Mapping the Global North bias in forced migration studies: three decades of publication and citation trends

Abstract Academic literature on forced displacement has been criticized for disproportionately focusing on the Global North, despite the significant concentration of refugees and internally displaced people in the Global South. This creates a substantial gap between where refugees are located and where research is produced. This study investigates this bias by analyzing 12,700 publications on forced migration from 1990 to 2022. Using a methodology that combines hand-coding with generative AI text processing, we examine publication and citation patterns based on the country of analysis and author affiliation. Our findings show that (1) most research focuses on the Global North, (2) most authors are based in the Global North, (3) Global North authors dominate publications on the Global South, and (4) Global North authors receive more citations, even when studying the same country as Global South researchers. These results prove a persistent regional bias favoring the Global North in forced migration research.