Inequalities in scholarly knowledge: Public value failures and their impact on global science

Abstract

There is a growing body of literature that acknowledges the overall trends in publication patterns in the least economically advantaged countries. The pattern shows that there are disparities between the Global North and Global South with regard to indexed publication output. Few studies, however, empirically assess the impact that this systematic disparity has on global scientific knowledge. This paper examines this systematic disparity by (1) analysing the co-authorship patterns of the least economically advantaged countries using bibliometric analysis of the Web of Science ISI database, and (2) applying the public-value failure mapping tool to identify potential failures in the scientific scholarship. Our analysis provides strong evidence of public value failures in global scholarly publication output. The paper contributes to the science policy and public value failure literatures using novel theoretical and methodological approaches to explore issues of equity and inequality in global science.

Keywords:

• public value failure
• bibliometrics
• Africa
• inequality

JEL classification:

• D83
• N37
• O55

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the reviewers and participants of the 2013 Atlanta Conference on Science and Innovation Policy for their helpful comments and feedback.

The authors wish it to be known that, in their opinion, they should be regarded as joint first authors.