Persistent geographical biases in global scientific collaboration and citations

2026-04-02

AI Summary

This study investigates whether geographic distance and national borders continue to constrain knowledge flows in an era of globalization. Leveraging a dataset of 39.35 million publications from OpenAlex spanning 95 countries and 3,794 cities, the authors systematically analyze global patterns of research collaboration and citation from 2000 to 2022 through both co-authorship and citation networks. Contrary to expectations, they find that geographic proximity exerts an increasing—rather than diminishing—constraint on scientific collaboration. While citations exhibit weaker spatial dependence, they reveal pronounced national bias: U.S.-based research is consistently over-cited, whereas Chinese work remains systematically under-cited. Integrating large-scale bibliometrics, network analysis, and spatiotemporal modeling, the study demonstrates that international mobility may foster collaboration but fails to mitigate deeply entrenched inequities in global citation practices.

Abstract

Scientific knowledge flows enable cumulative progress by connecting researchers across disciplines, institutions, and countries. Yet it remains unclear how geography and national structures continue to shape these exchanges in an increasingly connected world. Using a large-scale bibliometric dataset from OpenAlex, which covers 39.35 million publications across 95 countries and 3,794 cities between 2000 and 2022, we examine global knowledge diffusion through two complementary channels: co-authorship and citation. We find that the constraining effect of geographic distance on collaboration has not diminished over time but has instead intensified, suggesting persistent structural or institutional barriers. Citation flows, by contrast, are less sensitive to spatial proximity, indicating that intellectual influence may diffuse more freely across borders. At the country level, research networks exhibit strong domestic preferences and a shared citation orientation toward the United States. China, while increasingly favored as a collaboration partner by other countries, continues to be systematically undercited within global citation flows. International mobility increases researchers' collaboration with scholars in their host country but has limited effects on citation flows. These results highlight the structural persistence of spatial and country biases in global science, with implications for equitable participation and recognition across regions.

Problem

• geographical bias
• scientific collaboration
• citation bias
• global knowledge diffusion
• equitable participation

Innovation

• geographic bias
• scientific collaboration
• citation inequality
• knowledge diffusion
• bibliometric analysis