Journal Article

Revisiting North-South disparities in naming practices: an extension and update

Abstract

This research note presents evidence of persistent disparities in naming practices in social science research between the global North and South from 1960 to the present. The analysis relied on bibliometric records of 11.9 million articles sourced from the OpenAlex collection. By covering the 1960-2024 period and including six social science and humanities sub-disciplines –Economic, Geography, History, Political Sciences, Psychology, and Sociology– this study replicates and expands an existing study that used Scopus data (0.5 million articles). Results show that scientific articles about global North countries and populations are systematically less likely to mention the country name in their titles compared to global South. For example, compared to the US, articles about China are between 1.8 and 2.7 times more likely to include the country name in the title. Significant variations across sub-disciplines are observed, with Psychology displaying the lowest localization rates and greatest geographical gaps, and History showing seemingly converging trends over time across geographies. Continued research is needed to warrant diversity and inclusivity in social science research. A country-year dataset with country-mention counts in titles and abstracts is made available.