An Analytical Investigation into Scholarly Publication Trends

In recent years, the landscape of scholarly publishing has seen several changes due to various factors. This has led to major universities and publishing organizations to closely examine publication trends to best navigate these shifts. At the University of Tennessee, the Office of Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development (ORIED) has taken particular interest in this issue after its new director identified a recent decline in university publications. Further investigations by the Research Impact Librarian and Collection Data Analyst at the UT Libraries revealed a similar phenomenon in broader scholarly publishing, sparking interest in the factors driving this decline with a Graduate Research Assistant’s literature review.

This study assesses the combined factors contributing to the decline in scholarly publishing over a five-year period (2019–2023). Literature review and quantitative descriptive research methods are used to systematically describe or summarize phenomena. Journal article citation counts are selected by searching through key citation databases such as Web of Science, Scopus and Dimensions. Data analysis tools are used to analyze publishing trends. Connections between topics are grouped into clusters, as seen through network visualization. This research aims to advance the understanding of scholarly publishing patterns before and after the COVID-19 pandemic within the academic research community.

The poster presents an overview of the decline in scholarly research output across different countries, exploring potential contributing factors and their implications. By highlighting these trends, this presentation seeks to provide insight into the evolving landscape of academic publishing and inform future strategies for researchers and institutions adapting to these changes.