Imperial has developed an analytics tool that presents data on the geographic distribution of the institutional affiliations of authors cited on Imperial’s reading lists. It also includes information on the country income level of the countries in which those institutions are located.
There is currently data for close to 13,000 articles from approximately 3,300 Imperial reading lists published on Leganto between 2016 and 2025. Our analysis using the tool shows that out of 78,000 authors of published articles, 96% are affiliated with universities in high-income countries. The same data shows that more than 4,600 articles on reading lists are published by authors from the UK, and 6,400 by authors from the US.
The tool has been created to help staff or students access data that may inform broader discussions about representation on reading lists and in curricula. Creation of the tool has been supported by Imperial’s President’s Excellence Fund for Learning and Teaching Innovation and NIHR ARC NW London.
The resources on this page were developed in collaboration with Imperial students as part of a StudentShapers project.
Explore further
Further resources and links
Events:
To learn more about the tool and how to use it in your practice, you may wish to attend any of the following events:
- EDU workshop Examining geographic bias in our curricula for staff with teaching responsibility
- Bespoke workshop or seminar for research groups or departments wishing to explore geographic bias and use the tool. Available on request, please contact Mark Skopec mark.skopec17@imperial.ac.uk
Networks and communities:
- Decolonise the Library working group for Library Services. To join the working group please email Coco Nijhoff a.nijhoff@imperial.ac.uk
- Imperial as One network for staff and postgraduate students who identify as Black, Asian and Minority Ethnicity and allies
- Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
- Imperial College Union Liberation & Community networks
Research publications:
- Price R, Skopec M. MacKenzie S, Nijhoff C, Harrison R, Seabrook G, Harris M. A novel data solution to analyse curriculum decolonisation–the case of Imperial College London Masters in Public Health. Scientometrics 2022, 127;1021-1037
- Skopec, M., Fyfe, M., Issa, H., Ippolito, K., Anderson, M. and Harris, M. (2021) ‘Decolonization in a higher education STEMM institution – is “epistemic fragility” a barrier?’ London Review of Education, 19 (1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.14324/LRE.19.1.18
- Skopec M, Issa H, Reed J, Harris M. The role of geographic bias in knowledge diffusion: a systematic review. Research Integrity and Peer Review 2020 5(2)
- Harris M, Marti J, Bhatti Y, Watt H, Macinko J, Darzi A. Explicit bias towards high-income country research: a randomized, blinded crossover trial of decision-making by English clinicians. Health Affairs 2017: 36(11); 1994-2007
- Harris M, Macinko J, Jimenez G and Mulacherry P. Measuring the bias against low-income country research: an Implicit Association Test. Globalization and Health 2017; 13:80
- Harris M, Weisberger E, Silver D, Macinko J. ‘They hear “Africa” and think there are no good services there’ - perceived context in cross-national learning: a qualitative study. Globalization and Health 2015: 11;45