A Study on the Change and Development of Comparative Political Studies in Korea(1955-2020): Focused on Researchers

This article analyzes the change and development of comparative political studies in Korea from 1955 to 2020. The study analyzes 6,753 research articles published in 277 academic journals. Firstly, the number of articles was fairly low at 547 and the number of researchers was 327 during the period from 1955 to 1980. Then it increased to 1,965 and 1,084 during the period from 1981 to 2000. It has now increased immensely to 4,241 and 1,789 from 2001 to 2020. Secondly, when we divide the research period by decade, the most productive researcher published 6 articles during the 1950 60s and 8 articles during the 1970s. The numbers were 8 articles during the 1980s and 9 articles during the 1990s. Remarkably, this number has increased up to 37 articles during the 2000s and 28 articles during the 2010s. Thirdly, when we investigate whether a productive researcher publishes a numerous number of articles consecutively over two decades, 36.6% of productive researchers during the 1950 60s continuously published a similar number of articles in the 1970s The percentages were 25% in the 1980s, 12.73% in the 1990s, and 20.75% in the 2000s. This percentage has increased incredibly to 45% during the 2010s. In conclusion, comparative political studies in Korea expanded in the number of articles and researchers during the 1980s and has optimistically developed and matured into higher quantity research since 2000s.