Multidimensional Diversity and Research Impact in Political Science: What 50 Years of Bibliometric Data Tells Us

This study examines the changing patterns of knowledge production and diffusion in political science over the past five decades using a dataset of over 200,000 SSCI-indexed research articles from 1970 to 2020. We analyze how author identity and four types of team diversity (namely, gender, ethnic, regional, and reference diversity) influence research outputs and outcomes. The results show that historically excluded groups of scholars have gradually improved their representation and expanded their collaboration networks over time. Although the publication gaps are narrowing, obscured gaps in evaluation and citation practices persist. A specialty’s average citation impact is negatively associated with the minority population it accommodates. The least cited specialties are largely attended by women and ethnic minority scholars. At the article level, while papers written by ethnic minorities and Global South scholars are significantly less cited, collaborating with outgroup scholars effectively overcomes this citation gap. We also find that papers written by women receive more citations than those written by men, after controlling for journal prestige and research topics. Furthermore, when we limit our investigation to leading universities, citation gaps diminish. However, scholars of African origin continue to experience entrenched citation disadvantages even if they are affiliated with highly prestigious universities. This study provides multidimensional measurements to advance diversity debates and adds nuances to our understanding of opportunity structures in political science.