Geography of Academic Research 1985-2004
World, 1985 - 2004
Created on
Apr 25, 2019
Last modified
Apr 25, 2019
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1007
Identification
Survey ID Number
WLD_2004_GAR_v01_M
Title
Geography of Academic Research 1985-2004
Country
| Name | Country code |
|---|---|
| World | WLD |
Abstract
This database was produced for a research work published in:
Das, Do et al. (2009): "US and Them: The Geography of Academic Research" World Bank Policy Research Working Paper Number 5152, Washington DC: December 2009.
It covers over 76,000 empirical economic papers published between 1985 and 2004 in the top 202 economics journals, and was used to study a number of relationships between GDP and research output, countries covered in these articles, and publication rates.
Das, Do et al. (2009): "US and Them: The Geography of Academic Research" World Bank Policy Research Working Paper Number 5152, Washington DC: December 2009.
It covers over 76,000 empirical economic papers published between 1985 and 2004 in the top 202 economics journals, and was used to study a number of relationships between GDP and research output, countries covered in these articles, and publication rates.
Kind of Data
Aggregate data [agg]
Version
Version Description
Version 1.0 - 10 December 2009
The field "AuthorAffiliation" is currently being processed to uniquely identify reported affiliations. Please check subsequent versions of the data release for updates.
The field "AuthorAffiliation" is currently being processed to uniquely identify reported affiliations. Please check subsequent versions of the data release for updates.
Version Date
2009-12-10
Scope
Notes
Variable Definitions:
- ArticleNumber: unique article identifier [Original EconLit]
- JournalName : publication outlet [Original EconLit]
- IssueDate: issue date [Original EconLit]
- ArticleYear: year of publication: computed by the authors from field "IssueDate"
- GeographicDescriptor: geographic descriptor [Original EconLit]
- CountryName: country of focus of the paper, computed by the authors from field "GeographicDescriptor"
- CountryWB: country WB code, matched based on "CountryName"
- CountryIFS: country IFS code, matched based on "CountryName"
- AuthorAffiliation: Affiliation of authors [Original EconLit]
- SubjectClassification: JEL code [Original EconLit]
- ArticleType: type of the article (cross-country, theory, single-country) computed from field "GeographicDescriptor"
- ArticleNumber: unique article identifier [Original EconLit]
- JournalName : publication outlet [Original EconLit]
- IssueDate: issue date [Original EconLit]
- ArticleYear: year of publication: computed by the authors from field "IssueDate"
- GeographicDescriptor: geographic descriptor [Original EconLit]
- CountryName: country of focus of the paper, computed by the authors from field "GeographicDescriptor"
- CountryWB: country WB code, matched based on "CountryName"
- CountryIFS: country IFS code, matched based on "CountryName"
- AuthorAffiliation: Affiliation of authors [Original EconLit]
- SubjectClassification: JEL code [Original EconLit]
- ArticleType: type of the article (cross-country, theory, single-country) computed from field "GeographicDescriptor"
Coverage
Geographic Coverage
The database covers 180 countries.
Producers and sponsors
Primary investigators
| Name |
|---|
| Jishnu Das (World Bank and Center for Policy Research, New Delhi), Quy-Toan Do and Sowmya Srinivasan (World Bank), Karen Shaines (World Bank and IMF) |
Other Identifications/Acknowledgments
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| Liz Braunstein | Assistance in the compilation of the dataset |
| Zurab Sajaia | Assistance in the compilation of the dataset |
| Linda Venable | Assistance in the compilation of the dataset |
| Tatiana Goriainova | Assistance in the compilation of the dataset |
| Abhijit Banerjee | Helpful discussions |
| David McKenzie | Helpful discussions |
| Rohini Pande | Helpful discussions |
| Lant Pritchett | Helpful discussions |
| Carolina Sanchez-Paramo | Helpful discussions |
| Biju Rao | Helpful discussions |
| Tara Vishwanath | Helpful discussions |
| Adam Wagstaff | Helpful discussions |
Data Collection
Dates of Data Collection
| Start | End |
|---|---|
| 1985 | 2004 |
Data Collection Mode
Internet [int]
Data Collection Notes
The main data source is constructed using information on journal articles published in selected 202 economics journals during the period 1985-2004 that were associated with a geographical identifier (thus excluding all theoretical contributions and cross-country empirical work). We used journal rankings proposed by Kalaitzidakis and others (2003) and Kordrzycki and Yu (2006) to finalize the list of journals for inclusion in the database. Ultimately, we selected the 202 economics journals that appeared at least in one of their proposed rankings.
Table A1 of the Working Paper provides the list of these journals and their rankings according to various citation indices. The large number of journals was chosen partly to ensure that country-specific publications in the dataset reflected the volume of research on the country rather than journal selectivity; of note is that the citation index for the bottom ranked 11
journals is 0, and close to 75 journals have a citation rank less than 1 (that is, the average article in the journal is cited less than once in subsequent research). [1]
To obtain the files of article records we used the Econlit database provided by EBSCOHost to conduct a field search for each individual journal title, limited to the years 1985 through 2004.[2] If a journal started publication after 1985 we started with the earliest possible date. Every Econlit record is assigned metadata separated into fields. We kept data from the following fields: Author; Author Affiliation; Journal Name; Journal Issue; Descriptor Classification Codes (JEL codes); and Geographical Descriptors. We manually cleaned up the Author-Affiliation field and identified the 100 first academic institutions in addition to three multilateral organizations (IMF, UN and World Bank). [3/4] Geographic Descriptors refer to either a specific country, or a generic group of countries.[5]
An article was thus assigned to a specific country if the Geographic Descriptor made an explicit mention of the country and it was labeled as a “cross-country study” otherwise. Papers with no associated geographic descriptors were identified and classified in the category of “theoretical contributions”. The data were then aggregated up to create a country*year dataset of total publication counts broken down by three types of journals (Top-5, Top-10 journals, all journals) and author affiliations. [6]
The publications dataset was then merged with data on standard growth variables, governance indices and release of survey data to arrive at a panel dataset and a country-level dataset on 175 countries for the period 1985 to 2004. Table A2 in the Appendix to the Working paper provides a detailed description of variables and their sources. Summary statistics for the data used in the paper are presented in Table 1.
To assess the volume of economics research covered in this paper relative to total economics research, Figure 1 in the Working Paper presents a characterization of the nature of research over the 20-year span of our data. We split the set of articles into three groups: theoretical contributions, country-specific case studies, and cross-country analyses. During the 20-year period, the number of publications in all 3 groups increased. Nevertheless, there has been a very small reallocation of research across these 3 groups. There is an increase in the share of cross-country empirical work at the expense of the other two, but theory (40 percent) and single-country empirical papers (50 percent) continue to account for 90 percent of all publications in the field. Therefore, the papers examined here represent the vast majority of empirical work in the field, and almost half the output of the discipline as a whole.
___________
[1] Kalaitzidakis and others (2003) construct for each journal a citation rank based on citations in 1998 of articles
published only in 1994-1998, excluding self-citations and adjusted for impact (influence) and size. Kordrzycki and Yu
(2006) provide citations and reference-intensity-adjusted rankings that evaluate a specified set of journals according to
influence of journals and influence of journal articles. These rankings take into account citations in economics academic journals as well as citations in other social science and policy journals. In addition, we use the eigen-factor ranking
produced as part of a research project at University of Washington. The eigen factor is associated with a specified set of
journals and is a measure of the overall value provided by all the articles published in a given journal in a year. The
Article Influence is a measure of a journal’s influence based on the number of citations per article. Thus, according to
the Article Influence ranking, one publication in the American Economic Review will count for 4.9 publications, while one
publication in the Journal of Development Economics will count for 1.4 publications.
[2] Due to the unavailability of data on some governance indicators and growth variables for the years 2005 and onwards,
we restrict all the analysis in this paper for the years 1985-2004.
[3] We take the 100 first institutions ranked by the number of pages published provided by Kalaitzidakis et al. (2003).
These institutions produced a third of the total number of publications over the period 1985-2004. Affiliations we did
not uniquely identify were coded “Other”.
[4] The codes used to identify the institutional affiliations are open access (http://econ.worldbank.org/staff/qdo/), and
we welcome additions to the list of institutions already identified. Above all, we encourage Econlit to code authors, their
affiliations, geographic descriptors and other paper attributes in a more standardized fashion.
[5] Articles with broadly defined geographical identifiers such as “Selected Countries” or “Europe” were difficult to link to
a specific geographical entity. An Econlit representative pointed out that such identifiers usually represent research
arising from cross-country empirical techniques. For instance, a continent identifier such as “Europe” would be used for
research on a general topic (such as climate change) across a large number of countries in the continent. It is unclear
how to deal with cross-country empirical work, and such papers are excluded from this analysis entirely.
[6] One limitation of our approach is that important research outlets may still be omitted from this database. Many papers
on India, for instance, are published in the Economic and Political Weekly, which does not appear here; neither is research that only appears in reports or books incorporated in this analysis. This database also ignores policy reports and other
country specific analyses that are not submitted through the formal academic refereeing system, but with potentially
important policy impact such as World Bank’s Country Economic Memorandums, IMF Country Reports, or the United
Nations Development Program’s National Human Development Reports.
Table A1 of the Working Paper provides the list of these journals and their rankings according to various citation indices. The large number of journals was chosen partly to ensure that country-specific publications in the dataset reflected the volume of research on the country rather than journal selectivity; of note is that the citation index for the bottom ranked 11
journals is 0, and close to 75 journals have a citation rank less than 1 (that is, the average article in the journal is cited less than once in subsequent research). [1]
To obtain the files of article records we used the Econlit database provided by EBSCOHost to conduct a field search for each individual journal title, limited to the years 1985 through 2004.[2] If a journal started publication after 1985 we started with the earliest possible date. Every Econlit record is assigned metadata separated into fields. We kept data from the following fields: Author; Author Affiliation; Journal Name; Journal Issue; Descriptor Classification Codes (JEL codes); and Geographical Descriptors. We manually cleaned up the Author-Affiliation field and identified the 100 first academic institutions in addition to three multilateral organizations (IMF, UN and World Bank). [3/4] Geographic Descriptors refer to either a specific country, or a generic group of countries.[5]
An article was thus assigned to a specific country if the Geographic Descriptor made an explicit mention of the country and it was labeled as a “cross-country study” otherwise. Papers with no associated geographic descriptors were identified and classified in the category of “theoretical contributions”. The data were then aggregated up to create a country*year dataset of total publication counts broken down by three types of journals (Top-5, Top-10 journals, all journals) and author affiliations. [6]
The publications dataset was then merged with data on standard growth variables, governance indices and release of survey data to arrive at a panel dataset and a country-level dataset on 175 countries for the period 1985 to 2004. Table A2 in the Appendix to the Working paper provides a detailed description of variables and their sources. Summary statistics for the data used in the paper are presented in Table 1.
To assess the volume of economics research covered in this paper relative to total economics research, Figure 1 in the Working Paper presents a characterization of the nature of research over the 20-year span of our data. We split the set of articles into three groups: theoretical contributions, country-specific case studies, and cross-country analyses. During the 20-year period, the number of publications in all 3 groups increased. Nevertheless, there has been a very small reallocation of research across these 3 groups. There is an increase in the share of cross-country empirical work at the expense of the other two, but theory (40 percent) and single-country empirical papers (50 percent) continue to account for 90 percent of all publications in the field. Therefore, the papers examined here represent the vast majority of empirical work in the field, and almost half the output of the discipline as a whole.
___________
[1] Kalaitzidakis and others (2003) construct for each journal a citation rank based on citations in 1998 of articles
published only in 1994-1998, excluding self-citations and adjusted for impact (influence) and size. Kordrzycki and Yu
(2006) provide citations and reference-intensity-adjusted rankings that evaluate a specified set of journals according to
influence of journals and influence of journal articles. These rankings take into account citations in economics academic journals as well as citations in other social science and policy journals. In addition, we use the eigen-factor ranking
produced as part of a research project at University of Washington. The eigen factor is associated with a specified set of
journals and is a measure of the overall value provided by all the articles published in a given journal in a year. The
Article Influence is a measure of a journal’s influence based on the number of citations per article. Thus, according to
the Article Influence ranking, one publication in the American Economic Review will count for 4.9 publications, while one
publication in the Journal of Development Economics will count for 1.4 publications.
[2] Due to the unavailability of data on some governance indicators and growth variables for the years 2005 and onwards,
we restrict all the analysis in this paper for the years 1985-2004.
[3] We take the 100 first institutions ranked by the number of pages published provided by Kalaitzidakis et al. (2003).
These institutions produced a third of the total number of publications over the period 1985-2004. Affiliations we did
not uniquely identify were coded “Other”.
[4] The codes used to identify the institutional affiliations are open access (http://econ.worldbank.org/staff/qdo/), and
we welcome additions to the list of institutions already identified. Above all, we encourage Econlit to code authors, their
affiliations, geographic descriptors and other paper attributes in a more standardized fashion.
[5] Articles with broadly defined geographical identifiers such as “Selected Countries” or “Europe” were difficult to link to
a specific geographical entity. An Econlit representative pointed out that such identifiers usually represent research
arising from cross-country empirical techniques. For instance, a continent identifier such as “Europe” would be used for
research on a general topic (such as climate change) across a large number of countries in the continent. It is unclear
how to deal with cross-country empirical work, and such papers are excluded from this analysis entirely.
[6] One limitation of our approach is that important research outlets may still be omitted from this database. Many papers
on India, for instance, are published in the Economic and Political Weekly, which does not appear here; neither is research that only appears in reports or books incorporated in this analysis. This database also ignores policy reports and other
country specific analyses that are not submitted through the formal academic refereeing system, but with potentially
important policy impact such as World Bank’s Country Economic Memorandums, IMF Country Reports, or the United
Nations Development Program’s National Human Development Reports.
Data Appraisal
Data Appraisal
The field "CountryName" might be subject to coding errors, and will be updated regularly.
Please inform us if you identify coding errors.
Please inform us if you identify coding errors.
Access policy
Contacts
| Name | Affiliation | URL | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Development Research Group | World Bank | research@worldbank.org | http://go.worldbank.org/B9W4QTDHR0 |
Citation requirements
Use of the dataset must be acknowledged using a citation which would include:
- the Identification of the Primary Investigator
- the title of the survey (including acronym and year of implementation)
- the survey reference number
- the source and date of download
Example:
Jishnu Das et al., World Bank. Geography of Academic Research (GAR) 1985-2004. Ref. WLD_2004_GAR_v01_M. Dataset downloaded from http://microdata.worldbank.org on [date].
- the Identification of the Primary Investigator
- the title of the survey (including acronym and year of implementation)
- the survey reference number
- the source and date of download
Example:
Jishnu Das et al., World Bank. Geography of Academic Research (GAR) 1985-2004. Ref. WLD_2004_GAR_v01_M. Dataset downloaded from http://microdata.worldbank.org on [date].
Disclaimer and copyrights
Disclaimer
The user of the data acknowledges that the original collector of the data, the authorized distributor of the data, and the relevant funding agency bear no responsibility for use of the data or for interpretations or inferences based upon such uses.
Metadata production
DDI Document ID
DDI_WLD_2004_GAR_v01_M
Date of Metadata Production
2010-10-19
DDI Document version
Version 01 (October 2010)