Abstract

This Virtual Special Issue (VSI) was originally intended to be a compilation of past Latin American research papers in the Language Testing journal. Due to the limited number of articles found, this VSI reflects on the underrepresentation of research from Latin America and other Global South regions. Latin American publications account for only 0.6% of the journal's content. A broader search across 101 other Global South countries revealed similarly low representation, with only 1.7% of all publications from the region. An interview with researchers from the Latin American Association for Language Testing and Assessment (LAALTA) sheds light on potential contributing factors for this underrepresentation. These include the preference for local journals, the fear of rejection from high-ranking international journals, cultural differences in academic literacy, limited resources and challenging working conditions, and geographical isolation. The interviewees offered their recommendations to address these disparities, which include creating dedicated spaces in international journals for Global South research, promoting multilingual publishing, and welcoming diverse academic conventions. Providing accessibility and support to Global South researchers could encourage the number of publications in the journal from the region, and, in turn, the language testing community could benefit by enriching global academic discourse.