While the south is under-represented across the board internationally in many areas, it is especially a sore point in development research, given the location of such work is in the south itself,” says Themrise Khan, an independent development practitioner and researcher in Pakistan.