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1. Conference Paper2026Open Access

   Operationalising journals' communication functions through citation patterns and local dimensions(opens in a new tab)

   

   Di Césare, Victoria; Robinson-García, Nicolás; Costas, Rodrigo

   This preliminary study operationalises the knowledge bridging and gap-filling communication functions of scientific journals, originally proposed by Chavarro et al. (2017). Considering their theoretical definitions, we link these functions to our local research framework (Di Césare & Robinson-Garcia, 2026) through the producers and recipients dimensions, and measure them using local or global references and citations drawn from OpenAlex articles. We aim to empirically identify knowledge bridging and gap-filling journals, both within and outside the mainstream. The results suggest that the vast majority of these journals are non-mainstream. The thematic profiles of their references and citations validate our geographical operationalisations. Gap-filling journals belong predominantly to the non-mainstream local Social Sciences, whereas in the non-mainstream knowledge bridging journals, the Health Sciences emerge. These domain-level findings support the journals' theoretical functions of serving, respectively, as venues for the publication of knowledge overlooked by the mainstream, and as bridges between mainstream knowledge and local communities.

   DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.22656966MainstreamCitationThematic mapSociology of scientific knowledge
2. Working Paper2026Open Access

   Different operationalizations of local research and their associated citation patterns: A study of African publications(opens in a new tab)

   

   Alonso-Álvarez, Patricia; Boshoff, Nelius

   Local research has gained increasing attention in recent years, with a growing body of literature emphasizing its significance—especially for peripheral communities underrepresented in mainstream scientific discourse. However, despite this growing interest, there remains no clear consensus on how to define local research. Conceptual clarity is essential for conducting consistent and replicable analyses that capture the specific characteristics, contexts, and societal relevance of local research. This need is particularly acute in the Global South, where structural inequalities in visibility and recognition often marginalize regionally focused scholarship. In Africa, for instance, a substantial share of research is published in local or regional journals that are poorly represented in global indexing databases. As bibliometric analyses typically rely on these databases, this exclusion diminishes their perceived relevance. To address this gap, the present study incorporates data from regional and open-access sources to examine citation patterns associated with African local research. It uses multiple conceptualizations of local research to classify publications as either local or non-local depending on the definition used. These classifications are correlated with three citation-based indicators: average citations per publication, time to first citation, and the proportion of uncited publications. Additionally, the study explores the characteristics of citing publications, distinguishing between local and non-local sources as well as domestic and international citations. The findings reveal that citation patterns differ significantly across locality definitions, underscoring the importance of adopting nuanced, context-sensitive approaches to assess and support local research.

   DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17865910local researchafrican researchcitation patternsajolopenalex
3. Article2026Open Access

   Funding, authorship patterns, and citation impact of articles funded by Ukrainian agencies before and during Russia’s full-scale war (2020–2023)(opens in a new tab)

   

   Hladchenko, Myroslava; Costas, Rodrigo

   Funded by European Commission

   This study explores the funding, authorship patterns, and citation impact of articles funded by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (MESU), the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU), and the National Research Foundation of Ukraine (NRFU). The analysis focuses on articles published in Scopus-indexed journals in 2020–2023. The study findings revealed that the share of articles funded by these agencies increased from 8.6% in 2020–2021 to 11.9% in 2022–2023. Foreign cofunding, international coauthorship, and foreign coaffiliations were consistently associated with higher citation impact. In 2022–2023, foreign coaffiliations had a positive effect on the citation impact of MESU-funded articles, with FNCI exceeding that of articles cofunded by MESU and foreign agencies. In 2020–2021, NASU-funded articles had only a modest advantage in citation impact over unfunded articles. In 2022–2023, this pattern changed, with unfunded articles slightly exceeding NASU-funded articles in overall citation impact. Among articles with foreign coaffiliations and international coauthorship, unfunded articles exhibited a citation advantage over NASU-funded articles, while the citation impact of articles with Ukrainian affiliations was broadly similar. These findings raise questions about the effectiveness of current research evaluation criteria and funding allocation mechanisms and underscore the need for evidence-based reform of Ukraine’s research funding system.

   DOI: 10.1162/qss.a.503CitationCitation impactChristian ministryUkrainianCitation analysis