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. 2025 Feb 20;20(2):e0317931.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0317931. eCollection 2025.

Editors-in-chief in social sciences: Mapping the institutional, geographical, and gender representation between academic fields

Manuel Goyanes  1 , Luis de-Marcos  2 , Timilehin Durotoye  3 , Triwik Kurniasari  3 , Homero Gil de Zúñiga  3   4   5
Affiliations

Editors-in-chief in social sciences: Mapping the institutional, geographical, and gender representation between academic fields

Manuel Goyanes et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

This study systematically maps the network structure of the editors-in-chief in social sciences journals, focusing on their gender representation, geographical distribution, and institutional composition. Drawing upon large-scale data from 3,320 JCR-ranked journals of 57 different fields in the social sciences (4,868 editors-in-chief from 1,485 affiliations of 71 countries), the study aims to illustrate the current connections of editorial leadership in social sciences. Findings reveal that two countries-the U.S. and the U.K.-and their institutions shape almost all fields of the social sciences, with institutions from other geographies, particularly non-English-speaking countries, being substantially underrepresented. However, there is no central institution that dominates across all fields, but within dominant geographies, a reduced number of different affiliations prevail in the most important intellectual terrains. In terms of gender representation, there is a significant imbalance across all dimensions under study. Male editors-in-chief outnumber females across most fields (66.67%), countries (76.60%), and affiliations (63.16%). All in all, by critically mapping the connections of editors-in-chief in social sciences journals, this study seeks to advance our understanding of the current structure of editorial governance and, in turn, stimulate initiatives aimed at fostering a more representative leadership in social science, keeping levels of scientific excellence constant.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Bipartite graph of fields and countries, illustrating the connections between fields and the countries of affiliation of their Editors-in-Chief.
Node size is proportional to the number of editors. Line thickness is proportional to the number of Editors-in-Chief in that field affiliated with institutions in the connecting country.
Fig 2
Fig 2. 5-slice of the bipartite graph of fields and countries, showing only the connections with five or more Editors-in-Chief.
Size of nodes is proportional to the number of editors. Line thickness is proportional to the number of Editors-in-Chief in that field affiliated with institutions in the connecting country.
Fig 3
Fig 3. 4-slice of the bipartite graph of fields and affiliations, showing only the connections with four or more editors-in-chief.
Size of nodes is proportional to the number of editors. Line thickness is proportional to the number of Editors-in-Chief of that field who are affiliated with that specific institution.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Projection of affiliations by country (Slice).
Nodes represent affiliations and are sized proportionally to the number of editors. The thickness of connecting lines represents the number of Editors-in-Chief from those affiliations working in the same fields.
Fig 5
Fig 5. Projection of fields by shared affiliation of Editors-in-Chief.
Nodes represent fields and are colored by the predominant gender of their Editors-in-Chief (red - female, blue - male), with darker colors indicating a greater gender imbalance. Node size is proportional to the number of Editors-in-Chief per field. The thickness of a line connecting two fields is proportional to the number of Editors-in-Chief those two fields share from the same institutions.
Fig 6
Fig 6. Projection of countries by gender.
Nodes represent countries and are sized in proportion to the number of editors. Nodes are colored by the predominant gender of their editors-in-chief (red - female, blue - male), with darker colors indicating a greater gender imbalance. The thickness of connecting lines represents the number of Editors-in-Chief from those countries working in the same fields.
Fig 7
Fig 7. Projection of affiliations by gender (Slice).
Nodes represent affiliations and are sized proportionally to the number of editors. Nodes are colored by the predominant gender of their editors-in-chief (red - female, blue - male), with darker colors indicating a greater gender imbalance. The thickness of connecting lines represents the number of editors-in-chief from those affiliations working in the same fields.
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