Context: Biases in databases and knowledge production

To understand biases in academic databases, it is important to look at the broader political economy of knowledge production. The ways in which knowledge is produced, published, and disseminated are shaped by structural inequalities:

• Market concentration and monopolization: A few major publishers (e.g. Elsevier, Springer, Taylor & Francis and Wiley) dominate the academic publishing landscape. This commodification of knowledge often prioritizes profit over equitable access.
• 'Publish or perish' culture: Academic staff are pressured to publish frequently, often privileging quantity and citation counts over diversity of perspectives.
• Representation gaps: Despite increasingly diverse student populations, academia remains marked by persistent whiteness and gender imbalances in faculty positions.
• Barriers to structural change: Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts receive limited recognition in academic reward systems, making long-term transformation difficult.
• Global inequalities: Authors from the Global South face particular challenges, including limited access to open access publishing opportunities and the broader digital divide.

These dynamics are reflected in the databases students use. What appears as 'neutral' search results is in fact deeply influenced by inequalities in who produces knowledge, who gets published, and whose work is most visible.