are we visible? a study of center-periphery contribution in scholarly publication: the case of international versus local iranian high-impact applied linguistics journal articles

Despite heightened concerns about decolonization of knowledge in recent decades (canagarajah, 1996, 2002, 2006, 2022; hyland, 2019; swales, 2018; among others), transformative actions seem far from being effective and all-inclusive. in effect, efforts to encourage periphery scholars to participate in center forms of scholarly discourse through facilitating publishing circumstances in international journals fail to acknowledge that in case such scholars are not offered opportunities to equally participate and enjoy visibility in research publications, such attempts can perpetuate the center hegemony by training a greater audience for the work of center scholars. the present study focuses on the way center and periphery scholars are represented in bibliographical sections of research articles. given the paucity of research on the way citing conventions can contribute to a more democratic publishing culture, we aim to probe the contribution of center versus periphery scholarship in published research articles, providing evidence from international and local data. to this end, the reference lists of 50 top-cited research articles published in ten high-impact international and local iranian applied linguistics journals are investigated to identify the research affiliated with universities/institutions located in the global north or the global south. results of the study indicate that periphery scholars are significantly less visible than their colleagues publishing in the center even in articles they publish in their local contexts. the results provide evidence on unequal degrees of visibility that center and periphery scholars enjoy in knowledge production and dissemination in the global academic scene. the study has implications for journal authorities, reviewers, researchers and academics both in the international and local contexts as the exclusion of periphery scholars eventually affects the construction of knowledge internationally.