Non-Citations of Domestic and Collegiate Papers by Writers of Global South Descent: The Self-Crafted Neo-Imperialism in the Knowledge Industry

Abstract

The globalisation of scholarly communication has intensified asymmetries in whose knowledge is recognised and cited. This article examines the persistent practice whereby scholars from Global South (developing countries) under-cite, ignore, or marginalise domestic and locally produced academic work in favour of scholarship published in metropolitan, largely Western venues. The literature rooted in postcolonial perspectives, the sociology of science, and citation studies, provides a rich blend of historical anecdotes. While strands of The Citation Economy, Coloniality of Knowledge, and Academic Capital and Prestige Bias theories, espoused themes that shape citation behaviour. It is argued in the paper that this behaviour constitutes self-crafted neo‑imperialism that reproduces epistemic dependency. It also, diminishes local research ecosystems, and reinforces unequal global knowledge hierarchies. The conceptual analytical extrapolations situated within the contexts of illustrative bibliometric patterns leveraged structural, institutional, and cultural drivers of non-citation conundrum. The study offers a conceptual model of the citation decision-making process in peripheral contexts and proposes multi-layered policy, institutional, and scholarly interventions to decolonise citation practices and strengthen local epistemic sovereignty.