Are domestic academic publications in China’s social sciences increasingly concentrated among scientific elites? Evidence from top CSSCI economics journals (2010–2023)

Scholars have suggested that domestic publications in China’s social sciences are increasingly dominated by scientific elites; however, quantitative evidence for this claim remains scarce. To evaluate its validity, this study used economics as a representative case to analyze concentration trends in CSSCI journal articles from 2010 to 2023. Drawing on 57,896 articles from 33 top CSSCI economics journals, the study employed frequency analysis, the Pareto principle, and the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) to examine five dimensions of publication concentration: academic title, region, graduate advisor, author, and institution. The findings revealed a rising concentration of publications among professors and in eastern regions. In co-authored articles involving graduate students and advisors, the proportion first-authored by advisors has increased significantly. Similarly, the share of articles authored by the top 1%, 10%, and 20% of contributors has grown steadily over the years. However, institutional concentration has declined consistently since 2019, driven by a notable increase in articles first-authored by researchers from non-elite institutions in collaboration with elite institutions. These results provided bibliometric evidence of growing elite dominance in China’s social sciences, underscoring the need for a more open, inclusive, diverse, and scientifically rigorous publication environment.