Replication Data for: Dominating the Narrative: How Scholars Outside of Africa Define African Politics in the Top Political Science Journals

Using a citation network approach, this paper investigates how the subfield of “African politics” has evolved since its emergence in the late 1950s, focusing on the influence of African and Africa-based scholars in the top 20 Political Science journals. We find that African and Africa-based authors are systematically underrepresented in our sample and among the most influential authors today. Starting from a low base, African and Africa-based scholars experienced a period of increasing influence between 2000 and 2010, but their influence has declined substantially since then. We highlight two key factors associated with this decline: (1) the rising competitiveness of top tier Political Science journals, which are increasingly privileging particular quantitative methodologies that require substantial financial resources and training; (2) increasing rates of citation of non-African and non-Africa-based scholars in leading Political Science journals. The paper concludes with a set of recommendations to promote greater inclusivity and pluralism, with broader implications for the field of Political Science.