A special feature highlighting impactful science from countries and regions underrepresented in Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series B

Abstract

A key point of discussion at the 2024 Proceedings B annual Editorial Board meeting was that our paper submissions typically come from the same tiny subset of countries. Indeed, only 11 countries represent 77% of our corresponding submitting authors, with the remaining 23% submitted by authors from countries that each submit 1% or fewer of the papers Proceedings B receives each year. The geographical bias is also stark in acceptances; 69% of accepted papers in 2024 came from North America and northern/western Europe. During a break-out session at the board meeting, we developed the idea for a special feature focused on research by scientists in underrepresented countries and regions. These are researchers who may face barriers in scientific publication simply because of where they live. While this set of countries and regions, what we called ‘the other 1%’, does include high-income countries that are underrepresented in submissions owing to their small size (e.g. The Netherlands, Belgium or Denmark), most are located in what is often called the ‘Global South’. Researchers in these areas are doing important, high-quality work, but can face challenges unrelated to the quality of their science when it comes to publishing in international journals. These challenges range from fewer resources, to less experience with these journals, to research topics or use of methodologies that are less common outside their geographical area; the latter issue means that the impact and broad importance of this work may be underestimated by reviewers and editors. Indigenous researchers, and especially those whose work focuses on topics specific to their area, may face similar barriers. For these reasons, we focused on amplifying work from these groups in this special feature.