Barycenter representation of book publishing internationalization in the Social Sciences and Humanities

•The barycentre method provides a valuable tool for representation of book publishing internationalization.•In Flanders humanities disciplines publish more domestically, while the social sciences are firmly oriented toward British publishers.•Over the period 2002–2011 the humanities show a stronger evolution toward further internationalization than the social sciences.

This paper introduces a novel application in bibliometrics of the barycenter method. Using places of publication barycenters, we measure internationalization of book publishing in the Social Sciences and Humanities. Based on 2002–2011 data for Flanders, Belgium, we demonstrate how the geographic center of weight of book publishing is different for the Social Sciences than for the Humanities. Whereas the latter still rely predominantly on domestic Flemish and continental European publishers, the former are firmly Anglo-Saxon oriented. The Humanities, however, show a more pronounced evolution toward further internationalization. For the already largely internationally oriented Social Sciences, in most recent years, the share of British publishers has grown. The barycenter method proves to be a valuable tool in the representation of research internationalization of book publications. This is especially the case when applied non-Anglophone countries.