Who studies whom? An Analysis of Geo-Contextualized Sustainable Development Goal Research

This study examines the representation of countries in research related to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with a focus on potential biases due to factors such as geography, language, and access to resources. We start with a dataset of 6.7 million SDG-related publications, then extract the country of focus (i.e. the country that the publication’s research focuses on) and country of origin (i.e. authors’ institutions of affiliation). The resulting subsample of almost 50,000 publications is used to study country frequencies and construct a geographical research network. The results indicate that there are significant imbalances in research attention and funding for the SDGs, with wealthier countries and those with greater research resources being overrepresented. This study highlights the importance of greater global cooperation to ensure that research on the SDGs accurately reflects the needs and priorities of all countries.