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.本研究依托1970年至2020年间逾20万篇社会科学引文索引（SSCI）收录的学术论文数据集，考察了近五十年来政治学领域知识生产与传播的演变格局。本研究分析了作者身份以及四类团队多样性（即性别、族裔、地域与参考文献多样性）如何影响研究产出与研究结果。研究结果显示，历史上长期被排除在学术主流之外的学者群体，其学术参与度逐步提升，协作网络也随时间不断拓展。尽管论文发表层面的差距正逐步收窄，但学术评价与引用实践中仍存在隐蔽的差距。某一政治学细分领域的平均引用影响力，与其吸纳的少数群体学者占比呈负相关关系。被引频次最低的细分领域，其作者群体主要由女性与少数族裔学者构成。在论文层面，尽管少数族裔学者与全球南方学者独著的论文被引频次显著偏低，但与外群体学者开展合作可有效弥补这一引用差距。此外，在控制期刊声望与研究主题变量后，女性学者撰写的论文被引频次显著高于男性学者。进一步而言，当研究样本限定于顶尖高校学者的论文时，引用差距会有所缩小。但即便隶属于顶尖高校，非洲裔学者仍持续面临根深蒂固的引用劣势。本研究构建了多维度测度方法以推动多样性相关学术讨论，并为深化我们对政治学领域机会结构的认知提供了更细致的视角。