Making Taiwan Relevant to Sociology: a Case Study on the Publication Pattern in the Major US Journals

The social science communities in Taiwan face significant difficulties in publishing their studies in top-tier international journals. In this paper, I problematise the phenomenon of international publishing and situate this inquiry within the literature on global knowledge production. I further discuss the ‘small country predicament thesis’ originally framed by Su-jen Huang and the proposed solution—the Moneyball approach. Using the keyword search method, I aim to answer two empirical questions: who and what kinds of papers related to Taiwan get published in the top US sociological journals. The findings of this case study suggest that most of the papers are authored by foreign scholars, most papers were published prior to 2000, and they all share methodological similarities. Comparing this pattern to other Asian countries, the case of Taiwan shows both similarities and differences in facing the challenges of academic publishing.