Yoonjin Song publishes in 'PS: Political Science and Politics'

Yoonjin Song received his Ph.D. from the Department of Political Science at Wayne State University in 2012. He served as professor of political science at Kyungpook National University, Republic of Korea, and is currently a civil servant in the Division of Dokdo Policy, Maritime and Fishery Bureau, Pan East Sea Regional Headquarters at Gyeongsangbuk-do, ROK. Song recently published an article in the latest issue of PS: Political Science and Politics (vol. 52, number 2, 2019), one of the discipline's highest ranked journals. His article poses the question, "Which regions and countries are favored (and disfavored) by studies in the field of comparative politics?" The article uses descriptive statistics and social-network analysis to examine which regions and countries were selected for study over a period of the last 25 years in two U.S. academic journals (Comparative Political Studies and Journal of Comparative Politics), focusing on the field of comparative politics. The analysis shows that these journals strongly favor research on countries in Western Europe and North America. Song concludes that there are several possible explanations for this, but that the uneven distribution of published research with respect to continents and countries could indicate an underlying bias that may be of concern for research conducted in this field of study.