22
during the first period identified in Fig. 2.1 (from 1980 to the mid-2000s), followed
by Europe. On average, researchers in North and Central America published 608
articles per quinquennium, and European researchers published 486. Researchers
from Oceania published a third to a half of the output of researchers in North and
Central America and Europe (169 articles per quinquennium), followed by their
counterparts in Asia, Africa and South America (49, 25 and 8 articles per quinquen-
nium, respectively). This trend had a similar regional composition in the second
period, from 1980 to 2015, but researchers in North and Central American and
Europe produced roughly the same number of publications, with both areas show-
ing rapid growth. Oceania-based researchers also produced substantially more pub-
lications than in the first period (exhibiting the greatest increase between the two
periods). The average number of articles published per quinquennium from 2002 to
2006 by researchers in North and Central America was 1329, while European
researchers published an average of 1271 articles and Oceania-based researchers
- The Asia-based authors also increased their contribution to the international
field, with their average number of publications per quinquennium in this period
reaching 248. Between the first period and the second period, the average number of
articles published by Asian-based researchers per quinquennium grew by more than
five times.
The number of articles by African authors also increased (with more than 100
articles published in a quinquennium for the first time in 2007 and 2011, respec-
tively). During the second period, African researchers published an average of 101
articles per quinquennium. The South American contribution to the field also
increased substantially, but South American researchers were still far from publish-
ing 100 articles in a single quinquennium; and in the second period, 2011–2015,
they published only a third of the number of articles produced by African authors.
On average, South American researchers published 26 articles per quinquennium in
0200400600800100012001400160018002000Africa Asia Europe North/central Americ a Oceania South AmericaFig. 2.2 Publications in the specialised higher-education literature by region, 1980–2015
H. Horta