The Privilege to Select Global Research System, European Academic Library Collections, and Decolonisation Schmidt, Nora DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4011296 2020 Document Version: Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Schmidt, N. (2020). The Privilege to Select: Global Research System, European Academic Library Collections, and Decolonisation. 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LUND UNIVERSITY PO Box 117 221 00 Lund +46 46-222 00 00 Download date: 09. Oct. 2021 The Privilege to Select To European social sciences and humanities researchers, substantial parts of potentially relevant literature published in the “Global South” are invisible. This literature is neither indexed in any subject databases nor acquired by European libraries – a gap virtually unacknowledged by the inform ation profession and, consequently, also by researchers worldwide. Uncritical talk about an international research system is omnipresent, and the attribution of the “Global South” as its periphery is not only taken for granted but also serves to stabilise the “Global North’s” privilege. The call for decolonisation is currently gaining momentum in many contexts, especially in heritage institutions. However, NORA SCHMIDT academic libraries exempt themselves from this movement if they continue to interconnect user demand directly with vendor-preselection products. This book develops conceptually and empirically grounded arguments for European academic libraries, researchers, information professionals and research managers, leading to the insight that they can only contribute to global social justice if they radically question their privilege to select and put this privilege on hold. Cooperation in various ways is key to (re)producing and receiving society’s knowledge, and to tackling its complexity with cultural humility. Nora Schmidt Nora Schmidt holds second-cycle degrees in library and information science, sociology and history of art. The Privilege The Privilege to Select to Select is her PhD project at the Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences, Lund University. GLOBAL RESEARCH SYSTEM, EUROPEAN ACADEMIC LIBRARY COLLECTIONS, AND DECOLONISATION LUND STUDIES IN ARTS AND CULTURAL SCIENCES ISBN 978-91-985459-6-8 ISSN 2001-7529 LUND STUDIES IN ARTS AND CULTURAL SCIENCES 26 26 THE PRIVILEGE TO SELECT The Privilege to Select Global Research System, European Academic Library Collections, and Decolonisation Nora Schmidt LUND STUDIES IN ARTS AND CULTURAL SCIENCES 26 Lund Studies in Arts and Cultural Sciences is a series of monographs and edited volumes of high scholarly quality in subjects related to the Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences at Lund University. An editorial board decides on issues concerning publication. All texts have been peer reviewed prior to publication. Lund Studies in Arts and Cultural Sciences can be ordered via Lund University: www.ht.lu.se/en/serie/lsacs/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Faculty of Humanities and Theology Department of Arts and Cultural Science © Nora Schmidt 2020 ISBN: 978-91-985459-6-8 (print) 978-91-985459-7-5 (online) Lund Studies in Arts and Cultural Sciences 26 ISSN: 2001–7529 (print), 2001–7510 (online) Typesetting and illustrations by Nora Schmidt Cover design by Johan Laserna; cover illustration based on “World scaled by number of documents [indexed in Scopus] published in 2017, with authors from each country as a proportion of the population in 2017” by Juan Pablo Alperin and Rodrigo Costas, used under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, also see Fn. 97 Printed in Sweden by Media-Tryck, Lund University, Lund 2020 Printed by Media-Tryck, Lund 2018 NORDIC Nordic SWAN Swan ECOLABEL Ecolabel, 3041 3041 0903 0903 Contents ABSTRAcT 9 AckNOwLEDgEMENTS 13 LISTS Of FIguRES, TABLES AND ABBREvIATIONS 17 CHApTER 1. INTRODucTION 23 1.1 Research Problem & Preconditions 23 1.2 Aims, Claims & Research Questions 39 1.3 Methodology 43 1.4 Limitations 49 1.5 Decolonial & Postcolonial Studies of Scholarly Communication 55 1.6 Structure of the Thesis 61 CHApTER 2. THE RESEARcH SySTEM IN WORLD SOcIETy 63 2.1 A Very Short Introduction to Social Systems Theory 63 Functional Analysis 65 Social Systems 67 Knowledge 68 Semantics of ‘Research’ 70 2.2 Scholarly Communication in World Society 71 Truth and the Unity of Science 74 The Globality of Social Sciences & Humanities 79 On History & Function of the Research System 83 5 Bibliometrics as Means of Stabilisation 88 Globalisation & Area Studies Incarceration 93 Academic Libraries & Cultural Humility 96 Quantified Communication 107 2.3 Conclusion 110 CHApTER 3. SpLITTINg THE WORLD, SpLITTINg ScHOLARLy COMMuNIcATION 115 3.1 The History of Asymmetric Antonyms & the ‘Omphalus Syndrome’ 116 3.2 Post­Marxist Concepts of Centre/Periphery 119 3.3 Centre/Periphery as Inner Differentiation of Communication 123 3.4 International/Local Journals 134 3.5 The Generalisation Barrier 143 3.6 Social Sciences & Humanities in ‘International’ Indexing 148 Scientometrics of SSH 149 Global Basic SSH in the Web of Science 151 3.7 Conclusion 167 CHApTER 4. DEcOLONIAL ScIENTOMETRIcS 173 4.1 Scientometric Methods with Decolonial Sensitivity 175 4.2 Southeast Africa & Its Scholars 177 The Region’s Flagship Universities 180 Researchers, Funding, & Environment 184 4.3 Publishing & Indexing in (Southeast) Africa 192 4.4 Searching for African Research Literature in Europe 197 4.5 Scientometric Study on Southeast African SSH 202 Data Collection Workflow 203 Analysis 213 Affiliation­Based Approach: University of Mauritius 231 4.6 Conclusion 240 6 CHApTER 5. DEcOLONISINg AcADEMIc LIBRARy COLLEcTIONS IN EuROpE 243 5.1 Collection Management & ‘Global Resources’ 249 Collection Assessment & Policies 251 Vendor Impact 256 ‘Global Resources’ 260 Library Collaboration & Cooperation 263 Summary 266 5.2 Collection Bias 267 5.3 The Librarian’s Neutrality 274 5.4 Vendor­Preselection Products 284 5.5 Library Decolonisation Activities 292 5.6 Germany’s Striving for Complete Collections 296 5.7 Collection Development Survey & Policy Analysis 305 5.8 Conclusion 315 CHApTER 6. IMpLIcATIONS & FuRTHER RESEARcH 317 SvENSk SAMMANfATTNINg 329 REfERENcES 339 AppENDIx 401 7 Abstract Research Problem: As a social sciences and humanities (SSH) researcher based in Europe, it is rare to come across publications by Southeast Af­ rican researchers. Some reasons for this are obvious: the—compared to Europe—low numbers of Southeast African researchers are badly funded and lack basic infrastructures and access to scholarly information resources. Together with other factors, this leads to a rather low publication output, especially in SSH basic research, which is given lower priority by local and overseas funding bodies than applied research. However, a large part of the literature published under these conditions is barely covered by bib­ liographic databases, especially if it is published on the continent. Insti­ tutional policies increasingly require researchers globally to publish in ‘in­ ternational’ journals, draining local infrastructures. The standard­setting power of ‘Global South’ scholars is minimised further. Aim and Research Questions: My main aim is to render visible the ways in which European academic libraries contribute to unjustified neglect of scholarship produced in the ‘Global South’—in terms of the globally oper­ ating research system. This neglect is explained as a consequence of specific features of current world society, referred to as coloniality, social injustice, and quantified communication. The thesis analyses peripherality concep­ tually and scientometrically: based on a sample, how is Southeast African basic SSH research integrated in global scholarly communication, and how do local dissemination infrastructures develop under these conditions? Fi­ nally, how are professional values, specifically neutrality, and workflows of European academic libraries, interrelated with these developments? Methodology: The methodological approach of the thesis is multi­faceted, in order to tackle the research problem from different angles. Firstly, the 9 ABSTRAcT project analyses the globality of the research system conceptually, as well as its differentiation in ‘centre/periphery’ and ‘international/local’ research. A brief scientometric study on a global scale supplements