The internationality of published higher education scholarship: How do the ‘top’ journals compare?

With the trend toward internationalization of higher education systems across the world, international journals play an important role in disseminating research from a diverse range of national contexts. While studies have continued to show a persistent western hegemony in published scholarship, research has largely focused on the most prestigious journals in the field, and it remains unclear how journals from beyond the most elite contribute to geographic diversity. This study makes a unique contribution to the existing knowledge body, through comparative analysis of the internationality (as a product of editorial boards, published authors, authorship compositions, and study contexts) of higher education journals in both the highest quartile of impact (Q1) and the lowest quartile of impact (Q4). The results show that while some journals may orient themselves as international in scope, in practice they may be more concentrated in particular regions. Although Q-ranking was not found to be a clear indicator of geographic diversity, Q4 journals are statistically more likely to include research and researchers from outside of the core anglophone countries, making an important contribution to the diversity of scholarship beyond the dominating western and English-language discourse.