The Dynamics of French publications in Social Sciences and Humanities: A European comparison

Since 2000, the growth of French SSH publications in the WoS has been slower than that of comparable nonEnglish-speaking European countries. Our study details this slower growth and discusses its causes. Two hypotheses arc examined. First, France would be specialized in SSH disciplines that publish few articles. This could contribute to explain why French production is less visible in the international databases that mainly index articles. Second, French SSH scholars would publish relatively more in their national language than other European scholars, and would thus be less represented in journals in English. Our results indicate that in the SSH disciplines in which France is specialized, the proportion of articles is relatively low. Yet, France publishes a larger proportion of articles than the world average in these disciplines. The second hypothesis is confirmed to the extent that France has the lowest share of publications in English within the benchmark group of European countries. This remains true despite the fact that French publications in English are growing more strongly than those in French. The analysis also suggests other explanations that should be further explored.