Internationalization of communication - A view on the evolution of scientific journals

Starting from a characterization of the level of internationalization of SCI journals, based on their authoring scope, the process of internationalization of scientific communication throughout the period 1981-97 is described. The growth of the classes of international journals at the expense of national-oriented ones, appears as a general trend in all disciplines. A kindred measure of internationalization at the country-level is proposed, based on the balance of country-authored publications between national-oriented and international-oriented journals. A typology of countries is sketched. The general trend towards internalionalization is also clear at the country level. It can be generally interpreted as a positive evolution, with some exceptions as Russia in the recent period, where it appears together with the output decline, a counterpart of the disappearance of many journals from SCI. Some other examples of shocks with a covariation of internationalization and output are given. Country internationalization indexes also express the sensitivity of the country output indicators to the possible restriction of SCI sample to the international fraction. Considering evolutions of internationalization may be helpful for a comprehensive study of scientific long-term evolutions at the country level.