Structural Limits to the De-Westernization of the Communication Field: The Editorial Board in Clarivate's JCR System

Since the 2000s, calls for de-Westernizing international communication research have been common, but their practical result has been very modest. This article explores the hypothesis that structural factors hamper the diversity in international media research, based on the analysis of the membership of editorial boards of journals listed in Clarivate’s Journal of Citation Reports. The data demonstrate a strong imbalance in favor of the US — and a particular group of US universities — to the detriment of non-Western countries. The article discusses these findings in reference to the emergence of academic capitalism and the global rankings logic, which is based on “universal” standards defined from a US (and secondarily Anglophonic) viewpoint.